My Favorite Mutants....

I have said it before but it bears repeating for the purpose of this entry: the X-Men were my gateway drug. I had read random comics here and there, ones given to my by family just to keep me occupied for a couple minutes or found in garage sales.  Nothing stuck though until that fateful day in the Denver Airport when I picked up my very first X-Men comic (more on that in a minute) and it started a love affair that has lasted until this day albeit to varying degrees.

So while listening to Kevin Smith's "Fatman on Batman" podcast, specifically an edition where Kevin and one of his guests list their favorite Batman issues/stories, I was inspired to make a list of some of my favorite X-Men stories.  No real order, definitely not a complete list, but just a rundown of some of my favorite X-Centric issues & story arcs (oh yeah, and it is a purposeful thing that I don't dip into the sure things like Grant Morrison's run, "Dark Phoenix" or "God Loves, Man Kills"...just want to expose some other notables).

So what better place to start than with:

Uncanny X-Men #224

This was the issue that started it all and it was absolutely NOT the most first-timer friendly BUT a writer like Chris Claremont went out of his way to adhere to an old Stan Lee (so I've heard) axiom that every issue is somebody's first.  There wasn't yet an X-Men: Animated Series to lay the groundwork but he made it easy to understand who Wolverine, Havok, Rogue, and Dazzler were and what they were doing in San Francisco.  Marc Silvestri defined the visuals of all of these characters for me, particularly Wolverine, and for the longest time his was the look with which I associated these characters.  His version WAS Wolvie, it WAS Storm and Dazzler and Longshot...he & Dan Green WERE the X-Artists for me!

As for Claremont, he made the fact that I was jumping into a situation en media res completely tolerable given that the X-Books were on the verge of entering The Fall of Mutants, that the Registration Act and Freedom Force were things, that a powerless Storm was completely separate from the team for reasons unknown to me...

All of those things would, in the mindset of some in today's comic landscape (coughDCCOMICScough), be GIANT barriers to my signing on the the mutant bandwagon but because the writer made the effort to make his comic accessible, I was hooked and wanted to know not only where the story was going, but I wanted to know where it had come from.  This led to my 8 year old self finding a local comic shop which was thankfully right next door to the karate studio I was attending and spending several days a week there, not just new comic day.

This was in the age before EVERYTHING was traded so I dug deep into back issue bins, began following X-Factor and New Mutants, and reading Classic X-Men (later X-Men Classic) until my back issue endeavors collided with Classic around Uncanny issue #170.  Speaking of classic, that leads me to another couple of my favorites:

Classic X-Men #19

So just as with my first Uncanny issue, I also joined the classic adventures of my favorite mutants in the middle of a story! This time they were trapped in an arctic base, rendered powerless & child-like by Magneto, and at the motherly mercy of the android Nanny.  Claremont writing, John Byrne art, this was the stuff of dreams and a totally different visual than which I had become accustomed to with reading Uncanny & seeing Marc Silvestri's take.

And again, even though I was jumping into to a show already in progress, I was able to pretty much pick up on what was going on AND want to track down the issues that came before to see how my favorites got trapped in the first place!  Then, with the ending that split up the team, leaving Jean & Beast in Antarctica and the rest of the unit's fate in limbo, I had to know what happened!!!  This stuff was epic!

Plus, one of the bonuses of these Classic issues, there were additional pages (although at 8 years old I didn't know they were added at the time) added to the main story AND a total new back-up story!  This one fleshed out the character of Magneto in a way that I can look back on and safely say had never been done before.  It filled in gaps in his history and it was BEAUTIFULLY rendered by John Bolton.  These back-ups were a thing of wonder and the back-up alone is why this next issue is one of my favorite...

Classic X-Men #25

Wolverine solo...drawn by John Bolton...this back-up was a thing of beauty and probably one of the reasons that I fell in love with the character.  It does a great job of fleshing him out as more than just the crazy runt with claws, although in the Uncanny issues I was already seeing he was more than that, and it is just a wonder to look at.  Just thinking about it makes me want to either dig these issues out just to read the back-ups or go buy the Vignettes trades.

As an added bonus in the main story, you get Mariko Yashida making her first appearances in Wolvie's life (the previous issue being her first), you get Banshee losing his powers (a thing that stuck for well over 100 issues), and in the added pages, you get an Apocalypse appearance to tie him into Moses Magnum's origins!  Speaking of Apocalypse....

X-Factor #68

Okay this may seem an odd choice to some but this issue, with writing credited to Whilce Portacio, Jim Lee, and Chris Claremont with Portacio & Art Thibert getting the artistic nods, is the culmination of so many different plot threads PLUS the springboard into the next phase of the mutant world.

It brings to a head the Apocalypse story that has been building in some fashion since X-Factor #5, it brings to crescendo the saga of baby Nathan Christopher Charles Summers that has been on-going since his birth in Uncanny #201 and really kicked into high gear during Inferno & the subsequent Judgement War arc in X-Factor, and his Nathan's fate certainly added even more intrigue to the Cable/Stryfe mystery unfolding in the closing pages of the original New Mutants series & subsequently in the original X-Force series...plus it was set on the Blue Area of the Moon which harkens back to the original Dark Phoenix saga oh so many years prior.

The closing of this arc also catapults the original X-Men who made up X-Factor into the Muir Island Saga over in Uncanny that would ultimately lead us to the introduction of the Blue & Gold Teams in the UXM & & X-Men books.

But most importantly, and the reason why this issue resonates in my mind, is because of the heartbreaking scene when Scott Summers has to give up his child, has to send little Nathan off into the great unknown with a strong possibility that Cyke will never his son again, in hopes that this mysterious Asakani woman can save his life.  This is a man who, taking into account the sliding concept of time in comics, was without his son for 3 publishing years (so say like a year in comic book time maybe?). Now having only just gotten his son back, Cyclops was faced with the gut-wrenching choice of what to do, what to sacrifice, and...perhaps this is just me reading into it now...but giving is his son up to be saved is kind of making up for being a totally selfish douchebag since Jean Grey's not-so-dead body was found at the bottom of the ocean a few years prior.  That's a thought I'm just now thinking for the first time by the way...

Any way it was the emotional hook of Cyclops and Nate that puts this one in my mind more so than anything about the Apocalypse/Askani stuff...oh yeah, and this story arc would also be the hook upon which the next entry into my arc would hang its hat:

X-Cutioner's Song

So apparently, according to Wikipedia, this was a story arc not looked upon fondly despite its high sales numbers...well I don't give a damn!  I look back on this story as one of the highlights of my comic book reading youth.  Not only was it full of awesome art from the likes of Brandon Peterson, Jae Lee, Andy Kubert, and Greg Capullo but the story also brought together a ton of characters that had essentially been separate since the birth of X-Force, X-Men, and the overhaul of X-Factor that came about 15 months prior.

