I Love My Comics

I love my comics. I really do. I know there’s been a lot of complaining recently. I know I am guilty of it. But seriously. I love my comics.

I love Guardians of the Galaxy. Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest were both awesome, and Guardians of the Galaxy is the perfect ongoing to follow them up. Starlord is the perfect guy to lead this team because he’s an everyman in a team full of weirdos. Rocket Raccoon is hilarious. Adam Warlock just kind of makes you uncomfortable. Plus, a psychic dog? Comic book gold. Even if you didn’t read the Annihilation series, you can pick up Guardians and enjoy it.

I love Final Crisis. Yeah I know, we spent money on Countdown and what about Death of the New Gods and nothing is in continuity and so on… but screw that. The book rocks. You want to spite DC for making you waste hundreds of bucks the last few years, fine. I get that. That’s your choice. But if you’re looking to stick it do DC, I recommend you drop JLA, JSA, or Trinity. Read Final Crisis. The page layouts are beautiful and the pacing is cinematic in a good way. Final Crisis is everything that is good about the past decade in the evolution of sequential art.

I love Batman R.I.P. I admit, I was kind of on the fence until last week. But Batman whacked out of his skull bumming around with a homeless mentor… it’s like Grant Morrison is taking Batman and putting him through the ringer in the style of Daredevil: Born Again but drawing on his own style and narrative devices from the Invisibles. If that doesn’t sound good to you, I worry that you may not have a soul.

I love Uncanny X-Men. We’ve been waiting for the X-books to do something fresh for a long time. We got close with Messiah Complex, but I think we’re finally there. Let the rest of the Marvel universe go to hell in a handbasket. The X-Men are taking it up a notch, and I like it. The rest of the X-Books are beginning to emulate the model set forth by X-Factor, leveraging the right combination of action, drama, and silliness. I for one am excited about Manifest Destiny.

I love the Boys. I love love love the Boys. Garth Ennis has always been good at being offensive and controversial. Somewhere along the way, amidst the sex and violence, he also put together a cast of characters, led by Hughie, that I’ve grown to care about. Ennis could always write dark comedy and misery. With the Boys he’s proven he can write dark comedy and tragedy. Who would’ve thunk it?

I love Catwoman. My only regret is that I got on the bandwagon a little late. I will miss this series. It has been a great ride with a great character. The guys at Marvel could learn a thing or two from this series about writing the ‘in the streets’ hero.

I love Legion. I love Blue Beetle. I love Superman and Action Comics. I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lost Boys: Reign of the Frogs. I love everything featuring characters from Hellboy.

The comic companies ask a lot of us. They ask us to weather the storms of convoluted continuity and wacky creative whims. They ask us to collect tie-ins and variant covers. Sometimes, they ask us to read complete and utter crap, and then they reward us for our loyalty by pretending that crap never happened. But I’ll be damned. I still love my comics.