2007 review, Part 1

Rather than come up with one of those super-popular top 10 lists, I’m just going to ramble a bit about the things I liked (and didn’t like) about the comics I read in 2007 and the movies and TV shows made from them. This grew too long, so I’m going to do it in a few parts.

While crossovers and events have dominated the superhero scene for what seems like decades now, the practice achieved an unprecedented level of permanence this year that leaves it increasingly unlikely that either Marvel or DC will deviate from the event model anytime soon. It would be great if either publisher could launch one or two new series that didn’t revolve around a key event plot point and stand on its own as something new and fresh to explore. Bur perhaps I’m just being overly nostalgic for the days when it at least seemed like there were new corners of those respective universes to explore.

Marvel wrapped up Civil War with a conclusion that seemed to leave everyone flat despite the promise that the concept itself had. The follow-ups in The Initiative books never seemed to catch on, while the Death of Captain America became a media moment that passed almost as quickly as it arrived.

On the plus side, World War Hulk managed to deliver some very cool destruction and was one of the more fun Marvel books to read (endless tie-in series aside), while the X-Men line showed some signs of life with an overlong buildup to a so-far-so-good x-over in Messiah Complex.

Spidey, however, took a drubbing in the wake of Civil War on the path to the much-debated One More Day series. Few Spidey fans seem happy with this material, though the end result of Brand New Day (bumped into the 2008 column) may make up for it if the revamped Amazing Spider-Man series works out.

Marvel also took some interesting chances this year, with the adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower being a huge success and a plethora of formats from digest to omnibus giving fans plenty of options at the comic shop.

DC was in-between universe-wide crossovers this year, with the weekly series Countdown doing its best to fill the gap until Final Crisis. Countdown itself got off to a troubled start, failing to conjure up the excitement that its predecessor, 52, had drummed up. While 52 was well-defined from the start — chronicling the events of DC’s missing year in real time — Countdown lacked a similar, easy to digest log line and seemed to lack the focus that kept 52 on track.

Of the various DC heroes, Green Lantern had the best year, with The Sinestro Corps War surpassing all expectations and perhaps finally gave the character the definitive story arc he’s long needed. Flash, on the other hand, crashed and burned and seems as lost as ever despite DC’s best efforts. Wonder Woman fared slightly better, seemingly recovering from the scheduling debacle of Allen Heinberg’s Who is Wonder Woman? arc and the misfire crossover Amazons Attack! to get high-profile novelist Jodi Picoult on as writer, followed soon after by Gail Simone.

Superman had his own scheduling problems, both on the Richard Donner-involved plots in Action Comics and Kurt Busiek’s Camelot Falls, and ended up with some of the better stories the Man of Steel has had in recent years. Batman, being the best character DC has, fared very well this year with scribes Grant Morrison and Paul Dini.

And then there’s the All-Star line, home to Morrison and Frank Quitely’s very good (albeit overly nostalgic) All-Star Superman and the god-awful All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, which — despite gorgeous art from Jim Lee — was home to the worst moment in superhero comics this year, with Batman and Black Canary screwing on the docks in the pages of issue #7. Writer Frank Miller’s narrative caption for this special moment reads: “We kept our masks on. It’s better that way.” Besides being just plain laughably bad, this was supposed to be part of a line that DC intended to use to spotlight top characters and creators in a way that expanded the audience, not make it laugh out loud.

The good indie stuff was really spread out this year, and showed a bit more life than in the past few years. Seeing the likes of Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis take their more interesting work to Avatar and Dynamite was refreshing, and gave readers the kind of sharp content indie comics used to be known for. Ellis hit the mark on Black Summer, Crecy and Doktor Sleepless, while Ennis continued to have fun with The Boys and Streets of Glory.

Matt Fraction continues to be a writer to watch, and Casanova is a dependably funky head trip. Other cool books I dug this year include: Joe Casey’s Godland, Eric Powell’s The Goon, Immortal Iron Fist, the return of Tommy Monaghan in Hitman/JLA, Jeff Smith’s Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil, Darwyn Cooke’s The Spirit, Vertigo entries Army @ Love, DMZ and Scalped, Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together, Mouse Guard, The Plain Janes and the Heroes hardcover.