It took the "Cable & Stryfe have the same face" bomb that got dropped at the end of New Mutants #100 and used it for something major...if you call something like Stryfe, decked out in Cable-wear, shooting Professor Xavier in the face major.  The arc brought Apocalypse into the field as an ally rather than enemy which in turn played into the Archangel dynamic as well as the Cable/Cyclops drama.  It put X-Force, who were sans Cable at that moment, into the mix as a fugitive team.  Guido working with Gambit, Feral and Wolfsbane occupying the same space thereby proving there were in fact two different characters (bad joke), the moon, Stryfe versus Apocalypse, Stryfe's torture of Jean & Cyclops on THE BLUE AREA OF THE MOON, and Scott Summers' nagging questions: is Cable my son or is Stryfe my son?

It was an epic tale that told a self-contained story AND built for the future!  What a novel concept in this day & age where so many crossovers end up feeling to me like they exist ONLY to set-up the future and don't tell a complete story on their own.  This was throwing everything out there and making it all work!  History also tells us that Magneto ALMOST ended up a part of the story too AND a joke by Peter David is what ultimately led to Wolvie getting his adamantium ripped out in Fatal Attractions (more on that later)!

Plus the fallout from this arc also directly led to two of my favorite X-issues of all time!  First up:

X-Force #19

"The Open Hand - The Closed Fist"...the name of the story and representing the two sides of the coin when it comes to "the dream" from the perspectives of Charles Xavier (the former) and Cable (the latter).  In the fallout of "X-Cutioner's Song" the X-Force squad is essentially being held prisoner while Xavier & Storm question Cannonball's decisions.

The beauty of this issue, along with being a great showcase for how far Capullo has come as an artist, is in its layers.  For one it reconnects the former students of Xavier (Sunspot and Cannonball) with their former home, obviously via Sam's interactions with Charles & Ororo, but also thru Roberto's interaction with Stevie Hunter.  Then it points out how distant the rest of the squad (Warpath, Siryn, Shatterstar, Feral, Boomer, Rictor) are from that touchstone.  Sure some of them (Boomer, Rictor, Siryn) have a degree of affiliation but none of them were ever under the tutelage of Xavier directly and neither Warpath, Shatterstar, nor Feral spent one second under the wing of anyone but Cable.  There are so many degrees of removal from "the dream" looking at say Beast to Feral...

This issue also provides set-up for the future but no in a way that intrudes on the main story...just enough to tease you and leave you curious for what's to come.

But the highlight, the absolute crucial part of this issue though, the thing that really defined Cannonball for the future (or at least should have), is the "open hand, closed fist" debate he has with Xavier using, of all things, a mouse.  The crux of Guthrie's argument is that the supposedly safe and welcoming open hand can be used to slap you across the face (yeah...he nearly slaps Xavier across the face) while the supposedly violent & threatening closed fist can be used to protect and comfort (that's where the mouse comes in).  THAT is my Cannonball, the guy who was taking the best from his three teachers (Xavier, Magneto, & Cable) and looking to mold them into an entirely new ideal for this new generation of mutants.  It was furthered in the Counter-X Ellis run with his tutelage under Pete Wisdom AND it was why I was furious when Cannonball was reverted to the country bumpkin when he officially became an X-Man post-Age of Apocalypse..that's a whole other rant though.

This issue gave X-Force an identity, a STRONG identity, for the first time since the series began after a bunch of meandering issues about Externals and Cannonball dying and Gideon and Tolliver and lackluster Mark Pacella/Dan Panosian art. Also, and I am totally putting meaning in where there probably isn't any, it says something to me that this article on MTV.com here from 7/11/13 uses an image from this issue!

As for that other favorite issue that spawned out of "X-Cutioner's Song":

Uncanny X-Men #303

So "Song" spawned the Legacy Virus which was a pretty clear AIDS virus for the mutant community.  It had claimed the lives of some minor characters like Infectia and Burke as well as some major ones like Jamie Madrox (later revealed to be a dupe), Moira MacTaggert (the only human), and Revanche (Psylocke's....whatever).

But the saddest moment, the one that ripped my heart out, was the death of Illyana Rasputin in UXM #303. UNFORTUNATELY her death was spoiled beyond belief when UXM #304 was released BEFORE #303.  See #304 was part of the big "Fatal Attractions" crossover and I guess delaying it would have fucked up the schedule of the rest of the x-over...that's all assumption by the way.

So Illyana's story is sad enough on its own...the little sister of Colossus, as a little girl she was kidnapped from Russia to be used as a pawn by the villain Arcade, ultimately stolen away into Limbo while the X-Men were on some island where the barriers between dimensions were weak, and although it was only minutes on Earth in which she was lost in Limbo, with the way time moves there she reemerged from the hellish dimension as a teenager.  She joined the New Mutants, struggled with her demonic side for years, was used by the demons S'ym & N'astirh to bring Limbo to Earth during "Inferno", and returned to her proper age during the closing chapters of that story.

She returned to Russia, her & Colossus' parent were murdered, she contracted the Legacy Virus, and that brought us to this story where, while the rest of the team was away, it all came to a head with Shadowcat (visiting from Excalibur), Jubilee, Jean Grey, and Charles Xavier in residence at the mansion and Moira MacTaggert there via video screen.

I'm honestly tearing up writing about this and reading the recaps...I think this was the first comic in the, at that point, 6 years I had been reading that had this kind of effect on me and it says something for my memories of it that it still does.  Jubilee bonding to Illyana in these last moments of her life, the history of Kitty Pryde & Illyana coming into play, the reaction of Colossus when he returns home to the tragic news, the reading of Hans Christian Andersons' "Little Matchgirl", the BAMF doll, it's all so...heartbreaking.  As Jubilee puts it in the end, since she has been hanging with the X-Men, she has mixed it up with Brood-things, Sentinels, Acolytes and everything. ‘So how is it ya can save the world every morning pre-wheaties…but when it comes to saving one little girl…zip?’ 

I'm crying....

That could be a good time to end it but I've got two more specific issues I want to point out and one run in particular that, for me, is probably my favorite.  First up, and kind of spiraling out of the earlier mention of "Fatal Attractions" and the Jubilee stuff in #303:

Wolverine #75

In X-Men #25, thanks to a joke from Peter David, Magneto ripped the adamantium free from the skeleton of Wolverine which, in turn, prompted Xavier to mindwipe Magneto which, in turn, led to the creation on Onslaught which, in turn, led to the Heroes Reborn story which, in turn....see how it all goes with comics?

