By Isaac Mills
Series of the Year: The Amazing Spider-Man
Though the disconnect between Spider-Man and the rest of the Marvel universe caused by “One More Day” has hurt my interest in Marvel Comics, Spider-Man hasn’t been this relevant in years. One more year of the thrice-a-month release schedule, and in terms of pure volume, we will have caught up to the Straczynski output that we had to put up with since the year 2000.
“But Isaac, those stories weren’t bad!”
Really? Do you know how often Dr. Strange popped up in Amazing during those years? Yeah, that’s right.
I remember the weight that was lifted with just the first issue of “Brand New Day”, when I looked up and realized I had spent years not buying real Spider-Man comics. The return of web-shooters made me smile and enjoy the world even as I waited in the cold for a bus to school.
Writer of the Year: Grant Morrison
All Star Superman.
Oh, yeah, I guess I could write more here.
Morrison continues his love letter to the comics medium in Batman, incorporating long-discarded elements of Batman’s past to give us what could almost be described as the real All Star Batman and Robin in regular continuity — when you stop and think about this, can you believe that the man got away with it?
There’s no doubt that there were frustrating times during “Batman RIP” — when you just wanted to know how it was all going to work out, and it felt like forever between issues — but the payoff was worth it.
Plus, I respect his work on Final Crisis like nobody’s business. It requires more effort to tell an incredibly high-concept story, especially in a cinematic style (which often doesn’t fit in a pure comic format, but if this were made into a movie, peoples’ reactions would be very different) — and there have been too many moments in all of his work that just blew me away. I freaked out for like two minutes when the one guy solves the Rubik’s cube. Read it and you’ll understand me, I hope.
Artist of the Year: John Romita Jr.
As much as I harp on the Straczynski years of Spider-Man, during that time and before, there’s no doubt that John Romita Jr. was the main Spider-Man artist. That’s so true, in fact, that I began to take him for granted.
He went and did other things, like Wolverine: Enemy of the State, and it was like getting a postcard from an old friend who’s gone to Cuba or something. Well, I assume that’s what it feels like; I’ve never gotten a postcard under those circumstances.
Last year, he worked on World War Hulk, which highly impressed everyone — before bringing his A-game to triumphantly return to Spider-Man for the “New Ways to Die” story, when I stepped in a rose-coloured time machine to witness the importance that this artist has had on Spider-Man for the past decade and beyond into the future.
Click for larger image.
Cover of the Year: The Barry Allen variant to Final Crisis #2
You know, there’s a part of me that could have gone nuts and answered every category with some iteration of “Barry Allen”. Hero of the year? Barry Allen. Most pleasant surprise? Barry Allen. Villain of the year? Barry, for not showing up sooner. I could have even said that Barry Allen was the best writer and artist of the year, but for those categories I probably would have been lying for the sake of keeping up the charade. The reason for those lies is that I’m so excited about Barry Allen’s return with Geoff Johns at the helm, and this cover image was the true herald of the greatness of Barry’s return. His beautifully rendered expression of a haunting, hopeful, focus is a perfect example of a hero without hubris, just doing his best to do right.
Because just about every other hero around is also trying to impress a girl or something, what with their squinty eyes and square jaws.
Villain of the Year: Norman Osborn (Special Mention to Darksied)
It’s Norman Osborn! The guy has just been placed in charge of the world’s peacekeepers, and he’s so crazy. So crazy. My brother asked me if getting this kind of public office was really enough to be villain of the year; he asked me if, supposing this was the year Lex Luthor was President of the U.S., would Luthor be villain of the year? And I would emphatically say, yes!
Also, I’m not ashamed to admit that I still hold Ben Reilly’s death against Osborn. Well, I would, except Ben is totally alive the second I get a Marvel comic to write. Once again, I’m giving fair warning to everyone with regards to my intentions towards Marvel comics. Are these honourable intentions? Well, I’d say that’s also a big yes.
Hero of the year: Batman
Was there ever any doubt? DC has given so much love to Batman this year, with Detective Comics‘ Paul Dini’s extremely satisfying detective stories (makes sense), Grant Morrison getting Batman to punch out a helicopter, and The Dark Knight in theatres, of course.
Why would Batman take the blame for Two Face’s murder when you have a perfectly psychotic Joker hanging around to take the fall? It just wouldn’t occur to Batman to blame a man of something he was innocent of, even if he deserves it. That kind of action doesn’t conform to his sense of justice. But someone had to take the blame for the sake of Gotham City, and Batman is ever willing to sacrifice himself for the cause. Hero of the year? Try “Awesomest Hero of the Year”.
Saddest Cancellation: The Amazing Spider-Girl
As the little series that could, the fact that it’s been cancelled is still hard to accept. We’ve got an issue or two left to get our affairs in order, but then Spider-Girl will be relegated to the Spider-Man Family book. This series followed what I consider to be the true future of the Marvel Universe. You know, the future that had Peter Parker and Mary Jane married and raising baby May to young adulthood, with the clone Kaine hanging around, and Darkdevil being the son of Ben Reilly and Elizabeth Tyne.
