The Bum’s Rush #35

The Best In Comics 2005 (in my humble opinion) – Part II

Continuing my three-part series highlighting the best in comics from the year 2005! This week it’s my favorite mini-series, single issue and one-shot! Now, on with the show!

Favorite Mini-Series of 2005 – GLA: Misassembled

This is a joke right? The best mini-series of 2005 is one that starred the Great Lakes Avengers, a group of the lamest and most forgettable characters ever created? DAMN STRAIGHT!! I’m sorry but it’s true. One of the coolest, funniest, best-drawn and most enjoyable comics I read all year was indeed
GLA: Misassembled. This might make you think that the comics’ scene in 2005 was a wasteland, but you’d be wrong.

Quite simply, writer Dan Slott (who also got my nod for Favorite Writer last week) took a very tongue in cheek poke at just about every dumb and overused trend in comics from the past few years, as well as few well placed jabs at the stereotypical view that most people have of the comics industry and he did it all with the biggest hard-luck, loser superheroes on the block. Not only that but he also spun an enormously fun, exciting, laugh-out-loud (seriously, not many comics can really make me laugh out loud, but this one did several times) action/adventure story about heroes who never ever give up, even when they really, really should.

And he made Squirrel Girl into a good character! SQUIRREL GIRL! The dark secret in the back of the Marvel Vault that everyone would sooner ignore and hope that it just goes away. That Squirrel Girl. I honestly thought I was the only one who even remembered her, as I had the unfortunate experience of reading her first and only previous appearance, in which she saved Iron Man and fought Doctor Doom, back when I consumed comics as if my very life depended on it. But lo and behold, here she is and she’s actually one of the best characters in the book.

And what about the art? Paul Pelletier’s art on the series is probably some of the best of his career. All superhero comics should look this damn good. Look, I can’t say enough good things about this comic. I’m just going to stop now and tell you to go pick up this book right now. Do it! Do it for Monkey Joe! Poor, poor Monkey Joe. He liked nuts. He will be missed.

GLA: Misassembled was just collected as a trade paperback which includes the four-issue mini-series as well as West Coast Avengers #46, the issue in which the GLA first debuted and the original Squirrel Girl story from Marvel Super-Heroes #6. She really does fight Doctor Doom. And beats him. With squirrels. Not his finest moment. Also just released was the GLX-Mas Special which picks up pretty much right where the mini-series leaves off and features a number of talented artists, including Paul Grist and
Ty Templeton.

A Close Second – Hellboy: The Island

Even though it’s been about 2 years since the last Hellboy mini-series, Hellboy: The Third Wish, by Mike Mignola The Island proves that this is still one of the best and most fascinating continuing stories in comics. Hellboy: The Island is the book that Hellboy fans have been waiting for since the very first series, the origins of Hellboy, the Right Hand of Doom and the evil Ogdru Jahad!

To say that Mignola is at the top of his game in this two-issue mini is an understatement. He is the master of the game, cutting out all the fat and trimming his art and dialogue to only the most necessary aspects to tell the best possible story. Plus, monsters get hit and stuff ‘splodes. What more could you want? Except for more Hellboy on a regular basis.

Hellboy’s adventures will continue in 2006 as Mignola puts away his pencil and focuses purely on writing, first with a tale from Hellboy’s past in Hellboy: Makoma, drawn by Richard Corben and then with Hellboy: Darkness Calls, a sequel to The Island, drawn by Duncan Fegredo. And as always, you can catch the adventures of Hellboy’s former teammates, the B.P.R.D., in an ongoing series of mini-series by Mignola, John Arcudi and Guy Davis.

Another Close Second – Ocean

I’m pretty sure that there’s no one better at doing self-contained non-superhero mini-series than
Warren Ellis. Ellis gets in, tells an amazing story, and then gets out, never to revisit the story or characters again. It’s like watching a great summer blockbuster or reading an engrossing adventure novel, but in comic book form.

Ocean, with art by Chris Sprouse, tells the story of U.N. Weapons Inspector Nathan Kane as he travels to a space station orbiting the Jovian moon Europa, where a mass grave of alien bodies and ancient but advanced alien weaponry has been discovered. This is easily one of the best straight-up science-fiction comics I have ever read and was ever so close to nabbing the top spot in this best of 2005 list.

Ocean, originally a six-issue mini-series published by WildStorm Productions, is now available in trade paperback form.

Favorite Single Issue of 2005 – All-Star Superman #1

Well, I already did an entire column based on this book, so I’ll try and keep this short and sweet. I am a HUGE fan of Superman. He is, has been and always will be my absolute favorite character of all time. Even so, I find it very difficult to read Superman comics these days. Most of them are just boring and some of them plain old suck.

But now, finally, someone has gone and made Superman fun and interesting again, not to mention noble and heroic. In an age when most superhero comics are boring me to tears, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely have restored my faith, showing me that unique and fantastic and original stories can still be done using decades-old icons like Superman, the first and greatest superhero of them all.

Morrison and Quitely’s run on All-Star Superman is slated to run at least 12 issues. No word yet whether or not Morrison will continue writing the book after the initial 12 issues, but it’s doubtful that Quitely will do more.


 

A Close Second – Nada. Nothing comes remotely close… move along.

Favorite One-Shot of 2005 – PENG!

