Batman, More Batman, Kicking Ass, and Dick's Meta-List

Quick Reviews:

Batman #674: Just in case you didn't believe how important 1963's Batman #156 was to Morrison's run, this week's issue hammers the point home. He turns this page into a central part of Batman continuity and starts pulling all the threads of his narrative together, leading into the upcoming "Batman R.I.P." storyline. Guess what? It looks like the Black Glove will be involved. He's not only the mystery villain behind the Club of Heroes three-issue arc, but he's the "Ultimate Enemy" behind many of Batman's troubles. Perhaps he'll turn out to be Norman Osbourne.

All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #9: This series has caught up to All-Star Superman! In numbering, that is, not quite in quality, although this is the first issue that feels like what I expected All-Star Batman to be like. It features humor (yellow Batman drinking lemonade to taunt Green Lantern--take that, ring impurity!), brutality (tracheotomy time!), and a bit of heart (parental concern!). I was getting into the Goddamn groove on this title, and now Miller switches things up with something more sincere. What's up with that? (And, if you had given up on this title, which you were crazy to do, this issue might make you regret your hasty decision.)

Kick-Ass #1: Super-heroes in the real world. Millar claims they've never been done like he's doing them here, and as much as I assumed he was using hyperbole, I think he's kind of right. This issue doesn't feel groundbreaking, but Romita jr.'s art captures the right amount of awkwardness and courage required to pull of the conceit. It's like Bernie Mireault's The Jam (which, by the way, TOTALLY deserves the deluxe hardcover treatment. Are you listening, Image or Dark Horse?), but while Mireault brought in supernatural elements, Millar and Romita jr. keep it real. Harshly real. Ironically real. It undermines every romantic notion of super-heroics, but it doesn't do it in a Garth Ennis, "I'm going to piss all over the feces of your idols" kind of way. It does it in a pure, idealistic way, even with all of the suffering involved. I liked the first issue a lot.

Dick Hyacinth's Meta-List 2008: Who has not been eagerly awaiting this list? Come on! Who can resist seeing how everything adds up for 2007 quality? Not me. And what I'm most curious about, of course, is not just what seems plain wrong (not wrong mathematically, but wrong aesthetically: Buffy ranked so high? Really--is it such an amazing comic? And Shooting War in the Top 20? Doesn't the quality of the artwork count for anything? And Acme Novelty Library #18 NOT even in the Top 50? Even recognizing that it came out late in the year, come on people! It was a great book), but what I need to go out and read. Stuff I missed or haven't gotten around to reading yet, like Exit Wounds, Shortcomings, Alias the Cat (all of which in the Top 10, and all of which I really want to read, but I just...haven't), and Superspy, The Blot, Notes for a War Story, and Three Paradoxes, among other things I probably will never make time for.

What do you want to read from the Meta-List?

The 10 Best Comics of 2007

I've been writing for the past few weeks about how great 2007 was for comics, and now it's finally time to share my Top 10 Comics of the Year list. These are the comics (and by "comics," I mean graphic novels, comic books, collected editions, whatever I happen to think is worthy of the term) that I liked the most and I thought were substantial works of art and/or entertainment. I've written about plenty of other great comics from the past year, many in tremendous detail, but these ten are the best, and probably don't need as much explanation:

THE BEST COMICS OF 2007

10. Dr. 13: Architecture and Mortality
I was floored by this when it came out in the back of that abysmal Spectre miniseries. Dr. 13 certainly didn't read like anything I'd ever read by Brian Azzarello, and it didn't seem to rip off his obvious forebears, like Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, who have tread in similar territory more than once before. When I reread this as a trade paperback, I found it a bit hasty--the chapters move along briskly, but the read like short serials rather than a whole work, and I think that makes the collection a bit less satisfying than I expected.

It still makes the Top 10, though, simply because Cliff Chiang is a phenomenal artist and he got to draw some amazing things in this comic. From Infectious Lass to Anthro to a Vampire Nazi Gorilla, Chiang was able to apply his wonderfully think brush stroke with verve. It might be the best-looking comic of the year (I can't think of anything that looked better), and that alone is worth something. But couple that with Dr. 13's refusal to accept the evidence in front of his face and Azzarello's mockery of DC continuity, and you end up with something that is worth regard as one of the best comics of the year.

9. American Elf Vol. 2
I thought the first volume of American Elf was a poetic and funny exploration of life, but Volume 2 is even better (in every possible way). It just plain looks nicer, with Kochalka's striking use of color to complement his clear and simple lines. As much as I like Superf*ckers, and as much fun as I had reading Squirrely Gray to my kids, American Elf is Kochalka's masterwork, and it's a wonderful glimpse of the little moments that make up the world of a parent, a comic creator, a human being. If that sounds to sappy, screw you, you cynical bastard!

8. Scalped
When the first issue of Scalped came out, people complained about the muddy artwork, and I went so far as to go on the Barbelith board to say, "I don't know. I think R. M. Guera is quite good." I also commented that I liked the twist at the end of issue #1. Since then, this series has become something far greater than I ever expected, and I've tried to get people to read it because I want to see what Jason Aaron will do next. I don't want this series to end.

Aaron has developed, in Scalped the most effective character-driven series in recent years. It's the kind of thing Brian Michael Bendis tries to do, but he hasn't succeeded the way Aaron has here. I've said it before, but Scalped is like an Altman movie but with a tighter, more genre-laden plot. Yet it has that Altmanesque sense of narrative overlap, that sense that these are characters whose lives are unfolding before us, and its fascinating.

So appreciate it as a crime book. It's excellent in that regard. But also realize that Jason Aaron has created a setting and characters (and the setting IS a character, in a far more meaningful way than even Brian Wood attempts in DMZ) who have real substance. This is the type of comic book Vertigo was designed to foster, and they've finally done it, with Scalped.

7. Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together
I am so glad that Scott Pilgrim FINALLY got it together, because for the first 3/4ths of this book, I wanted to slap him. Bryan Lee O'Malley and I go way back (Comic-Con 2004, Bry--remember that?), and I've followed his career closely over the years. I thought Lost at Sea was a poetic evocation of adolescent longing and regret, and his Scott Pilgrim books have consistently been some of the favorite things I've read each year. Even when Scott Pilgrim didn't have it together, and he was an unmotivated whiner, I still liked reading about his exploits because O'Malley has mad cartooning skills and a great ear for dialogue.

But now that Scott HAS got it together, watch out world! I don't know if you can handle the awesome.

6. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier
This is the kind of thing I'm predisposed to like. First of all, it's Alan Moore, who is always fascinating, and it's Kevin O'Neill, who I like so much I own Nemesis the Warlock in multiple forms, plus the Metalzoic graphic novel (which, by the way, is pretty insane in its own right), in addition to everything else he's done. It's also a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book, which sounds just fine to me. And it's a pastiche of great literary styles of the past, including comic strips, erotic novels, and Shakespeare.

I only got about half the references without Jess Nevins's annotations, but I still thought it was a lot of fun even without knowing that one of the characters was supposed to be Emma Peel, or that some image was from a mid-20th century propaganda film. That's the key, by the way, for it being in my Top 10. I thought it was fun. The portrayal of James Bond, the Orlando sequence, and even the 3D section at the end--all were fun. I didn't love every page, of course, but the book had so much going on, that one or two missteps barely impacted any of my enjoyment.

5. Powr Masters
I have read this book three times since it arrived at my doorstep. After a single reading, I wrote a blog post, describing how it was "Just Outside the 20," meaning it wasn't quite good enough to rank as one of the Top 20 Comics of 2007. But, in writing about it, I had the nagging sense that I should reread it, and let its absurd illogic wash over me again. When I did, I realized that not only wasn't the comic illogical, but it deserved a spot near the top, and when I reread it a third time I was convinced. So here it is as the fifth Best Comic of 2007.

(By the way, I rarely reread comics or graphic novels. I have hundreds of unread comics, Archive editions, Masterworks, DVD compilations, and other miscellany sitting on my shelves, unread--so I don't feel compelled to spend my time rereading much of anything. It's a testament to Powr Masters that I went back to it more than once, in the span of a single week.)

Artist and writer C.F. has been praised in other places for the world-building he exhibits in Powr Masters, but my favorite part of the book is the dialogue. It's wonderfully innocent and strange, and it would be a disservice to quote any of it out of context, because it is so essential to the sequential art. If you haven't picked up this book yet, give it a chance. Read it a few times, and see if you don't agree that it's one of the best things to come out in 2007.

4. The Immortal Iron Fist
Although I was a devoted fan of anything Power Man and Iron Fist-related back in the 1980s, I never fully appreciated the character of Danny Rand until I began reading this series. This series made me want to go back and read the Essential reprints, and discover their gloriously mad exploitation stories. In turn, those stories helped inform my appreciation of what Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction are doing in this new series.

The Immortal Iron Fist is more fun than it has any right to be, David Aja's art is more beautiful than you'd ever expect, the stories resonate more than any other Marvel comic on the market, and the writing is swift, precise, and exquisite. It's a comic that doesn't connect directly to anything that's going on in the Marvel universe right now, but it's deeply imbued with a sense of Marvel mythology, from which it gains depth and substance. I love everything about this comic.

3. Casanova
Casanova is so good, it should probably be ranked #1. It's probably the fact that it's been so consistently amazing each time it hits the stands that I take it for granted already. But it's ever so very, very good.

"Luxuria," both in single issues, which gives you Matt Fraction's essential-to-read back matter, and the hardcover, which makes the stories look prettier than ever, is an amazing work for a young comic book writer to start with. I know Fraction's been around for a while, and he's produced some excellent stuff over recent years, but Casanova is his first major comic book work, really. And it's a masterpiece. You all know how good it is, and it has remained at that level since issue #1. I have no doubt that when Casanova ends its run, and people look back on it generations from now with their Comic Book Reader brain implants, the series will be regarded as one of the great comics of the early 21st century. I know that sounds like hyperbole, but it's definitely going to happen. Trust me.

2. All-Star Superman
Grant Morrison is obviously a master of the medium because there's a book out there that says so. On top of that, he produced a few more issues of All-Star Superman this year with the phenomenally talented Frank Quitely, and the gorgeous hardcover collection of issues #1-6 came out in 2007 as well. All-Star Superman might be my favorite Morrison work of the past decade. It combines his understanding of what made the Silver Age work with his own mythic take on the Superman family. It's not a deconstruction of Superman at all. Instead, it's a celebration. A highlight reel of adventures that never were, but should have been. A glorious look at everything superhero comic books should be capable of achieving but seldom reach. It's great, great comics, whether read as individual issues or collected into a hardcover edition.

By the way, All-Star Superman #6 is the best Superman story ever published.

1. Acme Novelty Library Vol. 18
I hadn't even realized this came out in mid-December until I saw it listed as an Amazon.com recommendation. Is the expectation of Chris Ware excellence so pervasive that a splendid work is ignored just because it's from someone so good all the time? Or are people eagerly anticipating the next Rusty Brown installment and don't care about the interlude presented here? Or is there a Ware backlash for some inexplicable reason?

All I know is, this issue, which collects some previously published material from a variety of obscure and semi-obscure sources is the most powerful and formally interesting work he's done since Jimmy Corrigan. In the linked stories presented here (and there are a few inconsistencies, demonstrating that these stories were done at different times for different purposes--one of the inconsistencies being the age of the girl when she fell in love, but maybe that shows the fallibility of the character's memory), a young woman anguishes over lost relationships, most specifically with her first love and a family she once worked for. The stories are exactly what'd you'd expect from the great Chris Ware, and that's a good thing, because he is the most innovative and humanistic comic book creator working today. He's one of only a handful of writers or artists who is a true master of the comic book medium, and Acme Novelty Library Vol. 18 shows that his range and power is undiminished.