It’s also great to see so much archival material in print in such nice packages, with Harbinger: The Beginning, The Complete Terry & The Pirates Vol. 1, and Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus being particular favorites. 

More in Part 2 ...

Mad's 20 Dumbest: Entertainment outtakes

Mad Magazine's annual list of the 20 Dumbest People, Things and Events of the year hits the stands this week. The list includes, in typical Mad fashion, the usual gang of idiots (Britney, Lindsay, George W.) as well as a few newbies (Michael Vick, American Idol's Sanjaya). But the best of this year's crop is No. 13 on the list: Alternate Sopranos Endings That Would Have Been Better. Click on the image below for an advance peek (warning — the image has to be pretty large to be legible, so you may want to download and look at it in an image editor).

Also worth a look is No. 9: The Giant Toy Recall, at right. In the meantime, we can look forward to next year's edition, which will surely include some kind of commentary on the writer's strike.

DC bridges 'Lost Boys' pics

More than 20 years after Corey Haim schooled Corey Feldman on proper retail placement of Superman comics in "Lost Boys," the vampire movie is set to come to comics courtesy of DC in a four-issue miniseries bridging the gap between the original film and the upcoming sequel, "Lost Boys 2: The Tribe."

The series will be written by Hans Rodionoff, who also wrote the sequel film and penned the low-budget 2005 film adaptation of Marvel's "Man-Thing," with art by Joel Gomez, whose credits include Wetworks. The sequel, currently listed on IMDB.com as a direct-to-video features, will see Feldman reprise his role sans pal Haim and is set to come out in 2008.

More Events: super*Market, 'Heroes,' CBLDF, Bug auctions

The super*Market minicon is back after a few years off, moving from UCLA to Meltdown Comics on Sunset Boulevard tomorrow, Dec. 15, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Slated to appear are Jordan Crane, Martin Cendreda, Johnny Ryan, Steven Weissman and Batton Lash and Jackie Estrada of “Supernatural Law” fame, among others. You can check out further details at these fine sites.

The Jules Verne Adventures Film Festival is going on this weekend, with a special appearances by the cast and creators of “Heroes” and a tribute to Stan Lee set for Saturday night at the Los Angeles Theater. Appearing from the show — currently on hiatus pending the settlement of the WGA strike — will be creator Tim Krink, co-exec producer Jeph Loeb and cast members Jack Coleman, Dana Davis, Dania Ramirez, Masi Oka, Greg Grunberg, Cristine Rose, Adrian Pasdar, Milo Ventimiglia, Sendhil Ramamurthy and special guest Malcolm McDowell. The event is set for 6 p.m., and tickets can be purchased here.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is hosting a party for members (old, new and yet-to-join) on Wednesday, Dec. 19, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Golden Apple Comics on Melrose. Comics pros in attendance will include Brian K. Vaughan, Percy “MF Grimm” Carey, Rob Schrab, Gerry Duggan, Marc Andreyko, Christos Gage and Larry Marder. Festivities will include a charity auction, food and drinks, and discounts and gift bags for org members.

On the topic of worthy causes, the Comic Bug shop in Manhattan Beach is auctioning on eBay 10 classic Silver Age Marvel comics signed by Stan Lee and certified by the CGC, with 10 percent of the proceeds going to the Hero Initiative. There’s still a few days left in the auction to get your mitts on such key books as Amazing Spider-Man #4 in 6.5 grade, an Iron Man #1 in 7.5 or an X-Men #1 in 3.0. The list of titles can be found here.

News: JLA costumer dies; Myriad deal; Wonder Woman; X-Men manga

After some much-needed time off in the tropics (sans Internet), we’re back to see what’s been going on the past week.

* Marit Allen, costume designer on the still-in-preproduction Justice League of America film, died Nov. 26 of a brain aneurysm in Sydney.

