Meaningless Awards of the Week- 11/19/08

Best Artist- Marcos Martin, Amazing Spider-Man #578

There’s just something about Marcos Martin’s art that seems like a perfect fit for Spider-Man. His art reminds me a lot of John Romita Sr., and that’s really the pinnacle of Spider-Man as far as art goes. Unfortunately, this is only the fourth issue of Amazing Martin has drawn, and it’s only the second thing I’ve ever read that he’s drawn (the first being the superb Dr. Strange: The Oath mini-series). Here, I’ll just let this art speak for itself:

Most Missed- Deadpool

One of my favorite titles a few years ago was Cable & Deadpool. Deadpool’s a really fun character; I’d rank his witty banter up there with the best of them, and his “questionable” morals make for some humorous decisions. When Cable died and the book essentially became Deadpool Team-Up, it got even better. But then Cable came back and got his own title, so Cable & Deadpool got cancelled. And when Deadpool finally got his own title, he was knee-deep in Skrulls for the first three issues.

This week’s Deadpool #4 is the first time I’ve read the character in a while. I was a bit hesitant about picking up the book since a key ingredient from Cable & Deadpool, writer Fabian Nicienza, wasn’t onboard, and new writer Daniel Way has never impressed me a whole lot. But Way won me over surprisingly easily. I liked this issue so much I might even have to go back and pick up the first three Secret Invasion issues, even though I’m really sick of Skrulls right now.

Most Surprisingly Appropriate Cover- Uncanny X-Men #504

When I saw the cover for UXM #504 (at left), I was a little confused. Rogue hasn’t been in the X-Men comics for about a year now. And there are two different versions of Psylocke, neither of which currently resides in the 616 universe. So this couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the story inside, right?

Turns out, Matt Fraction wrote a story tailor-made for Terry Dodson to draw sexy X-ladies in period clothing. I’m still not quite sure why there were so many sexy X-ladies in Cyclops’ brain or why Emma had to go in there in the first place though,

Dropped! Ex Machina

Okay, so “dropped” isn’t exactly accurate. Ex Machina #39 is the last single issue of Ex Machina I plan to buy. It’s the end of the “Dirty Tricks” storyline, which presumably means it will be the last issue in a trade of Ex Machina. So I’ll start picking up Ex Machina again in trade form when it gets to issue #40.

The title really works better in trades anyway. Ex Machina has a nasty habit of never ever coming out on time. Usually it’s at least two months behind schedule, and sometimes it’s hard to remember what took place all that time ago. But this is the only comic still being written by Brian K. Vaughan, who has unfortunately moved on to bigger and better things with Lost and his movie properties, so there’s little chance I’d ever stop buying this entirely.