To see how my Top 10 list compares to my bloggers-in-crime, check out Chad Nevett's, Marc Caputo's, and Geoff Klock's lists as well. Years from now, look back on these lists and see who actually got it right.

Best of 2007: #11-20

I'm gearing up for the reveal of my big Top 10 list, but here are links to what I wrote about the Best Comics of the Year, numbers 11 through 20:

#20: Blue Beetle

#19: Fantastic Four Omnibus Volume 2

#18: The Fourth World Omnibus Volume 1

#17: Madman Gargantua!

#16: Yesterday's Tomorrows

#15: Green Lantern

#14: The Umbrella Academy

#13: Omega the Unknown

#12: Dr. Fate Archives Volume 1

#11: The Irredeemable Ant-Man

The 5 Worst Comics of 2007

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: 2007 was a great, great year for comics, but there were more than a few comics that frustrated me for one reason or another, and I'm going to classify those comics as THE 5 WORST COMICS OF 2007, because, frankly, they deserve it:

1. Superman Confidential
Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale kicked off this series with the "Kryptonite" storyline, and as I read it each month, or every other month, or whenever it came out, I kept thinking, "this is probably the worst thing either of these guys produced." And I have read Billi 99, by the way, so I know what I'm talking about. But I gave them the benefit of the doubt, and figured that the story would certainly flow better when read all in one sitting. But, guess what? The final issue of the story NEVER CAME OUT. Sure, it's supposed to come out soon, but I waited for the final part of the story, and instead, in the next issue of Superman Classified I get a really bad Lori Lemaris story without any sort of explanation. I thought I missed an issue, so I checked online, and found a Newsarama post about how the finale of "Kryptonite" was delayed indefinitely. No explanation there either.

Then, after the Lori-Lemaris-to-the-EXTREME story, we're hit with a New Gods inventory story which retells the events of Jack Kirby's Fourth World, with the Forever People, and Orion, and Darkseid, and all that stuff, except way less interesting than the way Jack Kirby did it. Those issues were like Spark Notes verions of Kirby's epic, except lamer.

For all I know, Batman Confidential could have been worse, but I didn't read that one after the first issue. I stuck with Superman Confidential all year and was hit with disappointment after disappointment.

2. Countdown / Countdown Spin-Offs
I guess it's my own fault that I stuck with Countdown long after everyone else dropped it. I liked the first few issues, and the potential they showed. The Monitors as continuity cops! Sounds like a cool story.

It hasn't been. It's been a disaster, so it's quite ironic that the series warns us about the upcoming Great Disaster, because you're left thinking, "what could be worse than this?"

Countdown has been so bad that the best issue was the one that was just a bunch of exposition explaining all the stuff that supposedly had been going on, even though not much has actually happened in 30 plus issues of the series and a gazillion spin-off comics.

If you had told me, when I was younger and more naive, like three years ago, that DC would produce a 52 issue gigantic crossover series, I actually would have been excited about the scope, the magnitude of the project. I would have imagined a glorious, epic tale. Instead, we get a lot of wandering. Thousands of pages of wandering. Mary Marvel being evil, while wandering. Flash's rogues, wandering, even now that one of them's dead. Donna Troy, Kyle Raynor, Jason Todd: wandering.

What a cosmic waste of talent, time, and money.

3. Wildstorm Armageddon One-Shots
Remember the advent of Image Comics. That was an exciting time. But then when the issues started coming out, they weren't as good as any of us expected.

Then, last year Wildstorm relaunched their entire line in an attempt to get things right this time. They basically conceded that they screwed up when they were part of Image--that they needed some writers back then to go along with all the fancy lines in their artwork. So they started over with some old favorites with writers like Grant Morrison (ka-zow!), Mike Carey (wicked!), Gail Simone (sassy!), Christos Gage (sweet!), and Brian Azzarello (ka-blam!) and then proceeded to run all of their titles into the ground. The issues either failed to get produced (one issue of WildCATS? Pathetic.) or failed to generate reader interest (are any of them NOT cancelled at this point).

So now the Wildstorm Universe is going to undergo some kind of event to attract readers. And they kicked off the event with a bunch of completely pointless and frankly, unoriginal (we've all read "Days of Future Past") one-shots that made me complete give up on Wildstorm altogether.

Just like the good old days, when I got seven into Wetworks and realized, I do not ever need to read this comic.

4. X-Men: Endangered Species / Messiah CompleX
"Endangered Species" featured a story in which the Beast (sometime accompanied by bosom buddy Dark Beast) walked from mad scientist to mad scientist asking if they could help with this whole No-More-Mutants problem. Nope, they said. Or, sorry. Or, I don't wanna.

That's how it went, for 900 consecutive issues.

That all led into, of course, "Messiah Complex," which can be summarized as a long, drawn out version of kill the guy with the ball. You all used to play that at recess, right? Well, in the X-Version, instead of a ball, they use a baby, and then they all run around chasing the guy with the baby. For 900 more issues.

I can't wait to see what happens next! Such intrigue.

5. Wolverine: Origins
Remember like a year or two ago when Mark Millar described how great Daniel Way was, and how he was the best thing to come along since Jesus teamed up with Ghandi? I'm paraphrasing, but Millar really championed this guy, and although I didn't think much of his Nighthawk mini-series (actually, I thought a lot about it, because I kept thinking, "what's the point of this issue?" for six months in a row), I gave him a chance to prove that he was decent. Even with Steve Dillon, who I like, especially when he does something super-heroic (since his style seems to be anti-heroic), Wolverine: Origins has been a mess. Just like Countdown it features a lot of wandering and ugliness, and, unlike Countdown it reveals SHOCKING SECRETS about Wolverine's past. He has a kid, with claws, only less interesting than even that sounds.

