The Best Art of 2024: SEAN MURPHY & SIMON GOUGH "ZORRO: MAN OF THE DEAD"

 

    I awarded the best art of 2017 to Sean Murphy's Batman: White Knight, so it's really no surprise that his art for Zorro: Man of the Dead was excellent. He wrote and did the art while Simon Gough did the colors. It was a short, 4-issue mini-series for the small press Massive. Murphy is great at drawing action along with making his books look cool as hell. The backgrounds, the style that's totally his own, and the expressive characters...the art in this book was exceptional. 

The Best Writer of 2024: JONATHAN HICKMAN

  

       The Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel's flagship book forever, hasn't been that good in a very, very long time. When you read the old, classic issues, there's an evolution of Peter Parker taking place and the soap opera bildungsroman story makes all the superhero drama meaningful. That ended a long time ago, when Marvel decided to deep-freeze Parker in amber and never age, never have kids, never evolve besides maybe changing his employment for a bit. Thankfully, a new Ultimate Spider-Man came out in 2024, and writer Jonathan Hickman decided to showcase what The Amazing Spider-Man could be if it actually evolved. Peter Parker is married to Mary Jane and has two kids. He's still Spider-Man and there's still the Green Goblin and The Kingpin and everything is similar, but it also feels revitalized and fresh and thus exciting to read. A Spider-Man comic...in 2024...is actually a great read! Who knew? Hickman, of course, is something of a master at revitalization. The X-Men books were fairly forgettable until he introduced the epic "Krakatoa" storyline that changed the game and made the book worth reading again. And while Hickman has always kind of been a hit-or-miss writer and often his stories have sometimes been too overly confusing, he really put out some excellent books in 2024. Besides Ultimate Spider-Man, he finished writing his 8 issue G.O.D.S. comic book that was wild and a lot of fun. He co-wrote an entertaining Dr. Doom one-shot. And he also, shockingly, made Aliens vs. Avengers a great book. Surely, in the hands of most writers, that would have been just a stupid book with Captain America and The Hulk fighting Aliens on a spaceship while cracking jokes or something. But Hickman made the book...gulp...interesting. A book featuring Aliens and The Avengers is serious, thought provoking and good. Only a good writer can even attempt to pull that one off. & Jonathan Hickman did. 

The Best Comic Book of 2024: WHAT'S THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE?

     My favorite comic books of the year included Absolute Batman, Ultimate Spider-Man, Something is Killing the Children, and Saga. But the best book of the year, and a comic book that has been consistently either the best comic book out there or close to it since it started, is What's the Furthest Place From Here? from Image Comics. Written by Matthew Rosenberg and drawn by Tyler Boss and Dylan Burnett, this book is wild, weird, funny, engaging, entertaining, bonkers, fresh, alive, and totally insane. There were only four issues released in 2024, but we did finally get the revelation of all the big answers to this strange world. The basic premise has teenagers and twentysomethings living in a post-apocalyptic world, and everyone is living in gangs not unlike the gangs from that movie The Warriors. There's also The Strangers, mysterious beings that will swoop in when someone disobeys "the rules." Every issue is sort of a journey to a new place filled with new weirdo's. Danger is everywhere and everyone talks in quips and everything is "off." Finally we found out where the adults are; walled up in a city on an island to prevent a disease that ravaged the world. The book is super dark but very, very funny. Whenever an issue is released, I always read it right away. I can't wait to sink my teeth into this world again, to be immersed in this wild, crazy place full of wonderful, colorful freaks just trying to survive. It's fantastic. 

ABSOLUTE POWER #1

 

    DC's big summer event this year is Absolute Power. The basic premise is that Amanda Waller, the head of the Suicide Squad, decides to de-power all of Earth's superheroes. She's working with Failsafe, who I'm pretty sure was killed off in the last issue of Batman, and Queen Braniac, a new villainess. Why is Amanda Waller doing this? Who knows? She hates superheroes, I guess. Marvel did pretty much the same thing in the House of M event years ago. The Marvel superheroes all lost their powers. I never read that, so I'm not entirely sure how similar it is. DC did a good thing with putting the World's Finest team on Absolute Power. Writer Mark Wait and artist Dan Mora are definitely two of the better creative teams working at DC. All the critics and fans seem to always say that World's Finest is DC's best superhero book. World's Finest is basically Batman and Superman together. World's Finest is good, but nothing spectacular or anything. And I guess it won't be coming out anytime soon. That, or maybe they're putting a different writer and artist on it. Absolute Power is only 4 issues, which is good. They don't even have a checklist in the book showing all of the tie-ins. That probably means there are like a thousand. In this first issue, Superman attempts to stop a bank robbery and is shot because he doesn't realize he's lost his powers. The way they de-powered all the heroes is by using some villain robot guy named Amazo. Must be a retro villain or something, because I've never heard of him. They also mention in the book that all of the superheroes' powers are never coming back. Yeah, sure. Like in a year, Superman won't have powers. Good luck getting anyone to read that book. While the art is really good and the colors by Alejandro Sanchez are dynamic, the story is actually kind of dull. I don't usually enjoy these big event books and reading this #1 issue just reinforces that. There's always just too much going on and you know nothing is actually going to change in the long term, so what's the point? Be entertained? I think the plot is actually too dark and depressing for entertainment purposes, actually. Eh, maybe #2 will be better. *1/2

