FreakAngels

Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield’s free webcomic, FreakAngels, is six pages of full-colour sequential art on a weekly basis that has been going on for the last few months. Completely free. That’s impressive. It will be collected into hard-copy form eventually, but it will still remain free online. God bless Warren Ellis and his continual desire to plough his own furrow and do things differently from the norm.

It has a great start from the opening intro: ’23 years ago, twelve strange children were born in England at exactly the same moment. 6 years ago, the world ended. This is he story of what happened next.’ The story is about these disaffected youths, who have the ability to talk to each other telepathically over distance, and their history and the effect of one of their number who did his own thing.

Because it is Ellis, it is about the characters and their interactions with each other and ‘normal’ people, with the occasional piece of telekinesis to remind you that it’s a piece of British sci-fi. And because it is Ellis, it has fun dialogue: ‘I refuse to share a mind with people who were raised by the fucking television!’ It’s very enjoyable, and it’s enjoying taking it’s time – Ellis has said that it will be ‘many hundred pages’.

He is working with Duffield, an artist who describes himself accurately as an artist with a style that is a ‘Japanese/European hybrid’. It’s detailed but loose and expressive, and importantly all the characters look different and the setting feels real.

The only problem I have is the loading/scrolling of an online webcomic – I guess I’m an old man – but I like the feel of paper, being able to flip back and forth with ease, not having to wait for the file to download. This means I will pick up the publication when it comes out, but I will enjoy the story on its weekly schedule until then. Respect to Ellis for doing it, and respect to Duffield for producing quality art on a weekly basis.

TV: Thoughts On Heroes Season Two (So Far)

Much was made of the apology from Heroes creator Tim Kring for the troubles with the early episodes of season two – although I tried to avoid the discussions because I didn’t want the show spoiled – so I thought I’d talk about my reactions to the first five episodes that have been shown on BBC2 here in the UK.

The show does suffer from what Kring admits – slowness. In a classic case of ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, it was decided that because people liked the slow build of season one, they’d want exactly the same thing again. Alan Moore said something along the lines of: you don’t give people what they want, you give them what they don’t know they need. Trying to guess what the audience wants is a fool’s game. In this case, trying to replicate the mechanics of the first season simply won’t work – the story has been done, you can’t go back. And, even if you do the first storyline again (have a group of people come together who don’t know each other to fight a threat that will kill millions of people), you should at least set up what the threat is, something that hasn’t happened in the first five episodes …

As season 2 starts, our heroes our displaced. Matt Parkman survives getting shot in the chest at the end of season 1 (although DL Hawkins wasn’t so lucky), and he and Suresh are looking after Molly. The Bennets are in California, hiding themselves away in case The Company finds them. Hiro is in 17th century Japan (and his father is killed, as the start of this season’s mystery – don’t worry, they get another member of the original Star Trek cast, Nichelle Nichols, to be in the series: she’s Micah’s grandmother), Sylar survives being stabbed in the chest with a samurai sword with ‘eight surgeries’, and Peter (looking pumped – Milo Ventimiglia worked out during the break) is suffering the worst: he’s stuck in an embarrassing version of Ireland. He has amnesia – shame he will remember this part, with the bad Irish accents (all different; the girl sounds like she’s doing a Northern Irish accent, even though Cork is on the other side of the island and a different country) and the fantasy blarney (Irish people don’t live in huge loft apartments where there’s enough room to have a bed and a kitchen and massive windows and a huge space to paint on canvas).

The other strand of the mystery of this season is The Company, which Suresh and Bennet are planning to bring down. Suresh is brought into the Company by the character of Bob, played by the ever-watchable Stephen Tobolowsky. The only thing is, all I can think of when I see him (especially after the turning the spoon into gold scene) is the character of Tom Jones from X-Factor vol.1 #41 and other comics, a mutant who can turn other metals into gold, a character created in a Marvel competition if memory serves. This makes me laugh.

Apart from the awfulness of the Oirishness, there are other things that don’t work so well. The Herrera twins from Honduras, with their plague/cure symmetry (although they always seem to manage to split them apart every episode with an implausible plot device in order to show the killing and curing), are quite dull, their story has gone on too long without anything happening, and it was downright silly having them meet Sylar in the middle of nowhere. Micah’s cousin, Monica, with her muscle mimicry (this was after the Echo character created by David Mack in Daredevil, wasn’t it?) is just a little naff for some reason – it may sound cool but it seems ridiculous on screen. And some of the scenes with her have been painful – not her fault, but the fault of the creator. Kring writes some of the most appalling dialogue and bad scenes in the entire show, and his episodes klunk along in an embarrassing fashion. Then there is the ropey CGI when they show Noah Bennet and the Haitian walking in Russia when it is plainly obvious that they are in a sound studio in California in front of a green screen.

When the positives and negatives are combined, the show just about breaks even. It’s enough to keep me interested but not enough to get me excited, in the way the first season did. There is huge potential in the show and I’m still delighted that a show that is comic books in television form is doing so well, but I just want them to do a decent job and deliver the goods. Here’s hoping the rest of season 2 is worth the wait.

Comic Book Review - Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four: Silver Rage

Collection of issues 1–4 by Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo

I bought this collection because it was the last work by the sorely missed Mike ‘Ringo’ Wieringo, an artist whose work I really enjoyed. He was taken from us too soon, and it’s a shame to think of all the work we won’t get – he was supposed to be working on a project with Warren Ellis, which sounds like a crazy combination …

As expected, Ringo’s art on this book is a joy to behold – the blend of cartoony yet sleek and dynamic is a delight. Playful yet serious, imaginative yet grounded in reality, he is a perfect choice for Spidey and the FF, characters he was very familiar with after two long runs on their books in his career. And he works his magic on Impossible Man so beautifully (cowboy, Galactus, Silver Surfer, Demi Moore pose, even Spider-Man and his Spidey mobile), it’s as if he was born to draw him.

Impossible Man has come to Earth to warn our heroes of an invasion by the H’Mojen, spearheaded by The Imperator (who seemingly destroys Impy). Spidey tells the Fantastic Four (after we see a lovely joke by Ben on Johnny), while Reed and Sue are on holiday, but they can’t stop The Imperator.

The second issue has The H’Mojen taking over the human population. (In all of this, Parker still adds nice human touches, such as Reed and Sue telling their kids they only get one cartoon, and Spidey’s reaction to the Fantastic Four’s home, ‘Wow, sweet widescreen’; Ringo keeps things real by drawing women anatomically correct – what a novelty). The H’Mojen are grafting themselves onto all humans, because they are a symbiotic species, but they don’t take over everyone (they will be ‘relocated’) – anyone who has DNA which is different (e.g. the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man) cannot be grafted onto (unfortunately, the likes of Captain America and Doctor Strange are not immune). This is the perfect threat for the FF and Spidey – it’s a huge threat, but Spidey keeps it on the human level (Mary Jane and Aunt May have been changed).

There is a lot of good humour in this book: Spidey saying, ‘"Johnny Storm" and "fact-finding mission" just don’t ever get near each other in my head somehow.’ Or Reed giving Spidey a Fantastic Four ‘4’ badge, to which he replies, ‘I don’t know what to say.’ to which Ben says, ‘Aw, he slapped that thing on Lockjaw last time Susie went outta town.’