The ramifications of Xavier's mindwipe aren't the point here though.  The point is Wolverine #75, for its fancy hologram and horror-flick image cover, is one of the most touching issues of a comic you will read.  The race to save Wolverine's life while simultaneously returning to Earth from space is pulse-pounding, Xavier's willingness to risk his own life to get inside Wolvie's mind and help him is noble, the moment of Illyana's spirit shoving Wolverine's away from the light was touching as was the fact that is was Jean Grey's voice that pulled Logan back from the brink so he could save their lives.

Seeing Wolverine weakened from his ordeal yet forcing himself into a Danger Room scenario is, in it's own way, as heartbreaking as Illyana's death because he just can't cut it anymore.  Add to that the revelation that Logan's infamous claws are in fact bone and you have a true moment in X-Lore.  The real kicker to this story though, the one that makes it linger in my memory, is the letter (and his hat) that Wolvie leaves Jubilee when he departs from the team.  It is heartfelt, it is a look at the core of the man, and can bring tears to your eyes just as well as the words of UXM #303.

Sadly, and maybe this is why they linger so, the next story that comes to mind is also one of death and tragedy in the life of Logan:

Wolverine #57

Love has been a difficult thing for Wolverine to come by and for those of us who had followed his journey from his introduction to the X-Men pining after Jean Grey up to his first meeting with Mariko Yashida, you could see it was not something he gave freely.  

Time has taught us that Logan has certainly gotten around in his century-plus on Earth but the number of women that our beloved Canuck has deeply and truly loved has been few: Jean, Rose, Silver Fox, and Mariko.  Of those four men, only Mariko ever stood at an altar waiting to be Logan's bride only to have the machinations of Mastermind dash all those dreams to hell.  It was a manipulation that put Mariko into what I can only call a shame-spiral as, in the aftermath, she attempted to clean up her families criminal ties in order to make herself worthy of Logan's love.

The truly tragic thing was that those attempts to clean up the family were what ultimately cost Mariko her life, or rather, put her in a situation in which Logan had to choose: did he leave her to die a painful poisoned death OR use his claws to end her pain?  The failed samurai chose the latter, the mercy kill, and broke his own heart in the process when he "snikted" the claws into his love...in my mind the last woman he truly loved.

My heart broke for him then, my heart still breaks for him now thinking about it and reading over the recaps, and what makes it even worse...if that's possible...is that it was not the last time Wolverine would have to make that choice.  Whether intentional or not (and since Grant Morrison was writing it I assume it was intentional), Wolverine has to unleash his claws on Jean Grey in New X-Men #148 in hopes that it would unleash The Phoenix and save their lives.  If it didn't work, well then he would have two dead loves on his claws.

This story in Wolvie #57 was a picture perfect depiction of the tragic figure that Wolverine truly was at that point...

Uncanny X-Men #205, X-Factor #87, X-Men #30, X-Force (Vol. 2) #26/UXM #524, X-Men #100, UXM #143, X-Men #110....just off the top of my head those are some great single issue stories for various reasons, most of them tragic probably, but I want to close it out with a mention of one of my favorite runs. 

Uncanny X-Men #269

Uncanny X-Men #229

From Uncanny X-Men #229 until UXM #269, the lives of the various members of the team were in total upheaval.  It all started when, in the aftermath of "Fall of the Mutants", the team elected to fake their deaths in order to (a) protect their loved ones while (b) striking at their enemies.  It was an idea first floated out by Chris Claremont maybe two years prior in the aftermath of the "Mutant Massacre" but, in typical Claremont fashion, took years to come to fruition.

These forty issues saw the team set-up shop in Australia after deposing The Reavers from their very unique home, it saw the return of The Brood, the introduction of Genosha, Inferno, the team crumble in the absence of Wolverine & the "death" of Storm, the Siege Perilous, the Mandarin, Captain American, it saw a newer & stranger team born on Muir Island under the leadership of the repowered Banshee, it saw Jim Lee come to the fold as an artist, saw Gambit and Jubilee make their first appearances, did some crazy shit to Jean Grey in the Morlock tunnels, and eventually came full circle right before the "X-Tinction Agenda" by bringing Rogue back to Australia.

It was a crazy, experimental, unique time frame in X-history in which...for a long time...the traditional idea of what the X-Men team were did not exist.  There was no mansion, no Blackbird or Cerebro, no Xavier, it was an adventure unlike any that came before it or any that has followed it.  I think it is safe to say that, aside from Morrison's run, this is the most original section in the long history of the x-books and it was all guided by the words of Chris Claremont with the pens of men like Mark Silvestri, Jim Lee, Rick Leonardi, and Kieron Dwyer to bring those words to life.

If there is one issue though that I find a must-read over all the others it is this:

Uncanny X-Men #251

There are dozens upon dozens of stories in the 50 year publishing history of the X-Men that are worth your time.  These are only a tiny handful of those that have sprung to my mind in the process of writing this up.  Be it in trade form, in back issue hunting, or by downloading at Comixology or whatever website does stuff like that, these are well worth the read. 

In fact, the only X-Men stuff I would tell you to avoid is any crap written by Chuck Austen or Frank Tieri.  The worst....

Now bring on The Battle Of The Atom!!!

SNIKT!: Thinking about Wolverine....

   

It is safe to say that those are as close to my first visuals of Wolverine as I can find on Google images. The first from Marc Silvestri & Dan Green and the second from John Byrne & Terry Austin.  Technically my first Uncanny X-Men issue was #224 but he's not on the cover and image finder was no help getting an interior page of Wolvie from that ish.  The second image is originally from UXM #113 but I first read it as part of the wonderful Classic X-Men series...ish #19 to be exact.  That series enabled me to essentially read the entire history of the All New, All Different team from their Giant Size intro until the Classic issues and my back-issue collection met up somewhere around issue #170.

They were a great way to immerse myself in the history of the team plus, for the first 44 issues, they contained great back-up stories that further fleshed out the characters.  Several of them are quite memorable for me including the Magneto back-up from #19, several great Wolverine back-ups with him & Crawler, him and Jean, a story about what happened between panels when Jean became Phoenix, when Proteus played with Wolverine, not to mention awesome covers & page art like these from John Bolton:

It was a phenomenal introduction as an 8 or 9 year old kid to these characters and while this blog is not intended as a a reflection on that series (the back-ups are largely available in the X-Men:Vignettes collections), it is because of stories like these, and in the way in which he was presented, that I fell in love with Wolverine.

I imagine the hairy little (at least back then) Canadian guy with his adamantium claws was a gateway into comics for many a kid.  He was tough, hell everything about him screamed tough.  He fought tough, talked tough, healed from everything, and HE HAD FREAKIN' CLAWS!  Created by Len Wein and first drawn by Herb Trimpe for an Incredible Hulk story, he immediately demanded my attention more than any other character in that first UXM issue I bought (Longshot and Havok were distant seconds).  I followed him everywhere, into Alpha Flight, into his own solo on-going series (the Claremont/Miller book was before my time so I read it much later), into Marvel Comics Presents, basically if Wolverine was there so was my (dad's) money.  I even remember him freaking out when I asked him to buy me the Wolverine Saga books because they were priced at the insanely high tag of $3.95!!!!

