By Scott Tipton
January 4, 2006
WHO ASKED YOU, ANYWAY? – THE 2005 EDITION, PART II
Previously, in COMICS 101: We left off halfway through our annual stroll through the year that was, with your humble professor’s picks for the best in comics in 2005. Let’s get back to the list, shall we?
BEST RETURN FROM OBSCURITY: SPIDER-WOMAN
Being a child of the 1970s, I always liked Jessica Drew, Marvel’s original Spider-Woman character. Particularly late in her solo series, when Chris Claremont and Steve Leialoha were handling the character, she was hands down the most interesting and appealing female character Marvel had going at the time. In a wise move, Marvel had chosen not to link her to the Spider-Man family of characters, and instead linked her backstory to the murkier SHIELD /HYDRA goings-on that were always brewing in Marvel’s books back in the ‘70s. A great character, great costume design, great hair – a winner in my book, which was I was so bummed when Marvel wrote her out in the 1980s, taking away her powers and reducing her to a civilian supporting character who might show up from time to time.
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One of the best things about Bendis’ NEW AVENGERS book is the way it’s returned Jessica front and center in the Marvel Universe once more. All of a sudden there’s Spider-Woman statues, Spider-Woman action figures, you name it. I bust open a new box of HeroClix miniatures today – boom! There’s a Spider-Woman. Not long ago Marvel released an ESSENTIAL SPIDER-WOMAN trade paperback, and there’s currently a SPIDER-WOMAN miniseries that will untangle her admittedly complex origin, to be followed up by an ongoing series. As for her use in NEW AVENGERS, it’s been mostly pretty good. Along with a long-running mystery as to who Jessica is secretly reporting to, there have been some good character bits, such as a sheepish explanation to Luke Cage, Wolverine and Spider-Man about her “pheromone powers”…
If only Bendis had had this much affection for Hawkeye…
BEST IDEA BY A PUBLISHER: SOLO, FROM DC COMICS
Take some of the best artists in comics, the ones with a truly singular style and creative voice. Then give ‘em 48 pages and let them do whatever the hell they want. This is the concept behind DC’s new series SOLO, and it’s a good one. While not every issue has been to my liking, they’re always high-quality works by artists who are truly inspired, being given the spotlight that they are, putting out the kind of material you can tell is where their heart is at.
Two issues in particular this year stood out for me as being outstanding. Darwyn Cooke shone with his mix of hard-boiled Slam Bradley stories, a very stylish King Faraday tale, and a great mix of ‘50s-style magazine illustration and newspaper-style comic strips.
There’s also a very sharp 4-page Question story that tackles the issue of the post-9/11 world without managing to offend. For a different style of book entirely, there’s the most recent issue of SOLO, containing all work by MADMAN creator Mike Allred.
The Hourman story is a witty little number about a bored Rex Tyler trying to use up his 60 minutes of power, and the Teen Titans story, in which the ginchy 1960s-era Teen Titans happen to be throwing a wild party in the apartment above the Doom Patrol’s, is worth the price of admission all by itself.
Plus, the cover sports Wonder Girl doing the Batusi. What more can you ask?
BEST HUMOR SERIES: DEFENDERS
Sensing that their particular brand of storytelling wasn’t going to be in favor at DC for a while, JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL creators Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire packed up their operation and moved it uptown to Marvel, where they’re currently giving the JLI treatment to Marvel’s longtime third-string super-team the Defenders.
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To no one’s surprise, it’s been a perfect fit, with their usual mix of razor-sharp, goofy comedy and high-stakes action melding perfectly with Dr. Strange, Namor and the Hulk as they contend with an unholy alliance between the otherdimensional sorcerers Dormammu and his sister Umar. The only slightly disappointing bit has been their treatment of the Silver Surfer, who should admittedly be played as somewhat naïve and out-of-touch, but has been portrayed here as borderline retarded. Still, it’s only a minor misstep. One hilarious subplot has involved the sexually aggressive Umar taking the Hulk for a lover, only to result in a Bruce Banner who’s so relaxed he can’t get angry enough to change back in to the Hulk, much to Umar’s frustration.
A good joke, and one handled with a light touch in case there are younger readers in the house. Who knew that was all you needed to cure the Hulk?
BEST SURPRISE: CONCRETE: THE HUMAN DILEMMA
It’d been a long time since we’d seen a new CONCRETE series, and the series’ status quo hadn’t changed for even longer: speechwriter Ron Lithgow lives his life trapped in an enormous concrete body (his brain transplanted there by aliens), and travels the world going on adventures he can write about, with the help of his assistant Larry and scientist Dr. Maureen Vonnegut, a scientist assigned by the government to study and care for him, and for whom Ron secretly pines, a situation unlikely to change thanks to his new gender-neutral body.
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In creator Paul Chadwick’s usual mix of politics and character development, Concrete agrees to become a spokesman for a political advocacy group promoting voluntary sterilization, to encourage childlessness to help solve the world’s population problem. However, Chadwick takes things in a bold, completely unexpected new direction when Maureen confesses her feelings for Ron, and the two share an intimate (if necessarily distant) moment that’s both bittersweet and surprisingly powerful. Following Concrete and Maureen’s “encounter,” he begins to feel a maddening itch in his back that doesn’t go away, and before long…
That’s right, Concrete is pregnant. Wow. Didn’t see that coming.
A big round of applause to Paul Chadwick for being so willing to shake up his long-running series, and do so with nothing less than his usual eloquence and skill behind the pencil.
BEST ONGOING SERIES: EX MACHINA
It sounded like a tough sell at the beginning. A political drama comic book about an ex-superhero who becomes the mayor of New York City. Oh, and he managed to save one of the towers from collapsing on 9/11.
