Peter Panzerfaust Image Comics

This post is a long time coming. It’s taken me a year of fits and starts to finish Peter Panzerfaust, but I’m sort of glad I waited to consume this all at once. The book is so masterfully written, so well designed, so beautifully drawn, that to read it serially I would have missed some really important things that you can only catch when you really let a book take over your imagination. Peter Panzerfaust, make no mistakes, is a spectacularly silly sounding idea: “Imagine Peter Pan is real and lives during the German occupation of France and joins the French resistance”. I skipped the book when it came out, even being a sucker for modern takes on classic fairy tales AND a Peter Pan fan, precisely because it sounded like a bad idea. Well, that was a poor financial and literary decision because I missed out on some very valuable issues of a wonderful comic book. I won’t spoil the book, so I’ll keep this brief, but Peter Panzerfaust is a special book every comic book fan must read.

Kurtis Weibe doesn’t overwrite his books. The verbage is sparse, there’s no editorial voice, and entire pages will go by just led by Tyler Jenkins masterful pencils. It’s tonally appropriate for some of the very heady content of any war book, but especially helps to drive this book, one that could easily go off the rails with excessive magical realism if allowed to do so. He writes emotion especially well, and portrays incredibly rich, complicated, humanistic characters. I love the use of the “researcher” (pretty easy to figure out who this researcher is over time, but I’ll let you readers come to those conclusions on your own) to provide an analytic third-person perspective on the stories told. In truth, Panzerfaust is not a straightforward narrative at all; it’s a collection of war stories involving Peter, but often centered on the rest of the characters, Tiger Lily, Wendy, Jacques, and other familiar faces from the traditional Pan mythos. I can’t say enough good things about the nature of the story construction. You have to read it to believe it.

The villain, as if being a Nazi weren’t enough, is a Nazi version of Captain Hook, one of the original supervillains and an interesting study in where villains come from and what makes a villain “super”. Like Hook, he appears to be bumbling, nearly completely incompetent, but becomes something else through his encounters with Peter, the Lost Boys, and another mysterious figure, familiar to Pan fans and a truly pleasant surprise to all. Hook’s henchmen, the Hunters, are nefarious and their storyline is one of the best comic book revenge stories (short of Shunka in Scalped) I’ve read. Hook, like any great villain, brings out the best in the protagonists and really raises the stakes at important moments, driving the plot in exciting ways. He’s an instant classic.

The fantasy elements of this book should not overshadow what is really being presented here: a series of important war stories, emotionally taxing, heroic, and challenging episodes in the fictional, but realistic, portrayal of WWII. I was shocked to see the degree of attention paid to painting characters as deeply affected by the war, by their relationships, and by the loss and sheer chaos of the conflict in France. This is Band of Brothers quality war fiction, high praise indeed. The use of the Pan characters sets up a stirring analogy for archetypical geopolitical actors that a savvy reader will notice immediately. It’s smart, it’s touching, and it’s frankly great story-telling. I found myself laughing, I found myself grimacing, and I found myself hurting for these very real feeling folks living the experience of war.

I think this is one of the better comics I’ve ever read. I’d put it in the top 20 for sure, and after some time marinating, wouldn’t be shocked to find myself ranking it even higher. I’ve loved every issue and will read more for sure. Those of you that aren’t big comic book readers can look forward to the upcoming BBC series to watch it on TV. It has a star studded cast featuring Elijah Wood, Summer Glau, and Ron Perlman. I’ll let you know more when it’s released, but here’s a quick preview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3avyKIg_4s

Those of you that are comic fans should pick up the Deluxe Hardcover. It’s beautiful, affordable, and looks great on the shelf. Contains about ½ of the series to date. 

Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange: Marvel movie preview

The director of Marvel's upcoming Dr. Strange film has tweeted the first images of Benedict Cumberbatch as the good doctor. They're linked here: 

https://twitter.com/scottderrickson/status/546913777396891648/photo/1.

I have every issue of the Dr. Strange solo title and quite a few of the classic Strange Tales (no first appearance, it's always been too low of a quality or out of my price range). I'm psyched. I love Cumberbatch and think he's perfect for this role. Get pumped up now!

Marvel vs. DC Fan Trailer

I typically don't post things like this here, but this mash up is too cool to ignore:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KxIHVGch8I#t=195.

And if you've never seen Batman fight a Predator, you're welcome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOB13T6Zmh8.

Carnage's Final Sacrifice: Marvel Comics Axis

If you're not reading Axis, I understand. Big events are what they are. I still think they're fun so long as they're written by excellent authors. I especially enjoyed Original Sin, the Jason Aaron Nick Fury story-to-end-them-all. At any rate, I'm reading Axis and it's all right. Nothing outstanding, but it has its moments. Heroes become villains and villains become heroes. We've seen it before, but not in awhile in Marvel and not really on this scale. So, there's something there.

That said, the last issue has a really special moment. The Spider-Man villain Carnage -- the worst example of terrible 1990's Marvel villains -- has been turned by the Red Skull into a superhero. He's become self-aware of how terrible he is and the things he's done have been. In a moment of extraordinary sacrifice, he hooks himself up to a bomb set by Apocalypse to kill all humans, engineering the final triumph of mutants and his concept of evolution. Hilariously, in the moments before he dies he asks Spider-Man to plant a Confederate Flag in Times Square and pipe in Freebird 24 hours.

I guess it shows that Carnage, even a psychologically re-engineering version, is innately sociopathic. Even turning his basic identity from bad to good doesn't change his fundamental beliefs in the rightness of his antiquated and backward beliefs. Or, is it otherwise demonstrating that the villains didn't need to be entirely convinced to be heroes? Maybe the hero turn was more of a nudge, with the fundamentally psychotic creature still living just below the surface? It's hard to know. What do you think?

At any rate, I thought it was really funny, great writing, and the single moment of this character's pathetic existence that I care anything about. Well done, Rick Remender, well f'ing done.

Unsung Heroes in Comics: Waid & Rucka on Daredevil & Lazarus

I wanna talk about two guys who are not household names writing fantastic books, and, honestly, doing it pretty consistently. I’ve referenced Greg Rucka in the past. Those keeping score know that I think Lazarus is a top flight book (#2 on my list atm). Rucka has worked on huge titles like Punisher and the X-Men in the past, but is more focused on indie books at this time, and good for him. Mark Waid has had a long and varied career. I guess he’s probably best known for preceding Geoff Johns on The Flash, but has recently worked for Marvel writing Hulk and Daredevil to great effect. I’m not going to cover things like Lazarus here (I’ve done that elsewhere) or Kingdom Come (Waid’s opus on the DC heroes that nearly everyone has read).  I guess the theme here is yeomen – guys that you don’t hear much about, they’re not known for their defining runs, but that do great comic book work. They deserve some word of mouth too.

Greg Rucka should be well known. He wrote one of DC’s best books of the last ten years, Gotham Central, along with a now mega-famous Ed Brubaker (Velvet, Criminal, Fatale, etc.). Gotham Central is the spiritual basis for the Gotham TV series, a street-level Batman-free Gotham police book. It’s as good as that sounds like it would be – awesome. You know Batman is out there, you see the signal, a cape, etc., but the big footprint of Bruce is basically outside the panel. It’s excellent. I super highly recommend it to anyone that missed it.

His series Whiteout, collected as two graphic novels, are fantastic, gritty crime stories set in the Arctic. The protagonist is written spectacularly well, a fully-fleshed out and failed human up against incredible odds in a harsh environment. Tonally, few books capture the title as well as this one does. I think fans of Criminal and other modern noir will really enjoy these books. It’s a unique take on a gumshoe story in a radically different setting.

Rucka just finished two mini-series: Cyclops & Veil (Cyclops later became an on-going, with Jonathon Layman of Detective Comics taking over writing duties). Cyclops is a fun space romp, a father/son story as only Scott and Corsair Summers can do it. If you’re like me and enjoy the old Starjammers and sort of like the newly young Cyke, you’ll get into this book. It’s light hearted but has some heavy material on unresolved family matters, obviously. Veil is an other-worldly mystery. It’s hard to say much other than that without spoiling the story, but it’s delivered very well. I’d say this should definitely be read in trade format. Fans of Lucifer or Constantine, and even harder modern comic book horror material, should really feel this book. It’s better than Wytches by Scott Snyder, if you’re reading that.

Rucka is perhaps best known to those in the know for his work on his own on-going at IDW, Queen & Country. To be honest, I haven’t read it yet. It’s on my bookshelf. Maybe I’ll do a special post once I’ve plowed through it reviewing the book. At any rate, the word on the street is overwhelmingly positive.

Waid, like Rucka, should be well-known for his DC work in the early 2000’s. He was rehabilitating the Flash title prior to the book being taken over by Geoff Johns, who later became a lead editor/VP at DC. His work on Flash was great, very old school, standard comic book fare. He had a real eye for long-term development, expanding and renovating the Rogues and improving the Flash’s entourage, all ideas that Johns is largely credited with today, but that really started with Waid.

Flipping through Waid’s 90’s and early 2000’s credits shows a wide range of modern art talent he worked with: a young Humberto Ramos on Impulse, Mike McKone on various titles, Tony Daniel, Bryan Hitch, Leinel Franci Yu, Stuart Immonen, Frank Quitely, and even the great Alex Ross (on Kingdom Come, of course). In fact, Waid teamed up with Greg Rucka (and Grant Morrison & Geoff Johns and various artists) on the DC weekly series 52. This guy has worked with many of the very best in the industry.

Waid’s Hulk was good, not great. Let’s be clear: Hulk sucks to write. He’s Marvel’s Wonder Woman. Great people work on this book and very few of them see any commercial success. Waid was telling complicated stories about political intrigue mixed with the personality crisis that is the big green monster and doing so at a really high level. I don’t think this book has run its course yet, but I enjoyed it for its initial series and dropped it to make some more room for indie titles. If you’re a fan of the more modern Hulk but don’t know what to read, I’d check up on the Waid stuff.

