Posts tagged Comic Books

Happy New Year, everyone! It’s gotten off to a great start for me, so I thought I’d throw together my favourite comics of 2011. This year had a bunch of ups and downs with a lot of crossover success in films; I can’t applaud all the “successes”, but I’m glad that the medium seems to be puttering along.

Let me know what you think of my list with a reblog, tweet or comment. Give me a follow, too! Cheers!

Daredevil (Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera)

Mark Waid taking over the book and reinventing Daredevil has got to be one of the best moves Marvel have made all year. The book is fresh, inviting, has amazing art and simplistic stories. After the clusterfuck that was Shadowland, this series was exactly what the character needed.

Marvel’s been doing great things with artists like Chris Samnee and Paolo Rivera, who have a very retro style. I’ve never liked Daredevil at all, and their art is partly what’s doing it for me.

Punisher (Greg Rucka, Marco Checchetto)

Another revived series, but a great one all the same. Greg Rucka knows how to write gritty stories, and that’s something that’s in this book in spades. Again, like Daredevil above, Punisher has managed to take a property that was veering into the weird and refresh the concept. Frank is brooding, stoic and going through hell; just the way he needs to be.

This series gave me one of my favourite individual issues of the year with its Thanksgiving story. The book lacks the wanton destruction of MAX, but still manages to tell great tales.

Huntress (Paul Levitz, Marcus To)

While not officially a New 52 title, Huntress was launched as part of that wave of new titles, and I can applaud its quality. Marcus To’s pencil work is amazing, and it captures the tone of the “Birds of Prey” Huntress that I liked so much.

There’s subtle things that make the book so much better than a lot of New 52 series; like Nightwing, the character seems more like an actual person, instead of a name, a pair of tights and powers. It’s a pity it’s only a mini series - emerging talent like To are have the potential for some great runs.

Nightwing (Kyle Higgins, Kevin McCarthy)

As one of the two books that’s really impressed me out of the New 52, Nightwing has great character work and pacing. A lot of my problems with the other books stem from the inability to get the story going, or terrible set-up otherwise.

Sometimes, in an effort to get people to read the book, the writer will throw too much action with little meat to the story. The inverse is true as well, where the characters are written bland (I’m looking at you, new Blue Beetle and Mister Terrific) and reading the series becomes tedious. Nightwing has managed to balance personal drama, action and genuinely likeable people in an effort to give Dick a good base to work off of.

I still maintain that Barbara Gordon has been written better in Nightwing than her own book.

Animal Man (Jeff Lemire, Travel Foreman)

This book has been a surprise in that I didn’t think I would like it. Buddy Baker has impressed me in his ability to carry himself as a hero, and I applaud Jeff Lemire for not making his daughter a Layla Miller-esque know it all. While presumptuous youths aren’t an automatic death-knell for books, they tend to undermine the hero’s actions by throwing second-guesses most often than they should.

But, like I said, this book is great. It has a tendency to have at least one panel/page an issue that drops my jaw and leaves me with a smile on my face.

DMZ (Brian Wood, Riccardo Burchelli)

DMZ finished last week, and I can say it gave me one of the most satisfying ends to a book I’ve ever read. I’m not afraid to admit that I’m a little bit of a Brian Wood fanboy, but so much of this book just spoke to me as a person. As a journalist, I identified with a lot of the problems and issues Matty Roth ran across, and his character arc made me think about the type of man I want to grow up to be.

The character work in this book is some of the best I’ve ever read; the degree to which some characters were fleshed out in only one issue was absurd, and I found myself fascinated that I could care that much about someone I’d never read about again. If you haven’t read this book, do yourself a favour and pick it up.

[This was originally posted on my ComicVine blog in response to a growing number of comments I’ve received saying that I should be grading books higher based on… nothing really at all. I thought I would write a response.]

Every week, I write four to five comic book reviews for ComicVine as a freelancer. I’ve been working with them since May of 2010, and have enjoyed my time here immensely so far; the quests are fun and it gives me a platform to write about a medium I love.

