Astro City #2 (2013 volume)

Fans of Damage Control would do well to check out this month's issue of Astro City.  As Dwayne McDuffie answered the oft asked question "How DO they repair all the damage to the buildings after super-villain attacks so quickly?", Kurt Busiek answers the question of how one would go about contacting a superhero in your time of need.  After all, the Superfriends' Trouble Alert can only handle so much and it's not like Batman has a Bat-Site where he'll take on work as a consulting detective for any case that interests him. 


Enter Marella Comper - the latest hire for the call-center of the superhero team The Honor Guard.  When super-villains are trashing your neighborhood or you think you've contracted Venusian Bird Plague, who are you going to call?  Well, yes - The Honor Guard.  But who is it that handles the call and decides if they need to call in the cavalry, the cops or the CDC?  Marella or one of her co-workers - that's who!  This issue follows Marella as she learns the ropes and comes to value the small but important role she has in helping the world's greatest heroes do their jobs.


I'm kicking myself for not having found this series sooner.  The scripts are well-written.  The interior art and covers are amazing.  I have no excuse for having waited as long as I did to give this series a shot.  If you haven't visited Astro City yet, do so immediately.  You'll be glad you did. 

Astro City #1 (2013 volume)

I have a confession, dear readers.  I may well have to hand in my geek card and leave Internet Comic Critics Local 401 in shame once this review is over.  But I am nothing if not honest and honesty demands that I come clean upon this matter.

...

Until today, I've never read a single issue of Astro City.

I know!  I know!  I have no good reason for this, save the same reasons everyone has (money is tight, time is limited, etc.) for never reading a classic.  And make no mistake - Astro City is a classic.  While I've never read the series, I'm broadly familiar with it, the themes behind it and a few of the major characters. 

When it first premiered in 1995, Astro City was a beacon in the midst of The Dark Age of Comics.  It was one of the first Modern Age comic books, which mixed the sophisticated storytelling techniques that became more commonplace during The Dark Age with the trappings and optimism of The Silver Age.  It was a love letter to everything about superheroes and comic books that inspires hope and makes us feel like kids again.    



Kurt Busiek speaks to new and old readers alike in his afterword on the title page of this issue.  He apologizes to long-time fans for the delays in bringing this volume about and explains to the newbies how, despite this issue having a big #1 on the cover, there's 59 issues of Astro City before this.  He then assures the new readers that every effort has been made to make this new series accessible to them.

For the most part, this first issue is successful in that goal  We do have a lot of characters thrown at us that a new reader won't recognize but it's not important toward the overall plot.  And what is the plot you ask?  Classic comic book craziness, as a mysterious set of doors appears in the harbor over Astro City's port and proves resistant to all the local superheroes' efforts to open it. 

All of this is watched over by a figure who calls himself The Broken Man, who informs the reader that they are now working for him and goes on to describe his efforts to stay off the radar of an unseen menace called Oubor.  The Broken Man then bids us turn our attention away from the heroes towards a common man named Bill Pullam, who may have a greater part to play in the story to come if we all just think hard enough...


While I'm new to Astro City, I'm well familiar with Kurt Busiek's writing and the grand master is still in fine form.  I know enough to know that this series is less about superheroes and more about people - the people behind masks and the people they save - and this issue is indicative of that theme, with more attention being paid to one ordinary man than to the more colorful characters behind him.  The overall effect is one that will leave new readers wanting to track down the older Astro City stories so they'll know who the heroes in the background are rather than feeling annoyed that we get no explanation or introduction to them here.

Artist Brent Anderson matches Kurt Busiek for quality and creativity.  Best known for his work on the classic X-Men story God Loves, Man Kills, Anderson is a great artist in his own right and - it turns out - no mean mimic of other artistic styles.  My favorite moment of the issue involves a bit that I shan't reveal here but it simultaneously manages to be both a hilarious parody of/glorious tribute to the works of Jack Kirby.

