The Revolution was not all that impressed with the past week’s selection of comic books. All in all it was a pretty weak selection of reads. Let’s go ahead and hand out The Revolution’s weekly awards.
The nominees for the Che for the best read of the week:
Amazing Spider-Man #546
X-Factor #27
The Winner: X-Factor #27
There simply was not much competition for the Che this week. I was pleasantly surprised by Slott’s debut issue on Amazing Spider-Man. I found it to be a pleasant and fun read. However, nothing at the moment is able to stand up to the juggernaut that is Messiah Complex. Marvel’s fantastic big event continues to steam roll the competition and delivered another excellent read in X-Factor #27.
And now the nominees for the Sequential Methadone Award for the worst read of the week:
Countdown to Final Crisis #16
Ghost Rider #19
Mighty Avengers #7
Wolverine #61
The Winner: Mighty Avengers #7
Countdown to Final Crisis #16 was another dreadful read this week as I already documented in my review for this issue. This title is always in the running for the Sequential Methadone Award each and every week. I’m sure Dan “death count” Didio will feel that he got robbed by Mighty Avengers #7. There is always next week, Didio. Don’t give up hope!
Ghost Rider #19 was another pedestrian effort. It boggles my mind at how predictable Daniel Way’s story has been and this issue was certainly no exception. The dialogue is terrible. The plot progression slow and poorly orchestrated. The character work is completely absent. I honestly have no idea how Daniel Way continues to find gainful employment with either Marvel or DC.
Wolverine #61 mercifully brings to an end the wretched story arc by Marc Guggenheim and Howard Chaykin. This story arc has been abysmal. And that surprises me since I have enjoyed Guggenheim’s work in the past. Unfortunately, Guggenheim doesn’t bring his A-game to this story arc. Hell, he didn’t even bring his C or D-game. And I have never liked Chaykin’s artwork so that does nothing to increase my interest in this story arc.
Guggenheim’s dialogue is generic and none of the characters have any personality at all. The entire story revolving around Wolverine having to fight the Angel of Death in order to return to life after each mortal injury that he suffers was just way too silly. This is exactly the type of asinine overreaching that Marvel has continually done with Wolverine’s character as of late.
What was so bad with Wolverine being a bad-assed killer with amnesia? Did we really need him to be revealed as a member of some race of wolfmen that have been alive since the days of the cave man? Did we really need a back story where it is reveals that Wolverine has continually fought the Angel of Death? Did we really need any of Logan’s history that we have been getting from Daniel Way on Wolverine: Origins? I say “no” to each of those questions. Is there any chance that Joey Q would have Mephisto retcon Wolverine back to where he was at the end of his first mini-series by Chris Claremont?
However, the Sequential Methadone Award for this week was rightfully earned by the utter waste of time and space known as Mighty Avengers #7. As a matter of fact Bendis’ work on Mighty Avengers #7 is probably the very definition of sequential methadone.
So congrats to X-Factor #27 for winning the Che for the week and congrats to Mighty Avengers #7 for winning the Sequential Methadone Award of the week.
2 thoughts on “Weekly Awards for Comic Books From January 9, 2008”
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Well, you’ll soon see the back of Way re: Ghost Rider, to be replaced by Jason Aaron (also doing a Wolverine arc, after which it’s C.B. Cebulski; I don’t know why they can’t get this title a regular creative team; I can understand having superstars like Millar pop on for a contained story, but a lot of these guys, whatever their talents, are not commercial superstars; it reminds me of what Superman/Batman became after Loeb left).
As for Wolverine, it was a weird story, but ultimately it had its heart in the right place, closing off the super-duper-healing-factor (in theory, we’ll see if it sticks). Stories basically designed as continuity modifiers are usually pretty clunky. It’s nice that they offered an explanation, but I think it could have been done more succinctly.
Oh, and I forgot to mention this, but I know you were a big fan of the Irredeemable Ant-Man, and he joined the cast of Avengers: The Initiative last issue (#8).
Therein, he told a bunch of defaming stories about Scott Lang (all of which were really about himself), which didn’t sit well with Cassie Lang, who tried to stomp him to death, triggering a giant-sized brawl between Eric, Cassie, and Hank Pym. Though his title is through, his jerkass legacy survives for now.