Interesting times in comics

By the Ace of Knaves

Well; it’s winter again, and that means interesting things in the comic book industry. With the obligatory Blockbuster Summer Cross-Over Mega-Event over and forgotten, writers and readers can focus on the characters and the stories again instead of on the mass marketing and the  “shock and awe” tactics. Or can we? I’ve barely escaped “secret invasion” (sorry folks, it just didn’t interest me to buy all the crossover stuff AGAIN) and Marvel announces “dark reign” (Incidentally: anyone still remember President Lex? I thought so…). Oh dear. Arguably DC comics is even worse, because they didn’t even finish their (hopefully) “final crisis” yet. The timing between their issues is so strung out that I’m having actual trouble remembering what happened last time (yes, this is unusual for me). Add to that the whole “Batman RIP” tie-in, for which it was only recently revealed how it ties in chronologically to the crisis and I’m getting confused. In my opinion the “Final crisis”, while conceptually good, loses impact because it is spread over a too complicated publishing schedule and over too long a time. Hopefully bringing back Barry Allan will speed things up in a flash.

Anyhow, I’m still pretty excited about nearly all the comics on my “to-buy” list recently (nearly all, but more on that later). Jason Aaron’s “Ghost rider” and “Wolverine: manifest destiny” rock (think Big Trouble in little China with Logan instead of Kurt Russel). Even the “old man Logan” storyline in Wolverine (which I found rather repetitive of previous apocalyptic scenarios) managed to surprise me when it was revealed which villain managed to break Logans spirit. Thor is “devine”. Garth Ennis’s successor on Punisher is doing sterling work, and Punisher fans are spoilt even more by the outstanding “Punisher War Zone” with incredibly gorgeous art by Steve Dillon. He didn’t work out for me on “Wolverine: origins”, but he really is one of the best Punisher artists in my opinion. I’d really love to see him do some “Moon knight”. This brings me to Daniel Way’s “Deadpool” which also more than delivers the goods (zombie nurses? Hell yeah!). He had me worried by the awful Deadpool appearance in “Wolverine Origins”, but those worries have vanished completely. X-men is still improving and getting there, and I’m really excited about the “War of kings” tie-in with Dan Abnett’s extraordinarily good “Nova” and “Guardians of the Galaxy”. Over at DC “Secret six” is an absolute must, with some of the best characterisation of Bane since his 90’s miniseries and Gail Simone does wonders for a certain amazon princess. I can’t believe I’m reading and enjoying “Wonder Woman”. (For more sterling work by Gail Simone, check out the “Welcome to tranquillity 2” TPB). And then I haven’t even mentioned “Green arrow and black canary”, “Reign in hell” and the green lantern titles. Also the JSA Gog-Magog storyline is an absolute must read. JSA has been a series of incredibly high quality ever since it’s relaunch in ‘99 , and it still is after the second relaunch. I also love the gorgeous “Faces of evil” covers (and the one shots! The Prometheus one especially was masterfully done!). I’d love to have them on my 2009 calendar! Not to mention the fact that I was dumbfounded by DC’s “brave and bold” decision to put all Batman titles on hiatus. Wow! I figured the death of Batman was going to be the same old circus we’ve seen many, MANY times before, but I NEVER imagined that they would put their flagship title (Detective Comics) on hiatus. Can you imagine Marvel cancelling all X-men or Spiderman titles? I really hope this pays off for DC and the fans, just because it’s so daring.

17-02-2009 om 23:05 geschreven door Ace of Knaves