2012 Year In Review - Part 3

At some point I decided to start keeping track of which artists' work I was seeing most regularly. So I'd note how many pages each one drew, with an arbitrary cutoff at 110 and 154 pages. That's 5 and 7 22-page comics, respectively. In '09, the lists included 13 and 6 pencilers. The next year it dropped to 10 and 3. Some of that was probably the drop in comics purchased (144 to 134). The rest, I'm guessing it was the number of mini-series I bought from Marvel that year, as opposed to ongoings. In 2011, it dropped to 7 and 2, the page count decrease being the major culprit there (Marvel's tendency to ship lots of issues, which requires multiple artists also factored in).

As for this year, there was actually a minor increase. Five artists reached at least the 110 page mark: Dexter Soy (111), Dustin Nguyen, Howard Porter, and Matteo Scalera (120), and Scott Wegener (144). Three more made it beyond 154 pages: Norm Breyfogle (160), Rebekah Isaacs (220), Chris Samnee (270). Samnee did enough work he could have made the 110 mark solely off books that weren't for Marvel.

Defenders #2-10, 12: Matt Fraction's the only constant here. His artists shifted from the Dodsons drawing the showdown with Nul and Prestor John, to Michael Lark drawing Dr. Strange for an issue, then the Breitweisers as the team found the Nautilus, then Victor Ibanez as the Prince of Orphans showed up. The Dodsons did one more issue - prominently featuring the Black Cat - before Jamie McKelvie and Mike Norton took over. For all of three issues, by which time the team had been thrown into another dimension, hijacked a Nick Fury, and returned to find their world in ruins. And it was all their fault, naturally. So Strange fixed it, with Mario Pierfederici as penciler by then.

High Point: Scott Lang showed up? Um, Felicia messing around with the Satan's Claw she stole wasn't bad. Some of the stuff the Surfer did with his body was nifty. Issue 4 was probably the strongest, since it was the least wrapped up in all the nonsense about why there are super-heroes.

Low Point: This book was the answer to a question nobody asked. The artist shuffle was annoying. Fraction ramped up John Aman so much he made me sick of the character. Sure, a guy who turns into mist is too much for Dr. Strange. Because the former Sorcerer Supreme didn't hand the Lord of the Vampires his ass twice or anything like that. Let's put it this way: If I ranked all the ongoing series I bought this year - and I have - this one would come in dead last.

Dial H #0-7: Which is a sharp contrast to this series, where down on his luck schmoe Nelson Jent found himself a phone dial that lets him become superheroes. Crazy ones that actually exist in other dimensions, and aren't necessarily happy when people steal their power. Nelson's since teamed up with Roxie, who maintains a separate superheroic identity to help her remember who she is. He's run afoul of an alien, a living void, and a doctor of nothingness interested in them both. Now Nelson and Roxie have the Canadians to contend with, which I was not expecting, so credit to China Mieville for that. Mateus Santolouco was the artist for the first 5 issues, Ricardo Burchelli drew the 0 issue (set thousands of years in the past), and then David Lapham stepped in for 2 issues.

High Point: Santolouco's art was excellent for the book, because every hero look crazy. Not just in the absurdity of their designs, but a little unhinged. Mieville's added so many levels to it, with the dimensions the heroes come from, the different groups after the dials, the mysterious O, Ex Nihilo, who didn't even care about the dials, but made things worse for the heroes nonetheless.

Low Point: There hasn't been one, other than I'm disappointed Santolouco's gone.

Green Arrow #0, 7-15: I started buying the book when Ann Nocenti started writing it, and I'll leave when she does. So far Ollie's made a mess of things. Losing his company because he was more interested in chasing skirts. Then dashing off to China to try and get it back, more because he thinks it's his than feeling like his employees deserved better. There was an annoying team-up with Hawkman, then Ollie rashly dumped a bunch of guns in the ocean and riled a weapons dealer named Harrow. Harvey Tolibao was the artist at the start, Steve Kurth drew issue 10, and Freddie Williams II (with a horde of inkers) handled the rest.

High Point: The writing. Nocenti's always got something going on, and I've enjoyed watching Ollie screw up, then screw up again when he tries to fix things, because the methods he wants to use aren't productive. Even so, I don't hate Ollie, because Nocenti gives him a decent core, through the ego, bluster, and sex drive.Ollie does mean well, he does learn, and he does try to do better, to not repeat his mistakes.

Low Point: The Hawkman appearance was pretty lackluster, more because I don't care about Hawkman than anything else. The art's been the real downer. The book didn't maintain a consistent look, and Tolibao had problems with panel-to-panel consistency. Oh, and there was that 0 issue that said on the cover Nocenti wrote it, but it was actually Winick. Bah!

Hawkeye #1-6: Fraction did better here than he did with Defenders, that's for sure. Then again, he isn't trying to create some pointless creation myth for the Marvel Universe with this book. Clint Barton and Kate Bishop team-up to handle stuff, mostly Clint's personal crap. Jerk Russian landlords, the Circus of Crime, recovering an incriminating tape from some interested buyers. I do wonder when we'll see them dealing with Kate's stuff, but I guess she has Gillen, McKelvie, and Young Avengers for that. Anyway, David Aja draws the hell out of this book, with an assist from Matt Hollingsworth's colors. Except when it was Javier Pulido drawing slightly less of the hell out of it.

High Point: DAVID AJA! His sense of style on the page, the use of shadows and contrasts, stretching out a moment across a dozen panels, it's all beautiful, and I'm probably only picking up on 5% of what he's doing. Also, the car chase and the trick arrows in issue 3. I like that Fraction doesn't seem embarrassed by the trick arrows, like they're stupid or something. Sometimes you need more than an arrow that's pointy. On a strict vocabulary level, the use of "cornpone" in issue 2.

Low Point: If Fraction never has a character utter the word "Bro" again, it'll be too soon.

I know, only another 4 titles? Well, things are going to accelerate considerably tomorrow, as we blow through the remainder of the alphabet.