Mark Waid’s Daredevil has been a special book. Let’s plug this in for a second: Daredevil has had the longest uninterrupted streak of being good of any comic on the stands. It’s had no major dip since the beginning of the Kevin Smith era. That’s 15 years ago. Part of the success of this book is that Marvel has not at all been totalitarian about their approach to this character. They’ve allowed the writers to introduce radical changes. That’s been the case for Waid’s run for sure. I won’t give away resolution of any of these issues, but we’ve dealt with Daredevil’s public identity, Fooggy (his best friend) getting cancer, and Matt leaving Hell’s Kitchen for San Francisco. These are some big changes for a rather simple setting based character. I’ve been impressed with his story-telling. This book has no like alien power shifts or clone stories but manages to grasp the imagination each month with great characterization and solid story-telling chops. You know the guy, ya know. That goes a long way.

Waid will be taking over a book sure to make a big splash next week when his S.H.I.E.L.D. book premieres. This book will follow the cast of the hit TV show in the comic book world, allowing these heroes to take on situations TV won’t allow for. I expect to see them interact with the heroes and villains of the Marvel U. on a much expanded scale. If you’re a fan of the show, or the organization, or just of great comics, you should pick this book up. Handling the interiors will be Carlos Pacheco, a great match artistically for this book. I’m really psyched about it. I’ve been a Fury fan for as long as I can remember and, as a result, love S.H.I.E.L.D. and everything it’s about. Pick one up.

A couple of Mark Waid gems you might not know about are Irredeemable and Ruse. Irredeemable was a Boom! Studios book that’s basically a “superman gone bad” story. It is raw and makes no excuses for the behavior you’ll see the capes pull off in this book. It’s basically his Superman version of The Dark Knight. I loved this book, although it fell apart after a couple of arcs. I’d definitely give the first trade a read. Ruse was a Crossgen book, so it may be a pain in the ass to find (they’re defunct). If you can, I’d grab it. The pencils are Butch Guice, who I love, and the concept is basically Sherlock Holmes with a different set of stylized rules and expectations. This was the highlight of Crossgen imo and one of the better books around when it was coming out. It’s mostly a series of one-off stories so there’s no real need to have every issue to enjoy it if you see some in 50c bins. It was a real gem.

So, that’s what I’ve been thinking about Waid and Rucka. I wanted to introduce people to these guys and give folks some sense of what’s out there from them. These guys are great comic book writers that never really seem to generate much heat but deserve to. When I see them writing something, I generally pick it up. You should too.

Big Hawkeye, Marvel Comics, and Jeff Lemire News

Jeff Lemire is coming to Hawkeye in March. Two things come to mind immediately:

First, what happened to Matt Fraction? This is a great series. It’s special. Marvel has given Fraction a ton of leeway to write a regular Marvel character in new and innovative ways and with a series of superstar indie artists who are producing a special book monthly-ish. Hawkeye is awesome. Fraction is clearly on the outs with Marvel generally if he’s leaving this book specifically. One had to think that was the case after the bungling of the Inhumanity cross-over, but this is the final piece of the puzzle. It appears that Fraction will be exclusively doing indie books from now on, not the worst thing given how well Image is doing, but I feel bad for us fans who loved some of the main Marvel work he’s done (hellllllo, Iron Fist).

Second, hooray, Jeff Lemire. HE’S GETTING OUT OF DC! It’s like if one of your friends got released from prison. Lemire has struggled on the main DC books he’s written, even as he’s improved them from their state of craptasticness. Putting Kinsberg (of the Arrow TV show) on Green Arrow resulted in displacing Lemire, which I’ve bemoaned as a pretty serious loss for DC’s books. He’s among their best writers, clearly in the top three. But, Lemire will be a more than adequate replacement for Fraction. I consider them roughly parallel. Seeing Lemire head to Marvel could be great. I think tonally a lot of Marvel character will be  good fit for him and the Bullpen has seen a lot more success at moving creative indie writers into regular ongoing series than has DC. This is great news for Jeff and Marvel. 

The State of the Spider-Verse: Marvel Comics' Spider-Man into the Edge of the Spider-Verse

I haven’t ever written about Spider-Man. I’m an avid comic reader. I’ve written quite a bit about comics, but I’ve hardly ever put pen to paper to discuss one of the five most iconic superheroes of all time at any length. That ends now, and for a timely reason: Spider-Man is experiencing a Spider-Renaissance. When Dan Slott took over full-time responsibility on the book several years ago, many avid Spider-fans breathed a sigh of relief as the great national nightmare that involved bi-weekly books by rotating teams, and the attendant lack of focus and discontinuity that brought to a rich universe of characters, was over. Slott immediately began to rebuild the Spider-verse into something that now resembles its glory days: a supporting cast, a developing rogue’s gallery, a core theme, and returning big bads of old. The book improved out of the gates. Today, with Superior Spider-Man at an end, Peter Parker back in the red and blue, and hundreds (at least) of alternate universe Spidey’s roaming the main Marvel U., the health of the book has not been better since the early Straczynski era. Moreover, there’s a new Spider in town – Miles Morales – who has delivered month to month since his arrival on the scene some three years ago. Big things are likely in store for this alternate universe character. This post will cover the end of Superior Spider-Man, the newly re-minted Amazing title, Ultimate Spider-Man, and the Edge of the Spider-Verse event.

Superior Spider-Man was a highly panned event that paid off. Bottom line: the exec’s at Marvel took a risk and it worked. The pitch from Slott had to have been apocalyptic. “The state of Spider-Man is disastrous,” he’d say. “We should start all over.” The core concept of Superior Spider-Man is that Otto Octavius, the villainous Dr. Octopus, engineers a way to cheat death that involves him pushing Peter Parker out of his own body and replacing his consciousness, in effect becoming Spider-Man. Now, it sounds terrible. BUT, it also sounds like a Spider-Man story. Stan Lee could have written that. It’s very in tone with classic Spider-Man writing and themes. Part of the “ugh-factor” with this idea is just how true it is to the ideas behind both characters. What wouldn’t have happened in the classic books was the follow-on: Doc Ock stayed Spider-Man for nearly four years. It’s an impressive amount of wherewithal because the pressure to bring Parker back from the beginning must have been so high. Tenaciously, week by week, Marvel and Slott built the new Spider-Man book into something people loved. It topped Marvel’s sales charts most of that time, displacing such hot books as All-New X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Avengers, an impressive feat. Doc Ock as Spider-Man was tough, goofy, and fresh. His encounters with the entire cast of the book gave us a new look at what made Peter Peter and I think everyone appreciated that insight. There was also some Goblin, some Venom, some Black Cat, and a lot of excitement along the way. Spider-Man left school teaching and graduated to serious scientific pursuits, a logical evolution of a 50 year-old character that’s been demonstrated to be a scientific genius and highly in need of funds.

The end of Superior Spider-Man, imo, was a great reward for the series. It was about the core of the character, about who Peter is, and why there can be only one, true Spider-Man. It gave Slott some real material to build on while refreshing a new audience on what makes Spider-Man great. All the while, the book was action-driven, telling a huge Goblin story (Hob, Green, new ugly, all of the kinds of Goblins) to satisfying effect. I’ve seen online commentators complain about inconsistencies in the story-telling, about details about the Parker/Octavius consciousness switch, about blah-blah-blah; you name it, someone has complained about it online. My feeling is that the idea was never to be too concrete about the nature of the swap in the first place to avoid any need to delve too much into the details, and for good reason. The idea itself was never meant to be a good one. Switching the two characters wasn’t some techno-utopian ideal about the triumph of human ingenuity over life itself. This isn’t transhumanism. The idea was a hokey mad scientist scheme. It was 50’s pulp. And for that, it was perfect. I wouldn’t have ranked Superior Spider-Man as one of the greatest Spider-Man stories ever told, and I never considered it to be the top book in the industry at the time, but it was a great renovation of a premium property that had fallen on disrepair. And, if you used to like Spider-Man and wanted to get back to it and hoped it would be both fresh and familiar, that’s an excellent jumping on point. The conclusion of Goblin King and the end of Superior Spider-Man were satisfying odes to a time now passed and a perfect bridge forward, modernizing and refreshing the world of Peter Parker.

Of course, Otto really did a number on Spidey’s personal life. The effect on his relationships with friends, family, and even villains is awkward with a dicky super-villain running his life for four years. The newly minted Amazing Spider-Man jumps right into these ideas, exploring the ramifications of a chance encounter between Doc Ock as webslinger and Black Cat, who is now mad angry with our friendly neighborhood wallcrawler. Otto spurned and embarrassed the Cat while wearing the webs and now Parker will have to pay the costs. On top of that, Aunt May, Mary Jane, Peter’s new girlfriend, and Peter’s new assistant at his tech company are all affected strongly by Parker’s return to his own body. Many have been off-put by the haughty behavior of Octavius and are just pissy with Spider-Man; others were drawn to that arrogance and find a disheveled and indecisive Peter to be an inferior spider-replacement. At any rate, the book is back to a focus on characters and relationships, one of the things that made the original Spider-Man so attractive and relatable conceptually. Spidey even has a chance encounter with the hottest new character in Marvel, Ms. Marvel, that tonally captures everything that’s great about both of these heroes. Ms. Marvel is a modernized, gender swapped, non-white, Spider-Man character – a teen with a lot of personal drama socially and with her family who is thrown into a battle with weird and highly specific villains; her run-in with Spider-Man is thus highly appropriate as a comparison and contrast. From the gun, the new ASM has been an excellent book. Humberto Ramos always does an excellent job and Slott is writing at the top of his game and with a relatively clean slate having used Superior Spider-Man as a palate cleanser. I look forward to ASM every month, a top 20 book I’d say.

One thing that didn’t really hit with me was Learning to Crawl, a five-issue spin-off mini-series that retells the Spider’s early days and introduces a new Spider-Man inspired sonic supervillain. I didn’t hate this book; I just didn’t see the need for it. With ASM cranking on all cylinders, having another Spider-Man book telling a slowly evolving story of a new villain was just pointless, going nowhere. I wouldn’t recommend folks spend their precious ducats on this book.

