Geoff Johns, and Jim Lee join Justice League

News Item (stolen from another column)!!!: Geoff Johns and Jim Lee coming onboard Justice League?!? Please say it's so!

Obviously DC is in need of something that will at least put them on the charts with the (supposed) Big Boys at Marvel. I can't remember the last time DC had more than three books in the top ten and am I wrong here or hasn't it been months since they've even seen the top slot? Johns and Lee on JLA is pretty much a sure thing and, lets face it, everyone knew Johns was going to have a stint on this book eventually. Its been far too long since his five issue Crisis of Conscience arc.

I just wish someone would tell Miller and Lee to give up their All Star title. It is ludicrous and awful after all.

Hey I feel like writing about some comics again!

It's been a while since I updated this thing and even longer since I did so with a string of short "reviews" so that is what I'm going to do. I grabbed a small stack of issues I felt I could blab about, flipped through 'em again and thought not-so-hard about what the experience was like. Read on...

NEW AVENGERS #51: I don't buy New Avengers every month. Not since the first story arc anyway. I discovered it's more of a wait-for-the-trade sort of series for me, but my brother does buy it monthly and since he is currently in Egypt I pick it up every month for him and post-Secret Invasion I just can't stop reading it.

This issue was sort of good. I like the fallout from Clint Barton's little anti Norman Osborn hissy fit, and I love the Chris Bachalo art who I've enjoyed since his days on X-Men. This story is kind of dull though. I'm not sure if its my general dislike for magic themed stories or just the fact that I'm reading it issue by issue with a month in between rather than my usual read-thru of the entire story in a single sitting. I think this is still a solid book but I also think I'll stick to waiting for the trade. Bendis stuff is just built that way for some reason.

MIGHTY AVENGERS #23: Again, another magic themed story and again another near miss. Is anyone else picking up on the distinct Kurt Busiek vibes that Dan Slott is giving off with this series? It's like he picked up where Busiek left off back in the early 00's. I like that but at the same time it just reads a bit hokey which is a trap I've noticed Slott falls into quite often when NOT poking fun at the hokiness he is invoking.

Pham's art just isn't as well suited for this book as it was Incredible Hercules either which adds yet another point against Mighty Avengers. Its sad, this series has seemed slightly misguided since the very start. I always enjoy it when I pick it up but it just never seems to strike all the right notes for me.

WOLVERINE #71: Finally the ideas bandied about in this story arc do something for me. I absolutely loved the imagery involved in the Pym Falls splash. Man that blew me away. And the Venom dinosaur was amusing. Still Millar is not Grant Morrison and he should stick to what he's good at which is ridiculous action sequences. Thankfully we get one of those near the beginning involving said Venom dino.

McNiven continues to turn in solid work. I don't think any where near the level of quality he brought to Civil War but still this is a very snappy looking book. I gotta say, considering the lack of truly good alternate future stories out there this one is a welcome relief. It will most likely take its place alongside Days of Future Past as one of the great X-Men related stories of this kind out there. Top marks across the board.

WONDER WOMAN #30: Y'know I just gotta give credit where it is due. Gail Simone has transformed this book from utter crap into pure gold. Diana as a character is more interesting than she has been since the Perez days, the stories she's telling are wonderful and full of adventure and her handle on the mythos of the character is top notch.

I'm especially pleased with this Rise of the Olympian story. For one thing Aaron Lopresti's art is looking the best it ever has, and for another this is an epic story worthy of the Wonder Woman title. I love the main plot, the character plots and all the little shenanigans going on behind the scenes. I hope Ms. Simone never leaves this title.

INVINCIBLE #60: Praise to Mr. Kirkman for trying something different is due. However, the results just aren't up to snuff. This book is way too full of action to advance any sort of story and therefore it reads like a deranged five year old (who is a really big Image comics fan) through it together on an etch a sketch.

Ottley's art was fine, though somewhat... jumbled, and I continue to be impressed by this new colorist though. Even when it fails Invincible does so with honor and dignity. Well maybe not dignity but there's some honor in here some where.

Ultiwhatum?