Even these five series, no matter how many thousands of crappy pages they produced, can't dampen my enthusiasm for comics. 2007 was a fantastic year, and I can't wait to see what greatness awaits us in 2008.

Top 20 of 2007: #11 The Irredeemable Ant-Man

Supposedly The Irredeemable Ant-Man failed because it featured an unlikeable protagonist in former SHIELD agent Eric O'Grady. Screw that! It failed because of all the idiots who didn't buy it. Yes, I'm calling you an idiot if you didn't buy this comic. I'm like Eric O'Grady; I'm unlikeable.

Here's why you're an idiot (if you didn't buy the comic):

1) Phil Hester is really good, and you should buy anything he works on, unless it's written by Judd Winick, which this was not.

2) Robert Kirkman is really good, especially when he gets to do his own thing, which he basically got to do here. Have you read Invincible? Then you know he's good, no matter how you felt about Marvel Zombies (which I enjoyed, by the way).

3) Ant-Man is tiny, and he can talk to ants. And he helped beat up the Taskmaster in that Avengers issue I read the cover off of back when I was a kid. I don't care that this is a new character. Ant-Man still kicks ass.

4) This comic was like no other comic published by Marvel or DC recently. You complain about how everything is the same, but yet a super-hero comic with a unique sensibility comes along, and do you buy it? No, you buy Wolverine: Origins instead. It's your fault. All of it.

5) You were probably waiting for the trade. Dick.

6) You downloaded the comic illegally. Dick.

7) You don't like comics involving SHIELD, Damage Control, Ms. Marvel naked, or the Black Fox. In which case, you don't know what you're missing, because all of those things are good.

8) You want the world to be a suckier place, so you purposely don't support anything that might be entertaining and slightly original and fun. Why are you such a hater?

So, it's almost too late for you, if you didn't originally read it. I think it wasn't even collected into a trade, was it? Just like two digests, or something? Digests take comics designed for a certain size and then squish them down to make them look more like Manga, as if that fools anyone. All it does is make the pages look worse and the font too small.

Your job is to buy all the back issues, read them, then write thousands of letters to Kirkman and Hester and Marvel telling them how sorry you are. You ruined it.

Read it, somehow.

Top 20 of 2007: #12 Dr. Fate Archives Volume 1

Way back in July, I asked whether or not the Dr. Fate Archives was Golden Age Greatness or the Most Amazing Comic Book Series Ever. You should read that post, because I'm not going to rehash it here, but I showed why the Dr. Fate Archives Volume 1 is pretty amazing stuff, at least for the first half of the volume, before everyone decided to de-Lovecraft the comic and turn it into Superman-lite.

I've read quite a bit of DC Golden Age stuff, including every issue of All-Star Comics, a healthy sampling of Flash Comics, Sensation Comics, Adventure Comics, whatever series the Golden Age Green Lantern appeared in, as well as a large dose of Batman and Superman. Dr. Fate is by far, by FAR, my favorite of them all. Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman's work on the early issues is the spiritual relative to Fletcher Hanks's Stardust, only sometimes more illogical, and with a Cthulhu vibe. The original Dr. Fate was a bastard with a vengeful streak--an inexplicable mystical being who could destroy planets while carrying his girlfriend under his arm.

And every solo Dr. Fate story is included in this one volume! What a collection!

Unfortunately, the stories do become bland and generic about halfway through, once Dr. Fate's mask shrinks to show off his chin. Having a prominent chin meant that Dr. Fate did a lot more punching than shooting-magical-lightning-bolts-of-death, and, no, I don't see the connection there either, but that's what happened. So, I pretend that those later Dr. Fate stories don't exist, and just reread the first half of the book. I still like having all the stories, by the way, I just ignore the crappy ones. It's just nice to know they're there, that the collection is complete. It makes me feel safe. Seriously, though, the early stories are the ones to read. Again and again.

Read it, and cower in terror at the Fish-Men of Nyarl-Amen.

Top 20 of 2007: #13 Omega the Unknown

Imagine a world where superhero comics didn't rehash the same standard plot lines again and again. Imagine a world where unconventional, idiosyncratic artists could work on comics once part of the "mainstream" universe. Imagine one of the best 21st century novelists scripting such tales. Imagine reading the comics and having no idea what's going to happen next because everything feels a bit off, a bit strange, but in a good, exhilarating way.

That's what the new Omega the Unknown series is like. And it's getting better every issue. (With over half the series still remaining!)

Steve Gerber and Jim Mooney's Omega the Unknown was certainly one of the most unusual superhero comics ever published. It featured an elliptical narrative involving a mysterious "hero" juxtaposed with a tale of harsh city life for a brilliant young high school student who seemed more robot than adolescent. It was about the connection between Omega and James-Michael, two characters who failed to connect with almost anyone else in the world. But nothing was ever explained--it was a surreal superhero journey with plenty of social commentary thrown in. And the story "ended" in another comic, well after Omega's series was canceled. Omega the Unknown (volume 1) was all promise and hope and despair and uncertainty, but it resolved (in The Defenders comic) in a tidy, unsatisfyingly neat little package.

Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple's Omega the Unknown began with a faithful retelling of Steve Gerber's first issue, but it has diverged wildly to become something unique in the Marvel universe: an absurdist, anachronistic, bizarre, Dan Clowes-esque exploration of a group of inexplicable weirdos. The teenage dialogue reads like something out of an S. E. Hinton novel, while an insane "superhero," called the Mink is up to who knows what. Meanwhile, some guy with gigantic "Fonzie" bling finds himself infected by some kind of super-nano virus, and then there's Omega (the title character and presumed hero) lurking around in the back of a food service van. I really couldn't begin to summarize the plot thus far, but it's definitely building to something, and the mood of the series is unlike any other.

