David Lafuente- Like some sort of dynamite mix of Norm Breyfogle fluidity, manga-esque figure work, and exceptionally stylish dress design this newcomer is quickly growing into one of my favorites. Every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man lately had just become a feast for my eyes. Look at this

I have never seen Spider-Man move like that, most artists opt to show the malleability of his body but not the speed in his movements. Plus I love the dry brush effect on the motion lines that make it look like charcoal.  More stuff like this please.  Check out last five issues of Ultimate Spider-Man and the Patsy Walker: Hellcat trade.

Daredevil #270-276, 278-282- I picked these up when we had dollar boxes out during Halloween.  This was the year of material by Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr.  that was mostly about Mephisto and Blackheart.  But within that framework the title dealt with issues of the conditions for animals in meat farming, human cloning, the strength and definition of the soul, the boundaries of feminism, Karnak and Gorgon of the Inhumans were there for some reason but it still made sense.  The entirety of the story is spent in rural areas and on backroads.  Hell’s Kitchen, Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson, really any familiar element of the Daredevil mythology is NOT at play here.  It’s these things that make this run so compelling, it’s not an ode to Frank Miller or Born Again, as soooo many Daredevil stories have been.  Easy to find and worth reading.

Paul Tobin- He has pretty much become the man behind Marvel’s kid-friendly comics.  The wonderful thing is that there incredibly entertaining, smart comics that are truly ALL-ages.  Of particular note is Marvel Adventures Spider-Man which is effectively practicing the done-in-one with continuing sub-plot structure of classic Marvel.

Frankencastle-From Punisher #11.  I love comics.

Deathlok the Demolisher- The current mini series out now and I did a 180 on my opinion of it.  I dismissed it outright after the first issue but upon re-examination it’s actually a bit of B-Movie on Cable stupid/awesome piece of fun.  This is the hard strong stuff the sort of thing that you cleanse the palette with after reading like a Chris Ware book or something.  Man between this and the last thing I guess I’ve got a thing for cobbled together dead guys.  I probably need some help for that.

Mort Weisinger-era Superman- I’ve been inhaling Showcase Superman books lately(and you should too, there cheap and its like freebasing the superego AND the id at the same time.)  These stories are so mad, man.  The plots are nonsensical and often the scene transitions and mechanics of the story are choppy,but like, in a good way. Character speak and think in declarative existential woe.  What’s most impressive are the tableaus of psychological torture that Superman will put his friends through, like this

Fantastic.  He’s also good at doing a silent disapproving glance from behind the newspaper.

Brian Michael Bendis today is the main man over at Marvel these days.  The figurehead, along with Joe Quesada, of the direction the company has gone with for the last decadec is this book that was the beginning of the Marvel as we know it today.

The premise of the book was simple: take the core elements of Spider-Man and distill it into the modern day. The idea worked.  Ultimate Spider-Man launched to high sales and critical reviews.  But it was a different animal than the books coming out at the time.  The pacing was different, slower, cinematic in a not widescreen way, but in how it was paced, the story breathed and the original 11 page Spider-Man origin story was now about 192. The first Ultimate Spider-Man trade paperback even more so was a game changer (for good or ill) creating a template of the way stories were paced, writing 4 to 8 part stories “for the trade” as they say.

Ultimate Spider-Man is at the end of the day not just the coming of age story that Spider-Man is known as, but the  story of a kid messing around in a morally gray adult world–and more often that not being in over his head.  More than once Spider-Man dives into or is caught in the middle of a situation he only knows half the story about, and tries to do the right thing. Meanwhile, others berate him for seeing things in terms of right and wrong or for failing to see the moral complexity of a situation.  Often adults try to manipulate him or claim him for there own purposes.

In one story Norman Osborn claims since he created the spider that gave Peter his powers that Peter is now his property. Later in the story when Osborn is defeated with Nick Fury’s help Fury says something to the effect that once Peter comes of adult age that he becomes property of the government like all other super-powered persons.  Ultimate Spider-Man is a story of keeping a good moral compass in a modern world of the military industrial complex that pushes apathy and control as inevitabilities of adulthood.

Ultimate Spider-Man is also notable for its consistency.  Every issue has been written by Bendis and he has almost exclusivity with the character that Stan Lee had with the Silver Surfer for years.  The first 110 issues were drawn by workhorse artist Mark Bagley who was turning out issues so fast that the book was often bi-weekly.  Stuart Immonen drew the next 20 issues in a similar timely fashion before the book’s first volume drew to a close recently. Annuals were drawn by the fabulous Mark Brooks and David LaFuente who is the current artist on the book’s recently launched second volume.