Meanwhile, in Bendis land, Ultimate Spider-Man is taking off. Peter Parker died in the Ultimate Universe saving the world from Magneto. It had to happen. Bendis has written as much or more Spider-Man than anyone but Stan Lee. His time with Peter Parker had come to an end. It was time to either leave the book – conceptually impossible – or for the book to change radically. Of course, I don’t think anyone would have predicted what came next, or at least predicted it would have worked. Enter Miles Morales: unassuming bi-racial teen, living with parents struggling to make ends meet in the city. He gets bitten by a Spider stolen from Oscorp and off we go. I love this book. I love Brian Michael Bendis. I think it’s one of the best produced mainstream comic books ever written. It’s remarkable today that someone can take that same basic source material, remix it slightly, and create something both new and classic at once. To do it twice with a second derivative character is, frankly, unheard of. It would be like if Electric Superman came along and we liked him. Or if Azrael wasn’t the worst thing ever. The closest analog I can come up with is the teen Blue Beetle, but honestly, I hate that character and liked Ted Kord. It doesn’t work for me. Miles is great. He’s Ganke is freaking hilarious. His parents are interesting, developing characters. Miles relationship to the Parker family and friends is also super interesting and compelling. I just think this is a great book, roughly of equal (maybe slightly greater) value than ASM.

Change is a-coming, naturally. The Ultimate Marvel Universe is coming to an end, or is at least strongly rumored to be doing so. I’d guess this is mostly a business decision as roughly three people worldwide are still reading the Ultimates (a once great Ultimate version of the Avengers) and even fewer are reading Ultimate X-Men (a book I loved that never seemed to catch on). It’s widely rumored that the upcoming Secret Wars event which pits alternate universes in the Marvel umbrella against one another will see the final days of the Ultimate universe but resolve somehow to keep Miles Morales, perhaps shunting him into the main universe with which we’re familiar. Huge loss, in my opinion, if they don’t airlift his boy Ganke out, but it’s hard to see how they could pull that off and not tell a terrible story. At any rate, I suspect that Miles Morales is in for more world-hopping. He’s already teamed up with Peter and Superior Spider-Man both a couple of times and I suspect the demand to see these characters interact is pretty strong. Truthfully, I’d be fine with eliminating all other powers from the Ultimate Marvel U., leaving just Miles and Osborn. I think that would be a more satisfying conclusion. But I don’t think that the line itself can survive and that Marvel would like to pull the plug on the entire business, which is fair. Hopefully, this wrap up works out well for one of the coolest characters around. There should be a young Spider-Man; the character has only ever been written as youthful. Letting Peter grow old but keeping Miles around for that whipper snapper feel should provide a healthy balance for both types of Spider fans.

Finally, and without further ado, Edge of the Spider-Verse brings it all together: Miles, Peter, a time-traveled Superior/Otto Spider-Man, and a ton of other randos: Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham, British Spider-Man, the newly pressed Spider-Gwen (a Gwen Stacy from an alternate universe that got bitten instead of Peter, but failed to save him from dying and is plagued by his loss), a Spider-Monkey, ten Spider-Girls, and a thousand others. The idea is thus: these vampires that eat Spiders’ essences are jumping through the various Marvel Universes and consuming all of the Spider-Men there. Ok, that didn’t sound great, but I promise it’s good. This concept draws off of the best parts of the Straczynski run: the idea that the spider is an elemental force, Peter’s totem, and that other forces are primally drawn to do battle with the spider(s). The point being that Peter is not the first spider, there have been others, and he is locked in a battle that spans millennia and the universe. It’s a big idea. J. Michael introduced Morlun as the central expression of this conflict. He’s sort of like Spider-Man’s Doomsday, except he wants to eat his soul. Morlun raised the stakes on Spider-villains, who have typically been mad scientist types of kinda dummy criminals with some powers. Morlun is basically an alien that wants to kill Spider-Man; that’s his whole thing. Anyway, Peter gets his shit together and finally kills Morlun, because he has to, but that’s the end of it, he says. No more killing.

Well, we’ll see about that. Edge of the Spider-Verse brings Morlun back, reveals he has a whole “family” of similar space vampires who eat Spiders, and that they can’t die. Sooooo, that’s bad. It’s drawn by Olivier Copiel, one of the absolute best in the business. He’s a perfect fit for Spider-Man because his facial expressiveness is so astounding and Peter feels to me like a sort of Woody Allen meets Jimmy Stewart type of character; you need to see what he looks like with some detail to explain the words. It’s a great fit. Slott is writing, of course, and I think the goal is to finish off the Straczynski era to move forward, once again, in to new territory for Peter P. I love all of the extra Spider-Men. I didn’t think I would. It sounded dumb to me, again, like I thought Superior Spider-Man might be. I’ve learned my lesson. People are losing their shit over Spider-Gwen (Marvel has already given her a solo title and check eBay on completed auctions for Edge of the Spider-Verse #2 where she makes her debut; it’s absurd). Peter Porker has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid. I’d forgotten about Cosmic Spider-Man. Noir is in there, if that’s your thing. It’s a Spider-Man for all seasons. I think this is a great book, maybe already better than Superior Spider-Man was, which is saying something really. Edge of the Spider-Verse really delivers.

So that’s what’s up with Spider-Man. It’s all good news really. Oh, and if you didn’t see, and I’ll talk about this extensively when I do my TV and movies blog, but Spider-man may be moving into the Marvel U. and away from Sony Pictures. Completely rebooted. Shed a tear for Emma Stone (who I love), but hooray for the movie version of Peter. It’s fitting that in a new Golden Age for Spider-Man, Disney/Marvel would make a real push to reacquire that character. They certainly have the capital with Disney’s deep pockets behind them. I think it would create some great synergy for the books and movies if the plan works out. See, the Sony email leaks weren’t all bad. Anywho, Spider-Man good. Read it. 

General State of DC Comics

So, this post is not going to talk about Batman. My views on the Snyder series are in my top 10. It’s a very solid book, mostly remarkable for being one of the few books to survive the dumpster fire that is the New 52. Look, if DC wants to get all excited that their BATMAN book is almost as good as Hawkeye, they should feel free. How proud they must be! That alone is a testament to how much is going wrong at DC. I am aggressive about this because I honestly felt like prior to the new 52 a lot was going right for DC. They’d kicked Superman out of Action Comics and turned it over to Luthor and Paul Cornell, a wonderful team. They had a great Batgirl and Supergirl book. Detective Comics was interesting. Aquaman by Geoff Johns had some real promise. So did GL. Flash with Johns has great, again. Justice League needed to get an upgrade, but finding writing talent that can do that shouldn’t be that hard. Superman was, well, Superman (sort of sucks). For DC, this is a pretty good line-up.

In comes the New 52. Superman is a dicky teenager. Batman is a dicky twenty-something. Flash is written by an artist. David Finch is pretending to be a writer. Martian Manhunter is in the Authority. Dogs and cats are laying together. I have pretty strong feelings, clearly, about how crappy I think the New 52 has been. It’s way bad. I liked early Suicide Squad, Batman, and…basically nothing else. A few more books have popped up here and there, but, for the most part, I am not doing much DC reading at the moment. The reason being that, frankly, their writing talent is subpar. A lot of their books have very talented artists writing books that are clearly moronic. The Jason Todd, Arsenal, Starfire series is one of the ten worst book ideas I’ve ever heard of, but Kenneth Rocafort draws beautifully. I just don’t care about a single one of those characters and the turkey writing it couldn’t tell a story if it would get him out of hell. This is just infantile boob shots of Starfire over and over again. It’s 1990’s Marvel. It’s sad.

That said, not everything at DC is a disaster. Aquaman always needs to be relaunched as a result of him being a total tool. Jeff Parker is doing a pretty solid job of doing so. No one is going to care in a few years when Scott Snyder rewrites him as a vampire, but this book is actually going exceptionally well in my opinion. The Hercules story was great. The Chimera arc was solid. The Swamp Thing and Manhunter appearances have been handled well. I really enjoy this book. I’m a huge Parker supporter and, while I’m sad he’s writing a dead end book, I’m glad he’s writing something. Batman ’66 was actually pretty fun if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s not my cup o tea, but I can see nostalgics or Deadpool fans really digging it.

Green Arrow with Jeff Lemire was sweet. Look, Jeff Lemire is just good at writing. He had the obnoxious task of writing this book while the OC version of Arrow was being released on TV and handled it well. He borrowed the Diggle character (the best thing about the show) and did so well. He expanded the idea of what the arrow is all about (why an arrow at all instead of some other weapon?). He introduced some updated kung-fu like versions of the classic Arrow rogues in a way that gave credit to the old while inventing something new and fresh. I really liked this book. If you liked the Bru and Fracton Iron Fist – and you’d better – you’d like this book. They’ve already, of course, changed it over to be even more like the TV show – basically, an extension of the show – and turned it over to one of the folks from the Arrow program, Kreisberg. I dropped the book. I hated that move. Maybe it will still be good. I dunno. I will pick it up I trade if I hear it is I guess.

Suicide Squad by Sean Ryan is a solid book. I dropped it in a fit of rage at DC, but I didn’t hate it. I actually like a lot of the characters better here than I have in their appropriate places in the DC universe. For instance, the Harley solo book is a train wreck, but Harley here is pretty interesting. Deadshot is always a good character, complex and interesting as a result. The rotating parts of the cast seemed well-chosen, like a Morrison’s Animal Man Who’s Who of suckage. These characters should be lovable losers. I liked it in Thunderbolts and I like it here when it’s done well. I suspect this is one of their very best titles and I’d be reading it if I weren’t so pissed at DC at the moment.

Superman Unchained, a Scott Snyder production, and Superman/Wonder Woman with Charles Soule and Tony Daniel have both been good, actually. Snyder is pretty good on Batman because the dumb way that Snyder writes dialogue works for Clark where it’s just annoying when Bruce says the things he writes. Jim Lee is ok too, but clearly past his prime. His art is no longer as detailed or as eye-popping as it was even ten years ago. It’s telling that Jr Jr was promoted as a Superman artist more than Lee was, telling and a bit sad. Jim Lee was new to comics when I was first starting and he has a special place in my heart as a result. Of course, one of the first comics I ever bought was a Jr Jr issue of Daredevil, and I didn’t even consider reading his new run on Superman with Johns. It looks like Sandman in Superman’s cape. It’s sad. Anyway, Unchained is good so far.

