Welcome back!
I guess it’s more of a welcome back to me than you all. You’ve
been on the Internet all this time; I just haven’t been writing this column
very frequently in the last year. I’m hoping to make this a more regular occurrence.
My goal is always to “finish all my reading” before I write this, but then
Wednesday comes around once again and I have more things to read and I never
quit catch up. From here on out, I’m going to take the column piece by piece
and write when I have something interesting to say rather than as a complete
review of everything comics.
Needless to say, given the delays, I’ve got a lot of things
to say about books, movies, TV, and the industry in general. I’m going to
restrict this to books and have some follow on posts regarding other media
coming up shortly. I think the more hardcore followers of this page are here
primarily for books and, for some, I’ve promised reviews and recs for a while.
Overview:
Marvel has won the war. DC is a wholly different type of
product now, seemingly less interested in producing high quality comic book
products than merely selling them. Lemire and Parker are barely writing books
for them. Gail Simone is – frankly – past her prime and writing weak to very
weak books. Only Batman and Justice League feature premium writing talent, and
Justice League is uneven at best. In my view, Geoff Johns has not adjusted well
to balancing editorial and executive responsibilities with his writing needs,
leaving DC’s premiere team book in jeopardy. I think Aquaman is the company’s
second best book. Let that settle for a minute: Aquaman is the second best book
at DC. New books coming out of DC are nearly universally off-putting if not
patently irrelevant (Lobo through one issue is the singular counter-example I
could recall). The editorial blunders for DC continue to drive off talent,
confuse the narrative for books, and produce a generally uneven product. Not
everything is wrong at DC, but far more is wrong than is right. Some of their
mid-level books, like Sinestro and Green Arrow, have some real promise, but
neither is selling well in spite of some good intangibles for each character.
Marvel, on the other hand, has so many premium titles that it’s
ridiculous. I’m not sure that any comic book company in any era was creating a
higher proportion of high quality titles. Each Bendis book is must-read,
producing classic work on the X-men at a clip of two books a month (while
executive producing two television shows and advising Marvel’s movie
production) while also writing the single best superhero comic on the shelves
in Guardians of the Galaxy (GotG henceforth). Jason Aaron’s Thor is nothing
short of amazing. Mark Waid’s Daredevil is great. Fraction’s Hawkeye (Hawkguy)
is innovative, interesting, and fun superhero fare. Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and
Black Widow (my personal favorite of the new Marvel lady books) are all rock
solid reads at least as good as Justice League and probably better most months.
Spider-Man is good again. And fan favorites like X-Factor and Deadpool (a book
I don’t read but that sells like hotcakes) round out the reasons Marvel is
trouncing the opposition. I didn’t even mention the Avengers, that’s how good
Marvel is doing today.
The more interesting story from my point of view though isn’t
that Marvel is so far ahead of DC – and constantly widening the gap – but that
Image is nipping at the heels of both companies. Not beholden to universal
continuity, preying off the entertainment industry’s lust for new storytelling
and fresh voices, and willing to be more flexible both financially and
creatively, Image has risen from a chippy opposition movement to a legitimate
business threat to the Big Two. While they don’t have the multimedia backing
that Marvel and DC have from Disney and Warner respectively, the success of The
Walking Dead and interest in other products like Saga, Fear Agent, Peter
Panzerfaust, and a host of others has given Image the clout to attract top
talents. The day of the company exclusive contract is done. Top writers are
regularly producing their non-superhero material at Image and telling
incredible stories. Jason Aaron’s Southern Bastards, Greg Rucka’s Lazarus, and
Ed Brubaker’s Velvet are just a few of the premium titles Image is turning out
month-to-month. Marvel and DC wish they had the creative moxie to tell some of
these stories. Image is not just doing great work, but their sales numbers are
improving also, in spite of lower production numbers and less access to general
audience outlets. This is great for the industry and for those of us that love
all comics, not just the big pecs big tits spandex crowd.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that some of the other
indy publishers are suffering a bit. IDW and Dark Horse are producing fewer
quality products, although each has some great books (Mind MGMT, for instance,
may go down as one of the greatest comic books ever made, an instant top 50
candidate). The oversaturation of the horror market in the mid- to late-2000’s
seems to have hurt IDW in particular. Valiant’s hot start was followed up with
a major cooling off. Archer & Armstrong suffered from a Cross-Time
Caper-esque catastrophe of simultaneously becoming too much of a joke book and
featuring enormously long arcs. It’s fallen from my favorite book of 2013 to
off my pull list. X-O has held steady or improved, but the rest of their line is,
in my opinion, mostly unreadable, or, at a minimum, below the high standards
set for indy publishing by folks at Image. I’m still bullish on medium sized
publishers and I spend a lot of time wading through the things that these
companies are making, but most of the more exciting things of note for me are
collected editions and resurrected silver and bronze age stuff. And there’s
nothing wrong with any of that, but it drives the price up and drives my
interest a bit lower compared to new books with fresh ideas.