Lethem and Dalrymple are major talents, and although their interpretation of Omega the Unknown is only 13th on my list for 2007, I bet a lot of people (myself included) will rank it much higher next year once its all complete. Don't ignore Omega the Unknown; it's more brilliantly insane than you'd ever expect.

Read it, if you're looking for something that's more than a bit out of the ordinary.

Top 20 of 2007: #14 The Umbrella Academy

One of the astounding facts about The Umbrella Academy is that Gabriel Ba's art looks even better here than it did in Casanova, and it looked GREAT in Casanova. I'm more astounded by that than I am about the story, written by Gerard Way. I had no preconceptions about Gerard Way at all. I remember reading about My Chemical Romance a few years ago in a Spin feature article and thinking that they sounded like cool guys with their comic book references and all, but they looked like douchebags with their art-student-rockstar-foppish-dandyness. But I never heard any of their music until "Welcome to the Black Parade," which I though was one of the great pop songs of the year. And they were really popular with the local Hot Topic crowd. None of which predisposed me to assume anything about Gerard Way's comic writing skillz.

Umbrella Academy, all four issues of it so far, is good, though. Quite good. Maybe the only thing keeping it out of the Top 10 is that I don't know how Way and Ba are going to end this sucker, especially if Way has plans to continue the series as a set of miniseries over the next decade (as he has stated in interviews). The overall flow of the narrative has seemed a bit uneven, too, with an incredibly strong first issue followed by a bit of a stall with issues two and three and then an explosion of awesomeness in issue four. Once the series is completed, the pacing might work perfectly when everything is read in succession, but as monthlies, it feels just a bit off.

But I have faith that Way and Ba can pull it off. The comic boldly flashes its influences, with a heaping of Grant Morrison here, some Wes Anderson there, a side of Mike Mignola and a hint of Matt Wagner, but those are all creators I love as well, so I can understand where Way and Ba are coming from.

Umbrella Academy might end up being one of the great comics of all time. It's got the potential, and it makes a damn fine ambassador for what makes comics so cool. So all the Hot Topic kids buying it just because Gerard Way's name on it might find a gateway drug to American superhero comics. I just hope they don't accidentally pick up anything by Daniel Way. That stuff might turn them off the medium forever.

Umbrella Academy is good. Read it.

Top 20 of 2007: #15 Green Lantern

What a year for Geoff Johns's Green Lantern!

In 2007, this comic became something superior. Beginning with the conclusion of the "Wanted: Hal Jordan" storyline and culminating in the apocalyptic "Sinestro Corps War," Johns expanded the depth and breadth of the Green Lantern universe and told a great story even while juggling a seemingly-overwhelming cast of characters.

One of the things Johns does best (and by the way, he was joined by some fantastic artists on the title this year, especially the stellar Ivan Reis, who seems to have distilled his John Byrne and Neal Adams influences into some kind of perfect superhero blend) is story structure. I should amend that: story structure over the long term. He has been building to the Sinestro Corps War since he relaunched Hal Jordan's career in Green Lantern: Rebirth over three years ago. Yet he doesn't tell decompressed stories. As a reader, I didn't know he was building to the Sinestro Corps War, although, in retrospect it's obvious. But Johns masterfully built each story arc on top of the next one, escalating the threats, dealing with Hal Jordan's character, and building a universe.

On top of that, Green Lantern #25 promises even greater escalation through 2009! It takes quite a writer to conclude the Sinestro Corps War as a kind of prelude for something much, much larger (the war of many colors!) and still satisfy the reader in the short term. Johns pulls it off. With style.

Read it.

Top 20 of 2007: #16 Yesterday's Tomorrows

Rian Hughes is probably best known today, if at all, as a designer of stylish logos and cover designs. Who can forget his cover for Invisibles #1 with the psychedelic hand grenade? And would the comic have been the same without the cut-out logo? I think not.

But Hughes has also illustrated some excellent comics in his day, and the bulk of his work was collected this year in Yesterday's Tomorrows, a slick hardcover featuring such stories as "Dare" and "Really and Truly," with Morrison, as well as "The Science Service," with John Freeman, and an adaptation of Raymond Chandler's "Goldfish," with novelist Tom DeHaven.

"Dare," in particular, is worth the price alone. It's a full-length work by itself (once published by Fantagraphics as a four-issue series), and it features Morrison's admittedly by-the-numbers, but still fascinating deconstruction of the "boy's own adventure" aspect of the original Dan Dare comics. Morrison and Hughes's reinterpretation is as much of its time (early 1990s) as Frank Hampson's original version was a product of the 1950s, but that's the way to do Dare, I think. And Hughes blocky figures and art deco landscapes mischievously undermine Morrison's tendency in the story to become too precious and ironic.

The other strips in the book each have a unique style, some of them resembling a proto-Darwyn Cooke in their character design. I wasn't overly familiar with most of these Hughes comics until I read this collection, and I was surprised by how he approached each story as a distinct project, and applied an appropriate style, none of which looking much like other comics that had come before. Like a chameleon, Hughes changes his look constantly, but he doesn't seem to be mimicking the work of others, at least not others in the comic book industry. His inspiration clearly derives from outside sources like advertising, poster art, and graphic design.

Rian Hughes hasn't produced any comics that I know of recently, but in a Newsarama interview from last summer, he had this to say when asked if he planned on creating any new comics: "Yes, definitely, soon. Something that expresses what I've just been discussing somehow, hopefully without seeming gimmicky. Stay tuned...!"