Superman/WW I dropped because of the Doomed Doomsday cross-over. I f’ing hate Doomsday. If I could uninvent two characters in comics, the first would be Bane and second would be Doomsday. They’re so stupid. They represent everything terrible about the 1990’s in comics. Superman/WW started off with a cool Zod and Faora arc and was followed with the Doomsday poopsickle, so I dropped it. I may pick it back up again. Charles Soule is a solid writer. I like most of his stuff except the conceptually incoherent Red Thunderbolts (which I suspect was an editorial problem, not entirely his fault). Tony Daniel is drawing the hell out of this book. The only real knock on it is that a lot of it is Wonder Woman and Superman talking about their feelings for each other (they’re banging in the new 52). That gets old pretty fast. If it was like grown-ups having feelings even, it could be better, but they basically make these two out to be 14 year-old super-powered ass clowns when it comes to emotions. That’s bad. Fortunately, it’s not too much and doesn’t cancel out all that’s good about the book.

While I’m not going to talk about the main Batman book, I will talk about some of the follow-on titles associated with the Bat. It’s too bad what happened to Batwoman, the most interesting new DC character in many years. Editorial ran off J.H. Williams III and that book took a nosedive. It was another great book prior to the New 52 and survived unscathed for more than a year before editorial decided to take the meathooks to it. Ok, I’ll say it: I do not give a flying fartburger about Joker’s Daughter. I’m sorry. I don’t care. I’ve read the first two “books” she appeared in – one in the Villains United month and the other a special edition – and they were both trash. Neither story is any good, the character doesn’t matter, and it’s a tasteless gimmick. If I never hear anything about the Joker’s Daughter again, it will be too soon. I tried the new Catwoman, largely because of the Jae Lee cover, and it’s stinky. I dropped it as soon as I read it. Catwoman is now in charge of the criminal element of Gotham, like the Kingpin in Hell’s Kitchen except boring. I’m still trying Gotham Academy, which so far has no bats at all, but has featured Bruce Wayne and some kids. I’m going to give it at least an arc. The art is solid and the premise has some potential.

Wither Geoff Johns? Oh man. I feel bad actually insulting Johns, but his current writing is just not up-to-snuff compared to things others are doing. He’s been passed by his peers and a new wave of young talent. I suspect his responsibilities administratively and with the TV and film divisions of DC have distracted him greatly from writing the caliber of book we’ve been used to from him. Justice League has a broken narrative. It’s actually pretty hard to follow. Adding Luthor to the team is a straight up aping of Cornell, who is probably available to write this book for you should you need some help (hint: you do). His role in Forever Evil was solid, but the subsequent production of JL has been, in a word, off. It just doesn’t feel right. It feels forced. Johns always had this ability to write team books effortlessly, from Justice Society to Teen Titans to Avengers, he excelled at the dynamics of groups. He’s failing here. Justice League is not a very good book.

I liked Forever Evil. David Finch was doing his actual job instead of posing as a writer. Nightwing was getting tortured as he should. Bizarro was spectacular, a great version of the character in my opinion. The Crime Syndicate is, for comics fans of a certain age, incredibly nostalgic. I loved those old stories both on TV and in the comics. They were expanded to a full roster and fully-fleshed out here in a way they’ve never been done before. It was well-executed. That said, everything in the DCU just went back to normal the next day apparently, with the exception that Luthor is now a hero. It’s weird. I’m not saying that everything should be turned upside down, but this is a story with incredibly far-reaching impact on the entire universe and the DC editorial treated it as a speed bump. It feels like they weren’t prepared to own up to the consequences of wanting a big story. That’s a cop out.

Justice League of America and Justice League United are written by Matt Kindt, one of my favorite writers, and they’re awful. I’m sorry. They just are. They’re unreadable crapola. It’s like if Alpha Flight sucked harder. Also, stop trying to make Animal Man happen. One person, ever, wrote a good Animal Man. It’s not ever going to happen again unless Morrison wants to do it again and he doesn’t. End of story.

That leaves us to Future’s End. I’m sick and god damned tired of weekly comics series. They’re too much. It’s a huge expenditure of time and money for a limited, usually poorly delivered, series. I’m so far behind on this book it’s not even funny. I loved the TV show of Batman Beyond. If you’ve never seen it, you should. It’s wonderful. I bought this book because it looked like there was going to be some cool cross-overs between the Beyond U. and the DCU. I’m now regretting it. The month of Future’s End books was even worse. I think I only got maybe eight of those books. The writing teams were craptastic. I read Booster Gold and Flash because they seemed to tie-in with the conclusions of Flashpoint and I was hopeful DC was reverting from the New 52 back to the main DCU. It’s unclear from those books that this is happening. The Harley Future’s End book was actually really good, an excellent Harley story comparable to her comics introduction in quality. Anyhow, I’ll have to get back to you regarding how well done Future’s End is once I’ve read it. I’ll say this: the focus on Mr. Terrific is impressing no one.

That’s what’s up with most of the DC books I’m reading. Others will be covered when I talk about the writers (Cullen Bunn on Sinestro & Lobo, for instance), but generally, this is a C-level product if I was giving it a grade. And those are the self-selected “best books” I could find from DC. Who knows how bad Amethyst is? Wonder Woman written by Meredith Finch should be a mess. Johns Superman has been a critical flop. Teen Titans looks terrible (HOW?). Earth-2 was well liked, but is going away because Robinson can’t along with anyone these days. Maybe Gail Simone’s Birds of Prey will be good, but I’m not getting any more Simone books (her quality has dropped off so much since the old series). What in the actual hell was Grayson? Is it cancelled yet?

The real question is: Can DC produce a non-Batman book that is worthy of the top 10? I don’t think that they can with their current configuration. It seems like their general direction is not on solid ground at the moment. I’d steady the ship and move on. Cutting down to, say, 25 books or so a month would be a good idea. Scouring the indie ranks for writing talent is another great plan. Focus on core characters and concepts. Take some risks, but don’t flip everything on its head. Most importantly, identify what is good about your characters, what is central to who they are, and then move out from that to tell stories that test and push those ideas. Develop conflict, real drama. Push your heroes. Deliver lasting stories, not gimmicks. Right now, DC is pretty far out from doing any of these things. 

The Recent Comic Book Works of Brian Michael Bendis

I get hell from some of my oldest friends that are into comics for my opinions on Brian Michael Bendis. I won’t hide the fact that I think he’s one of the best to ever write a comic book. He, more than any other person, is responsible for the Marvel Renaissance of the last decade. He renovated an Avengers franchise in terminal disrepair. He took over for Kevin Smith on Daredevil when Smith abandoned Marvel for Green Arrow at DC. He brought indie cred to the Marvel creator-owned line when he moved his own Powers series to the Bullpen. And, more than anything, he breathed new life into Peter Parker and invented Miles Morales, bringing Spider-Man back from the dead and inventing the longest-living on-going alternate universe in comics history. It seems appropriate to look at BMB’s current work in the twilight of the Ultimate universe, just prior to the events of Secret War which is long-rumored to end the world Miles Morales was born into.

Roughly two years ago, Bendis took over the helm of the biggest franchise in Marvel, producing both the flagship Uncanny X-Men and his own, All-New X-Men, featuring the 60’s teen X-Men flashed into the present by a desperate Hank McCoy in the wake of Xavier’s death at the hands of Cyclops during AvX. The time jumping continued through Battle of the Atom, an X-Men crossover of meager proportions that spanned the Bendis books and the Brian Wood title, X-Men (with bookends and a graphic novel rounding out the story). Battle of the Atom was, in my estimation, solid but nothing special, a B-level event with some cool images and decent story-telling stretched too long to sell more products. If this story had been five issues, I’d have enjoyed it enormously. I’m over long arcs, I’m over cross-overs into my regular books, and I’m done with big X-Men events. The X-Men need some character development.

The book is drawn adeptly by Kathryn Immonen, an artist who has grown by leaps and bounds over the decade into a top tier artist. She isn’t going to wow you with breath-taking detail, but produces a remarkably consistent book given the demands of a Bendis schedule. The art works well for the book and I especially love the way she draws both young and old Bobby Drake. I dare you to show me a better Ice-Man.

That said, I think Bendis has performed admirably exploring these characters. The mirror of the old, young X-Men turned on Beast, Iceman, and Cyclops has been powerful, in my estimation, at explaining what drew people to these characters in the first place. Bendis is getting to the heart of the archetypes here, returning us to the central themes of the characters, some so far gone (Cyclops) that it’s hard to remember where they started, and some on the cusp (Beast) of making horrible decisions that their hearts, epitomized by these younger versions of themselves, are the only hope of preventing. The centerpiece of the entire thing, of course, is the return of Jean, who everyone in the X-Men, old and young, loves. Emma is pissed. Old Cyclops if distracted. Young Cyclops and Beast are courting. Thank god Wolverine is in Westchester/dead. But Jean shines a light on the X-Men as brightly as she ever did in the 60’s in these Bendis books. She is headstrong and thoughtful, reminding the team what they’re about, regardless of how much water is under the bridge (or eyebeam singeing Xavier’s bald head). I like the All-New X-Men a lot.

Uncanny is an interesting book. At times it feels like it’s risking becoming a continuation of All-New X-Men, but don’t forget that Bendis invented this “two interrelated books a month” thing with Avengers and New Avengers. His stories have simply become too big to tell in one issue, but they’re both still great and each is fuller because of the other. Uncanny is more focused on Scott Summers and his new team, who lives in the old Weapon X compound and use Cerebro to hunt down new mutants and recruit and train them (not at all creepy and morbid). So, Scott’s f’d up pretty hard. He killed his mentor under the influence of the power that also killed his girlfriend like five times. That’s a lot to handle. He’s tired of taking any crap, so he’s training mutants assuming that humans can’t be trusted and that Xavier’s dream is dead. This is a hardcore “terrorist cell” version of the X-Men. Emma and the Cuckoos are still around, Magneto is off and on, Magik – who is really spooky – is also kicking it. This ain’t your grandpa’s X-Men.

The new X-Team is fairly nondescript. They largely serve as a sort of window into the insanity that is being around Cyclops today. The dialogue is classic Bendis, explaining the sheer terror of these young, untrained mutants following Scott to, say, fight a Sentinel. It’s everything that’s great about the X-Men. It also lets you know that no one feels really comfortable around Summers, even Emma, his now very long-time significant other. Roughly the only person that stands up to Scott is Erik, but he’s off the reservation most of the time flirting with his own demons. Kitty has been fairly quiet since joining the team, but has some promise as a leader now more than ever. Maybe it will be the aptly named Goldballs (I couldn’t make this up). Who knows? I can’t even name any of the other new team members. Goldballs is pretty cool – and a great chance for Chris Bachalo to stretch his legs on some big panels with whacky effects.