Really this book might really fit more in a “Most Important of the Decade” thing for the standards that it set.  Best of the Decade is things like Asterios Polyp and All Star Superman and DC The New Frontier and Bottomless Belly Button.  Those are finite works as most everything in these write-ups will be, but there’s room for at least one continuing series here and for the fact that the series remains so consistent in quality, because it has so much personality, because it’s such an obviously personal piece of work to its writer, I think “Best” will work too.

Jumping off a point made by my colleague (the delightful) Phil Southern, that this year is gonna be remembered as one of those banner years like 1986 or 1982 or some other year that was great, but I’d have trouble pinpointing…

Anyway, in an attempt to spur discussion and some pos-sit-tiv-it-ee in general, tell us what you’ve liked this year, why you’ve liked it and what you’re looking forward to, in the comments section below!

Boy 2008 sure was stinky wasn’t it? That year deflated faster than a flan in a cupboard. But now it’s time to look ahead and see what there is to look forward to in the year 2009.

Muppet/Pixar Comics – Boom! Studios were able to gain the license to these properties and in March we’ll see the fruits of that labor. From the looks of the solicits they’ve gone top quality all the way with Mark Waid writing The Incredibles and Roger Langridge doing The Muppets (which I and fellow employee Matt Knapik are very excited about) Plus, they’re $2.99 for 24 pages of story, a great value in these harsh Dickensian times. Due in March.

Blackest Night — I’m as sick as anyone of events, I wrote an article about it remember? But Green Lantern has been probably DC’s consistently best book (and DC’s best line: GL Corps is equally good) so I have a lot of goodwill going into this more than I have had in probably any event ever. Should be out in early summer.

Wolverine: Weapon X – Wolverine is in way, way too many comics if they cut the amount of stuff he was appearing in by a 1/3 it’d still be a lot. So why is this on my list? I’m not much of Wolverine fan, I’m not really looking forward to the movie that this series is being launched alongside of (much like Fraction’s Iron Man book last year.) This is on my list because of Jason Aaron. Scalped is one of my favorite books and always on the top of my list of recommendations for customers. His Ghost Rider is ridiculously fun. And Aaron’s past Wolverine has been darn good. Out in April.

War of Kings — If my Blackest Night recommendation didn’t make me look like a hypocrite here I come with another event. It does seem that Marvel doesn’t have anything like a Civil War or a Secret Invasion this year and this crossover is regulated only to the cosmic Marvel books. The two Annihilation series, Nova, and Guardians of the Galaxy are among the best comics out there and this follows in that esteemed tradition. This will be super fun. Already gearing up to go but the main mini is due in March.

Flash: Rebirth — Geoff Johns, Ethan Van Sciver, and the return of a silver age DC character. It’s worked before. The Flash has been in a bit of a rut for a while and this should jump start the franchise and bring it back to prominence once again. Hitting the ground running in April

Bits and Pieces — Quick hits of other things coming ahead:

Ignition City — Described by Warren Ellis as Deadwood meets Flash Gordon so that’s a good sign. By Avatar in the Spring.

Superman Secret Origin — Origin stories are always kind of fun if a bit overdone but its done by the Action Comics team of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank so this should be good. Coming in Spring.

Secret Warriors — The preview in Dark Reign New Nation was good and Jonathan Hickman is always worth a look. Out in February.

Ultimate Avengers – Mark Millar returns to the Ultimate Universe with this follow-up to The Ultimates 1 & 2 sometime this summer.

Grant Morrison’s Batman — He’s due back sometime in the summer and one has to wonder where its gonna go now that well…Batman is dead. Who’ll be Batman and is Frank Quitely really doing the art like the internet says? We’ll have to see.

Final Crisis and Secret Invasion are dominating the summer, just like World War Hulk and Sinestro Corp did before that and Civil War and Infinite Crisis before that and… you get my point. So if your event-ed out like me and pretty much the entire staff of Heroes, here’s some neat-o books that I like that stand on their own.

Immortal Iron Fist
This book has been one of the most consistently entertaining books from Marvel since its inception. The first 16 issues plus specials by Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker have been collected and are absolutely a blast to read. A new creative team came on with issue 17 and defied expectations by maintaining the quality of the book which is really a happy surprise.

