Batman- The Grant Morrison Odyssey: The End

Part 1: Batman & Son
Part 2: Club of Heroes/Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul
Part 2.1: Devil-Bats & The Bridge to RIP
Part 3: RIP
Part 4: The Missing Chapter/Last Rites/Final Crisis
Part 5: Batman Reborn
Part 6:Blackest Knight/Batman vs. Robin
Part 7: Batman & Robin Must Die!!!
Part 8: Return of Bruce Wayne Part 1
Part 9: Return of Bruce Wayne Part 2
Part 10: Batman Inc. Part 1
Part 11: Batman Inc. Part 2

New 52 Part 1
New 52 Part 2
New 52 Part 3
New 52 Part 4
New 52 Part 5
New 52 Part 6
New 52 Part 7
New 52 Part 8
New 52 Part 9


12/30/11...That was the day I first started this journey through the Opus that is Grant Morrison's Batman saga and here we are over the course of the 20 blogs preceding this one, looking at the end.  It's been 838 days, or 2 years, 3 months, 17 days in all since the beginning...yes there was an extended break from April 2012 until September 2013 but I had to wait until Batman Inc Vol. 2 had completed before wrapping up the journey. From Batman and Son through Gotham's Most Wanted as the final hardcover was dubbed, we have witnessed the Dark Knight go through hell and back multiple times over and be reborn in many fashions.  Now he stands on the verge one of the most important, and personal, battles of his career as Talia Al Ghul, the mother of his murdered son Damian, enters the Batcave for one last dance of death.

All by its lonesome, this recursive cover tells the never-ending tale of our protagonist.  Every Bat-symbol contains another Batman and another and another, ad infinitum; to me it is a commentary (whether intentional or not, and that's the beauty of artistic mediums isn't it? Lots of room for interpretation) on the nature of comics themselves.  No matter how Morrison and Burnham end their story, the story of Batman will go on and on and on...

The image on the left is from issue #1 of this volume of Batman Inc while the image on the right is the first page of issue #13...the story coming full circle with one small visual difference. The Bruce in ish #1 is spotless while the Bruce we see in #13 shows the bruises from the battles of the previous issues with Talia and her Leviathan forces.  Also in issue #1 we had no idea whose graves Bruce was standing in front of but now, come unlucky #13, we know that one of those graves belongs to now deceased Robin, Damian Wayne.

The fact that it is Jim Gordon questioning Bruce is extremely appropriate as the Commissioner points out.  Even if it's not necessarily considered continuity in the New 52, think back to Frank Miller's Year One where Gordon questions Bruce in his search to figure out Batman's identity.  Even running under the assumption that Gordon is clueless to Bruce's alter-ego, just think of all of the times Batman has been there for Jim in that pre-New 52 world.  For Sarah Essen-Gordon's murder, for Barbara's paralysis, for the Officer Down arc, when Jim nearly died from his smoking addiction, when Bruce revealed himself during No Man's Land...there has long been a bond between the two characters and I, for one, prefer to think Gordon is willfully ignorant to the Bruce/Batman connection.

There is something I truly love about the pages Burnham rendered during Bruce's interrogation; from the decimated face of the billionaire playboy to the little details of that last panel as Gordon puts his glass back on, it's a beautiful piece of work.  The dimples on Jim's nose, the mustache, the stitching and bruising on Wayne's face, and for some reason that one open eye of Bruce's staring down at the floor, it all just speaks to me so strongly.

Bruce referring to Talia as "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" sent me off to Wiki-land looking to see if this was a reference to something or just Bruce calling her by a cute name.  Turns out that La Belle Dame sans Merci is a John Keats poem circa 1819; once again you can thank comics for educating you and me about things we may not have otherwise ever discovered.

Gordon's unasked question brings us back slightly to where last issue left us hanging, with Talia descending into the Batcave, adorned in her own super-villainess disguise that is very reminiscent of Bat-attire all her own, particularly in a mask that reminds me of Dr. Hurt's attire.  It's all show though, theatrics, as she discards first the cape and then the mask as she descends the stairs to meet her beloved/enemy in combat.

Talia's undressing of costume is an undressing of the entire Batman mythos in this sequence and is essentially one of the entire superhero genre with its "...childish game of masks, Halloween costumes, and clues".  Talia is verbally shredding Batman's purpose down to its very core while simultaneously discarding any shred of feeling she may have had for her own son AND laying the blame for his death on Bruce's lap. 

The interesting thing about this page is that, unlike any previous COMIC BOOK version of the origin story, Morrison & Burnham's flashback to the night the Wayne's were murdered firmly entrenches James Gordon in the picture.  As far as a I can think, outside of the Nolan movies, this is the first time Gordon has been made a part of the origin story pre-Year One.

When Bruce says he tried to fight something he barely understood, my take is that he is referring to the obsession disguised as love that Talia brought to the table.  Bruce understands fighting, he understands armies and killers and crazy people, he does not grasp some of the most basic of emotions.

The kiss we are seeing is not a memory but rather taking place in the Batcave as evidenced by their attire and the sword while the imagery we see on the above page and the subsequent ones if what is going on in the world around this doomed couple.  The various members of the now decimated-Batman Incorporated are still attempting to save Gotham from the "empty" onslaught of Leviathan while Bruce & Talia engage in the only battle that truly means anything in this war.

