I
got a lot of comics in 2011, and as people often do at the end of a year, I've
taken a moment to reflect on my purchases and share the resulting insights with
you, the unwary reader. This is the last day, so if you’re visiting for the
first time, I’m afraid you’ll have no idea what’s going on.
The
Midnighter and Garth Ennis do graphic, fun violence. Volume One was The
Midnighter versus Hitler and time cops. The concept is so high that when high
gets a long weekend, it gets Ennis’ Midnightered for three days straight. On
paper, it’s diet pepsi and pop tarts.
The
execution was pop tarts and the star Rigel. This analogy doesn’t work because
those two things don’t “mix” and don’t make bad comics. Maybe it’s not Ennis’
fault. The Midnighter is admittedly a two-faceted badass character; it’s
possible that he needs an ensemble to contrast with, or at least a straight
man.
#1
Worst
The Authority: Stuff
that came after "Transfer of Power," but before "The LostYear," not that TLY was all that great.
The
Authority murders threats of the “armies of advanced beings who’ve spent millennia traveling between universes” class and lower. This makes writing The
Authority hard; there is no escalating force and enemies don’t (often) come
back from the dead.
You
see sporadic character development in the margins of their spectacle fights,
but Ellis’ big screen action and Millar’s militant liberal mary sue-ism weren’t
what made The Authority legendary; it was that The Authority was nothing like
anything in comics. As soon as someone tried to make The Authority like another
comic book (even The Authority itself), the venture was doomed.
#7
Worst
Joe the Barbarian by Grant Morrison
If
The Neverending Story had book babies
with, um...I guess The Neverending Story,
then you'd have Joe the Barbarian. That's not a bad thing; it's a big story and
a small story simultaneously. It's an amazing concept and an exceptional read.
Also,
it’s beautiful and Captain Picard is in it. On an unrelated note, it is hard to
talk about why good comics are good, but easy to ramble about the failings of
bad comics. It sucks that it’s hardcover, but that’s like complaining that
All-Star Superman came out in a single trade after I bought the two separate
volumes.
#6
Best
Unwritten Vol 1 by Mike Carey and
Peter Gross
If
I can forgive the parallels between Joe the Barbarian and The Never Ending Story, I can forgive Unwritten for coming across
as being a bit too close to Harry Potter and The Truman Show. This alternate history
of writers thing is interesting. I’ve heard nothing but praise for this series.
But
no. The pat “solve Dad’s old mystery” and “evil conspiracy” angles don’t do a
thing for me. Nothing has hooked me. I don’t like these characters. The
protagonist never gets his feet under him and neither did I. I might read more,
but I wouldn’t pay money to.
#9
Worst
FC:R
is a 24-pack of Pop-Tarts. There's the, "Spectre and Rene Montoya as The
Question? Let's fucking do this!" followed about an hour later with,
"Let's never do this again. Can I please vomit now?" It's so much
irrelevant, histrionic, artless crap. It addresses the question some (weird)
fans might have had about the presence of The Christian God in light of Darkseid's
destruction/assimilation of everything in existence. Let me answer that in a
much shorter format with fewer pictures of people screaming, crying, and making
the most/least obvious foreshadowing for a dues ex rectum in literary history:
“Shut up.”
#2
Worst
Planetary Vol 4 by Warren Ellis
How
do I explain Planetary to you? How do I explain one of the best comics ever
written and illustrated? How do I explain that despite drinking deeply from the
well of the 20th Century’s richest fiction, it remains something original? How
do I explain that it plants a seed in the reader that grows into a brilliant
light that makes them want something better from comics, from the world, and
from themselves? How do I explain the joy that sinks teeth into the throat of
cynicism with the challenge of real change? It is the best comic in comics.
#1
Best
Batman & Robin: From the return of Bruce Wayne up to The Reboot by Grant
Morrison, Paul Cornell, Peter Tomasi, and Judd Winick
#8
Best
These
aren't mind blowing, but they're consistently solid and, like Breaking Bad,
they should be the standard to which their medium is held. Cornell isn’t afraid
to present, “Yeah, they blew a whole in this woman’s head and now she’s smarter than ever!” That takes moxie. And I like
moxie. Tomasi takes the eye rolling concept of people dressed up like
phosphorescent angels work because the overused symbolism is created by a
psychotic in context. Winick does a red-headed Jason story. My point is that this
book was started by Morrison, but ended up being better than Morrison.
Runs away.
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