You don’t think I’ve mentioned Ben Reilly too often in this article, do you? Yeah, I agree, you can never have too much Ben Reilly.
Most Pleasant Surprise: The Iron Man Movie
I had high hopes for this movie and I wasn’t disappointed. Yes, no one is denying that you have to mix things up for the big screen, you just can’t fit thirty years of continuity into a two hour movie — but if you’re not true to the source material and Spirit (*cough cough*) of the characters, then by all rights you’re going to fail. But did anyone think they were going to love Iron Man this much? It was a perfectly timed facelift for the fascistic looking star of Civil War to get the heroic treatment and gain a lot of fans.
Biggest Disappointment: Chuck Dixon not writing Robin and Batman and the Outsiders
I’ve disliked the Robin comic for so long; I didn’t care for Willingham’s run (as much as I love Fables), and Adam Beechen went all Adam Beechen on it, so that’s extremely unfortunate. But then Chuck Dixon arrived, and proper characterization happened, a long-forgotten supporting cast returned, and it was just sweetness all around.
Not only that, but Chuck Dixon also started Batman and the Outsiders, and had Catwoman, Green Arrow, and later Geoforce on the team! Not only that, but Batgirl was there and getting fixed after Beechen messed her up in Robin. Oh, the good times!
But then something happened. Catwoman was gone from Outsiders, which would have been bad enough, but then BAM — Chuck Dixon was just gone. Was he fired, did he quit? Let me know if you figure it out. All of a sudden I’m collecting two extremely sub-par comics over here that I had been really enjoying for all too short a time.
Why is this still on my pull list: Ultimate Spider-Man
Nothing happens in this comic! Okay, cool stuff happens eventually, but you have to buy three issues or more of filler before we get to the good stuff. I love spending, what — nine dollars on filler? Yeah, great.
I’ve got to say though: Stuart Immonen’s art is gorgeous. He came on at just the right time to sucker me into continually buying this thing. Yes, the ultimate clone saga was a good story, but did Peter Parker ever put on the Spidey jammies even once in that whole thing? Do you know how often I have to ask that question about Ultimate Spider-Man comics? Just give me Spider-Man, I really don’t ask for much.
As I understand it, Dixon quit because of creative differences. DC wanted him to do a bunch of things with Robin and Outsiders that he didn’t like, so he left. Namely, no Batman in Batman & The Outsiders, and he wasn’t allowed to use Catwoman or Martian Manhunter (because DC had other plans for both characters). So Dixon created this team and then DC told him he couldn’t use half his characters. Plus they were eventually going to cancel Robin (and Nightwing and Birds of Prey) because of the whole Batman RIP thing. I honestly can’t blame the guy.
Also, Beechen didn’t “mess up Batgirl” in Robin. It wasn’t his idea to make her go bad, that was the DC editorial team again. He was kind of forced to have her as a bad guy. Then all the fans hated it, so DC brought her back to the good side by going, “Oh, Deathstroke had brainwashed her, or something, she’s good again. Please stop yelling at us.”
And Grant Morrison is fucking terrible. I agree that All Star Superman was great, but Batman RIP is retarded and Final Crisis is incomprehensible. The payoff for Batman was in no way worth anything, because there really IS no payoff. Batman RIP was touted as the end of Batman, the last Batman story, the end of Bruce Wayne as Batman, blah blah blah, but it’s not any of those things because Bruce Wayne’s disappearance has NOTHING TO DO WITH BATMAN RIP. It happens in Final Crisis.
After the helicopter crash where Batman is “missing” in the last issue of RIP, he shows up at the batcave a few hours later, chit chats with Alfred, then goes to answer the JLA distress call that kicks off Final Crisis. And THEN he disappears.
Batman RIP was just another Batman story where he triumphs in the end, except it was almost impossible to follow and featured a number of elements from Batman stories that no one except Morrison remembers or cares about because they happened 50 years ago.
Did you know the Batman of Zur-en-Arrh was a one shot story in 1958 about Batman getting transported to another world (Zur-en-Arrh) to help the Batman of that world fight villains? And when Batman shows up there he has “Superman powers” because of Planet X’s lower gravity, which is why the story is called “Batman: the Superman of Planet X.” The Batman of that world uses a device called the ‘batradia’ and dresses in that horrible purple and yellow and red costume we saw in RIP. Morrison actually takes some dialogue directly from that issue. “The Bat-radia is turned on…the electronic molecules are streaming forth!”
http://geniusboyfiremelon.blogspot.com/2008/07/batman-678-and-batman-113-zur-en-arrh.html
That’s great and all, and it’s always nice to see a writer bring back elements of a comic book’s illustrious past, but when everyone who was reading comics at that time is now dead, the effect is pointless and meaningless, and the story just ends up confusing for everyone involved. And when a story is complete and readers are still left with dozens UPON DOZENS of questions, that’s bad, bad storytelling.
