Best Writer of 2017: BRIAN K. VAUGHAN "Paper Girls" "Saga" "Barrier

As long as Brian K. Vaughan is writing comic books he'll probably be the best writer. He's like Frank Miller and Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore were in decades past: pillars of the field, legendary. I will admit that Barrier, his weird web comic, was a beautifully drawn misfire (Marcos Martin did the pencils), but Paper Girls got weirder, funnier, and better than it's ever been this year and Saga continued to entertain in strange, amusing, and touching ways. Both Saga and Paper Girls are so totally fucked up in the best sense. They're light years from anything "normal" or safe and yet they're hugely satisfying and sheer page-turners. It was another banner year for Vaughan.

The Best Covers of 2017

Best Issue of 2017: THE CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA #7

The first issue of this series came out on October 8th, 2014. This issue, #7, came out on July 5th, 2017. So, yes, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the writer of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (and Afterlife with Archie) is probably the laziest writer on earth. I'm not entirely sure why the delay. Aguirre-Sacasa does write other stuff (he worked on the American Psycho musical a few years ago and is a producer of the TV show Riverdale), but how long does it take to write a comic book? Certainly not more than a day (unless you're Alan Moore, who stuffs his issues with tons of prose). I can't really complain, though, as Sabrina and Afterlife with Archie are two of the best comic books on the market. And this issue, #7, was stellar. It tells the history of Sabrina's father, Edward Spellman, who, at a young age, started conjuring spells and awakening demons and getting into all sorts of sadistic, fucked up shit. This book is dark, evil, compelling, creepy, and super engrossing. The art, by Robert Hack and Jack Morelli, gives it a vintage, Tales from the Crypt style. It's like finding a dusty old tome in an attack and opening it up and realizing you've just awoken an ancient evil.

THE BEST PAGES & PANELS OF 2017

BATMAN #14 

OUTCAST #24

 BLACK WIDOW #12

 

INFAMOUS IRON MAN #9

 BATMAN #27

 DOOM PATROL #8

 

 DESCENDER #23

 

DARK KNIGHTS: METAL #2 

 SAVAGE DRAGON #225

SAGA #47

DOOMSDAY CLOCK #1

When DC put out Before Watchmen, their various, prequel mini-series, I remember hearing that Alan Moore gave they money he got for it to the original Watchmen artist, Dave Gibbons. When Marvel was reprinting Miracleman (aka Marvelman, one of Moore's best works) a few years ago he told them he didn't want his name on the book so instead of saying Alan Moore anywhere it said "the original writer." I suppose you could argue either way. Moore is just a senile, old bastard. Or...you shouldn't be fucking with what he created. Granted, he didn't create Miracleman, and Watchmen was based on pre-existing characters, but still, those were his books, he made them famous, they're legendary and he doesn't want them to continue if he doesn't want them to. His contract with DC apparently stated that he would get the rights back to Watchmen when it went out of print. DC sneakily never let it go out of print so they could keep the rights. This is thirty years later, and finally we have a Watchmen sequel whether you wanted it or not. When Before Watchmen came out I wasn't against it. I figured it gave a shot in the arm to the comic book industry and if it was great then it was a good decision. The books turned out mediocre at best. The only true highlight was getting Amanda Connor to finally draw a book (she usually on does covers and once in a blue moon a full book). As for this new book, Doomsday Clock, the best thing so far I can say about it is that they got a great team. Geoff Johns hasn't written a comic book in awhile because he's busy doing DC movie stuff but he's back writing this 12 parter. He got his Superman: Secret Origin artist, Gary Frank, on board, which is good thing. This is a sequel, but didn't most of the characters die in the original? Rorshach is in this, but since he died it's a new Rorshach. And Superman shows up in this, albeit his parents died in a car crash so something is amiss. Supposedly the book will be about how Dr. Manhattan has been messing with the DC timeline. 12 issues is a long haul, though, and so far this is a bit of a mess. I do trust Johns, though, as he usually knocks everything out of the park. The big problem is that Watchmen is such a pillar of legend that nothing is going to come close to matching it. I didn't even think Watchmen was all that great and I still admit that this first issue is a very poor imitation. So what ultimately is the point of doing this if even going in you know you're setting yourself up to fail? Money, I guess. Slap Watchmen on a comic and people'll buy it. Which is the problem, really, and Moore understands this, no matter how much of a senile old bastard he might be. *1/2 

