Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Exiles
Can we start a movement to get this book back? It's not like Judd Winick is busy. That's all. Write your Congressman. This is another reason I have some concerns about Joe Q. I think this book was ruined unnecessarily. It should be easy to keep fresh and awesome. Bring. It. Back.
Summer comics catch-up
Okay, this has been a long time coming. I have a lot to write about and not that much time to do it in. Let's see if my debater efficiency can pay off here:
1. Action Comics is the best superhero comic in the world again for the first time in a very long time -- like since the 50's. Paul Cornell is amazing. I told you so. The focus on Luthor has paid off. The anniversary issue was strong (especially for a team writing project). And did I mention Paul Cornell is a genius. If you haven't read Captain Britain and MI:13, you're missing out on one of the 5 best series of the 2000's. I'm not prone to hyperbole. Do it.
2. The Astonishing line is boring. There, I said it. Astonishing Thor is ok but is too big on splash pages. Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine is belabored. The whole line never really became what they were hoping. These are two of the softer books I'm reading and I read a lot of crap. I still get Generation Hope.
3. The Avengers line is overwhelmingly solid. I don't count Avengers Academy. I will claim The Children's Crusade. That's a solid mini. If you aren't anxious to see more Young Avengers, you prolly haven't seen any Young Avengers.
4. The Batman line is weak. Detective Comics is the best of all of them. The David Finch WRITTEN Dark Knight series is a close second. The rest is bad. I'm sorry; Morrison is fading for me. I think he's phoning it in. Batman with David Hine is just terrible. Fuck Azrael.
5. The pay-off in Brightest Day was awesome. The last two issues were jaw-dropping to me. The reveals -- no spoilers -- were HUGE imo and very very exciting to a big fan of both characters in their classic form. Any real 80's DC fan should be super thrilled about this.
6. The pencils on the new Black Panther series are awesome. I'm not sure about the story direction.
7. If there were 100 issues of Brubaker's Captain America published every month, I would read all of them. I can't get enough. Secret Avengers is the same to me. They're both Cap books imo and I love them the same.
8. Daken and X-23 -- uhm, yeah. No. Daken was strong as a solo, non-integrated psychological piece. Felt like Wolverine meets American Psycho. Combo with the rest of the Marvel U. and I'm already bored.
9. Daredevil: Reborn -- withholding judgement. I like the look. Waid should bring the book back to fundamentals, but I'm not sure the DD fundamentals are that good. I liked the darker, more risky approach the book took for the last ten years. We'll see where this ends up. I suspect around 20-25 issues and we get a new creator and a re-launch due to flagging sales.
10. Fables: the most consistent book of the last 10 years, bar none. This will go down as one of the best pieces of graphic storytelling ever. Please, never end Fables.
11. Fantastic Four/FF -- I trust Jonathon Hickman. I have loved the adventure so far. Real risks, real change, great for the first family of comics. Love this book. Top 10 imo. White costumes, questionable. Spidey, no questionable. Perfect fit. Great for both books.
12. Speaking of ASM, this book is getting far better. I love the pencils, I support the new direction for the stories. This book has been team written and editor driven for too long. Let's get one book a month and some solid story-telling.
13. Generation Hope -- The worst book I buy. I am majorly skeptical of putting Kieron Gillen on Uncanny as a result. Very very fearful. I nearly dropped it. His run on Thor was epically bad. This book is pure trash.
14. Green Lantern -- group it -- uhm, ok. I'll give it an ok. It's solid, looks good, but not sure I'm up for more gimmicks here. I wish DC would let Geoff Johns just write books instead of tasking him with the big cross-overs. I dont know if it's his best foot forward.
15. Flash -- omg, I love Geoff Johns on Flash. It's awesome. Flash should only always be written by Johns. He has gotten well-known for Green Lantern, but it's obviously not his best stuff. He writes this book passionately and with great humanity. It's awesome. Great art too. 3rd best DC main universe book.
16. Herc -- pretty cool. I loved the Herc series when it took over for Hulk. Not entirely sure about the new series, but it's only two issues in. Urban Herc is pretty good as a concept. I want to know where Cho is, right?
17. Heroes for Hire -- Unsung hero of Marvel. The old book was great; the new book is solid so far. Highly encourage everyone to read both. They're just fun Marvel action books. 70's throwbacks really (hence the title).
18. Incognito -- Makes me hungry for more Criminal (or Sleeper vol. 4). I liked it, but it's not Bru's best stuff. Phillips is always awesome. What a beautiful artist.
