The Best Sequential Art I Read Last Week – 8.28 – 9.3

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 (painfully slowly on my first generation device) 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 consumed 12 comics last week: Batman/Superman #3, FF #11, New Avengers #9, Uncanny X-Men #4, Batman Incorporated Special #1, Uncanny Avengers #11, Wolverine and the X-Men #35, Aquaman #23, Justice League #23, Flash #23, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #26 and Superman #23.

The comic that most arrested my attention, that I thought was the best read of the week and that I most enjoyed was Justice League #23.

There is a blog post in the back of my head about comic book crossover “events.” I’ve been a comic reader for all of them dating back to the 1980s and have seen them done well and done poorly. While Justice League #23 isn’t, strictly speaking, an issue of one of those massive events, the Venn Diagram overlaps significantly here. It is the final issue of a six-issue crossover with Justice League of America and Justice League Dark called “The Trinity War.” Worse, in some ways, is that this story leads into not only one of those massive comic book crossovers called Forever Evil, but it also ignites almost every DC title to jettison their story lines to feature their villains for an issue (or two or three). Further, Justice League #23 is one of those “everything has built up to this!” installments that normally don’t offer much in the way of payoff.

This one pays off. Writer Geoff Johns, a student of the Silver Age, pulls of three or four fairly astounding reveals in the last few pages of the book and all of them, astonishingly, could have been predicted (I am sure many people predicted them) by careful reading. Though the surprises pack punches, they are all so well set up I felt like an idiot for being surprised.

I think that is good writing.

Artist Ivan Reis is born for this title, made for big casts and just killing it on Justice League. He takes a massive cast, gives them all personality and purpose and manages this in the context of wide-screen action. He should be spoken of as one of the best artists working today.

The highest praise I can give this book is that I am concerned about the fates of more than one of the main characters. I don’t know what’s coming next and the stakes are high.

Will I be as excited about this story when I’ve been compelled (by forces seemingly beyond my control) to spend hundreds of dollars on the issues through which this story will be told? I cannot guarantee that.

I can say that, if the rest of the story (thanks, Paul Harvey) is as good as this chapter, I am in.

The Best Sequential Art I Read Last Week (8.14 – 8.21)

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 (painfully slowly on my first generation device) 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 consumed 10 comics last week: X-Men #2, Star Trek#24, Batman #23, Worlds’ Finest #15 (DROPPED THIS WEEK), Nightwing #23, Wolverine and the X-Men #34, Uncanny X-Men #10, Justice League of America #7, Fantastic Four #11 and Infinity #1.

The comic that most arrested my attention, that I thought was the best read of the week and that I most enjoyed was Batman #23.

Author Scott Snyder is quickly becoming one of the most reliable writers in comics. There was trepidation when DC Comics announced this year-long story arc in Batman called Zero Year. As it was a re-telling of Batman’s origin, there were opinions far-and-wide about how well it would turn out. Batman’s origin is venerated ground and many didn’t want Snyder mucking with it.

So the writer, ably assisted by Greg Capullo on art, did something very smart: he made Gotham City an urban wasteland unlike any Gotham that’s ever been seen in the comics or on film. He placed a young Bruce Wayne into it – a Bruce Wayne finding himself, one at odds with his butler and confidant Alfred Pennyworth and one trying to re-claim the city of his birth from the Red Hood Gang – a group of criminals who Batman fans know may (or may not) be connected to the Joker.

It’s pretty heady stuff and pretty hallowed ground. It is a story that feels – to me – like why DC blew up their continuity and started “The New 52” in the first place. Concepts are refreshed in Snyder’s hands. Batman has rarely looked better than he does in Capullo’s art.

There is a powerful moment – one readers had to be expecting – in Batman #23 when the bat flies – finally – through the Wayne Manor window and inspires Bruce to take up his quest. It’s played out in such original fashion that it felt neither stale nor like an homage.

It felt original.

For Snyder to put an original spin on a story that’s been told and re-told time and again, that’s saying something.

The Best Sequential Art I Read This Week (7.31 – 8.6)

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 (painfully slowly on my first generation device) 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 consumed 10 comics last week: Batman Annual #2, Batman Incorporated # 13, Detective Comics Annual #2, Flash Annual #2, Superman Annual #2, Daredevil #29, FF #10, Indestructible Hulk # 11, Uncanny X-Men #9 and The Wake #3.

The comic that most arrested my attention, that I thought was the best read of the week and that I most enjoyed was Batman Incorporated #13.

I admit that this comic, written by Grant Morrison – a mad genius of sorts about whose work I go back-and-forth between loving it and being completely baffled by it – had a leg up. It is reported to be the “final” Batman story by Morrison who has been weaving a pretty amazing (and pre-New 52 spanning) mythology around the Dark Knight for over seven years. This issue was a fitting culmination of his work. More direct than most Morrison, more final than most narratives (with one gigantic backdoor left open for another writer), Batman Incorporated #13 wrapped up an almost impossible number of dangling plot threads elegantly.

I wish Lindelof and Cuse had been so neat in their stepping off the stage with the final episode of Lost.

This is a carefully chosen comparison because Morrison’s narratives have much more in common with Lost than they do with other comic books. That I didn’t become too confused (or too bored) with Morrison’s methods speaks of a cohesive whole that, for me, had a significant pay off.

He introduced Bruce Wayne’s son only to kill him. He spent a year with Dick Grayson as Batman. He introduced a flying batmobile. He undergirded his entire narrative with a psychotic love story. He put the Joker undercover as a trusted confidant of the Bat-Family. He incorporated Batman as a brand and had Wayne Enterprises fund Batmen world-wide. He suggested a time traveling Batman was responsible for his own creation!

Sound trippy? It was, and entertainingly so.

I guess Batman Incorporated #13 was long destined to be the Best Sequential Art I Read This Week. It was quite a payoff.

And I didn’t even mention Bat-Cow. (You read that right).