MOST WELCOME RETURN: FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE

Trying to revisit past glories is almost always trouble. I can’t count the number of high-profile returns by creators to a certain title or character I’ve seen over the years, and it almost always winds up a disappointment. Maybe the writer or artist’s style has changed, maybe the character has been too badly damaged by previous writers, or maybe it’s just that times have changed, and what once worked for the series no longer does. Regardless, it’s exceedingly rare for a high-profile return to ever satisfy. Which makes the triumphant return of Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire to JUSTICE LEAGUE all the more sweet. The original late ‘80s-early’90s run of JUSTICE LEAGUE, JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL and associated books were some of the most genuinely funny “funnybooks” DC has ever published, punctuated by some moments of real drama and high-octane action, which people nowadays tend to forget. If you pick up an issue of FORMERLY KNOWN, it’s like the series never stopped. The quips and banter are sharp and funny as ever, and Maguire’s remarkable gift for facial expressions hasn’t faded a whit. Even the paper quality feels like it’s off of a comic-book rack circa 1988. I’m also pleased that the book’s return to the marketplace has been met with open arms; sales have been strong enough to warrant a second miniseries, due next year. Here’s hoping Guy Gardner shows up next time…

BEST BOOK NOBODY’S READING: MIGHTY THOR

Here’s a book that’s been working on an epic, world-shattering story for well over a year now, and Marvel can’t even be bothered to promote it. Under the pen of Dan Jurgens (one of the more underrated writers in comics, in my opinion), THOR has been shaking things up like nobody’s business. Beginning with the widespread worshipping of Thor as an actual deity (and following the death of the Allfather Odin), one of the first decisions Thor makes as new lord of Asgard is to take a much more hands-on role in the protection of Earth, and in a much-more high-profile manner, with the city of Asgard hovering directly above Manhattan. The nations of Earth don’t take too kindly to Thor’s new godly interference, and soon all-out war is declared. In current issues, Thor and Asgard have completely conquered Earth, and the story has jumped ahead 20 years or so, as Thor’s rule begins to show signs of unraveling. Do yourself a favor and start picking up some of these back issues. I think this will be a story that people will be talking about with the benefit of hindsight.

BEST SELF-INFLICTED WOUND: Marvel’s firing of Waid and Wieringo from FANTASTIC FOUR

Even now, it boggles the mind. A creative team is telling critically acclaimed stories, with better sales than the series has seen in years, and Marvel’s publisher fires them, to be replaced by a “controversial” playwright with no comics experience, all to fit the publisher’s “creative vision.” From my perspective, this turned out to be one of the better things to happen this year, as it no doubt led to the departure of Marvel Publisher Bill Jemas, whose influence had reached an all-time oppressive high in early ’03.

FANTASTIC FOUR has been on a real hot streak all year, peaking with “Unthinkable,” Waid’s first real use of Doctor Doom, given a slight revisionary tweak with his reliance on sorcery and uber-creepy armor made from human skin. Bleah.

BEST RECOVERY FROM SAID WOUND: Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada convincing Waid and Wieringo to return. Couldn’t have been easy, either. Well done, Joe.

BEST BATMAN COMIC WITHOUT BATMAN: GOTHAM CENTRAL

Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker’s hard-boiled police procedural does an excellent job of conveying the drama and frustration of being a cop in Gotham City, and perpetually playing catch-up and second fiddle to you-know-who. Michael Lark provides the moody visuals. “Half a Life” deals with the outing of longtime supporting character Renee Montoya, a character decision I didn’t necessarily agree with (as the character’s creators over at the BATMAN animated series probably had no such intention at her inception), but one that’s handled tastefully and dramatically by the creative team. Good stuff here.

BEST SURPRISE ENDING Xorn’s identity revealed in NEW X-MEN

In these days of PREVIEWS, WIZARD, NEWSARAMA, Internet gossip columns, and everybody and their cousin having their own comics weblog, real, genuine surprises in comic books are a rare treat. Which is why Grant Morrison pulled off a doozy this year, with the revelation that newest X-Men recruit Xorn, the team’s resident healer and philosopher, was in fact Magneto, thought dead since Morrison’s first issue on the series. The revelation, which set the stage for Magneto’s grandest-scale attack on humanity to date, was completely surprising and yet totally logical, and led to even bigger things in the book. Unlike, say…

BIGGEST COPOUT SURPRISE ENDING: The Return of Jason Todd?