That’s a lot to buy into, and the 9/11 connection certainly had the potential to offend, or at least put people off. Instead, writer Brian K. Vaughn and artist Tony Harris continue to create one of the most engaging books on the market today, chronicling the trials and tribulations of Mayor Mitchell Hundred, catapulted into office on a wave of popularity following his heroic actions on September 11 as “the Great Machine,” a jetpack-wearing supertype with the ability to control and communicate with all machinery.
Month by month, more of Hundred’s backstory has been revealed, while at the same time continuing to draw out the mystery of the alien nature of his superpowers, and detailing the politically independent Hundred’s difficulties in governing the most complicated city in the world. Vaughn’s characterizations are sharply drawn and compelling, and Harris is at the top of his form here, without a doubt his best work since STARMAN.
BEST MINISERIES: SPIDER-MAN/HUMAN TORCH
Marvel should just hand over the reins of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN to Dan Slott and Ty Templeton, and pay them whatever it takes to keep them on the book for a good long while.
This year’s SPIDER-MAN/HUMAN TORCH five-issue miniseries showed the best understanding of Spidey by any creative team in recent memory, as Slott and Templeton display the love/hate relationship between Spidey and the Torch at 5 different points in Spidey’s history, from the ‘60s, ‘70s, 80s and the present. High points include a hilarious look at Spidey and the Torch’s creation of the Spider-Mobile, complete with Hostess Fruit Pies and a tussle with the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes…
…and Spidey’s revelation of his secret identity to the Torch, undertaken under, shall we say, not the best circumstances, and through pantomime at that.
Slott and Templeton perfectly capture the nuances of Peter Parker and Johnny Storm’s relationship, and do so with laugh-out-loud wit and even a little genuine sentiment. It’s great. The series was released collected in a paperback digest, but do yourself a favor and track down the original issues so you can enjoy Templeton’s outstanding art at the proper size.
BEST SINGLE ISSUE: ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1
Admittedly, one of the best things about Marvel’s ULTIMATE imprint is the capability to come up with brand-new story possibilities that just wouldn’t work in the traditional Marvel Universe. We finally got an example of this that almost made the whole experiment worthwhile in my book this year, with the first ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL, a wonderfully charming story from writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Brooks about Peter Parker’s first date after his breakup with Mary Jane, with none other than Kitty Pryde, from the pages of ULTIMATE X-MEN.
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The notion of a Spidey/Kitty relationship makes perfect sense in terms of their characters, yet never could have been pulled off in the Marvel Universe proper due to their age difference. There are so many great little character bits here, like Peter running a Google search on Kitty and the X-Men right after she calls him out of the blue and asks him to hang out. The interplay between Peter and Kitty sounds just perfect – they sound like real kids, stumbling and thrilling through that first-date experience, and when Peter and Kitty have that first kiss at the end of the night (with the X-Jet hovering overhead to pick her up, no less), I felt 16 again.
I had bailed out on USM after the first year or so, feeling dissatisfied with the pacing of the monthly series, feeling like I never really got enough of a story for my three bucks. After this, I jumped back in, and I’ve been enjoying it ever since. This is a “can’t-miss” story for fans of Spider-Man or Kitty Pryde, and after seeing how well it turned out here, we can only hope that the story is continued for a good long while in the monthly pages of ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN.
BOOK OF THE YEAR: TOP 10: THE FORTY-NINERS
When Alan Moore started his AMERICA’S BEST COMICS imprint a few years ago, it was hard to choose a favorite. There was the immensely satisfying Superman/Doc Savage hybrid TOM STRONG, the completely original feminist mysticism parable PROMETHEA, the wondrous variety pack that was TOMORROW STORIES, with its brilliant Eisner tribute GREYSHIRT and the vaguely salacious COBWEB, and finally, there was the wondrous TOP 10, a completely original and insane marriage of the superhero comic and NYPD BLUE. Set in the futuristic city of Neopolis, where the entire population was made up of comic-book characters, TOP 10 focused on the superhero police of this insane metropolis, trying to keep the peace in a squabbling, hectic, frenzied world of super-types, robots, monsters and funny-animals.
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This year, Moore and TOP 10 co-creator Gene Ha returned to their creation with the original graphic novel TOP 10: THE FORTY-NINERS, a prequel work which tells the story of Neopolis’ earliest days in 1949, after all the world’s caped crusaders, mechanical men, adventurers and beasties were permanently relocated to the newly created city, where vigilantism would be strictly prohibited and anyone who wanted to fight the good fight had only one choice: put on a badge.
Against this backdrop, and the growing threat of a out-and-out rebellion from the city’s vampire population, the new world of Neopolis is brought into focus in the person of Steve Traynor, a.k.a. the WWII boy aviator Jetlad (a thinly veiled version of Hillman’s Airboy character), and his struggle not only to adjust to life as an adult and in peacetime, but also with his own sexuality in a decidedly non-gay-friendly 1949.
And as always with TOP 10, the backgrounds are a treasure trove for longtime comics fans, with countless cameos from characters from comics, sci-fi and fantasy flying, fighting, running and scurrying around in the streets and skies of Neopolis.
TOP 10: THE FORTY-NINERS is everything that’s good about comics: funny, dramatic, scary, romantic and inspirational, marvelously written and beautifully drawn. If this year turns out to be Alan Moore’s swan song for superhero comics, we couldn’t have asked for a better capstone. Just wonderful.
Scott Tipton reads a lot of comics. If you’ve got questions about them, send them to stipton99x@moviepoopshoot.com.
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