Semaphore
1 week ago
Showing posts with label DC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DC. Show all posts
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Superman is not a US Citizen anymore
Fox News seems to be getting a lot of mileage out of this backup story from Action Comics #900, where Superman renounces his US Citizenship. I want to know why they aren't asking the real questions, like, "When can we see Superman's long form birth certificate?" and "Isn't Superman an illegal alien?"
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Geek Break: Comics Coming Up in May '08
Let me take a moment to geek out and briefly mention some comics coming up in May '08. You can find the complete solicitations for Marvel in May '08 here, and for DC here.
Solicitations are the little previews each company gives to retailers so they can figure out what to order in the upcoming months. Based on the little snippets of text that these provide, I will make some broad judgments about the books that have yet to even come out. It may not be fair, but it's fun.
Marvel Comics
First, it looks like Marvel is really going all-out in May. They have been doing very well sales-wise against their Distinguished Competition, and May looks like they really are going to try and stick it to DC yet again. Just look at some of these major #1 releases:
Avengers / Invaders #1 (New mini-series with Alex Ross and Jim Krueger of the highly popular Earth X, Justice)
King Size Hulk #1 (Jeph Loeb, Art Adams, Frank Cho)
Marvel 1985 #1 (Mark Millar)
I once read somewhere that the editors can basically predict how well a book will sell if they know the creators and characters in the book. These three books above will almost certainly perform well - probably in the 100K+ mark, which is pretty rare these days. Add that to Marvel's already near 100K+ books:
Secret Invasion #2 (Brian Bendis, Lenil Yu - not yet 100K but probably will be)
The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home #3 of 5 (Stephen King inspired book)
Fantastic Four #557 (Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch)
Thor
New Avengers
Amazing Spider-Man
Marvel will probably have 8-10 of the top 10 books for the month at this rate.
Now for some brief book by book comments:
Ultimate line - Ultimate FF #54, Ultimate Iron Man 2 #5, Ultimate Spider-Man #122, Ultimate X-Men #94. Ultimate X-Men has a new writer, Aron Coleite from Heroes. Fans of Ultimate X-Men are hoping that he got a lot of this work done during the WGA strike and there won't be any delays. I used to buy all the Ultimate line titles, but now I buy none of them. There's just no reason to. The continuity is just as confusing, and the books are no longer fresh or inspiring. The creators are not particularly big names and it just seems stale. Word is, there is a re-boot on the way, but it's hard for me to care.
Amazing Spider-Man #558-#560 - Out of protest from One More Day, I don't buy this book. The more I think about that, it's silly, but I'll stick to my guns for now. Anyway, from what I've heard even though the creative teams sound great, it hasn't been groundbreaking and so it's just as well, considering it comes out three times each month now.
Avengers/Invaders #1 - While I am sure this Alex Ross / Jim Krueger miniseries will be great, I am going to pass on it, and if word is that it is good, I will catch it later. Frankly, golden age characters don't really interest me.
Alan Davis Covers - Black Panther #37, Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1, New Exiles #6, Clandestine #4. Alan Davis wrote and drew interiors for Clandestine, but he's randomly doing covers for the other books. That's great news, but kind of strange that they're all popping up this month?
Captain America #38 - I'm getting it, who cares what the solicitation says. It's been really interesting.
Fantastic Four #557 - Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch continue their 16 issue story arc on Fantastic Four. I read the first issue of this, and it was nice, but it wasn't as awe-inspiring as their work on Ultimates. Maybe I have Millar fatigue? Or maybe I've been here before, as Millar wrote Ultimate Fantastic Four. Something about this doesn't feel fresh and new, which is how I usually feel when reading a Millar title. In my opinion, having "Ultimate" creators working in mainstream Marvel U really takes away from the Ultimate Marvel U. Especially in Fantastic Four, where from what I can tell, the only difference between the two is that in mainstream Marvel, Reed and Sue are married with children. Otherwise, they're essentially the same characters.
Invincible Iron Man #1 - Iron Man, a character with a movie coming out, gets a second series for the first time. I don't read the current book, which in December was #62 on the charts at about 38K. That doesn't strike me as a particularly good sales figure, and is the character really that popular? On the other hand, Thor is a top 5 selling book these days, so I guess anything can happen.
Marvel 1985 #1 - A Mark Millar project that he has been hyping up a lot. I think I'll wait for the trade. Same goes for Kick-Ass #4, his creator owned, Icon series with John Romita Jr.
Secret Invasion #2 - The BIG EVENT of Marvel's 2008 summer. Apparently there are Skrulls impersonating all sorts of heroes throughout the Marvel U. It's been teased at for a while, and building up for a long time. For some reason, I just can't get interested. Leinil Yu is doing the art, and I like his work. I like plots that are intricate and have been building up for a while as well. Surprise twists are good too, but I just can't get excited about this at all. I'll read summaries about this one on the Inter-Web. There are the requisite tie-ins and spin-offs for this as well (Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Captain Britain and MI: 13).
Thor #9 - I'll say it again - Since it came out, Thor has been selling over 100K a month, more than any of the X-Men titles in that period. I can't believe it.
X-Men Titles - I'll only put the ones I'm interested in. There are a lot of X-books these days.
Uncanny X-Men #498 - still the flagship. It's been decent but I can't help thinking they're waiting for #500 to come up.
X-Men Legacy #211, #212 - I don't know what to make of this title, formerly known as X-Men. I'd have to think that changing the name of the book to X-Men Legacy marginalizes it and will actually be bad for sales.
Cable #3 - I'm curious about this since it directly relates to the big recent crossover, Messiah CompleX. But not interested enough to start picking this up.
X-Force #4, Wolverine #65: Both these books have stories where Wolverine goes after the villains who got away in Messiah CompleX. While I don't really care too much about Wolverine appearing in too many books, something funny happened here. After the crossover, Cyclops and Wolverine had two conversations. In one, he said, "Go after Mystique" (a story in Wolverine). In the other, he said, "Go after the Purifiers" (a story in X-Force). Finally, Wolverine can be seen traveling around Europe with Nightcrawler and Colossus, lamenting the end of the Messiah CompleX story. I'm really not that nit-picky about this kind of continuity but it seems a little too much.
Wolverine: Origins #25 - Supposedly this should be the halfway point of this title. I stopped buying it a while back because I didn't enjoy it. But I like the character of Wolverine so much I can't help but wonder what happens in this book anyway.
Logan #3 - Brian K Vaughan of Y: The Last Man concludes his tale of Logan. I'll wait for the trade.
X-Men Divided We Stand #2 - an anthology of stories about random X-Men scattered about. I'll probably get it but I'm not too enthusiastic.
Punisher #57 - Garth Ennis wraps up his MAX run on the Punisher. I haven't gotten this recently but I'm sure it's still good fun.
DC Comics
I was really enjoying DC Comics until the recent mess that has been Countdown. Suddenly, there's too much confusing stuff going on. Also, I'm not a huge fan of the multiverse. I get a ton of stuff by Geoff Johns, but I'm starting to fear fatigue of his material (like I did of Brian Bendis). I don't think it will happen, but I'm still afraid.
DC Universe #0 - The issue following Countdown to Final Crisis #1, by Johns and Morrison with a bunch of good artists. It's 50 cents! Of course I'm getting it!
Final Crisis #1 - The big event for DC Comics this summer by Grant Morrison. I'm really looking forward to this, and really hoping it makes DC a bit more streamlined and orderly. Like most Grant Morrison stories, I'm guessing it will start off as amazing and interesting, yet somehow at the end, I'll be 50% really confused and 50% amazed.
Tangent: Superman's Reign #3 - Tangent comics was a throwaway concept in the '90s that got revived with the recent multi-verse. I can't imagine people being excited about this enough to buy a twelve issue series!