Another no-brainer, and also another book I’ve talked about quite a bit in previous Bum’s Rush columns, PENG! is an example of the best of the best. It’s a story that absolutely could not have been achieved with as great a result outside of comics, with the possible exception of anime and even then I doubt I would have enjoyed it half as much. It’s every kick-ass fighting game you loved as a kid, every fantasy you ever had about applying superhero physics to real life, every brain-rotting bad-ass cartoon you watched as a kid all rolled into one giant 72-page romp. The book’s artist and writer, Corey “The Rey” Lewis, is the future of comics and the future looks damn good.

Corey Lewis broke into the comics scene in a big way in 2005, but he is going to absolutely dominate 2006 with the release of a
Rival School adaptation for Udon Comics, the re-release and repackaging of Sharknife Vol. 1 (now called Sharknife: Stage First – Champion Edition) and the debut of a second volume, Sharknife: Stage Second.


 

A Close Second – GLX-mas Special #1

Well, it’s more like a distant second really, but I already cheated once by skipping over the Close Second Single Issue of 2005. This book is really just a nice Christmas treat for fans that dug the heck out of the GLA: Misassembled mini-series. More death, more laughs and more proof that Squirrel Girl just might be the greatest superhero in the Marvel Universe.

God, I really hope they let Dan Slott do more GLA books. Hmmm, maybe I should just ask Santa Claus… that is, if the evil Dr. Tannenbaum hasn’t kidnapped him!

Next week, it’s the 3rd and final chapter of The Best In Comics 2005! Until then, have a safe and happy holiday everybody! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Quick Bits

Warning! Nothing you read here in Quick Bits should be considered FACT until it actually happens. Which it might not. How do you know I’m not just making all this crap up? I could, you know. You’ve been warned!

1. The Ghost Rider movie has been pushed back to 2007, apparently due to Sony’s already massive slate of movies set to debut next summer. Still, one can’t help but wonder if there’s a more sinister meaning behind the delay. And by sinister I mean that the movie sucks. We’ll see.
2. Marvel has announced yet another BIG EVENT comic coming in 2006 called Annihilation. The series, written by Keith Giffen, will feature most, if not all, of Marvel’s major cosmic characters. My favorite part of the whole announcement it the way in which the series will unfold, with an initial one-shot followed by four individual mini-series leading into a final six issue mini-series tying the entire event together. Hmmm, where have I seen something like that before? Oh, yeah, DC already did that. I think it’s called Infinite Crisis or something. Supposed to be a big deal.
3. Mark Millar, the human hype-machine, recently stated that his upcoming Marvel mini-series, 1985, “… has the potential to be Marvel’s Narnia” referring, obviously, to the classic series of books and the recent movie adaptation. Even upon clarification of this statement, wherein Millar elaborated by saying “… it's a story about a boy in our world finding a way into the Marvel Universe,” I still find myself scratching my head and wondering where he comes up with this stuff. Like when he first began talking about his Top Cow mini-series, Wanted which he described as being the Watchmen for supervillains. Just seems like he enjoys completely overstating the importance of his work, trying to establish his books as classics before they ever hit the shelves. Eh, whatever, I’m tired of talking about this now.
4. Speaking of Mark Millar, the big Marvel event he’s working on with Steve McNiven has been officially announced as Civil War and will spin out of events set in motion in the New Avengers: Illuminati one-shot by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. Good GOD! How many BIG EVENT comics does Marvel need to do in one friggin’ year anyway? I count three (excluding the fifth week New Universe event) coming up so far. And not one of them makes me excited at all. I’m a much bigger fan of Marvel’s low-key books.
5. Let’s throw in some DC news – Firestorm’s getting a new costume. Wheeee! Meh, I tried.
6. Actually, most of the big DC news centers around the upcoming One Year Later story spinning out of Infinite Crisis and while there have been several interviews with the creators of some key OYL books, things are still understandably hush-hush.
7. The long-in-development Watchmen movie has been picked up by yet another studio, this time Warner Bros. The previous Paramount production was all set to go earlier this year but was shut down when new management took over. Paul Greengrass, the director who was working on this previous incarnation of the film, has apparently left the film and Warner is looking at new writers and directors, so it seems as if they’re starting from scratch. So much effort for a movie that won’t be even half as good as the graphic novel it’s based on.
8. Did I already tell you guys about the Hellboy animated series being released direct to DVD? No? There’s going to be a Hellboy animated series being released direct to DVD.
9. Also possibly maybe perhaps in the works for direct DVD release are a series of three Futurama movies. Animated, of course. Maybe…
10. Marvel Comics Solicitations for March 2006 are up over here. I’m not trying to be antagonistic here as I really don’t have anything against Marvel in general but this latest offering of books is just… bland. I really can’t see anything, aside from my normal picks, that makes me sit up and go “Wow! Gotta read that!” I’m not so much angry or disappointed or anything as I am just sad. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, with all the random mini-series (that seem to serve little purpose other than to retain rights to characters before their copyright lapses), meaningless “events” (New Universe, I’m looking in your direction), and so on the company really doesn’t seem to have any direction or purpose to it. It all seems so random and “just because.” More of the “throw it at the wall and see if it sticks” policy that just smacks of an overpowering desire to create the “next hot thing.” Bleh. Excuse my little rant there. And my blatant overuse of “quotation marks”.
11. And finally, the Image Comics Solicitations for March 2006 can be found here. Some cool looking stuff in here, like Scott Kurtz and Aaron William’s Truth, Justin and the American Way and Benito Cereno’s Hector Plasm.

NEXT WEEK: The YEAR END EDITION of The Bum’s Rush - Part three of The Best of 2005!


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