Meaningless Awards of the Week- 7/5/07

Ending of the Week- Runaways #27

It’s been three years or so since the first volume of Runaways ended. In the final issue of that series, all of the Pride died. It was fitting end to that first arc, and I really thought those characters were gone for good. So I was pretty shocked when the Yorkes appeared at the end of Runaways #27, in 1907 New York.

Logically, if the Runaways where ever going to encounter a member of the Pride again, it would be the time traveling Yorkes, who could conceivably be alive at any given point in time despite dying in Runaways Vol. 1 #18. What makes their appearance right now so interesting is that their daughter Gert is dead. Depending on what point in time the Yorkes come from, they might not even recognize any member of the group as the children of the Pride. But the Runaways will certainly remember them, and you just know Chase is going to do something pretty drastic. I’ve got an inkling that Gert will be brought back into the series thanks to some time travel mumbo jumbo at the end of the arc, but writer Joss Whedon doesn’t exactly have a good track record when it comes to happy endings for couples. It’s a shame Whedon’s only going to be on the title for three more issues, because he’s been able to keep the spirit of the title completely intact after series creator Brian K Vaughan left. Hopefully the next crew is just as good.

Writer of the Week- Robert Kirkman, The Astounding Wolf-Man # 2 and The Irredeemable Ant-Man #10

Robert Kirkman delivered two fun little stories this week. Wolf-Man just seemed like standard superhero fare throughout most of the issue, which Kirkman can excel at, but he really turned it around with the twist ending. A superhero that is a werewolf isn’t a terribly thrilling concept, but a superhero that is a werewolf and goes crazy during the full moon and eviscerates fellow superheroes could be. I’m not sure where he’ll go with the series, whether the lead character remembers what he did or not or whether he’ll try to cover it up, but Kirkman has a tendency to take his creator-owned series in exactly the right direction.

Ant-Man was a World War Hulk crossover, but I didn’t break the rules of the World War Hulk Challenge since I would have bought it anyway. It features Ant-Man trying to fight Hulk from inside his stomach, which proves to be just as invulnerable as the outside of the gamma-irradiated behemoth. Weird…it always seems to work when the Wasp does that. I don’t like the redeeming that seems to be going on with Ant-Man falling in love with the Visioneer…the guy is so much more likable as a shallow, unlikable asshole. That lack of character development is what makes the book stand out against all the other comics out there. If Ant-Man isn’t a dick, he’s just another superhero. Hopefully Kirkman keeps that in mind and sticks to the adjective in the title.

Indecision of the Week- Thor #1: Good or Bad?

I’ve got mixed feelings about the first issue of J. Michael Stracynski’s Thor. Was it a good read? Not really. But thanks to this issue, all the “How did Thor come back from the dead?” stuff is out of the way, so JMS can go on to (hopefully) telling kickass stories chock full of Thor kicking ass. But now that I think of it, the last time Thor came back from the dead with a new #1 (the start of the stellar Dan Jurgens run), they didn’t explain how he came back from the dead, and the series probably benefited from it. I guess I didn’t really care why Thor was back that time, just that he was back. The same is true right now. I’m looking forward to more of Olivier Copiel’s art on the title, and I think JMS has the ability to tell a really good story with the character. Hopefully the quality of this first issue is not indicative of how the series will continue.

Same Old Same Old of the Week- DC Comics

DC had a lot of decent comics come out this week. Outsiders #49 was a satisfying conclusion to the Checkout story, and Batman taking over the team next month seems like a cool idea (but can Judd Winick actually make J’onn J’onzz readable?). The Vigilante arc in Nightwing so far has been the best one since One Year Later. Detective Comics was enjoyable as always, but having Zatanna tagging along made the Joker a little easy to take care of. Black Canary was good, and a nice follow up to the character that was in Birds of Prey, since the Canary in JLA doesn’t seem to be the same Dinah. I actually enjoyed Countdown, although I can certainly understand why most other people didn’t. But really, it was all just more of the same from DC Comics. Remember two years ago when DC had the most exciting comics on the stands? What the hell happened?