Thor
Re-launched by J. Michael Stracyznski last year, Thor is probably in fact Marvel’s best title. JMS has decided to forgo the hammer-smashing super heroics and has instead crafted a slow-burn story first about the return of the Asgardian pantheon after their deaths in Ragnarok and now an almost Shakespearean courtyard drama. But what really completes the package is the absolutely stunning art work of Oliver Coipel (he’s French so that’s pronounced O-liv-ee-ay Coy-pell). The first arc is out in trade and the book is only up to issue 11 so you can play catsup to it pretty easy.

Ghost Rider
I will state that I’m not a big Ghost Rider fan but recently have started to see the character as something that can be a lot of fun if played in the B-Horror grindhouse vein that he very much comes from. This is exactly the way that writer Jason Aaron has played him since taking over the book with issue 20. This book exudes with macho preening and tough guy beat downs mixed with an extreme quirkiness. It’s just one defining moment away from being the next Immortal Iron Fist.

Justice Society of America
The current run of the book, which relaunched back in 2006, reminds me a lot of the heyday of Chris Claremont’s X-Men. Plots, subplots, and lots of characters weave in and without break. JSA is one of the few comics that break the story arc mold and one of the few DCU titles that really stands on its own.

Jonah Hex
This book stands alone by the fact that it takes place two centuries ago. Jonah Hex is the best mainstream book that no one is reading. Almost every issue is done-in-one story usually about the uncaring brutality and general inhumanness of the Old West and its title character that is for the most part kind of unlikeable. It also works as an artist showcase. Some of the best artists in comics such as Darwyn Cooke and JH Williams have contributed to the book as well as some European talent who don’t get much exposure stateside.

Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam
Teen Titans
These books are cute and smart the way old feature film cartoons used to be. Give them to children, give them to grumpy old men and watch them smile, and then give one to you. They’re great.

Now that I’ve gone through the mainstream Marvel and DC fare, its time to get to the more adult-oriented stuff. Now in this department DC has Marvel considerably beat due to the fact that the Vertigo line has been around for almost 20 years, while Marvel’s Max line isn’t even a decade old yet and you could count the Icon titles published with your fingers. Okay here we go:

ICON: Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is one of my favorite, favorite comics on the stand right now. Each storyline is 100% self-contained but all take place in the same universe and characters from other stories show up in other stories but really you can read them in any order you want. Kick-Ass (or Kick-Heinie as we call it here, we’re a family store), by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., hasn’t been released in trade yet but talk about a hot, hot sizzling book. It’s the story of a normal teen who decides to become a superhero but instead gets beat up… pretty badly. Powers (Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Oeming) transferred over from Image and is about two detectives who work the superhero beat.

MAX: This line has produced mostly mini-series like War is Hell by Garth Ennis and Haunt of Horror by Richard Corben but there have been three major Supreme Power series, all written by J. Michael Stracynszki; each a slow burn realistic take on superheroes. Alias by Brian Michael Bendis is about Jessica Jones (who New Avengers fans know as Cage’s wife/baby mama), a PI investigating the seedy, sticky corners of the Marvel U. And Garth Ennis’ 60 plus issue run on Punisher Max is a soon-to-be-classic examination of the post-Vietnam mindset and the military industrial complex.

VERTIGO: To name all the great stuff that Vertigo has put out and the merits of those titles would take up the entire blog page. Since Sandman, Preacher, Y The Last Man, and Fables are well-known and some of the stores best-selling trades, I’m going to use this space to focus on some lesser-known gems. First of all is one of my favorite books at the moment Scalped: if you can imagine The Departed on an Indian reservation than your almost there. Sandman Mystery Theatre which takes the 40’s hero’s adventures and gives them a dark, noir-ish bent. Brian Wood has a couple of ongoing projects at Vertigo. One is DMZ which centers on a reporter in Manhattan, a demilitarized zone in the midst of the second Civil War. The newer series is Northlanders, a Viking anthology book, whose first trade has come and at eight issues for ten bucks is a snazzy deal. There are a couple of books like the crime-conspiracy 100 Bullets and Vertigo’s longest running book Hellblazer that have been around for so long that we take their presence for granted; but they’re both really excellent books.

And with another batch of fine recommendations, I hope to see you at the store soon!