We see Gordon & Harvey Bullock fighting off mutants and crazy children as well as Red Robin, Nightwing, Knight, Hood, Wingman, and every one in-between fighting for their lives.  We see El Gaucho battling for the Oroboro device, we see Red Raven & Man O' Bats, Nightrunner, Batwing, and Jiro all fighting around the world to save it from Leviathan but NONE of that truly matters.  It's all about Talia and Bruce Wayne, an Al Ghul versus THE Batman, and the nod to the digitalis is cute as it is something that has popped up before in the interaction of these two individuals.

What I love about this image is it pulls in two of the central themes of Morrison's run. First it has the red and black color scheme that was majorly prevalent during R.I.P in particular and is accentuated by the clothing of Batman and Talia.  Second it uses the Oroboro/snake eating its own tail theme that was such a major part of both volumes of Inc and it also representative of that same recursive theme the cover of this issue showcased.  It just goes on and on and on, spiraling forever...

I love the crossed swords framing of this page and Talia taunting Batman the whole time is a nice touch as well.

The interrogation of Bruce continues on as Gordon questions the two graves at which he found Bruce earlier but Wayne dodges the question and goes into another story involving the number two; the two bullets that killed his father.  It doesn't stop there though as Bruce tells Jim about the third bullet, the one that tore a hole in his mother and left a hole in Bruce as well, "a hole in everything" he says which brings back one of the earlier motifs of Grant's run as well.  The hole in everything was used to refer to Dr. Hurt, it was somewhat represented during Return of Bruce Wayne by the eclipse, and here it pops up again in reference to what Bruce experienced at his parents death.  This hole, this inability to love, this is one of the driving forces of the Batman and it too, unfortunately, is likely the root cause of all of this chaos Talia unleashed on Gotham.

A poisoned blade sends Bruce towards his dying breath with a top panel that I absolutely love; between that dragon, the melting world, and Batman face down with his cape sprawled around him like a sheet covering a dead body, it's a beautiful thing.

The fact that it is Jason Todd who comes screeching into the rescue is an important one because he owes his very resurrection to Talia Al Ghul AND his status as the black sheep of the Wayne Family also makes him the most believable to betray the cause to save Bruce.

Fortunately for all, JT is merely playing with that image as he hands over a useless Oroboro box to Talia while Bruce drinks the antidote to her poison.  Talia, resolute, tells them that she will own Wayne Industries and that Bruce will never rise above his battles with "grotesque mental patients" but, just as she accused Bruce of being a "posturing, patronizing bastard", it is Talia's own posturing that prevents her from seeing the threat before he that Bruce and Jason see.

The return of Kathy Kane! The original Batwoman, long thought dead, but who has in truth been dancing behind the scenes for quite some time as the Headmistress of Spyral.  She was there at the Girl's School in Leviathan Strikes! where the uniform of the assassins was essentially a variation on her Batwoman costume...

Just as quickly as Kathy reappears in Bruce's life, she disappears once again and leaves him alone in the cave with Alfred the Cat and Bat-Cow as his only companions.  Her influence though is felt once again as Bruce is released from Gordon's custody courtesy of the government and a mystery woman clearing his bail.  What's interesting about Bruce's comments to Gordon though are his insistence that Batman is dead...something stated by Talia during their duel that Bruce rebutted, and a statement that also made me think of this from earlier in Morrison's Opus:

Well that statement (made by Dick Grayson we would later find out) was half-right, at least for now...

The interesting thing about this page is that I'm pretty sure it also marks the first time in the New 52 that Morrison has elected to acknowledge the events going on around him in the DCU.  In this case it is Gordon's mention of Zero Year which was, at the time, an upcoming story by Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo in the Batman book that has essentially been an origin tale for the New 52 version of the Caped Crusader.

I think Gordon's nod to the Batman Incorporate pin to Bruce, when added to his thoughts on the page below, add credence to my belief that James Gordon is willfully ignorant to Bruce's secret. In-between that page above and the one below though we learn that the two graves (presumably that of Talia and Damian, although it isn't specifically stated so it could very well be his parents' graves) have been robbed.  This causes Bruce to toss aside his decision to "kill" Batman and we get the enraged hero that was depicted in other Batman books (particularly Batman & Robin) following Damian's death.
 

 But, because it is comics and the drama must never ever end, we revisit an earlier story point of Talia's only this time from the perspective of her father Ra's Al Ghul and under new light with his daughter and grandson now dead.  We know because of The Heretic's existence that Damian was cloned, and we have seen in earlier parts of Morrison's story how Talia had a spare Damian laying around the house...

...but know, with Ra's in charge, we can see the truly horrifying scope of those experiments first-hand:

And that is how we end: the snake eating it's own tail, full circle, from Son of Batman to sons of Batman.  Some writers, like Brian Michael Bendis when he left Avengers, put all their toys back in the box and essentially reset the status quo when their tenure ends.

Morrison left a Bat-landscape that was forever altered as he both introduced a son for Bruce Wayne and then murdered him (a storyline that Peter Tomasi continues to follow through with expertly in B&R), killed off one of the longest running female figures in Batman's mythos in Talia Al Ghul, introduced an entire alternate future with Damian as Batman, decimated the Wayne name multiple times over, reintegrated the disparate portions of Batman's publishing history into continuity, to say nothing of the monumental task of telling an extremely long-form story.  He introduced the concepts of The Black Glove, Leviathan, Dr. Hurt, and reintroduced The Club of Heroes to the world.  He played with the very foundation of Batman and left any future writers with numerous toys they could play with if they so choose.