Reed travels to other planets that have been used by the H’Mojen, looking for answer, while Ben, Johnny and Spidey are avoiding the clutches of the H’Mojen, who want to remove people who are not allowing themselves to change. After a fight, Sue rescues them and they fly to Wundagore mountain for answers from the High Evolutionary (who gives them a machine that will stop the aliens) and then to Latveria for help from Doctor Doom (they get through his pride by fibbing, telling him that Reed couldn’t make the machine work, which is a nice touch.).

In the final issue, Reed returns from hyperspace, which disrupts the Imperator’s technology, allowing the FF to fight him. He fights back using huge animals made of different DNA – things look tricky until these creatures are eaten by Impossible Man or, rather, the entire Poppupian race (‘The Body Conglomerate’), who have been regurgitated by Spidey. They can remove the H’Mojen from human race, but this will kill the H’Mojen, which is not something the FF want. The Imperator takes back the H’Mojen but the 9 billion Poppupians want to stay on Earth – so Spidey asks if the Imperator can contain them, and so they combine the two alien species in the final great merge on an empty planet Reed found on his trip.

This is an old-fashioned tale told in a thoroughly charming manner – Parker has a lightness of touch to his scripting and his fondness for the characters shines through in his dialogue. Matched with Ringo’s ebullient art, and you have pure, fun, entertaining superhero comics.

Minutemen: Because Everybody Else Will Do The Same

There is no need for me to post this image of the Minutemen from the Watchmen film (from AICN via Blog@Newsarama), because everyone will be doing the same and commenting on it. However, the very fact that this image exists is something for celebrating (for everyone apart from Alan Moore, perhaps).

This is a true-to-the-book photograph of the original superheroes in the graphic novel – quite extraordinary. My first impression? It looks like a recovered photo of a comic con costume parade from before comic cons existed. I guess that's the idea – they are supposed to look disturbingly geeky and silly – but the reality of the photograph is even more excrutiating than I expected. It's just so damned odd seeing this image as a reality – Hooded Justice looks even weirder than in the book – but I can't bring myself to mock it (even the ridiculous Mothman). It just makes me laugh to look at it, but in a good way. Bring on the film.

Comic Book Shops: Gosh! (Number 1 in a Series)

Living in London, I’m lucky to have my choice of comic book shops. However, for as long as I can remember buying comic books on a regular basis, the shop that I have had the longest association with is Gosh!, on Great Russell Street, just across from the British Museum. Therefore, it was a surprise to discover that it only opened in 1986, which is just after I became a four-colour addict.

I have a subscription list with Gosh!, so I’m slightly biased towards them, but I’ve always thought of them the best comic shop in London (I’m not the only one: Graham Linehan agrees). It’s not a big shop, but it packs a lot into its space. When you enter, the cash register is on your left. On the right are shelves of trade paperbacks; on the other side are the shelves of new comics. There is a lot space, so you don’t feel crowded, and everything is clean and tidy. There is some merchandise on sale (action figures and t-shirts) but that’s not what the shop is about – they are all about comic books. They have a wide selection on the shelves, but there’s even more downstairs.

At the back of the shop is the spiral stairs that lead to the basement, where they have European books, manga, art books and back issues (including specially priced packages of recent old books). Again, it’s small in there, but not cramped or messy. The staff are friendly and knowledgeable, able to talk about books and creators (even setting aside books you may have missed). It’s got to a stage where the long-serving guys know my name, which shows I’ve been buying comics there too long.

Gosh! is everything a good comic book shop should be, which is the reason I choose to buy my comics there instead of the other comic shops within the 200-yard radius that makes the centre of comic book shops in Central London. I’ll be talking about the other shops in the remainder of this series of posts.

Collins and Herring Looking Good

I've been listening to the Collings and Herrin podcast since its beginning – I've been reading the blogs of Andrew Collins and Richard Herring (the name of the podcast is a deliberate joke on their part) for a while now as well – and enjoying their unedited chat, which seems to hark back to their days when Collins used to do a show on BBC 6 Music and Herrings would co-host on a Sunday.

They recently had their photographs taken by a proper photographer (he did it for free), to help them promote their podcast on iTunes. This is one of two they have posted, and I couldn't help but post this one (I think it's a great image) and to do my bit to help them promote their podcast.

Star Trek: The Manga

Shinsei Shinsei by various

Is it manga if it calls itself ‘Japanese-style sequential art’? I don’t know, but I was sufficiently intrigued to have a look. One thing I found difficult in the reading was the different fonts used for no reason, the different sizes used to fit the too-small word balloon – it makes you appreciate the usually unrated skill of a good letterer.

‘Side Effects’ is a lot of shouting and artwork with Japanese calligraphy. It’s made worse by the fact that it is an attempt to be an ‘origin’ story for the Borg queen.

‘Anything But Alone’ feels like an old Star Trek story you’ve seen before, bbut updated with reference to nano-technology, with a surviving member of a colony recreating the rest of them from his memories, to obviously catastrophic results.

‘’Til Death’ (written by Mike W Barr) is hard to read due to the very idealized art – if somebody hadn’t called him Captain, I wouldn’t have recognised Kirk, and Uhura is draw as white (so I’m guessing the artist wasn’t a Trek fan). Barr plays with his usually idea of the male/female divide (due to the presence of sarcophagi on the ship, men and women can’t get on, so the crews are split up, leading to an almost civil war when the sarcophagi open to reveal a man and woman who say they will lead each of the fractions) but it’s all rather silly.

‘Oban’ has very cute art indeed, but again with hardly any similarity to the actual actors. Oban is a cute lizard recreated by one planet of war to promote peace, which is being transported by Enterprise – Oban’s pheromones make the crew happy. They are also transporting the Weave, which is the offering of the other planet – this turns out to be a weapon that changes Oban into a violent creature, which they have to eventually kill.

‘Orphans’ is the final tale, which has even cuter art, but has some inherent silliness – why would an alien race flip the bird to the Enterprise? Basically, this is kids in giant robots in space being taught the power of love. Dear lord, but that’s just embarrassing …

There’s also a prose story to round things out, which sort of defeats the point of a manga Star Trek if you ask me. This is a very strange collection, and it doesn’t make me want to see anymore, even if Wil Wheaton writes a story in the next one.

Book: Half The Blood Of Brooklyn

This is the third book in the proposed five-book series of Joe Pitt novels by Charlie Huston, and it’s very much the in-between, transition story. (You can read my thoughts on the previous two here and here.) It is putting the pieces into place for the remaining stories, after Huston has set up all the characters and storylines, while still providing a cracking story.

In a Manhattan where clans of vampires exist in different regions of the city, Pitt is now head of security for The Society, a clan with an attitude of integration and ‘hippie-ness’. This means he is no longer rogue (on his own from all clans), so he can now help his girlfriend Evie, who has HIV/AIDS, get treatment in a hospital now the disease is progressing (Joe agonises over turning her, which would cure the illness, but the laws of the clans forbid it and he doesn’t want to do it). As part of his job, he has to be around for the meetings with vampires from Brooklyn (something nobody thought would happen) and be informed when a well-known supplier of blood to vampires has been massacred, and looks like the work of a ‘Van Helsing’, i.e. a proper vampire killer.