So yeah, suffice it to say that I was a huge fan of Wolverine...I'd dig up my Halloween costume picture if I had the slightest clue where it was located...so it slightly saddens me to realize how little I actually follow the character anymore.  I mean I still put my money down for Wolverine & The X-Men every month, or rather twice a month now, but I haven't purchased a single issue of his solo books in several years.  What happened? 

I suppose I'll show you some of the highlights of a text conversation between me and my friend that put this whole thing in my head in the first place:


ME: I want to write a Wolvie tale but despite reading the guy for 20+ years I find I have nothing original to say

RYAN: That's probably part of the problem...

ME: Aside from Jason Aaron...I can't think of the last good take on Wolvie

RYAN: Last Wolvie run that stick in my head is Millar

ME: Old Man Logan?

RYAN: Yeah

ME: All I think of was how insanely delayed it was because they though McNiven could do a monthly...

RYAN: Or even Enemy of the State

ME: Enemy of the State was good

 

 

RYAN: They need to treat Wolverine like Spidey...make it a flagship title, put one committed writer on it with a long-term plan, like Slott, and rotate a few regular artists

 

2004/5 and 2008/9....comics from eight and four years ago respectively were the last standout Wolverine story arcs either of us could think of...that's not a good thing for someone who is such a flagship character for Marvel and the X-Franchise.  Look at other flagship characters; you have Captain America under Ed Brubaker, Spider-Man under Dan Slott, Daredevil under Bendis/Brubaker/Waid, and Iron Man under Matt Fraction who have had lengthy, critically acclaimed runs.  They have told long form stories with their characters and I find myself unable to think the last time this happened for Wolverine.  I suppose it would be Millar's run from #20-#32 of Volume 2 or perhaps Jason Aaron's extended tryst with Logan across multiple books over the last several years that still continues in Wolvie & The X-Men. Still, as much as I love that book, it's not so much a Wolverine book (despite the title) but more an ensemble piece.

 

Oh wait!

 

 

Daniel Way wrote all 50 issues of this book! That's the longest run I can remember on a Wolverine book since Larry Hama wrote basically every issue save four from 31-118 and yet, despite that four year run, Origins has largely faded from my memory.  Started with lots of promise to unravel the ridiculously convoluted history of Logan and somehow managed to make it even MORE convoluted with the stupid Romulus character's involvement (which now Jeph Loeb has made even worse and I hope everyone who touches a Wolvie book from now until the end of time pretends it never happened).  Also, Way is not the caliber writer in terms of skill and recognition that a Brubaker, Bendis, Fraction, or Aaron are...

 

Anyway, before I move on, let me say that Aaron is responsible for what I think is the best single issue in recent memory of a Wolverine book:

ME: I gave up on Wolvie after its first relaunch...picked it up again after House of M...dropped it again and have DL'd ever since...bought some Weapon X

RYAN: Aaron started out great, got silly towards the end. Bunn started out ok, got lame. I'm gonna DL the new titles, not buying. "The Best There Is" kinda scared me off extra Wolvie titles

ME: Best There Is was awful...and Loeb's arc was shit. I hated that story where his memories got cut up too...was that Bunn?

RYAN: Yeah, think so. Bunn continued the Dr. Rott thing which started w/ Aaron...but I think Bunn screwed with his memories. Don't remember.

ME: It just pissed me off...like he thought "I like Wolvie better when he couldn't remember stuff" so he just found a way to make it happen

I read an interview with Mark Waid where he said "...the next guy who does Daredevil will either drop a safe on everything I did, or go back because he remembers what Ann  Nocenti did with great fondness and he wants to do that". 

It immediately came back to my mind when we were talking about Wolvie and Bunn's decision to erase his memories (I am not even sure if Aaron has incorporated that into his book now that I think about it). For the longest time, right up until post-House of M and this:

Wolverine had little memories of his past prior to the Weapon X program and the adamantium bonding process.  It made for a fun sandbox for various writers to play in because, since he had no concrete origin or history, it was possible for Logan to have been everywhere and seen everything.  He could know anybody, could have had experiences and adventures in every country around the globe, and it was a game that writers milked to death. 

It made for fun stories as Chris Claremont, Larry Hama, Fabian Nicieza, Scott Lobdell, and a slew of others over the years explored the endless possibilities that Wolverine's tabula rasa state provided.  So when the moment happened, when Marvel showed some balls by having Logan remember it all, it closed some doors creatively I imagine.  Essentially writers were now in the game of creating a true history of Wolvie, of cementing his memories as fact, and sorting out the chaos of a history that had been created over the years. 

It all really started with the Origin mini written by Paul Jenkins that predated this memory unlocking.  That story set-up his age, his true name, his love for redheads, and then it was the Origins series by Way that spun out of the returned memories that was supposed to explore this stuff.  Instead it gave us Dakken, Romulus, and a whole lot more confusion if you ask me.


RYAN: I actually think its his character in general that people have trouble with. Too man contradictions over the years. He's a killer...he's not a killer. He's a loyal boyfriend...he's a ladies man. He's a team player...he's a loner. It changes writer by writer. Doesn't help that his very memories keep changing writer to writer

ME: Yeah...it helped when you only had two writers handling him for his first 15 years but now...Remender may be the closest to what I think of

RYAN: Yeah...everyones got diff idea for what he's like, its confusing. Its easier with a character like Spidey
 
ME: To me he is Claremont & Hama's failed samurai...loyal and cares about the kids, the guy who stayed loyal to Mariko until she died

RYAN: I actually really grew to like Morrison's version.

ME: I did too...Its Grant after all

RYAN: Yeah, Just felt...different.

ME: Wolvie stripped down to his "I am 200 yrs old and have seen it all" badass core

RYAN: Yeah, I mean seriously, he's THAT old and he's still trying to "find himself"...

Peter Parker is largely the science guy for whom nothing seems to go right a vast majority of the time (except for his ability to attract the hotties), which is actually why the Big Time arc was so different.  He got the job, the girl, the respect, etc.
Reed Richards is the genius & family man, Tony Stark is the genius playboy industrialist, they all have a very concrete identity and although they may slightly stray from type occasionally, they always come back to form.

Wolverine, on the other hand, is a huge contradiction in almost every aspect of his personality.  As Ryan pointed out, and as the recent X-Force books have played up, he is a killer...for awhile he was the only true killer on the X-teams.  Sure other X-people had killed but part of the struggle of Wolverine's life was his battle with the killer inside, with the berzerker. It's part of where the Claremont ideal of "failed samurai" came into play.

