So I'm something of a Thor fan. It may come through in my review of Alan Davis' Thor: Truth of History. Davis' work almost defines my idea of a 'classical' style, and that issue didn't disappoint.
Wolverine: Manifest Destiny presented an interesting angle on the X-Men's relocation to San Fran. I lived in S.F. for a little, and the fact that this book made me miss that city is a testament to a job well done.
I've said it before, I'll read Mike McKone on any book, so I had to take a look at his work on the Spider-Man Annual. This was a big reveal for ASM, built over a long time, and for me it just fell flat. As a whole I've been for the repurposing of the Spider-man brand with the 3x monthly release, but it does put on pressure to deliver on the bigger storylines. Personally, this one just didn't deliver to the fullest.
Obviously the Fantastic Four should always be one of the strongest franchises in comics, if only because the structure is so perfectly sound. There is a rare balance to that cast, and one that can be made even better with strong characterizing of the children. Also, Reed Richards enables you to tell pretty much any story imaginable, so there's no excuse. Given all that, I think Millar and Hitch are doing the property justice.
I had a grea opportunity to catch up with a gang of Vertigo all-stars for the Hellblazer 250 anniversary issue, which was a blast. Hellblazer really is Vertigo, so getting that particular group was a rare, awesome opportunity.
The Best of 2008 article was a fun exercise because it allowed me to pull back and look at the titles as they had performed over the entire year. I sometimes get frustrated with reviewing books in a monthly format when they can be so much more richly appreciated given their context within a larger tapestry. I found this was particularly true for the Kingdom Come/ JSA story that had just wrapped, so I took the opportunity to try and examine it as a whole.
Green Lantern: Secret Origin and Punisher War Zone couldn't be any more different as comics, but man are they both fun. I guess I'm just a fan of the broader direction of Johns' GL book, with the emotional power spectrum and the impeding War of Light, so seeing the retrofitting of the earliest seeds of that story in the classic origin was fun. Also, I read Ennis and Dillon's Marvel Knights Punisher book well before I'd read Preacher, so the band getting back together was noteworthy to me. And it's funny, because you'd never want to see a Preacher sequel, but there's nothing wrong with revisiting Frank Castle.
It is good to see an Iron Man book that's become must-read, because the character clearly deserves it.
I don't think I've ever been happier with a stack of comics than I was the week Invincible/ Wolf-Man/ Gigantic/ Umbrella Academy/ Atomic Robo all dropped.
I've really enjoyed seeing Millar and McNiven's take on the future of the Marvel universe with Wolverine Old Man Logan and I'll never complain when Steve Dillon and Garth Ennis work on anything together, nevermind the Punisher.
Rick Remender's new Punisher title does a great job differentiating itself from previous iterations by setting him so intently against the mega- forces of evil that now rule the Marvel U. That series looks to be a fun ride.
Not a bad week with both Prometheus and Spider-man & X-Men. I basically checked out the Spidey/ X-Men team up exclusively for the appearance of Ben Reilly- the Spider-clone- because I'm that guy.
Sometimes you want a book that will just sober you up, and both Kobra and Ruins do that. Kobra was a pretty aggresive retooling of the villainous organization, and made me think this could be a big year for Ivan Brandon, either at D.C., or wherever. Ruins was obviously a rerelease, but it was new to me, and given the Kingdom Come and Marvels sequels, it was a great time to read Ellis' thesis on why nostalgia was basically wrong. It was a wicked downer, but man I dug it.
It's not all about comics, all the time. I got a great opportunity to get some of my Inauguration writing up on the Boston Herald site. I'm happier with the way the full travelogue came out here and here, but the opportunity to do it for a real news venue really solidified the moment in a way that doing it just for my own wouldn't have. I don't think it's an understatement to say it was the most gratifying experience of my life, but I guess it will take time to gain perspective on something like that.
Man, I love Scott Pilgrim. I wish every comicbook I read was as good. That is all.
Should have more stuff coming up soon, but it's been a pretty good few months for me, just in terms of getting different kind of work done. I'm always happy to shoot the shit about comics, but I'm also excited at the prospect of taking the same set of skills and talk about what happens on the days besides Wednesday.