DC / Wildstorm: Dreamwar #2 - Ten years ago, this book would have really interested me. Now, I am ambivalent. The Wildstorm Universe has really taken a beating in those ten years, and once again, I can't get myself excited about this.
Batman and the Outsiders #7 - I've gotten a few issues of this series, but I don't find it that entertaining. I am going to give it a little longer rope because of all the editorial changes that went on before it started.
Booster Gold #9 - A great book for fanboys that was sort of like the DCU version of Quantum Leap. Then this past week an issue came out and it made my head hurt. I like the idea of reviving Blue Beetle to join Booster as "the greatest heroes nobody ever knows" as they secretly fix time behind the scenes, but I don't know if Beetle will be around forever. Geoff Johns says he's leaving with issue #11. I hope that whoever writes the series beyond this will not take it to hokey territory, because time travel can become a monster if you don't try to control it.
Batman #677 - Grant Morrison is writing Batman and people say they love it. I hardly understand it. I have a theory that when people in the arts see a movie or read a book they don't understand, they immediately say how amazing it is. I think that theory applies to recent issues of this book. Really nice Alex Ross covers for this book and...
Superman #676 - I thought James Robinson was taking this book over, but I guess that will wait until later in the year.
Detective Comics #844 - Paul Dini has been writing this series with stories that are self-contained. It's been above average for the most part, but nothing to get too excited about. I'm on the verge of dropping it...
All-Star Superman #11 - A great book by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly. This is the penultimate issue. While it's been entertaining, this All-Star line has certainly been disappointing for DC. I believe they are going to put this title away once these creators are done.
Action Comics #865 - Action Comics has really been a fun run when Geoff Johns is writing it. Yes, Adam Kubert delayed the title with Richard Donner but the book looked nice. I did not enjoy Johns and Eric Powell on the Bizarro story, but this Legion story with Gary Frank has been great. Johns has been hinting that 2008, Superman's 70th anniversary, will be a huge year. Let's hope so!
Superman / Batman #48 - Once a flagship title for DC, this has fallen into obscurity. I've heard good things about this recent arc, but not good enough for me to sample it. This title used to be a good way to get a Superman and Batman fix all in one, but since I buy Superman's solo book, Batman's solo book and Justice League, this seems irrelevant.
Green Lantern #31 - I had never bought Green Lantern regularly until the end of last year. Geoff Johns is doing a great job with this, and Ivan Reis is a very impressive artist. I even went out and got the hardcovers for the issues I didn't have. It's on the upswing as well, with a huge event planned for 2009.
Green Lantern Corps #24 - While I don't get this, it seems like this title is intimately connected with the main Green Lantern book and laying the groundwork for the "big event" in 2009. I must confess; I either skim it at the stores or read the summaries online.
Justice League of America #21 - I really liked Justice League Unlimited, the animated show that Dwayne McDuffie worked on, but I don't enjoy his Justice League. He has stated publicly that editorial is affecting his ability to write, and I wonder if that is why I have not enjoyed this lately.
Justice Society of America #16 - The hints have been dropping that Kingdom Come and this storyline will be integrated. It's been a little slow to start, but I think the criticism online is a bit much. I am still on board and wondering where all this is headed. It's the 5th book this month by Geoff Johns that I'll be picking up (DCU #0, Booster Gold, Action Comics and Green Lantern).
Wonder Woman #20 - Gail Simone, a fan favorite just finished her first arc on this book. It was nice, but I didn't find it amazing. I think it comes down to the fact that I just don't find Wonder Woman that interesting.
Y: The Last Man Vol 10 - The final trade paperback for Y: The Last Man is coming out in JUNE! UGH! I thought these were May solicits? I am so afraid of the ending of this story being spoiled for me. In fact, the finale came out a few weeks ago and I am amazed that it hasn't been spoiled yet. June 18 cannot arrive soon enough. This is my most anticipated book for 2008 so far.
Ok, I think my fingers are bleeding from all the typing.
Solicitations are the little previews each company gives to retailers so they can figure out what to order in the upcoming months. Based on the little snippets of text that these provide, I will make some broad judgments about the books that have yet to even come out. It may not be fair, but it's fun.
Marvel Comics
First, it looks like Marvel is really going all-out in May. They have been doing very well sales-wise against their Distinguished Competition, and May looks like they really are going to try and stick it to DC yet again. Just look at some of these major #1 releases:
Avengers / Invaders #1 (New mini-series with Alex Ross and Jim Krueger of the highly popular Earth X, Justice)
King Size Hulk #1 (Jeph Loeb, Art Adams, Frank Cho)
Marvel 1985 #1 (Mark Millar)
I once read somewhere that the editors can basically predict how well a book will sell if they know the creators and characters in the book. These three books above will almost certainly perform well - probably in the 100K+ mark, which is pretty rare these days. Add that to Marvel's already near 100K+ books:
Secret Invasion #2 (Brian Bendis, Lenil Yu - not yet 100K but probably will be)
The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home #3 of 5 (Stephen King inspired book)
Fantastic Four #557 (Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch)
Thor
New Avengers
Amazing Spider-Man
Marvel will probably have 8-10 of the top 10 books for the month at this rate.
Now for some brief book by book comments:
Ultimate line - Ultimate FF #54, Ultimate Iron Man 2 #5, Ultimate Spider-Man #122, Ultimate X-Men #94. Ultimate X-Men has a new writer, Aron Coleite from Heroes. Fans of Ultimate X-Men are hoping that he got a lot of this work done during the WGA strike and there won't be any delays. I used to buy all the Ultimate line titles, but now I buy none of them. There's just no reason to. The continuity is just as confusing, and the books are no longer fresh or inspiring. The creators are not particularly big names and it just seems stale. Word is, there is a re-boot on the way, but it's hard for me to care.
Amazing Spider-Man #558-#560 - Out of protest from One More Day, I don't buy this book. The more I think about that, it's silly, but I'll stick to my guns for now. Anyway, from what I've heard even though the creative teams sound great, it hasn't been groundbreaking and so it's just as well, considering it comes out three times each month now.
Avengers/Invaders #1 - While I am sure this Alex Ross / Jim Krueger miniseries will be great, I am going to pass on it, and if word is that it is good, I will catch it later. Frankly, golden age characters don't really interest me.
Alan Davis Covers - Black Panther #37, Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1, New Exiles #6, Clandestine #4. Alan Davis wrote and drew interiors for Clandestine, but he's randomly doing covers for the other books. That's great news, but kind of strange that they're all popping up this month?
Captain America #38 - I'm getting it, who cares what the solicitation says. It's been really interesting.
Fantastic Four #557 - Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch continue their 16 issue story arc on Fantastic Four. I read the first issue of this, and it was nice, but it wasn't as awe-inspiring as their work on Ultimates. Maybe I have Millar fatigue? Or maybe I've been here before, as Millar wrote Ultimate Fantastic Four. Something about this doesn't feel fresh and new, which is how I usually feel when reading a Millar title. In my opinion, having "Ultimate" creators working in mainstream Marvel U really takes away from the Ultimate Marvel U. Especially in Fantastic Four, where from what I can tell, the only difference between the two is that in mainstream Marvel, Reed and Sue are married with children. Otherwise, they're essentially the same characters.
Invincible Iron Man #1 - Iron Man, a character with a movie coming out, gets a second series for the first time. I don't read the current book, which in December was #62 on the charts at about 38K. That doesn't strike me as a particularly good sales figure, and is the character really that popular? On the other hand, Thor is a top 5 selling book these days, so I guess anything can happen.
Marvel 1985 #1 - A Mark Millar project that he has been hyping up a lot. I think I'll wait for the trade. Same goes for Kick-Ass #4, his creator owned, Icon series with John Romita Jr.