Joe has a friendship, of sorts, with Daniel, who is head of The Enclave, who believe that through fasting and meditation (think vampire shaolin monks) will be able to go out into the sunlight. He has a meeting with him about Evie’s status and whether she would be able to withstand the transformation (which is a very unpredictable event). He also meets Amanda, who he saved in the first book, who is now come into her inheritance (a vast fortune, including a large pharmaceutical company) and believes that she will make a cure for vampirism (her girlfriend/bodyguard is a vampire). He also has a meeting with The Count, a character he met and affected in the second book, who has a role in the finances of The Society and a former life as a med student.

The main part of the story is when Joe has to accompany Lydia, one of the higher ups in The Society, to a meeting to Brooklyn to talk with a new clan. Obviously, things don’t go as planned with the less-than-honest group of vampires, made worse when they are attacked by – and I hate to bring spoilers to a review, but I have to mention this because it is so genius I couldn’t not – Jewish vampires. Huston makes this work (his natural knack for different dialects, working well with Jewish Brooklyn sound without making sound clichéd) and bases the idea around a passage from the Bible in Judges 19–20, calling it the curse of the Tribe of Benjamin, and the city of Gibeah. It is inspired and believable (within a story of vampires, obviously). The ensuing story reveals the violence innate to Pitt, the fate of Daniel and The Count and Evie (not what I was expecting), and the status of Pitt within in The Society and the clans of Manhattan.

This book is too short (the book includes a Q&A with Huston and a sample of a chapter from an author the publishers think we may like – please don’t do that, publishers). because I absolutely loved it. It is a gripping, fast-paced, electrifying read – I genuinely couldn’t stop reading the book, as I devoured it on my way to and from work. Huston dedicates the book to Chandler and Stoker, for the obvious reason, and it shows in the hard-boiled dialogue and prose and the tragic nature of the story. An amazing grasp on his characters and his world, and the sadness inherent in humanity, this is exactly the sort of book I love to read. I can’t wait for the final two books – want the remaining stories NOW.

Barry Norman Pickled Onions

Coming into work this morning, I noticed a bizarre-looking poster at a bus stop: it was advertising Barry Norman Pickled Onions. I thought it was a joke of some sort, perhaps for a new show or game. But it isn’t. It’s a genuine product: you can find the official website for it here, and you can buy them (if you live in the UK) online here.

I’m still a little freaked out.

What the hell is going on in the world that Barry Norman is selling Pickled Onions? What is the grand man of British television reviewing doing plastering his not-attractive face on a jar of condiments? Are celebrity endorsed-products (Paul Newman’s salad dressings, Lloyd Grossman’s sauces, Frankie bloody Dettori’s pizzas) the only way to purchase food products anymore?

(By the way, if you are an American, it’s the equivalent of Roger Ebert Pickled Gherkins, if that helps.)

You see, Barry Norman (no relation) was the face of film reviewing to me (and probably the rest of the country) when I was growing up. He fronted the Film programme from 1973 to 1998 on BBC1, meaning he was the film critic for the nation. He was a former journalist, so he had served an apprenticeship on daily newspapers and treated the job with respect (unlike Jonathan Ross does as current front man for the show – the inclusion of action figures on his desk demonstrates vividly that it’s all a bit of a lark for Wossy, being paid to watch films and tell you his opinions).

Barry had an air of authority on the subject (his father was a film director) but without being poe-faced and aloof (e.g. Brian Sewell on the arts); you could tell he loved film and enjoyed talking about them and to the people who created them (although he found the directors/writers more interesting – he famously didn’t get on with Robert DeNiro, who was providing monosyllabic answers to questions while he begrudgingly went through the interview process).

I always felt that I could trust a Barry Norman review – not only was he spot-on his judgement, but he delivered his critique in a clear, concise and non-condescending manner. He even allowed his sense of humour to show through (although it took him some time to warm to his Spitting Image puppet, which gave Barry the urban myth catchphrase, ‘And why not?’, something he never uttered but eventually used for the title of his autobiography), demonstrating he loved his job, knew it wasn’t the most important job in the world, but treated it with respect and a sense of helping the viewers and hopefully the world of film.

I used to watch Barry Norman religiously; the same can’t be said of Ross’ version. I wanted to BE Barry Norman – who wouldn’t want to be paid to watch films – probably because he made it look so easy (it was only afterwards that I found out that he was reading from an autocue; he even made that look easy). I’ve even read his autobiography, for goodness sake. I missed him when he left for Sky (after the BBC annoyed him with inconsistent scheduling of the programme), but I’m glad that he is still working, still talking about film, still writing about film (he has a column in the Radio Times).

However, I don’t know if I want to eat his pickled onions. Apparently, they are his family’s recipe passed down generations – who persuaded him that the world would not only want to eat them but would want to pay for the privilege? At least Newman sells salad dressing for charity – Barry just wants the money (although he doesn’t make very much, according to this interview). I’m not completely convinced it’s a real product – I think it works better as a surrealist joke – but it goes to show you the strange things that happen to people you used to watch on the telly when you were a young lad.

Casual Causality

Some unrelated recent incidents got me thinking about the nature of narratives and plot structure in life. Which I will tell you about in a rambling post, so apologies in advance.

Sunday evening, I had a crippling headache come out of nowhere and knock me out. It was so bad I thought I was going to be sick if I even moved. In between bouts of trying to breathe in a pain-free manner, it made me think about the fact that, if this were a film, this would be a sign that I was going to die by the end of the movie. It wouldn’t have to be a big headache in the film – just a little one every so often – and it would be a death certificate, probably due to a brain tumour, or a massive embolism. Obviously, this didn’t make me feel any better about the headache …

A method I use to try and distract my head from the pain is to watch a brainless action movie. In this case, War, with Jet Li and Jason Statham. I didn’t know it was rubbish – I like Jet Li but unfortunately he is no guarantee of quality – but I thought it would suffice. The most annoying aspect of the film was the action film cliché of ‘killing the wife/girlfriend/child as incentive for ensuing violence’. I have watched so many films that I have become inured to it, but watching them with my girlfriend – who quite rightly gets offended by this – has made me more sensitive to this. It reminded me of the Women In Refrigerators in comic books – the nature of dramatic plots requires the hero to have an inciting event to initiate the quest and, unfortunately, dead girlfriends are an ‘easy’ way for lazy writers. I don’t know about you, but I would be completely devastated if something so horrible was to happen – I wouldn’t, in the case of War (and I should notify SPOILER WARNING for a very average film that you won’t watch), have plastic surgery to make me look like a notorious assassin and develop preternatural martial arts and gun skills in order to exact revenge.

The final moment that got me thinking about story twists was a true story that you wouldn’t believe in a fiction. I was out the night after the headache with my girlfriend’s cousin (and my lovely girlfriend, of course), telling them about the fact that my mother only has the time to phone me when she comes over to visit my brothers (who have children, so I don’t bear a grudge towards a gran and her grandkids). At the exact moment the words ‘phone call’ have left my mouth, my mobile phone goes off. And it’s my mother. This is the honest truth. But only the people who were there will really believe it. Because such coincidences are not allowed to exist in a film or book or television programme. Or, at least, this is how I feel after consuming so many fictions. Anybody else have an episode that happened that nobody would believe?