I'm not a big fan of a lot of the stuff that goes on in the Ultimate U. Sure I'm not as dead-set against the very idea of the Ultimate line as I once was but something about it has just never set right with me. I think, finally, Ultimatum has summed up my feelings on the Ultimate line as a whole. I'm going to bullet point this sucker because I'm feeling kind of lazy. Here it goes...

What I Can't Stand About the Ultimate Universe

• The lack of originality.
• The senseless deaths.
• The unlikable characters.
• The sense I get that every deviation from the original creation or story is meant to be perceived as ground breaking, "modern", or "hip".

There is more than that but those are things that leaped out at me as I was reading Ultimatum 1 and 2. Having let the cat out of the bag as to my feelings about the Ultimate line I have to admit to following, and enjoying certain titles. I think Ultimate Spiderman is a good title. I like Ultimate Fantastic Four as well. Which is frustrating for me because I'd rather just be able to hate the entire line out right and demean it to no end but it does have some high quality titles. I even enjoyed Ultimates 1 and the second half of 2.

Ultimatum meanwhile, is equally frustrating. On one hand I feel like Jeph Loeb is actually turning in some decent work here. Some of the character bits have been good, the action is well scripted (or maybe that's just Finch) and the story, though completely lacking anything resembling originality, is moving along at a good clip. Plus, David Finch is probably my favorite young artist out there. I just love his stuff.

It was just announced that after Ultimatum the line will be undergoing a complete overhaul. I'm holding my breath that maybe we'll get a line-wide restructuring that mirrors what Bendis has been doing on Ultimate Spidey since the beginning. Turning in entertaining, fun stories that restructure an existing character's mythology. Though not perfect I really respect the story telling that Bendis is doing on Spidey. He gets it. Now lets see if anyone else will.

I'm trying to make sense of Final Crisis...

Now don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the series, most of the tie ins, and in general the air of weirdness that accompanied the story itself. However, there was stuff that, as I was reading it, made absolutely no sense whatsoever. But, its a Grant Morrison helmed event so I knew one reading wouldn't suffice and therefore I have gone back to the series, no taken as a whole, and am rereading the main book, Superman Beyond, as well as Submit and Resist.

Okay so I get the Darkside falling through realities causing waves stuff. I get the fractured time, space and reality stuff. I get that the entire multiverse is at stake.

I don't get how Barry is back. I don't quite grasp the bullet being fired backward through time but I'm willing to go with it. I don't get who, what or why this Monitor Vampire shows up (though I still have four issues to read so maybe its explained and on my first read through I just missed it) even though hes the main baddie in Beyond. Wasn't the big bad of FC supposed to be Darkside? Bam! Nope here's a cosmic Vampire god to confuse you! I don't get why Grant structured the sixth issue the way he did. I can go with his hyper style of writing but the sixth issue read like a six year old on a sugar rush had written it. I don't get some of the stuff relating to Batman. I get that the omega beams sent him back in time but not some of the other stuff such as how he put that gun together to begin with.

BUT, I like that I don't get that. I like it that I have to reread a comic to understand everything. That's rewarding after plunking down over a hundred bucks on this event and all its ancillary spin offs. Heck some how I ended up with doubles of every issue so I don't mind one bit that I have to reread it to understand everything. Its like Morrison has crafted the superhero equivalent of 2001 A Space Odyssey. Props to you sir!

Best of 2008: Can we just finish this please?

Best Ongoing Series of 2008: Green Lantern

I just can't get enough of this book. Though some of Geoff Johns work seemed slightly off to me this year he continued to put out his finest work issue after issue on this title. The character arcs have been interesting, the stories have been huge, and the art is the best DC has to offer right now.

I really was not looking forward to the Secret Origins storyline. For one thing I get sick of origin stories and for another following up Sinestro Corps. War with something so seemingly small scale seemed like a poor idea. I was so wrong. Not only was this a wonderful introduction to Hal's origins but it set up so many other story lines and Johns expertly wove them in with already-established GL lore. Fantastic book month in and month out.

Best Mini or Maxi Series of 2008: The Flash: Rogues Revenge

I'm a die hard Flash nut. A huge part of that is due to his rogues gallery. When I was just getting back into comics John's Flash run was one of the first series' I collected and I grew to love all the characters that inhabited Keystone. Particularly Captain Cold.