Secret Invasion #2 - The BIG EVENT of Marvel's 2008 summer. Apparently there are Skrulls impersonating all sorts of heroes throughout the Marvel U. It's been teased at for a while, and building up for a long time. For some reason, I just can't get interested. Leinil Yu is doing the art, and I like his work. I like plots that are intricate and have been building up for a while as well. Surprise twists are good too, but I just can't get excited about this at all. I'll read summaries about this one on the Inter-Web. There are the requisite tie-ins and spin-offs for this as well (Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Captain Britain and MI: 13).
Thor #9 - I'll say it again - Since it came out, Thor has been selling over 100K a month, more than any of the X-Men titles in that period. I can't believe it.
X-Men Titles - I'll only put the ones I'm interested in. There are a lot of X-books these days.
Uncanny X-Men #498 - still the flagship. It's been decent but I can't help thinking they're waiting for #500 to come up.
X-Men Legacy #211, #212 - I don't know what to make of this title, formerly known as X-Men. I'd have to think that changing the name of the book to X-Men Legacy marginalizes it and will actually be bad for sales.
Cable #3 - I'm curious about this since it directly relates to the big recent crossover, Messiah CompleX. But not interested enough to start picking this up.
X-Force #4, Wolverine #65: Both these books have stories where Wolverine goes after the villains who got away in Messiah CompleX. While I don't really care too much about Wolverine appearing in too many books, something funny happened here. After the crossover, Cyclops and Wolverine had two conversations. In one, he said, "Go after Mystique" (a story in Wolverine). In the other, he said, "Go after the Purifiers" (a story in X-Force). Finally, Wolverine can be seen traveling around Europe with Nightcrawler and Colossus, lamenting the end of the Messiah CompleX story. I'm really not that nit-picky about this kind of continuity but it seems a little too much.
Wolverine: Origins #25 - Supposedly this should be the halfway point of this title. I stopped buying it a while back because I didn't enjoy it. But I like the character of Wolverine so much I can't help but wonder what happens in this book anyway.
Logan #3 - Brian K Vaughan of Y: The Last Man concludes his tale of Logan. I'll wait for the trade.
X-Men Divided We Stand #2 - an anthology of stories about random X-Men scattered about. I'll probably get it but I'm not too enthusiastic.
Punisher #57 - Garth Ennis wraps up his MAX run on the Punisher. I haven't gotten this recently but I'm sure it's still good fun.
DC Comics
I was really enjoying DC Comics until the recent mess that has been Countdown. Suddenly, there's too much confusing stuff going on. Also, I'm not a huge fan of the multiverse. I get a ton of stuff by Geoff Johns, but I'm starting to fear fatigue of his material (like I did of Brian Bendis). I don't think it will happen, but I'm still afraid.
DC Universe #0 - The issue following Countdown to Final Crisis #1, by Johns and Morrison with a bunch of good artists. It's 50 cents! Of course I'm getting it!
Final Crisis #1 - The big event for DC Comics this summer by Grant Morrison. I'm really looking forward to this, and really hoping it makes DC a bit more streamlined and orderly. Like most Grant Morrison stories, I'm guessing it will start off as amazing and interesting, yet somehow at the end, I'll be 50% really confused and 50% amazed.
Tangent: Superman's Reign #3 - Tangent comics was a throwaway concept in the '90s that got revived with the recent multi-verse. I can't imagine people being excited about this enough to buy a twelve issue series!
DC / Wildstorm: Dreamwar #2 - Ten years ago, this book would have really interested me. Now, I am ambivalent. The Wildstorm Universe has really taken a beating in those ten years, and once again, I can't get myself excited about this.
Batman and the Outsiders #7 - I've gotten a few issues of this series, but I don't find it that entertaining. I am going to give it a little longer rope because of all the editorial changes that went on before it started.
Booster Gold #9 - A great book for fanboys that was sort of like the DCU version of Quantum Leap. Then this past week an issue came out and it made my head hurt. I like the idea of reviving Blue Beetle to join Booster as "the greatest heroes nobody ever knows" as they secretly fix time behind the scenes, but I don't know if Beetle will be around forever. Geoff Johns says he's leaving with issue #11. I hope that whoever writes the series beyond this will not take it to hokey territory, because time travel can become a monster if you don't try to control it.
Batman #677 - Grant Morrison is writing Batman and people say they love it. I hardly understand it. I have a theory that when people in the arts see a movie or read a book they don't understand, they immediately say how amazing it is. I think that theory applies to recent issues of this book. Really nice Alex Ross covers for this book and...
Superman #676 - I thought James Robinson was taking this book over, but I guess that will wait until later in the year.
Detective Comics #844 - Paul Dini has been writing this series with stories that are self-contained. It's been above average for the most part, but nothing to get too excited about. I'm on the verge of dropping it...
All-Star Superman #11 - A great book by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly. This is the penultimate issue. While it's been entertaining, this All-Star line has certainly been disappointing for DC. I believe they are going to put this title away once these creators are done.
Action Comics #865 - Action Comics has really been a fun run when Geoff Johns is writing it. Yes, Adam Kubert delayed the title with Richard Donner but the book looked nice. I did not enjoy Johns and Eric Powell on the Bizarro story, but this Legion story with Gary Frank has been great. Johns has been hinting that 2008, Superman's 70th anniversary, will be a huge year. Let's hope so!
Superman / Batman #48 - Once a flagship title for DC, this has fallen into obscurity. I've heard good things about this recent arc, but not good enough for me to sample it. This title used to be a good way to get a Superman and Batman fix all in one, but since I buy Superman's solo book, Batman's solo book and Justice League, this seems irrelevant.
Green Lantern #31 - I had never bought Green Lantern regularly until the end of last year. Geoff Johns is doing a great job with this, and Ivan Reis is a very impressive artist. I even went out and got the hardcovers for the issues I didn't have. It's on the upswing as well, with a huge event planned for 2009.
Green Lantern Corps #24 - While I don't get this, it seems like this title is intimately connected with the main Green Lantern book and laying the groundwork for the "big event" in 2009. I must confess; I either skim it at the stores or read the summaries online.
Justice League of America #21 - I really liked Justice League Unlimited, the animated show that Dwayne McDuffie worked on, but I don't enjoy his Justice League. He has stated publicly that editorial is affecting his ability to write, and I wonder if that is why I have not enjoyed this lately.
Justice Society of America #16 - The hints have been dropping that Kingdom Come and this storyline will be integrated. It's been a little slow to start, but I think the criticism online is a bit much. I am still on board and wondering where all this is headed. It's the 5th book this month by Geoff Johns that I'll be picking up (DCU #0, Booster Gold, Action Comics and Green Lantern).
Wonder Woman #20 - Gail Simone, a fan favorite just finished her first arc on this book. It was nice, but I didn't find it amazing. I think it comes down to the fact that I just don't find Wonder Woman that interesting.
Y: The Last Man Vol 10 - The final trade paperback for Y: The Last Man is coming out in JUNE! UGH! I thought these were May solicits? I am so afraid of the ending of this story being spoiled for me. In fact, the finale came out a few weeks ago and I am amazed that it hasn't been spoiled yet. June 18 cannot arrive soon enough. This is my most anticipated book for 2008 so far.
Ok, I think my fingers are bleeding from all the typing.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Comics Wrap-up
Lately there have been a few big comic book conventions, and a bunch of comic book related news. There's a few things that have been bugging me and I figured this was as good a time as any to talk about them.
First, we'll start with Marvel Comics, who just wrapped up their huge Civil War event. I've grown up following Marvel, and for the most part have been very happy with things. But lately I've been falling off the Marvel bandwagon, and I don't know exactly why. The first signs were when J. Michael Straczynski did a story in Amazing Spider-Man where it turned out that Peter Parker's late girlfriend Gwen Stacy had sex with Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, because of a moment of weakness. Around that time I had also started to become disillusioned with Brian Michael Bendis's writing as well, and stopped reading titles Ultimate Spider-Man. I found Avengers Disassembled somewhat ridiculous and never got interested in New Avengers, the best selling Marvel comic. That should have been another sign that my relationship with Marvel was going downhill.