19. Infinite Vacation -- One of the best books out there. Top 10 idea. Nick Spencer's best work. You're going to be hearing a lot from him. He's Marvel's new big thing. This book is all quantum mechanics and identity, two things that I'm very very interested in. Every series comic fan has to read it.
20. Invincible -- dropped. That's all I'll say. Robert Kirkman has one book in him it seems. I suspect that Walking Dead tv has been a huge distraction. This book is basically dead imo. R.I.P. one of the best independent superhero books ever.
21.Iron Man -- I like both the Invincible and 2.0 versions. They're solid reads with good art. Nothing flashy, but promising work. Doc Ock and the Sinister Six have always been near the top of my list of villains.
22. Books with Justice in the title -- Well, one of them doesn't suck. It's a pretty big surprise that it's the JLI. Max Lord can drive a book. Some of the best Booster Gold writing ever (low bar). Rocket Red is hilarious (making fun of Russians is always awesome). Justice League is just terrible. I hate every character in the book. Justice Society isn't the worst, but it's close. Teen Titans level.
23. Jimmy Olsen -- speaking of Nick Spencer, pick up this fun one-shot that just came out. A book with some solid writing, good pencil work (the inks aren't great) and introduces Chloe, the annoying girl from Smallville, into the DCU.
24. Kick-Ass 2 -- I'm going to use this to generally rant about Millar. I love his new magazine, but I want comic books. Kick-Ass 2 looks ok, but I suspect that the movie will be better written. I feel a little ripped off. Superior was a cool idea and well executed. Much better imo.
25. Mighty Thor and Moon Knight -- Two brand new books, excited about both. Moon Knight always is a tough sell for me. I hated the character as a kid and I'm still murky on it now. But, Bendis did a good job on reinventing Jessica Drew, maybe he can do the same for Spector. I've been loving Thor since the Oeming book in the mid 2k's.
26. Osborn -- I really enjoyed this series. Some modern American politics, some corporate greed, some dirty rotten Osborn action. The biggest bad of the Marvel U. is retaining that profile even after the Secret Invasion. I love the idea of Osborn as the Luthor of Marvel. It's perfect to me.
27. Superboy and Supergirl -- Lemire on Superboy is fantastic. 2nd best DCU book today. The pencils are very very cool too. Innovative artwork. Supergirl looks great. Chang is knocking it out of the park, but I'm concerned about the writing, or rather the direction. Will Peatty be given time to develop this book? Doubt it.
28. Ultimate Comics -- Besides the Cap book, this line is failing. There's a reason they're killing USM and bringing back UXM; sales are flagging and the line is direction-less. What once seemed to be a sure-fire success is now on the ropes. I haven't read the death of USM yet, so I can't weigh in, but I suspect it's disappointing. This is Bendis's worst work, but I suspect some of it is the event-driven demands of the Marvel editors.
29. Punisher Max -- The shit. That's all. Punisher Max is super good. It should be read. Steve Dillon. Hello.
30. Superman -- Stracyzski had better be working really hard on World War Z bc he is not even trying to write this book. Cancelled.
31. Venom -- I like Rick Remender. Alphabetically, you'll be hearing more about this soon. But this book is good bc he is doing it and he rocks. The pencils are strong, but he is putting together a tight concept and you know it's going to bring Flash/Venom into conflict w Peter/Spidey which is just classic. Great idea for a book.
32. Uncanny X-Force -- Best mutant book today. All of the characters are cool. The writing is good. The action is strong, but there's also a hint of mystery and real sense of the unknown, which is always when the X-Men are at their best. I really like this book. Also looks great.
33. The Walking Dead -- I think that he is going to die. There, I said it. I think the book will fundamentally change focus in the next ten issues and he is going to die. Heroically, maybe? But I think it's possible it will be with a whimper on purpose. To remind us that anyone can die in this post-apocalyptic near future. I think it makes more sense to kill him without theatrics. But we'll see. I think he's going to die. I love this show, uhrm, book.
34. Scalped -- This is one of two books (the other is Sweettooth) that I don't read in loose issues. I'm only on the trades. The last trade was amazing. I liked the book before. I love it with all of my heart now. That last book was a piece of art. Jason Aaron for life. Read Scalped.
35. X-Factor -- 2nd best Marvel mutant book. Incredibly solid. Cool stories. Interesting characters. Not prone to big cross-overs or editorial interferences. I love that it's allowed to change venues without fundamentally relaunching the idea. Thank god they give Peter David a leash and let him run.