Since CV requires me to quantify my reviews in a star rating, there seems to be an increasing number of people who take issue with them. While I’d like to say that every review gets at least one comment questioning a score, that wouldn’t be true: four to five-star reviews remain relative feedback ghost towns.

So instead of responding to each comment as they come, I’ve decided to head them off at the pass and post a blog on how I come to my score decisions.

I’d like to preface this by saying that I try to be as honest as possible, and that a book with a large amount of hype is not immune from bad scores. As always, reviews are supposed to be subjective, and the fact that I didn’t like a book doesn’t mean you will, as well.

In short, there’s really no reason to post angry comments saying “this score should be higher” because, really, it shouldn’t. I’m confident in what I gave the book, and stand by it.

Read more …

Hoo boy - end of the month already? November kind of flew by and after last week’s bonanza of good books, this week seems a bit slow.

A friend of mine who works at Toronto’s Silver Snail mentioned on her blog that November technically has five Wednesdays, which throws off the shipping of comics a bit. I’ve never considered that before, and it’s kind of interesting.

The off week doesn’t necessarily mean that the books this week aren’t good; check out my picks below!

Marvel Comics (Click names for links)

Thunderbolts #166 - Jeff Parker writes a lovely Thunderbolts story, but I feel like I’ve either missed the last issue of this book, or it hasn’t come out in quite a long time. I’ve been following this book since a little bit before Fear Itself, so it’ll be interesting to see it settle into its own book.

Wolverine #19 - I blogged about the sexy-ass cover to Wolverine #19 a couple weeks ago, and now I actually get to read the issue. Matt Fraction’s Fat Cobra showed up last issue, as well, so the comedy’s going to be laid on thick. It’s no coincidence that #18 was my pick of the week two weeks ago: this story reeks of awesomeness. Bring me my wenches of reading!

Daredevil #6 - Mark Waid’s run on Daredevil has me the most interested I’ve been about the character since he was impersonated by Iron Fist. The art, the story, the old-school vibe: it’s super-heroing without complications, and that’s needed sometimes.

Red Skull: Incarnate #5 (of 5) - Controversy aside, David Aja’s covers for this series are works of art. I love the old-school design, and the story within is gripping, detailed and almost surreal; after years of demonizing the Red Skull, it’s weird to think of his back-story. I’m not saying he evokes sympathy - no, he’s quite the bastard - but Greg Pak gives another side to the megalomaniac murderer.

Image Comics (Click names for links)

Skullkickers #12 - I have nothing but good things to say about Skullkickers, as it tugs at my D&D nostalgia heartstrings while bringing the comedy. I’m heartily enjoying the saga of Baldy and Shorty, and just picked up the second trade, which came out last week.

This week’s issue looks to be a series of short, contained “tavern stories” between major story arcs: give it a look if you want a taste of what the series has to offer.

This week was nice in that I got to review two books I actually enjoyed a whole bunch: Wolverine #18 and Fear Itself #7.2.

However, the former takes the cake for how much it makes me feel like I’m watching Big Trouble in Little China. It therefore automatically becomes my pick of this week’s comics.

Some tidbits:

• Fat Cobra makes an appearance, which can only make the issue better. If you want good kung fu in Marvel, you have to go with one of Matt Fraction’s Immortal Iron Fist creations.
• The Jade Claw is a sexy, threatening villain. The “my cheapest bra cost more than what it would take to feed your family for a year” line illustrated her power in one sentence.
  However, it’s weird to think about international drug queenpins still dealing with mundane things like bras.
• I really like it when Wolverine takes a break from brooding and almost becomes a straight man to the Gorilla Man/Fat Cobra hi-jinks. It’s good to see the character portrayed in a lighter tone every once and awhile.
• My only real complaint is that it doesn’t really fit into the Regenesis event, and that it seems really mislabeled as such. It seems to be a “tying up loose ends” type of story, but I didn’t need the false advertising.