I still continued on with the books that got me into comics in the first place, the X-Men family and Wolverine, followed a few other heroes such as Daredevil and Captain America, and kept with most of the Ultimate line (Ultimates, Ultimate FF and Ultimate X-Men).
The next phase of disappointment came with the House of M and Decimation events that followed. These events were supposed to have all sorts of lasting effects and implications but I haven't really noticed it in the storytelling. The only difference seems to be that the X-Men are under "house arrest" by Sentinels, yet still manage to find their ways out of the mansion to do things.
Now there's this Civil War business. The art was great. I've always liked Mark Millar's writing, but there's just not much of a story to the main Civil War book. I didn't read the associated books such as Frontline or any additional crossover titles. There were too many gaps in the story that just didn't make sense. From reading the main title alone, nobody would know that Captain Marvel had come back to life, or why Spider-Man wears his black costume during the epilogue or why Johnny and Susan Storm needed to be arrested once they left Tony Stark's group (after all, they were registered!). I appreciate that the book has changed the way the Marvel U will operate - there will be 50 super teams, one for each state, and every super hero will need to be trained and monitored by the US Government. Fine. But I'm not interested. One reason is that I've realized I don't care about the non X-Men heroes in the Marvel Universe. I couldn't even recognize half the people involved in the fighting in Civil War. When I see the Marvel solicitations for future books, I just don't care about most of the books. I don't know why that is.
The Ultimate universe has also gone south for me. Ultimate X-Men has floundered under Robert Kirkman, with stories that I just haven't enjoyed and seem inconsequential. So I've stopped getting that book. I stopped reading Ultimate FF once Mark Millar left. The Ultimates will conclude later this year, but I don't expect to be on board for volumes 3 or 4. The Ultimate universe has lost its simplicity and excitement and become as convoluted as the Marvel U.
Meanwhile in the land of X, the X-Men title with the "best" X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, comes out on the least regular basis. The other two X-titles are pretty good, but not amazing. Wolverine has two titles, and in one he's fighting Sabretooth for about 5 issues, and in the other it turns out he has a son with claws. Doesn't he already have offspring with claws named X-23? I'm not interested.
By the way, all the mutants except for 198 of them got de-powered. Not a single of member of the X-Men lost his or her powers in that event. How can an event be significant and not have any of the X-Men lose their powers? Also, I understand the need to decrease the number of mutants, but turning them into just 198 makes them totally irrelevant. Who cares now? It does make sense that the Marvel U would then focus on general super-powered beings since they now outnumber mutants.
Coming soon, more crossovers, with "World War Hulk" and a "huge X-Men event." The X-Men event might be good, but I'll be steering clear of the Hulk stuff.
So the bottom line with Marvel Comics, here's what I'm reading and here's what I've dropped in the last year.
Still Reading:
Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins, Runaways, Ultimates vol 2, Captain America
Dropped:
Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate FF, Daredevil
On the other side of the fence, I've been really enjoying DC Comics, at least, when they come out. Infinite Crisis was a good series, although the ending seemed a bit rushed with some sloppy art. They have been moving from event to event to event, which is a bit daunting. The biggest disappointment at DC has been their horrible shipping schedule. I picked up a bunch of DC titles over the past year, but some of them hardly come out.
The Superman family, Action Comics and Superman have both been plagued by delays. Superman had some nice art by Carlos Pacheco, but I just haven't gotten into the "alternate future" storyline that they started, and now that the book has been delayed, I've decided to stop getting it. Meanwhile, I've really enjoyed Action Comics by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner, but they've only produced three issues in the last year. With both series there are fill-in stories coming out but I'm just not interested in them as they seem irrelevant to the main stories.
The Batman books have also been delayed, with Grant Morrison taking a few months off, and Paul Dini also getting a breather. Again, I'm not interested in the fill-ins. Paul Dini is taking up the next big DC event as well, so I'd imagine there will be more delays.
Wonder Woman was the worst case of delays. Writer Allan Heinberg fell behind with his schedule and this monthly title has been completely off track, with 4 issues in the last 9-10 months.
Then there's any book that Jim Lee touches. This includes Wildcats and All-Star Batman and Robin. All-Star Batman and Robin #1 came out in July 2005. The last issue was issue 4! This was supposed to be a sort of answer to Ultimate Spider-Man, and it's been a total failure. That's before even discussing the strange story within. Meanwhile, Wildcats, which was supposed to be the re-launch of the Wildstorm line has had 6 months off between issues.
There are some good things being done at DC. 52 has been pretty good for more weeks than not, and Justice Society might be the best book available at all. Their next weekly book, Countdown, sounds pretty promising, although I'm a bit intimidated price wise by picking up another weekly. Justice League with Brad Meltzer has been pretty good, although it took 3 months for Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman to get up from a table. I'm a bit ticked off that there's another mini-event, "World War III" but if the story's good then it will bother me less.
So the state of DC is pretty good, but with way too many delays, and I'd prefer fewer crossovers. But the universe is more cohesive and I'm enjoying the characters a bit more.
Reading:
52, Detective Comics, Batman, Action Comics (w/Johns/Donner), Justice League of America, Justice Society of America, Ex-Machina
When it comes out:
Planetary, Wildcats, All-Star Batman and Robin, Authority v4, Heinberg's Wonder Woman
Dropped:
Superman/Batman
Started then dropped:
Superman
First, we'll start with Marvel Comics, who just wrapped up their huge Civil War event. I've grown up following Marvel, and for the most part have been very happy with things. But lately I've been falling off the Marvel bandwagon, and I don't know exactly why. The first signs were when J. Michael Straczynski did a story in Amazing Spider-Man where it turned out that Peter Parker's late girlfriend Gwen Stacy had sex with Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, because of a moment of weakness. Around that time I had also started to become disillusioned with Brian Michael Bendis's writing as well, and stopped reading titles Ultimate Spider-Man. I found Avengers Disassembled somewhat ridiculous and never got interested in New Avengers, the best selling Marvel comic. That should have been another sign that my relationship with Marvel was going downhill.
I still continued on with the books that got me into comics in the first place, the X-Men family and Wolverine, followed a few other heroes such as Daredevil and Captain America, and kept with most of the Ultimate line (Ultimates, Ultimate FF and Ultimate X-Men).
The next phase of disappointment came with the House of M and Decimation events that followed. These events were supposed to have all sorts of lasting effects and implications but I haven't really noticed it in the storytelling. The only difference seems to be that the X-Men are under "house arrest" by Sentinels, yet still manage to find their ways out of the mansion to do things.
Now there's this Civil War business. The art was great. I've always liked Mark Millar's writing, but there's just not much of a story to the main Civil War book. I didn't read the associated books such as Frontline or any additional crossover titles. There were too many gaps in the story that just didn't make sense. From reading the main title alone, nobody would know that Captain Marvel had come back to life, or why Spider-Man wears his black costume during the epilogue or why Johnny and Susan Storm needed to be arrested once they left Tony Stark's group (after all, they were registered!). I appreciate that the book has changed the way the Marvel U will operate - there will be 50 super teams, one for each state, and every super hero will need to be trained and monitored by the US Government. Fine. But I'm not interested. One reason is that I've realized I don't care about the non X-Men heroes in the Marvel Universe. I couldn't even recognize half the people involved in the fighting in Civil War. When I see the Marvel solicitations for future books, I just don't care about most of the books. I don't know why that is.
The Ultimate universe has also gone south for me. Ultimate X-Men has floundered under Robert Kirkman, with stories that I just haven't enjoyed and seem inconsequential. So I've stopped getting that book. I stopped reading Ultimate FF once Mark Millar left. The Ultimates will conclude later this year, but I don't expect to be on board for volumes 3 or 4. The Ultimate universe has lost its simplicity and excitement and become as convoluted as the Marvel U.