He's a father figure...very evident now with the running of the school and whatnot...but it is a role he has always filled to some degree.  The list of children he has mentored or played big brother/father for is endless...and filled with females.  Kitty Pryde, Rachel Summers, Jubilee, Black Widow, Psylocke, X-23, one of my favorite Uncanny issues of all time is basically all about this:

It's Barry Windsor-Smith art for one, but the story by Claremont is amazing as well.  On the surface it seems like another tale of Wolvie fighting baddies while on the run and at the end of his rope, but the true beauty of it is in his interaction with Katie Power.  Despite being in what was essentially an animal state, he still does everything in his power (no pun) to protect Katie just as she protects him to the best of her ability until he recovers. 

He adopts a daughter in Amiko after finding her in the rubble of a building and Tyger Tiger came into existence because Wolverine chose to save a woman, a complete stranger, who the Reavers mentally violated.  He treated a robot child who tried to blow him up named Elsie Dee (ya know I don't think I go that LCD pun when I was 10) just as a normal human girl. Even in the movies he takes care of Rogue.  Simply put, he is a caretaker for the next generation and that is why the idea of him running the new school is actually perfect.

Wolverine is a loner but yet is friends with the entire Marvel U.  Captain America, Spidey, Thing, Fat Cobra, fn Squirrel Girl (which is a whole other creepy story considering she is likely very young), he has some relationship to any every character you can think of.  He had an extraordinarily close friendship with Nightcrawler and was also quite tight with Colossus. 

RYAN: Felt to me like he wanted an excuse to write Melita out

ME: That too

RYAN: Or like he didn't wanna deal w/ the relationship so he contrives a way around it

ME: Yeah

RYAN: Kinda felt like Aaron botched it with Melita too, which is odd because he created it

ME: Yeah...part of me feels like writers have little clue how to handle his love life

He is a "ladies man" but also one of the most loyal men to have on your side.  His sexual resume is quite lengthy including Mystique, Yukio, Melita, Silver Fox, Domino, Gahck (Savage Land woman with whom he has a forgotten child), someone compiled a list here and here. Yet, despite all of those women, I will always think of these:

 

Mariko Yashida will always be the love of Logan's life.  He tried to be a better man for her, he wanted to marry her of his own free will (as opposed to Viper who he was obligated to marry), he was different...for her.  Jean Grey may be his biggest unrequited love, but Mariko is the one who truly had his heart and I wish some writer would occasionally bring back the idea of Logan visiting her grave every so often (Silver Fox's too).  It may seem like continuity porn but I think it is a way to remind everyone of who Wolvie is, where he came from, and a way to let newer readers into his rich history.

Ultimately I think that's what I am looking for...that sort of powerful story like ish #57 of Volume 1 up there. A story that resonates with me and I still remember vividly fifteen, twenty, thirty years later.  Maybe it's the tenure I have with comics, maybe it's the volume of comics I read now as opposed to back then when it was maybe four books in an entire month, but there are so few stories that linger for me.  It's not just a Wolverine thing, it's a comic book thing in general, I guess I just choose to filter it through the lens of Logan since he who I was a fan of first.

Before Batman, before Brubaker's Captain America, before Johns' Hal Jordan, there was Wolverine. Chris Claremont, Larry Hama, John Byrne, Marc Silvestri, John Buscema, BWS, Romita Jr, just to name a few, they shaped the SHORT and hairy Canadian berserker samurai for me.

Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza, the Kubert brothers, Jim Lee, the brought him to another life as I got older.

Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Jason Aaron, Nick Bradshaw, those are the guys who have defined, and are continuing to define, Wolverine for me as an adult, and despite the fact that he looks absolutely nothing like any comic book incarnation of Wolverine that ever existed prior to the movies, Hugh Jackman has done a pretty decent job of bringing him to life on the silver screen.

Wolverine is marketable, and just as well known to the masses as Cap or Spidey or Thor. He deserves greatness in both story and art, not to mention in cinema.  Now with Paul Cornell & Alan Davis on one upcoming book and Frank Cho on the recently released Savage Wolverine perhaps he will get that classic story for the modern audiences.  He deserves his "Winter Soldier", his "Big Time", his article in USA Today announcing something huge to the world. 

Hopefully that day is coming soon and with the movie on the horizon, I certainly wouldn't be surprised.  He is the best in the world at what he does after all....

X-Men: Schism....really? (SPOILERS AHEAD)

 

Pretty bad ass image right there huh?  Make you think Wolverine & Cyclops are going into a serious throwdown with one another doesn't it?  Makes you wonder just what could drive these two men who have essentially been the two pillars of the X-Community since the move to San Francisco & the founding of Utopia.  Cyclops has been the general, leading his army into war, and Wolverine serving as his first in command, carrying out orders with little question, willing to get down and do the dirty work with his secret X-Force cabal. Yes there have been some rough patches in the road, especially with Cyclops' insistence on X-23 & Wolfsbane being a part of the initial incarnation of his X-Force, but for the most part Wolvie acted like a good soldier, taking care of the wetwork in secret.

Obviously that all got blown to hell when X-Force was outed during "Second Coming" but it didn't stop Wolvie from forming Version 2 underneath Cyclops' radar with a different band of mutants. 

So there's groundwork laid out I suppose for the philosophical tensions between Wolverine & Cyclops that are obviously the basis for Schism, shallow though they may be....it's the depths to which these issues are explored that I find shallow, not the issues themselves.

So there's lots of death in X-Force, there are various attempts to salvage the mutant race as depicted in Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine is running off with pretty much every team that exists in the Marvel U, and there's very little done to push a burgeoning issue between the two X-Leaders, certainly nothing that justifies the image I started this blog with.

"Second Coming" comes and goes, Wolverine has some issues with Hope that are weakly, at best, laid out an issue of Uncanny X-Men, shows a minute interest in the Generation Hope cast as a whole, and then we're dumped into the whole "Prelude to Schism" mini.  I may be skipping some beats here as I am doing this primarily from memory, with a little google referencing for accuracy to issue references (turns out that was actually necessary given that I couldn't remember if the Wolvie/Hope story was a UXM or GenHope story), but that's being done with purpose.  I really wanted to see how much of the build-up to "Schism" actually stuck with me in any sort of relevant manner.  

So the "Prelude" books dance around the impending threat that is heading toward Utopia (I guess this little aside takes place between issues 3 & 4? Sometime during issue 4? During GenHope 11?), but certainly presents that threat as the impending death of everything on Utopia, totally unavoidable annihilation of the mutant species, so much so that is requires four different issues from the perspectives of Cyke, Wolvie, Magneto, and Xavier to decide if it's a fight or flight.  Obviously they decide on fight, now it's just a matter of reading the actual "Schism" story to find out just what they're fighting.  Suffice it to say that when the two stories finally converge, "Prelude" really feels misleading...