I did the Marvel portion of this months and months ago and now that I have a little time , it’s time I think to do the DC portion of things. By DC I mean the mainstream stuff; not the Vertigo stuff which will be its own fantastically-written-by-me article. Recommending beginner stuff for DC is a little weirder because of there constantly shifting continuity and universe-bending Crises. But this sorta thing is my bag so I got this.
Best place to start is with Superman and Batman cause they’re the most well-known characters in comics.

SUPERMAN: A lot of people doubt Superman and his relevance and the relative quality of Superman stories, but our Superman section of the rack says differently. All-Star Superman is the best place to start for anyone looking to get into the character or anyone questioning the validity of the character. Superman: Red Son takes a different slant on the character by having his rocket crash-land in the Soviet Union and making him a Communist. To get a little bang for your buck pick up the first Showcase: Superman for 500 plus pages of Superman having really really trippy adventures in the 1950s. Worth the 10 dollar cover price for the issue where Superman wears an Alfred E. Neuman mask to teach Lois not to judge people by their looks. Other notable collections include Superman and the Legion of Superheroes, Last Son, Birthright, Up, Up, and Away and the Man of Steel collections.

BATMAN: There are five key stories to be well-versed in the Batman universe: Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, The Killing Joke, The Long Halloween, and Arkham Asylum. Yeah this section is a lot shorter than the Superman but there’s nothing really left to say about these books that hasn’t been said by other people.

GREEN LANTERN has been a fantastic book since Geoff Johns has taken over so I recommend picking up Green Lantern: Rebirth and picking up the other trades or hardcovers written by him especially the Sinestro Corps War hardcovers.

Series like Grant Morrison’s JLA, Gotham Central, and soon Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing are being collected into Deluxe Hardcovers and are all definitely worth picking up.

DC excels at epic storytelling and books like DC: The New Frontier, Kingdom Come, and The Golden Age are the best of the best of said epics.

Where DC definitely beats Marvel is in having a more diverse stock of characters so look into books with characters like Sgt. Rock (war), Jonah Hex (western) , Adam Strange (sci-fi), Warlord (fantasy), and House of Mystery (horror).

If you’re looking to get into the wider, current DCU I recommend Identity Crisis, 52, Justice League of America: The Tornado’s Path, and Justice Society of America: The Next Age.

More to come!

Our convention brings in lots of new business, whether that is people brand new to our jolly little industry or people who have been out of the loop for a while. The staff is always happy to help people find their way into comics whether you’re a Marvel guy, a DC guy, an indie guy or (like me) someone who likes a bit of each. With that in mind here’s a handy dandy guide of fantastic collections and series on the book racks and then I’ll give you some things to be on the lookout for in the coming summer and fall months.

MARVEL:

Civil War: Customers come in and frequently inquire about this series, the necessity of the crossovers and what they need to read. If you get the main trade paperback collecting the 7 issues then you’ll be set. This series is the pivot which the Marvel U moves around even a year after its finale. The crossovers aren’t necessary but they do add layer and subtext to the main series and a lot of them are quite good. Out of the whole lot I recommend the Wolverine, Punisher War Journal, and Warren Ellis Thunderbolts trade.

New Avengers: Marvels biggest seller since its inception, New Avengers is probably Marvel’s flagship book at the moment. There are currently seven New Avengers trades, the Avengers Disassembled and Secret War trades which occur before New Avengers starts but are written by NA author Brian Michael Bendis. The House of M mini is also collected and features the New Avengers and X-Men and acts a follow up to Disassembled. All of these things have been leading to this summer’s Secret Invasion event.

Annihilation: This series of mini-series collected into three trades revamped Marvel’s space heroes completely making them viable and important and really really cool again. The likes of Nova, the Super-Skrull, Ronan the Accuser, and the Silver Surfer band together to defeat the Annihilation Wave and unstoppable bug army from the Negative Zone. Millions of lives are lost and it’s only a matter of time before the Wave reaches Earth. This doesn’t have the immediate weight that New Avengers and Civil War had but it is arguably a better story and definitely a lot of fun.

Other quite notable things from the House of Ideas include much beloved Immortal Iron Fist, collected into two fantastic trades and with a new writer coming on in the next issue. Fraction assures me that readers should stick around after he’s gone and I’m gonna take him at his word. Captain Britain and MI: 13 was a huge surprise. This book breathes new life into Marvel’s British characters with crisp and emotionally honest writing and clean vibrant art and lots and lots of action. Invincible Iron Man intentionally or not is the best place to start with the character if you loved the movie. Incredible Hercules comes out of World War Hulk and is a lot a more clever than it has any right to be.