The mystery of the identity of “Hush,” the master planner who’d been pulling all the strings in Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s popular and quite enjoyable run on BATMAN this year, took what had to be considered a shocking turn with the appearance of long-dead Robin Jason Todd, now seemingly grown, and holding a knife to Tim Drake’s throat while standing over his own open grave. How could it be? Unfortunately, the next issue proved the reveal to be nothing more than a cheap ruse, with the faux Jason actually none other than Clayface, impersonating Batman’s fallen partner at the behest of the mysterious Hush, whose actual identity turned out to be, shall we say, a disappointment. From a knockout moment in the series to just another cheap manipulation. Feh.

The sad thing is, there are seriously good story potentials from a returned Jason Todd, now acting as Batman’s arch-nemesis, which will now remain untapped. Pity.

BEST COMIC BOOK IF PURCHASED BY THE POUND PALOMAR

When it comes to comics, I’ll admit I have a bit of a bias: I tend to prefer genre fiction in my comics: superheroes, horror, sci-fi, noir, you name it. I know there are plenty of good comics out there with straight human drama, and I keep apprised of ‘em, but for the most part, I prefer my drama either in prose or film. However, there have been some truly wonderful releases this year that absolutely grabbed my attention. The first was BLANKETS, Craig Thompson’s autobiographical coming-of-age romance novel. However, beating it by a nose is PALOMAR, the enormous hardcover collection of Giilbert Hernandez’s “Heartbreak Soup” tales from the pages of LOVE & ROCKETS. Coming in at over 500 pages, Hernandez masterfully weaves his way in and out of the lives of the inhabitants of Palomar, a remote mountain village, flashing back and forth through their lives and loves, small triumphs and big heartaches. These stories range from laugh-out-loud funny to achingly poignant, and Hernandez’s art style stretches from a spare scratchiness to an “Archie”-style cartoon flavor. It’s a fantastic body of work. I’m hoping sales are strong enough to warrant releasing the rest of the LOVE & ROCKETS material in a similar fashion.

BEST PAYOFF JLA/AVENGERS

It took some 20 years to show up, but for me it was worth the wait. Kurt Busiek and George Perez’s looooong-awaited JLA/AVENGERS series finally hit shelves in 2003, and did not disappoint. For folks like me who expected to see a Perez JLA/AVENGERS book the first time around back in the ‘80s, it was all the sweeter. Issue #2’s climactic slugfest was particularly satisfying, and the following issue’s revised history of a Justice League-Avengers partnership going back years was a very nice touch, adding an additional layer of wistfulness to the proceedings. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.

BEST NAUSEATING MOMENT: Mark Waid’s EMPIRE

It’s been great having EMPIRE back. Originally published as part of the ill-fated Gorilla Comics imprint, EMPIRE only saw the publication of two issues before its unfortunate hiatus. Now published by DC Comics, Mark Waid’s dystopic thriller has really kicked into gear. Here’s the premise: in EMPIRE, picture a world in which a Dr. Doom or Luthor-type’s scheme for world conquest actually worked. Now, the bad guy rules the world. What next? Try and hang on to it, one supposes. In the series, the all-powerful conqueror Golgoth insures the loyalty of his closest subordinates with regular doses of Eucharist, a highly addictive drug which also dramatically increases one’s physical prowess. When one of Golgoth’s minions resolves to discover the secret of the Eucharist, the results are unsettling, to say the least. Turns out that Eucharist is actually the blood of Golgoth’s former arch-enemy Endymion ( a “Superman”-type character). Ewwww.

SAFEST BET: TOM STRONG

Although all of Alan Moore’s America’s Best Comics books have been first-rate, month in and month out, his TOM STRONG and related books never fail to deliver. The core TOM STRONG series just finished off an excellent multi-part time travel saga involving Tom’s mother spinning off an alternate timeline, marvelously bookending the beginning of the series. TERRIFIC TALES OF TOM STRONG has given Moore the avenue to do some fantastic anthology work, such as the recent presentation of an episode of the 1960s “Tom Strong” Saturday morning cartoon show. Even better was a recent sweetly touching children’s bedtime story. The TESLA STRONG one-shot was also a joy, as Tom’s daughter Tesla wound up hopping from parallel universe to parallel universe meeting up with countless versions of herself, courtesy of a fantastic lineup of artists. Although PROMETHEA may be the critical darling of Moore’s ABC books (and it is quite good), I find his work on TOM STRONG to be more satisfying in the long run.

