The Best Writer of 2022: ED BRUBAKER

 

    Writer Ed Brubaker put out the same number of books he did in 2021: three issues of the online, pay-what-you-want Friday, and two full-size, Reckless graphic novels. It's kind of sad that he's not writing a monthly title anymore, but considering how great every book he wrote in 2022 was, does it matter? 

    Friday started out as a typical, teenage detective whodunnit, but morphed into a really crazy and disturbing horror, time travel tale. It seems to get better every issue. Both Reckless graphic novels in 2022 have been extremely entertaining and the kind of book you can't put down until you're finished. 

    Brubaker has been one of my favorite writers for years now, and his skill at dialogue and pacing is unsurmountable. Dude's a legend. 

The Best Covers of 2022

 

Best Pages & Panels of 2022

Batman: Beyond the White Knight #2

Clean #4

Batman: Beyond the White Knight #5

Groo: Gods Against Groo #1

READING THE CLASSICS: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #250

 

Published on March 1st, 1984

    The big #250 issue wasn't even double or triple size or anything. And nothing really "big" happened in it. Were anniversary issues not a big deal back then? They do mention the reason in the letters page. They said it was because this Hobgoblin story was big enough for 3 issues and thus wouldn't fit in a double size issue, anyway. Hmmm. I think this is the only #250 of The Amazing Spider-Man, isn't it? I don't even think they ever get near #75 or #100 again before they re-booted it. Currently they're on volume 6. That means they re-booted it five times. It looks like they originally went to #441 in 1998. So they've had five #1's since 1998...that's five new starts in 24 years. I wonder if they're going to keep doing that forever, because lately they go back to #1 every time a new writer comes aboard, which is getting ridiculous. Either way, #250 definitely feels like a golden era of the book, with writer Roger Stern and artist John Romita, Jr. on board. This issue picks up from #249 where The Hobgoblin was blackmailing some people like J. Jonah Jameson and Harry Osbourne. Spider-Man visits each person being blackmailed to try to find out more info on The Hobgoblin. Eventually he just uses the spider tracker that The Kingpin put on The Hobgoblin to track him down. There's a big brawl at The Hobgoblin's base of operations, which ends up catching on fire. Also, J. Jonah Jameson writes an article about how he funded The Scorpion and he gives it to the printer to publish. That's how the issue ends, with pretty much everything up in the air. I'm not entirely sure why they didn't just wrap this story up in this issue, considering it's the big anniversary issue. Great art and cover by JR JR and the writing is top notch. The great thing about this book is that it's a classic serial...meaning you really can't wait for the next issue since all of the storylines have been slowly built up so great. I really should just go and read the whole original run of this book. ***

READING THE CLASSICS: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #249

 

Published on February 1st, 1984

    This was a fantastic issue. The book was so engrossing back then, it's kind of hard to even fathom how awful it is these days. Back then, the book seemed to be more coherent. Now it seems like it constantly changes and thus there's no long term build and very few side characters of note that don't disappear for long stretches. John Romita, Jr. did the "breakdowns" in this issue and Dan Green did the "finishes." I don't know if that means Green just inked it or he basically drew it. It is crazy that John Romita, Jr. is currently drawing The Amazing Spider-Man. This book came out almost 40 years ago. And The Hobgoblin is still around these days...so they've pretty much run out of ideas. In this issue, we find out that Harry Osbourne and J. Jonah Jameson are being blackmailed by someone. It turns out to be The Hobgoblin, who invites everyone at a rich, members only club to a private meeting. The Hobgoblin wants their money to keep their secrets. Harry's being blackmailed because The Hobgoblin knew his dad was The Green Goblin, and if that got out I guess the Oscorp stock would fall apart. J. Jonah Jameson is being blackmailed because he helped create The Scorpion and nobody knows that. There's a brief fight between The Hobgoblin and Spider-Man and Spider-Man gets a tracker on The Hobgoblin thanks to The Kingpin's help. The Kingpin is still a bad guy, but doesn't want The Hobgoblin to meddle in his crime business. We also get a meeting between Mary Jane and Parker at Harry and his wife's bbq. Mary Jane turned down Parker's wedding proposal in #183 but she's still around. Shockingly, Mary Jane is still hovering around Parker's love life in 2020. It's almost as if Marvel can't make a decision about those two. Considering this will-they-or-won't-they end up together storyline has been going on for like 50 years, it's past the point of ludicrousness. That's probably one of the many reasons The Amazing Spider-Man hasn't been a great book in years. The book worked back in the day by being a continuous soap opera but now it's just been glazed and locked down in amber with no hope of growth. It's a shame, because back in '83/'84 the book was glorious. ***1/2