* In an increasingly common scenarios, Myriad Pictures has signed a deal with Studio 407 to develop feature film versions based on the company’s comicbook properties. If you haven’t heard yet of Bangkok-based Studio 407 or its titles — Tiger and Crane, Night and Fog and Hybrid — that’s because they’re all still coming sometime in 2008. (The last two titles above sound like comics designed to promote safe driving in adverse conditions and sell cars.) Deal also allows Studio 407 to develop graphic novels based on Myriad properties. With so many new comics houses teaming up with studios, it’s starting to look like a crowded corner of the movie biz. Yes, comics movies have done very well and will continue to do well, but there’s still only so much demand for material that’s obviously “comicbooky,” i.e., superhero-like, and it’s highly unlikely that there’s enough demand out there to support all the Platinums, Virgins, Radicals, Devils Dues and Myriads that are trying to stake a claim in this area — either in the direct market or in Hollywood. And while the money in publishing is minimal compared to the norms for film and TV, a crush of comics properties that are popular or proven neither as movies or as comics is likely to hasten the inevitable day when superhero movies (regardless of whether they have capes) become yesterday’s fad.

* Grady Hendrix, who writes the Kaiju Shakedown blog at VarietyAsiaOnline.com, writes in the New York Sun about Wonder Woman and why most people know so little about a character who’s been around for so long.

Even people with a tenuous grasp of pop culture know that Superman is from the planet Krypton and works at the Daily Planet. They know that millionaire Bruce Wayne saw his parents murdered in Gotham City and became Batman. But they're a little foggier on Wonder Woman. She's an Amazon from ... Amazon Island? No one's even quite sure what she does. Ambassador? Warrior? Gym teacher? Few people know that she's really Princess Diana and that she has two mothers. Formed from clay by the Queen of the Amazons, she was imbued with the attributes of the Greek gods by Athena — "beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, swifter than Hermes, and stronger than Hercules."

Wonder Woman has the benefit of being the defining superheroine of the Golden Age, which explains why she’s survived so long and is so widely known, but suffers from a career of extreme creative inconsistency and even indifference that is perhaps only explained by the simple fact that for decades the men who wrote comics were just not interested in giving a female character the same sort of attention to plot, character and mythology that they are male superheroes. What even the most talented of today’s creators are left with is a character whose premise and mythology is confusing and vague, yet at the same time nearly impossible to change because no one knows what the essential elements are to this character. The closest I can recall to Wonder Woman being an interesting character and well-crafted comicbook was nearly 20 years ago, when George Perez et al. relaunched the character after Crisis on Infinite Earths. But even that remains a largely ignored storyline for a character desperately in need a definitive storyline that can set a direction fot this character to move beyond familiar cypher to compelling character and essential mythology.

* Marvel and Del Rey announced at last weekend’s New York Anime Festival they would collaborate on two new X-Men manga projects. First would be a two-volume shojo (girls’) manga written by Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman with art by Indonesian artist Anzu, and set to debut in spring 2009, described in a press release as follows:

As the only girl in the all-boys School for Gifted Youngsters, Kitty Pryde, a mutant with phasing abilities, is torn between the popular Hellfire Club, led by flame-throwing mutant Pyro — and the school misfits, whom she eventually bands together as the X-Men.



The second series also is set to debut in Spring 2009 and will focus (surprise!) on Wolverine.

I’ll believe this will work when I see it. It’s not that it’s a bad idea, though if you’re going to turn X-Men into manga (it’s been done before), it makes little sense to me to try to turn it into a shojo romance rather than go for an action-packed title of the type that could appeal to the boys who made the 1990s animated series such a smash hit.

TONIGHT: Boom! Studios' Holiday Party

Boom! Studios is hosting an open Holiday Party tonight at 7 p.m. at Meltdown in Hollywood. Best part, for those who may swing by the shop at 7522 Sunset Blvd., is FREE BEER. Here's the flier:

Crossing the Line 3 — Spider-Man: One More Day

Books and creators: The Amazing Spider-Man #544, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24, Sensational Spider-Man #41; written by J. Michael Straczynski, art by Joe Quesada and Danny Miki

Marvel, color, 48 pages, $3.99 each.