Bottom Line: This is a great read and a wonderful introduction to Astro City.  I'm kicking myself for not having visited it sooner and encourage you all to avoid my mistake. On that note, Comixology currently has the very first Astro City story free for download and a lot of the other issues for sale at $1.99 each.  I know I'll be downloading as much of the series as I can come pay-day and I'm sure I won't be alone!

Conan: Born On The Battlefield - A No Flying, No Tights Review

When I first got into fantasy literature as a teen, my mother financed a shopping spree at the local bookstore as a reward for my good grades. I remember the day quite well, yet I can only remember one of the books I got that day. I suspect this is because it was the one book my mother raised an eyebrow at and I had to do some fast-talking to convince her that the book with the half-naked barbarian and equally nude amazon next to him were as harmless as the He-Man toys I had so recently sold at a garage sale.

This was my first exposure to Conan the Barbarian – not through the legendary comics by John Buscema and Barry Windsor-Smith, nor the Schwarzenegger film, but through the pastiche novels of Steve Perry and John Maddox Roberts. It would be several years before I’d become a regular comics reader and learn of the full rich history of Robert E. Howard’s Hyboria. It would also, coincidentally, be at my first comic book convention that I would be lucky enough to meet Kurt Busiek, shortly after the announcement that he would be bringing Cimmeria’s favorite son back to comics.

Busiek’s series would prove to be a perfect marriage of Howard’s dark vision and the high-action illustrated fiction penned by Roy Thomas. This is not to say the comics by Roy Thomas were light and cheerful affairs, but even in the days of the revised Comics Code Authority, there was only so much one could get away with. Busiek’s Conan was a graphic novel for adults – one which presented an unflinching view of Howard’s Hyboria in all its visceral glory.

This first volume, Born On The Battlefield, details Conan of Cimmeria’s formative years.  We lay witness to the titular birth, seeing something of the inner strength the Cimmerian people are famed for, as Conan’s mother moves to protect her husband in the middle of a warzone while coping with labor pains.  Conan’s birth is held as a prodigious omen by the rest of their tribe – a fact that sets Conan apart from the other children, for good and for ill, as he grows to become a respected hunter at a young age, as well as a target of the village tanner’s bullying son.  We see Conan grow to manhood, fighting in his first war and – inspired by his grandfather’s stories of adventure – taking his first steps into the wide world.

Greg Ruth illustrates the tales with all the grit and flash worthy of the legacy of Conan artists who came before him. Detail-oriented without feeling dirty, I was certain Ruth’s work was the result of some intricate painting. No, it is ink on paper, colored over with a palette that is heavy with greys and browns. This leaves the art with a subtle melancholy aura – fitting considering how Robert E. Howard described the land of Cimmeria as a land of darkness and deep night.

Dark Horse has rated this volume 16+. I think that’s a fair rating given the content. There is a copious amount of violence and bloodshed, as you would expect with any Conan story worthy of the name. There’s also a fair bit of partial nudity (bared buttocks) and sexual situations as we see a young Conan learning his first lessons in young love, but nothing pornographic or explicit.

Conan: Born On The Battlefield
by Kurt Busiek
Art by Greg Ruth
ISBN: 9781593079819
Dark Horse, 2008
Publisher Age Rating: 16+

Looking To The Stars - A Few More Of My Favorite Things

My first job was working as a generic clerk then as a video clerk in a books/music/movies superstore that shall remain nameless. It was a cool one at first but after a switch in the management it became more and more unbearable, but ain’t that always the way?

Well, while I was working there I got introduced to a little film that wound up changing my life for the better. It didn’t quite inspire me to follow my dreams (I’ve needed precious little motivation to do that) but it did inspire me not to let my crummy job get me down and to try and stick with college so I’d at least have a chance at a better day-job while I was doing the theater thing at night.

Well, eventually I got fired from that job, anyway and on the same day, I used my last paycheck to buy a copy of this movie which had inspired me so: Clerks.