36. Secret Warriors, S.H.I.E.L.D. -- SW is one of the greatest series Marvel has ever published. It has some jaw-dropping moments, some moments of gentle humanity, some huge action, new characters, a dude w an eye-patch who fought in WWII and can still beat your ass, and Jonathon Hickman, today's best comic book writer. This book is absolutely perfect. Of course, it's ending. Fuck Joe Q. S.H.I.E.L.D. is so weird but so awesome. I can't wait to re-read everything once it makes sense. It's gorgeous and crazy and everything great comics are about. WTF.
37. Jeff Parker -- Hulk (red one) and Thunderbolts -- I really missed the boat on Parker. I never read X-Men: First Class because I'd never heard of him and didn't expect much to be honest. These two books are very solid. The Rulk is such an obviously idiotic idea that anyone that can make it readable is awesome. This is not only readable, but pretty high up there. Thunderbolts has basically never been bad. Parker writes a mean Man-Thing, I'll say that. This is a top-flight book imo.
A few things I won't cover:
1. Age of X -- Haven't read it. I'm behind on almost all mutant books
2. Uncanny -- I'm behind.
3. X-Men: Schism -- Haven't read it. Excited.
4. Fear Itself -- Too early to judge.
5. Thor -- I will say Journey Into Mystery was a Kieron Gillen book that didn't make me vom, but I am real far behind, like 4 issues, on the main Thor book prior to the name change. I was liking it, though.
General feelings -- Marvel is killing DC. There are like 5 weak Marvel books and like 20 bad DC books. Very few things Marvel is doing doesn't rule. They have all of the writers. Thats the long and short of it. Except Cornell and Johns, they have everyone I'd want to write a book today. Make Mine Marvel.
That said, I have some fears for Marvel as well. Their schedule is becoming too event driven. I'm a little tired of it. I'd like to see a year go by without a big summer cross-over and just do some building. The polybagging thing REALLY irks me. To the point where I wrote my first letter in like 28 years of being a comic book fan. I just think it's the first sign of the apocalypse. Having Disney backing doesn't mean you should try and do what caused you to go bankrupt 15 yrs ago. Killing good books is becoming epidemic. The aforementioned Captain Britain book, the new Secret Warriors book, Iron Fist -- these books are some of the great books of the last ten years and all were killed by Marvel while they let Chris Claremont write terrible X-Men books for 30 issues. With their financial backing, they should have the room to give some people time to develop a story and build a fan base. Also, none of these books received promotion. At all. I read all of the trade journals and Marvel was just not pushing them. That's on their heads, not the writers'.
I'll have a post about movies soon. Thor was awesome. There, I said it.
1. Action Comics is the best superhero comic in the world again for the first time in a very long time -- like since the 50's. Paul Cornell is amazing. I told you so. The focus on Luthor has paid off. The anniversary issue was strong (especially for a team writing project). And did I mention Paul Cornell is a genius. If you haven't read Captain Britain and MI:13, you're missing out on one of the 5 best series of the 2000's. I'm not prone to hyperbole. Do it.
2. The Astonishing line is boring. There, I said it. Astonishing Thor is ok but is too big on splash pages. Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine is belabored. The whole line never really became what they were hoping. These are two of the softer books I'm reading and I read a lot of crap. I still get Generation Hope.
3. The Avengers line is overwhelmingly solid. I don't count Avengers Academy. I will claim The Children's Crusade. That's a solid mini. If you aren't anxious to see more Young Avengers, you prolly haven't seen any Young Avengers.
4. The Batman line is weak. Detective Comics is the best of all of them. The David Finch WRITTEN Dark Knight series is a close second. The rest is bad. I'm sorry; Morrison is fading for me. I think he's phoning it in. Batman with David Hine is just terrible. Fuck Azrael.
5. The pay-off in Brightest Day was awesome. The last two issues were jaw-dropping to me. The reveals -- no spoilers -- were HUGE imo and very very exciting to a big fan of both characters in their classic form. Any real 80's DC fan should be super thrilled about this.
6. The pencils on the new Black Panther series are awesome. I'm not sure about the story direction.
7. If there were 100 issues of Brubaker's Captain America published every month, I would read all of them. I can't get enough. Secret Avengers is the same to me. They're both Cap books imo and I love them the same.
8. Daken and X-23 -- uhm, yeah. No. Daken was strong as a solo, non-integrated psychological piece. Felt like Wolverine meets American Psycho. Combo with the rest of the Marvel U. and I'm already bored.
9. Daredevil: Reborn -- withholding judgement. I like the look. Waid should bring the book back to fundamentals, but I'm not sure the DD fundamentals are that good. I liked the darker, more risky approach the book took for the last ten years. We'll see where this ends up. I suspect around 20-25 issues and we get a new creator and a re-launch due to flagging sales.
