Weekly Awards For The Comic Books From January 21, 2009

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

Let’s do the comment of the week award. This week I am going to give the best comment of the week to Kirth responding to the Dark Avengers #1 review. Kirth commented:

“So THIS was Bendis’ BIG IDEA.

The idea which REQUIRED Secret Invasion to happen in order for Dark Reign to “make sense”.

Yeah. Right. I’m a little underwhelmed.

It worked as a story, but I don’t see how this “replacement Avengers” story REQUIRED all that Secret Invasion la-la.

Oh yes…And once again we see the story impediment know as “The Sentry” poking his ret-conned, way-too powerful presence into yet another comic. Can’t he fly into space and……….I don’t know, do “stuff” in space with spacey characters and not serve as the plot hole to “drive the endgame truck” through.

If he’s really Marvel’s Superman then have him DO something SUPER. Have him lead or leave, because if this series of comics ends like World War Hulk did, I will have officially given up on Avengers.

Teen-age Tony Stark was a better character than Sentry has even been. Where’s Bob Harras when you need him?”

I loved how Kirth was able to work a dig at the abysmal teen-age Tony Stark in this comment. Again, this week gave us plenty of good comments. Keep them coming.

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

Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #2
Green Lantern #37
Guardians of the Galaxy #9
Spider-Man: Noir #2
X-Factor #39

The Winner: X-Factor #39

I already reviewed Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #2. I completely enjoyed Morrison’s story in this issue. However, there is no doubt that this issue has limited appeal to the comic book reading populace. And, as much as I enjoyed this read, it was not good enough to garner the Che for the best read of the week.

Writer: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning

Art Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 6.5 Night Girls out of 10

DnA delivered another rocking good read. This issue offers plenty of action as well as several wild plot twists. The prelude to War of Kings has been well executed and DnA have succeeded in generating plenty of excitement for this big event.

I enjoyed that DnA centered the majority of this issue on Star Lord. The scenes at 42 in the Negative Zone were my favorite ones. Star Lord is a quirky character who is crafty and deadly in a fight, has balls of steel, but is also a bit of a goof-ball. It is nice to see DnA utilizing 42 in order to give War of Kings a wide scope that builds off of both Civil War and Secret Invasion.

This issue is a quick paced read. The dialogue has a good flow and is well done. Guardians of the Galaxy continues to be one of Marvel’s most entertaining thrill rides. My only complaint with this issue was the artwork by committee. The different styles were quite jarring and some of the panels looked rushed and sloppy.

Writer: David Hine & Fabrice Sapolsky
Artist: Carmine Di Giandomenico

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

This was a great read. Hine and Sapolsky crank up the intensity and deliver an issue that was more exciting than Spider-Man: Noir #1. This title is still more of a plot heavy read focusing on the characters and their relationships with each other rather than doling out lots of action. Still, we do get some action once Peter gains his powers.

I continue to enjoy this Noir twist on Spider-Man. The best part of this issue was the ending. I did not see this swerve coming at all. At the end, Ben Urich decides to come clean and do the right thing by taking all of the evidence that he has amassed on the Goblin and go public with it. No longer will Urich be bought by the Goblin’s money. Peter’s spirit finally rubbed off on Urich.

So, Urich calls J. Jonah Jameson and tells him that he can deliver to JJJ the Goblin. JJJ responds that Urich is a marked man and it is too dangerous for Urich to come to the Daily Bugle. So, J. Jonah says he will come to Urich. And the issue ends with J. Jonah arriving at Urich’s apartment and killing Urich. J. Jonah then calls the Goblin and says that he has taken care of the Goblin’s problem.

That was a great twist ending that I did not see coming. Hine and Sapolsky have built the Goblin into such an impossible villain to defeat. There is little doubt that the Goblin owns virtually the entire city and all the people inside of it.

Green Lantern #37

Writer: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Ivan Reis
Inks: Oclair Albert

Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10

Green Lantern #37 was another excellent read. Johns has this title purring like a finely tuned race car. The prelude to Blackest Night has certainly succeeded in getting me excited for this big event. Green Lantern #37 continues the trend of Johns treating the reader to a good balance of action and drama on this title. The balanced nature of this title means that it should appeal to a broad cross section of comic book readers.

The big reveal in this issue was the stunning ending with Laira getting killed by Sinestro and then her red power ring choosing Hal Jordan as her replacement. We get a great one panel shot of Hal as a Red Lantern to close out this issue.

It appears that Johns might have Hal sample each colored power ring by the time that Blackest Night has concluded. By forcing Hal to undergo all the various emotional extremes, Johns will have Hal deal with his remaining emotional issues stemming from his stint as Parallax. I believe that in the end Hal will emerge better than ever and fully cleansed of the stain of Parallax.

Reis and Oclair continue to crank out some flat out gorgeous artwork. The artwork on Green Lantern makes this title a real joy to read.

However, I had to give the Che for the best read of the week to X-Factor #39.

Writer: Peter David
Pencils: Valentine Delandro
Inks: Craig Yeung

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

X-Factor #39 totally blew me away. Normally, I would have scrambled to post a review of this issue. However, I was specifically instructed by Mr. David himself to not spoil this issue and to not give a detailed summary of this issue. Okay, so maybe David did not tell me personally, but he did make this request in his “personal plea” at the beginning of this issue in the summary of previous events page that kicks off all of Marvel’s comics.

So I decided to honor David’s request. I figured I owed him that after all the wonderful issues of X-Factor that he has given me. So, this is going to be real hard for me to tip toe around the absolutely stunning and shocking ending to this issue.

X-Factor #39 revolves around the birth of Siryn and Jamie’s child. David absolutely nails the experience of watching your first child born. It is both exhilarating and terrifying. It is a fragile moment for the child and a potentially dangerous moment for the mother. So many things can go wrong yet those feelings of fear are battled back by the feelings of hope and excitement as you watch your child being born.

The sheer joy and the intense rush of adrenaline as you watch your wife bring your child into this world cannot be explained. And there is no analogous event to compare it to. At that moment you will never look at either your wife the same. She becomes even more beautiful than before. And to hold this small child in your hands that you helped bring into this world takes your breath away. David does a fantastic job conveying these conflicting emotions that crash down on a parent when their child is born.

What is so great is that the shocking ending was not completely out of the blue. David did a good job hinting in this general direction a long time ago. Now that the reader knows what happens, they can look back and see where the problem first arose and how Jamie should have known something might happen.

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

Trinity #34
Wolverine: Origins #32

The Winner: Trinity #34

Both titles bore me so much right now that I do not really feel like talking about them. Suffice it to say that Wolverine: Origins is certainly one of Logan’s titles that Marvel could cancel immediately. This title has done nothing to make Logan a cooler or more interesting character. In fact, it has pretty much done the opposite for me.

And poor Trinity. What can I say about this sad little title? Trinity is not offensive to the senses like Countdown was. Instead, Trinity is colorless, tasteless and neutral. It is hard to say much good or bad about this title. I know that DC is obsessed with publishing a weekly title. But, it seems that the weekly title gimmick is losing its appeal to many comic book readers.

So congrats to X-Factor #39 for winning The Che Award of the week and “congrats” to Trinity #34 for winning the Sequential Methadone Award for the week.