This book is an excellent exploration into what Cyclops is all about, what’s wrong with him, and how he can (I hope) come back. Honestly, I like Cyclops a bit more today than I did prior to, say, his psychological trauma with Apocalypse and his flirting with the dark side for the last decade. He’s a far more interesting character now than when he was purely a boy scout. He needed to make some mistakes. Bendis has a particular skill at handling these very human moments in heroic characters’ lives (see, Daredevil, Alias, Iron Man after Civil War). I am hopeful that he can handle Scott, re-balancing him to be the leader that the X-Men need. I look forward to seeing where things go from here.

If you want my opinion on GotG, read my top 10 article. I have a pretty comprehensive view on how much I like Guardians. I think it’s a top 5 book, it’s been the best superhero book until the recent surge on Thor by Jason Aaron, and it will likely stay as one of the best books on the shelves each week.

Outside of the regular Marvel U., Bendis is still writing every issue of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man. I believe it’s the longest continuous run on any comic book ever already. If it’s not, it’s close. Honestly, the quality on this book has, remarkably, not slipped. I’d say it’s as good today as it ever was. I like Miles a bunch, his relationship both with his folks and his rogues and the classic (lol) USM Peter Parker villains and cast has been amazing. I won’t give away too much in spoilers, but let’s just say it picks up right where the other USM left off and continues to hold that classic 60’s Spidey feel to it. His buddy, Ganke, is awesome and hilarious, the best Spider-Man sidekick ever. He’s going through all of the same things with his family and girls and friends and authority figures as Peter did, but truly updated, not just like, with a cell-phone. It feels familiar and fresh all at once, just the way you want a new Spider-Man book to be.

My one knock on this book has always been that it is the slowest developing book of any Bendis book. A lot of people think he writes like paint drying generally, but you can’t say that about Avengers. That book had a kinetic pace. USM has always been belabored. The recent fight with the Green Goblin was like 10 minutes of real life long and lasted 60 pages of comics I think. That’s a bit much. BUT, at the same time, you feel like you know these characters and understand them in a way you don’t in some other books. That’s the blessing and the curse. If you can’t handle long prose-style dialogue, this book won’t be for you. Part of the issue in stretching the books out may also be to feature the hot young artist he has drawing Miles. I think the book looks great and giving some extra action panels is not a bad thing, even though we consumers are always wanting books to move move move.

Bendis’s indie work is his pride and joy; it’s where he comes from. I think one day he’d like to go back to doing exclusively his own work, probably. I’ve stopped reading Powers. It just comes out too frequently. But I am getting The United States of Murder Inc. each month and, boy howdy, this man still has some gas in the tank. It’s he and Oeming (his co-creator on Powers) and they’re telling a twisty future crime story as well as anyone has. Now, I’m a sucker for gritty crime stuff – Brubaker is my favorite writer for a reason – but a Bendis plot can knock your socks down and this is a doozy of one. I’ve always been a fan of Oeming. His work on this book is perfect and feels fresh and inspired. If I had to guess, the problems with Powers probably relate more to lack of motivation on the art side than to lack of ability to finish a book on the writing side. Bendis has never had a slow pace and has, at times, been doing 5 or 6 top-selling books each month. Maybe USoMI will get Oeming’s juice flowing again and bring Powers back up to speed. At any rate, this is a really good book, only outside of my top 10 because of how new it is, not for any other reason. I love it.

So, that’s the rundown on what’s going on with Bendis’s books at the moment. I recommend all of these books, some very highly, and all in my top 25. I think if you were drafting writers to start a comic book company, Bendis might be the overall number one pick. There are some other guys who can write one book better than he can, but there are very few guys who can write two or more per month better. His output matched with quality is second-to-none. 

Secret Wars: My Thoughts on Marvel Comics' Next Big Thing

Secret Wars promises to draw some conclusions to Jonathon Hickman's run on the Avengers in dramatic fashion. Thus far, the colliding worlds threatening the 616 universes have been nondescript Earths that readers are as-yet unfamiliar with. Secret Wars shows the continuing collapse of the competing Earths, now from alternate universes that at least some readers will recognize. The history of parallel universes in Marvel comics is a long and diverse one, with familiar faces from stories like House of M, Age of Apocalypse, Marvels, Hulk's Maestro universe, Old Man Logan, the New Universe, and the Ultimate Universe, to name just a few. This collapse offers Marvel a chance to revisit some fan favorite stories, to propose some epic face-offs that comic fans drool over, and to clean up some of the competing characters and reintroduce some new blood. 

Here's the thing: I hate parallel universes. I was burned by the Cross-Time Caper in Excaliber as a kid and I've never forgiven parallel universes and time travel for how badly they ruined what should have been a great book. I love the idea of destroying all of the complicated universes that make my favorite fictional world inconsistent and annoying. I like continuity. I don't want a bunch of Elseworlds garbage floating around muddying up my stories. I'm old school like that. Who do I want to see these characters fight? The inside of a black hole, an exploding red giant, the smell from Hulk's shoes. I don't care. I just want them to go away. We'll keep Miles Morales; everything else can go. 

What's the point? I think the idea is to clean up Age of Ultron where the solution required Wolverine and Sue Storm to tear a whole in time to stop Ultron before he was "born". The consequences ripped space/time a new arsehole and resulted in, among other things, Angela popping into the Marvel U. I suspect the genesis of the colliding Earths problem in Avengers to be related to this irresponsible use of time travel. The motivation at Marvel? Well, a lot of things, but I think chief among those is to get Miles Morales out of the Ultimate U., a collapsing portion of the Marvel line, and into the 616 universe where he can raise his profile (and hopefully his sales numbers). The ancillary benefit is telling some big action stories that may appeal to a variety of casual fans of old x-overs. Which, ok -- sure. That's a little cheap but you've got to put butts in the seats. 

Marvel has released some map that shows all of the action. You can see that here: http://www.newsarama.com/22828-marvel-release-full-map-of-secret-wars-battleworld.html. Various sites have spent their time trying to break down what is who and such. I won't do that. I just want to read the stories. 

What am I most looking forward to from Secret Wars? Eh. I sort of hate the idea, but I trust the creators so I'm just going to hold my breath and trust in Hickman and Ribic. They're two of the best. Even given that, I can't help but feel like we're being gamed with a ton of mini's, one-shots, and once-off appearances in books no one is reading. But, Hickman. In Hickman I trust. So I'm looking forward to that. Look, I'm gonna buy it. I just hope that it's not real dumb and a waste of time. There are simpler ways to get MM into the main Marvel U. (he's already been there like 10 times!). 

Other things: well, Duckworld. I was actually thinking to myself, "Will there be Howard the Duck?" Short answer: yes. I love Howard the Duck. That's awesome. Maestro and Old Man Logan were good, so I'll look forward to seeing those products, presuming they feature good creators. Actually, everything to me depends on that. I don't read comics for the properties. I read them for the writers and artists. If the material is good, I can read any character. And some stories are so bad it doesn't matter how much you like the characters, it's unreadable (see: Excaliber). For me, everything will depend on whether I trust the people producing the books. 

What does this mean for things like Edge of the Spider-Verse? A new Spider-Gwen (a hot new character featuring the Gwen Stacy from an alternate universe that's taken the mantle of Spider-Man where she comes from) book is on the way. Miles and the 616 Peter Parker are teaming up to fight the creepy space vampires who feed off of Spider-stuff. Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham is around (awesome). Is Secret Wars going to get rid of all of these characters? I hope so. I hated the idea of Edge of the Spider-Verse from the moment I heard about it. I will admit that the ASM portion by Slott and Coipel has been good (not great), but I still have a bad taste in my mouth regarding the nature of this story. In my estimation, too much parallel universe and time play never goes well. It doesn't build a strong story that can last. On-going comics need continuity. 

I'd like to see Marvel declare a one year moratorium on new cross-overs and focus on story an character development. Their best books, with the exception of the Avengers, have largely been immune to cross-overs or barely affected by them. Hawkeye is a good model for how to handle a comic book: explore the character, introduce slowly a supporting cast and some rogues, and tell good, complete stories. Cross-overs are like a cannonball in the pool: fun, but kind of dicky. I get it: they sell books so I'm wrong. But this statement makes a suggestion about how consumers work that's unsupportable: it's implies that they have intrinsic interests, not influenced or even led by availability and marketing. Push Hawkeye like you push cross-overs and the industry would be different. People buy what you sell them. Let's sell good books. That said, maybe Secret Wars will be super tight. Maybe it'll be as good as Original Sin or Civil War. Maybe it's not a Cross-Time Caper. Only time will tell. It's a SECRET war after all. 

The Ladies of Marvel Comics

A lot of (deserving) noise has been made about the comics industry’s mishandling of female characters. Ladies have been portrayed as any or all of the following unflattering archetypes: damsels in distress, seductresses, eye-candy, or sexually available sidekicks. The industry blames the audience (largely 20-something-yo white guys) for wanting their female characters to be stereotypical. The audience blames the industry for failing to promote quality books with realistic women and for failing to hire or promote women creators and editors. Even given these facts, at times, the comics industry has gotten a lot right with great female characters: Gail Simone’s Birds of Prey, Jenny Sparks in the Authority, Mockingbird in West Coast Avengers, & the 1980’s X-Men all portrayed women as superheroes that stood up to the big pecs crowd and held their own. The audience and the industry are, albeit slowly, evolving.

My current top 10 comics feature four books with female leads (although I’ll admit that I think Thor is still a Thor book, others have made the argument I should include it, so I will): Velvet & Lazarus from Image, Thor, and Mind MGMT from Dark Horse. Of course, three of the four mentioned are indie books, not quite superhero titles and not from the Big Two that dominate comics. What have the major publishers done to promote titles led by women and to promote women in the industry?

