Hmmm... can this be anything that came out this year, single issues, or major arcs? I'll be using both. In no particular order (other than the order I think of them in):
- Seven Soldiers: The Manhattan Guardian #4
- I must have read this book five times in a row when I first got it, it blew my tiny mind, and completely redifined for me what the Seven Soldiers thing was all about. Very very cool.
- Ultimate Fantastic Four (all year, especially the zombie story)
- Currently my favourite Ultimate book, I'm really liking both Millar's handling of the characters and Greg Land's sickeningly good artwork. I used to like his pencils on Nightwing and Birds of Prey, but he really (with great help from his colourist, I presume) has become something else in the past few years. His zombies were fucking awesome, and were worth the price of entry alone. Great stuff.
- All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder (both issues)
- Yeah, I know I'm going to get a lot of stick over this but whatdafug, I loved it. From the look of glee on Dick's face in his first splash page to Batman being a complete cock when dealing with a traumatised little kid, I've been enjoying this, and am looking forward to the rest. Flying Batmobile... I mean, c'mon!! Unlike most other knee-jerk internet whiners, I have faith in the abilities of Miller and Lee, and am looking forward to the development of the characters and the story as time goes on (who knows, maybe we'll get another three issues next year!)
- Mike Allred's Solo
- This was easily the most joycore comic I've read all year. Right from the touching Bizarro intro, I could tell this comic would be a little bit special, and it didn't disappoint at all. Hourman's tweaked-out Hour of Power was great, silly fun. The little Mister Miracle story really made me laugh too, I appreciated its throwaway sadomasochism, and the Batman story was surprisingly heartfelt and relevant in these dark times (for comic characters that is). Which leads us nicely to...
- Infinite Crisis
- Yeah!! *twitching on floor, paroxysms of fanboy ecstacy*
Well, dependoing on how you grew up, it was either going to be this or House of M, wasn't it? House of M turned me off pretty quick (not a big mutant fan + too much Bendis = skip), and DC was always my first love so this... this has indeed been giving me fever-dreams for a while now. There's just so much going on, so many angles, so many bits and bobs, it's just an exhilerating ride, even if we a) don't really know what's going on yet and b) don't really think they can pull it off. The last event that got me this excited was the 'No Man's Land' arc in Batman in '99, and 8C has a similar premise - mosaic pieces creating a larger whole, with the purpose of redefining what these comics will be about for the forseeable future. Cool. |