So? Of all the A-list franchises in comics, Spider-Man has had probably the least success with the line-wide crossover saga. That’s at least partly due to the number of books the web-slinger usually stars in, which are usually fairly tight in terms of continuity and lessening the need for a true crossover event.

But there are times when Marvel needs or wants to draw attention to Spider-Man, and that’s about as good an explanation as you’re likely ever going to find for “One More Day.” Hyped as a major turning point in the lives of Peter and Mary Jane, this turns to be exactly what fans have expected all along: A way for Marvel to “erase” their marriage so Peter Parker can go back to being a single geek for whom girls are nothing but trouble. Marvel’s editor in chief, Joe Quesada, has been vocal about how the two characters’ marriage 20 years ago (yipes!) undermined what he thinks was a key part of Peter Parker’s original appeal.

With this kind of rationale for its existence, it’s almost impossible to judge this story on its own creative merits. Quesada is undeniably a talented penciller, and the script from the departing J. Michael Straczynski tries very hard to execute a concept that’s a hugely difficult pill to swallow in just about every way.

The third part of this four-part story, in Sensational Spider-Man #41, has Peter and MJ encountering Mephisto — Marvel’s version of Satan, Lucifer, etc. — who offers to save the life of Aunt May, who is certain to die after being mistakenly shot by a sniper who was trying to kill Peter, in exchange for their marriage. The idea is they’ll forget they were even married, except for a small part deep down in their souls that will despair at the loss, and it’s that part that will satisfy Mephisto.

Aside from Mephisto not being the type of villain that works in Spider-Man stories, this strains credulity and raises more questions than it answers about how Marvel intends to go forward with the character and his place in the entire Marvel Universe. Given that everyone in the Marvel Universe knows Peter is Spider-Man after he unmasked in Civil War #2 and that he’s married to Mary Jane, any sort of “mindwipe” affecting the entire universe is just plain unbelievable. It’s not clear if MJ will still be around at all, or if she and Peter will be adults or go back to being teenagers or if they’ll still be dating at all. What are they going to remember about the last few years of their lives? If the unmasking is undone at the same time, how does that affect every book that was tied into Civil War? Even the stated of goal, of having Peter go back to worrying about girls, is strange and seems unlikely to work unless you take him back to high school age. A single adult who works as a teacher, photographer or scientist and can’t get a date is far less sympathetic than a geeky teen who can’t get the girls at school to notice him.

The motive here also is hard to figure out, as the “classic” conditions this series is trying to restore already exist in the very popular Ultimate Spider-Man series, and already does a far better job of playing with them than the new, three-times-a-month Amazing Spider-Man series likely will. Why not just have multiple versions of the character for different audiences, and let people read the one they like? De-emphasize MJ if you like, but for anyone who’s been reading and liking the book for the last few years, this is going to be a majorly difficult pill to swallow, with seemingly very little potential gain. The sooner this is over, the better — a sentiment sure to be shared by comic shop owners who’ve endured delays as this weekly series has turned at least monthly and left them with a fraction of the usual number of new Spider-Man comics to sell. Grade: D

Crossing the Line 2 — Batman: The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul

Books and creators: Batman #670, written by Grant Morrison, art by Tony Daniel and Jonathan Glapion; Robin #168, written by Peter Milligan, art by Freddie E. Williams II; Nightwing #138, written by Fabian Nicieza, art by Don Kramer and Wayne Faucher; Detective Comics #838, written by Paul Dini, art by Ryan Benjamin and Saleem Crawford.

DC Comics, color, 32 pages and $2.99 each

So? Focus again helps make the first Batman crossover in quite a while, “The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul,” work as a reasonably entertaining crossover.