10. Fables: the most consistent book of the last 10 years, bar none. This will go down as one of the best pieces of graphic storytelling ever. Please, never end Fables.
11. Fantastic Four/FF -- I trust Jonathon Hickman. I have loved the adventure so far. Real risks, real change, great for the first family of comics. Love this book. Top 10 imo. White costumes, questionable. Spidey, no questionable. Perfect fit. Great for both books.
12. Speaking of ASM, this book is getting far better. I love the pencils, I support the new direction for the stories. This book has been team written and editor driven for too long. Let's get one book a month and some solid story-telling.
13. Generation Hope -- The worst book I buy. I am majorly skeptical of putting Kieron Gillen on Uncanny as a result. Very very fearful. I nearly dropped it. His run on Thor was epically bad. This book is pure trash.
14. Green Lantern -- group it -- uhm, ok. I'll give it an ok. It's solid, looks good, but not sure I'm up for more gimmicks here. I wish DC would let Geoff Johns just write books instead of tasking him with the big cross-overs. I dont know if it's his best foot forward.
15. Flash -- omg, I love Geoff Johns on Flash. It's awesome. Flash should only always be written by Johns. He has gotten well-known for Green Lantern, but it's obviously not his best stuff. He writes this book passionately and with great humanity. It's awesome. Great art too. 3rd best DC main universe book.
16. Herc -- pretty cool. I loved the Herc series when it took over for Hulk. Not entirely sure about the new series, but it's only two issues in. Urban Herc is pretty good as a concept. I want to know where Cho is, right?
17. Heroes for Hire -- Unsung hero of Marvel. The old book was great; the new book is solid so far. Highly encourage everyone to read both. They're just fun Marvel action books. 70's throwbacks really (hence the title).
18. Incognito -- Makes me hungry for more Criminal (or Sleeper vol. 4). I liked it, but it's not Bru's best stuff. Phillips is always awesome. What a beautiful artist.
19. Infinite Vacation -- One of the best books out there. Top 10 idea. Nick Spencer's best work. You're going to be hearing a lot from him. He's Marvel's new big thing. This book is all quantum mechanics and identity, two things that I'm very very interested in. Every series comic fan has to read it.
20. Invincible -- dropped. That's all I'll say. Robert Kirkman has one book in him it seems. I suspect that Walking Dead tv has been a huge distraction. This book is basically dead imo. R.I.P. one of the best independent superhero books ever.
21.Iron Man -- I like both the Invincible and 2.0 versions. They're solid reads with good art. Nothing flashy, but promising work. Doc Ock and the Sinister Six have always been near the top of my list of villains.
22. Books with Justice in the title -- Well, one of them doesn't suck. It's a pretty big surprise that it's the JLI. Max Lord can drive a book. Some of the best Booster Gold writing ever (low bar). Rocket Red is hilarious (making fun of Russians is always awesome). Justice League is just terrible. I hate every character in the book. Justice Society isn't the worst, but it's close. Teen Titans level.
23. Jimmy Olsen -- speaking of Nick Spencer, pick up this fun one-shot that just came out. A book with some solid writing, good pencil work (the inks aren't great) and introduces Chloe, the annoying girl from Smallville, into the DCU.
24. Kick-Ass 2 -- I'm going to use this to generally rant about Millar. I love his new magazine, but I want comic books. Kick-Ass 2 looks ok, but I suspect that the movie will be better written. I feel a little ripped off. Superior was a cool idea and well executed. Much better imo.
25. Mighty Thor and Moon Knight -- Two brand new books, excited about both. Moon Knight always is a tough sell for me. I hated the character as a kid and I'm still murky on it now. But, Bendis did a good job on reinventing Jessica Drew, maybe he can do the same for Spector. I've been loving Thor since the Oeming book in the mid 2k's.
26. Osborn -- I really enjoyed this series. Some modern American politics, some corporate greed, some dirty rotten Osborn action. The biggest bad of the Marvel U. is retaining that profile even after the Secret Invasion. I love the idea of Osborn as the Luthor of Marvel. It's perfect to me.
27. Superboy and Supergirl -- Lemire on Superboy is fantastic. 2nd best DCU book today. The pencils are very very cool too. Innovative artwork. Supergirl looks great. Chang is knocking it out of the park, but I'm concerned about the writing, or rather the direction. Will Peatty be given time to develop this book? Doubt it.
