The Best Sequential Art I Read Last Week: December 16 – December 22, 2014

I am a comic book collector and happy to be sure. I might say “proud” if I hadn’t, over a year ago, switched to reading digital as opposed to print comics. I feel a bit robbed of the tactile sensations of the hobby – of the turn of the page, the sneaking look to the panel a page over, the bagging and shorting and stacking and filing. Though I read my comics in a different medium than I used to, I still treat each Wednesday (comic book delivery day to specialty shops around the country) as different from the other days of the week. I subscribe and now, rather than go to the comic store to be handed the books pulled for my “Hold Slot,” I click a button on my iPad and watch them download.

Then I read them.

Rare is the week that I don’t read them all between Wednesdays and some weeks I have, well… let’s just say more comic books in my digital downloads than a grown man should. Comic book legend Will Eisner (creator of The Spirit) is one of the most influential men even to put pencil to drawing board in the pursuit of making comics. So influential was he that the industry awards (think the Oscars or the Emmys or the Grammys) are named The Eisner Awards. He called comic books “sequential art,” perhaps because he became embarrassed by his profession when he had to admit what he did for a living. This is my weekly reaction to the comics I read.

I read 11 comics last week: Batman Eternal #37, Batman #37, Avengers and X-Men: Axis #8, All New X-Men #34, Batman and Robin #37, Batman/Superman #17, Justice League #37, Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #8, The Multiversity: Thuderworld Adventures #1, Star Trek #39 and Wytches #3.

The best comic I read last week was Batman #37.

 

It is no longer a fair fight. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman is simply better than any other comic book being published currently.

It’s not a fair fight when I literally cannot fall asleep after reading the issue because it’s so haunting.

It’s not a fair fight when the images that Capullo draws won’t leave my mind (a Joker-ized new-born ward at Gotham Memorial Hospital?  C’mon!)

It’s not a fair fight when Snyder digs deeply into Batman’s mythos, imbuing the Joker with a terrible, perhaps mystical, history and burying Batman under the weight of his own past.

It’s not a fair fight when I complete the comic, look around for someone to tell about it and have to torture The Cinnamon Girl (who is always game for such things) with comments like “well, it really goes back to the story Death of the Family which, itself, was a sequel to the 1980s classic A Death in the Family which dealt with a 1-800 call in number…”

I had to tell someone how good this story is! That’s how good this story is! Each page propels the reader to the next. There are twists and turns (Joe Chill, anyone?). There are shocks. And there are very, very high stakes.

I can’t wait for next month.

The Best Sequential Art I Read Last Week – November 12 – November 18, 2014

I am a comic book collector and happy to be sure. I might say “proud” if I hadn’t, over a year ago, switched to reading digital as opposed to print comics. I feel a bit robbed of the tactile sensations of the hobby – of the turn of the page, the sneaking look to the panel a page over, the bagging and shorting and stacking and filing. Though I read my comics in a different medium than I used to, I still treat each Wednesday (comic book delivery day to specialty shops around the country) as different from the other days of the week. I subscribe and now, rather than go to the comic store to be handed the books pulled for my “Hold Slot,” I click a button on my iPad and watch them download.

Then I read them.

Rare is the week that I don’t read them all between Wednesdays and some weeks I have, well… let’s just say more comic books in my digital downloads than a grown man should. Comic book legend Will Eisner (creator of The Spirit) is one of the most influential men even to put pencil to drawing board in the pursuit of making comics. So influential was he that the industry awards (think the Oscars or the Emmys or the Grammys) are named The Eisner Awards. He called comic books “sequential art,” perhaps because he became embarrassed by his profession when he had to admit what he did for a living. This is my weekly reaction to the comics I read.

I read 12 comics last week: The All New Captain America #1, Batgirl#36, Spider-Verse #1,  Captain America and the Mighty Avengers #1, Batman Eternal #32, Wytches #2, Avengers and X-Men: Axis #5, Batman #36, Justice League United #6, Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #7, Star Trek: Harlan Ellison’s City on the Edge of Forever #5 and Star Trek #38.

The best comic I read last week was Batman #36.

 

This was a tough week to pick my favorite read. It’s going to be when one has 12 titles from which to choose! Making things more difficult is the fact that many of the comics I read this week were really, really good. The final issue of the Harlan Ellison Star Trek miniseries lived up to the quality of the rest of the series. All New Captain America #1 was a great debut for the Sam Wilson Cap. Batgirl #36 continued the terrific reboot of that character. I should also mention I am really enjoying Spider-Verse.

But, I am both pleased and afraid to say that, as long as Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo are in charge of Batman as a character and his eponymous comic book itself, I can pencil in Batman as my favorite book every time it appears.

Snyder and Capullo move from epic to epic. “Endgame” is their follow-up to “Zero Year” but it really is their sequel to “Death of the Family.” Yes, the Joker is back and, yes, this was on of the best kept secrets in comics since Marvel’s Thunderbolts were revealed as villains. When the Joker appeared in the final panel of Batman #35, fans were shocked. I was shocked.

That’s fun.

Pitting Batman against a Joker-ized Justice League is a home run, but it’s not just because audiences love to see heroes fight heroes (which we do), but because of the brilliance of Batman’s strategy in facing his friends in battle (proving that he IS the most dangerous man in the DC Universe) and the brilliance of the manner in which Snyder writes the character. He’s concerned about the League, but he’s ready to put them down. He tries to keep the battle away from civilians, but he has to engage Alfred and Julia Pennyworth (“Penny One” and “Penny Two”) to help him.

All of this is great follow to Act One of “Endgame” from Batman #35, but #36 really gets cooking when the Joker is revealed in the flesh, as it were, and he and Batman confront one another face-to-face. The seeds of the Joker’s return have been planted in many different issues of Batman-based books and it’s fun to see it all come together.

What is different about this story is that all Joker-Batman dynamics seem to be blown up. This is not a story about two sides of the same coin. This is not a yin and yang approach to the enemies. This is not an illustration of how these two characters need each other and how they reveal things about one another.

This is about the Joker deciding to demolish Batman in the most frightening and damaging way possible. Scary and good stuff. Great issue.