From A Library – Superman: Camelot Falls (part one)

Superman #654–658 by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco

Busiek and Pacheco are a good team (see Avengers Forever or Arrowsmith), so I was keen to see what they would do with the big blue boy scout. The accepted aspect is the lovely art – if you have a first page where Lois is in skimpy knickers and a t-shirt and it doesn’t look cheesy but actually sexy (because Pacheco does classy European scantily clad women), you know you are in good hands. Everyone looks good in a Pacheco book, even the ugly people. Oh, and Lois at the end of the first issue in negligee and high heels? Droooooool. Ahem. He also does the other stuff well: Superman fighting or Clark Kent in the Daily Planet office, it’s all under control.

The first issue is a nicely packaged story – a typical Superman day, mixing journalism with crimefighting (showcasing all the strange villains in Metropolis). The second issue has a cover of the first issue from the Back In Action storyline in Action Comics, which is a cute touch. There are several nice touches, such as Superman reading science textbooks in microdots hidden in trashy novels because his memory capability has improved. Clark is off to Kazakhstan to see Dr Callie Llewellyn, an old friend, where he meets Subjekt 17, an alien who had been imprisoned there for a long time. Naturally, he and Superman fight. Subjekt 17 was a baby of an alien who crash-landed, and he was experimented on by the Russians, so he was bound to be angry. The fight is stopped by the arrival of Arion of Atlantis with a warning of the future from the past.

The next issue is the future – a destroyed Metropolis with Lois and Jimmy Olsen still alive with the help of a hero called Sirocco (who? What is it with all of these DC heroes I’ve never heard of?), Lex Luthor and Rudy, a purple-skinned alien. Arion is showing Superman the danger that lies ahead – a villain called Khyber, who makes alliances with villains to destabilize the powerful nations of the world, causing the world to erupt into war. Superman fights him but Khyber wins and throws him at the Earth from space, causing the world to shatter as if hit by an asteroid – tsunamis, earthquakes and a nuclear winter. The villains fight over the remaining places (except for Metropolis, which is defended by Lex) but they all fall to Khyber. Survivors gather at Luthor Mountain, including old man Wally West and Hal Jordan’s daughter as a Green Lantern, for The Last Battle. In which Superman comes back from the dead (who says there is any Jesus connection to the Superman mythos?) but he can’t kill Khyber – that falls to Sirocco. But the Earth still dies – all because of Superman. So Arion tells him: ‘You must let civilization fall.’ Which is a good way to end a story to ensure the reader comes back for the rest of the story – even if they don’t mention it anywhere until the end. Even though I am a sucker for dystopian futures (it comes from reading the X-Men when I was younger), this is still good comics – Busiek does a great job with all aspects of the story and Pacheco matches with superlative art.

Ultimate Avengers: The Movie

It was nice to finally see this film (in fact, I have already seen the sequel before viewing this), especially as it is more or less based on the first ‘season’ of The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch (with a few tweaks here and there). In this respect, it was more enjoyable than the Invincible Iron Man and Doctor Strange animated DVDs, which played around with the classic origins for no particularly good reason. Which made it slightly irking that it was so short – less than 70 minutes of action. I guess that’s a good thing, if I wanted to see more.

The film starts with the flashback to Captain America’s last mission, where he first meets the Chitauri (the Ultimates equivalent of the Skrulls). The existence of these aliens are the reasons Nick Fury locates Cap’s frozen body to recreate the super-soldier serum, in order to fight the Chitauri. He then has to create a superhero team to act as a first line of defence – bring on Iron Man, the Wasp, Giant Man, Thor and Black Widow, under the lead of Captain America. The Chitauri are shown as a credible threat in the story, but in the end fight, they are killed off in a few minutes, which seems rather pointless build up. The climactic and larger fight scene is the team versus the Hulk, who goes crazy and starts attacking everyone because there are no more aliens to kill (thus getting both parts of the original story from the comic book into the film in one go). This is a bit odd, but it does allow for more classic hero-on-hero fighting. Quite enjoyable, if not perfect, with nice use of slow motion for when Thor hammers the Hulk (although it cuts away so it doesn’t give kids the idea of hitting someone in the head with their dad’s hammer).

There is an interesting documentary on the DVD about The Avengers. This consists of talking heads: Tom Breevort, Kurt Busiek, Joe Quesada, Mark Millar, who are all informative and entertaining and interesting. However also , there is George Perez, who is the bizarrest aspect of the whole thing: what an ego. Everyone else talks about the strength of the original stories and the characters and the abilities of other creators. Perez, in his grating and slightly annoying whine, just talks about himself all the time. He talks about how great he is, how dedicated he is to drawing comic books, about what he added to the Avengers and makes the stories even better than what the writer created. It was so embarrassing; didn’t anyone tell him they were talking about the Avengers and not him? I know that Perez is an accomplished artist (I don’t particularly like his style, but I am aware of his abilities) but obviously his brain has been warped by everyone telling him how great he is. They really should have edited the footage better and cut down on how much Perez there was.

Rating: VID

Futurama: Bender's Big Score

Even though Futurama returned via a straight-to-DVD movie (unlike The Simpsons, which gets a ‘proper’ film), any Futurama is an excuse for rejoicing. Having watched the four series on DVD more than a few times, Bender’s Big Score was something I was looking forward to it (it’s been on my DVD rental queue for months, so I wasn't the only one). I think that the anticipation was perhaps too much.

The plot involves some aliens scamming Planet Express and taking it over. They have discovered a tattoo on Fry’s buttocks that contains the code for paradox-correcting time travel. Using this, they send Bender back in time to steal everything of value in Earth’s history. This leads to other characters doing some time travel, particularly Fry, which leads to convoluted retroactive continuity tweaks and twists, as we revisit various aspects of Futurama history. In the process, the film also manages to cameo practically all of the major supporting characters from the four series of the television show, as well as one-offs. This makes the film enjoyable for the long-term fan, but makes you wonder if they were throwing everything into this film, even though there are three more films on the way.

There is lots of funny stuff, obviously; the opening section mocking the Fox network cancelling the series was hilarious. But the film seems more concerned with the twists and turns of the time-travelling and the playing with the history of the series than making with the gags. This could me my bias – my memory of the series is the jokes rather than the playful nature of the plots. Still, it was nice to see the old team back, and the DVD has some nice bonus material, such as the comic con reading of a Futurama comic announcing the return of show and a ‘lecture’ about the mathematics in the series (it was interesting to discover that one of the writers has a PhD in mathematics). Maybe I’ll enjoy it more from rewatching it, along with all the other episodes.

Rating: VID

From A Library – Superman: For Tomorrow

Volumes 1 & 2 by Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee

I try to be rational and reasoning when talking about books I read, but WTF? How can these two creators produce something as bizarre as this? Long dull chats with a priest, ‘real life’ fighting in a Middle Eastern county, people ‘vanishing’ – Azzarello seems on full pretentious mode, which is part of him I haven’t seen from reading 100 Bullets. Although even 100 Bullets has an effect on this: the story has Clark and Lois make love, with the after monologue from Lois, ‘Incredible. Just as mind-numbingly incredible as the first time.’