Other than that last point, it’s a really good issue. I blogged about next month’s Wolverine cover last week, so you should pick that up as well to round out the story.

Till next week, cheers! Reblog, like and retweet if you like this!

Also: would this maybe be better in a vlog format?

Haven’t done this in awhile, but here’s my comic reviews for this week!

Secret Avengers #18

David Aja’s art is gorgeous, and thankfully he got to play to his strength here: kung fu. Having Shang-Chi as a “guest star” definitely makes me smile, and Aja’s art style fromImmortal Iron Fist contributes wonderfully to the fight sequences. Aja’s faces have also become less gritty - this isn’t a complaint, but I think it fits better with the mood of the book. It’s very light-hearted - almost like Chris Samnee drew Thor: The Mighty Avenger - but still allows for some dark-ish moments.

The Mighty Thor #7

The art in this issue is lovely, and it does a good job of showing what pre-Asgard architecture and aesthetic looked like. I’ve always enjoyed the quasi-futuristic tone that comes with the Norse gods, and this issue capitalizes on it.

Seeing an older Odin holding an infant Thor just made my heart melt.

Avengers Academy #20

One of the first comics I ever read was a West Coast Avengers issue, and I couldn’t help but think about how hokey it sounded; it took a good concept like the Avengers and just said “Yeah, we’re in a new setting! That’s cool, right?”

That’s what this issue felt like: a bunch of “shocking” events that ultimately didn’t mean jack in the long run. Will we ever see Vance Astro and Speedball’s road trip? Unlikely. Will we really care about the new recruits to the Avengers Academy (apart from Butterball, of course)? Not really. Do we want to see characters written like they were in the past, with actual emotions and feelings? I’d like to think so.

Annihilators: Earthfall #2 (of 3)

There’s often a problem with guest stars, as some writers don’t know how to handle them. The Avengers in this issue seemed a little bit off in dialog, but I guess that can be forgiven. The rest of the issue, dialog aside, seemed was definitely on the food side, but not amazing by any means.

It will be interesting to see how the team manages the new threat of what look like brainwashed/alien children, as they certainly can handle them, but the PR disaster they’re currently facing could make it interesting.

I’m become increasingly concerned about the new 52, and after reading some of the new Batman/Detective Comics, I thought I’d point out how stupid Bats’ costume looks. I remember when Jim Lee was showing off concept art for All Star Batman & Robin in an old issue of Wizard, and the suit looked quite like this; Lee even made a joke about it: “ribbed, for her pleasure.”

I’m neither an artist, nor am I fashion designer. I’m also not the stereotypical anti-change comics fan; I can appreciate when improvements are made, or when things are taken in a logical direction. But this?

This really just reeks of over-design, impracticality and a step in the direction of the 90’s. I’m surprised there isn’t a bandolier of pouches going from shoulder to hip.

In my review of Mister Terrific #1 this week, I noted that my main complaint is that DC writers seem to be concentrating on flash coming out of the gate, but not a lot of substance. I see the same problems I had with Terrific in Batman & Robin, Detective Comics, Batgirl and Static Shock: there has been little focus on the people the heroes actually are.

Instead, we’re given eye candy, and a lot of it. While this might bring new readers in (or excite older ones), it’s not a good formula for the long-term success of a book. Hell, candy gets old if you’ve been eating it for a long time.

What I want is to feel a connection with the characters I’m reading about. I want Mister Terrific to be more than a DC version of Mister Fantastic. I want Static to be a teenage I can identify with, instead of a surreal super-geek who doesn’t seem to have many problems. I want Barbara Gordon to have some spunk, instead of being valley-girl flippant one minute and uber-serious the next.

The common excuse is that “it’s the first issue. Give it time,” but the problem is that this isn’t the impression that DC needs to be making. I’m afraid that if they get drunk on the massive numbers they’re pulling, these trends will continue until it fails.

And comics without substance is never a good thing.