I know it was a stacked year with both of the big two unleashing their mega events but sadly both of those series' let me down in some way. Rogue's Revenge did not. For one thing it redeemed characters who had been languishing in stupidity since Johns quit writing them. For another it reunited Johns with the characters he writes the best. There are so many great moments in this tiny three issue series that its hard to believe its as short as it is. Ignore that whole Final Crisis tie in stuff. While it does tie in to the mega event this is simply a great revenge story staring the best villains in all of comics.

Best Storyline of 2008 in an Ongoing Series: X-Men: Messiah Complex

I'm not much of an X-Men fan. I just can't seem to get past the years and years of convoluted history that confuses me to no end. I loved this storyline. In fact I've loved everything Mike Carey and Ed Brubaker have been doing with these characters since they came on board.

Not only have they made these books accessible but they've written the best crossover event I've seen since... probably something to do with Batman from the 90's. While I was lost a couple times as to who was who and what their motivations were this storyline was like the biggest chase movie never filmed. Good job guys. I finally care about the X-Men.

Soooo how about that Bill Willingham?

Allow me to interupt my lumbering "best of" list (seriously, at this rate I'll still be writing it in 2010) and just bring up a little editorial/manifesto Bill Willingham recently posted on a site called Big Hollywood. I've never been to the site before but I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's some sort of conservative thing just judging by the comments left after Bill's editorial.

First of all, I love it. Yep, I'm right there with Bill on pretty much everything he said. Unlike Mr. Robert Kirkman's manifesto last year, Willingham's is well thought out, and rather than attempting to rally the entire industry to his cause he merely lays out his thoughts on the offending topic and hammers home his own take and his plans to deal with the situation. I'm a fan of Willingham's Fables series but never have been entirely onboard with his work as a superhero writer. None the less I like what he says about writing them.

You see, I agree with his take on writing Superman, Batman, or heck any of the major characters created before 1960. Those characters were founded on certain ideals. Ideals which have been left behind with the passage of time. I like that he talked about Superman leaving the "and the American way." out of his credo. I was at a convention once where various comic writers (including Kurt Busiek who was taking over writing the character at the time) spoke about the need to let that expression go because Superman fights for everyone, regardless of country. While I respect the notion that Superman is a global hero I don't like the fact that it's considered passe to be representative of the country of America. Superman's adopted home country after all is America. It only makes sense. Not to mention that, though we are supposedly hated by every country in the world, America's ideals are the true standards to which every other country on this planet are judged. Excluding maybe Israel who I'm a rather big fan of.

I digress.

Willingham wants to put the "hero" back in superhero. Good, go for it. I'm all for it. Now the only area where that may not work are changing certain characters which were created with shady morally gray areas already as part of their psyche. But I like the idea that superhero comics need to be something that tries for a loftier ideal. Courage. Heroism. Honesty. Justice. So on. Folks, this is one of the reasons kids don't read comics. Why would a ten year old want to read about a Captain America who apologizes to a terrorist? Or a Superman who spends half a book crying because of a forest fire?

What I'm trying to say is that Bill Willingham is right. The big guns of both universes were created with certain ideals, standards, and morals in place. Don't take those things away from them in an effort to make them more prevelant in today's world. They have stood the test of time as they are. Leave 'em be what they are... heroes.

Best of 2008: Best Single Issue

Secret Invasion #6 is taking home this prize but it was a hard choice to make. Invincible, Captain America, Batman, and Infinite Crisis all featured single issues that were incredible taken apart from their larger story. However, in the end SI #6 featured just one iconic moment that pushed it above the others and was told in such a classy way by Brian Michael Bendis that it pulled ahead of the pack.

Leinil Yu did a tremendous job on the entire mini but on this issue he seemed to truly come alive, possibly even more so than he did in the two issues that preceded it. His handling of the various action sequences was skillfully done and the two page spreads at the end made me forget just what a time waster such a device usually is.

Bendis brilliantly started to pull all his loose threads together here and from a story telling perspective he handles it brilliantly. This is the moment in the story when things start to change from bad to worse to better and the volume is kicked up to eleven particularly in the final pages of the book. Sadly the rest of the series never reached the levels this single issue attained but that doesn't lessen it's impact.