I liked a lot of the ideas Morrison had in Batman RIP…the question of his sanity, the idea of psychological attack by Doctor Hurt due to mental conditioning during that psychological experiment years ago (back when Dick Grayson was in short pants), the idea that Batman has a backup personality, that’s all really cool. The execution however, was just ridiculously confusing.
Anyhoo.
I HAVE STRONG OPINIONS
Strong opinions are a fine thing to have.
I’ve still got to hold things against Beechen- editorial or not, the story for Batgirl turning bad was just poorly written. In fact with the end of her series they could have EASILY turned her into a legitimate villain, but they blew it. Now the world is denied both a great hero and the possiblity of a great villain. We’re stuck with this amorphous character that we all kind of resent for being handled poorly. Like her presence just reminds us of the mismanagement.
Uh, I guess you’re agreeing with me about how it’s a shame that Dixon has left? Uh, good.
Thanks for the link to that one guys blog explaining Zur-en-Arrh, it certainly adds additional layers to the RIP story that I hadn’t been aware of, though I always suspected. Gotta say, all you’ve done is make me like RIP even more. It’s a story that holds up on its own, but also converses with it’s publication history that rewards readers for being longtime fans and comic savants. It elevates the story beyond “just a comic” to a literary event to be taken seriously, and by incorporating those past stories also calls our attention to the past bat-comics and making us consider THOSE as serious literature. And that’s the crazy Zebra-Batman type stuff!!
I don’t care if it was touted as the real end of Batman, first because I never believed that to be true, and second, no matter what the hype, I’ve tried to take the story as it comes, and I’ve loved the result.
All that said, there have been frustrating parts that were unclear, and if you don’t want to work through it, I don’t really blame you, it can be a lot of work. And Final Crisis is often unclear for an entirely different reason (systemic presentation irregularities when compared to the accepted comics medium language) but as I say, it’s trying something really different, and I respect the effort. Either I’ll learn to accept this new method as a viable comic story telling strategy, or Morrison and others will learn it doesn’t really work- but regardless, learning is fun!
Finally, I must reiterate two points I have previously made:
-Barry Allen cures anit-life with his awesomeness
-The Spirit of Metron (or someone) solves a Rubik’s cube and like explodes guys, blowing my mind in the process.
You really like that rubik’s cube thing, huh? I honestly did not like it. Not that it wasn’t cool, but it just came out of nowhere. There was no context for it, you know? No buildup. It was, “No one has ever solved a rubik’s cube in less than 18 moves — oh wait, that guy just did it. KABOOM!” Great. What does that mean and why should I care? It was cool, but meaningless.
And yes, I’m agreeing with you on the Dixon thing (and the Batgirl thing; she was really hurt as a character by that whole fiasco). He was doing a good job. It’s one of the several reasons I’m annoyed with the DC editorial team right now, alongside the false advertising behind RIP and the cancellations of some good titles. And you know, as much as I like Dick Grayson, I don’t really want to see him or anyone else as Batman. I want to see Bruce Wayne as Batman. He’s iconic. You don’t get Captain Marvel to put on a Superman costume and call him the new Superman. I can’t wait for this foolishness to be over and for Bruce Wayne to return.
And it’s cool when writers bring in elements of past comics into their current runs. I love that. But Jesus, not from the era of comics where there were things like Beppo the Super Monkey and Zebra Batman and any number of crazy things that suggest that comic writers of the time were soaked to the gills in LSD. It’s ridiculous to bring that into continuity because:
1) no one remembers it or will know what you’re talking about
2) no one in their right mind will accept that any of that actually happened in continuity.
I mean, is Morrison implying that Batman and Robin actually got turned into two dimensional people by a rainbow monster? That the stories with Bat-Mite from the 50’s actually happened? it seems that he is. And if THOSE stories are part of the Bat-canon, what about other silly or just plain wrong stories from those days? Like how he and Robin used to sleep in the same room? Or when he and Robin turned into bug like aliens with telekinetic powers? Or when Batman was turned into a genie in a lamp? Or how both Batman and Robin used to kill people?
I guess I hate RIP because it was a cheap marketing ploy, it doesn’t make any sense, it poses a ton of questions and doesn’t offer many explanations or answers. It’s completely unclear. Did you know that a lot of people on the internet think Dr Hurt was the Devil? Like, Satan. Beelzebub. The Prince of Darkness. And I can’t really say they’re wrong, because Morrison is so vague and unhelpful and unhinged that it’s quite possible he would write a story about Batman outsmarting the Devil (because that’s what Batman is all about, fighting the enemies of God. Or whatever).
Any time I have to go to the internet to figure out what the fuck I just read (and STILL don’t get any answers), that’s terrible storytelling.
1) The rubiks cube coming out of nowhere is part of what’s so awesome about it! But it actually served a purpose in how we had to think of something beyond what we expect to save the day, as a tangible example of having to think beyond our expectations.
2) Remember the part of RIP where Bat-mite explains that the fifth dimension is imagination? That’s where all those 50’s crazy stories exist… and now you’ve got me sounding like Julia Roberts from Hook. Are you happy now?
Though I do love Hook.