Meaningless Awards of the Week- 11/29/06

Hero of the Week- Green Lantern

Hal Jordan showed up in three books this week. Kilowog made appearances in two. Guy Gardner got his own Prestige Format mini-series. Even G’Nort managed an appearance without making himself look foolish. It was a good week for the Green Lanterns. Except for those twenty or so people that tried to kill them, that is.

Artist of the Week- Stuart Immomen, Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #10

I’ve always enjoyed Stuart Immomen’s work, but Nextwave #10 puts a whole different side of the artist on display. Completely within the context of the story (two words: Forbush Man), Immomen draws four mini-stories with four distinctly different art styles. The highlight of the set is the story featuring Elsa Bloodstone, which does such a good job of emulating Mike Mignola’s artwork that I’m really hoping that someday Immomen gets a crack at Hellboy.

Line of the Week- G’Nort, from Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage #1 by Howard Chaykin

“When Abin Sur–previous corpsman for sector 2814–crash-landed on the Earth years ago, it was a matter of inches that made Hal Jordan the ringwielder–leaving Guy out in the cold, turning a self-centered, arrogant ass–into a deeply embittered self-centered arrogant ass.”

Return of the Week- The Spirit

As cool as the returns of Star Sapphire and Armin Zola were (really?), the return of The Spirit was the best of the week. It probably didn’t hurt matters that The Spirit’s comeback was written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Darwyn Cooke, and it featured him teaming up with Batman to combat their collective rogue’s galleries. I had never read a single story featuring The Spirit before this week. In fact, I didn’t know anything about the character besides what he looked like and who created him. Batman and The Spirit was a great introduction to the character. His character, his supporting cast and his villains were all woven into the story in such a way that it didn’t matter that I’d never read The Spirit before Wednesday. Oh, and all the Batman stuff was great too, but what else would you expect from a retro-tale by Jeph Loeb and Darwyn Cooke?

Tease of the Week- the two-for-one special, Green Lantern #15

So Star Sapphire’s claimed another host, right in the spot that here last host bit the big one at the hands of the Spectre in Infinite Crisis #4. But Sapphire says that she won’t be content until she finds the object of Hal Jordan’s affections. Poor Cowgirl. But writer Geoff Johns didn’t stop there. Later in the issue, Johns revisits the subplot (wait, comics still have subplots?) he’s put on the back burner for the last couple of issues: the formation of the Sinestro Corps. The first recruit shows up on Qward and manhandles the local before deciding he needs a few new recruits to train, sending rings to find bearers in Sectors and 2814. It’s amazing how much delight one can get from just four digits. While the obvious choice would be this Amon Sur guy, there are plenty of D-grade villains that could become ultra-badass by becoming a member of the Sinestro Corps. Or what if each tease was teasing the same thing? A Sinestro-ring wielding Star Sapphire would be pretty unstoppable.

Cursed Title of the Week- Batman

Maybe it’s not Grant Morrison. Maybe it’s not Andy Kubert. Maybe Batman is just destined to suck. This fill-in arc by John Ostrander certainly leads some credence to that theory. This issue was just all kinds of bad. It probably doesn’t help that Detective Comics is rocking my socks off with all of its Batman-y goodness, but if Spider-Man can support two really good titles a month, you’d think Batman would be able to do it too.

Book of the Week- Green Lantern #15

Y’know, I was all set to give this honor to Batman and the Spirit, but the more and more Meanies I gave out, the more I realized how freaking awesome this issue of Green Lantern was (this issue would have taken home Splash Page of the Week too if my scanner was working). Just a few issues ago I was ready to give up on the title, when all that outer space-Cyborg Superman-Manhunter planet-dead Lanterns stuff was going on. But now that Hal Jordan is back on Earth and back to violating that international metahuman treaty thingie, it’s gotten pretty damn good again. Geoff Johns has four plot lines running simultaneously (Star Sapphire, Sinestro Corps, Amon Sur’s bounty on Jordan, Hal trying to rescue Cowgirl), and you never know when one plot line is going to weave into another one or become the focus of the book. While in the previous arc you knew the “dead” Lanterns would inevitably trust Hal again and unite to defeat the Manhunters, it’s not so clear if Hal’s going to defy his JLA teammates or if they’ll team up to hunt for Cowgirl. You don’t know if the next group that shows up to take Hal down is doing so because he’s invading foreign airspace or if they’re there to collect Amon Sur’s bounty. That unpredictable nature is what makes the book so great.