I know there is the Batman Incorporated Special that showcased some of the other members of the group but I don't feel it was anything more than a fun way for various creators to play with Grant's toys and as such was not integral to the larger story of Batman/Talia/Damian that Morrison had been telling since he took over the title.

So now I bid farewell to the world of Batman as through the eyes of Grant Morrison and brought to life by the likes of Chris Burnham, Tony Daniel, Frank Quitely, Andy Kubert, Cameron Stuart, JH Williams, John Van Fleet, and numerous other pencilers, inkers, letterers, colorists, editors, and other creative types.

After devoting so much of my blogspace to this subject, I know must figure out is next for me.  Obviously there are endless amounts of material to choose from thanks to the fabulous world of comics.  I just have to choose...

I Have Come Not To Bury 2012 But To Praise It (Reflections on the year)

 

Just felt like a good image to kick this off with because EVERYONE loves the word FREE!!!! 

It's been awhile, largely do to the holidays, partly do to my own laziness to be frank, but then again since I do this as something fun and not as a job, or for pay, I suppose there's not really an official schedule, it's just me trying to get a blog out there every so often when I have something to talk about instead of just a long run-on sentence that I will end now.

I figured this time of year was a good one to get back on the horse and what better way to kick it off than to follow the trend of looking back on the previous year and making up my own little list! Haven't done that in awhile (2010 to be exact) so I thought it might be fun to look back on the things I enjoyed about 2012...just the things I enjoyed because, well, I feel like I generally hit on enough of my perceived negatives in comics AND so does most of that darn internet as well.  So let's look at the things I loved, starting with my two  

FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2012:

First up, by a longshot, is Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo's Batman book. With gorgeous, sometimes terrifying, art from Capullo that perfectly syncs up with the tale being spun by Snyder, this book helped quell any fears I had about the New 52.  Yes there are still some major questions of decompression and continuity, particularly where Damian Wayne is concerned, but from the "Court of Owls" arc that started in August 2011 & continued into 2012 to the "Night of Owls" story in the main book (as well in the Bat-Family titles) and the current "Death of the Family" arc spotlighting The Joker, I am hard-pressed to name a moment when this book has faltered.  Even Batman #12 (the "filler" issue) that really introduced Harper Row and was done by Snyder & Becky Cloonan (the only issue thus far NOT drawn by Capullo) was quite a quality piece of business.
Snyder has quite successfully melded elements of the spandex genre with horror, mystery, and suspense as well as playing up the familial aspects of the Bat...family, particularly with the new wrinkle in Nightwing's origin and in the driving impetus behind the "DOTF" storyline.
As for Capullo, well the man I first discovered waybackwhen on X-Force and then Spawn has exceeded my expecatations beyond measure.  Admittedly I was tentative as to how he would pull this one off but visually he has hit all the right marks.  His Batman is one of power generally speaking but then he throws out a cover like this:

Or panels like this:

That image, from Batman #5, was indeed printed upside down in the comic which, while initially jarring, was an amazing and incredibly brave choice to make.  It's one of my favorite issues of the book so far, not only because of the art choices, but because it is an issue that absolutely tears Bruce apart and kind of harkens back to his father's lines from the movies, "Why do we fall down? To pick ourselves back up."

This is the best book of 2012 for me but it is followed in close second by:

Rick Remender & company's Uncanny X-Force book (which was also my favorite new book in 2010) was also up there as one of my faves but in this case it was largely due to the story that unfolded rather than the art/story combo pack of Batman.  Also, another reason it takes a 2nd place to Batman is because while I enjoyed every moment of Batman, I was not a very big fan overall of the "Otherworld" story arc that ate up issues #20-24.  It had it's character moments for me, particularly anything involving Fantomex & Psylocke, but I don't care much for Captain Britain and his pocket of the Marvel U so it didn't work for me as a whole.
Still in terms of the overall story Remender presented, and particularly the "Final Execution" final, this is definitely one of the highlights of my comic book year.
The emotional resonance of the Dark Angel arc that wrapped in 2011 carried the book through to its conclusion and ultimately changed all of the characters in this story.  Remender's portrayal of Deadpool has quite possibly been my favorite ever, the story of Genesis and his temptation was gripping, the fate of Fantomex (he's a Grant Morrison creation, of course I love him), the proper resolution of the Daken/Wolverine story, it all felt, well, epic.

As an aside to another of his projects, I am also digging how Remender has taken the seeds he planted in the "Deathlok Nation" arc of 2011 and carried them over to his current "Secret Avengers" run that is wrapping up shortly.

Now given that Uncanny X-Force was only 37 issues (40 if you throw in the Fear Itself mini) including its two Point One books, I certainly hope gets an Omnibus treatment down the line.  If nothing else, I do hope that Marvel puts the "Dark Angel" and "Final Execution" arcs into one collected edition for each instead of the current two volumes into which they are broken both divided.

