By Isaac Mills
Series of the Year — The Amazing Spider-Man
It’s another year of excellence for the Amazing Spider-Man. The story keeps moving forward with those little changes that — for good or bad — feel earth shattering. It’s a skill the big two comic companies have worked their best to refine over the years, and I keep coming back for more. Some great artists and stories have flown by, and with the cyclic nature of the Spider-Man creative team we get a greater knowledge of how we’ll like what’s coming up ahead without becoming too in love with a single team always working on a title that we hate whenever they change it up. All that said, my biggest disappointment this year would be…
Biggest Disappointment — Amazing Spider-Man
It should be no wonder that with as insane a release schedule as Spider-Man has that mistakes will happen, but every once in a while I’d take a delay then let certain in between issues come out. First there was the Fantastic Four/Spider-Man adventure where they return to Earth after three months and the dialogue was mixed up — an alternate panel with the proper dialogue was later shown. Isn’t that crazy? Stories should make sense. This was immediately followed by “Spider-Man: 24/7” which has Joe Quesada draw up irrelevant pinup-style covers (very much the style for the earliest years of the decade, and a style I can’t stand) for a story two thirds of which was drawn blandly, as is his wont, by Mike McKone, and a story that just totally mischaracterized Peter Parker’s reaction to missing out on three months of his friends lives… so yeah, I really didn’t care for it. Combine that with a relatively underwhelming “American Son” story and the return of the Black Cat (also drawn by McKone, yes, there is a pattern here). I’ll stop now.
New Series of the Year — Irredeemable
On the surface Irredeemable is a blast as a deconstruction of the kind of sheer power we as readers take for granted as a staple of a Superman’s abilities, but beyond that it becomes a love letter to all the “real” Superman is and has accomplished as a powerful symbol of good and steadfastness. It combines the grit of the Authority without inhabiting a world that insists no one is clean. Just because the irredeemable title character, the Plutonian, couldn’t handle the pressure of being a superman, that doesn’t mean no one can do it. But it does help us appreciate how hard a thing that plateau is to grasp for.
Writer of the Year — Geoff Johns
The guy just has numbers on his side, with Blackest Night, Green Lantern, Flash: Rebirth, Legion of Three Worlds, Adventure Comics and all of his Superman work (which I really need to find trades of) Johns is the architect behind the biggest and most successful comics over at DC. Yes, I’m not pleased he relies so often on those “cool” moments to hook us in, it’s cheap, but it works.
Artist of the Year — Francis Manapul
I am among the minority of people who enjoyed the Mark Waid iteration of the Legion of Superheroes book, I was glad to get a Legion I could be there at the beginning and follow along. Near the end of the books run Francis Manapul shows up as the artist, I’d never seen his stuff before, but it was good. Really good. Then Legion is cancelled, I’ve got an autographed issue of Superman/Batman done by Manapul, and he’s drawing Adventure Comics, which leads to my Splash page of the year…
Splash Page of the Year — Adventure Comics #1
Manapul creates a fusion of modern youth with a Norman Rockwellian nostalgia that seems so perfect when it should be disconcerting. If you’re not reading Adventure Comics then you may not be aware of this — our gaze has been kept enraptured not by the bustling Metropolis, but by a sleepy Smallville. It’s new, refreshing, and relaxed without being slow.
Villain of the Year — Norman Osborn
No questions here, this crazy guy shows up, manipulates the media and raises to the top without firing a single shot (okay, he fired one). This is a super villain from the real world; a ruthless, intelligent hypocrite of a politician. I originally thought that Marvel mistimed their “Dark Reign” storyline, that they should have brought this on while the Bush’s, the Cheney’s, the Rove’s were still at the top, and while that is still true, to have it now is good in that it reminds us these kind of guys are still out there, that we need to be aware of their influence or attempted influence, even when we think it isn’t going on. Ah, it’s a crazy world.
Hero of the Year — Batman and Robin
You know what I wasn’t reading near the end of its series? Nightwing. Dick Grayson just didn’t have a firm foundation to have his adventures on. You’d think he did, but then three issues down a new creative team would show up, throw out everything that had just got finished being established, and start again. Now that he’s taken over as Batman, been given a sort of stability and real responsibility, he’s taken off. I know it was goofy to have a circus themed bad guy in the first arc of Batman and Robin, but it really illustrated Dick Grayson’s history, and why he was the guy for that story. Not only that, but you know he’s basically raising a kid now? Yeah, Damien Wayne, the new Robin. The psycho kid everyone hated last year has already matured a lot, and into one of my favourite aspects of the current Bat-books. As much as the kid plays it tough, he’s been thrown into the deep end here, and you have to root for him. Plus, he maintains the Robin tradition of being hilarious- but in his own off beat “it should be Robin and Batman” way.
Special mention goes to Barry Allen/Flash for his role in Blackest Night.
Saddest Cancellation — JSA
What’s that? You say it hasn’t been cancelled? It’s just really bad?
Most Pleasant Surprise — Andrea Di Vito returns to Nova
I thought for sure he was gone for bigger and better things, and while I’m sure that will be the way of things in the future, I’m glad to have him onboard Nova for a little while longer.
Some good choices here. Johns is always a contender for best writer, but I thought he stumbled a few times this year. He’s gotten too carried away with his big heroic moments and forgot the part of the story where it’s supposed to make sense. I hate Flash: Rebirth, it’s just lame. Superman has been incredible though, Green Lantern has been great…he’s an awesome writer.
Yeah, I was tempted to go with Johns, too, but I already honoured him the last two years. Instead, I decided to pick someone else this year, who I felt had an amazing year.
Good call on Irredeemable. I just finished the second volume and man, is it ever great.
Have you read JSA: All Stars? I really liked the first issue. I didn’t bother with the most recent issue of the main series, though.
There we go, comments again-
nope haven’t picked up JSA: All Stars, its premise, that of a more proactive team like Outsiders or Justice League Cry for Justice, is problematic precisely because those two other teams exist. You want to get out there and find some bad guys? Okay, join the Justice League. Having my bud Hourman join those guys also irks me, when Liberty Bell has, historically, been the hot headed character that would have joined the All Stars in a second- just bad choices. I loathed the entire first arc of JSA by Willingham and Sturges (I think I made that clear) and I’ve been trying to limit the number of really bad books I buy. Plus Freddie Williams II is just about my least liked artist ever. He’s had extended runs on both Robin and Flash (books I buy) while they were at creative lows in their stories. It just feels like the guys in charge go “oh, this wasn’t a very good story… well, we can’t waste this on a good artist. Oh good, there’s Williams, he’ll pump something out for us.”