A Pretty Good Year for Comics...

As a comics fan, I have to say there was a lot more good than bad this last year, and there was actually more stuff I'm on the fence about than stuff I outright hated, so that's a pretty good sign. I just thought this year I'd point out some of the high points and shit points in this year in comics:

Damn Fine Flicks:
This was a great year for comic films. Batman Begins, Sin City and A History of Violence weren't just good flicks, they were great and each had their own unique and interesting style that showed that the creators really got the books.

Batman Begins: Probably the most flawed film on the list, but still damned good. Basically, the film chronicles Bruce Wayne's training as well as his first year as Batman. Thankfully the film didn't try to simply remake the classic Batman story Year One (though there are a couple of references) and really focuses on showing how and why Batman operates the way he does and the building of the legend. Christian Bale is a great Batman (and he can move his friggin neck), Michael Caine even better as Alfred, the bad guys are actually worthy threats (unlike the last three flicks) and the film has an interesting original story. I hope the Superman flick is as good as this (fingers crossed). Still, the romantic subplot is pretty tacked on (like all the Batman films except the awful Batman Returns) and Batman doesn't really do any of the brilliant detective work I love the character doing.

Still, despite some misgivings, it's easily the best Batman film of all.

Well, maybe Mask of the Phantasm. Mark Hamill is the best Joker ever.

Oh, also the Adam West flick. "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb." Classic.

Sin City: My favourite comic book movie flick of the year. Actually, probably of all time. Style to spare, a warped sense of humour and a shockingly faithful adaptation to one of the most expressionistic comics of all time. The casting is all perfect, but Mickey Rourke as Marv proves to be one of those characters who is the epitome of testosterone-filled bad-assery. The other stories were good, but "The Hard Goodbye" has always been my favourite for it's simplicity and the extreme likability of Murphy. Sure, he's a nasty, cruel and seemingly unkillable legbreaker, but he has an admirable sense of loyalty and chivalry.

Sin City has some of the best art direction I've ever seen in a film and Robert Rodriguez proves again that he's a one man movie machine: composer, director, editor, producer, sound mixer, cinematographer and even visual effects. I mean, I've never seen anyone whose put so much of himself into his own movies, especially not for the big budget films that he's making these days (though he always finds neat ways to cut costs. Almost all of his DVDs have 1 minute (or was it 10 minute) segments on cheap movie making. Frankly, I'm proud of Mr. Rodriguez for leaving the director's guild to let Frank Miller get some co-director credit for the film. I really don't trust guilds on the whole, and though it may make his career a might tougher (living without whatever the guild provides... or does. What do they do?), I think he made the right choice.

A History of Violence: I was iffy on the movie for the first few 10 minutes (despite a great opening) mostly because of the cheesy "everyone-living-happily-in-a-quiet-community-where-everyone-knows-everyone-until-a-dark-secret-is-revealed" vibe but the film more than redeemed itself and proved to be one of the best films of the year. I like the fact that the violence of the film actually tends to start as "cool" film violence but then lingers on the fallen and injured and we see how disgusting and unpleasant violence can really be.

I also like the fact that it isn't just a "violence is bad" flick. What it is saying about violence is that generally unpleasant part of life but it does serve a purpose. It gives no definite answers but it forces the viewers to ask when is violence justified and just how we are supposed to live with it.

I like Cronenburg's "new flesh" films well enough, but I like the fact that he's getting away from that for a while with films like History of Violence and Spider. I'm really looking forward to what's he'll do next.

Fantastic Four & Elektra: I didn't see either but both looked really bad. I'm going to trust my gut on this one and avoid them. Shame, Fantastic Four was a favourite of mine and they have the best villain in comics, who was completely more or less ruined for the film.

Best Comics of the Year:

Seven Soldiers of Victory: It's one great series within seven great series. Basically, it's 7 mini-series that can be read as separate mini-series but also forms a greater whole as one epic mini-series. Taking some of DC comics more forgettable characters, writer Grant Morrison (master of the bizarre and brilliant) crafts a tale with 7 radically different heroes. Though they never meet, they end up unintentionally helping each other battle the evil Sheeda: aristocratic gods (that is to say that they are to gods what aristocrats are to commoner's) who are plotting to hunt down Earth's heroes... for leisure. The books are as follows:
frankincense: He's fighting evil... one body part at a time. Frankenstein must fight the evil Sheeda all while constantly loosing body parts but gaining new ones from fallen foes. IU nice odd super-hero horror comic.
Zatanna: She's a backwards-talking sorceress in SA: Spellaholics Anonymous. But now she's got to fall off the wagon again to save the world.
Mister Miracle: He's a flashy David Blaine-esque escape artist who discovers that he might just be an avatar to one of the New Gods. But unfortunately, the it looks like his psychologist might be an evil demon.
Bulleteer: She thought that her super-powers were the result of an accident in her husband's laboratory. Turns out her husband turned her into a super-powered metallic beauty because he's a superherophile whose into superior porn. Creepy.
Klarion: It's like Salem in the 1600's... only in reverse. A clan of witches living underground are worried about a boy's obsession with the surface world. That boy is the sinister hero Klarion, who must protect their evil brood from their own conservative world views... and an evil entity named Melmoth.
Shining Knight: One of the lesser-known knights of Camelot, Sir Justin came close to defeating a Sheeda in the form of an evil queen, who sends him far away. When he wakes up, he discovers himself in world of tainted Earth and air, strange men speaking a strange language taking pushing him into a steel carriage and who use a strange weapon to blow his horses head open. Surely, thinks Justin, a world this mad must be the work of the Sheeda. Can an Olde English-speaking knight survive New York City?
The Manhattan Guardian: He's a one-man masthead for a newspaper that doesn't just report crime... it fights it. All thanks to their new mascot/resident superhero. Can he and the ever-helpful Newsboy Legion stop a war between subway pirates?
All of these series are great and have sweet art by a host of different pencillers. I can't wait to see how the finished product is.