As for some other faves of 2012, I would suggest you pick up: Scott Snyder's Swamp Thing, Jeff Lemire's Animal Man, Geoff Johns' Aquaman, Robert Kirkman's Walking Dead & Invincible, Mark Waid's Daredevil, and Jason Aaron's Wolverine & The X-Men.  For a late entry into the field, a book that only just started in the last two months of 2012, try Brian Michael Bendis' All New X-Men...that one has the potential to be my favorite of 2013.  In fact, let's give it the award for:

BEST NEW BOOK OF 2012

I had some serious doubts about how the premise of this book could have legs and the first issue didn't do much to assuage those fears.  In fact it pissed me off because the pages Marvel had solicited to tease the book were straight up the last five pages or so of the book!  That's not a tease, that's a spoiler with no ALERT!

So how does a book with only 5 issues under its belt go from pissing me off to being my "best new"?  Patience and voice, I had the patience to let the story unfold and Bendis' gave the characters a voice that I felt fit.  I mean his best Marvel work (Daredevil aside) has been writing teenagers & high school kids so using the original five X-Men is perfect for one.  For another, aside from a rough spot in issue 3, I think he has given a strong voice to adult Cyclops after AvX, and in some ways Consequences, did him so much damage.  I also appreciate the fact that Bendis flat out addressed the deus ex machina of the entire series by having EVERY character basically say "Professor X is just going to erase our memories as soon as we go back to the past".  It is an obvious out that anyone could have called before picking up a single issue of the book and it was a relief to see it addressed, see the characters accept it as fact, and still decide to go on their mission regardless of that outcome.  Thank you Bendis...

The wonderful art by Stuart Immonen doesn't hurt either!  I hope this book continues the level of quality that 3/5 issues have had and I also hope the Bendis/Chris Bachalo Uncanny X-Men book is at the same level, if not better.

Continuing the tangential nature of this whole list (since I don't really have a format or plan), mentioning Bachalo and Immonen takes my mind to:

MY FAVORITE ARTIST OF 2012: JH WILLIAMS III

That's just a tiny sampling but I think the pictures & layouts speak for themselves. I could look at the pages & covers every day without a bit of text...creative, unique, and beautiful.  I can't wait until this comes out:

As for runner-up selections: obviously Capullo as I raved about earlier, Chris Burnham on Batman Inc, Ivan Reis on Aquaman, and while I'm not really digging the story (not bad just not terribly interesting), what Francis Manapul is doing on Flash is absolutely amazing visually!  Check out this story at Bleeding Cool and this sample:

And the random train of thought went like this Flash...Justice League...Shazam.....

BEST BACK-UP FEATURE

The SHAZAM back-up in Justice League has been blow away awesome in all the ways that the core feature has not been.  Geoff Johns is penning a great coming-of-age tale in just a few pages every month, and that Zero issue above was a godsend because it focused exclusively on the tale of Billy Batson and company.  JL, to me, has felt soulless in the way a big Hollywood action blockbuster can...it has all the big names, all the big creative talent, but it is still just a set piece for big explosions. SHAZAM has been small and meaningful, a story about how I think a kid in Billy's situation would honestly react to suddenly becoming one of the most powerful beings on the planet.  Toss in Gary Frank's amazing artwork (add him to that list above as well) and this story is a surefire hit that I hope gets a collection to call its own when it wraps up (which I would presume would be around Trinity War time).  JL is showing some promise with the newly started Aquaman man arc and it isn't bad by any means, just lackluster, but fortunately the addition of SHAZAM make the book worth the price tag.

Well since that blurb didn't lead my brain directly into another category, I'm just throwing one out there:

BEST "IT'S NEW TO ME" BOOK

I wrote about this "recently" (if you consider November recent) so I'm just pulling a Copy & Paste from that blog:

First up was some back-to-back Robert Kirkman love starting with the "Invincible" Compendium.  Another of his Image books, this one was a book I'd been told repeatedly to read but, since I wasn't getting to it, a friend of mine got it for me as a birthday gift. Well I can say that I'm glad I waited to read it because it was great to read this story...well at least its first half...in one collection! 

To sum it up as much as possible without ruining too much, this one is the story of a kid named Mark Grayson whose father is a superhero and then said kid discovers that he too has superpowers!  It's a story of father-son relationships, of the dynamic in a family with two heroes, a family in which the heroes aren't having to hide it from their family...just the rest of the world of course.

Yet it it also a coming of age story, a tale of betrayal and disappointment, of friends and lovers...essentially it is a tale of life as told through the POV of a superhero kid. High school, college, girlfriends, teams, villains, friends, and aliens are all a part of this tale and by the way, it is quite graphically violent.  That is a trait of this series that I find very intriguing not because I'm a blood mark, but because of the color scheme of this series...it's bright and vibrant, alive I guess you could say, a stark contrast to that other Kirkman work of note: "The Walking Dead".

"Invincible" is available right here in a handy-dandy Compendium that collects not only the first 47 issues of the series but also the Zero issue, an issue of The Pact series, and also excerpts from the 2004 Image Comics Summer Special.  I can't recommend this book highly enough and I cannot wait until there is a Volume 2 Compendium released, which I would imagine will come out shortly after the 100th issue is released.