So naturally, it got my attention when I walked into the comic shop one day and heard the owner complaining about how Marvel Comics had gone crazy. They were handing over the reigns of Daredevil to an unproven writer – guy who made a few movies and written a few indy titles for Oni Press.

Nodding in sympathy (I was a DC boy, what did I care?), I asked who this horrible hack was.

“Kevin Smith or something.”

Unthinkable as this may be today, Kevin Smith was not quite a household name among geeks. Chasing Amy was just barely in the video stores, the Internet was not yet the huge bastion of rabble-rousing message boards that it is now and Mallrats hadn’t yet become a huge cult hit with every comic-reading guy who saw a little of himself in Brodie Bruce.

I knew jack and squat about Daredevil but I knew who the guy who made Clerks was. And if he was going to take a hand at writing comics, I was going to give it a shot. So that leads us to #4 on our Top Ten Chronological Countdown…

The First Marvel Comic: Daredevil #1

Ironically, I didn’t wind up getting this book at the comic shop. In a blunder worthy of Walt and Steve-Dave themselves, the former owner of my first comics-shop ordered too few of the first issue. He expected it to be a critical flop. Instead, he sold out in an hour. Of course the reason he expected this was because of all the people who will buy a #1 anything… until the demand kept coming later in the week, as word of mouth spread among the small comic-reading community of that town.

Thankfully, I was able to get the last copy from the Waldenbooks in the mall.

Chagrined, the store owner wound up tracking down a line on some other things by this Kevin Smith guy, who it seemed was selling some things on that new-fangled Internet. And so it was that I was able to get…

The First Autographed Comic: Clerks: The Comic Book #1

Years later, I would get a book autographed by Kevin Smith in person. That’s a rather prized collection piece right there. And if a picture is worth 1000 words, then this is worth quite a bit.

(And for those of my friends who have commented upon my slight resemblance to Mr. Smith, just so you know- I’m the one in the back wearing the goggles).

What? I was cos-playing Jack Knight!

Anyway, as personally noteworthy as that comic is to me out of all the books I got autographed, simply for the way Kevin Smith indirectly influenced my life, it is not the first book I ever personally got autographed by a creator. No, that distinct honor goes to…

The First Autographed In Person Comic: JLA/Avengers #1

I had the good fortune to run into Kurt Busiek first thing in the morning, just as he was about to leave the DC Comics booth. I later got to spend a good while hanging out with him and George Perez in a signing room and got him to sign the book as well. Sadly, the first issue of Busiek’s Conan was just a few weeks away, so I didn’t have an issue of that to sign yet. But, there’s always the next convention.

Of course it is fun to look at all the significant first-time comics as a collector. But as we all know, a comic is only truly worth something if you read it. So the last four comics in my top ten are going to be books that all touched me in some way or another. They aren’t signed. They aren’t worth much on e-bay. But I won’t trade my copy of them for anything.

And I’m going to talk about them all next time, right?

Wrong.

I’m going to take a break on the reminiscing for a week. Take some time to really do some deep, soulful writing of the prose.

Besides, Clerks 2 comes out next weekend and I’ve just gotta speak my peace about that.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Visit our blog at: http://www.livejournal.com/users/looking2dastars/

Looking To The Stars: The Future of DC

Just when I try and get out, they pull me back in.

No, I'm not still going on about my job with the comic store. I'm talking about DC Comics. My abandonment of most of Marvel Comics is well known by this point. And with all the upcoming news about bold new directions and characters dying and bland non-specific hype coming out of DC recently, I wasn't seeing myself buying much more from DC either.

And then came the good news. A whole spattering of good news, in fact. Good news that has assured me that I won't be completely turning into an indy comics guy anytime soon.

1. Kurt Busiek and Geoff Johns writing Superman.

I've never been a big Superman fan. As a kid, I always preferred the more cerebral heroes who didn't punch their way through everything. And back then, Superman didn't do much but punch his way through every little thing. More recently, but rarely, many writers have been able to balance the simplicity of Truth, Justice and the American way with more complex storylines that tested Superman's spirit as well as his muscles. And with two of the writers who are the absolute best at maintaining the mix of Silver Age sensibility with modern storytelling at the helm, it looks like Superman will be a very good book to recommend to new readers when the new Superman movie hits the big screen this summer.

