Weekly Awards For The Comic Books From April 23, 2008

Let’s go ahead and dish out The Revolution’s weekly awards.

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

Batman #675
Mighty Avengers #12
Thor #8

The Winner: Thor #8

This was a pretty solid collection of comic books this week. Morrison served up a surprisingly intense and unexpected ending with Batman #675. I continue to be impressed with Morrison’s Batman and enjoy how Morrison is handling Bruce’s character.

Mighty Avengers #12 was a great read. I was so impressed with how Bendis wrote Fury’s character. It is wonderful to see Bendis flexing his obvious creative talents and write a unique voice for Fury that didn’t read like a trademark “Bendis voice.” Mighty Avengers #12 proved two things. First, that Bendis can flat out write the hell out of Nick Fury and if old one-eye ever got his own title then Bendis should be the writer. Second, that Bendis really excels in stories that center on a single character rather than on a team full of characters.

However, I had to give the Che for the best read of the week to Thor #8. I know that I have hammered JMS repeatedly and given issues that he has written the Sequential Methadone Award. However, I believe in praising writers just as passionately as I criticize them. The fact is that Thor is the perfect title for JMS’ writing style.

In Thor #8, JMS does a wonderful job examining the father and son relationship between Odin and Thor. JMS weaves a rather touching and emotional story. JMS continues to write a well developed Thor that sounds godly, yet at the same time has plenty of character faults.

Of course, the gorgeous artwork of Djurdevic is what made Thor #8 an absolute joy to read. Djurdevic brings the Norse gods to life like no one else. Djurdevic was born to draw Thor. I simply cannot praise Djurdevic’s artwork enough.

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

Countdown to Final Crisis #1

The Winner: Countdown to Final Crisis #1

There was no need to nominate any other title for the Sequential Methadone Award of the week. There could be only one. And that one was Countdown to Final Crisis #1. This was a dull, boring and pathetic ending to what was a complete and total failure of a story. DC hit a home run with 52 and then followed it up by totally striking out with Countdown to Final Crisis. This was such an underwhelming ending.

It was painfully obvious that DC only had enough actually material for a 12 issue limited series. However, DC’s obsession with doing yet another weekly title in order to cash in on 52’s success forced them to stretch out the thin story of Countdown to Final Crisis over the course of 52 weeks. That meant that Dini, Giffen and company had to stuff Countdown to Final Crisis full of useless filler plotlines that had no point or purpose other than to waste time.

So congrats to Thor #8 for winning the Che for the week and congrats to Countdown to Final Crisis #1 for winning the Sequential Methadone Award for the week.