Other nominees for that little prize include: Neil Gaiman's Sandman (which I only just started at the end of the year so figured it didn't quite qualify here), as well as his Eternals book, shockingly Brian K. Vaughn's Mystique in its rather unique take on the villain as well as his Runaways books, Mark Waid's Captain America run, and Warren Ellis' Thor which, although I wasn't digging the art of Mike Deodato and it isn't Ellis' best work, I thought it was an interesting take on a character I generally don't care about outside of the movie franchise...

What a segue...

BEST SUPERHERO MOVIE OF 2012 (tie)

Yeah...I couldn't decide...I love them both equally and for different reasons.  Click on the poster for each if you want to read my original thoughts on each movie from when they came out.  As for my opinions since being able to watch them back from the comforts of home, not much has changed.  In fact, I think it's safe to say my love for what each of them brings to the table has only gotten deeper.

Avengers is fun and every bit that Hollywood action movie blockbuster BUT with substance and a humor that to feels deeper than, say, a Battleship probably did (to be fair I didn't see the movie so it COULD be the Citizen Kane of action flicks for all I know).  It made me WANT to see sequels and prequels and threequels and spin-offs and got me excited for what is to come in the future of the Marvel Films side of the Marvel U.

DKRises (I feel obligated to write out Rises when I do that because, prior to the movie, to comic book fans DKR meant Dark Knight Returns) was the exact opposite in so many ways.  It had its fun but it, as expected, was more serious in tone and smaller in scale in terms of its threat.  Where Avengers was about the forging of a legacy and explosions, DKRises was about the legacy itself, about identity and worth, and of course, about big explosions ;-)  It was a fitting end, especially the unveiling of the statue, and although I do not expect Joseph Gordon Levitt to be Batman in the Justice League movie, I would be ecstatic to see him continue on in that role.

For those who may have read Grant Morrison's JLA, the Green Lantern of the piece was Kyle Rayner and, while surrounded by Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman to name a few, he was in the position of living up to the legacy of Hal Jordan, the "Greatest Green Lantern". I would find it intriguing if, in the movie, it was Batman in that role of being the one having to live up to the expectations of his predecessor while surrounded by Supes, WW, and GL...especially if those characters were clueless as to the true identity of Batman.  I'm just picturing a JGL Batman coming up short and finally, in a moment of trust and confidence, revealing the truth to his compatriots which in turn leads them to unveiling their truths to each other.  Imagine a Batman who is the one looking for acceptance instead of being the one on the fringes...

Anyway....how about:

MY FAVORITE COMIC BOOK TOY OF 2012

I don't do toy reviews...I solely base this on how cool I think he looks in my display stand!

COOLEST COMIC CON GIVE AWAY OF 2012

 Pick one up on Ebay like I did and scare the crap out of people!

 Man how did I forget this one:

BEST WRITER OF @)!@

Scott Snyder may be terrible at responding at Twitter to compliments or criticisms, at least to me, but given that I am a superhero guy first and foremost, and with that a Batman guy (my ten year old self would be shocked, he tried to will claws to pop out of his hands), I must pick Scott Snyder.  I think you can just go back up to the fave book blurb and see the why where Batman is concerned but it is also because of the stellar work he has done on Swamp Thing and American Vampire.

I'm sure people who know me and read this are shocked I didn't just default pick Grant Morrison for Batman Inc & Happy but I think I have to automatically disqualify him BECAUSE he is my favorite overall.  It's just too easy to go there...

As for other potentials, I'd have to add in Jeff Lemire for his work on Animal Man, Geoff Johns BUT only for his Aquaman book, Jason Aaron for Wolvie & The X-Men, Kirkman for Walking Dead, Remender for UXF...


BEST MINI-SERIES OF 2012

Clone Jesus Christ, attach a former IRA member as his bodyguard, turn it into a reality TV show, and see what happens!  That is the most bare bones premise of Sean Murphy's amazingly nuts mini-series that just recently wrapped up.  I still need to read the final issue but I can, without a doubt, say this was my fave mini of the year.  Its black & white art is a sight to behold, the story is fun and chaotic, potentially controversial to some, heartfelt, and sad all while painting a pretty believable portrayal of how Chris (the clone) would likely respond to the circumstances in which he finds himself AND the fashion in which the world reacts to his presence.  The individual issues are likely still available at your LCS but the collection doesn't come out until April.  If you're interested in pre-ordering it just click here and take a look at how great this one page looks (also throw Murphy's name up there too in that fave artists category now that I think about it):

Runner-up for this one, but a very very close one at that, is definitely James Robinson's "The Shade" 12 issue maxi-series that continued following a character from his epic run on "Starman" that I wrote about in 2011. It was a great continuation of the journey of that character, picking up basically right where he was left at the close of Starman and finally giving us the origin Robinson had only only teased at for years.  The fact that the book boasted a collection of artists like Darwyn Cooke, Frazer Irving, Gene Ha, Jill Thompson, Cully Hamner and Javier Pulido only served to enhance how awesome of a tale this was and one I cannot wait to read back in its entirety...as soon as I'm done with the dozen other reads I have waiting for me.

BEST ANNOUNCEMENT OF 2012

The return of Sandman!

MY MOST ANTICIPATED OF 2013

In addition to that one right above, I also want to add in the debut of Bendis' Uncanny X-Men, the Riddler in Batman, Trinity War, Ultron War (FINALLY!), Dog Logan in Wolvie & The X-Men (seriously), and the return of Jean Paul Valley!!! Yeah there is no way in hell that last one is happening in 2013, 2033, or any other year...