Until then, Yesterday's Tomorrows more than fills the void, which is why I rank it as the 16th best comic of 2007.

Read it.

Top 20 of 2007: #17 Madman Gargantua!

I'm seeing a pattern here. Thick, fancy hardcover collections are ruling the high teens on my 2007 list, but what's wrong with that? I love thick, fancy hardcovers, especially when they pull together the earliest Madman series along with the entire Dark Horse run.

Madman Gargantua! wasn't on my "must buy" list when it was first announced in 2006, but after the book was initially delayed, and the more I thought about owning all those stories under a single set of covers, I couldn't stop myself from clicking the Buy It Now button on Amazon. I wasn't disappointed.

As I wrote about this summer, Madman is, contrary to popular reception, Michael Allred's exploration of deep, religious themes. While the reputation of Allred's work is that he writes these zany, "ginchy" stories about weird, wacky characters with a goofy Silver Age sensibility, if you actually sit down and read Madman Gargantua! in a single sitting (or, as I did, over two days), you'll recognize that the book is a series of metaphysical questions which just happen to be explored using weird, wacky characters with a Silver Age sensibility. But the metaphysical questions drive the stories, without a doubt.

Unlike the other Absolute and Omnibus editions out there which feature creators at the top of their game, Madman Gargantua shows the development of Michael Allred's style and voice. The early Tundra series are quite different in look and tone than the Dark Horse run, and it's fascinating to see Allred develop as a creator even while he continues to explore serious questions about the nature of identity and reality. You all know, by now, that Allred is a major talent in the comic book world, and Madman is his still-unfinished masterpiece. But a large chunk of that masterpiece comprises this book, and it's astounding.

Read it.

Top 20 of 2007: #18 Fourth World Omnibus Volume 1

When I first read Jack Kirby's The Fourth World Omnibus, Volume 1, I couldn't get it out of my brain, and I blogged about it.

Since then, two more volumes from this series have been released, but this first Volume still resonates above and beyond the remainder of Kirby's Fourth World run. Volume 3 arguably features Kirby hitting his stride with these characters artistically, but Volume 1 is so full of un-matched cosmic ideas that it easily takes its place among the great comics released in 2007.

Even though this first Volume is my favorite, I love how DC chose to reprint Kirby's Fourth World saga as a single text, with the individual issues from four different comic book series printed in order of publication, allowing the threads to weave together in a way they wouldn't have if each series was published on its own (as it had been in the past). The Fourth World works as a single text, by the way, not because the issues directly tie into one another the way any recent crossover series would, but because each issue is a thematic layer towards something larger, something that Kirby couldn't articulate directly. The Fourth World stories combine, not in the way of a mosaic, or a tapestry, but like a grand fireworks finale. Each explosive issue contributes to a larger, brighter, booming display.

Read it.

Top 20 of 2007: #19 Fantastic Four Omnibus Volume 2

I didn't buy the first Fantastic Four Omnibus when it was initially released. I already owned the Masterworks editions, and I didn't see the point. But when this volume came out, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't ignore the ratio of greatness included between the two oversized, hard covers. True, I already owned the Masterworks that included this same material, but I sold those suckers once I got this, covered the cost of this beast and made a bit of a profit. But before I sold those Masterworks, I compared the printing in each, and the Omnibus BLOWS THE MASTERWORKS AWAY.

I was especially impressed with the way they corrected the printing of Fantastic Four #52, the first appearance of the Black Panther. In the Masterworks edition, Volume 6, I believe, the Black Panther is just a blob of blackness. In the Omnibus, you can actually see the interior lines and the shading. In that same issue, the Fantastic Four look drawn with cheap ballpoint pen if the Masterworks are to be believed, but the Omnibus returns the proper line weight and matches the original art with much more accuracy.

If you think you already own these stories (and by the way, this Omnibus reprints Fantastic Four #31-60, plus Annuals #2-4), and you don't own this volume, then you're wrong. The Essentials, the Masterworks, even the original comics, can't compare to the way the stories look here. And, as you must know, this is the height of Lee and Kirby: The first appearance of Silver Surfer and Galactus, the Frightful Four, the Inhumans, Black Panther, "This Man, This Monster"--these stories are all in one gigantic, beautiful hardcover edition.

The only reason not to buy it is the cost. But, you know what, you're worth it.

Read it.

Top 20 of 2007: #20 Blue Beetle

As much as I love Keith Giffen (and I love him a lot, me being a bit-time Ambush Bug and Legion fan and all), Blue Beetle really became a great comic when John Rogers took over the title as the solo writer. On top of that, Rafael Albuquerque became the regular artist in 2007, and his expressively clean linework has made this comic one of the best-looking DC titles each month.

Blue Beetle is a great example of what an ongoing comic book series can be, largely because Rogers knows how to structure a large-scale story (a complex and subtle alien invasion--the underlying story for the entire series) and yet keep each installment relatively self-contained. Plot threads continue from issue to issue, but Rogers actually has things happen in each individual episode, and that makes for some old-school comic book enjoyment. Plus, Rogers has developed a vibrant supporting cast to provide a layered backdrop for the adventures of Jaime Reyes, boy-superhero.

This comic has been referred to as a kind of DC version of Spider-Man. I don't disagree, but a more accurate comparison would be: Blue Beetle is a DC version of Ultimate Spider-Man, except better, faster, and more compressed. And, it's totally different.

Read it.

Just Outside the 20: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD Masterworks

I've already blogged about the quality of Powr Masters, The Salon, and Wisdom, all of which made their mark in the great comics year of 2007, but this has also been a good year for collected editions of classic material, and one of the best of the bunch is "Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD Masterworks, Volume 1." It didn't quite make my end-of-the-year Top 20 list, but I loved the heck out of it.

Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Masterworks, Volume 1

After Stan Lee and Jack Kirby brought their WWII-era Sgt. Fury character into the present as a government operative during an early issue of Fantastic Four (the one featuring the shocking reveal of the Hate Monger as, gasp, Hitler! Remember when people thought Civil War was going to turn out with a reveal like that? Good times!), a latter-day Nick Fury series was inevitable. The resulting comics, which took the gruff, cigar chomping military hero and mixed him into a "Man from U.N.C.L.E."-inspired world, are far superior to anything Lee and Kirby produced on the Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos series, even though Kirby only did layouts on the SHIELD stories. The problem with the Howling Commandos comics is that each issue tried to be more bombastic than the last (and apparently Lee's intention with Sgt. Fury was to show that the "Marvel style"--that is, totally over-the-top action and drama escalating from page to page, combined with pathos--could work in ANY genre). Because Sgt. Fury is a bombastic character in a bombastic setting (World War II, vs. Nazis!), everything feels even-keeled and therefore flat. By juxtaposing the Howling Commander himself, Nick Fury, with the sleek (and more "quiet") spy genre, the series increased the dramatic tension. Plus it had lots more cool gadgets.

What did I like? I like being able to watch Stan Lee and Jack Kirby make up this corner of the Marvel Universe as they go along. The same could be said about any Silver Age Marvel Masterworks title, I suppose, but these Nick Fury stories are only 12 pages long, and they feel even more improvised from issue-to-issue than most other comics of the time. Perhaps it was because the Marvel line was expanding by the time Nick Fury became an Agent of SHIELD, and Stan and Jack were at their frantic height, but whatever it was, it worked. At first, they seemed to play the series as a straight spy narrative, forgetting who Nick Fury used to be (or maybe assuming he'd softened up in his old age--not that he looked a day older than he had in World War II, even though the SHIELD stuff began twenty years later). Soon, though, Fury started acting like his name--raging against the buttoned-down conformity of his administrators, chomping on cigars, nearly getting fired as often as he saved the day. And the birth of Hydra happens in these pages, along with AIM and brilliant third-tier criminal geniuses like Mentallo and the Fixer. All of these sinister threats are tied together by a larger-looming threat, obliquely referred to as "THEM," although I'm pretty sure THEM ends up just being the Hydra organization after all. See, they were clearly making it all up as they went along, and it is an absolute blast to read.

Why didn't it make the Top 20? "Making it all up as they went along" is great, but it also leaves some strange moments littered throughout the book. Old Howling Commandos Dum Dum Dugan and Gabe Jones show up as SHIELD agents without any explanation, and without much specific reference to their past relationship (and without any rationale to explain why neither they nor Fury have aged a day in the previous 20 years). The evil machinations are revealed to be the work of the villainous Hydra organization, then AIM (a division of Hydra) joins the fray, then another incarnation of Hydra, and even Mentallo and the Fixer supposedly operate on behalf of Hydra. In other words, too much Hydra in this book. A bit more variety would be nice, and a little less slavish imitation of the Man from UNCLE. Plus, as sharp as the artwork is with Kirby on layouts and guys like John Severin, John Buscema, and Jim Steranko on finishes, I know the book gets EVEN BETTER when Steranko takes over and turns the whole comic into a mod trip through super-spyland.

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD Masterworks, Volume 1 is a great addition to the Masterworks line, and I can't wait for the next Volume. Read it for yourself and you'll see why Nick Fury was such a cool fixture in the Marvel Universe.

Just Outside the 20: Wisdom

Here's another book that I liked quite a bit--I kind of loved it, actually--but not enough to list it in my Top 20 of 2007. It's a good comic and you should check out the trade.

Wisdom, by Paul Cornell, Trevor Hairsine, and Manuel Garcia

Wisdom began last year, but most of the six issue series came out in 2007, and it's the fourth best Marvel comic of the year. I won't tell you what the other three are yet, because they're all on my Top 20 list, but this comic is in really good company. I'd never even heard of the Pete Wisom character (or writer Paul Cornell) before this series, since I'd dropped Excalibur the first time Alan Davis left, and I've never seen a complete episode of any incarnation of Dr. Who. Apparently Pete Wisdom was some kind of early Warren Ellis creation, and apparently Paul Cornell wrote some good Dr. Who stuff (episodes and novels and the like), but I didn't know any of that when I read the first issue. And it was my favorite first issue in recent history. Unfortunately, the quality wasn't as consistent all the way through the series, but it was still a pretty great six issues, and I believe Paul Cornell will begin writing the new Excalibur title next year, which means I'll have another Marvel monthly to look forward to.

What did I like? The first issue threw so many ideas at me, and Pete Wisdom, as cool as he is, was probably the least interesting. Cornell gave us the journeyman Captain Midlands, who was kind of like what Captain Britain would be like if he were mediocre at everything and kind of pissed off about it. He also gave us a Skrull who acted like John Lennon and some kind of badass pixie called Tink. The whole first issue not only had plenty of characters to introduce and plot to set up, but it also had action and humor. Every issue, in fact, seemed quite compressed compared to any mainstream comic over the past few years. Some readers complained about the lack of exposition, or the disorienting feel as each issue jumped ahead to a new adventure, but I reveled in a Marvel comic that actually moved forward. I don't want to give the impression that Wisdom was good just because it was better than the usual crap on the shelves. No, it was just so much better, without any fanfare, that it surprised me. And the first couple of issues were drawn by one of the most underrated superhero artists working today: Trevor Hairsine. If you've ever seen his Captain America arc from before the Ed Brubaker relaunch, you know how good he is. He also did the Ultimate Six miniseries, and the Ultimate Universe has never looked so good. I know it's blasphemy to say this, but I think he might be better than Bryan Hitch (who his style resembles), simply because he doesn't put the "camera" so close to the action. He gives us a deeper sense of how characters occupy space in relation to one another, which I appreciate.

