Weekly Awards For The Comic Books From September 24, 2008

Wolverine: First Class #7 was another fun read. Van Lente is doing a fantastic job on this title. Van Lente has a good sense of humor and is able to deliver such accessible and new reader friendly issues. What has impressed me the most is how Van Lente has tapped into that special vibe that Wolverine used to have back in the day before Marvel totally ruined his character. Van Lente has also completely nailed the chemistry between Logan and Kitty.

Nova #16 was a wonderful Secret Invasion tie-in issue. DnA continue to do a fine job on this title. Nova #16 provides the reader with plenty of action as well as some nice drama and Richard gets to be re-united with his mother, father and brother.

The best part of this issue was when DnA took a little jab at Bendis when Nova first arrives at P.E.G.A.S.U.S. and Nova’s brother has to test Nova to make sure that he is not a Skrull. Robbie comments how he hopes he does not have to hold Nova’s “Skrullified” body and scream melodramatically “Noooooooo!”

It seems that DnA were making a little comment on how the majority of Secret Invasion has proceeded so far. Oh yeah, the stunning return of Quasar at the end of this issue was also pretty cool.

Project Superpowers #6 was another strong read. Krueger continues to impress me with his work on this title. The reader gets treated to a fine blend of action and drama. Krueger has delivered an incredibly well plotted story. This is a complex and deep read that has numerous interesting plotlines that are all coming together in an enjoyable fashion. I find all of these various Golden Age characters to be rather intriguing.

Superman #680 was a fantastic read. I know that many readers may not have enjoyed this issue. But, I am a big fan of Krypto so I loved how Robinson managed to re-establish Krypto’s place within the DCU. Part of what made Superman so much fun were all the wacky sidekick characters that graced the pages of his comic books. And Krypto was my favorite one of them all. Robinson is obviously a dog person because he did a wonderful job handling the love and devotion a dog has for its human.

Legion of Super Heroes #46 was incredible read. Shooter just knocked this issue out of the park. I have enjoyed Shooter’s run up to this point, but this issue was his best one so far. Shooter gives the reader everything you can get in a comic book. There is drama, action, adventure, humor and mystery. Shooter’s character work continues to be spot on as he simply knows and understands the various Legionnaires like no writer has since Levitz penned this title.

Shooter also does an amazing job juggling multiple plotlines at the same time. Shooter is one of the few writers who does not get overwhelmed by the Legion’s large roster. Shooter has been able to keep all the various Legionnaires busy with their own plotlines. It is an absolute shame that DC is canceling the Legion of Super Heroes with issue #50. But, that is a rant that I shall engage in at a later point this week. I can promise that.

Now we arrive at the two issues who are locked in a death match for the Che: Fantastic Four #560 and Captain America #42. I found both issues to be impressive reads. Captain America #42 was a fine ending to Brubaker’s epic story. Brubaker neatly ties up the various plotlines and at the same time plants the seeds for several interesting new plotlines. The reader gets a clear sense of the direction that Brubaker will be taking this title.

Still, there were some aspects to Captain America #42 that some readers may dislike. I found the direction that Brubaker takes the 1950’s Captain America in to be incredibly unoriginal and boring. Also, the fact that there was no resolution with the Red Skull plotline may irritate some readers.

Therefore, I went ahead and gave the Che for the best read of the week to Fantastic Four #560. Millar keeps cranking out insanely entertaining reads. Millar has managed to get me to like a title that I have never had any interest in before. The best part is that Millar has succeeded in creating a setting where literally anything can happen. This makes the reader constantly wondering just what in the world is going to happen next.
Also, Fantastic Four is very new reader friendly and quite accessible. I

would think that Millar’s Fantastic Four would have mass appeal to the comic book reading populace.

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

Hulk #6
New Avengers #45
Teen Titans #63
Ultimates 3 #5
Wolverine: Origins #28

The Winner: Ultimates 3 #5

Hulk #6 was a dumb read. This story is just pathetic. This issue was poorly plotted and lacked internal logic. The only thing that kept me coming back was the mystery surrounding the identity of the Red Hulk. And we don’t even get that questioned answers with the end of this story arc.

However, my love for Kaiju (Gotta like all the giant monsters in this issue), the kick-ass action scenes and the great artwork in this issue was enough to rescue this issue from winning the Sequential Methadone Award.

New Avengers #45 was a disappointment. Bendis gave us another dull Secret Invasion tie-in issue that read like pure filler. Clearly Bendis is simply wasting time until the conclusion of Secret Invasion. There was nothing about this tie-in issue that I found interesting nor did it increase my enjoyment of the Secret Invasion event.

The efforts to shoe-horn the Skrulls into the House of M event failed with me. It felt forced and cobbled together. And Spider-Woman’s character in New Avengers #45 did not mesh with how she acted in the House of M issues.

Teen Titans #63 was another disappointing read. I find Bombshell to be a completely uninteresting character so that immediately hurt my chances of enjoying this issue. But, the larger problem is the writing on this title. The character work is paper thin. The dialogue is cheesy at best. The stories are shallow and uninteresting.

This title has absolutely no direction or purpose and the past two issues have begun to read like fanfiction. This title has plummeted since Johns left. At this point, I am ready to just drop the Teen Titans until there is a creative team change.

However, I had to give the Sequential Methadone Award for the worst read of the week to Ultimates 3 #5. This issue was just a hideous read. What an absolute mess this title has become since the departure of Millar and Hitch.

Ultimates 3 #5 presented the reader with dialogue that was outrageously over the top at moments. The character work has been non-existent. Every character is presented more as a caricature rather than a fully fleshed out person. The story itself is simply dumb. There is very little that I find enjoyable about Ultimates 3.

So congrats to Fantastic Four #560 for winning The Che Award of the week and “congrats” to Ultimates 3 #5 for winning the Sequential Methadone Award for the week.