7. All-New Marvel NOW! Point One #1 by Various (Marvel)
It's a new year and a new line of Marvel NOW! comics is launching which means - a new Point One comic. The Point One comics are basically a sizzle reel of upcoming new titles, giving fans a taste of the comics ahead of their official releases, though the stories included here are different from previews as you'll only get them in this comic rather than re-read them in the series proper. In this issue we get to read snippets of Loki: Agent of Asgard, Silver Surfer, Black Widow, Ms Marvel, All-New Invaders, and yet another Avengers series. By far my favourite of the bunch was Dan Slott and Mike Allred's Silver Surfer. I knew from the creative team alone that this was going to be nothing less than superb and the story in this issue confirms it. Norrin Radd is the Silver Surfer, former herald of Galactus but now free, who has a human female companion in this series, Dawn Greenwood, as the two visit a space version of Venice to watch cosmic manta rays dance in the sky! The series is the perfect vehicle for Mike and Laura Allred whose art and colours are given free rein to create absolute wonders on the page. It was a pleasant surprise to see a third, and unexpected, companion appear in the series: the board! It's a genius stroke from Slott but the board is given a personality, like a dog or the magic carpet from Disney's Aladdin, changing the dynamics of the comic and making me more excited about the series than I was before. I wouldn't be surprised if Silver Surfer becomes one of the biggest hits of the year for Marvel. Loki: Agent of Asgard is really fun too - this issue sees him collecting together five keys to unlock the magical sword Gram and there's a delightful scene between him and Thor sharing a beer. The Black Widow short is also really slick with Natasha escaping icy death in the Russian countryside by a gangster, utilising her awesome spy skills to full effect. G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona's Ms Marvel has been in the news a lot lately and, from the pages on offer here, it looks like it's going to live up to the hype. 16 year old Pakistani-American Kamala Khan is wonderfully sassy as the new Ms Marvel, fighting a mechanical trash monster in a rubbish dump in New Jersey before remembering she has a family wedding to attend. Kamala is charming, funny and instantly likeabe - tonally, I'd say it's similar to Hawkeye (definitely a plus) with a sprinkling more of superhero stuff because of her shape-changing powers. She and her mother have an excellent back and forth too, and Alphona's art is distinct, eye-catching, and marvellous. I cannot wait to read Ms Marvel #1! I wasn't as enamoured with James Robinson's All-New Invaders which was very flat and dull to read, while Nick Spencer's Avengers was beyond tedious - do we really need another Avengers title? At any rate, this comic is definitely worth it for the fantastic comics, Silver Surfer, Loki: Agent of Asgard, and Ms Marvel. All-New Marvel NOW! Point One #1 reaffirms Marvel's label as the House of Ideas.