I am also hoping for something from Morrison's Multiversity, Frank Quitely & Mark Millar's Jupiter's Legacy, and pretty excited to make my way through the rest of Sandman (starting Vol. 4 this weekend), and read the Spider-Man Marvel Masterworks Vol. 1, Iron Wars II, and volume of Matt Fraction's Thor I picked up yesterday for only $20 combined!  Gotta love the discount book store!!!  Oh yes, and I just received Scalped Vol. 1 & Fatale Vol. 1 from Amazon as well!  So I already have a great deal of things to read through in the first full week of the year!

OTHER OPINIONS

I asked some friends & people on FB/Twitter for their favorites of the year and this is what I got back:

Duke from Capes & Cowls - Batman & Uncanny X-Force
Pat - Saga
Ryan - Anything from Frank Tieri (sarcastic trolling)
Eric Downes on FB - AvX (only thing he read)
Greg Rice - Uncanny X-Force & Batman
Michael Maberry - Hawkeye (should have included that as my best new series runner up...or tie, make that tie)
Craig - "sorry im still stuck in my nothings better than millers batman bubble oh and the boys but im still way behind"

And my favorite answer from Midge who doesn't read..."the superman one, in the black bag. Bet it's great, but it's in the bag so I don't know #worthmillions"

So I think that about wraps up my look back on 2012 and I won't make any promises this time about what I want to write about next or when it will get done (just discovered I said I was going to write about Rogue War like a year ago....not sure if I ever actually did that!), but it won't be another 6 week gap like this one. I bid you farewell until next time with two plugs for some friends of mine.  The first is for a Deadpool web series starring my buddy Damian in the lead role:

And the second is for my friend Rob's short film "No Clowning Around":

Go show some support for each and, as always, support your Local Comic Shop and if you live in the Philly/Bensalem/Bristol/Croydon area then make sure it's Capes & Cowls you're supporting!

What I've Been Reading 2012

So it's been a few weeks...more than intended of course...but at least in that time I've gotten some serious reading done! I'm now ONLY three weeks behind in my....umm...additional weekly readings and have managed to plow through quite a number of collections since that AvX blog. Let's jump right in!

First up was some back-to-back Robert Kirkman love starting with the "Invincible" Compendium.  Another of his Image books, this one was a book I'd been told repeatedly to read but, since I wasn't getting to it, a friend of mine got it for me as a birthday gift. Well I can say that I'm glad I waited to read it because it was great to read this story...well at least its first half...in one collection! 

To sum it up as much as possible without ruining too much, this one is the story of a kid named Mark Grayson whose father is a superhero and then said kid discovers that he too has superpowers!  It's a story of father-son relationships, of the dynamic in a family with two heroes, a family in which the heroes aren't having to hide it from their family...just the rest of the world of course.

Yet it it also a coming of age story, a tale of betrayal and disappointment, of friends and lovers...essentially it is a tale of life as told through the POV of a superhero kid. High school, college, girlfriends, teams, villains, friends, and aliens are all a part of this tale and by the way, it is quite graphically violent.  That is a trait of this series that I find very intriguing not because I'm a blood mark, but because of the color scheme of this series...it's bright and vibrant, alive I guess you could say, a stark contrast to that other Kirkman work of note: "The Walking Dead".

"Invincible" is available right here  in a handy-dandy Compendium that collects not only the first 47 issues of the series but also the Zero issue, an issue of The Pact series, and also excerpts from the 2004 Image Comics Summer Special.  I can't recommend this book highly enough and I cannot wait until there is a Volume 2 Compendium released, which I would imagine will come out shortly after the 100th issue is released.  That is, after all, what happened with "The Walking Dead"...

...and speaking of:

Continuing my Kirkman run, but mostly inspired by watching the 3rd season of the TV show, I reread the first Compendium of "The Walking Dead" that covers the first 48 issues of the now 100+ issue series as well as a story from the 2005 Image Comics Holiday special.  This marked the first time I had reread the old stories since my initial reading of them and it was quite interesting to compare them to the storytelling choices made for the AMC series.

Suffice it to say, and as anyone who has read the series knows, the comic and its TV adaptation share many similarities but the show diverges from the comic book continuity in many ways.  Some of those reasons may be due to the constraints of the medium, some may be conscious decisions, and some may simply be a choice of how the story best evolved.  There are characters that exist in the comics but not on the TV show and vice versa...at least not yet, but I can confidently say that I am ECSTATIC that the TV series has gone down its own version of the path first laid out in the comic. 

Some story beats are missing and are thusly missed, some changes have actually been for the better I'd say, and ultimately I must say that I prefer this to seeing a straight up adaptation of the comic book.  That could easily come off as soulless and going through the motions...the way the "Watchmen" movie kind of did in its almost complete marriage to the source material.

As for the comic book itself, it was just as engrossing on the reread as it was when I was first introduced to it some years ago...and at least a four years after the book initially started.  I feel like I read it for the first time around the time of "Secret Invasion" when Kyle Durden may have brought some issues on a St. Louis road trip.  I know he is directly responsible for introducing it to Kenny King and a few other people...