2. James Robinson on Batman.

My favorite Batman story of all time is a little story called Blades. Barely a story about Batman at all, the focus is upon a new Gotham vigilante dubbed The Cavalier who winds up teaching an inexperienced Bruce Wayne something about good intentions and heroism. It was the first thing I ever read by a writer who would quickly become one of my favorites and the indirect source of my nickname.

So it is with a good deal of joy that I can note that Starman author James Robinson, after an extended stay in Hollywood, is apparently returning back to DC to write not one, but two titles; Batman and Detective Comics. Batman has suffered from some truly horrible writing in the last two years and I haven't bought a Batman book since the time when Jean Paul Valley was still up and kicking because of it. So yeah... I'll be giving both these titles a shot.

3. Ron Marz on Ion.

Longtime readers will know that it was Green Lantern, and Kyle Rayner in specific, that got me into reading comics as an adult. Now as much as I am loving Geoff Johns bringing the GLC back, and what he is doing with all the characters... I've been kind of sad seeing Kyle shoved to a supporting role, even if he does hold a post as teacher in The New Corps. And a lot of people, who STILL can't get over the fact that Kyle still draws breath even though they have Hal back in a position as a respected hero AND a Green Lantern, are still insisting that Kyle will die during Infinite Crisis.

So here, in order, is my news for anyone who is a fan of Kyle Rayner.

GOOD: Kyle will be surviving Crisis.

BETTER: Kyle will be getting his own solo title under the nom de plume Ion.

BEST: Ron Marz is coming back to write it.

In short: Eat it, H.E.A.T.!

4. Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes.

On that note, not only is the new, non-confusing REAL Supergirl going to survive Infinite Crisis...

Not only will her book be continuing...

But she will be getting a second title, apparently paired with The Legion.

Hmmm... come to think of it, isn't Superboy Prime still alive and kicking and just begging to go to a place where heroism as an ideal is very much needed?

I'm not suggesting anything here... save that this may be a very good time to be an old-school Silver Age comics fan.

5. Keith Giffen on Blue Beetle.

Rumored for a while, but now confirmed. Glad to see there's still some room at DC for a little levity. I'd hate to have the only thing I see from Giffen be the amusing, but impossible for me to get at my store Defenders.

So yes. I'll be around a while longer. Much to the chagrin of El Editor Grande Daron, who will be quite disappointed to know that despite his predictions of doom last week, I did not get a single bit of hate mail in the past week over my statement that Gail Simone has the best grasp of the Ollie Queen/Dinah Lance relationship of any writer at DC and that anyone who dares disagree with me is arguing against solid fact, not opinion.

Hey that wasn't Daron, that was ME, your most vertical editor, Kevin S Mahoney! I write in a thick blue font, very unlike Daron's!


But more on that, and how Gail has indirectly made my life as a Green Arrow enthusiast much more difficult, next time...

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Looking To The Stars: It Keeps You Reading...

With all the talk in this past week’s The Roundtable filling my mailbox as I’m trying to focus on constructing a website devoted to graphic novels for children, I found myself thinking a lot about the books I don’t enjoy. And saying more than I intended about the writers whose works I don’t enjoy.

It is easy, working in a comic shop, to develop a negative attitude towards the hobby itself. Constant exposure to whinny fanboys, speculators, Marvel Zombies and the DC equivalent that I’ve never heard a corresponding nickname for and all the Comic Book Guys everywhere – it can really make you question why you bother with the hobby at all.

That is why, in an effort to put a little more good will and positive thought out there, I put forth this list of twelve writers who keep me reading comics whenever I think about quitting.

1. Neil Gaiman

While this list is in no particular order, Neil would probably be at the top if I had any desire to organize the writers I like by “first favorite” and “second favorites” like a schoolgirl organizing her crushes. Simply put, I have yet to read anything bad this man has written which is more than I can say for most other comic writers. I do not believe it is possible for Neil Gaiman to write a bad story. That is the best compliment I can pay, I think.

