So, it's been forever since I posted, but I just caught up on a ton of summer reading.
I'm pretty happy with the summer comics seen this year. No huge crossover junk was a bonus. Some exciting new creative teams took floundering books and made something of them. And, some new books on the horizon are really getting me excited.
It seems like everyone wants to know what's bad first so I'll start off with the worst hits of the summer:
1. Thor: I'm sorry, but this book has taken a turn for the terrible. The beats are slow. The art is sub-par. Mephisto is boring. Thor trudging through hell is over-done. I hate this book now. Get Michael Avon Oeming back and do this character right.
2. Adventure Comics: Why is it that everyone that writes the Legion is a boring old 70's-80's writer? WTF is Paul Levitz? Stop. Just get rid of the Legion unless Geoff Johns or Abnett/Lanning want the book. I can't really see what the impulse is to make this book with people that you know can't sell comics. The one saving grace of this book is the short backups by Jeff Lemire (of Essex County and Sweet Tooth fame).
3. BPRD & the other non-Hellboy Mignola-esque books: I'm sorry. The 5 year experiment on expanding the Hellboy universe is not working without Mignola writing these books. Guy Davis's art pisses me off. The stories are dry and boring. I'm done with these books, forever.
4. JSA: This book is on the brink for me. I'm super close to just dropping it. I have every issue since it was re-started earlier this decade or I'd already have scrapped it. I just can't feel anything about any of the characters. The things that were great about the book when Johns wrote it are practically completely missing in the modern "Kingdom Come" link-up stories. I think if this book doesn't go back to basics, and soon, it will be done for within a year.
5. Straczynski: Over. Rated. I think both Superman and Wonder Woman (so far) have been aimlessly boring. I get it. What "real" challenge does Superman face? Why make him fight more villains instead of dealing with real human problems? And how does Wonder Woman make sense as an anachronistic medieval (pre?) warrior in the modern day? But, I also don't care. Fix the problem. Do it quickly. But don't make it the point of the entire storyline. Frankly, JMS work usually starts strong and ends stupidly (if at all). These books aren't even starting well, which is a really bad sign.
6. Claremont: I don't even know if he's writing a book, but I'd like to add that he sucks.
Ok, that's kind of a handful for badness, but it's really only the tip of the iceberg of the good books that were out this summer. And, I think some bad books got far better.
1. Avengers: Every Avengers title is awesome. Plain and simple. I don't care what you think about the Avengers characters, the concept, their over-exposure, their continuity problems, etc. The books are rad. They couldn't be more fun. I wish that there was a new one every week. Even Avengers Academy is really strong. The new kids are good and the training staff is just cool. I've been into Quicksilver since his old X-factor days and he's making some great impact here.
2. Action Comics: Paul Cornell is like a god. He's one of a crop of new creators from the last few years that just can't do any wrong. His Action Comics starring Luthor is priceless. No Boyscout is a bonus. But Cornell's penchant for good story-telling, a mix of dialog and action, some good intrigue thrown in there, produces a great book.
3. Brightest Day: I guess I said that there was no big crossover. I lied. I guess compared to Blackest Night and the Marvel industry-wide crossovers, this one was pretty mild. But, and I'm not reading most of the spin-offs (any, really, if you don't count Green Arrow -- and I'm not), this series is great. The art is strong. The story is complex and mysterious. It involves cool characters, even Aquaman, that I'd like to be able to care about and is giving me hope that I'll have a reason to.
4. Green Arrow: I'm feeling really positive about this book. The Brightest Day weirdness aside, I like the idea of making Queen into a Robin Hood, replete with Merry Men. Krul (reminds me of the movie with the Glave) seems to have a good hand on this book. Add to it the problems with Arsenal's Limbaugh-esque drug problems and Queen's off-again relationship with Black Canary and I'm excited to see where it will go.
5. Green Lantern books: Actually, all of these titles came out of Blackest Night as strong or stronger than before. I was worried that there would be a hangover where every issue was just some stupid lingering plot line, but they have resisted that temptation. Even the new Guy Gardner series seems to have some promise. I was not reading these books prior to Blackest Night and I'm now gladly continuing each series. Hopefully, they don't kill the books by pacing them for the summer movie.
6. Birds of Prey: Love Gail Simone on this book. It's what she was meant to write (since they won't let her have Deadpool anymore, which is beyond stupid). Ed Benes's art is odd here (it's actually very bad -- the detail he demonstrated on the 2005 Supergirl series is just...missing). But Simone's plots and dialog are awesome. I love the roster on the team and their banter is worldclass. I could deal with fewer ninja stories, but whatever.
That's it for now. I'll probably have a more complete rundown later when I'm bagging everything and more stuff comes to mind.
J
Friday, August 27, 2010
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