Alright now it's time for "Schism"...the big event that we discover (can't quite remember if it's before or after the story starts) will ultimately tear the team asunder, shuffle Wolverine & crew off into his very own team book, and hit reset on Uncanny X-Men with a brand new #1 issue!  Honestly getting all that information prior to the conclusion of the story sucked and certainly sucked the life out of "Schism" for me because it boiled the story down to one question: what cause the schism?

It was a moment I kept waiting for throughout the first 3 issues; with the return of Quentin Quire (which should have felt bigger than it was), the baby Hellfire Club, the mutant museum, the rebirth of the Sentinels, none of it feels particularly important.  The moments of tension with Wolverine & Cyclops feel just like that...moments, moments that could lead to a bigger issue down the line yes (maybe if down the line was a year's worth of stories like this), but nothing to justify the huge rift we all know is coming by issue 5.  Wolverine & Cyke have bonded like never before in the years (Days?Weeks?Months? Who knows in comic book land) since Jean's death and none of this seems like a payoff, just more build-up.  As I read the first 3 issues I found myself constantly wondering "Is that it?", I was constantly waiting for something more to happen to give a logical reason for this rift in the relationship of Scott Summers & Logan.  It never came...

Idie killing the Hellfire Club goons to save lives is a terrible thing for a child to have to endure no doubt, and when that kid already thinks they're the Anti-Christ it only exacerbates the situation.  Idie is most certainly a damaged kid,  but what interest have any of the X-Men shown in these kids since they were introduced?  Cyclops & Hope both want them to be soldiers, Wolverine hasn't given a damn, the end.  Where does Wolverine's sudden interest in her mental state come from?  Yeah it's pretty brutal that she had to kill some people, yes it is awful when she later expresses that she thinks it's just part of being an X-Man, but as the whole foundation upon which a philosophical Grand Canyon is built?  Seriously?  I've been reading X-Books as long as I've been reading comics and Idie killing a few people is far from the worst thing that has gone down between Cyke & Wolvie, to say nothing of incidents that deservedly drove wedges between characters (say perhaps Prof. X hiding the existence of a brother from Cyclops).

And while the visual of a Wolvie & Cyke fighting it out while a giant Sentinel looms over Utopia is quite cool, the two of them scrapping after the robot makes landfall is pointedly ridiculous.  This isn't Wolverine & Angel from the added pages of Classic X-Men #1, these are two men who have gone through hell together for years now who are giving their personal grievances import over the impending doom of Uber-Sentinel.

A quick aside RE: Uber-Sentinel....really? Seriously? Go back to "Prelude" and see that this one Sentinel is putting the fear of annihilation into every living mutant on Utopia, including those on the Alpha power levels of Magneto, Xavier, Storm, & Cyclops?  These are the warriors who faced down Dark Phoenix, the entire Shi'ar galaxy, the Legacy Virus, X-Tinction Agenda, Cassandra Nova & her wild Sentinels, Magneto himself...and they are quaking in their boots over a one freakin' Sentinel!  Now go back to "Schism" proper, issue 5, and now that Sentinel is barely an afterthought, dispensed of by the populace of Utopia without anyone really being in danger of a stubbed toe at the hands of Uber-Sentinel much less death.  Wolverine & Cyclops do more damage to each other (Claws through the hand? Damn!)

The total lack of words, captions, sound effect, etc during the majority of this issue is a neat effect, I assume trying to put the emphasis on the violence being perpetrated by two friends upon one another, and it makes sense given that most people wouldn't speak in soliloquies while spitting teeth in blood.  It's just an odd choice given that X-Books tend to be overly expository, especially in combat situations.

So the Wolvie/Cyke knockdown drag-out ends, Uber-Sentinel gets beat, some caption boxes over the top of moving day lay out the aftereffects, and Wolvie's crew heads back to the mansion that has been left in complete rubble since..."Messiah Complex" I believe.  That was probably the coolest moment of the entire "Schism" series for me right there... but man, you'd think these X-people would care enough to at least rebuild their ancestral home even if they haven't been living there recently.  That's just rude...

So when all is said and done...I think it's pretty obvious I'm let down by this entire experience.  I don't think there was enough meat to justify the Scott/Logan rift, I don't think there is any question that the hype-job the "threat" got in "Prelude" was overkill, and I'm really disappointed that this was how the landscape-changing event went down.  "Messiah Complex" and "Second Coming" were far, far better stories that actually conveyed the possibility of a real threat to the mutant race, that actually paid off LEGITIMATELY built-up issues while simultaneously paving the road for future arcs.  Those stories did not feel forced, did not feel thrown together to accomplish some sales-boosting goal (What else would you call two new #1's?), and I would liken them more to "Messiah War" and "Necrosha" as opposed to the other two recent X-Overs.

All in all, I label "Schism" as a fail, not an absolute fail because I found the art in pretty much every issue to be quite good.  I absolutely hate having a different artist on every ish of a book like they did here (and DC did in "Return of Bruce Wayne") but at least it was good art.  Some small issues here and there, but it would just be nit-picky stuff, mostly with Acuna's art.  It also presented some interesting storyline points going forward as far as the overall fallout from "Schism" & its impact on the rest of the X-Family of books (it can't/won't be as simple as these guys hopped on this bus while the rest hopped on the other bus) as well as providing some intriguing concepts in the L'enfant terrible incarnation of the Hellfire Club, the reborn Quentin Quire, and the reemergence of a Sentinel program amongst governments worldwide.  I guess we shall see what Regenesis brings us in the coming months...I just hope the bricks building this new house turn out stronger than the foundation...

My Personal Best Of 2010

The end of the year usually brings with it all the "Best Of" polls, countdowns, and surveys from every comic book, movie, wrestling, MMA, and general entertainment website.  Whether it be a fan-based vote, or a staff writer selection, they usually lead to some kind of discussion from the reader(s), and maybe turn a fan onto something they've never seen/read before.  Well, who knows if that will be the case here, but I'm doing one of my own!  I've perused a handful of the various comic book websites, checked out their subjects & categories, and have decided to cherry-pick from all of them.  I also decided, since it is MY best of list, that it only matters if I discovered it in 2010, not when the thing was released...so there.  Let's get this underway:

BEST INDEPENDENT SERIES
The Walking Dead

- Well it's quite strange to think of Image as an independent comic book company when I've been reading books with that "i" logo on it since the inception, I guess techincally it still is considered an indy.  Anywho, The Walking Dead was a book that was introduced to me last year, and I voraciously tore through every trade that was available at the time.  It was a slow start to me, but by the second volume I was hooked.  And all the things that hooked me then have continued.  The excellent characterization and character growth, the story that is simultaenously unpredictable yet logical, the sense of urgency instilled in every issue no matter how slow that issue may actually be; these are all the things, and more, that keep me coming back to the book.  These are the things that cause me to essentially force the book on friends, and watch them get sucked in just like I did.  And that's with comic fans who hate Kirkman (I did), fans of the TV show who hadn't read the book, or better yet, fans of the show who didn't even know there was a comic book.  Maybe they should start advertising the book during the show next season, sales would go crazy!