As I’ve mentioned before, I like Jim Lee’s art, a perfect modern-day superhero artist. His Superman is good and it gets better throughout the book, as would be expected from drawing a character continuously for a year; his Batman looks equally good when he appears, having just finished drawing him for a year as well. He does a particularly good J’onn J’onzz, making him look powerful and alive. However, his women don’t seem to come across as well, and his Lois doesn’t feel quite like Lois to me, but I’m not a big Superman reader.

From what I can gather from reading the book and trying not to fall asleep, the Vanishing is Superman’s fault, due to a machine made by his father, which transports people to a dimension of the Phantom Zone, already containing Zod. But this only becomes apparent much later in the series, perhaps even the second volume: it must have been hellish to read this in the monthly format. There is a priest in it who talks a lot with Superman who gets turned into monster by covert ops people after being diagnosed with cancer – why? There are even references to the famous Michaelangelo painting of God and Adam – to quote Superman: ‘What does it mean?’ Not recommended.

Comic Book Review - Moon Knight: The Bottom

Moon Knight #1–6 by Charlie Huston and David Finch

For a change, I thought I would talk about a book that I have actually purchased, rather than borrow from the library. Having enjoyed his Joe Pitt novels, I was interested in Charlie Huston’s updating of Moon Knight. I’ve no personal infection for the character, and I’m only vaguely aware of his history (mostly Sienkiewicz’s artistic development from Neal Adams clone to his own unique style); however, a combination of the cool and gritty prose stylings of Huston and the muscular artwork of Finch suggested a risk work taking (bearing in mind that I didn’t read any reviews, including the biggest fan of the series Greg Burgas).

First off: The Bottom is a really bad title. Not only does it say, ‘Moon Knight is an arse’, but it also has unfortunate connotations with the reveal that the Frenchie character is gay (which I believe is a retcon).

The story starts off promising. Finch brings his ‘superhero noir’ stylings to the action scenes (i.e. it’s not really noir but spandex in the night and the rain). Marc Spector, Moon Knight, is dispensing justice and Huston lays down the tough guy dialogue: ‘I don’t wear white to hide myself. I wear it so they’ll see me coming.’ The reveal is that it is our hero remembering – he is in fact in a wheelchair and just wants his old life back again. He had his legs broken, turned to pills and turned on everyone who was close to him.

The second issue reveals why – a fight with Bushman caused the leg damage and Moon Knight carves Bushman’s face off. This is a bit much, but Bushman did bite his mask off … Crawley arrives with Spector’s prescription and informs him that Frenchie said hello and that he is in trouble. This causes Spector to go out of his home for the first time in ages – cut to a red-hue office, ‘Asset Prime is moving’, and an oleaginous suit being analysed by another man (in a panel that is very reminiscent of Sienkiewicz).

The third issue is the background on Spector, as presented by The Profile, so we know everything pertinent about him, intercut with his meeting with Frenchie (where Frenchie reveals his secret). An aside: Finch reuses a panel of an old man dining at a table – seems a bit poor. For those of us who don’t know, we learn that Bushman killed Spector before, at the first visit to the tomb in the Valley of the Kings (where Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon, first brought Spector back to life as his avatar on earth). The Profile has analysed Spector and set up a contingency plan to get him to work for The Committee; however, one of the stupid members did it too early (assaulting Frenchie), meaning Spector has been given a lifeline to return to the thing he loves doing: being a hero. The Committee brings in Taskmaster to tidy up and deal with Spector, who they wanted to turn into an assassin for them, something which their fathers in The Committee couldn’t do. A bit of a silly justification, but this is only superhero comics …

Meanwhile, Spector hallucinates Khonshu talking to him again, which brings him back. Marlene returns and the Taskmaster crashes in … He delivers a video message from The Committee, before talks about how he is going to kill him and all his friends, only for Marlene to defend herself and the butler, Samuels, defends himself (while Taskmaster has some fun, snappy dialogue). They drive back to the old Batmansion, I mean, Moon Mansion, to fix up Spector. He gets suited up in the old white costume and goes to The Committee in one of his Moon jets.

He fights the Taskmaster and The Committee (but lets them live), meaning he can get his life together (sharing, being nice to people, etc.) It turns out that the plot is a bit like the Neil Gaiman novel American Gods – Khonshu needs to get Spector to believe in him again and start spilling blood in sacrifice for him again.

This isn’t as good as I’d hoped it would be, especially compared to the exhilarating thrill of Huston’s novels. Finch does his usual stylish, overly ornate, muscular job to good effect, with some nice camera moves in his panel composition, but it’s not serving an engrossing story. I think that bringing back Moon Knight to noir trappings is a good idea (Batman isn’t working in that territory anymore, so it distinguishes the characters I guess), but the story never quite comes together.

Thoughts on the Top 100 Runs

Comics Should Be Good had a vote recently to work out people’s favourite runs of comics defined by a single creator over an extended period (among other rules). Greg has posted his thoughts on the list, which weirdly echoed my own thoughts, so I thought I’d share a few musings on the matter.

The idea itself is a lot of fun, sparking the debate that good lists do. Greg picks on a few interesting points, the most interesting (and the one I agree with) being that comics that are still ongoing should have been excluded from the vote because they aren’t finished and could go bad. That would have cut out a lot of voting, what with people’s short attention span, but it would have made the final result more interesting. He also notes that DC has the purer ideal of a ‘run’ because they seem to let the creator work rather than Marvel, who were always more about hot artists and the character as king.

Greg and I have similar tastes when it comes to comic books; he’s almost like an American version of me (only more prolific and a better blogger). Like him, I don’t particularly like comics before the mid-1970s and think that modern comics are more enjoyable than ever. His personal selection of top runs is a more intriguing and well-reasoned list, and I can see the parallels in our comic book reading evolution and tastes going through it – Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol and Animal Man, Peter Milligan’s Shade The Changing Man, James Robinson’s Starman, John Ostrander’s The Spectre and Suicide Squad, Matt Wagner’s Grendel, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, even Alan Moore and Alan Davis on Captain Britain (a personal dream team of mine, and a run that started my connection with both the Cap as a character and Davis as an artist – and I would have put his Excalibur run on my list) all suggest somebody interested in story and who got the comic book bug in the 1980s like myself. I would disagree with his downgrading of Preacher just because of dropping a fat pope on the descendant of Christ, but Hitman is still worthy of a high place on his list. And I think his love of Moon Knight is strange (as suggested by the fact that the Doug Moench/Bill Sienkiewicz run didn’t place, perhaps?), but we all have our idiosyncrasies …

So, here is the top 100 comic runs as voted by people reading Comics Should Be Good, and a few thoughts on some of the entries.

1. Sandman by Neil Gaiman
Worthy of its place at the top of the list, and appropriate for internet-specific voters. An amazing collection of stories by one writer and it had an amazing effect on comic books in the public eye.

2. Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Terry Austin
I grew up reading and loving the X-Men of the Claremont era and this is the best of the run, so it is understandable why it would be so high.

3. Fantastic Four by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Like Greg, I’m not a big fan of Kirby (should we start a club?) nor Stan Lee’s over-the-top writing, but I am aware of the impact it has had. I just don’t want to read it.

4. Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson
I was as surprised as Greg by this being so high. I’ve got nothing but huge respect for Born Again but the whole run doesn’t have the same place in my heart. I think this is here more for the impact Miller had on comics rather than the run itself.