BEST REBOOT: SUPREME POWER

J. Michael Straczynski’s modern rethinking of Marvel’s JLA knockoff team the Squadron Supreme holds the odd distinction of being a revision of a parody, and yet wound up having more depth than either of its inspirations. Although some might think Straczynski’s merely retilling old ground from his earlier work on the long-unfinished RISING STARS, it feels to me more like RISING STARS was merely a warmup for this, a more thorough and mature examination of similar themes. And the gorgeous art by Gary Frank certainly doesn’t hurt.

BEST COMICS-RELATED TOY Dreams & Visions’ WWII DC Comics line

Considering how much truly cool product DC Comics’ in-house toy company, DC Direct, is putting out these days, you’d think they’d have a lock on this category. But take a look at the amazing World War II-era GI JOE-style action figures being put out by Dreams & Visions, and you’ll see that for the DC war comics fanatic, you can’t ask for much more. Having put out a truly amazing Sgt. Rock set in their first year of operation, D&V hit stores with a vengeance this year, releasing action figures of the rest of Easy Company, Mademoiselle Marie, Miss Fear and Blackhawk, with Enemy Ace on the way as well. The Blackhawk in particular is a stunning piece, including the figure in his traditional uniform and two accessory uniforms, all presented in simulated “vintage” GI JOE packaging. These are made in very limited numbers, so they’re a little expensive, and therefore not for the casual fan. You can see the rest of Dreams & Visions’ product line at http://www.dreamsnvisions.com/.

BEST NEWCOMER: MUTANT, TEXAS

Paul Dini’s charming new series introduced us all to the inhabitants of Mutant, Texas, and their spunky young sheriff, Ida Red. With appealing, cartoony art by J. Bone, MUTANT TEXAS offers action, whimsy and a little drama, reminiscent of the best of C.C. Beck’s CAPTAIN MARVEL work. With any luck, there’ll be a second MUTANT TEXAS miniseries in the year to come. And speaking of Paul Dini…

BIGGEST DOPE: That would be me.

How could I have written an entire column on Christmas comics and forget to mention Dini’s own Yuletide treat, JINGLE BELLE (especially considering we’re lucky enough to have Jing gracing our own homepage banner this holiday season)? Appearing in a series of miniseries and one-shots, Jing is the bratty teenage daughter of Santa Claus himself, and her continual schemes to skip out on her duties at the North Pole have a tendency to backfire. Paul Dini’s JINGLE BELLE stories are currently collected in three volumes, NAUGHTY & NICE, COOL YULE and DASH AWAY ALL. Great holiday fun.

BEST ANNIVERSARY: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #500

J. Michael Straczynski has really settled in on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, writing a Peter Parker that sounds much more like the Parker I remember from my youth, reuniting Peter and Mary Jane, and deftly handling the revelation of Spidey’s secret identity to his Aunt May. In Spidey’s recent anniversary issue, an unexpected consequence of a battle alongside Dr. Strange finds Spidey revisiting various points in his life (as well as a chilling look ahead to the future), giving John Romita Jr. a wonderful opportunity to reinterpret all kinds of famous moments from 30 years of Spider-Man comics. It was the best kind of anniversary issue, one that fondly looks back while still driving forward, and a touching coda by classic Spidey artist John Romita Sr. ended things well. Very nicely done.

BEST COMIC-BOOK MOVIE: X2

In a year full of superhero movies (none of which were really bad, either. DAREDEVIL and HULK were both quite well done, and even LXG, the least successful of the bunch, had much to recommend), the second installment in the X-Men franchise stands out well above the rest. With a tight, compelling script, an ever-expanding cast, outstanding visuals, a sly but subtle cliffhanger and first-rate performances from Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman and Alan Cumming, X2 held the banner as the summer movie to beat, and hung on firmly until PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN came along and surprised just about everybody. Let’s hope everyone makes it back to the Mansion for X3 in a couple years.

Next week: A return to BATMAN, as we begin to delve into the darker side of Gotham City with a look at Batman’s Rogues Gallery…

Scott Tipton thinks that only one thing could have made X2 better: Lockheed the Dragon. He realizes he may be alone on this one. If you have questions about comics, send ‘em to stipton99x@moviepoopshoot.com. Happy New Year. Thanks to MileHighComics.com for the comic book cover images.

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