2. James Robinson

While he hasn’t written a comic in a while, his influence is still felt throughout DC Comics. His Starman was the first book to spark a movement among DC Comics writers to take the long-neglected and ignored parts of the worlds’ oldest comic company’s universe and try and breathe some life back into them. At a time when DC was content to let the Justice Society die out, Robinson kept their legacy alive with his Golden Age mini-series and the many Times Past comics of Starman.

3. Geoff Johns

If Robinson is Socrates, then Johns is Plato- the philosopher who built upon the works of an earlier master to achieve even greater acclaim. Johns is pretty much THE Man at DC Comics today and it is well-deserved. A fan who made good, Johns is almost single-handedly responsible for correcting the biggest continuity snafus of the past ten years, with his work on countless titles. What is all the more amazing is his gift for characterization and telling the history of the comics he loves without boring the reader with statistics as some writers do.

4. Dan Slott

Marvel needs to give this man a lot more work. His Spider-Man/Human Torch mini-series has been the best limited series this year by sure virtue of the fact that he did something that only Mark Waid and Paul Jenkins had managed in recent years- he made a fun Marvel comic. Not just funny, but fun. Slott is a man who knows his fun and packs more into everything he writes before 9 am than most writers manage all year.

5. R.K. Milholland

Some may blanch at me including a web-comic writer/artist in with all these professional writers. But make no mistake; the author of such on-line comics as Something Positive, New Gold Dreams and the brand new Midnight Macabre is very much a professional by any standard. Not only are his comics the funniest thing on the Internet, but they are delivered on-time at the same high level of quality on a regular basis. What is more, he managed without even trying seriously to become a fully-paid artist following a half-hearted pledge drive made in response to complaints about misspelling and late comics. He told his readers that if they thought it was that important, that they could donate money so he wouldn’t have to work so many hours and that if they matched his salary for one year, he would quit his job. The fans put up, and Milholland has been living the dream of many an amateur since.

6. Mark Waid

The one writer who can get me to try any book, no matter what, simply because of the way he always puts a spin on it. The man who has done the impossible twice this year; he got me to read a Legion book and he made the free City of Heroes comic readable.

7. Mike Grell

I’ve been a fan since reading Green Arrow: The Wonder Year after retrieving the series from the dollar bin of my first comic shop in Victoria, Texas. He was by far the best writer ever to tackle Oliver Queen and one of the best writers to every work in comics period. With a new regular John Sable: Freelance series out from IDW and the original series slowly coming out in TP format after a relative eternity, I am as happy as a pig in mud. You will be too if you give Mr. Grell’s work, old or new, a chance.

8. Stan Lee

I know it’s a cliche, but if you ever find yourself hating comics- not modern comics, but just comics in general, pull up a collection of old Stan Lee. Fantastic Four or Spider-Man – pick your own poison. It’ll cheer you like nothing else.

9. Gail Simone

If Sting hadn’t already written Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic some two decades ago, comic fans might have to write that song about Gail Simone and her work. I’ve gushed over Gail enough in the past, so rather than tell about my own experiences, I will tell the story of my friend Scott. Scott is one of a dying breed- an old school fanboy who still hasn’t forgiven DC from depowering Superman after the original Crisis. Scott has had few kind words for anyone who has written Superman since 1985 and he holds an especially deep loathing for John Byrne. Imagine my surprise then when, upon my recommendation, Scott picked up the latest Action Comics with John Byrne’s name on it (though just doing artwork) and declared that it was actually good.

10. Mike Carey

From Lucifer to Red Sonja, from Spellbinders to Hellblazer, Mike Carey is perhaps the most versatile writer working in comics today. He has proven capable of writing every genre there is, from sword-and-sorcery to modern magic and mythology. He’s also handled urban drama (in his Ultimate Elektra series) as well as, this week, old-fashioned superheroics with Ultimate Fantastic Four.