BEST NEW SERIES
Uncanny X-Force

- Yeah it's only been around for three issues, but for me those three issues have left an impression like so few others this year.  In the span of less than 90 pages I have found the tone, characterization, and story of this new version of Marvel's Most Violent Mutants to be exceptional.  Remender's writing, in the same fashion as Jason Aaron's, is like an extension of the X-Men Grant Morrison brought to life.  And although I don't think I'd seen it prior to UXF #1, I've moved Jerome Opena into my favorites list as it pertains to artists.  He captures the characters perfectly and just makes even some of the most violent scenes beautifully (check out #3).  And well I'm certain there are other new books that are up there in quality (SHIELD for example), it's this book that I'm most looking forward to in 2011.  If you're a fan of Grant's "New X-Men" run, or Whedon's "Astonishing X-Men" I think this is the series for you.  They carry the same soul...

BEST LIMITED SERIES
Generation Lost/Thanos Imperative

- GenLost may technically be a maxi-series, Thanos Imperative may be a mini-series, but they're both still a limited series.  And they are my favorites for some similar, and dissimilar, reasons.  With "Generation Lost", I have been sucked into the world of a bunch of characters I generally didn't give a damn about when I read the first issue, Booster Gold being the only exception due to "52".  Still, I didn't follow Booster into his own book so how much did I really care?  What interested me in the book was Maxwell Lord...now I was not a follower of JLI, I didn't read the story that saw Wonder Woman kill him, but for some reason I was intrigued by his revival in "Blackest Night".  Maybe it was the concept of erasing memory of his existence from damn near everyone, I don't know, but whatever it was the story of Max Lord's secret, combined with the building tie-in to a "Kingdom Come" future has kept me coming back for more.  I want to see where this book heads, and I have found myself emotional invested in characters that I didn't think I would.  Thanks Misters Giffen & Winick.
- As for "Thanos Imperative", well to be perfectly honest, I hadn't read one bit of the cosmic Marvel books until earlier this year, but I'll get into that story in a different section.  Suffice to say I only recently discovered the cosmic family of books and found myself infatuated with a whole bunch of characters I didn't give a damn about here either.  So when it all came to a head with "Thanos Imperative", I was excited to read.  It started slow for me, I wasn't totally on board at first, but after a few issues, I was wrapped up and sitting down reading the story as a whole really drove that home.  This story truly felt like the final fate of the universe; the end of #5 had me infuriated, the sacrifices of #6 brought a tear to my eye, and now I'm truly scared for the future of the cosmic Marvel U.  I need to know there's a future for Nova & The Guardians of The Galaxy, and until I see solicits for some sort of on-going by the team of DnA, I'm going to worry.  When I'm sucked into a world that much....well that's powerful writing, and that's why I have two picks for this category.
- "Return of Bruce Wayne" gets an honorable mention, but I did not dig the "different artist for different eras" thing it had going on with it.  Loved the story though...just not the total package I thought the other two choices were.

BEST FIND OF 2010
Cosmic Marvel

- So in the vein of the above category, let me tell you why reading the Cosmic Marvel books was the best find of 2010 for me.  Prior to 2009, I had never touched any Marvel cosmic books during these 20+ years.  No Infinity Gauntlet/War/Crusade, no Kree/Skrull War; if it weren't X-Men alien, it weren't part of my comic book vocab.  Well in recent years, my interest was piqued because of The Inhumans and their involvment with Quicksilver in "Son of M".  It carried over into "Secret War", "SI: Inhumans", and into "War/Realm of Kings".  I picked up the original Paul Jenkins/Jae Lee 12-ish "Inhumans" series, and desperately need to get the other Marvel Knights Inhumans books. So, since I was reading those, I decided to check out the other cosmic books as well since the whole "War of Kings" tied them all together.  Damn am I glad I did!  Annihilation, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Annihilation: Conquest were all amazing reads and the development of the characters in each was phenomenal.   Quasar, Moondragon, Nova, Groot....all awesome characters that I found myself wanting more of, and now hope that the Cosmic Marvel line doesn't fade away with the finish of "Thanos Imperative".

BEST INDIVIDUAL ISSUE
The Walking Dead #79

- Do you have any idea how hard it is to pick out one issue from the hundreds of comics I have read this year??? Hell, how hard it is to remember every comic I read this year?  Thankfully the internet saves the day!!!  So why did I pick this issue of Walking Dead?  Read the story, read the last two pages, the last two pages damn near sum up the feeling of the entire series, especially the last panel of Page 23.  The way the two running stories of this issue slam into one another in the end amazed me, the conversation between Aaron & Douglas going along with the zombie culling, all the interpersonal action between various characters, (Rick & Carl for example), and the way the issues sends you off into "No Way Out", this was one comic that stuck with me this year like few others did.  A special mention goes out to Amazing Spider-Man #617 & #625 as well as Batman & Robin #14.

BEST STORY ARC
Batman & Robin: "Batman & Robin Must Die" (Issues 13-15)

- As a fan obsessive with anything Grant Morrison-related, and also obssesive with Batman-related material, it shouldn't come as a surprise that something Grant wrote for Batman is my favorite story of the year.  "Must Die" was a culmination ALMOST every major plot thread Morrison had been laying out since "Batman & Son" started several years earlier.  There's still a lot left for the fallout story in #16, as well as "Return of Bruce Wayne", but with the Joker and his meeting with Damian, Dr. Hurt, Prof. Pyg, the whole Mexican Train deal, the mystery box, hell even how it ties back in to "Dark Knight, Dark City" from 1990, this story arc is a wonderful example of Grant's writing.  Even the art by Frazer Irving, someone I didn't like much before this, was something to behold...perfect for this arc.  Some complain that Morrison's stories can be too dense, but I like his philosophy of challenging the reader and the "why should it be easy" approach he takes to these elongated story arcs.  Hardcover collection comes out May 11, 2011......