The last set of Marvel Now! additions were notably heavy on female leads: a re-launch of Captain Marvel, the new Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Black Widow, and Elektra joined the Brian Wood X-Men title featuring an all-lady version of the mighty mutant super-team. Recently, Jason Aaron’s Thor was re-launched (new #1) with a depowered (for a god) Odinson and a mysterious woman wielding the uru-laden Mjolnir. I’d like to spend some time taking a look at each of these titles and discussing their quality and their futures.

I’ll start with Black Widow because she’s the oldest of the characters, first appearing in 1964. She’s also probably received the least attention of any of these characters, including the new Ms. Marvel. If it were not for the Avengers movies, she’d still be a relatively unknown commodity. I was immediately drawn to this book by artist Phil Noto. His art is exceptional, blending traditional penciling with painted backgrounds to great effect. His line work is thin and detailed, not overly inked and blocky like the more cartoony 90’s art. He’s seen a recent resurgence doing some work with Rick Remender on his stellar Uncanny X-Force run, penciling a few lesser Dark Horse offerings, including a re-launch of the popular Ghost, and a largely forgettable run on Thunderbolts with Daniel Way. One of the best things about Noto, in my opinion, is that he draws incredibly detailed and realistic figures. This leads me to why he’s such a good fit for Widow: he doesn’t draw her like she’s boobs with feet. We all know the stereotype of a female superhero is basically a huge chest, tiny everything else, and long flowing hair. Widow is drawn in profile infrequently, her face is the focus of most panels, her body dimensions are appropriate, and her hair is typically pulled back or cut short, probably a good idea if you’re trying to do some hardcore spy work. I love the way that Natasha is visually portrayed in this book.

The writing is excellent. Natasha is on a mission to clean up her messes. As you know, she is not a nice lady. She’s been an assassin, worked for the KGB and as a mercenary, and she’s done some bad news bears in her lifetime. Now that she’s rolling with the Avengers on the reg, she feels remorse for her old life and wants to make it right. And she has a lot of making it right to do. It’s a solid vehicle for putting her basically around the world and in touch with a variety of thugs, villains, and shady characters, as well as the Marvel U.’s spy community, in a way that doesn’t feel forced for movement. Nathan Edmondson is a relative newcomer, but he’s plotting this book well. I’ll also give him a solid mark for dialogue. The book isn’t heavy on word balloons, but that’s a good thing. Widow is a loner, she shouldn’t just be wandering around chatting people up, and when she does talk, it should be with a clear goal in mind. Too many comic writers force dialogue on their characters. Edmondson feels content letting Noto’s art do the talking where it should and that’s a pretty mature move to make as a writer. Overall, I’d say this book is close to the top of my list of Marvel Now! female leads, second only to Thor.

Next I’ll discuss the second oldest of the character here, premiering in 1977: the Carol Danvers Captain Marvel book. I’ll be honest from the outset: I’m not currently reading this book. I read the beginnings of each Deconnick run on the book and set it aside. I’ve done the same thing with each Deconnick book I’ve read. I think that the plots are missing something for me, a certain, say, big picture. Conceptually, I just don’t understand where these books are going. I know why Marvel wants there to be a Carol Danvers book. I know why fans like Carol Danvers. I just don’t understand what the point of this book is. It feels like a Captain Marvel meets the supervillain of the week title and that just doesn’t cut it for me. My intrinsic interest in the character is pretty low and her rogues’ gallery isn’t exactly drawing me in. That said, I like Kelly Sue Deconnick just fine. I think she wrote a solid run on Avengers Assemble. Her writing here displays a certain skill, page-wise. I think the bigger pulse of the book needs a lot of work.

Other things that are good about this Captain Marvel book: the new look for Captain Marvel. I think the reimagining of this character is solid. Red over blue is a good color choice, displaying power rather than raw emotion, an approach color over an avoid color. The hairstyle is good, shorter, tighter hair showing that she’s all about business. This is a lifetime military woman; she’d be no-frills and no-nonsense. I feel like things are moving in the right direction for Captain Marvel, although not quite right enough for me to lay down by $4 a month to read about it. I wouldn’t mock anyone for reading this book. It’s not Deadpool.

She-Hulk is next in line, appearing in 1980. Of all of the characters we’ve discussed, She-Hulk is the worst. Sorry, Shulk fans, it’s just true. It’s late Stan Lee (his last Marvel creation), which is awful in its own right, but it’s also a derivative Bride of Frankenstein type character. It’s actually one of the worst ways to make a female lead – turn a traditionally male character into a female character and just see what happens (oops, Thor), as if there’s nothing special to women that hasn’t already been done by a man or that women can only be interesting when acting like men. This bad mojo makes me unsurprised that She-Hulk has been a generally irrelevant Marvel character, resigned to also-ran teams and cross-overs. It’s more shocking when there’s a good She-Hulk than a bad one. Fast forward to 2005: Dan Slott (now of Superior and Amazing Spider-Man) writes a truly great She-Hulk series. It’s greeted with…quick cancellation. Fast forward to 2013: Charles Soule writes another great She-Hulk series. It will soon meet the same fate.

I really, really enjoy this book. People that know me have heard me gush about Brian Pulido, probably in reference to his masterful Hawkeye annual last year. I think he’s doing some really innovative page work these days. It takes me about twice as long to read an issue of She-Hulk because I don’t want to miss anything in the details of Pulido’s work. His line work on this book has displayed an even greater range of emotion and energy than he’s used in the past. I will say that I’m not entirely sure that he and Soule are on the same page and that’s in spite of liking both of them a bunch. It happens. But, regardless, this book should absolutely not be getting canned. It’s not like the Captain Britain and MI:13 crisis of 2010, but it’s not that far off really. This is a top 10 Marvel book in terms of quality and yet it’s meeting the corporate shredder. If this was a DC book, it would get 30 more issues. Of course, if this was a DC book, it would be their second best book, not lower in the top 10.

Like, She-Hulk, Elektra first appears in the early 1980’s and is next in line for a review. This book is pretty bad. W. Haden Blackman isn’t a name that jumps out to most comics fans. He’s best known for writing in the Star Wars universe (maybe not coincidental that Marvel got interested in him right as Disney bought Star Wars from Lucasfilms), but also worked with J.H. Williams III on Batwoman and left, along with Williams, when DC began to compromise that character in the New 52. I was skeptical, naturally, of this cat I didn’t know working on a character I have some strong ties to (Daredevil was an early favorite book of mine). I was, however, excited to see Mike Del Mundo’s interiors. He’s been doing covers and variants for Marvel for a few years now, notably on X-Men: Legacy (a truly awful comic) and GotG. His painted, experimental style really drew me in. Check out his page at DeviantArt http://deadlymike.deviantart.com/.

I gave this book a full arc. I regretted it. It even had Taskmaster in it and I still regretted it. Let me tell you something about Taskmaster: he’s awesome. Anyway, this book is better to look at than it is to read. The plot is bad. The villain is bad. Elektra is more of a boundary condition than a character in the book. She fades into the background of the super evil villain she’s facing. It’s just not a well thought-out book and doesn’t have anything that feels especially Elektra about it. Del Mundo’s art is fascinating and beautiful. I think this man has a solid future in comics. I’m unconvinced by Blackman. His work felt pretty hackish. I would flip through these at the store to see the Del Mundo art, but save your sheckles for a real book. Read Daredevil or something.

Next up is Brian Wood’s X-Men. I want to like Brian Wood. I have nothing against Brian Wood. I’m starting to feel like Brian Wood is not much of a comic book writer though. This is his biggest stage yet: he’s writing the world’s most popular super-team, it’s a big launch because of the all-lady cast, and it’s a basically stand-alone Marvel Now! release and Marvel Now! is pretty hot. What does he do? Put Jubilee front and center. Ok, well, I think we all know how that works. Jubilee sucks. She is a jacket, basically. No, the jacket is cooler than she is. It feels like this had to be a dare. Like, “I dare you to take your biggest money-making opp and focus it on Jubilee.” To which, any normal person would reply, “Shut up.” If you’re unfamiliar with Jubilee, let me give you some quick background: she lived in a mall, she could make sparkles, sort of like Dazzler but less powerful, she had a yellow jacket and followed Wolverine around, sort of like a low-rent Kitty, and now she’s a vampire. Sounds stupid? It is stupid. So, she’s a critical focus of this book. That’s not good.

What is good about this X-Men team? Psylocke, fresh off of the mind-twisting results of Remender’s run on Uncanny X-Force, is complicated and tough. Storm trying to distinguish herself from the disaster that is the main X-Men teams is both rational and bold. Thankfully Wood has distanced himself from the mistake that was her short-term tryst with Uncanny X-Men leader Cyclops. This was such a bad idea for so many reasons. Even Rachel Summers is moderately interesting in this book, and that’s a character that’s had a pretty weak history, especially lately. Here’s the problem: the sum is less than the individual parts. Wood can do some solid individual scenes, but seems to struggle at plotting arcs tightly. I’d be fine with this if the book wasn’t still in the arc format. It is. And the arcs are too long, they ramble, and they fail to deliver at key points. I held this book for twenty issues, much the same as I did with his Star Wars series. I don’t think I’ll make the same mistake again. This is not a very good book, but it’s not the worst thing in the world either. I assume it’s close to being canceled or re-launched.

Unlike the other titles here, Ms. Marvel is a wholly new creation, penned by a new-to-Marvel woman, G. Willow Wilson. The book has received a ton of press because the lead character, Kamala Khan, is both a teen girl and a Muslim, a Pakistani American. I’m going to do my best to talk about this series without using any spoilers because the plot devices used to explain her powers here are pretty cool and should be a surprise for the reader. This book is good. Wilson writes great dialogue and internal monologue. She has a feel for the character. The book feels like early Spider-Man (or recently Ultimate Spider-Man). That’s a really good thing. The family drama, the friend/love interest confusion, the uncertainty about her powers and how to be a hero, it all feels familiar and comfortable. Adrian Alphona makes Ms. Marvel look great. The art has an energy that’s fitting for both her powers and her personality. It feels youthful without being explicitly cartoony. I like the focus on detailed penciling.