11. Kurt Busiek

If I’m going to mention the co-writer of Red Sonja, I have to mention the man who writes the best Conan since Robert Howard himself. His superhero work is not that bad, either. And by not that bad, I mean superb.

12. Brian K. Vaughan

Last, and definitely not least… well, if you aren’t reading Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina or Ultimate X-Men by now, anything complementary I have to say will probably not drag you out from under the rock you live under.

Tune in next time. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Looking To The Stars: The Third Annual Starry Awards

The Golden Globes. Mr. Blackwell’s Best & Worst Dressed List. And now (once again), it is time for The Starry Awards. Because it’s just not the start of a new year, without us yammering about the best and worst of last year.

In any case, welcome to what has become a yearly staple of the Comics Nexus: The Starry Awards for Excellence and Disgrace in Comics Writing.

Hey everyone. Tim here. Just wanted to note that this ISN'T annual. Okay, he DID do this before at 411 Mania but this is the first time he's ever done it here and we really wish he'd left this lame thing behind. But we didn't have anything else to run except Jesse Baker's review of New Avengers #2 and we thought this was less likely to get us sued. So, we apologize in advance for… everything.

Of course it has been pointed out that the comic industry already has the Eisners, the Harveys, the Eagles and the Wizard Awards. Why on Earth 2 then, these alleged people ask, do we need another damned award?

Because this is easier than doing real work?

The Starry Awards were started so that I, the ever humble author of this column, might dispense awards to those I felt were most worthy of praise or damnation based on their works in the past year.

Oh, and we are sooo grateful for you to do that. Like we need your divine wisdom to tell us that John Byrne has been phoning it in since 1989?

The Starries name ten stories in total. Stories, for the purpose of this award, can be single or multiple issues of one book or multiple books relating to one plot-line. The Starries are based solely upon the personal opinions of Matt “Starman” Morrison and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of anyone else.

No, they really don't. Not a one of us. You wanna complain or sue someone, e-mail him!

Five Staries are awarded to stories which, more than any other stories this year, made me stand up and cheer, burst into tears or just stopped me in the middle of reading to say “This is damn good stuff.” Five Staries are awarded (if you can call it that) to stories that, for some reason, I found disappointing. Stories that left me feeling that a mark had been missed and missed badly. Some of them are stories that, in fact, I think are just plain terrible.


That said: Here are the winners and losers!

The Best of 2004

Best Moment All Year: Colossus Lives!
(As taken from Astonishing X-Men #4-5)

Understand this. I am not, by training, or inclination an X-Fan. I do not subscribe to any X-Men books. I try to avoid reading most of the titles in the series and my hand starts to smoke whenever it is placed on anything written by Chris Claremont. Had you told me a year ago that the best moment in the coming year would come from an X-Men book that I would actually enjoy, I would probably laugh and say "I thought Grant Morrison was quitting X-Men?"

Joss Whedon needs to apply for sainthood, because he has performed a miracle and gotten me to enjoy an X-Men book. And the moment I realized that it was actually good was the moment in Issue 5 of Astonishing X-Men when I read the conversation between Kitty Pryde and Peter Rasputin. Even more impressive, is the fact that he handled the resurrection in a very tasteful manner without totally destroying the memory of his death story; one of the few stories most agree was a good one in the last ten years. The series continues to promise good things through 2005 and… as hard as it is for me to say this… I can't wait to read the next Astonishing X-Men.

Funniest Read All Year:Conan #9

Usually this award goes to a book that is meant to be funny, but Conan has a humor all his own that Kurt Busiek has captured beautifully in the first year of the new Conan title. And nowhere was this humor better captured than in the issue "Two Nemedians Walk Into A Bar".