READING THE CLASSICS: PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #85

 

Published on December 1st, 1983

    This was the B Spider-Man book at the time. Surprisingly enough, they really worked hard at making both books pretty much run concurrently. When The Black Cat was injured in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Man visited her in the hospital in Spider-Man. And this issue picks up The Hobgoblin storyline from Spider-Man. You can tell this is the B book, though, because the writing and art aren't as good. Bill Mantlo wrote the issue with a plot assist by Roger Stern. Al Milgrom penciled it. We get a scene where Harry Osbourne and his wife announce that she's pregnant. We also get a dinner date with The Black Cat and Spider-Man which is hilarious because Parker sits down and eats without taking his costume and mask off. Then we get a battle on a rooftop between The Black Cat, Spider-Man, and The Hobgoblin. Before the big fight, The Hobgoblin jumps into a tank of chemicals to transform himself into a powerful, new version of The Green Goblin. The Hobgoblin loses and flies away after the battle. Parker would've captured him but The Black Cat got in the way. The one good thing about this issue is that there's a lot of meat to it. I've said this before, but it takes awhile to read these old issues because of all the words in them. These days, most books are pretty brief and can be read in a few minutes. At $3.99, most comics now feel like a rip off. Other than that, this isn't a great issue or anything, but definitely has that old school, classic, comic book feel. **1/2

READING THE CLASSICS: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #245

 Published on October 1st, 1983

    All of these issues of 1983's The Amazing Spider-Man have been published on the 1st of the month. Was there not a new comic book day in 1983? That's kind of weird that books would just randomly be published on different days of the week, right? I do remember new comic book day used to be on Friday back in the early 90's when I started buying comics. I'm not sure when they changed it to Wednesdays. Now DC books come out on Tuesday. Anyway, the cover to the issue has Spider-Man unmasking The Hobgoblin. He does...but it's kind of a trick. Lefty Donovan, a local criminal working for The Hobgoblin, is hypnotized by The Hobgoblin and dresses up as him and goes to Times Square to cause havoc. Spider-Man saves the day and unmasks The Hobgoblin but realizes that Lefty isn't the real one. Then The Hobgoblin, working from a remote lab, drives The Hobgoblin's glider into a building, killing Lefty Donovan. This was a great issue. I wonder if Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movie took their Green Goblin Times Square battle from this issue. Although I'm sure there's been plenty of Times Square battles in this book before and after this. Before the big battle, Peter gets set up at a dinner with Mary Jane. Peter, in a thought balloon, mentions Mary Jane had previously turned his marriage proposal down. Really? When did that happen? Sadly, the saga of will Peter and Mary Jane get together is still up in the air these days. They've been together and been apart countless times, so much that's it gotten extremely ridiculous. If Marvel had any balls, they would've been married with kids by now. That would have given the book a ton of potential storylines...but Marvel just wants to keep Peter in the ageless, gray zone of life. One reason this book used to be stellar was that it seemed to actually be a real life, real time soap opera chronicle but now it just seems frozen in time. But alas, we can always go back and revel in the glory days by reading issues like this. ***1/2