Cross-Overs & Events:
I know they can be off-putting, but they also define a lot
of the popular interest in comics for casual fans. I’m going to spend some time
reviewing them.
I’ll start with DC. I liked Forever Evil. SPOILER ALERT: everything from here on out
will have spoilers. I’ve always liked the Crime Syndicate and the new
Injustice Society, while a little bit wooden, was solid too. More Luthor is
always better for DC (just like more Osborn is always better for Marvel). It had far less Superman than a company-wide
DC cross-over usually does, which is good. I will say this though – it did
nothing to raise the profile of even a single DC superhero. Am I the only one
that things DC is struggling to make anyone care about their primary product?
There was a time in the early 2000’s that Flash had an identity. Green Arrow
had an identity. Even Hawkman had an identity. Every character now feels a
little bit like Batman: a spoiled white guy who is sad but has to fight for
justice or some other abstract idea. I’m concerned for DC that they’re turning
all of their characters into the Arrow version of Oliver Queen. Is there a
single fan that really *likes* that Ollie for anything other than his abs? He’s
pretty insipid to be quite honest. I think they should do a better job of
creating core identities for characters. Parker’s Aquaman should be the model.
He’s doing great work. But, back to Forever Evil: very good, one of DC’s better
cross-overs, but little improvement in the company-wide product. David Finch is
still a pretty artist. He should stop trying to drive the books’ plots though.
Future’s End, on the other hand, has not grabbed me. To be
frank, I read the first ten issues and sat it aside for future consumption. It’s
a weekly, which I hate. It’s 3008365892365982365 issues long, which is
terrible. It’s written by a lot of different people and edited by, it appears,
no one. Besides Batman Beyond, I don’t care about any of the characters in this
book (Mr. Terrific, new 52 style, no thanks). It’s already pretty OMAC-oriented,
which isn’t working for me. I wish DC would cut it out with the weeklies. They’re
really killing folks. Batman Eternal is probably ok and would be something I’d
read if it came out once a month instead of four times a month. I liked the
first ten of it too. And I’ll read Future’s End someday, I’m sure (I am still
buying it, but just pulling it out so I don’t fall behind on the other 60 books
I read every month). Conceptually, it’s basically everything wrong with DC
today: long arcs, bad characters, awful marketing and editing. I’m sorely
disappointed.
Marvel’s events have been awesome. Infinity worried me
because I’m not a huge Thanos fan. He’s a little too B-side Darkseid or
identical Doomsday for me. He’s a weirdo, which is tight. But his power set and
interests are just not Marvel-oriented enough for my tastes. Marvel’s the land
of political intrigue and grey area super villains. DC is the ultimate good,
ultimate evil company. Thanos is a bit too much the force of death for my
tastes. BUT, it’s Jonathon Hickman, it’s Mike Deodato, it’s the Avengers, and
it’s glorious. Thanos kid should be dumb for years after this, but the story of
Infinity was brilliant and I loved it. Thanos’s crew was sick and awesome, very
much the D&D anti-party. The Avengers were heroic. The story was huge in
scope but felt very personal for the characters involved and I really liked
that. It’s a special move of Hickman to highlight people in the middle of huge
action, sort of like Mike Oeming’s use of facial expression in action gives you
some insight into the emotional state of these characters while they’re
undergoing enormous tasks. It’s impressive to write that and not feel stilted.
I maintain that Hickman is special and still underrated in spite of being in
the spotlight now for five years or so.
Original Sin was even better. I was unsure of Jason Aaron
when he came to Marvel full-time. I loved Scalped. I really liked Ghost Rider
(the first thing I read of his). But, I remained unsure that he was a good fit
for most Marvel books. He seemed a bit too rough and tumble for most of the
Marvel material outside of Punisher and street-level stuff, like maybe a Luke
Cage or Kingpin book. It was hard picturing him on superhero action. I thought
his work on Wolverine was uneven and I really didn’t like Wolverine and the
X-Men (I still strongly prefer the newer LaTour stuff to Jason Aaron’s long run
on W&tX). That said, I forgot one of my favorite characters and someone he’s
perfect to write: Nick Fury. While Aaron’s Thor has been amazing – and I mean
exactly that word, I think it’s the best Thor writing ever – Original Sin
and his portrayal of the secret history of Nick Fury, his rise and fall, was
spectacular. It’s already my favorite comic event of all time. I’ll admit to
being a total homer for Fury. Sgt. Fury & the Howling Commandoes #12 was
the first comic book my mom ever found for me at a garage sale when I was a kid
and I’ve been obsessed with the character ever since. This book has it all.
