Kyle Roberts, Lindsay Hodges and I discuss this week’s very interesting crop of new issues, including “Cable” No. 1, “Echo” No. 1, ” “Justice League The New Frontier Special,” “Young Liars” No. 1 and “Logan” No. 1.
– Matt Price
Vertigo
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The Beat points out this hilarious mockup of Golden Age and 1950s predecessors for several of the most popular Vertigo titles. Funny stuff, probably funnier the more comic-book nerdy you are. (Yes, I thought it was really, really funny.)
– Matt Price
The Eisner-award winning “Y: The Last Man” finishes its 60-issue run today. Writer Brian K. Vaughan, who became a writer for television’s “Lost” in part due to the success of “Y,” says it’s been difficult to say good-bye to his characters.
“It’s been weird because it’s a gradual [form of] saying good-bye,” he tells CNN. “First, you finish the script, but then it still has to be penciled and inked, and there’s so many stages in comics that it’s sort of been like the stages of death.”
“Y: The Last Man” follows escape artist Yorick Brown, the last man left on earth after a plague wipes out all the males of the species. Along with his newfound bodyguard, Agent 355, and medical researcher Alison Mann, Yorick searches for answers, as well as his missing girlfriend.
The series has been one of the strongest sellers in DC’s Vertigo imprint as well as a critical favorite.
The fourth season of “Lost,” for which Vaughan is a writer, premieres Thursday night, but the writer’s strike has shut down production on both “Lost” and the planned “Y: The Last Man” feature.
In the meantime, you can still pick up the finale to one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking comic books of recent years as “Y” draws to a close today.
– Matt Price
Matt and I have been working on our lists for the best of 2007 and with the New Year rapidly approaching, here’s a look at my uninformed opinions on the matter.
Note: I cheated, as you can clearly see, by grouping a few titles together. But this ain’t rocket surgery, folks. I can do what I want. You’re not the boss of me!
1. Trials of Shazam!
Judd Winick breathes life into a character (Captain Marvel Jr.) that most people couldn’t care less about, making his three-dimensional and captivating.
2. DMZ
In the midst of the Iraq War, this comic book brings war home literally, and the adventures of Matty Roth have as much to do with the world we live in as the fictional world of a New York split apart by civil war.
3. Blue Beetle/ Booster Gold/ Checkmate
Spinning out of Infinite Crisis are three exceptional relaunches of three previously canceled series. These are the little engines that could and desperately must if only to prove that books without Superman or Batman can deliver big on story.
4. Stormwatch PHD
In the WildStorm Universe, heroes aren’t really heroes, so it’s up to normal folks like the Stormwatch Post Human Division to put them in their place. A spiritual successor to “Stormwatch: Team Achilles,” this book is entertaining from whole cloth, creating true characters out of a poorly defined world.
5. X-Factor
While the rest of the X-universe is mired in awful, dreadful continuity, only Peter David’s “X-Factor” enjoys the mutant community. Centered around Jamie Madrox’s detective agency, this book is consistently a source of big laughs and shocking twists.
6. Captain America
Captain America is dead! Long live Captain America! What could have been an unmitigated disaster (a book in which the lead character is dead) was given wings by Ed Brubaker. Add in a character many thought was a huge mistake (Bucky aka The Winter Soldier) and you’ve got a bona fide miracle.
7. Fables/ Jack of Fables
All bow down to Bill Willingham, who took one of the most simple ideas ever (What if storybook characters were real and living in New York?) and created a giant world from it. This year in “Fables” we’ve seen Flycatcher, a joke character, turned into a warrior king. Meanwhile, with Matt Sturges, “Jack of Fables” has become one of the funniest books on the shelves while adding a new layer to an already rich world.
8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Holy God, do I love this series. Picking up where the TV show left off with creator Joss Whedon at the helm, “Buffy: Season 8″ is a wild ride that goes far beyond the budget of any movie. Dawn is a giant! The army hates Buffy! Next issue right now please!
9. Incredible Hulk
The genius of “Planet Hulk” and the follow-up “World War Hulk” is how much sense it makes. Of course The Illuminati would try to send Hulk somewhere that he would kill anybody. Of course something would go wrong and he’d end up a gladiator. Of course he’d come back, madder than ever before. The results by Greg Pak were astounding.
10. Nova
Much like Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, if you’d told me a couple years back that I’d be reading and loving Nova comics, I’d have called you a moron and questioned your human lineage. Now I have the luxury of reading Abnett and Lanning’s monthly space opera, starring a character who has really come into his own.
Brian Wood’s Viking epic “Northlanders” is praised by Entertainment Weekly:
Chalk up another creative victory for writer Wood (DMZ), who’s quickly emerging as one the medium’s premier scribes. Like his best work, Northlanders takes you into a well-researched, richly realized world that illuminates politics and culture without getting bogged down in history-book stuff.
Greg and I talked about how much we liked this book in a recent podcast, so I’m glad to see Entertainment Weekly coat-tailing on us again. (Just kidding, I love you Entertainment Weekly.)
Greg says: “It’s a real interesting story, it’s got some ‘Hamlet’ overtones to it. … Since ‘DMZ’ and Brian Wood’s other works, the things he did at AiT-Planet Lar, I’m on board with anything he does.”
– Matt Price