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #50

  

   After reading the latest The Amazing Spider-Man #50, I was curious how many #50's there have been. The first one was published in October 1967. In that issue, Peter Parker quits being Spider-Man and throws out his costume but remembers he's fighting for Uncle Ben and resumes being the hero. Stan Lee and John Romita did that issue. The Kingpin makes his debut in that issue as well. The next #50 was in February 2003. Straczynski and John Romita, Jr. did that issue. The last one, during Nick Spencer's run, was published on October 14th, 2020. So this is only the 4th #50. There were a few re-boots that never even made it to #50, though. The first re-boot and new #1 was in January 2003, when Dan Slott was writing the book. Then April 2014 there was a new #1. Then in October 2015 there was another re-boot and #1. Then July 2018 had another re-boot and #1. And then we get to the current Zeb Wells run, which started in April 2022 with a new #1. So there's been 6 re-boots and 6 #1's. Hard to make sense of all this ridiculousness. It's pretty crazy that there was a #1 in 2014 and then another #1 in 2015. And when Zeb Wells leaves, in a year or so, there'll surely be another #1. I guess I was curious about all of this because in this new #50 issue, Norman Osbourne as The Green Goblin fights Peter Parker as Spider-Man. If you remember, this is a feud started in the 1960's, culminating in Spider-Man killing Norman Osbourne/The Green Goblin. That happened in May 1973. They actually kept Norman Osbourne dead for 23 years. So much for that! It's June 2024...so Norman Osbourne/The Green Goblin was killed off 50 years ago. 50 fucking years ago! You gotta kind of wonder why they have no new ideas anymore. I suppose Marvel's excuse is that Norman as The Goblin was great back then; a cool character, a fan favorite...and kids reading comic books now weren't reading them in the 60's and early 70's. Why not show them what they were missing? Eh. I can't even think of any new, cool villains they've created for Spider-Man since Venom...and that was in 1988. What the hell are these writers doing, anyway? Nick Spencer attempted to create a new villain with Kindred. I guess he was at least trying. Zeb Wells hasn't created anyone. Wells has used Tombstone a lot for whatever reason. And #51 has The Sinister 6 on the cover. It does seem like the writers have very limited leeway at writing this book. It seemed like Spencer was attempting to get MJ and Pete back together, but that never happened, probably because the editors and bosses have the final say. Spider-Man is such a great character that it's really a shame the book feels like it can't be fresh, exciting, bold, or new. It just constantly feels stale, like it's running in place constantly. The big, new idea in this new #50 is that Norman gives Parker the Goblin serum, turning him into Spider-Goblin...or whatever the heck they're going to call him. They seem to do that a lot in the Batman books with the Joker serum, too, don't they? I wonder who was first with that? I will admit that this issue was a lot more entertaining than the last dozen or so issues Zeb Wells has written. Last Fall they had a big crime epic where a bunch of crime families were battling for control of NYC. That was a total bore. And the last couple of issues were totally forgettable and weird. So Goblin vs. Spider-Man is back to basics. And they got Ed McGuniess to draw the pretty cool cover and main story, which is a giant plus. There's a few terrible back-ups I skimmed through. I guess I can't really complain about The Green Goblin still being around after dying 50 years ago...because it's pretty hard to mess up a comic book involving The Green Goblin battling Spider-Man. I wish this book was better, though, and I really am starting to wonder if it'll ever be really good ever again. **1/2