Every major Marvel player, a huge conspiracy 50 years in the making, secret
heroes and villains, the B-listers rising to the A-list, a great murder
mystery, and the missing link that ties Fury to everything. God, I can’t even
begin to explain how much I loved this book. So good.
Upcoming events for both companies reveal a similar trend.
Marvel’s Secret War goes back to Jonathon Hickman and will feature pencils by
the stunning Esad Ribic, while DC will work with newcomer Jeff King (TV’s White
Collar and Continuum) and Scott Lobdell, who I love (and Dan Jurgens, who is
pretty much the worst). Secret War is going to be some kind of parallel
universes solution, featuring all sorts of Marvel alternates, like the Ultimate
U., Age of Apocalypse, House of M, Future Imperfect, Old Man Logan, and others.
I suspect the goal is to end the Ultimate U., save Miles Morales from
irrelevance, and finish what Age of Ultron started. Convergence is bringing the
Multiverse back to the new 52 (perfect!), but it’s unclear whether that means
the old versions of core characters will be returning or if the new 52 will
remain the major publishing status quo. Frankly, who cares? Braniac will be
around, so that’s pretty tight, but otherwise the “we had to get an outside
talent who is a comic writing novice to produce this book” message is not a
good one for DC who is continuing to struggle to attract any competent writers.
Comic book news:
The best new news for comics is the Jason Aaron/John Cassady
Star Wars book Marvel is publishing early next year. For one, it returns to
regular pencils the best artist in comics. John Cassady, if you’ve never seen
his work, is breath-taking. Read Planetary. Take your time. You’re looking at
real art, not cartoons. He’s the perfect person to bring to life the Star Wars
U. on the page. Jason Aaron will tell the gritty, in the muck Star Wars that
folks who are watching Rebels and loathing its squeaky cleanness were hoping
for. I expect a lot of canteena’s, a lot of alien weirdos, and some badass
fights. This should be a great book for as long as Marvel can keep top talent
interested in it. I’m sure Cassady won’t do more than 12 issues, but Aaron
could stick around for a long time. He’s not a one-and-done creator.
New Miracleman. New, old Miracleman, I guess. But, Grant
Morrison’s lost Miracleman book is coming out at Christmas, the first new
material on this beloved and highly-acclaimed product in 30 years. If you don’t
know about Miracleman, you should read up on it. It’s one of the most
interesting publishing sagas and stories in comics history. Alan Moore and Neil
Gaiman, comics royalty, both wrote the book. Top artists drew it. The story is
compared favorably to the Watchmen and the Dark Knight Returns. Marvel has only
recently acquired the rights to the book and has indicated it intends to start
producing new Miracleman material, likely in 2016, and hopefully with Neil
himself. This is huge news and should be exciting to everyone who loves comics.
Hellboy and the BPRD comes out next month. Personally, I’m very
excited. I fell out of love with the Arcudi penned BPRD series years ago; it
eeked forward slowly, seemingly caught in an ever-widening frog monster arc
that it couldn’t escape from. Going backward may help the narrative. The series
is set in the 1950’s and fills in the time when Hellboy was part of the BPRD in
the post-war era. I love this idea, I love these characters, I love Mike Mignola,
and I’m anxiously awaiting this book. I don’t hate John Arcudi, but I will say
his BPRD books seemed uninspired after a bit and could likely have used some
additional direction or focus. Hopefully, the addition of the big guy to the
team and a period piece will help to spell out a more positive future for these
characters.
SHIELD also comes out at Christmas. This book will feature
Mark Waid who is on one of the best winning streaks in comics at the moment and
a rotating cast of artists, starting with Carlos Pacheco. This will be an
attempt to bring the TV & movie version of SHIELD into the Marvel U., with
Coulson and crew teaming up with superheroes to do the spy-vs-spy work of the
superhero universe. It should be a really solid book. Like I said, my love for
Fury is strong and, as a result, I’m a SHIELD buff as well. I like the TV show
in spite of its flaws and have high hopes for the book to bring the
organization back to prominence in the Marvel comic book universe. Little is
known about the plot for the book at the moment, which is just as well, but
given its release date – a spot reserved for only special products and
featuring the lost Miracleman book as its sole companion – I expect Marvel
thinks they’ve got something pretty special here.
To be continued:
I’ll be back shortly with more info on specific books with
reviews and insights. Stay tuned.
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