PETER PARKER: THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #1

These last few years, I often wondered why Batman had, like, three of four monthly books but Spider-man just had one, The Amazing Spider-Man, bi-monthly. Spider-man is Marvel's biggest and best character. Why the hell aren't they milking it dry? Well our prayers are answered this month because Peter Parker has a new monthly comic. Whereas writer Dan Slott has made The Amazing Spider-Man a globe-trotter and millionaire and the stories are mega and epic and huge, this new book is supposed to be set in New York City and smaller. Back to the roots and so forth. I guess it doesn't help that in this first issue Parker travels to Chicago. But I suppose the idea behind the book is solid. And Marvel does have other Spider books, just either in parallel worlds (The Amazing Spider-man: Renew Your Vows) or with other characters (Spider-Man 2099, Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider, Spider-Gwen...and Miles Morales in Spider-Man). What we really want is for Parker to be in NYC, dating MJ, taking pictures for The Bugle, and fighting Dr. Octopus. But I suppose that's all been done before. So this new #1 is sort of a half-way there approach. Parker is in NYC. No MJ. No mega-traditional villain just yet. Writer Chip Zdarsky has made this book pretty much an all out comedy, though, which is good and bad. What this book is, though, is fun. It's light, breezy, forgettable. The craziest thing about Spider-man books is that when you think about it...when was the last great run? Maybe J. Michael Straczynski's run? And before that it was probably when McFarlane was drawing it. So while The Amazing Spider-Man has been entertaining and a fun ride, it hasn't produced a whole hell of a lot of excellence in a long time. When you look at Batman you can rattle off a bunch of great recent runs, from The New 52's Snyder/Capullo run to Morrison's lengthy, multiple book epic. Will writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Adam Kubert's Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man end up a legend? No. It'll be a fun romp, but we're all still waiting for Marvel to put Jason Aaron on the flagship and be done with it. ***  

SECRET EMPIRE #1

 
   Marvel comics have been in a funk lately. There's a lot to blame, but one main issue is that four of their top writers quit to go and work for Image in the last few years (Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, Rick Remender, and Jonathan Hickman). They do have a few good writers left like Jason Aaron and Nick Spencer. And this summer's big Marvel event, Secret Empire, is being written by Spencer after he built it up for the last year. The last event, Inhumans vs. X-Men, just ended, as it Spiderman's Clone Conspiracy, and Civil War II ended in December. So it's pretty much non-stop events forever at Marvel (they even snuck in the Monsters Unleashed event book that no one read or cared about earlier this year).
     With decent art by master Steve McNiven, Secret Empire has Captain America as the leader of Hydra taking over the world. The story is that the A.I. cosmic cube altered Cap's history so that all along he was evil. And I guess that's new...Marvel's All-American, gung-ho hero being a villain (although, since the character has been around forever, I'm sure he was evil in a few books whether by clone or magic or whatever over the years). The premise; an evil leader taking over the globe to stop crime, enforce new laws, create a police state, etc. isn't a new plot. Hell, Invincible just did it when Robot took over...and Marvel's done it before in Age of Ultron and Age of Apocalypse. But there is a reason it's been done before: it's kind of cool and somewhat interesting. And Secret Empire is, at least, fairly entertaining.
     The ending has Captain America sending Rick Jones to the firing squad. Jones apparently helped start The Avengers way back when and was also there when Bruce Banner got blasted by gamma rays to turn into the Hulk. So Jones is a major character that people care about...if this was forty years ago. I didn't even know his illustrious history until this week when I read it online. So the "major" death is not a shock or a big deal to anyone but the old, comic book buffs in the know.
     I am curious how they're going to end this series. They can't kill Captain America (Brubaker just did that ten or so years ago). If they leave him evil then, honestly, that's okay, because he's boring to begin with, but then where would the pay-off be? I guess we'll see...and at least an event book has me mildly intrigued. **1/2 (out of ****)