BLOOD HUNT #1

     Blood Hunt is Marvel's big event book this year. It's basically if vampires took over the world. The last page reveal in #1 has the leader of the vampires being Blade. Is that supposed to be a shock? Does Marvel even publish a Blade comic book these days? These event books, both for DC and Marvel, have been really awful and really forgettable for a very long time. I'm thinking maybe Marvel's Civil War event was the last time an event book was kind of a big deal. Or, at least, people remember it. How long ago was that? Twenty years ago? It was 2006. I don't even remember what Marvel's event book was last year. I remember DC's event. Knight Terrors. Was it really spelled with a "K"? That's stupid. It probably wasn't. That event was just stupid. I suppose vampires taking over the world is kind of interesting. It does feel like they're scraping the bottom of the barrel with that plot, though. Jed MacKay is writing this and Pepe Larraz is penciling it. The art is average stuff, though way too dark. I guess that's the point because it's horror but it's still hard to make out what's going on. The book opens with the vampire assault already happening. There's no set-up whatsoever. There's also a group of super villain vampires that look like a cosplay group doing Hellraiser villains. That gang reminded me of that one event book that DC and Geoff Johns did that had an alternate version of the DC superheroes from some other universe wreaking havoc. Or maybe it was the villains from Scott Snyder's Metal series. All these dumb events blur together. But this super group take out The Avengers. They stab Thor with a stake through his head. So he's dead and will be gone forever, right? Also Blade stake's Dr. Strange through the heart. So he's gone from Marvel forever, right? The one thing I hated about this first issue and what I tend to hate about most current comic books is that there's very few words in them. I read this book in like 2 minutes. It's $5.99. Would it kill them to, like, put some fucking words in it? Are these writers just lazy? Or is just the times we live in? Everyone only watches short clips on their phones, everyone has a short attention span. Still, I'd rather read something with substance. The key question is: is this book good enough for me to care about the story enough to want to read #2? Or the hundreds of spin-offs? Eh, not really. *1/2

WOLVERINE #41

 

"Sabretooth War" Part 1

    I remember reading the first few issues of this series. Considering I stopped reading it, I'm guessing it wasn't very good. But #41 brings a new 10 part "Sabretooth War" storyline leading to #50. The cover also proclaims that it's "The Most Violent Wolverine Story Ever Told." Okay. I figured I'd check it out, since I've been pretty much oblivious to what's been going on in any of the X-Men books since I named House of X and Powers of X the best books of the year in 2019. Those books created a new island home base for the X-Men, Krakoa. That story, created by Jonathan Hickman, was compelling. Then he immediately left the books and I didn't care anymore. I've never really been the biggest X-Men fan. I remember enjoying the visuals of X-Men and X-Force in the early 90's when Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld were drawing them. And I enjoyed the series Brian Bendis wrote when he brought back the original X-Men thanks to time travel. Other than those few and far between storylines, there hasn't been much that caught my eye. Maybe it's just the fact that there's so many X books and they're constantly cycling through different writers and artists and new #1's that it's hard to even care anymore. Would it kill Marvel to just have a monthly Uncanny X-Men book with the same writer and artist for, say, a few years? Apparently. From what I can figure out reading Wolverine #41, everyone has left Krakoa and mutants are (sigh) yet again illegal or banned or something (which makes no sense considering in the other Marvel books they are, in fact, not). X-Force is living on the North Pole for no good reason (cool visuals I guess?). Sabretooth is now the leader of a group of other Sabretooths from different dimensions. Yawn. I can't possibly be the only one tired of the multi-dimension characters in everything, right? The last two Spider-Man movies (the live action and the animated one) dealt with the multiverse. The Flash movie also did. And constantly in the Spider-Man books these "other" Spider-Men show up. Fucking give it up already, the multiverse plot has been done to death. Jesus. So Sabretooth and his crew decide to attack Wolverine and the X-Force in the North Pole. The final page has Sabretooth and his gang hacking up body parts to spell out "Happy Birthday" for Wolverine to find. Is this the most violent Wolverine story ever? Maybe? I can't say I've read a ton of Wolverine issues. Marvel doesn't really do too much blood and guts. I wonder why they went this route. Probably just to see if the hook of being so violent would give them more sales. Benjamin Percy, who started writing this book with #1, co-wrote this with Victor LaValle. There's also two artists; Geoff Shaw and Cory Smith. The book is being published twice a month until #50, so I guess that's why there's two writers and two artists. One big problem is that neither artist is very good. The writing isn't very good, either. There's a reason why I haven't been reading too many Marvel or D.C. books lately, and it's mostly because the writing and art isn't very good. I'm not sure what happened...but it seems like talented writers and talented artists just aren't going into the comic book field anymore, or, at least, not working at Marvel or D.C. Maybe the pay isn't any good? Maybe it's because talented people would rather work independently than at the big two? I don't know...but this book is borderline awful. 1/2*