Why didn't it make the Top 20? Unfortunately, Hairsine left after the first two or three issues and Manuel Garcia came in to finish the series as artist. Garcia is a fine penciler, and if he had done all six issues, I probably would have ranked the series higher, actually. I know that sounds paradoxical after raving about Hairsine above, but I value a consistent art team more than a flash of inconsistent brilliance. The inconsistent art hurts the overall story, and that bothers me. Also, Cornell started off with such a bang--some kind of war with the world of faerie--that the other issues seemed a bit less spectacular in comparison. Even when he brought in an army of Jack the Rippers, he couldn't top the opening issue.

Wisdom didn't get much attention from anyone this year, but it's been collected as "X-Men: Wisom--Rudiments of Wisdom" in trade paperback. I don't know if adding the X-Men tag (and it's not an X-Men book AT ALL) helped sales, but I suspect it didn't help too much, since it's currently ranked at #450,000 on Amazon, and even MY book is beating it, sales-wise, at #430,000. But Wisdom, whatever it's now called, is good--really good, and worth a close look.

Just Outside the 20: The Salon

Yesterday, it was Powr Masters which didn't quite make the Top 20 of the 2007. Then, I changed my mind about it. But, today, I'm taking a look at a book I liked that DEFINITELY will not make my Best of 2007 list, but it's still a pretty good graphic novel. By the way, in retrospect, 2007 has been a phenomenal year for comics, once you get past all the Countdown/Amazons Attack/Event Fatigue stuff that continues to wear all of us down.

The Salon, by Nick Bertozzi

When a book like this doesn't make my Top 20, you know it's been a great year. Nick Bertozzi's graphic novel is gorgeous--his characters are distinctive, his color palette vibrantly discordant, and his brush work is bold. The setting is fascinating, as well: Early-20th century Paris, as Modernism was beginning to blossom.

What did I like? The art and setting, as I mentioned above, definitely. I also fully enjoyed the Picasso and Braque interactions and the moment when they "discovered" cubism by looking at a crumpled up sketch. Bertozzi seems to be at his best, at least in The Salon, when he's linking the history of comics with Modernism with artistic inspiration, all neatly described in a narrative. He gives us a dynamic lesson about how artists influence one another, and the social roles each artist fulfills. Bertozzi is a major talent, without a doubt.

Why didn't it make the Top 20? Bertozzi relies too heavily on magical absinthe. The supernatural conceit of the graphic novel is that the characters can imbibe a blue absinthe which allows them to physically enter any painting they desire. The conceit is not only ridiculous (would these characters really want to enter into a painting? Haven't they seen What Dreams May Come? Robin Williams is waiting to pounce!) but it is completely unnecessary to the graphic novel. It feels like Bertozzi's attempt at "jazzing it up." He didn't seem to think anyone would want to read about the early Moderns making art, discussing art, embracing art. So he had to come up with something magical to compete with the attacking Amazons on the comic shelves. The conceit runs throughout the work, and it even builds to a "suspense-laden" climax. Unfortunately, the magical absinthe sequences are the least interesting parts of the book, and its emphasis, especially near the end, pushes all the really important stuff (like the advent of Cubism and the way this group of painters changed the way we see art) to the side.

The Salon is an important work by an important artist. But its flaws keep it from being one of the Best Comics of 2007.

Just Outside the 20: Powr Masters

I don't know exactly what will make my Top 10 Comics of 2007, but I have my Top 20 hammered out, and I know the books that fell a bit short. These were things I liked a lot this year, but not quite enough to give them a spot in the elite 20. Over the next week or so, I'll be discussing these books that fell short, explaining why I liked them and why they didn't quite make the list.

Powr Masters Volume 1, by CF

Don't be fooled by the seemingly simple linework and child-like compositions. Powr Masters is an adventure story which dips into the waters of surrealism and absurdism to create something that I've never quite seen before. And that's a good thing.

What did I like? The lack of exposition. Nothing is explained, and the disorientation contributes to the dream-like quality of the narrative. Characters appear without introduction, disappear, and then return later. The plot moves forward, but toward what? We don't know. Everything is a surprise as we try to decode the signs and signals from a world with which we are unfamiliar. CF uses the tropes and archetypes of Dungeons and Dragons-style fantasy adventures as his starting point, but this book has such humor and grace, and such mystery, that it avoids any of the cliches you'd find in any other Gygax-inspired tale.

One of my favorite aspects of Powr Masters is the straight-faced dialogue filled with non-sequiturs and absurdities, along with the seemingly unstoppable flow of ideas. Just when you think the story is settling into a pattern--some logical structure--something new pops up, whether it's an unseen prisoner shouting for help without much luck or a small army of robots emerging from the fertilized soil. It's the first of several(?) projected volumes, I believe, and I will certainly continue picking them up to engage in this delirious tale of who knows what.

Why didn't it make the Top 20? It's close, first of all. It would be in my Top 25. But it doesn't quite make the cut. The main reason is that it's the type of comic I could only recommend to a small subset of readers. Not everyone will "get" Powr Masters on any level. The art looks like the worst kind of amateurish on first glance, and the story doesn't "make sense." Most readers won't be able to get past that. I go back and forth on this stance, but this week I tend to think that Best Of lists should err toward widespread appeal and away from the esoteric. I might change my mind about this on other days, and scream, "No! Best Of lists should champion the new, the innovative, the bold, even when it will be despised by all but a tiny minority." And perhaps when other Powr Masters volumes premiere, I'll do exactly that, but I just don't think its quality outweighs its apparent ugliness. It's the comic book equivalent of a Guy Maddin film, and it's really not for everyone.

Edited to Add: You know, I reread Powr Masters last night, and I love it so much it might make the Top 20, hell--the Top 10--no matter what. It's really good, and I can't stop thinking about it.