Seeing as how short punchy articles tend to get more comments on here I’ll leave you with that and next time I’ll cover the DC side of things.

by Duncan Rouleau
reviewed by Daniel Von Egidy

As DC’s Infinite Crisis was coming to an end, Grant Morrison took on a job as a creative editor at the publisher, to outline concepts and ideas for several series including All-New Atom, Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters, and following their role in 52: the Metal Men. Writer/artist Duncan Rouleau took Morrison’s ideas and really ran with them, resulting in one of the most fun and most dense reads around.

There are pretty much two plots going on here. The first plot takes place in the present, following the events of 52, as several opposing forces seek to enlist the Metal Men to destroy humanity; or destroy the Metal Men so they can’t destroy humanity. At the same time Professor Magnus and his older brother David are trying to fix time in order to prevent an apocalyptic future. The second story is essentially “Metal Men: Year One” as we see Professor Magnus develop the Metal Men, the responso-meters, and as they all become famous as superheroes at the cost of Magnus’ relationship with his girlfriend Helen. Magnus is also at the same time being stalked by a bunch of time traveling medieval alchemists. The storylines eventually intersect but explaining how would take a couple of long paragraphs, some aspirin, and a nap on my part so I’m gonna skip it.

This book is the antithesis of the “five-minute read”. There’s a squillion things going on plot-wise mixed in with all the little scientific fun facts and character bits, and this book really merits re-reading to catch everything that’s going on. But it all looks incredibly beautiful. Duncan has a style similar to Chris Bachalo or Skottie Young resulting in some beautiful design work and dazzling page layouts. The art is just as packed as the story, so some of the storytelling gets lost but that’s almost appropriate in this case. It has almost reached its end so you can pick it all up and read it straight through to this point, or wait for the eventual hardcover due in the summer. Whatever is your preference: just don’t miss this engaging story.

Kids Comics For Everyone!
I think one of my biggest discoveries this year was how incredibly good kid’s comics actually are. So for those 4-7 year olds I suggest Owly. No words, so if your kid can’t read yet, he can still be fully immersed in the story. For the young man superhero fan the Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man collections are inexpensive for the adult buyer and great fun for the kid reader. The Best of Archie in the… decades collections I think can be admired by anybody. In particular the collections focusing on the 50’s and 60’s which has beautiful, crisp cartooning to be admired by the connoisseurs and family-friendly stories for the rest, because its Archie and that’s what Archie does.

Bang for Your Buck: Essentials and Showcases
These massive black and white reprints are probably the best way to pick up old comics. Without the color you can see just how clear, crisp, and concise these classic artist were and you can get 500+ pages ranging from $10 to $17 and that’s awesome. On the “Essential” side of things I gotta go with Essential Iron Fist, Essential Ghost Rider Vol.1, and Essential Tomb of Dracula Vol.1-3. These are the funnest in the fun of 70’s comics and feature work by Gene Colan, John Byrne, and Mike Ploog that is just spectacular.

“Showcase” wise I’ll say they offer a greater variety of genre. Showcase Presents: Sgt. Rock for war comics (and Joe Kubert), Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex for western stuff, Showcase Presents: Adam Strange for 50’s sci-fi, and Showcase Presents: Legion of Superheroes for superhero adventure. These are all appropriate for kids but there are some darker themes in the Jonah Hex, Tomb of Dracula and Ghost Rider comics, so you parents should look through them first to see if they’re appropriate for you and yours.

Across the Board:
For Teens: Runaways Digest
For the Old School Fan: Spider-Man Visionaries: Robert Stern Vol.1 or Captain America: War and Remembrance
For the Kid Who Wants to Draw Comics: How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way
For the Fan with a Lot of Money to Blow: Absolute New Frontier
For the Oddballs: Punisher War Journal Vol.1 or Nextwave Vol.1-2

For Mature Readers Only
For the Manga Fan Who Is Ready To Make A Financial Commitment: Lone Wolf and Cub
For the Fan Who’s Looking for Something Really Different (But Can’t Put Their Finger On What): Cerebus. Try the High Society book at the very least.
For History Buffs: Kyle Baker’s Nat Turner
For the Hopeless Romantic: Apollo’s Song
For the No-Goodniks: Criminal Vol.1 or Scalped Vol.1
For the Widely Read Person: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (I enjoyed it and I’m thinly read!)