2010 Comics In Review - Part 3

In 2009, there were 6 different artists who drew at least 7 issues worth of comics I bought: Paco Medina, Nicola Scott, Andrea DiVito, Brad Walker, Paul Pelletier, and Amanda Conner. There were another 9 who drew at least 5 issues. Considering I only bought 12 fewer comics in 2010 than in 2009, I wouldn't have expected much of a disparity. Some disparity to be certain, but there were only 9 artists in 2010 in the 5 or more category, and only 3 (J. Calafiore, James Silvani, Gabriel Hardman) in the 7 or more category. I haven't sat down to check this, but my guess is mini-series made up a bigger percentage of what I bought in 2010 than in 2009, and since mini-series don't tend to be very long, that accounts for it. I'm sure the fact most of the Marvel series I bought shipped relatively few issues didn't help.

Girl Comics #1-3 - I'm not typically a fan of anthology series. They're always so potluck, and the stories I like aren't as long as I'd like them to be. So I'm not sure why I bought this. I'm sure the Amanda Conner cover didn't hurt (still can't believe Logan was dumb enough to bet on Tony Stark and his Vartox-stache), and maybe I wanted to support more work at Marvel for women creators. What? It's a possibility!

High Point: I'm going to stick to one per issue. So let's say "Shop Doc" by Lucy Knisley. Faith Erin Hicks' "Do You Ever?" felt perfect for Marvel characters, since they're constantly dealing with ungrateful and unpleasant civilians. Why wouldn't they at least consider the benefits of going evil? #3 had two separate stories about Logan and one of his proteges, one more serious, the other more funny. I'll narrowly give it to "Things That Never Change", by Marjorie Liu and Sara Pichelli.

Low Point: There wasn't a bad story in the bunch. I can't say "Chaos Theory" did anything for me. I think I understand what DeConnick was going for, but maybe it needed more space to work.

Gorilla-Man #1-3 - This is the first of two mini-series we'll hit today focusing on a specific Atlas character (plus there's a one-shot for another one of the crew). Here, Jeff Parker and Giancarlo Caracuzzo give us the story of Ken Hale's past, intermingled with a current mission for Atlas.

High Point: The part in #2 when Ken gets one of their enemies to talk, by convincing the guy he has the mystical power to transform into animals. Like say, a gorilla.

Low Point: There wasn't anything in particular.

GrimJack: Manx Cat #5 - The last issue of Ostrander and Truman's latest GrimJack story. it occurs to me that GrimJack knows the truth about the Manx Cat after this story, but he's stolen it from people on several occasions. I guess he hasn't been stealing it from the Sleepless Ones, which means they need to improve their security. Or drink more caffeine.

Guardians of the Galaxy #22-25 - Well looky here, a series I was buying that Marvel canceled! What are the odds?

Sarcasm aside, this continued the lead up to Thanos Imperative, what with the continued threat of the Fault, and you know, Thanos coming back from the dead. Abnett and Lanning were the writers, Brad Walker drew 22 and 25, Wesley Craig 23 and 24.

High Point: Well, I was pretty happy about the end of #22, when it was revealed Magus hadn't actually killed half the team. Course, that meant Magus was still alive too, but that was rectified soon enough. Beyond that, Star-Lord's "Bang." which put down Thanos.

Low Point: Phyla's death. I think she and Moondragon are set to give Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne a run for their money in the "hopelessly doomed romance" category. Either one's abducted, or dead, or turned into a telepathic dragon, or becomes the Avatar of Death. It's a constant string of bad luck.

Hawkeye and Mockingbird #1-6 - Relax, I'm not going to be sarcastic and indignant that Marvel canceled this series, since I was prepared to drop it anyway. I'm not entirely sure why it didn't click for me, beyond how little some of the characters seemed to like being around each other. I don't need every character on a team to get along, but it helps if a few of them seem to like each other. Otherwise, why not go work with someone else?

High Point: The fight in the museum was pretty cool. Points for using a Triceratops head as a weapon (though I thought they were trying to minimize damage to exhibits). Plus, folks seemed to be getting along a little better that month.

Low Point: I wasn't a big fan of Hawkeye maiming Crossfire. I know he's gone wild and killed Skrulls, and tried to kill Osborn recently, but I wasn't a fan of those developments, either. Steve Rogers telling Hawkeye to rejoin Mockingbird's team, because Steve wanted someone there to make sure they stayed good (so he can use them) worried me as well.

Heralds #1-5 - I liked Kathryn Immonen's Patsy Walker: Hellcat mini-series, so why not, right? I thought the premise for getting that particular group of heroes together (Scott Summers asked them to help Emma celebrate her birthday) was suitably odd and funny. The funny stuff was what I liked the best.