Anyway, it is quite telling how, despite knowing the fate of these characters by the end of the first 48 issues, I am still quite shook up by the way Lori dies or by what happens between The Governor, Michonne, and Rick.  The evolution of Glenn still is one of the most interesting aspects of the story and there are so many little moments, so many artistic decisions, that add to the story in ways my words can't quite encapsulate:

That look speaks volumes in the context of the pages, and I strongly suggest if you are a fan of the show but haven't read the books, or if you just dig well written character drama, then click here and pick up the comic.  It's violent, as one would expect in a zombie apocalypse scenario, and in done in B&W art as you can see from that image, but the lack of color...yeah it does nothing to dull the impact of the brutality, to lessen the blow of what these characters go through as they struggle to maintain their own humanity in the face of such inhumane circumstances...

To put it bluntly, I don't really give a damn about Thor.  As a comic book character, he was not someone I was every particularly interested in and pretty much only read Thor when he was included in some other book or story I actually was into. So the reasons I chose to pick this book up were two-fold.

The first being the fact that Warren Ellis wrote this book and that I have an increasing interest to read his material. Realizing he wrote this story also made me realize all of the other things he wrote when I was younger that I read with no care as to who he was like Excalibur, Doom 2099, all three Counter-X books, Wolverine, some Ghost Rider issues, and the "Sword of Damocles" chapters of the Wildstorm "Fire From Heaven" crossover.

The 2nd reason I bought the book...it was only $4 at the Discount Book store which is ridiculously cheap for a hardcover...and their pricing has, in fact, led me to buying many things I would not otherwise have bothered as you'll see.

Well this one picks up in the middle of some story with Thor dying and just runs from there into a rather entertaining story, albeit with some Mike Deodato art that is...inconsistent I suppose I will say. The guy does some good stuff but I also find him to be a bit all over the place in his older work and not very detail oriented ever...just check out his "Dark Avengers" and tell me if you think every female character is built the exact same. I think he's a good artist for covers & pin-ups but not necessarily the greatest for panel-to-panel work.  That being said, I would still rather look at his comics than a great deal of the people doing monthly work now...

As for the story, it was a refreshing take on Thor as he wasn't running around speaking in his Asgardian pseudo-Shakespearean style and threw his lot in with The Enchantress.  Ellis' intro pretty much sums up the idea behind the whole thing:

"Worldengine is a four-episode story intended to rip apart the Thor we know and retool him for the next century or, at least, until the next time you fancy retooling him. There are, of course, sound economic reasons for doing this, which have been explained to me in length, but they are less important to me, in the long run, than the artistic needs of the book. It’s been the same for thirty years, this comic, and as much as we all respect the legacy of Jack Kirby, I honestly think he would not be pleased to find the comic the same as it was when he started it. Kirby was foursquare for change."

As an adult, I would have loved to read more of Ellis' run on Thor (sadly it was only these four issues) but I don't know how I would have taken to it had I found this book when it first came out in the mid-90s.  Now, it is an intriguing look at early Ellis super-hero work.  Grab it here if you're interested...

Mark Waid and Captain America...that is a subject that could easily take up a blog all by itself and perhaps I will have to do that some time. Starting in 1995 and running through 1999 (with a slight interruption by Rob Liefeld's horrendous Heroes Reborn Cap series), Waid helmed Cap through a return of The Red Skull, some heavy political issues, hero worship, a shattered shield, and the return of the most important woman in Cap's life (thanks to Ed Brubaker): Sharon Carter.

This is a smart series, and controversial for one particular issue included in the Red Glare HC pictured above.  It's a 1999 issue focusing on Red Skull from his own point of view, inside his own head, so to say it was...racist...would be an understatement.  Now that may sound like a bad idea but this is the Skull, a Nazi mind you, telling his own story so of course it is going to be racist!  Still, Marvel edited the thing in its original release, Waid took his name off the story, and it never say the light of day in its original version until the HC was released in 2011. For more on the subject read here on CBR with a Waid interview.

Cap, kind of like Thor, was a character I didn't have a great deal of interest in until I began to read the Brubaker run starting with "Winter Soldier" (a run I continued to follow into Bucky's series but from the Cap angle I stopped following with the "Shattered Heroes" labeled arc). So with that, combined with my interest in Mark Waid and the rave reviews I had been given from friends who had read the books, oh yeah AND the fact that I got all of the HCs at the discount book store for like $6 each, I ventured into Waid's world of Cap.

Go buy this...seriously, it's just an awesome take on the legendary character and one that is just as interesting, in a completely different way, as Brubaker's take on the character, plus you've got some great artists in Ron Garney & Andy Kubert to flesh out the story.  This is where Sharon Carter's role in Cap's life begins to take shape, this has to be where Brubaker pulls some of his Cosmic Cube  ideas from, and it really puts the pieces in place for Brubaker's usage of Red Skull as well. 

The concept of hero worship and it's potential effects on both the hero & his worshippers that Waid plays with is one that I don't know if I've really seen in a Marvel or DC comic, and I guess...in many ways...I'd say that Waid's take on Steve is more fascinating than Brubaker's for me.  Honestly it is the character of Bucky/Winter Soldier that I always found most intriguing there...

