THIS WEEK IN PANELS: March 7, 2012

THIS WEEK IN PANELS features the best in comic book panels each week. No criteria, no rhyme, no reason. Excelsior! (Click pictures to embiggen)

Swamp Thing #7 by Scott Snyder & Yanick Paquette; DC 2012

Snyder and crew absolutely killed it this week in Swamp Thing. Paquette's art here is the best we've ever seen, its beautiful and gruesome (that child's head on the Rot's abomination) and minutely detailed in all of the Green fauna: the sunflower in panel border bloom, Swampy's cabbage coccoon, the psychedelic haze, leaves, and distortion of the Rot borders. J.H. Williams III better come back from his break on Batwoman with a vengeance because Paquette's progressive page designs are giving him a serious run.

Oh, and did I mention Swampy? This is the issue we've all been waiting for. Although I could have posted any damn panel here there was only ever one. The beast is back.

THIS WEEK IN PANELS: Feb. 29, 2012

THIS WEEK IN PANELS features the best in comic book panels each week. No criteria, no rhyme, no reason. Excelsior! (Click pictures to embiggen)

Wednesday I tweeted a lack of variety among new titles this week and indicated I may feature some titles I was late to the draw on from past weeks. Rather than backtrack, I'm going to feature more than one panel of this week's comics

So, with only three titles what say we blow our load right off the bat. Spoiler alert, an' all 'at.

Venom #13.4 by Rick Remender, et al, & Lan Medina; Marvel 2012

Having just plowed through a stack of Ghost Rider comics from my childhood, the final page of part four -- no, wait... five? Can we just agree this point system is ridiculous? -- is every aggressive, adolescent, comic geek's wet dream. All that amalgamation of Red Hulk, Venom, and Ghost Rider up there needs is a set of adamantium claws and this would be a million-selling title for Marvel each month in 1996.

THIS WEEK IN PANELS: Feb. 22, 2012

THIS WEEK IN PANELS showcases our favorite comic book panels each week. No criteria, no rhyme, no reason. Excelsior! (Click pictures to embiggen)

The theme this week seems to be superhero team dynamics. And, go:

Secret Avengers #23 by Rick Remender & Gabriel Hardman; Marvel 2012

Secret Avengers has Hawkeye on the verge of a breakdown, unable to manage his new team and clearly opposed to Captain America's newly appointed recruit. Remender does a great job of establishing a new villain in The Father who threatens the creation of a new species homo synthezoidus -- superior even to the homo superior mutant -- and for making Ant-Man a total bad-ass, even if he had to kill him to do so.

THIS WEEK IN PANELS: Feb. 8, 2012

THIS WEEK IN PANELS showcases our favorite comic book panels each week. No criteria, no rhyme, no reason. Excelsior! (Click pictures to embiggen)

A common theme across Marvel Comics this week seems to be economic and civil unrest. To quote the late, great comedian Bill Hicks, they must be "going for the righteous indignation dollar. That's a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation. We've done research -- huge market."

First, Sgt. Nick Fury lays into a couple "candy-ass pogues" over the handling of the UC Davis protestors and more in the finale to what can and should be considered the equivalent to Morrison and Quitely's All-Star Superman -- the quintessential continuity-free Punisher story:

PunisherMAX #22 by Jason Aaron & Steve Dillon; Marvel 2012

Then the England riots in Secret Avengers and general economic woes (albeit of the supernatural variety) in part 2 of the "Circle of Four" storyline in Venom:

THIS WEEK IN PANELS: Venom #13

THIS WEEK IN PANELS is a feature presenting our favorite solicited comic panel(s) each week. No criteria, no rhyme, no reason. Excelsior!

Venom #13
by Rick Remender & Tony Moore
Marvel Comics; 2012

Aside from being one of my surprise favorite issues this past week, part 1 of the Circle of Four arc (reprising The New Fantastic Four from Fantastic Four #'s 544-550) features two laugh-out-loud panels. The first suggests what's on Johnny Blaze's iPod:

While the second shows Raoul Duke, the bumbling, perpetually tweeked narrator of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and his attorney Dr. Gonzo, among the tourists outside Flash Thompson's motel. Buy the ticket, take the ride:

Did you see what God just did us, man?!: Various artists, We Were So Turned On: A Tribute to David Bowie