In this frame story, Conan is in a bar, enjoying a drink when he sees two thugs picking on a helpless merchant. He laughs and the would-be thieves ask if he has issues with their robbery. Conan's insulting response, that he enjoys seeing two puppies pretending to be wolves as they scare a chicken, provokes an easily won fight and then inspires Conan to play the bard as he tells everyone present his own humorous tale of true bravery. Where the story goes, I will not say here. Suffice to say, all ends happily for once with Conan having free drinks for the night, a wench on each arm and a whole night to tell more tales.

Best Team-Up:Spider-Man and Wolverine

Is there anything more dreadful than the editorially mandated team-up? What of the unwritten law that Wolverine and Spider-Man must have a cameo in every Marvel title at least once a year? And what happens when the two big-cash cows of Marvel Comics get together?

Usually, something awful. And yet, this year, two stories showed how the odd-couple of superheroism can actually work well in a non-contrived way. Robert Kirkman got the new Marvel Team Up off to a flying start with his team-up story involving Spidey and Wolvie dealing with the same problem (an X-gene positive student turned serial killer) for different angles and managed to make it suitable creepy and funny at the same time. Perfectly conveying the horror as Peter discovers the dead bodies in the house of the student he was trying to help and the humor as Spidey asks Wolverine for Nick Fury's phone number.

Funnier than this, but of no lesser quality was the story "Even We Don't Believe This" in Ultimate Spider-Man. In it, the Marvel Universe went 'Freaky Friday' as Wolverine and Spider-Man had their bodies swapped by an angry but later apologetic (to Spidey at least) Jean Grey. They may not be the world's finest team, but this year they were the most entertaining.

Best Make Over: Conan

Not really a make-over, but more of a rediscovery of a lost friend. Busiek's writing has resurrected Robert E. Howard's greatest character for the comic world and Cary Nord's art has captured the world's most famous barbarian in a way that will long stand aside masters like Frank Frazetta and Barry Windsor Smith.

Best Retro Tale:JSA: Strange Tales

A classic trip back to the Golden Age of comics, this is the best vintage JSA story since James Robinson's "The Golden Age". Centering around a supposedly benevolent man known as Lord Dynamo, the world's first superhero team must choose between the loss of their two heaviest hitters (Starman and Green Lantern) and the gaining of amazing new technologies to better mankind. All this, and a humorous yet oddly touching subplot where Johnny Thunder tries to become a pulp writer, and you have one fine bit of pulp writing.

The Worst of 2004

Most Likely To Cause Continuity Robots Heads To Explode:Marvel Knights: Spider-Man

I've written enough about this book in the past, so I'll just say "'Nuff Said"

The “What The Hell Just Happened?” Award: What If Charles Xavier & Magneto Had Created The X-Men Together

What if Magneto had a goatee? What if Kitty Pryde had blue hair? What if this story had any real difference than the regular X-Men universe? What if I had some idea of what was going on at any point in this book?

The “I Waited For This?!?!” Award: The Ultimates, Volume 2

They delayed it for a year so that Bryan Hitch would be sure to be on-time with the artwork and it was still late. And like Volume One, it still wasn't worth reading.

Worst Makeover of the Year: Ultimate Fantastic Four

There's a lot to be said for the philosophy that less is more. And Warren Ellis, the master of decompressed writing, proved that saying true as it took him six issues to do what Stan Lee did in a few pages: introduce Dr. Doom and establish him as a major threat. Woese, Doom is no longer the armor-clad master of science and magic but a teenager who got morphed into a metal-bodied, poison-breathing whinny little puss. Bah, says I to that.

The Worst Comic Of the Year Award: Green Arrow #44

Let me say something right at the start. I believe that controversial topics should be addressed in comics. I believe that comic books can be a great informational tool when used properly. That said, I cannot support what Judd Winick has done with Green Arrow. And it is for that reason, and that reason alone, that I have dropped Green Arrow from my subscription until such time as he is no longer writing the book, though I am one of the most devout Oliver Queen fans out there.

Why? Why do I think that this story was the worst one all year? For the simple reason that I do not think that it was written to educate. I do not think it was written to make a point. I think it was written only for the purpose of increasing the sales on a failing title and stirring up attention because there was no way the writer could think of to improve the quality of the title. So they went right for the easy way out.

