Weekly Awards For The Comic Books From January 14, 2009

All right, let’s go ahead and dish out The Revolution’s weekly awards.

As always, The Revolution got tons of great comments over the past week. It is always hard to pick the best one of the bunch. However, this week I am going to give the best comment of the week to David 2 in response to the Final Crisis #6 review. David 2 commented:

“Let’s see… where to begin?

How about a revised equation?

Unacceptable Delays + Disjointed Storylines + Anticlimactic Battles + (Darkseid – power) + ((Batman + Gun) – Character) + No Real Major Villain + No Major Cosmic Forces + Smallville-level WB/CW Angst + Try To Reason With People That Have No Will Whatsoever + Pathetic God Machines X (DiDio) Squared = ANTI-LIFE

I think that pretty much sums up the whole situation right there.”

Hilarious! And it got me to do a spit-take as I was drinking my Café Bustelo.

The nominees for the Che for the best read of the week:

Action Comics #873
Green Lantern Corps #32
Nightwing #152

The Winner: Nightwing #152

I already reviewed Action Comics #873. This was certainly a good issue, but it was not quite enough to capture the Che for the best read of the week. Instead, it came down to two titles penned by Peter Tomasi. The Revolution continues to become more and more impressed with Tomasi’s writing abilities. Tomasi is DC’s brightest up and coming star and he is going to be a writer that they will need to lean on in order to help DC try and battle back against Marvel in the sales charts.

Green Lantern Corps #32
Writer: Peter Tomasi
Pencils: Patrick Gleason
Inks: Rebecca Buchman

Art Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Tomasi cranks out another highly entertaining read with Green Lantern Corps #32. This issue serves up tons of action and is a brisk read. Tomasi continues to do a nice job juggling the large roster of characters and making sure that he gives as much character development as time allows.

I enjoyed how Tomasi timed the release of the Guardians third new law banning romantic relationships between Green Lanterns with the birth of Matoo and Amnee’s child. The ending of this issue was quite powerful as we see a flood of rings streaming back to Oa from Green Lanterns who have quite the Corps due to the new law banning romantic relationships between Green Lanterns.

Green Lantern Corps continues to be a strong read as Tomasi is able to consistently deliver a quality blend of dialogue, character work and action. This is also a strongly plotted title as Tomasi rarely loses his focus when delivering a story.

However, I had to give the Che for the best read of the week to Nightwing #152.

Nightwing #152
Writer: Peter Tomasi
Pencils: Don Kramer
Inks: Jay Leisten

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

What Tomasi has done with Nightwing has been absolutely amazing. This title was a total mess until Tomasi came aboard. Tomasi has pulled off some fantastic character work on Dick’s character and made Nightwing a tight, focused and entertaining read each month.

The strength of Nightwing #152 was the strong dialogue and quality character work that Tomasi delivers. The showdown between Ra’s al Ghul and Nightwing was well handled. Tomas manages to take all the character growth that Dick has experienced during Tomasi’s run and take it to its logical conclusion. The reader finally sees how Tomasi has been building Dick’s character to this moment. The moment where Dick has to step into Bruce’s role as Batman.

Tomasi has made sure that Dick has retained his own style and personality and not simply become a Bruce clone. Yet, at the same time, Tomasi has emphasized the similarities between Dick and Bruce and why Dick is finally ready to handle the mantle of the Batman.

This was such a well crafted issue that was nicely balanced as Tomasi delivers a good blend of action and drama. Kramer and Leisten did a fine job with the artwork and treat the reader to a good looking issue that clearly conveys the story.

And now the nominees for the Sequential Methadone Award for the worst read of the week:

Titans #9

The Winner: Titans #9

Titans #9

Writer: Judd Winick
Pencils: Howard Porter & J. Calafiore
Inks: Wayne Faucher & J. Calafiore

Art Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 3 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 5.5 Night Girls out of 10

Titans #9 was another subpar issue. The story feels so hackneyed and unoriginal. Winick is merely recycling tired themes that the reader has seen many times before. The supposed “twist” in this issue is that Jericho really has not become a villain again. Instead, he is simply taking such an extreme approach in order to get Nightwing to help him. We learn that the psyche of every person that Jericho has ever “possessed” is now residing inside of Jericho’s mind and now these evil psyches are gaining control of Jericho’s mind.

This concept is hardly new ground and does little to interest me. This has been done before and in much better fashion. This title continues to be a dull read that offers very little in the way of imagination. Titans is simply a generic super hero comic book that does not present anything of interest to the reader.

The character work continues to be non-existent as the Titans all possess similar bland and generic personalities. The dialogue is rather average. The pacing is a bit on the slow side. And there was not much in the way of action in this issue.

The “hook” ending with the Justice League of America appearing on the scene and demanding that the Titans turn over Jericho did little for me. It appears that next issue will give us the obligatory fight between two super hero teams over a misunderstanding.

So congrats to Nightwing #152 for winning The Che Award of the week and “congrats” to Titans #9 for winning the Sequential Methadone Award for the week.

1 thought on “Weekly Awards For The Comic Books From January 14, 2009

  1. I am humbly surprised at being recognized for having the best comment.

    I agree with Rokk in that I have been unimpressed by the return of the original Titans. It was nice to have them do sort of a reunion after all they went through, but after that, why keep them together in a series if you also have Robin, Wonder Girl, and the rest of the Sidekick League of America as the “Teen Titans”? After all, Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy were supposed to be the “mentors” of the group, and Raven was supposed to be re-adjusting to her new mortal life. Red Arrow is supposed to be keeping busy with Hawkgirl and her angst about being the reinacrnation of her mother or grandmother or something weird like that. And let’s not forget that we have Wally running around (no pun intended) as a dad and as a JLA member and now as a Titan again?

    I smell the stench of DiDio in this. How long before Nightwing breaks out the old duds from the Marv Wolfman days and Beast Boy goes back to referring to Starfire as “bubble bod”?

    I know, maybe they’re trying to convince the folks at the CW to come up with an all-new angst show actually based ON superheroes instead of constantly teasing about it like they do with “Smallville”.

    Cue the announcer: From the people that brought you “Smallville”, ,“Birds of Prey”, and tried to bring you “The Graysons” (before realizing that idea totally sucked), The CW is proud to bring you “THE TITANS”. A group of twentysomething hardbodies and flatbellies trying to cope with the struggles of modern life while at the same time saving the world from demonic forces.

    The really scary part is… they might actually do it!

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