5. Swamp Thing by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, John Totleben, and Rick Veitch
It’s Alan Moore. No more need be said.

6. Amazing Spider-Man by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
See my heretical remarks about Lee & Kirby Fantastic Four and apply same here.

7. Starman by James Robinson
This was my introduction to the world of DC heroes and its history, something I’d never really cared about before. This is, along with Sandman so far, is one of the truer definitions of a ‘run’, having a beginning, a middle and end. Very happy to see it so high on the list.

8. Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
My only big discrepancy with Greg – I think this deserves its place on the list because it was great from start to finish and it was the wonderfully warped vision of a writer, in harmony with his artist.

9. Justice League by Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis
In a world of its own, almost separate from the rest of the top ten. Funny and moving, supported by great art and making the best of not having the big DC heroes because they weren’t allowed them.

10. X-Men by Grant Morrison
As Greg says, E is for Extinction was a superb X-Men story that the rest of the run, while great, never quite matched. Morrison’s other big mainstream work, JLA, deserves to be higher than this though.

11. Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez
Haven’t read this, and I have no great desire to.

12. JLA by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter
Even though I really disliked Porter’s art, the stories in this run are huge and fantastic widescreen comics using DC’s huge names in really good comics.

13. Y: The Last Man by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra
I haven’t read the last trade so I can’t comic but the rest are really good so Vaughan would have to make a complete hash of the ending to stop it from earning its place on the list.

14. Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison and Richard Case
Proving that weirdness and superheroes are a perfect match, this is a sublime vision of the surreal but in a good way. Idea after idea after wonderfully mad idea leave you in a giddy delight, but the stories are more than just oddness of oddness’ sake.

15. Thor by Walt Simonson
Walt Simonson blew my mind with these comic books, apart from just making me interested in Thor in the first place. This is a really good run of comic books and should be read by anybody who wants to know how to reinvent a character while staying true to the history.

16. Fantastic Four by John Byrne
Despite his later problems, Byrne created some great stories here and rejuvenated the Fantastic Four in a way that few creators (such as Simonson, Waid & Ringo) have have done.

17. Captain America by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting
I have just started reading this, so I can’t comment, but the first trade is really, really good. Also, it’s not over, so shouldn’t count.

18. Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday
My love of Ellis is bordering on the disturbing, so obviously I’m happy about this, but I think Transmetropolitan should be higher. However, this is an excellent run – a fascinating look at the world of superheroes via a slightly skewed perspective.

19. The Incredible Hulk by Peter David
I have this run and have to concur that it’s an amazing collection of bizarre superhero comics with many different artists and different story roads for the central character.

20. Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev
The most modern of completed runs that deserves its place via a great story and great art in a perfect marriage. The perfect vehicle for the talents of the creator in a mainstream universe, but bringing the cool indie vibe to proceedings. Really good stuff.

21. Animal Man by Grant Morrison and Chas Truog
Another mind-blowing set of comics from Morrison – I remember babbling to my non-comic-reading friends about the story where Animal Man meeting his author in a comic book.

22. Fables by Bill Willingham
Even though this should be disallowed by the fact of currently ongoing, I can’t hold a grudge against such a charmingly enjoyable series. The brilliant idea of fairy tale characters in modern Manhattan is matched by the execution and continued entertainment that Willingham has wrung.

23. Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson
Quite possibly Ellis’ masterpiece, although he still has plenty of vinegar left in him to produce more great work. But definitely a superb run of comic books.

24. The Punisher by Garth Ennis
Who would have thought that Garth Ennis would reinvigorate the character of the Punisher in such an amazing fashion? Personally, I thought the later issues of his first run lost the magic, and I haven’t really read the Max series, but, it’s Ennis, so it’s automatically good.

25. Cerebus by Dave Sim and Gerhard
I think High Society and Church and State are amazing reads (I stopped around the midway mark, as Sim was getting a little too odd for my tastes), and it deserves its place on this list for the achievement of completing 300 issues of a black and white comics about an aardvark.

26. Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley
I read the first dozen issues but, as I am not a big Spidey fan, I gave up and haven’t gone back. I’m sure this is a damned fine read – perhaps I’ll check it out from my library.

27. Invisibles by Grant Morrison
Ah, the divisive Invisibles. Pure Grant Morrison weirdness and anarchy, straight from brainpan to your eyes. An amazing collection of comics, but not one of my personal favourites from the God of Comics.

28. Suicide Squad by John Ostrander
It’s hard to believe that this actually existed at all, let alone for the 60 issues (and a mini-series) of supervillian/thriller/espionage entertainment in the DC universe. But it did, and a firm favourite of the comic blogger and deservedly so.

29. The Legion of Super-Heroes by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen
I have read the Great Darkness Saga and wasn’t particularly impressed, which probably earns me enemies. I did enjoy the ‘5 Years Later’ run from Giffen, if that makes up for it, even if it is an uneven run in its own right.

30. Astro City by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson
Still unfinished, thus earning disqualification, but it is definitely something that will have staying power, due to the special magic Busiek produces when writing this comic. Along with Animal Man and JLA, this is one of those runs of comics I like but don’t enjoy the art.

31. Bone by Jeff Smith
Absolutely charming and enchanting. Buy the big book collection and make yourself very happy.

32. The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch
A more apposite run for the modern comic book run I can’t think of, with flashy, stylistic writing from Millar, low on subtlety, high on bombast, plus Hitch’s best widescreen art.

33. Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona
The first ‘season’ of this series is an absolute delight and perfect in almost every way. I will be sacrilegious and say that, by the end of his run on the second season, I was getting very bored and uninterested in their adventures, and could scarcely believe that Vaughan was still writing it. It hasn’t got better with the advent of Joss Whedon. Still, there’s always the first 18 issues …

34. Amazing Spider-Man by Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr
See previous comic-history-hating remarks about Fantastic Four and Dr Strange – honestly, I do really love comics, please believe me.

35. Love and Rockets by the Hernandez Brothers
A comic of which I am aware of its greatness but haven’t read and have no desire to either. Alan David Doane will probably shake his head and sigh at this remark, but I must do what I must do.

36. Marvelman/Miracleman by Alan Moore, Gary Leach, Alan Davis, Chuck Beckum, and John Totleben
Let’s face it – anything by Moore that isn’t one of those Images series he did for money (Voodoo, Violator vs Badrock, etc.) is worthy of inclusion on this list. This rocked my world when I first read it, and it hasn’t dimmed in appreciation since.

37. Hitman by Garth Ennis and John McCrea
Not only is this a consistently entertaining collection of comics about an Irish hitman in Gotham City, but there are some brilliant individual stories and issues in it as well (the most famous being the Superman one). God bless DC for publishing the comics in the first place, even if they are a little slack in printing the trades subsequently. Poignant, hilarious, violent, mocking and tender.

38. Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday
Well written and beautifully drawn, but great? I’m not so sure, and this comes from a fan of the X-Men, Whedon and Cassaday. And, not finished yet.

39. Flash by Mark Waid
Waid’s Flash was so much fun and, more importantly, extremely personal to the author that the love shone through. Some good artists (my favourite being Ringo) made it a very good run, although I’m not sure it was quite as good when Brian Augustyn came on as joint writer, or after the Morrison/Millar run.

