2010 Iceberg Ink Comic Book Awards

Drat and blast. Seeing Scott’s 2010 Iceberg Ink Awards I was moved to match it with my own comic book themed version of said awards.

Please keep in mind that I’m a DC guy and while I have no anti-Marvel bias I also don't have the kind of budget necessary to read the entire breadth of either’s company’s line.

Also, if the stuff I’m talking about happened in 2009 or earlier, than please keep that information to yourself and I’ll try harder (and fail) to embarrass myself less in the new year.

BEST WRITER
Geoff Johns
Maybe I should retitle this one MOST PROLIFIC WRITER. Being named DC’s Chief Creative Officer, commensurate with all the new responsibilities that entails, has in no way slowed Johns down. He continues to pump out some of the most enjoyable and accessible super-comics available on shelves today. GREEN LANTERN, THE FLASH, SUPERMAN, BRIGHTEST DAY and BLACKEST NIGHT might not be everyone’s cup of tea but the mere fact that Johns can juggle that many ongoing series and not drop the ball says a lot about the level of talent on display here.




BEST ARTIST
Doug Mahnke
Look, I’m just going to go ahead and say Doug Mahnke here allright? I love seeing the inventive and brilliant ways he keeps the Green Lantern series crackling. Even when a pair of characters are just sitting around jawing Mahnke always manages to keep something interesting going on in the background. Um, that’s not a basis for giving the award, ok? I just like the way the man draws.






BEST SERIES
The Walking Dead
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnd I ‘ll saaaaaaay THE WALKING DEAD. Once a month I get to eat chocolate chip peanut butter ice cream. It fills me up, it’s always delicious and it leaves me wanting more. And then I anxiously wait another 30 days before I can have it all again. If that’s not worth a 'Best of' award than I clearly I fail to understand the concept of award giving on a fundamental level. THE WALKING DEAD is always the first thing I open up when I get home and I’m forever foisting it off on other people who I think might even have an outside chance of picking up the series. I even got my wife to read and that is saying something.










BEST MINI SERIES
The Rise of Arsenal
THE RISE OF ARSENAL, FTW. Obviously, In this instance I’m using ‘best’ as a substitute for ‘painful and bizarre’. Look, he fights crime high on life and wielding a dead maggot ridden cat, and he only had to have his arm ripped off and his daughter summarily dispatched to do so. Poor Roy Harper has had a rough go of things lately and while it might be harder to write a story about a well adjusted recovering drug addict and single father I also think that’s a relatively untapped demographic in superhero comic books these days. We already have enough wigged crazy killers and now Arsenal is just one of many. Boo-urns I say.

BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE
Iron Man II
IRON MAN II. While it may have been a tad more bloated and slower than the original it still managed to hit just enough of the right notes to keep it in the same irreverent and light hearted vein as the original. Kudos go to the franchise’s twin pillars of strength, director Jon Favreau and actor RDJ. It’s a crying shame that Fav has left the series but, knowing Hollywood, I wouldn’t count him out quite yet.

Comic book reviews for the week of December 15th in six sentences (or less)

Best of the Week

Green Lantern #60

In contrast to last issue’s talky-talky vibe writer Geoff Johns has come back with a heavy fighty-fighty one. The mysterious bandaged figure, who’s been kidnapping the various colour spectrum entities, turns out to be Krona. And, as near as I can remember, the last time we saw Krona was in the pages of TRINITY where he was forced back into the Cosmic Egg from JLA\Avengers. There’s no explanation offered for his return, or why he‘s interested in the spectrum entities. So expect a Johns-style continuity patch in the next issue or so.

GREEN LANTERN often straddles the line between ludicrous and awesomeness, but the more I read it the more I’m convinced I’m privy to an institutionally sanctioned fan-fic adventure. It always seems like Johns is trying to create fantasy versions of established characters. “What if Batman was in the Sinestro Corp?” or “What if the Flash was taken over by Parallax?” If I’m being pessimistic I’d say its a cheap way to create new action figures based on a couple panels of story.

With Johns and artist Doug Mahnke continuing to rock out this title every month, GREEN LANTERN is easily one of the most consistent titles put out by DC. With a GL movie hitting the screens in 2011, anyone with a casual interest in the franchise should be looking to pick up this title to get a feel for the character and his extended universe.

Batman and Robin #18

Featuring the origins of Batman’s (and Bruce Wayne’s) newest enemy, The Absence. This issue is mostly explanatory back story. The Absence is born when rich socialite Una Nemo is shot in the head and dumped into the Gotham River. Through a combination of river pollution (really, are we still using pollution as a viable method of creating villains?) and Dandy Walker Syndrome, which are fluid filled spaces in the human brain, Nemo survives her experience to become The Absence. Scarred and traumatized as a result of her near death experience Nemo develops an obsession with capturing the attention of Bruce Wayne with whom she had a brief romantic fling before she was shot.

Paul Cornell serves up a perfectly serviceable, if a bit slow, origin story. And if wasn’t for the fact that DC put two artists on this thing in order to push this issue out in time I think we’d be looking at a better than average Bat-issue. But, in reality, the whole thing feels a bit rushed and I’ve come to expect something more than ‘perfectly serviceable’ from the writer of ACTION COMICS and KNIGHT AND SQUIRE. Better luck next time.

Brightest Day #16

Hey, it’s the untold origin of Aqualad y’all. Turns out he’s the son of Black Manta and an Atlantean prisoner from the inaccessible undersea prison colony of Xebel. (Don’t you just love comics?) Ivan Reis draws pretty pictures and writers Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi do a good job in creating an intriguing backstory for Aqualad. Interspersed throughout are brief snippets of the Firestorm plot, which is a shame because the Firestorm story is the weakest ongoing in BRIGHTEST DAY. Barring that unfortunate misstep this series is a great example of what bi-weekly storytelling can do when you put top drawer talent behind the wheel.

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #5

Guy Gardner and co. continue their exploration of the unknown sector when they’re waylaid by a squadron of rogue green lanterns who seem to think our heroes are Sinestro Corps soldiers. Of course that means we’re about to be treated to some lantern on lantern violence and writer Peter J. Tomasi succeeds in delivering the goods. Artist Fernando Pasarin continues to rock this title as well displaying an incredible range of action. From shoot em up battle segments to lower key emotional interactions Pasarin manages to capture the nuances of each scene perfectly.

A couple points to quibble with. Looks like there’s some broken telephone at play amongst the GL titles. First of all, over in GREEN LANTERN #60, we’re told that its been six weeks since the events of BLACKEST NIGHT, but EMERALD WARRIORS states that the events within its pages are taking place almost twice that amount of time later. Furthermore, in GL #60, Sinestro goes running when he’s told that his daughter’s life is in danger. This is a direct contradiction to what’s happening in GREEN LANTERN CORPS where Kyle Rayner pleaded unsuccessfully with Sinestro for help using the exact same argument.

When you try to run three separate titles in the same shared story space these kinds of things are going to happen. It’s minor irritant but it says something to the level of quality of the story telling when I’m reduced to complaining about these kind of minutiae.

Superman #706

So, with the departure of uber-writer it JMS it turns out that last month’s fill-in issue wasn’t really a fill in after all, but a declaration of the new status quo. Picking up the reins of the title are writer G.Willow Wilson and artist Amilcar Pinna. Sadly, the results are fairly uninspiring. This issue takes us away from the Grounded storyline to check in with Perry White and the staff of the Daily Planet. Apparently without Superman stories to print the planet has fallen on hard times and has come under attack from a local journo-blog. This issue grates on my nerves. A financially strapped Daily Planet is clichéd Superman plot line #42. I can’t begin to count the number of times this hackneyed story has been trotted out.

I’m convinced that Willow hasn’t actually checked in with a major print publication in the last ten years. He tries to portray the Planet like an out of touch dinosaur, unable to keep up with the changes in technology. Perry White doesn’t know what a blog is, he doesn’t know how it works and he sure as hell doesn’t want one near his newspaper. In reality, newspapers today have been forced to embrace new media a long time ago, employing bloggers and a vibrant web presence in order to retain readers. When a writer clearly doesn’t understand what it is he’s talking about it destroys any interest I have in the story, especially when he uses it as central plank of the whole story.

Oh, and one more thing. Perry White doesn’t smoke. He developed cancer a few years ago, almost died and he f@cking gave up cigars as a result. Do me a favour and stop trying to put a cigar back in his mouth, because when you do that what you’re telling me is that cancer scare was pointless.

Comic book reviews for the week of November 17th in six sentences (or less)

Once again its time for the GTA’s greatest (and shortest) comic book reviews.

Today’s reviews have been brought to you by the letter ‘E’ and the word Exposition. Because this week’s comics are just dripping with unnecessary and long winded backstory.

No best of the week I’m afraid. While I didn’t review any out and out stinkers this week I’m afraid nothing really stood out in a positive sense.

So without further ado lets get into the verbage.

Avengers #7
I know I said I wasn’t going to read this title anymore. Well I’m not made of stone people, get off my back. I admit, I was sufficiently intrigued by the thought of Rulk joining the Avengers to pick up this issue. There’s not much to this one. Brian Michael Bendis, should have just saved some time and sub-titled this story Exposition. Anyway, former depowered super-villain, The Hood, goes looking for the Infinity gems. He manages to find two of them before stumbling into Rulk. Unfortunately I’m not a Marvel guy so I know next to nothing about the Infinity gems. Only that they’re so dangerous that they’ve been split up to prevent any one person from wielding that much power.

Bendis pulls an old Geoff Johns trick to let you know just how bad ass the villain of the story is, by getting him to beat down on someone who’s already a pretty well established bad ass. JRJR makes some pretty-pretty pictures and in four weeks I’m going to have to ponder whether or not I have the strength to not buy issue #8. That’s the kind of dilemma you want to have.

Flash #6
I wonder how long it will take DC to renumber this title? Will they pick up Barry’s old numbering? Wally’s old numbering? Or just add everything together? It probably doesn’t say much for the review that I’m leading with a dilemma on numbering. Considering that all sorts of series from the Big Two have done this recently I really think its just a matter of time. Anyway, this issue wraps up the Dastardly Deaths of the Rouges plot. Future- Top is outed as a villain and Barry puts the beat down on him, saving Iris’s life in the process, naturally. Francis Manapul does some lovely art and Geoff John hints at future plot lines, including the Kubert drawn Flashpoint that we saw teased at the end of Rebirth.

Green Lantern #59
Someone at DC was earning their media cross promotion badge this week by making sure that this issue dropped at the same time the Green Lantern trailer was being released. My thoughts on the trailer? I was underwhelmed but cautiously optimistic. Right now I’m worried that tonally it seems akin to the IRON MAN franchise and I’d be much happier if GL staked out its own territory. But its much to early in the game to start worry about that stuff now.

In this ish Flash and Hal stand around and talk, a lot. Then the Indigo Tribe, with reformed serial killer the Black Hand in tow, show up and then there is slightly more talking. Thank God Doug Mahnke is such a gifted artist that’s he able to make even what is essentially 22 pages of talking heads look good. There was a new twist on the origins of the Indigo Tribe that I thought was very interesting. (I enjoy how Johns is rolling out the different limitations or powers of the various Corps. Its about more than making giant day-glo boxing gloves in a rainbow of colours.) Anyway its implied that the Tribe might be composed of murderers and villains who have had compassion bestowed upon them. And that without their rings they might just revert back to form. Just how far down the road is Johns planning his next mega event anyway?

For the casual fan I’m this issue suffered from a dearth of combat. But sometimes you’ve got to change the pace up a little and I think this story is meant to give the audience a bit of a breather.

Justice League of America #51
Is this what comics used to read like before CRISIS OF THE INFINITE EARTHS? A couple of momentum killing paragraphs inserted at the beginning of each issue to explain the science behind the Multiverse? I’m a reasonably proficient Multiverse individual and even I found my eyes glazing over at the pseudo-science explanation. In this issue the Crime Syndicate of Amerika has accidentally created Onslaught, sorry, the Omega Man in the hopes of returning Lex Luthor (and or Darkseid depending on who yer talking too) back to life. Things go awry, as things tend to do, and the end result is big bad meanie intent on killing everyone in sight. Just take a deep breath and enjoy Bags on the pencils wouldn’t you? There, doesn’t that feel better?

Superior #2
Well, we’re still stuck in exposition mode. A very slow burn, especially for Millar. He takes us through the paces, doing a standard kind of ‘getting to know what makes you and your powers tick plot.’ The Superman comparisons are still there. Only this time instead of having to rescue a failing airplane or space shuttle Millar decides to drop a whole space station from the heavens (rendered impressively by Leinil Yu). The casual swearing in the comic doesn’t bother me, mostly cause when I was the age of the kids in this comic I was using language a lot saltier than the F-bomb. Millar clearly knows that he’s limiting the number of potential buyers by making this an R-Rated comic, but he goes for it anyway. I always enjoy it when a writer or filmmaker goes for the throat and turns out an uncompromising product, regardless of what it means to the bottom line. It may not be a better product but at least they can’t be blamed for taking half measures.

Superman #705
Superman continues on his quest to moralize across America, one step at a time. This month the subject is abuse and why its bad; complete with Supes breaking the fourth wall and staring directly into the reader’s soul. It’s the same kind of preachy, over the top and slightly dull storytelling that has come to characterize this title under the pen of JMS. With JMS’s imminent departure it’ll be interesting to see if this title will continue to meander along the story wilderness or get a much needed shot of adrenaline to the arm. I think the last time Supes was this underexposed was the mid 90’s when he was officially dead. Remember when he used to hold down FIVE ongoing monthlies?

Confining Superman to a single title was never going to be a roaring success, especially given the subject matter the writer has chosen to write about.But, if I’m trying to put a positiver spin on things. At the very least I used to be able to look at it as a temporary time out, a chance to cleanse the palette and generate some demand to see more exposure for the character. But now that JMS has sworn off monthlies and can’t even be bothered to see the great experiment to a close, Grounded qualifies as an out and out failure. I’d like to say at least the art isn’t so bad, but even this issue is pencilled by two different people. So, hurray for inconsistency.

Comic book reviews for the week of October 13th in six sentences (or less)

Hey everyone, these are 24 hours late because we suffered a power failure last night (which feels like the modern equivalent to 'the dog ate my homework').

Best of the Week

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5

The current chapter of Grant Morrison’s Batman epic is drawing to a close. And even the most casual fan of either the writer, or the character he’s playing with, has to respect the lengths to which Morrison has gone to mine the lesser known aspects of the franchise and reconcile some of its more fantastic elements. Suddenly, everything is on the table, because it all happened. Every cockamamie Silver Age story that was wiped away by CRISIS OF INFINITE EARTHS with an embarrassing shrug actually took place. It’s like the Batman franchise has been rebooted on the sly and decades worth of stories are now relevant again, or at least deserve a chance to be re-examined in the wake of Morrison's stint.

Hellblazer: City of Demons #1

I’m not sure why the Hellblazer franchise decided to spin this story out into a miniseries, because right now there’s nothing taking place in these pages that can’t be handled in the main title. Is Vertigo sitting on a backlog of ‘blazer stories and wanting to see some return on their investment? Anyway, I would have passed on this if it wasn’t being pencilled by the fantastic Sean Murphy. You might remember him from his work on JOE THE BARBARIAN and Learning with Wolverine. There’s nothing here that you don’t see in a straight of ‘blazer story. John Constantine drinks, smokes, acts like a dick and is apparently still British. All good in my books, but I’m still curious to see what makes this story so special.

Knight and Squire #1

Combining Paul Cornell, the current writer of ACTION COMICS, with Knight and Squire, one of Grant Morrison’s great reinventions seems like a recipe for printing money. In reality it’s neither good nor bad, but just kind of...there. The writing is solid, the art passable but not spectacular and its full of British-y goodness. Surprisingly, it does nothing for me. The story deals with heroes and villains that gather to socialize once a month at a local pub, prevented from fighting each due to the influence of ‘truce magic.’ As you might expect, the truce is broken and chaos ensues. I’m willing to stick with the story for another issue, but this title will really have to up its game if it expects to keep me as a reader.

Green Lantern #58

One of things that impresses me about Geoff Johns is the man’s ability to stick with a title. In today’s comic book market, some writers can’t stay with a book longer than an arc or too. Yet Johns frequently manages to write on a title for years, a rarity in any age and practically unheard of today. With Doug Mahnke rocking the pencils and Johns continuing to pen the story he’s been working on for the last five years this title is consistently at the top of my pull list. This month we’re treated to the continuing adventures of the Rainbow Raiders. Johns is doing an admirable job portraying the disparate personalities that banded together after the events of THE BLACKEST NIGHT in a realistic and believe manner. (Well, as realistic as a group of aliens with multicoloured magic wishing rings can ever hope to be)

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors

Peter J. Tomasi might not be gracing the pages of the GREEN LANTERN CORPS anymore, but he’s not too far from the GL franchise thanks to his work on EMERALD WARRIORS. I get the impression that Johns uses the main GL title to tie the franchise into the DCU and move events forward. This leaves GLC and now EW to pick up some of the dangling plot threads and flesh out the larger world of the Corps. Its a system that works really well for all the titles involved. And Fernando Pasarin is just killing it on pencils. I’m not used to seeing art this great on a book that I consider to be part of the expanded DCU and not a core title.

Superman #703

I’m conflicted. On the one hand I respect what J. Michael Straczynski is attempting to do with the Superman franchise. He’s trying to approach the character in a fashion that he believes has never been done before. And I respect that. On the other hand, I’m not sure he’s been entirely successful in his aims. Let’s face it, when you have a publishing history as long as Superman does there aren’t very many unexplored angles. While readers may never have seen it in such an elongated form, the concept of a reflective Superman has been done before, many times over. Done properly in the course of a single issue it can be a powerful tool. Spread it across an entire story arc and it can border on tedious. This month, Superman continues in his mission to walk across America. He gets in a fight, wins it and everything looks pretty much the same as it has in his world for the last 70 years. I’m not willing to write JMS off yet. But at this point I’m look forward to his SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE book more so than I am his work on the main title.

Superior #1

Say what you will about Mark Millar, and the man certainly has his fair share of detractors, but the man knows how to make the most of what he has. If he’s not promoting himself, or his work, he’s name dropping his Hollywood connections or stepping outside his traditional box to try new things, like directing a film for pete’s sake. The man is a shameless huckster and the comic world is better for it. Whether you like or dislike his writing most people seem to have an opinion about it. Which means you’re probably reading what he puts out and that’s the point of the whole thing. Anyway, SUPERMA…I mean SUPREM…er…SUPERIOR #1 is a straight up origin tale with Superman like overtones. Most origin tales are limited by what they can do as they’re too busy checking off the obligatory narrative plot points. With any luck the second issue will allow Millar to start monkeying around with conventions of the genre.