Meanwhile in the land of X, the X-Men title with the "best" X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, comes out on the least regular basis. The other two X-titles are pretty good, but not amazing. Wolverine has two titles, and in one he's fighting Sabretooth for about 5 issues, and in the other it turns out he has a son with claws. Doesn't he already have offspring with claws named X-23? I'm not interested.
By the way, all the mutants except for 198 of them got de-powered. Not a single of member of the X-Men lost his or her powers in that event. How can an event be significant and not have any of the X-Men lose their powers? Also, I understand the need to decrease the number of mutants, but turning them into just 198 makes them totally irrelevant. Who cares now? It does make sense that the Marvel U would then focus on general super-powered beings since they now outnumber mutants.
Coming soon, more crossovers, with "World War Hulk" and a "huge X-Men event." The X-Men event might be good, but I'll be steering clear of the Hulk stuff.
So the bottom line with Marvel Comics, here's what I'm reading and here's what I've dropped in the last year.
Still Reading:
Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins, Runaways, Ultimates vol 2, Captain America
Dropped:
Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate FF, Daredevil
On the other side of the fence, I've been really enjoying DC Comics, at least, when they come out. Infinite Crisis was a good series, although the ending seemed a bit rushed with some sloppy art. They have been moving from event to event to event, which is a bit daunting. The biggest disappointment at DC has been their horrible shipping schedule. I picked up a bunch of DC titles over the past year, but some of them hardly come out.
The Superman family, Action Comics and Superman have both been plagued by delays. Superman had some nice art by Carlos Pacheco, but I just haven't gotten into the "alternate future" storyline that they started, and now that the book has been delayed, I've decided to stop getting it. Meanwhile, I've really enjoyed Action Comics by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner, but they've only produced three issues in the last year. With both series there are fill-in stories coming out but I'm just not interested in them as they seem irrelevant to the main stories.
The Batman books have also been delayed, with Grant Morrison taking a few months off, and Paul Dini also getting a breather. Again, I'm not interested in the fill-ins. Paul Dini is taking up the next big DC event as well, so I'd imagine there will be more delays.
Wonder Woman was the worst case of delays. Writer Allan Heinberg fell behind with his schedule and this monthly title has been completely off track, with 4 issues in the last 9-10 months.
Then there's any book that Jim Lee touches. This includes Wildcats and All-Star Batman and Robin. All-Star Batman and Robin #1 came out in July 2005. The last issue was issue 4! This was supposed to be a sort of answer to Ultimate Spider-Man, and it's been a total failure. That's before even discussing the strange story within. Meanwhile, Wildcats, which was supposed to be the re-launch of the Wildstorm line has had 6 months off between issues.
There are some good things being done at DC. 52 has been pretty good for more weeks than not, and Justice Society might be the best book available at all. Their next weekly book, Countdown, sounds pretty promising, although I'm a bit intimidated price wise by picking up another weekly. Justice League with Brad Meltzer has been pretty good, although it took 3 months for Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman to get up from a table. I'm a bit ticked off that there's another mini-event, "World War III" but if the story's good then it will bother me less.
So the state of DC is pretty good, but with way too many delays, and I'd prefer fewer crossovers. But the universe is more cohesive and I'm enjoying the characters a bit more.
Reading:
52, Detective Comics, Batman, Action Comics (w/Johns/Donner), Justice League of America, Justice Society of America, Ex-Machina
When it comes out:
Planetary, Wildcats, All-Star Batman and Robin, Authority v4, Heinberg's Wonder Woman
Dropped:
Superman/Batman
Started then dropped:
Superman
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Comics update
I haven't written much about comics lately, although I've been buying comics every month. So I thought I'd wander a bit and just jot down a few notes about some books I've been buying.
Uncanny X-Men, X-Men
I'll start with the books that got me into reading comics in the first place. The X-Men titles have consistently been some of the most popular comics over the last 10+ years. Sometimes the stories are great and sometimes they're not so great. In recent years I've felt they've bordered more on the "not so great" as I haven't found the stories particularly compelling and some of the characters act in ways that don't seem to make particular sense. For the most part, I found that Grant Morrison was the best writer of the past five years, but as other readers on the Internet have pointed out, it seemed like Marvel tried so hard to "undo" everything that he had started immediately after he left. That was too bad, because I thought he did a great job of writing stories that were similar to older stories with a new twist. In that span a number of other writers have tried their hand at writing the X-books including Joe Casey, Chuck Austen, Peter Milligan and fan-favorite Chris Claremont. I thought that Casey's ideas were pretty good and offbeat but it seems the audience wasn't ready for them. Austen had no grip on how the characters should speak and would act (I particularly remember moments where She-Hulk slept with Juggernaut, her client, and where Iceman was acting like a jerk-off homophobe). Chris Claremont wasn't shy about how much he loved Rachel Summers and Psylocke, since they appeared in virtually every issue he wrote. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't too impressed by these characters. The House of M crossover that affected the Marvel U also affected these books indirectly, although it seems like no "important" people have lost their powers. Milligan was writing tongue-in-cheek, but it didn't take, and for the most part I felt his stuff didn't do anything.
That brings us to the current writers, Ed Brubaker (on Uncanny) and Mike Carey (on "adjectiveless"). Brubaker has assembled a varied cast, that includes Nightcrawler, Havok, Polaris, Warpath, and a de-powered Professor X as they pursue Vulcan, a new character from the Deadly Genesis mini-series. They are all headed into space and to confront the Shi'ar empire. This story, with art by Billy Tan, isn't too bad, but I just don't really care about the X-Men in space. It looks like this story will try to set up the X-Men / Shi'ar relationship now and I'm curious to see if Brubaker has any plans for once (and if) any of the X-Men return to Earth. Meanwhile, in the other X-Men title, illustrated by Chris Bachalao, a new group of super-powered beings come to challenge a random assortment of X-Men including Rogue, Cable, Iceman, Sabretooth and Mystique. While on the one hand I want to say, "haven't we done this before?" with "new groups" of super-powered beings that aren't mutants, the story doesn't bother me yet and Carey has provided good reasons for this particular cast to stay together. The art is inconsistent and hard to read sometimes which can hurt the story, but the eclectic style also sort of fits.
Overall, both books are on the right track, but they're not up to speed yet. Still, it's some of the best stuff in either title over the last five years.
Ultimate X-Men
I used to read nearly every title in Marvel's Ultimate line, but now that's been pared down to two. Ultimate X-Men has been quietly consistent in its quality, and it's almost never late, but I can't help but wonder about the choices to "re-do" normal Marvel U continuity with every story. Can't we have original adventures that don't re-introduce Ultimate counterparts to Marvel heroes and villains? That said, current writer Robert Kirkman has done a nice job with all the characters so far. This current storyline introducing Cable and Bishop may have some potential but I wish the book had an artist who drew more detail than Ben Oliver. In my opinion, aside from Ultimates, the rest of the Ultimate Universe is pretty crappy right now (they're crossing over with Squadron Supreme?) and I'm not too excited for Ultimate Wolverine by Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner, but this title has been steady. It hasn't improved a ton, but it hasn't gotten much worse either.
Astonishing X-Men
Joss Whedon's foray into the X-Men has been well received by fans, and for the most part, I'd agree. He has picked up on some of the threads from Grant Morrison, and the art by John Cassaday has been very nice looking (although I prefer his work on Planetary). The current story has suffered by its slow release schedule, but this group of Beast, Cyclops, Wolverine, Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde is my favorite of the X-books. I'm not sure how much longer Whedon is on this book, and I wonder what will happen with it next, but I hope it's something good.
Runaways
Moving from the book that Joss Whedon writes to the one that he will write, Runaways. Currently, it's written by Brian K Vaughan, one of my favorite writers in comics. Vaughan has been throwing twists and turns ever since Runaways started. The current volume, up to issue 22 hasn't been as surprising as the first, but it still has had its share of enjoyable moments. Vaughan seems to be building to a big conclusion for his run on the series he created that's due to end with issue 24. Joss Whedon will pick it up afterwards for 5-6 issues, and I expect it will be pretty darn good.