This shorter event — running one prologue and seven chapters through Batman, Detective Comics, Robin and Nightwing — begins with the return of the nominal villain, whose consciousness has been residing in a rapidly decaying alternative body since his “death” in Batman and the Maidens. Ra’s is looking for a new permanent vessel, and has his eyes set on his grandson, Damion, the child of his daughter Talia and Batman. Throw Batman’s current Robin and adopted son, Tim Drake, as well as Dick Grayson’s Nightwing into the mix, and you’ve got a pretty good setup, which is no surprise with the likes of Grant Morrison and Paul Dini each writing a book.

Now about halfway through its run, “Resurrection” has kept up a good pace, features fine artwork and has been quite easy to keep track of as it moves from character to character and book to book. Those basics covered, however, this lacks the kind of scope demanded by a story deemed worthy of a crossover. While X-Men: Messiah Complex is about saving mutants from extinction, the conflicts here are internal and again seem to rotate around Damion, Tim and how Batman should feel toward them or choose between them. Damion, as a fairly new character, hasn’t earned enough audience sympathy for his death to be a loss anyone would care much about. In fact, his whiny obnoxiousness so far recalls Jason Todd, whose stint as Robin was so reviled that he was killed off by fans in a high profile phone-poll event almost 20 years ago.

While entertaining, this doesn’t feel special enough for a crossover and likely would have benefited by playing out in a single title, where a writer would have had more room and time to turn it into a compelling story. Grade: B-

Crossing the Line 1 — X-Men: Messiah Complex

Books and creators: X-Men: Messiah Complex #1, written by Ed Brubaker, art by Marc Silvestri, Joe Weems and Marco Galli; The Uncanny X-Men #492, written by Brubaker, art by Billy Tan, Danny Miki and Allen Martinez; X-Factor #25, written by Peter David, art by Scott Eaton and John Dell; New X-Men #44, written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, art by Humberto Ramos and Carlos Cuevas; X-Men #205, written by Mike Carey, art by Chris Bachalo and Tim Townsend.

Marvel, color, 32-48 pages and $2.99 to $3.99 each

So? Crossovers are a fact of life in superhero comics. No matter how often fans complain about them — how they fail creatively and require buying more books than normal to get the whole story — the votes that really count, i.e., sales, show otherwise.

While universe-wide crossovers like Infinite Crisis and Civil War have dominated of late at DC and Marvel, this fall sees the return of crossover to the families of books that used to define event publishing for superhero comics.

The X-Men pioneered this kind of crossover with 1986’s Mutant Massacre, and are back at it with Messiah Complex, the first such X-event in several years.

Following the depowering of all but 198 mutants in 2005’s House of M and Beast’s attempts in the Endangered Species backup series to save the small mutant population from eventual extinction, Messiah Complex sees the birth of the first new mutant and starts a race between the remaining mutant factions to find the child.

As far as concepts go for crossovers, this so far is working quite well. Having a point is more than half the battle when it comes to crossovers. Having a focus also benefits the crossover structure, which in this case goes between four different books, all of which have to both advance the overall story and spotlight its own cast of characters. That’s why parallel plots are common in crossovers, and they work here because the stakes are large enough to justify giving each group its own thing to do in pursuit of the overall goal. It also cannily revisits popular characters and, in some instances, restores at least some of the status quo on characters such as Mr. Sinister and Gambit.

Combine that with very good art from the likes of Marc Silvestri, Chris Bachalo and Humberto Ramos; excellent and consistent coloring; and a distinctive cover design, and you’ve got a good chance of achieving the nominal goal of bringing back lapsed fans for at least a look.

In the end, this appears to be a series that will neither excite fans the way 1995’s Age of Apocalypse did nor bore them as did Operation: Zero Tolerance. The biggest disappointment is that for all the effort put into making this coherent and competent — qualities that most X-overs have struggled to achieve — it isn’t even trying to deliver the kind of change the X-Men truly line needs to redefine itself as an exciting and accessible reading experience that can draw in new readers. That may be an unfair judgment, given that Messiah Complex was never intended to be that kind of story, but when all you’re shooting for is to recapture old fans, there’s little chance of sparking the kind of idea that’s going to truly capture the imagination of readers of any kind. Grade: B