28. Ultimate Comics -- Besides the Cap book, this line is failing. There's a reason they're killing USM and bringing back UXM; sales are flagging and the line is direction-less. What once seemed to be a sure-fire success is now on the ropes. I haven't read the death of USM yet, so I can't weigh in, but I suspect it's disappointing. This is Bendis's worst work, but I suspect some of it is the event-driven demands of the Marvel editors.
29. Punisher Max -- The shit. That's all. Punisher Max is super good. It should be read. Steve Dillon. Hello.
30. Superman -- Stracyzski had better be working really hard on World War Z bc he is not even trying to write this book. Cancelled.
31. Venom -- I like Rick Remender. Alphabetically, you'll be hearing more about this soon. But this book is good bc he is doing it and he rocks. The pencils are strong, but he is putting together a tight concept and you know it's going to bring Flash/Venom into conflict w Peter/Spidey which is just classic. Great idea for a book.
32. Uncanny X-Force -- Best mutant book today. All of the characters are cool. The writing is good. The action is strong, but there's also a hint of mystery and real sense of the unknown, which is always when the X-Men are at their best. I really like this book. Also looks great.
33. The Walking Dead -- I think that he is going to die. There, I said it. I think the book will fundamentally change focus in the next ten issues and he is going to die. Heroically, maybe? But I think it's possible it will be with a whimper on purpose. To remind us that anyone can die in this post-apocalyptic near future. I think it makes more sense to kill him without theatrics. But we'll see. I think he's going to die. I love this show, uhrm, book.
34. Scalped -- This is one of two books (the other is Sweettooth) that I don't read in loose issues. I'm only on the trades. The last trade was amazing. I liked the book before. I love it with all of my heart now. That last book was a piece of art. Jason Aaron for life. Read Scalped.
35. X-Factor -- 2nd best Marvel mutant book. Incredibly solid. Cool stories. Interesting characters. Not prone to big cross-overs or editorial interferences. I love that it's allowed to change venues without fundamentally relaunching the idea. Thank god they give Peter David a leash and let him run.
36. Secret Warriors, S.H.I.E.L.D. -- SW is one of the greatest series Marvel has ever published. It has some jaw-dropping moments, some moments of gentle humanity, some huge action, new characters, a dude w an eye-patch who fought in WWII and can still beat your ass, and Jonathon Hickman, today's best comic book writer. This book is absolutely perfect. Of course, it's ending. Fuck Joe Q. S.H.I.E.L.D. is so weird but so awesome. I can't wait to re-read everything once it makes sense. It's gorgeous and crazy and everything great comics are about. WTF.
37. Jeff Parker -- Hulk (red one) and Thunderbolts -- I really missed the boat on Parker. I never read X-Men: First Class because I'd never heard of him and didn't expect much to be honest. These two books are very solid. The Rulk is such an obviously idiotic idea that anyone that can make it readable is awesome. This is not only readable, but pretty high up there. Thunderbolts has basically never been bad. Parker writes a mean Man-Thing, I'll say that. This is a top-flight book imo.
A few things I won't cover:
1. Age of X -- Haven't read it. I'm behind on almost all mutant books
2. Uncanny -- I'm behind.
3. X-Men: Schism -- Haven't read it. Excited.
4. Fear Itself -- Too early to judge.
5. Thor -- I will say Journey Into Mystery was a Kieron Gillen book that didn't make me vom, but I am real far behind, like 4 issues, on the main Thor book prior to the name change. I was liking it, though.
General feelings -- Marvel is killing DC. There are like 5 weak Marvel books and like 20 bad DC books. Very few things Marvel is doing doesn't rule. They have all of the writers. Thats the long and short of it. Except Cornell and Johns, they have everyone I'd want to write a book today. Make Mine Marvel.
That said, I have some fears for Marvel as well. Their schedule is becoming too event driven. I'm a little tired of it. I'd like to see a year go by without a big summer cross-over and just do some building. The polybagging thing REALLY irks me. To the point where I wrote my first letter in like 28 years of being a comic book fan. I just think it's the first sign of the apocalypse. Having Disney backing doesn't mean you should try and do what caused you to go bankrupt 15 yrs ago. Killing good books is becoming epidemic. The aforementioned Captain Britain book, the new Secret Warriors book, Iron Fist -- these books are some of the great books of the last ten years and all were killed by Marvel while they let Chris Claremont write terrible X-Men books for 30 issues. With their financial backing, they should have the room to give some people time to develop a story and build a fan base. Also, none of these books received promotion. At all. I read all of the trade journals and Marvel was just not pushing them. That's on their heads, not the writers'.
I'll have a post about movies soon. Thor was awesome. There, I said it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)