The plot is excellent. Who does Kamala look up to? Carol Danvers, of course, not Captain America, not Iron Man, not Wolverine. She becomes Ms. Marvel sort of by accident because she makes herself look like Captain Marvel. It’s a cool explanation for her familiar look. Her mad scientist antagonist is both cool and mysterious, and maybe not an antagonist at all, it turns out. She’s had run ins with some of the main Marvel U., including a depowered Wolverine before his recent demise, the actual Carol Danvers, Spider-Man, and some others who are tied to her unfolding origin story. I look forward to this book each month. The number of new Marvel creations in recent years has slowed, with most creators choosing to do their new development at the indies, knowing that they’ll have both more control and more financial reward for doing so. Ms. Marvel bucks the trend. The book is doing well and I expect it to continue to grow and evolve. It looks promising for sure.

This leaves us to Thor, the newest of the female leads. The book is only two issues in, so I won’t be able to go into too much detail, but I can tell you some things about the creators and ask some questions about its future. Jason Aaron is at the top of the comics industry at the moment. He’s writing the best superhero comic. He’s about to write Star Wars with the fan favorite John Cassady, sure to be an enormous book. He’s done a major Marvel crossover, Original Sin, and done it well. He’s an indie darling with hits like Scalped, Men of Wrath, and Southern Bastards. His pairing here with Russell Dauterman probably raised some eyebrows. Thor was penciled by Ron Garney, Esad Ribic, and Simone Bianchi, three huge names. Dauterman, by contrast, is a relatively unknown commodity. I’ll say this: his art stands up and holds its own, even with these greats. This is (still) a great book.

Who is holding Mjolnir? What happened to Thor? Well, Thor was deemed unworthy, assumedly for being some sort of a dick. Thor is a great hero, but he’s also a Marvel hero and is prone to being, well, a meathead. He’s drunk a lot. He’s a god in the traditional sense, so he often thinks he’s better than everyone and is prone to god-like hubris. You can’t wield Mjolnir if you aren’t worthy, so Thor’s hammer was left unclaimed at the end of Original Sin. I honestly don’t know who is holding the hammer. Frigga is the easy answer. Too easy, probably. The lead-in to the first issue certainly pushes the reader to this conclusion. The blonde hair may lead some to believe it’s the Enchantress, Lorelei. But, why would she be acting like a hero? Brunnhilde? Perhaps. Marvel has tried, unsuccessfully, to push this character several times in recent years. I’d say that she has a better chance than the previous two. Sif? Almost assuredly not, but I wish. Sif rocks. I’d say 50% chance it’s an unknown, 25% Brunnhilde, and 20% any of the other three mentioned, with 5% left for some other Marvel character we haven’t discussed.

That’s a wrap for now. The Marvel Now! books with female leads are overall pretty good, but sadly She-Hulk, one of the best, is going away soon, and Elektra and Captain Marvel absolutely don’t make the cut. X-Men, while ok, is nothing special by X-book standards. Thor is an industry standard and Black Widow is a rising star. Ms. Marvel represents hope for the future: new, woman-penned female characters leading titles. Hopefully some commercial success for these books will inspire Marvel to do more with its line of female characters and to promote more female creators. DC could use to take some advice from their competitors and promote their characters that are women. There was a time in the mid-2000’s that they were on the right track; today, they’ve fallen behind, very far behind, Marvel’s line-up.

Coming Comics Content: Preview & Feedback

So, I've recently organized my thoughts on a variety of comics related materials and have a master plan of several thematic posts I'll be writing about. They are as follows:

B. Bendis
Spider-Man
G. Rucka
M. Waid
Milligan & Allred
Marvel Now! Books w Female Leads
DC Titles
J. Hickman
R. Remender
S. Snyder
Vertigo
Image
M. Fraction
Valiant
E. Brubaker
Dynamite
Dark Horse & Others
Misc. Marvel
M. Millar
J. Aaron
Guardians & Associated Books
Axis
C. Bunn
W. Ellis
Wolverine
Comics TV
Upcoming X-Overs
Comics Movies

If you have a vote on things you'd like to see covered first in this list, comment here. I'll be glad to take some feedback.

Disclaimer: Under Construction

Some of this blog is under construction: a few of the posts got updated as new that were old (the last 2: Winter Break Comics Update and Summer Comics Update. They're actually from like 2012. Please ignore unless you want a trip down memory lane. I will have a lot of new content coming soon; that's just not it.

Winter Break comics update

I know that I haven't been keeping this as updated as I'd hoped, but I have been saving ideas for times when I can write a lot. I have a ton of things to cover and I'll try and do them systematically.

The biggest news in comics is...no real news. Most of what I have to write about here won't be mind-blowing to anyone, but maybe it'll tip you off to some new materials you haven't covered.

Scott Pilgrim: I liked the movie. I didn't like the books much. That's about all I have to say about that.

Kick-Ass: Don't forget that Kick-Ass is awesome. Buy the DVD. Watch it a million times. If you don't like Hit Girl, you suck.

What do I think about upcoming movies? I'm for em!

Thor: It looks awesome. I think the acting should be strong, the story of Thor should be good, the action should be amazing. I'll be interested to see how they integrate Thor into the rest of the Marvel U. I hope I'm as blown away as I expect to be. I'll be waiting in line for the premiere for sure.

Green Lantern: The effects look good, the story will probably suck. I like Ryan Reynolds; I can't even lie about it. The guy is funny. I'm not sure that he is Hal though. I don't know who is, but I think it isn't him. I'm excited to see if they pull it off though.

Avengers: I get all tingly inside when I think about it. I don't care if Mark Ruffalo is playing the Hulk. I really don't. He doesn't scream Banner to me, but I can live with it. The idea of seeing all of the big Marvel heroes together on one screen is such a nerdgasm that it doesn't matter much to me how it gets done or who does it, I want to see it.

Iron Man 3: Ok, director out.

Summer Comics wrap-up

This morning I finished the last 6 months of comics (some more than that -- like I had 8 or so issues of Wonder Woman to read). I haven't posted since January and the run-down in January was basically just an early return on the New 52. This post will be a more complete description of where comics are today. In sum, "I have concerns and I am excited simultaneously". I continue to be perplexed by the New 52's performance. I was pleasantly surprised by AvX. I am both concerned and excited by the upcoming launch of Marvel NOW! I'll do what I typically do and review books and then talk about the industry itself, especially the big 2.

The Top 10: Comics You Should Be Reading

This is going to be a countdown. Prepare for the suspense. Brace yourself. Ok, go. 

10. Saga – Brian K. Vaughn writes great comics. He has an enormous imagination, a very fresh image of new worlds that are deftly filled with interesting and colorful characters. If you haven’t read Y: The Last Man and Runaways, you should; they’re great. Saga is also a very good comic book, beautifully illustrated by Fiona Staples. The premise is familiar – star-crossed lovers on the run from their families and a few intergalactic empires and bounty hunters who are out to halt their forbidden love. The execution is excellent in most parts, although prone to ham-handedness (the hugely-endowed giant was a bit much). Fan favorite extras (Lying Cat, the walrus boy, etc.) make the book feel like a Star Wars tribute, which I’m sure it is. It’s hard not to like this extra solid book, one of 4 notable Image titles on the top 10.

9. Batman – OMG! Batman at NINE?! Yes. Batman is a very good book, although prone to Scott Snyder’s B-level writing and clunky dialogue. Batman is boring, I get it. He is obsessive so often you don’t care much what he has to say. BUT, Snyder’s Bruce is chatty and, well, sort of annoying. That said, this IS a good book. The plots are masterfully woven, something Snyder excels at doing. His Riddler story – Zero Hour – is a great mystery reminiscent of the old laser shark pit days of the 60’s TV series. His newest story, only just starting, is a Joker story featuring the Justice League that promises to be excellent too. But, the real drawing power of this book is Greg Capullo, a top 5 artist doing unparalleled pencils on this book. It’s hard not to be impressed with the detail and precision that goes into every panel. His art reminds me of a cleaner Frank Quitely, an admirable comparison to say the least. In spite of its flaws, this book has so many draws it’s certainly a great read.

8. East of West – The second Image title and first of two Jonathon Hickman books on the list, East of West is an uncategorizable end of times romp through the great civilizations of modern history. The countries of today have devolved into clans defined by their cultural archetypes and they’re engaged in war, intrigue, magic, and future-science to jostle for power. Dragotta’s pencils have grown up enormously since his Fantastic Four and FF days; he appears to be born to draw this book. The art is clean, powerful, and kinetic, a perfect complement to Hickman’s heavy writing style. I think fans of Preacher, Bladerunner, and Dune will all appreciate this fascinating book that features one of the best writing/art tandems in comics today. If I had to provide one piece of criticism – and I’m loathe to do because this book is so good – I’d say that the narrative is a bit frantic causing major plot pieces to be buried or under-featured. This can make following the story difficult in places. It’s not damning, but can be bulky on the reader.

7. Hawkeye – Matt Fraction’s skill at writing B-level (no offense, Hawk-Guy fans) into real people that deserve serious attention is impeccable. He and Brubaker wrote the hell out of Iron Fist, an also ran that made Luke Cage seem like a living, breathing character by comparison. Hawkeye has always just been a low-rent Green Arrow, the guy that hassles Captain America and hustles around Avengers Mansion trying to get with all the ladies. He’s a nobody. Fraction turns this into great writing. This book is gold. At this stage, the book is less Clint Barton and more of the new Hawkeye, Kate from the Young Avengers. She’s written well, sort of a precocious Juno-type, but with badassey under her belt rather than just a mouth. The art by David Aja and Brian Pulido is second to none, perfectly displaying the introspective tone and the tongue-in-cheek moments of this book. Clint’s dog and the Russian Bros are great co-stars to fill out a cast. This book has been Eisner nominated each year for a reason. It’s superb. The only knock on it is that it’s slow and sometimes just not delivered. Unclear why, but this is a frequent Fraction issue, especially at Marvel.