Waid, during the movie hype, also did the "Man Out Of Time" mini focusing on the time frame just after Cap was resurrected (albeit in a modern period) that I read when it was initially released but have not read it since I purchased it last week in the discount store.  I will...part of my next batch of readings...but you, if you haven't read these, click right here to order them yourself.

Jason Aaron, Duane Swierczynski, Cullen Bunn, Rick Spears, David Lapham...
Mico Suayan, Arturo Lozzi, Travel Foreman, Dan Brereton, Timothy Green II, Khari Evans, Hatuey Diaz...

That's the talent responsible for "Immortal Weapons", a collection of one-shots starring the assorted characters from the Immortal Iron Fist issues penned by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and Swierczynski. 

The quality varies from chapter to chapter, the highlight probably being the Fat Cobra & Iron Fist stories for me, but if you have read any of the Immortal Iron Fist run, then this series is a nice addition to that.  Again, another steal from the discount book store for only $4!  Man I wouldn't be reading ANYTHING if it wasn't for that place... 

Pick up this book here.

By far the strangest thing I found at the discount book store...the place sells nothing by Marvel books EXCEPT for the very, very occassional 2000AD books like this and something else I'll mention next.  For some background info, 2000AD is a UK comic book that has featured the talents of Moore, Grant Morrison, Alan Davis, Neil Gaiman, and Mark Millar just to name drop a few.  This was a collection of these short stories called Tharg's Future Shocks that were written by numerous creators and they were usually 2-3 pages in length, self-contained, and to me, read like something written for The Twilight Zone...if the Zone was taking place in a galaxy far, far away with seriously alien cultures.

A intergalactic handyman, time-hopping scientists, alien invaders, universal pirates...these are just a few of the concepts that Moore tackles in these short format stories.  It's such a difficult thing to sum up this book in any simple format, it is truly something you would have to check out for yourself.  Simply put, it is not remotely what I expected to read and that is NOT a bad thing...check it out here.

And in the continued vein of the 2000AD books, I also found some Judge Dredd there...and more importantly Dredd as done by Grant Morrison & Mark Millar as well as art by Carlos Ezquerra who I found out is one of the Dredd creators. This would be a character with whom I have absolutely zero knowledge about...never say the Sly Stallone movie, never read the crossovers with Batman, no se nada!

Yet despite by lack of knowledge, I felt completely comfortable reading this book as well as the "Crusade" one I also picked up.  You get a good feel for just who Dredd is as well as just what the whole premise behind his world really is...handy little recap blurbs at the start of every 5-page chapter really help as well.  Art is pretty good to look at too...

So now I am kind of intrigued to read a little more Dredd stuff so perhaps I will investigate that but if you're interested in reading some Millar/Morrison co-work then pick these up right here.  They are a quick read but a fun one!

This one was yet another cheap pick-up at the discount book store and was sold on the name that dominates the cover (obviously Marvel knows that too) as well as the John Romita Jr art.  I don't know anything about The Eternals (also obviously a theme for most of the books I get on discount) but this was quite a fun & exciting read for me, not to mention wonderful to look at as I have been a fan of JRJR for as long as I've been a comic book fan.

Long story short, this is a tale of God-like beings who don't remember that they are God-like AND if you're a fan of Matt Fraction & Ed Brubaker's Uncanny X-Men run that introducted them to San Francisco...this is the story where that Celestial in the park comes into play.  Another great pick-up for a great deal and another one I can highly recommend to everyone.  It's on-sale right here.

I feel like I'm forgetting something else I've read in the last few weeks but I'll be damned if I can remember what it is after all of that, plus reading my weekly purchases.  I can tell you that right now, with those, I am of course digging Batman & the beginnings of The Death Of The Family. I am also pretty keen on the Rotworld stuff so far and, if you're a fan of both Garth Ennis & Grant Morrison, then I suggest you scoop up the first two issues of Happy because it is a Morrison comic but you can smell the Ennis on it. 

Speaking of Ennis, it was goodbye to The Boys this month...holding out hope for a complete collection Omnibus sort of thing...

Punk Rock Jesus by Sean Murphy is another great one...

Haven't had a chance to read too much of the Marvel NOW yet but I can say Mark Waid's Hulk book has some promise, that All New X-Men is an interesting premise that I am curious to see how it will sustain an on-going, X-Men Legacy is getting me to buy a 2nd issue but the jury is still out there, Uncanny Avengers has potential if they can get a regular shipping schedule going (sad to say that after only one issue), and we shall see what Cap, Thor, and the two FF books bring to the table.

Also, if you want something fun, but not so easy on the eyes...I am liking Scarlet Spider & Venom but I find the art lacking all too frequently...

In the DC corner...pick up Red Hood, by far the most improved book of the New 52. Talon is also quite a fun one, especially for those bitching (myself included in there sometimes) about the existence of prior continuity.  Talon is a book free of any loose ends, free of any ties to the Old 52, it is a clean slate character that we are all learning about for the very first time.

Not sure what I have on tap for the next one I write, but in the meantime...and as a strong example of my buying things at the discount book store because they are cheap...I've got a Fallen Angels HC, an X-Infernus TPB, and a X-Men: Phoenix: Warsong TPB to read!  I would have never bought any of those under any normal circumstances but hey...it probably cost me $15 total for all three.

I also plan to read, for the very first time, the entire run of Gaiman's Sandman!

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Hey if anyone wants to buy me some X-Mas presents: