Year In Review - Comics Books of 2007

We come to the end of another year, and now is the time to look back in fondness of the good stuff as to we try to drink away the bad stuff. And so it goes with the comics world, as every reviewer and blogger has fun making their list and checking it twice as we expel the virtues of the great works of the past year. Who am I to resist the siren's song of the "Best of" list, so I present to you, my fine readers, a selection of categories chosen by me, with a bunch of winners and also runner-ups, also selected by me. Love it, hate it, agree with it, disagree with; please do me the favor of commenting below.

 

Best Writer – Ed Brubaker

Runner ups – Brian Michael Bendis, Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Darwyn Cooke

Not a very difficult choice to make on this one. No writer had a more varied line-up of titles while keeping on schedule and making every book a great read. Let's look at Bru's hit list for this year: Daredevil, which is maybe not his stand-out book, but is good every month; Immortal Iron Fist, co-written by Matt Fraction, admittedly I've switched to trades on it, but the first arc was very exciting and this is well regarded by a lot of people: Criminal (see below); Uncanny X-men, I had a blast with Bru's first arc on the title, and I'm hearing good things about his issues of Messiah Complex. Finally, there's Captain America, which had a lot of buzz early in the year, thanks to a certain big event, but that buzz was stupidly squandered through no fault of his own because of Marvel's production. Brubaker is telling a very long, involved plot here with a ton of characters, but the reader never feels lost. What other writer can boast having one of the best series on the market without a single appearance by the title character?...continue reading this article at Geeks of Doom!

Weekly Comic Book Pulls for 11-29-07

All-star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #8
What’s this? An issue of All Star Batman that I didn’t really have any problems with? That’s right; this is probably the first issue that I really enjoyed the whole way through. Maybe I’ve just grown used to [Frank] Miller’s portrayal of Batman in this series as a lunatic jack-hole, and I can just have fun with it. It probably helps that I’m not so attached to Batman that anything outside the norm becomes sacrilege. That said, this whole series will read much better once it’s finished, because every issue tends to go by too quickly. Jim Lee’s art is up to his usual standards though, so at least it’s always good looking. Maybe this series will take a good upswing just as it’s coming to an end. ---4 out of 5
...come see what else Henchman21 has been reading at GEEKS OF DOOM!

Weekly Comic Book Pulls for 10-24-07

Ultimate Spider-man #115 – Great art, Immonen is really working well here. Great writing, Bendis understands his characters and knows how to get the best out of them. ---4 out of 5

Casanova #10 – Still crazy, still fun, still awesome. Fabio Moon’s art is I feel easier to follow than Garbiel Ba’s art was one the first bunch of issues. You can tell this is Matt Fraction’s baby. ---5 out of 5

Umbrella Academy #2 – Meanwhile, Ba is the perfect match for this book, and I think the colors from Dave Stewart really help bring the work to life. Builds on the promise of the first issue. ---4 out of 5

JLA Classified #45 – Martian Manhunter deals with his crazy mental clone of a brother who killed all the other Martians and is no trying to get the Manhunter to kill himself or be killed by his friends. Read it for Rick Leonardi’s art which is great. The story is kind of crap though. ---3 out of 5...come see what else Henchman21 has been reading at GEEKS OF DOOM!

Weekly Comic Book Pulls for 9-12-07

Green Lantern #23
This is still the best event of the summer, with great art coming from Ivan Reis and Geoff Johns handling a ton of characters, but still making the events important to all. The whole thing just feels epic, with lots of large fights. Hal and company manage to rescue John Stewart and Guy Gardner this issue, but run into new problems, namely, the Anti-Monitor. The whole threat seems real; the only problem comes from DC, revealing what will end up happening to Kyle as Parallax. Lots of great action in this issue. --3 out of 5...come see what else Henchman21 has been reading at GEEKS OF DOOM!

Weekly Comic Book Pulls for 8-22-07

Green Lantern Corps #15
I am really enjoying the Sinestro War story line going on between Green Lantern and this book. It’s high octane action with some great character moments. This particular issue is basically the Battle of Helm’s Deep in space. The Sinestro Corps have come to the Green Lantern planet of Mogo, who is not only a source of great morale for the GL’s, but apparently is the being responsible for find new ring bearers when the old ones die. So, it’s pretty important to the GL’s to protect him, and it’s important for the SC to destroy him. This is big epic action though, planets literally collide. It’s also nice that you can read this and add another layer to the story going on in Green Lantern, or you can ignore it and not miss anything. As with the story, this is the way big event comics should be. Dave Gibbons handles the large cast well, as there are a ton of characters on each side, many of them with alien dialects, but it never gets confusing, and a special mention to the letterer Phil Balsman for making each characters word balloons distinctive. Patrick Gleason and Angel Unzueta split the pencil work and really bring a lot of intensity to the work. The action leaps off the page and in a story with this much going on, the story telling never makes it confusing. Get over your event fatigue and pick this book up. --4 out of 5...continue reading this article at Geeks of Doom!