40. Promethea by Alan Moore and J. H. Williams III
I’m still trying to work out whether I liked this or not, especially after the last issue. When on form, it was brilliant; when it wasn’t, it was a lesson in tarot magic. You decide.

41. The Avengers by Kurt Busiek
I had these comics and, apart from an Ultron story, the strange hero Triathlon, and the chaos magic updating of Scarlet Witch, I can’t remember very much about them, especially as I traded them in for some trades. Your mileage may vary.

41. Howard the Duck by Steve Gerber
Never read it, so no comment.

43. Daredevil by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli
I commented above on how great a story this was, but this is not a ‘run’. It’s a trade paperback. If this was allowed, why isn’t Watchmen in? Very silly having this on the list.

44. The Legion of Super-Heroes by Keith Giffen, Tom Bierbaum, and Mary Bierbaum
As mentioned before, I really enjoyed this. I think I had sample one or two issues of LSH before this (and liked the idea of an entire team of different superpowered teens) but this stuff made me love the concept, even if I didn’t know half the history they were referring to. This developed my Giffen habit, leading to Ambush Bug, Heckler, Vext, etc., and for that I thank it.

45. The Spectre by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake
This is another example of why DC is such a great place for creators trying things – this wouldn’t have lasted at Marvel. This is a complete story from a cohesive creative team that made something special out of a character that is literally a deus ex machina. I must reread my issues of this again soon.

46. The Spirit by Will Eisner
Revealing my lack of comic book history, I have never read any of these books. That’s why I’m not on one of those cool group blogs or have a blog that anybody reads.

47. Deadpool by Joe Kelly
A really good run of parody and fourth-wall breaking comics, with early art from Ed McGuinness and Pete Woods. Includes the great issue which puts Deadpool in an old Spider-Man comic. This was so good it made me buy Steampunk (bleurgh) and M-Rex.

48. JSA by Geoff Johns
Well, at least I can say I’ve tried this before stating that I don’t like it. Can’t see the fascination

49. Detective Comics by Steve Englehart, Walt Simonson, and Marshall Rogers
No comment means not read.

50. Jack Kirby’s Fourth World
No comment means not read

51. Hellboy by Mike Mignola
Is a collection of mini-series a run, technically? Whatever, it is still an impressive achievement for a (non-superhero) creator-owned series to do so well and have such an influence that it becomes a good film. Mignola ploughs his own furrow and brings old folklore to life with a big red monster.

52. All Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
Not. A. Run. A very enjoyable effectively mini-series – Morrison and Quitely create delightful comic books together – that makes even a hard-hearted cynic smile with comic book joy.

53. Nexus by Mike Baron and Steve Rude
Another comic book I’ve tried but not liked, despite it being well liked.

54. Green Lantern by Geoff Johns
No comment means not read

55. Amazing Spider-Man by Roger Stern and John Romita, Jr
No comment means not read

56. The Flash by Geoff Johns
No comment means not read

56. Supreme by Alan Moore
I think that only Alan Moore could create a modern comic book that allowed him to recreate old Superman stories AND do it well. It might have suffered from Image art of the time but the writing and the love shone through. Also, only Moore could make me buy comics from Rob Liefeld.

58. The Avengers by Roger Stern
No comment means not read

59. Green Lantern/Green Arrow by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams
Message comics in the DC universe by the sharp and passionate writing of O’Neil and the elegant anatomy and design skills of Neal Adams. Yes, it is dated but that doesn’t stop it from being a good run of comic books.

60. The Authority by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch
To invent a new term and style of comics – ‘widescreen’ comics – is no small achievement. The quality, mentalness and fun of the actual issues themselves only add to this. But 12 issues do not make a run, otherwise Watchmen would be number one on the list.

61. Iron Man by Bob Layton and David Michelinie
No comment means not read

62. 100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso
Sorry to repeat myself, but this isn’t a run YET. It is an excellent run of comics so far – Risso is a perfect artist for this book and Azzarello has worked a marvellous high concept into an absorbing series – but how will it finish?

62. Fantastic Four by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo
A magical combination of two artists perfectly suited to a book. So good they had to bring them back.

64. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill
The rules of this list seem to be less defined than if I had been running it. A collection of mini-series and a – what do you call The Black Dossier? This do not make a ‘run’ but it goes back to my comment about anything from Moore ending up on the list. Not that I disagree …

65. Detective/Batman by Alan Grant, John Wagner, and Norm Breyfogle
No comment means not read

66. New Mutants by Chris Claremont, Bob McLeod, and Bill Sienkiewicz
This is the only Claremont work that should be artist separated – the Sienkiewicz run is superlative, mind-blowing, dazzling comic books whereas the McLeod stuff is pedestrian by comparison. And it was never the same again, which shows how definitive it was. A very favourite run.

67. Shade, the Changing Man by Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo
See my previous comments about the mad genius of this great run. Only Vertigo and Peter Milligan could create this. Personally, I wish it had stopped at the 50th issue, because the later issues weren’t as good. However, it might be my favourite Milligan work.

68. Top Ten by Alan Moore and Gene Ha
Technically a run? No. Great concept (the superhero police of a city full of people with superpowers), fantastic writing, fantastic art – I wish there was more. The Forty-Niners and Smax intensify this feeling.

69. X-Factor by Peter David
I like these comics but I wouldn’t have had it on a list of favourites. Funny stuff with B-list mutants – is that a fair assessment?

70. Powers by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Oeming
I’m still buying the individual issues as they come out, which shows that (a) it’s not a run, and (b) I really enjoy this great mix of police and the concept of the superhero. Good writing and moody art make for a very individual comic book.

71. Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont, Marc Silvestri, and Rick Leonardi
Among my personal favourites of stories, not because of any special qualities, rather that these were the issues I buying as my hobby became hardcore. I still like Silvestri’s art even now, when I shouldn’t.

71. Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont and Paul Smith
Long enough to be a run? Probably not – if we just had all the Claremont comics as one run, it would have left more room for other stuff on this list.

73. Black Panther by Christopher Priest
The best comic to come out of Marvel Knights. Priest made the Black Panther a fascinating and brilliant character, matched by the greatest supporting character in Everett K Ross. Great artists, great stories that made you think, and extremely funny – it was criminal (as always with comics written by Priest that kept cancelled) that it was cancelled but at least it left behind a great, great run of comics.

74. Excalibur by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis
I’ve recently re-read these, after being sparked by the recent ClanDestine mini-series. Davis’ art is magnificent, as always, and the other artists suffer in comparison. The Claremont stuff is disturbingly over-written, but sufficiently entertaining to help you ignore it. The more cohesive run is the Davis-written issues, bringing together a reason for the team, tidying up Claremont’s plotlines, and just damn good comics.

74. Gotham Central by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, Kano
This is a great set of comics based on a genius idea – the stories of the police department who have to work in the shadow of the Batman – matched with two of the best writers of crime-based comic books in the business and the moody and realistic art of firstly Lark and Kano.

76. Concrete by Paul Chadwick
No comment means not read

77. Superman by John Byrne
I actually had all the Byrne written & drawn issues but got rid of them in a purge, which goes to show how much of an impact they had on me.

78. Wildcats by Joe Casey, Sean Phillips, Dustin Nguyen, and Duncan Rouleau
I haven’t read the Philips-drawn issues, but I did get version 3.0, which was really good post-something or other superheroes. Casey really tried to do something interesting with the concept, for which he should be respected.