Ex-Machina
This is Brian K Vaughan's creation in the Wildstorm universe where a super-powered man, Mitchell Hundred, becomes the mayor of New York City. The book has a limited run (will end at about 50 issues) and is about halfway there at this point. In this fictional universe, super-heroes are non-existent. It is full of Vaughan's trademark twists and also sprinkles in some social commentary as well, often presenting both sides of an issue fairly well. It is illustrated by Tony Harris, and I would highly recommend it.
Y The Last Man
The book that started Brian K Vaughan's success is a Vertigo title called Y: The Last Man. I've been reading this story in trade paperback form and the most recent volume (#8) just came out. If you're not reading, the premise is, that all the males on earth have died except one man and his pet monkey. Before I picked this up I had expected it to be a fanboy fantasy, but instead it's been more of a sci-fi thriller and full of twists and interesting ideas. One of the best stories out there, and I believe it's being made into a movie.
Captain America, Daredevil
I'll take these books together because they are both written by Ed Brubaker and both characters I never really was a big fan of.
Before reading this current volume of Captain America, the only other time I had read this title was when Mark Waid was writing it. I really enjoyed the blend of action and espionage at the time. Ed Brubaker is doing an even better job, mixing together a spy story with Captain America action. He has also blended together the Civil War crossover quite well.
I started reading Daredevil when the Marvel Knights imprint began with Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada. While Brian Michael Bendis did an excellent job with making Daredevil's identity public and turning his life upside-down, he never really finished off his story, and towards the end was telling the story in non-linear fashion, which I found a bit confusing. Ed Brubaker has brought this back to a gritty crime story and so far has had his share of surprises. It's very good, perhaps the best Daredevil yet.
The best compliment I can pay these titles is that every month I consider books I might stop buying, and when I get to Captain America and Daredevil, while I don't have as much invested with the characters, the stories are just too compelling.
Civil War
The big event in the Marvel Universe has had Iron Man and Captain America at each other's throats over whether or not super-powered humans should be registered with the government. Delays in the artwork have had fans upset as well. So far, I don't mind the story that's being told here, although I have not picked up any of the crossover titles. It seems like there are some holes in the core series (most of which I have filled by reading articles on the Internet). While I find the artwork great, it seems to me that some of the characters are acting funny (especially Reed Richards and Spider-Man). I also still can't sympathize with the pro-registration side. I've always liked Mark Millar's writing but this title seems a little silly. I will admit, it's a ton better than the last major Marvel event, House of M.
Ultimates 2
The other book that Mark Millar writes. When is the last issue coming out? I don't expect to buy volume 3 or 4 which will be written by Jeph Loeb. The art by Bryan Hitch is beautiful and when it all ends, this will be a classic tale. But it still hasn't come out. I also was wondering where the "evil Thor" that was in issue 10 went. I think he was involved in invading Washington DC but by issue 12 wasn't around at all.
52
The major event in DC Comics has been the weekly comic, 52. Word has it that this series has been so successful that DC and Marvel both plan on launching other weekly titles. It is nice to have a weekly titles, although it's expensive. But the story keeps moving each week which is nice. Some of the stories are more interesting than others, but for the most part, I'm enjoying the ride. It's been treading water a little lately, but I expect for the second half it will pay-off. The book is written by a team of Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison and Mark Waid. The voice seems very consistent, and it's pretty hard to pick out who wrote what. I will reserve my final verdict when this book is completed.
DC's All-Star line
There are two titles that make up DC's All-Star line, All-Star Superman and All-Star Batman. All-Star Superman is written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quietly. It's a fun book when it comes out, but it's been plagued by delays. Each issue has a self-contained story that is also part of a larger story. All-Star Batman is also delayed, and written by Frank Miller, illustrated by Jim Lee. Lately Jim Lee mentioned that he is responsible for the delays. How bad are the delays? Here's the schedule for the first four issues - September '05, November '05, December '05 and March '06. That's right, one issue in 2006.
DC has to be somewhat upset about how this line has launched. Since September '05, the two titles have shipped a total of 9 issues. This was supposed to be a sort of answer to the Ultimate line - top name creators with continuity-free stories. The titles still sell well, but many fans have noted their distaste for the weird characterization of Batman by Miller. If Batman's only going to be $3 / year, I'll probably keep buying.
Planetary
Speaking of books that come out once per year, Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday has had 9 issues published since 2004. But each issue is great, and I'm never disappointed. In my opinion, it's completely worth the wait, although I don't always remember the story each time. I think this will wrap up soon (issue 27 might be the finale?) and will probably read very nicely in a trade paperback format.
Wildcats, Authority
Recently it was thought that the Wildstorm super hero line could be re-launched with big name creators. So with one of my favorite writers, Grant Morrison, paired with one of my favorite artists, Jim Lee, how could Wildcats miss? The first issue, which came out in October, actually wasn't too shabby, but the next issue isn't due until at least March '07! Not the best way to launch a line (see All-Star Batman). Meanwhile, Authority, also written by Morrison and illustrated by Gene Ha, started out with an issue that didn't even feature the title characters. This doesn't seem like the way to launch a new line. Still, I like Morrison enough to just wait and see what happens here.
Seven Soldiers
I just read the finale to the Grant Morrison mega-crossover. Anyone who says they know what this was about who is not named Grant Morrison is full of it. Some of the mini-series were pretty cool ideas but the conclusion didn't make much sense to me.
Batman, Detective Comics
Grant Morrison, who has written a number of books mentioned above, is also writing Batman. I've collected comics for a long time, and surprisingly I've never bought Batman or Superman books on a regular, monthly basis. Also, I'm surprised how many mainstream books Grant Morrison is writing these days (All-Star Superman, Batman, Authority, Wildcats, 52). Anyway, the first arc deals with a possible biologic "son" for Batman. For the most part, it seems to read like a pretty standard super-hero story, with a few occasional scenes that have the bizarre flair Grant Morrison is known for. It's not bad, but nothing special at this point.
Paul Dini has been writing standalone, one-month stories for Detective Comics. So far they've been nice, but they don't really seem to be building towards anything. Hopefully, they'll come together as something more cohesive soon.
Action Comics, Superman
A lot of big names have been writing Superman and Batman lately, but I don't feel like any of them have really used the "One Year Later" concept to really re-establish the characters. This title by Richard Donner, Geoff Johns and Adam Kubert may be the one to do it. Donner and Johns seem to be taking an approach to this title similar to the movies, which may upset continuity buffs a bit, but I think it will allow for some fresh ideas. Upcoming will be a 3D issue, which sounds intriguing. Already there have been some plot points that seem to be related to a few of the Superman movies.
Superman is by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco, a great creative team. While it's been beautifully illustrated, I don't quite know what to make of the story yet. It seems to be going towards an alternate future, which is somewhat interesting, but also feels very played-out.
Wonder Woman
I've picked up the first three issues of this series written by Allan Heinberg (Gray's Anatomy) and beautifully illustrated by Terry Dodson. The series comes out irregularly, which is sort of annoying, but has been pretty interesting so far. I've never really been a fan of Wonder Woman, but Heinberg's Young Avengers for Marvel got so much acclaim that I figured it was worth a try.
Justice League of America
Brad Meltzer has been writing the re-launch of Justice League of America. He has said that he was a big fan of the series when he was growing up, and so far it shows. Meltzer seems to be setting up a bunch of clues for a mystery, and I enjoyed his set-up in Identity Crisis. The best issue so far was Justice League #0, which showed Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman interacting in different points in time, past, present and future. The low point so far, three issues in and Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman are still sitting at table!
Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins
The flagship Wolverine title was just involved with the Civil War crossover, and it was written by Marc Guggenheim, who has done a bunch of television writing. The Civil War crossover wasn't bad. I liked how it integrated into the overall Civil War story, even though there were some elements that seemed absurd even for a Wolverine comic. Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi are coming on soon to deal with the relationship between Sabretooth and Wolverine. I find Jeph Loeb to be very hit-or-miss, with the hits being great and the misses being pretty average. Bianchi's art (above), however, is pretty darn good. Here's hoping they tell a nice story.
Wolverine: Origins is written by Daniel Way and illustrated by Steve Dillon. This book came out of the House of M, where Wolverine suddenly remembered everything about his past. I'm still not really enjoying this book. I can't exactly say what's missing but it just seems like there's a lot of characterization that's missing, particularly since Wolverine has been interacting with a lot of different super powered guest stars. I still wonder if Wolverine really needs to have two different titles, and sincerely wish that he were not a part of the Avengers.
The Future
I usually peruse the solicitations for future months, and I have to say that I'm not that impressed with the new offerings. While I'm enjoying 52, I don't anticipate picking up a weekly series from either DC or Marvel. These big events that are supposed to change everything are getting on my nerves a bit, especially in the case of Marvel, where I don't really like the characterization (see: House of M and Civil War). I think Marvel is pretty reliant on just about three writers - J. Michael Straczynski, Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar. While I've enjoyed stories by all three, I've been pretty turned off by Bendis and Straczynski lately. That's a personal taste of course, but it doesn't look like things will change at Marvel any time soon. As for DC, I'm enjoying their books quite a bit, but the One Year Later gimmick hasn't impacted the titles as much as I had expected. Maybe it will just take more time to figure out. Comics and my tastes tend to be cyclic anyways. Just a few years ago, I was pleased as punch with the things that were going on at Marvel and DC, but now I'm not enjoying them as much. Here's hoping the next upswing will be soon.
Uncanny X-Men, X-Men
I'll start with the books that got me into reading comics in the first place. The X-Men titles have consistently been some of the most popular comics over the last 10+ years. Sometimes the stories are great and sometimes they're not so great. In recent years I've felt they've bordered more on the "not so great" as I haven't found the stories particularly compelling and some of the characters act in ways that don't seem to make particular sense. For the most part, I found that Grant Morrison was the best writer of the past five years, but as other readers on the Internet have pointed out, it seemed like Marvel tried so hard to "undo" everything that he had started immediately after he left. That was too bad, because I thought he did a great job of writing stories that were similar to older stories with a new twist. In that span a number of other writers have tried their hand at writing the X-books including Joe Casey, Chuck Austen, Peter Milligan and fan-favorite Chris Claremont. I thought that Casey's ideas were pretty good and offbeat but it seems the audience wasn't ready for them. Austen had no grip on how the characters should speak and would act (I particularly remember moments where She-Hulk slept with Juggernaut, her client, and where Iceman was acting like a jerk-off homophobe). Chris Claremont wasn't shy about how much he loved Rachel Summers and Psylocke, since they appeared in virtually every issue he wrote. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't too impressed by these characters. The House of M crossover that affected the Marvel U also affected these books indirectly, although it seems like no "important" people have lost their powers. Milligan was writing tongue-in-cheek, but it didn't take, and for the most part I felt his stuff didn't do anything.
That brings us to the current writers, Ed Brubaker (on Uncanny) and Mike Carey (on "adjectiveless"). Brubaker has assembled a varied cast, that includes Nightcrawler, Havok, Polaris, Warpath, and a de-powered Professor X as they pursue Vulcan, a new character from the Deadly Genesis mini-series. They are all headed into space and to confront the Shi'ar empire. This story, with art by Billy Tan, isn't too bad, but I just don't really care about the X-Men in space. It looks like this story will try to set up the X-Men / Shi'ar relationship now and I'm curious to see if Brubaker has any plans for once (and if) any of the X-Men return to Earth. Meanwhile, in the other X-Men title, illustrated by Chris Bachalao, a new group of super-powered beings come to challenge a random assortment of X-Men including Rogue, Cable, Iceman, Sabretooth and Mystique. While on the one hand I want to say, "haven't we done this before?" with "new groups" of super-powered beings that aren't mutants, the story doesn't bother me yet and Carey has provided good reasons for this particular cast to stay together. The art is inconsistent and hard to read sometimes which can hurt the story, but the eclectic style also sort of fits.
Overall, both books are on the right track, but they're not up to speed yet. Still, it's some of the best stuff in either title over the last five years.
Ultimate X-Men
I used to read nearly every title in Marvel's Ultimate line, but now that's been pared down to two. Ultimate X-Men has been quietly consistent in its quality, and it's almost never late, but I can't help but wonder about the choices to "re-do" normal Marvel U continuity with every story. Can't we have original adventures that don't re-introduce Ultimate counterparts to Marvel heroes and villains? That said, current writer Robert Kirkman has done a nice job with all the characters so far. This current storyline introducing Cable and Bishop may have some potential but I wish the book had an artist who drew more detail than Ben Oliver. In my opinion, aside from Ultimates, the rest of the Ultimate Universe is pretty crappy right now (they're crossing over with Squadron Supreme?) and I'm not too excited for Ultimate Wolverine by Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner, but this title has been steady. It hasn't improved a ton, but it hasn't gotten much worse either.
Astonishing X-Men
Joss Whedon's foray into the X-Men has been well received by fans, and for the most part, I'd agree. He has picked up on some of the threads from Grant Morrison, and the art by John Cassaday has been very nice looking (although I prefer his work on Planetary). The current story has suffered by its slow release schedule, but this group of Beast, Cyclops, Wolverine, Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde is my favorite of the X-books. I'm not sure how much longer Whedon is on this book, and I wonder what will happen with it next, but I hope it's something good.
Runaways
Moving from the book that Joss Whedon writes to the one that he will write, Runaways. Currently, it's written by Brian K Vaughan, one of my favorite writers in comics. Vaughan has been throwing twists and turns ever since Runaways started. The current volume, up to issue 22 hasn't been as surprising as the first, but it still has had its share of enjoyable moments. Vaughan seems to be building to a big conclusion for his run on the series he created that's due to end with issue 24. Joss Whedon will pick it up afterwards for 5-6 issues, and I expect it will be pretty darn good.
Ex-Machina
This is Brian K Vaughan's creation in the Wildstorm universe where a super-powered man, Mitchell Hundred, becomes the mayor of New York City. The book has a limited run (will end at about 50 issues) and is about halfway there at this point. In this fictional universe, super-heroes are non-existent. It is full of Vaughan's trademark twists and also sprinkles in some social commentary as well, often presenting both sides of an issue fairly well. It is illustrated by Tony Harris, and I would highly recommend it.
Y The Last Man
The book that started Brian K Vaughan's success is a Vertigo title called Y: The Last Man. I've been reading this story in trade paperback form and the most recent volume (#8) just came out. If you're not reading, the premise is, that all the males on earth have died except one man and his pet monkey. Before I picked this up I had expected it to be a fanboy fantasy, but instead it's been more of a sci-fi thriller and full of twists and interesting ideas. One of the best stories out there, and I believe it's being made into a movie.
Captain America, Daredevil
I'll take these books together because they are both written by Ed Brubaker and both characters I never really was a big fan of.
Before reading this current volume of Captain America, the only other time I had read this title was when Mark Waid was writing it. I really enjoyed the blend of action and espionage at the time. Ed Brubaker is doing an even better job, mixing together a spy story with Captain America action. He has also blended together the Civil War crossover quite well.
I started reading Daredevil when the Marvel Knights imprint began with Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada. While Brian Michael Bendis did an excellent job with making Daredevil's identity public and turning his life upside-down, he never really finished off his story, and towards the end was telling the story in non-linear fashion, which I found a bit confusing. Ed Brubaker has brought this back to a gritty crime story and so far has had his share of surprises. It's very good, perhaps the best Daredevil yet.