Legion of Super-Heroes: Great series, but I don't think it's getting the attention it deserves. Basically it's about a future where there is peace across the galaxy and there's no more conflict. What do the Legion of Super-Heroes say to that? "Fuck You." They know that just because people say they aren't necessary doesn't make it true and this legion of alien teenagers want to make the world a better place, defending the people from threats that the people deny exist. As a fun twist (like the original series it was based off of) only a few of these 30th century heroes actually have "powers", but since the team consists of different species from different worlds, a lot of them have their own strange innate abilities.
Each member is given a code name based on their power and gender (ie, Sun Boy, Lightning Lad, Karate Kid) and is allowed to enter "the Clubhouse" a giant base which the team resides.
Some of the more interesting members are Dream Girl (whose race has precognitive powers and is extremely carefree about her adventures since she usually knows how they'll turn out), and Collossal Boy (who comes from a race of giants and would rather be called Micro Boy because of his abilities to shrink and have adventures with the "little people"). With a cast of hundreds, one would think the group would be far to unweildy to write about and make them all interesting, but writer Mark Waid definately makes it work. Bravo.

All-Star Superman: Only one issue came out and its already on of my new favourite series. Now this is how Superman is meant to be: infinitely strong yet gentle, sympathetic yet stoic. No worrying about continuity or all that crap. No Superman brooding about the nature of his being or trying to be relevant. This is about Superman tackling real problems like alien invaders and Super-intelligent dinosaurs.

Promethea: Finally the apocalypse that's been promised through the series arrives and ipes out the Earth. Funny how that's a happy ending, huh?

Ultimates: Finally the traitor is revealed, heroes are sent to jail and we learn the truth about Thor... then we learn the truth about Thor. I was iffy when it came to the alien invasion story arc last year, but this year there's a much stronger thiller involving a super-hero arms race, heroes turning morally ambigious and the fall of America: both the Captain and the country. And It was sooo worth it.

Series that remain good but there's nothing special to sa about them this year: Walking Dead, 100 Bullets, Y - The Last Man, Fables, and Ultimate Spider-Man.

Stuff I'm on the fence about:
Infinite Crisis: I pretty much saw the big revelation at the end of issue three coming, but still there's a lot to like in the story. Unfortunately there's way to many extra stuff a reder needs to buy to help complete the tapestry of the story and while it looks like it's all tying together really well, I'm not sure it was worth about every DC book getting involved with the story. Bleh.

House of M: This crossover (from Marvel) as a lot more fun, but unfortunately the cool after math has spawned too many aftermath related mini-series and it sounds like the next crossover is still being set up while the readers and books are still dealing with the aftermath of the last one. Slow it down Marvel. Still, I like seeing what every Marvel heroes' fondest dream lives would be and how it all turns to shit (especially for Spider-Man). It was fun, but too much is being made of it.

Shitty Stuff:

Anything written by Chris Claremont: You're the man who made the X-Men popular. you have a lot to be proud of. But you suck now Chris. You have to accept it. Maybe it's time you rest on your laurels... before they're all gone. Wait, is that mixing metaphors. Come to think of it, I've never even seen anyone resting on laurels before. What's the deal?

All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder: Wow, Frank Miller wrote some great Batman stories but... this is awful. Unbelievably awful.
Here's some actual sample dialogue:
(After seeming to murder cops with the afterburners on his Batwing and kidnapping/rescuing Dick Grayson and telling him that he's no his "soldier")
Dick Grayson: Wh-who are you?
Batman: Who am I? What are you, retarded? I'm the GODDAMN BATMAN!

Wow, really? Cause you sure don't sound like him. Don't get me wrong, every writer has their own interpretation of Batman (take Adam West for instance) but while I've accepted a range of Batmen, this feels really unBatman. It's really more like some psychotic abusive asshole Dad. Maybe played by R. Lee Ermey, the delightfully sadistic and much spoofed drill sarge of Full Metal Jacket fame.

Superman is supposed to show up in issue four. I imagine he's going to use his heat vision to burn out the eyes of orphans and then use a bazooka to blow up an orphanage while saying "I'm from Krypton, cockfuck!"


While there are probably a lot I'm over-looking, these are the only things that spring immediately to mind.