79. Invincible by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley
Very enjoyable superheroics. Shouldn’t be on the list because of the fact that it’s still ongoing, but we should let that slide due to the fact that this is a delightfully charming superhero comic book of the sort that you thought people don’t make anymore, and it's from Image, making the success and popularity even more deserved.

80. Lucifer by Mike Carey, Peter Gross, and Ryan Kelly
I have read a couple of the trades, which I thought were very good, but it never caught my attention and I haven’t sought out the rest of the story.

81. Sleeper by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.
Very good noir superhero espionage comics. Very deserving.

81. X-Force/X-Statix by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred
I tried this when it came out but I have no desire to re-read them, and might join my Trimming the Collection list.

83. StormWatch by Warren Ellis, Tom Raney, Oscar Jimenez, and Bryan Hitch
Did Wildstorm knew what it was doing when it let Ellis free on StormWatch? I’m very glad they did – this was a very enjoyable run of modern style comic books with some nice playing around with the tropes of superheroes.

83. Thor by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Never read them and don’t want to.

85. Groo by Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier
Never read them and don’t want to, with no offence to the creators involved.

86. Warlock by Jim Starlin
No comment means not read

86. The Avengers by Roy Thomas
No comment means not read

88. Doctor Strange by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
See previous comments regarding old Lee and Ditko comics, comic-book-hating Commie that I am.

89. Captain America by Mark Gruenwald
My hazy memory of my comic book reading recalls the 350th issue of this book, written by Gruenwald and drawn by Kieron Dwyer, and quite liking it. I don’t know if that counts for much, but it means I don’t begrudge its place on the list.

90. Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont and John Romita, Jr
All Claremont X-Men is my favourite, so splitting up by artists doesn’t mean anything – they always had good artists on the mutant books.

91. Green Arrow by Mike Grell
No comment means not read

92. Nextwave by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen
This should be disqualified from the voting, only having 12 issues, but it is one of the most enjoyable (short) runs of pure explodo joy and fun comics in recent years. Letting Ellis do whatever he wanted with C-list superheroes was an idea of genius, and Immonen’s art was magnificent.

93. Alias by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos
This deserves to be higher up the list – has any other book done so well, been so consistently well drawn and well written, and introduced a new character (in the form of Jessica Jones) into the Marvel universe in recent years? Taken on its own, it is a great story, even if Jones continues to exist in the New Avengers, and is the modern Marvel equivalent of what Vertigo allowed Morrison, Milligan, Gaiman et al. to do 20 years ago.

93. Hellblazer by Garth Ennis, Will Simpson, and Steve Dillon
It was this stretch of comics that got me on the Ennis train and I’ve never looked back. I started with the Dillon-drawn issues and even I could see this was a match made in heaven. My favourite interpretation of John Constantine.

95. Lone Wolf & Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima
No comment means not read

96. The Question by Denny O’Neil and Denys Cowan
I actually own these issues and recommend them highly (although probably not as much as Greg Rucka would). Intelligent writing and moody art and no sound effects on the well-choreographed fights – really rather good in all respects.

97. Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai
Technically, this would be disqualified because it is still ongoing after 20 years of Stan Sakai writing and drawing the adventures of the rabbit samurai, but I don’t care – this is one of the greatest runs in comic books, made even more impressive that it isn’t about superheroes, is in black and white, and is anthropomorphic. With that many handicaps, it is amazing that is still exists, let alone the fact that it is quite simply amazing on all levels.

97. Grendel by Matt Wagner
The early stories about Hunter Rose, which were also drawn by Wagner, are very good comics indeed. I haven’t read much of the other stuff in between, but Wagner created a fascinating character and world for Grendel so I would be tempted to read this via the library.

99. Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore
No comment means not read

100. Plastic Man by Jack Cole
No comment means not read

100. Master of Kung-Fu by Doug Moench
No comment means not read

100. Acme Novelty Library by Chris Ware
No comment means not read

The only major addition to the list (as mentioned in runs outside the top 100) would be Zenith, by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell. The pop star son of superheroes who wants nothing more than have fun and sleep around, this was a series that opened my eyes to what superhero comics could do. That it was in the middle of 2000AD was even more amazing. One of the best things Morrison has written, it was cool and modern and current but was suffused with a love for superheroes and their history. Absolutely wonderful. And, with the letter Z, is the perfect way to end this list and post.

From A Library – Superman: Back In Action

By Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza and Pete Woods

This trade collects the three issues of Action Comics that returned Superman to the DC universe after the events of Infinite Crisis (which I have yet to read). As such, it is a slight excuse for a trade paperback, so it is filled out with stories from DC Comics Presents that have Superman team ups, in keeping with the concept of the main story. This is a bit of a swizz, even with introductions to the back-up material from Busiek.

To the main stories: it feels a little old-fashioned, as Superman is back after a year but nobody trusts him, even when he is helping out. The villain of the piece is the Auctioneer, who is stealing various things, including super-powered individuals, and selling them off around the universe. An aside: the bidding chatter and talk among his operatives is rather annoying, so it’s a shame they keep going back to it. Of course, Superman is stolen, so he has to save the day with the aid of a rag-tag collection of DC heroes (Skyrocket [from Busiek’s Power Company], Bluejay, Livewire, Nightwing, Firestorm, the new Aquaman and Veteran – somebody I’ve never heard of and can’t find even on DC Comics website). In the process, he proves that he really is Superman, and all is right with the DC universe again.

The story is a fun if slight tale; it does what it sets out to do in a clear and efficient manner but without anything else to recommend it. Woods has a nice clean art style (slightly reminiscent of Steve McNiven, perhaps), with people who look like individuals rather than generic men and women, and a clear storytelling ability. The face he gives to Superman can occasionally look odd, but not enough to ruin the book. This might appeal to the hardcore DC fan but not me – I didn’t even read the back-up stories: God, I’m a philistine.

Comic Book Movies: (EW) Simply The Best?

In anticipation of the release of Iron Man, Entertainment Weekly provided a selection of the best comic book movies here. The list, seemingly in no particular order, is as follows:

Batman Begins and Batman Returns
X2: X-Men United
Akira
From Hell
American Splendor
V for Vendetta
Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2
Superman II
Oldboy
Blade II
A History of Violence
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance
Hellboy
Ghost World
Persepolis
Ghost in the Shell

For once, this is a list that is actually rather good; I only have a few complaints (naturally), which I am compelled to reveal.

Firstly, the positives: resounding yes to Spider-Man 2 (with special honorary status to the first film) and X2: X-Men United, hell yes on the non-superhero front to Oldboy and A History of Violence. Respect to Blade II (although there should be a special mention of the opening scene of Blade where he attacks the vampire rave club with the blood showers – the rest of the film isn’t as good), and I’ll accept Hellboy for everything about it being so right without it being a particularly great film.

Now, to my qualms. Although Batman Returns is a good film, I don’t think it deserves to be in the category of ‘best’ – I can’t help but think that it is remembered for Michelle Pfeifer in a catsuit more than anything else (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

From Hell should be in a separate category because, although technically a film adapted from a comic book, the film itself is a normal (if well-made and interesting) police proc