The best compliment I can pay these titles is that every month I consider books I might stop buying, and when I get to Captain America and Daredevil, while I don't have as much invested with the characters, the stories are just too compelling.
Civil War
The big event in the Marvel Universe has had Iron Man and Captain America at each other's throats over whether or not super-powered humans should be registered with the government. Delays in the artwork have had fans upset as well. So far, I don't mind the story that's being told here, although I have not picked up any of the crossover titles. It seems like there are some holes in the core series (most of which I have filled by reading articles on the Internet). While I find the artwork great, it seems to me that some of the characters are acting funny (especially Reed Richards and Spider-Man). I also still can't sympathize with the pro-registration side. I've always liked Mark Millar's writing but this title seems a little silly. I will admit, it's a ton better than the last major Marvel event, House of M.
Ultimates 2
The other book that Mark Millar writes. When is the last issue coming out? I don't expect to buy volume 3 or 4 which will be written by Jeph Loeb. The art by Bryan Hitch is beautiful and when it all ends, this will be a classic tale. But it still hasn't come out. I also was wondering where the "evil Thor" that was in issue 10 went. I think he was involved in invading Washington DC but by issue 12 wasn't around at all.
52
The major event in DC Comics has been the weekly comic, 52. Word has it that this series has been so successful that DC and Marvel both plan on launching other weekly titles. It is nice to have a weekly titles, although it's expensive. But the story keeps moving each week which is nice. Some of the stories are more interesting than others, but for the most part, I'm enjoying the ride. It's been treading water a little lately, but I expect for the second half it will pay-off. The book is written by a team of Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison and Mark Waid. The voice seems very consistent, and it's pretty hard to pick out who wrote what. I will reserve my final verdict when this book is completed.
DC's All-Star line
There are two titles that make up DC's All-Star line, All-Star Superman and All-Star Batman. All-Star Superman is written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quietly. It's a fun book when it comes out, but it's been plagued by delays. Each issue has a self-contained story that is also part of a larger story. All-Star Batman is also delayed, and written by Frank Miller, illustrated by Jim Lee. Lately Jim Lee mentioned that he is responsible for the delays. How bad are the delays? Here's the schedule for the first four issues - September '05, November '05, December '05 and March '06. That's right, one issue in 2006.
DC has to be somewhat upset about how this line has launched. Since September '05, the two titles have shipped a total of 9 issues. This was supposed to be a sort of answer to the Ultimate line - top name creators with continuity-free stories. The titles still sell well, but many fans have noted their distaste for the weird characterization of Batman by Miller. If Batman's only going to be $3 / year, I'll probably keep buying.
Planetary
Speaking of books that come out once per year, Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday has had 9 issues published since 2004. But each issue is great, and I'm never disappointed. In my opinion, it's completely worth the wait, although I don't always remember the story each time. I think this will wrap up soon (issue 27 might be the finale?) and will probably read very nicely in a trade paperback format.
Wildcats, Authority
Recently it was thought that the Wildstorm super hero line could be re-launched with big name creators. So with one of my favorite writers, Grant Morrison, paired with one of my favorite artists, Jim Lee, how could Wildcats miss? The first issue, which came out in October, actually wasn't too shabby, but the next issue isn't due until at least March '07! Not the best way to launch a line (see All-Star Batman). Meanwhile, Authority, also written by Morrison and illustrated by Gene Ha, started out with an issue that didn't even feature the title characters. This doesn't seem like the way to launch a new line. Still, I like Morrison enough to just wait and see what happens here.
Seven Soldiers
I just read the finale to the Grant Morrison mega-crossover. Anyone who says they know what this was about who is not named Grant Morrison is full of it. Some of the mini-series were pretty cool ideas but the conclusion didn't make much sense to me.
Batman, Detective Comics
Grant Morrison, who has written a number of books mentioned above, is also writing Batman. I've collected comics for a long time, and surprisingly I've never bought Batman or Superman books on a regular, monthly basis. Also, I'm surprised how many mainstream books Grant Morrison is writing these days (All-Star Superman, Batman, Authority, Wildcats, 52). Anyway, the first arc deals with a possible biologic "son" for Batman. For the most part, it seems to read like a pretty standard super-hero story, with a few occasional scenes that have the bizarre flair Grant Morrison is known for. It's not bad, but nothing special at this point.
Paul Dini has been writing standalone, one-month stories for Detective Comics. So far they've been nice, but they don't really seem to be building towards anything. Hopefully, they'll come together as something more cohesive soon.
Action Comics, Superman
A lot of big names have been writing Superman and Batman lately, but I don't feel like any of them have really used the "One Year Later" concept to really re-establish the characters. This title by Richard Donner, Geoff Johns and Adam Kubert may be the one to do it. Donner and Johns seem to be taking an approach to this title similar to the movies, which may upset continuity buffs a bit, but I think it will allow for some fresh ideas. Upcoming will be a 3D issue, which sounds intriguing. Already there have been some plot points that seem to be related to a few of the Superman movies.
Superman is by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco, a great creative team. While it's been beautifully illustrated, I don't quite know what to make of the story yet. It seems to be going towards an alternate future, which is somewhat interesting, but also feels very played-out.
Wonder Woman
I've picked up the first three issues of this series written by Allan Heinberg (Gray's Anatomy) and beautifully illustrated by Terry Dodson. The series comes out irregularly, which is sort of annoying, but has been pretty interesting so far. I've never really been a fan of Wonder Woman, but Heinberg's Young Avengers for Marvel got so much acclaim that I figured it was worth a try.
Justice League of America
Brad Meltzer has been writing the re-launch of Justice League of America. He has said that he was a big fan of the series when he was growing up, and so far it shows. Meltzer seems to be setting up a bunch of clues for a mystery, and I enjoyed his set-up in Identity Crisis. The best issue so far was Justice League #0, which showed Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman interacting in different points in time, past, present and future. The low point so far, three issues in and Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman are still sitting at table!
Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins
The flagship Wolverine title was just involved with the Civil War crossover, and it was written by Marc Guggenheim, who has done a bunch of television writing. The Civil War crossover wasn't bad. I liked how it integrated into the overall Civil War story, even though there were some elements that seemed absurd even for a Wolverine comic. Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi are coming on soon to deal with the relationship between Sabretooth and Wolverine. I find Jeph Loeb to be very hit-or-miss, with the hits being great and the misses being pretty average. Bianchi's art (above), however, is pretty darn good. Here's hoping they tell a nice story.
Wolverine: Origins is written by Daniel Way and illustrated by Steve Dillon. This book came out of the House of M, where Wolverine suddenly remembered everything about his past. I'm still not really enjoying this book. I can't exactly say what's missing but it just seems like there's a lot of characterization that's missing, particularly since Wolverine has been interacting with a lot of different super powered guest stars. I still wonder if Wolverine really needs to have two different titles, and sincerely wish that he were not a part of the Avengers.
The Future
I usually peruse the solicitations for future months, and I have to say that I'm not that impressed with the new offerings. While I'm enjoying 52, I don't anticipate picking up a weekly series from either DC or Marvel. These big events that are supposed to change everything are getting on my nerves a bit, especially in the case of Marvel, where I don't really like the characterization (see: House of M and Civil War). I think Marvel is pretty reliant on just about three writers - J. Michael Straczynski, Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar. While I've enjoyed stories by all three, I've been pretty turned off by Bendis and Straczynski lately. That's a personal taste of course, but it doesn't look like things will change at Marvel any time soon. As for DC, I'm enjoying their books quite a bit, but the One Year Later gimmick hasn't impacted the titles as much as I had expected. Maybe it will just take more time to figure out. Comics and my tastes tend to be cyclic anyways. Just a few years ago, I was pleased as punch with the things that were going on at Marvel and DC, but now I'm not enjoying them as much. Here's hoping the next upswing will be soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