I still don't understand why they couldn't wait to release it. I don't think it was Marvel's original plan to split art chores between Tonci Zonjic, James Harren and Emma Rios. I get that it was a five issue mini-series, and they wanted to release it in a month with five Wednesdays, but why not wait until September? Or December? The only thing that might have affected other books was the return of Nova (former Herald of Galactus, not Space Cop who was still alive at the time). To my knowledge, no one has done anything with her, so what was the rush?

High Point: The whole bit in Vegas at the beginning. The interaction between Scott and Emma, the party, the fight with the scientist clones (Patsy's eagerness to punch Oppenheimer, then her disappointment at missing out on Hitler). Also, Patsy's interacting with Valeria, and that odd sequence where Ben Grimm whistled at the ladies, then explained Reed liked to be whistled at, so what was Frost's problem? How much time you got, Ben? It's a lengthy list.

Low Point: I understood why Frances was angry, but Nova's reasons for being angry rang false. She's running around blaming Johnny, Reed, the Surfer, Galactus for her problems, but I've read the story where Frankie became Nova. She made that decision, eagerly. She poo-poo'ed any concerns about how, as Herald, she might have to feed planets with intelligent beings on them to Galactus (her exact quote: 'So? A few less bug-eyed monsters? What's that compared to my being able to go. . . out there?') Her blaming everyone else feels suspiciously like buck-passing to me, which makes me disinclined to care about her problems.

Heroes for Hire #1 - I have my misgivings about this, mostly the possible inclusion of the Punisher. Garth Ennis killed most any interest I have in seeing Castle in the Marvel Universe. That aside, it's Abnett and Lanning again, with Brad Walker, too. I have to give it a chance.

Marvel Boy: The Uranian #1-3 - Jeff Parker and Felix Ruiz bring us the story of Bob Grayson's early adventures on Earth, trying to adjust to life here, trying to get the governments of both the U.S. and Uranus off his back.

High Point: The idea that the writer would alter certain details of Bob's story to better fit with his 1950s-era comic, and that the scientists on Uranus would adopt some ideas to upgrade Bob's capabilities based on said comics (such as the pill that gives Bob a strength boost temporarily, which I'm guessing was based on the supposed uranium pill he swallowed in the comics).

Low Point: There wasn't anything about the story itself (though Felix Ruiz' art wasn't of my personal preference. Too angular, scratchy looking. You know me, I like those clean lines). However, I preferred how Parker did the Gorilla-Man story where the past was interwoven with the present. This was strictly flashback, nothing set in the present day as a member of Atlas.

Namora #1 - The Atlas character centric one-shot I mentioned earlier. Jeff Parker and Sara Pichelli giving us some insight into how Namora views herself as a hybrid, how she views her life in general. I admit I was really excited when she saw Namorita, because I'm still (still!) waiting for those two to have a reunion, now that Nita's back. It was an illusion, though.

Nightmaster: Monsters of Rock #1 - It's pretty rare for me to buy a one-shot from DC. I'm sure they put out plenty of them, I'm just rarely interested, I suppose. The last one I bought was the Robin/Spoiler Special from 2008.

The story here (by Adam Beechen and Kieron Dwyer) was Nightmaster needs to rescue his Shadowpact teammates, but as he's trying to do so, runs into an old fan. Jim Rook was a musician before he was a super-hero, a long time ago, but the real fans don't forget, man. So he has a tagalong throughout the story, one seemingly oblivious to everything else around him. I guess he's seen weirder.

Nova #33 - 36 - Yes, another series I bought Marvel canceled. We're to 3 for the year (not counting H & M). Oh well, 3 years isn't a bad run these days. Abnett and Lanning mostly spent their time on a story focusing on the odd properties of the Fault, namely that the regular rules of reality don't apply. The last issue switched to Thanos Imperative build-up, leading directly to the Ignition one-shot we'll get to tomorrow. Andrea Divito drew 33 and 36, Mahmud Asrar drew 34 and 35.

High Point: Namorita's back! My inner New Warriors' fan rejoices! Beyond that, Rich took out a doubly-empowered Sphinx, and didn't listen to stupid Reed Richards and his "Don't mess with the timestream" warnings.

Low Point: How Darkhawk got taken out at the end of #36. He'd been having a rough go of it in Nova ever since he showed up in the Secret Invasion tie-in issues. I was hoping he'd get a chance to participate in Thanos Imperative, and have a better showing.

Tomorrow, we make a run through the remainder of the alphabet. It's going to be heavily DC focused, if that matters to you.