BEST SERIES
Batman & Robin

- May as well keep it going with the Grant love.  This was, without a doubt, the series I looked forward to the most every month...or rather, every 6-8 weeks with the schedule it kept.  But seriously, as soon as we got thru the "Red Hood Returns" arc, it was smooth sailing.  "Blackest Knight" laid the foundation for the rest of 2010 by officially stating that the corpse found in "Final Crisis" was not that of Bruce Wayne, rather a clone, and the search was on!  "Batman vs. Robin" set Dick, Damian, and Alfred on a quest to find the clues leading them to Bruce's location as well as established Oberon Sexton's arrival, saw Talia try to play Damian like a literal puppet, and the last page reveal of Sexton's true identity left me with my jaw on the ground.  Didn't see it coming, but it made perfect sense and all the clues were there when I read it all back.  And finally the concluding "Must Die" arc that I addressed above brought a sense of closure to this volume of Grant's Batman run as well as laid the foundation for the future of the line.  Unfortunately, B&R isn't closing out the year quite as strong as it spent the rest of it, Paul Cornell & Scott McDaniel aren't setting my world on fire by any means, but that may be in large part to the act they had to follow.  It's not bad necessarily, but it's hard to follow Grant's run .

BEST WRITER
Grant Morrison

- "Batman & Robin", "Joe The Barbarian", "Batman Inc.", "18 Days"....that's quite a year for the man who's brain spawned "The Invisibles", the best "Doom Patrol", "The Filth", and "New X-Men", among other ground breaking books.  A year spent steering the direction of one of DC's flagship characters, a maxi-series centered around a kid with diabetes and his amazing fantasy world, and a hardcover book detailing the Hindu creation myth (this one I just picked up, haven't read yet).  I may have missed something, but the Batman work is what defined 2010 for Grant and, while confusing for some, set a new standard for HOW a Batman story can be told.  "Batman Inc." seems to be steering the Bat-verse into a whole new world, and a whole new style of writing for Grant as well, so I can't wait to see what 2011 brings for someone who has quite possibly become my favorite writer of all-time.  Special kudos go out to Geoff Johns & Matt Fraction!

BEST ARTIST
Ivan Reis

- Damn did I want to put JH Williams III down there!  Then I realized that, aside from the Batwoman #0 issue, there was no book in 2010 that I could use to justify it.  And it's not like I just discovered his art so I can't use that excuse either.  Well then here comes Ivan Reis who has completely tore it up on "Green Lantern" since "Blackest Night" ended.  This is definitive stuff as far as I'm concerned, and his depiction of characters (Atrocitus for one, Larfleeze for another) will be the standard by which every future depiction should be judged.  Hell, he made The Black Hand look like a badass!

BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

- I have no idea how this was critcally accepted, I know it didn't make a whole lot of money, but damn it was a fun movie!  I hadn't read the source material prior to checking out the movie, so this was all new to me, and my immediate reaction was WHOAH!!!!  This is what happens when a comic book movie doesn't take itself too seriously, this is what happens when it doesn't feel like it has to play in some real world context...or rather, hyper-reality...like the Iron Man or Nolan Batman movies. Those play in a world as real as it can be when there's dudes flying around in suits of armor or crazy face painted guys somehow planting bombs on everything in sight, but Pilgrim doesn't give a damn about any of that.  People turn into money, there's extra lives when you die, and sub-space tunnels in your head that serve as highways.  To hell with Watchmen....THIS is the most "true to source" comic book movie I've ever seen.  I can't wait to go buy the blu-ray if it doesn't show up in my stocking.

BEST COMIC BOOK BASED TV SERIES
The Walking Dead

- Like there was another choice.  From the "straight from the comics" first episode to the giant explosion in the 6th episode, I felt like this series was a perfect capture of the general tone of the comic.  The hopelessness, the fear, the slowly eroding sense of civilization, it's all encompassed in the 6 episodes thus far.  Some people complain about certain comic book smoments not happening yet (Shane still breathing for example) or TV moments that didn't exist (The CDC visit for example), but I feel like everything has made sense given the pacing of the show.  If Shane had died already on the show, his "snap" would have seemed  abrupt and not naturally occuring.  Just as it makes perfect sense for the crew to go to the CDC in hopes of finding answers.  None may have been forthcoming, but that only enhances the feelings of despair as we head into a second season.  No one knows why this happened, not even the smartest people alive, and that is a scary fucking thought!  Season 2 can't come fast enough...

BEST ANIMATED MOVIE
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths/Batman: Under the Red Hood

- I couldn't pick one...I love them both!  As a huge mark for Jason Todd and Judd Winick's story, I was the most excited for Red Hood, but was blown away by the high quality of Crisis, especially the AWESOMENESS of James Woods as Owlman!  I think the overall excellence of the DC Animated Movies is exemplified by these two features so if you haven't seen them, go pick them up.  You won't be disappointed.  All Star Superman may steal the show in 2011 though...


BEST TOY OF 2010



MOST IMPROVED SERIES OF 2010
Red Robin

- There was a point where I seriously considered dropping this book. Now it has become my favorite of the tie-in books (BoP, Batgirl, and the like).  I wasn't feeling it in the beginning with the "Bruce is still alive" overtone because Tim's characterization seemed...out of character...but as the series progressed, and Fabian Nicieza dug his teeth in, it has become an top-shelf example of why Tim Drake is such a grand character.  He is the best of his predecessors all rolled into one...Dick, Jason, Bruce, Jack Drake, Ra's Al Ghul....he has learned from all the above and molded it into a character as hardcore as Bruce/Al Ghul but still with the capacity for fun that Dick holds close to his heart.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT OF 2010
Shadowland

- Read my blog about it...suffice to say: BLLLLAAAAARRRGGGGGHHHH!!!! 

BEST PUBLISHER
DC Comics

- I think that rates a DUH looking over everything I wrote above.  I don't think there was a single Marvel thing mentioned besides disappointment. Oh wait, I did give a nod to Fraction as one of my fave writers, and Uncanny X-Force as best new series...and the whole cosmic thing, so I guess I did bring up Marvel. 

Anyway, my deference to DC is not to say there's nothing good at Marvel, it's just that most of it is so average.  Nothing really blows my mind right now, nothing make me long for the next issue, even Uncanny X-Men which is the backbone of my comic book reading isn't on par with the DC books when it comes to excitement.  The books I loved the most (Captain America & Daredevil) did not have strong a 2010 to me, "The Trial of Captain America" is that books last chance for me honestly, and I'm not sure what my future with DD entails yet.  DC has put out great books in the GL world, in the Bat-World, Action Comics, The Flash, and more. 

Marvel feels like one never-ending company-wide crossover to me, further exacerbated by today's announcement of "Fear Itself".  They claim it's been a year since the last one, but what do you call "Chaos War"?  Maybe not line-wide, but there's a half-dozen mini's and one-shots that tie into it.  It's like saying "World War Hulk" or "House of M" weren't Marvel-wide crossovers.  Anyway, I'm also more excited about the future of DC comics with Batman Inc, Flashpoint, and War of the Lanterns.  Still, knowing comic book companies, Flashpoint & War of the Lanterns will somehow turn into DC-wide crossovers...


So there's my general thoughts on 2010 in comics.  Please feel free to leave me some feedback, I'm curious as to what others think about the year in comics!