6. New Avengers – The last year I’d have reversed this and listed the main Avengers title as the better book. No longer. Simon Bianchi and Steve Epting on art is a powerful advertisement. They’re two or my favorites – and both will be mentioned again on this list – and they do amazing work on this book. But, the more compelling portion of this book for the time is the fallen heroes of the Illuminati. Reed Richards, Beast, Iron-Man, Namor, Black Bolt, Black Panther, and Dr. Strange came together (with Charles Xavier) to keep the Infinity Gems guarded from Thanos, but have stayed together to pile on their secret governance – mostly, to hide their dirty work from Cap). Today, they’re confronted by the mysterious (and very, very cool) Black Swan with the ultimate responsibility: they decide if they’ll destroy entire planet that threaten the Marvel 616 universe. Earths from multiple universes are colliding and the only way to save their world is to wipe out competing Earths. There’s a lot of hemming and hawing. Dr. Strange wipes out a planet of fake Justice Leagues by selling his soul for much enhanced power. This move to sell his soul is scary and sure to have enormous ramifications on the 616 universe overall. Even after this, the rest of the Illuminati is all sad about having to do the right thing and Namor just goes behind their backs, forms a thing called the Cabal, and stocks it with people who couldn’t possibly care, like Thanos, Black Swan, that crazy Inhuman, Terrax, and some of Thanos’s goons from Infinity. They kill a boatload of other Earths, awesomely, and the Illuminati is all “Wut!? You can’t just do that! Namor, you’re a good guy!!”. To which Namor replies, “Am I?” Anyone with half a brain will remember the 50 or so years where Namor was at least morally ambiguous and often a literal villain. He sure did remember that. This book is awesome. Hickman loves the Avengers. He loves the power. He loves the Marvel “flawed” hero. He seems to write Black Swan to tell the heroes what they can’t admit about themselves, things he can see as a writer but the characters can’t see on the other side of the wall. It’s great listening to Reed Richards be told about himself (and not just because I hate Reed, but because clearly his single-minded pursuit of truth without regard for what’s right is his biggest problem – he’s all brains and no heart). Brilliant, must-read book.

5. Guardians of the Galaxy – Some people will say that this is a stretch. That it’s just another Marvel book, nothing special. I disagree. Several really great things are going on in this book. For one thing, the art is spectacular. The alien worlds and space battles have never appeared so beautifully illustrated in a Marvel book. If I had one knock on the old Abnett and Lanning series of GotG books, it was that the art rarely stood up to the writing. This does. In fact, it greatly enhances the narrative. Second, Star-Lord is Bendis. Bendis is Star-Lord. He’s born to write these characters. Star-Lord is a Peter Parker-esque man-child and Bendis kills at that sort of thing. Quill is dating Kitty Pryde, it’s adorable, and I love it. Sorry, I just do. But everything Star-Lord does in this book is fantastic. I’d read Bendis just writing a Quill diary. It would be glorious. Third, Flash Thompson as Venom. I really like this. I know Dan Slott gets the credit for it; he invented this in Superior Spider-Man, but I just think it’s wonderfully executed here. The Angela introduction I couldn’t care less about. I don’t know that character. But I know Flash Thompson. I love that Flash is getting a chance to be something. I love that it’s him struggling – literally and metaphorically – with his demons. It’s cool. Finally, the Original Sin tie-in that explains the Richard Rider Nova’s last days is amazing. While the Trial of Jean Grey (one of my all-time favorite characters) was good, this is the best arc. If you didn’t read this and you only read two issues of GotG to see if it’s for you, read those issues. Bendis is so good at making heroes look heroic that I don’t know if there’s anyone else, ever, who has been better. Maybe Claremont on the X-Men, but that’s some great company. This book is not that much better than, say, All-New X-Men, but I gave it the nod literally because of that Original Sin tie-in, my favorite comic arc of the year.

4. Mind MGMT – Matt Kindt is a god among men. A lot of people can write a book a month; a lot of them can’t, especially some of the most talented writers in the industry. Some of the best comics writers (Kevin Smith, for instance) have suffered from failure to deliver books on time and a ton of artists (Ed Benes, Dale Keown, notably) have moved on because they can’t deliver a product consistently. It’s rare that someone draws and writes their own book. Matt Kindt does it all. Mind MGMT is always on time. It’s shockingly consistent. It’s chock full of content, including on every inside cover and in the margins of every book. KINDT EVEN DOES THE COVERS. The paint is moody and clearly detailed to match the ideas being presented. Mind MGMT is enormously thoughtful, brilliantly illustrated, and impossible to categorize. If I told you it was a spy book, I wouldn’t be wrong, but I wouldn’t be totally right either. If I said it’s about secret societies, the same. It’s about the brain, imo, and that’s a subject I’m very interested in so I naturally love it, but it’s not about brains like how we know things, but about how we feel them, about how we feel deeply. It’s important, I’d say. This might be the most significant of the comics on this list over time. The collected editions, if you haven’t seen them, are wonderful, very sharp looking, and if I didn’t have every loose issue, that’s for sure how I’d read this book.

3. Thor – The best superhero book on the shelves, the last title from the Big Two in this top 10, and a seminal work on the Asgardian Odinson. Jason Aaron was special from the day he walked in the door. His war stories in The Other Side were wonderfully detailed and gritty. His early Marvel work on Ghost Rider, of all things, was memorable and weird. Scalped is one of the greatest things Vertigo ever produced. It’s no small wonder that Aaron has become prolific and powerful as a writer. I honestly never expected him to become a major superhero writer like he did on this book. I’d have predicted he’d do some Brubaker-type big company work and then venture back out into the Indie world to write screenplay-esque comics and make his millions. His Wolverine, for instance, was medium. Wolverine and the X-Men was pretty bad. This book, however, is a neat fit for him because he seemed to embrace the tragic nature of Thor. The Norse are tragic. They’re doomed, right? Ragnarok and all. Aaron gets this. God-Killer and the God-Bomb draw on it. The Last Days of Midgard is all about it. He’s really hitting the right notes there. His writing on Malekith is exceptional (and the origin of Malekith at the end of this run is enormously well-done). The father, son, and kid Thor are amazing, differentiated, and fun. The ladies are well-written, human, and respectfully done, unlike most Marvel ladies (and, especially, Thor ladies – is any character more disrespected historically in the Marvel U. than Sif?). Issue #18 is one of the absolute best stand-alone comics in an on-going superhero book I’ve ever read. I won’t spill the beans, but you absolutely must read it. This book is illustrated by Ron Garney and Esad Ribic, two giants of comic art, and even they don’t stand up to the truly inspired writing Jason Aaron is pouring out in these pages. Honorable mention goes to Bianchi for his work on the Thor and Loki 10^th Realm spin-off from Original Sin, which was penned by Aaron. Always a pleasure to see his work and he really added some dimensions to this Angels vs. Norse gods book.

2. Lazarus – The 3^rd of four Image books in the top 10. The final two are actually a pick ‘em. I think they’re nearly too close to call. Both writers are phenomenal. Both artists are top talents. The plots are spectacular. The execution is masterful. It’s hard to find a single knock on either book. I think it’s possible that the color work on one puts it very slightly ahead. But, I digress. This book is written by Greg Rucka and illustrated by Michael Lark and features a unique, post-apocalyptic world divvied up to clans who live in a cold peace with one another of shifting alliances and political and military intrigue. Each family is protected by a Lazari, a sort of totemic warrior that represents the families’ strengths (and often weaknesses). The mystery of what the Lazari are is hard to understand because they appear to be different from family to family – maybe a cyborg, clone, genetically augmented family member, drug enhanced fighter, etc. The central Lazarus, Forever, is the main character of the story and the narrative is drawn around her, her family, their feuds internally and with the other clans, and her love interests and relationships with the other Lazari. I hope this book gets a good, long run. It feels like it has a ton of gas in the tank. If you haven’t ever read Rucka, he tells very clean stories, he writes simply and clearly, and he doesn’t waste dialogue. Lark’s pencils really bring out the starkness of this world without skimping on style and detail. I think this book has a lot to offer and hope to be reading it for many, many years. Fans of Saga should definitely be reading this book.

1. Velvet – Ed Brubaker is my favorite current writer. I’m not sure he’s the best – I think that’s probably Hickman – but Brubaker doesn’t ever do anything I won’t like. I even tried not to like Fatale; I really pushed at it and still ended up loving it in the end. His pairing with Steve Epting is wonderful. They seem to be in one another’s’ heads. They make it look so good. Velvet is the story of a disillusioned aging secret agent out to make things right. The story is a beautiful period piece, reminiscent of a Mad Men with a soul (and a cohesive narrative, but I’m not here to bash Mad Men). It’s a flash forward/flashback story no unlike what Bru and Epting did with their run on Cap, to my mind one of the best superhero runs in the history of the business. The story feels perfectly paced, with each piece of the mystery revealed only when the reader needs it. There’s no long Bendis-esque monologues, no Stan Lee type editorializing (I guess that’s not really even done anymore, but whatever). The grit and danger is apparent, but the protagonist never feels like they’re doing anything unbelievably heroic, humanizing the story. I think Brubaker gets that better than most writers of modern comics. The characters need to feel intrinsically motivated, not simply motivated by their archetype. He produces these full-fledged people, these fictional humans that are relatable, and then he puts them through the wringer. I love what he’s doing here. I will be right there until the end. You should come along.

1. Velvet

2. Lazarus

3. Thor

4. Mind Mgmt

5. Guardians of the Galaxy

6. New Avengers

7. Hawkeye

8. East of West

9. Batman

10. Saga

So, in all, 4 Marvel books, 4 Image books, a DC book, and a Dark Horse book, with Image holding the top 2 spots and DC breaking the top 10 by the skin of Greg Capullo’s poised drawing hand. I think Dark Horse has a better shot at a second book in the top 10 – new Hellboy on-going next year – than DC does. Their closest is probably Aquaman at around 25-30. I’ve considered cancelling nearly all of my DC books over the last year. Image, on the other hand, I almost always want to try their new titles and often drop their books only to pick them up in trade later (or miss them and pick them up in trade anyway). It’s amazing what Image has put together, honestly. Marvel probably has more top 25 books than Image by a good range (a lot of the new Women of the Marvel Next books like Black Widow, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel would be in that area), but the absolute highest quality is coming from Image at the moment. What, if anything, will stop the tale-spin at DC? Will there be any new talent in editorial? Will Geoff Johns start writing well again? Will there ever be a good Wonder Woman book (certainly not the next one, basically written by David Finch, a man who couldn’t even make a readable Batman book)? DC has a lot of problems at the moment. I’d recommend basically cleaning house, abandoning the New 52, and trying to just tell some good stories instead of pushing gimmicks and hoping something sticks.