I'll credit them with noble intentions, at least. But this is about the fourth time that Winick has milked the circumstances of his friend's life for details for a story. Pedro and Me was a very fine book. And Winick's "why gay-bashing is bad" stories in Green Lantern, while a bit preachy at times, had the decency not to hit the reader over the head with statistics.

That is what happens in the opening of this book, as Oliver Queen professes total ignorance as to what AIDS is. We then get into after-school special territory, as we are given a laundry list reading of everything you need to know to combat HIV. Ignoring the idea that Ollie "In Like Flynn" Queen could have gone through the past he did and the times he did without learning something about why sailors buy those special balloons, the rest of the issue seemed seriously stilted as well. And the ideas to come forth in future issues... including Mia becoming the new Speedy. Well, they just reek of an effort to create gimmicks to reel in the suckers rather than an effort to tell truly engaging stories.

The sad thing is that Mia was a great character and that she really came alive during the Kevin Smith run on the book. She was all but ignored by every writer afterwards. Including Winick, who kept her strictly in the background until this recent crisis. It seems that nobody really knew what to do with the girl who was there merely because underneath the heroism and bluster, what Oliver Queen wanted most was to be a father. A father with an unusual day job, sure. But still the dad who could come home and find the loving family waiting for him.

Of course all that has been shot to hell in the wake of the Winick run, but maybe we can get Gail Simone or someone to finally get Ollie to propose to Dinah as he was ready to do at the end of the Phil Hester run. Heck, bring Mike Grell back to do a Wedding Special and have Count Vertigo crash the thing. Anything to spare me another "very special issue" of Judd Winick's Green Arrow.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Conan #5 - A Review

Story Title: Ashes & Dust
Written by: Robert E. Howard with adaptation by Kurt Busiek
Penciled by: Cary Nord and Thomas Yeates
Inked by: Cary Nord and Thomas Yeats
Colored by: Dave Stewart
Lettered by: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Editor: Scot Allie
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

It’s funny how an issue so filled with action can seem so slow. There is much excitement in this comic, no doubt. And it is a worthy tribute to the most famous creation of pulp-master Robert E. Howard. Still, compared to previous issues this middle third of this three-part story seems to plod along at the face of a resting horse. Still, one can feel that a mighty gallop is coming up soon…

Traveling to seek adventure, fortune and some of the lands from his grandfather’s stories, Conan sets out northward, with little more than a helmet his father made, a sword and the clothes on his back. Betrayed by some among his new comrades in arms among the Viking-like Aesir and sold into slavery, Conan finally gets to see his first goal: the fabled land of milk and honey that is Hyperborea. To his surprised, Conan finds that the land is all the legends promised, full of perfect weather year round and long-life… for the Hyperboreans. To the slaves who live and die for the immortals of that land, life is miserable indeed and only a good deal of drugs are able to slack the rage of Conan.

Thankfully, Conan was freed thanks to a slavegirl looking for a means of escape and seeing the burly warrior as her best protector. Conan, honorable in his own way, refuses to abandon his comrades in arms and demands they wait until she can procure enough of the healing herbs she used to free his mind to save them. This issue continues to build the drama, as we find that Conan’s new master is growing bored with his immortal life and is contemplating suicide: an act that will result in all his possessions, slaves included, also being killed to as to serve him in the great beyond.

Though this issue is a little slower-paced, we learn much of the history of Hyperborea and its’ people. And for the action fans who care little for such detail in their fantasy settings, we get a wonderfully epic scene where Conan leads a slave revolt.

All of this is beautifully illustrated by Nord and Yeates, whom will be nominated for every art award in the industry if there is any justice left in this world. Everything looks epic, from the battle scenes and the long historical moments depicting the history of Hyperborean. Even the somewhat comedic scene of Conan crashing through a roof and into the chambers of the slavegirl helping him escape as he retreats from a pack of lions set loose in the palace looks heroically fantastic! And that is as it should be.