Jim Doom: Dark Reign! Marvel made the critical error of pissing me off with $3.99 cover prices as they unveiled this new era in their universe, and as a result, they sold ONE FEWER COPY OF A LOT OF BOOKS. No lie – I was genuinely interested in what was going to happen. Leave the…
Jim Doom: Batman Unseen! This was an awesome year for miniseries, as you will see in my 18 entries for honorable mention. But this was my favorite. It had some old-school charm, a fun story, a fantastic characterization of frustrated Batman, awesome Kelley Jones art, campy but lovable storytelling experimentation, and a reliable shipping schedule!…
Fin Fang Doom: the Blackest Night tie-ins! I was incredibly excited when Blackest Night started, but these completely unnecessary $9 stories took a lot of the wind out of its sails. It turns out that the zombie Lanterns weren’t even really the people they looked like, so Superman fighting his Earth-2 counterpart or Tim Drake…
Fin Fang Doom: back-up stories in $3.99 comics! Four dollars is a lot to pay for a comic book. It’s more than I’m willing to pay for a standard 22-page comic produced by DC or Marvel. But throw in an 8- or 12-page back-up featuring characters I like but don’t sell well enough to have…
Jim Doom: The Creepy Christopher Reeve / Richard Donner Fetish! This all just seems ridiculously short-sighted to me. Maybe it’s more than “DC creators honor their childhood by reinventing Superman according to how he was when they saw movies as a kid,” but that’s how it comes off. And I didn’t grow up thinking Superman…
Jim Doom: Killing half the Guardians! I actually really really disliked it when Adam Warlock killed off half the Guardians of the Galaxy, but then when I thought about why I disliked it, I really liked it! This series has been so good that I had grown to truly care about the characters in it,…
Jim Doom: the “real” conclusion to Batman R.I.P. The thread uniting Batman RIP to that two-part story that led into Final Crisis #6 was pathetic. At best, I’d call it weak and underwhelming. At worst, I would call it a dishonestly hyped, poorly executed rip-off. Honorable mention: Bigshot writers swinging and missing: I have tons…
Jim Doom: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning! I don’t know if I should call this a tie since it’s two guys, but I don’t know where you split them. Guardians of the Galaxy has been great, and War of Kings was amazing. I hear from Doom DeLuise that Nova and some of the other Kings…
Jim Doom: Tony Daniel I don’t know why DC decided one of the most important periods in Batman’s history was the right time to let someone practice writing comic books. Daniel’s plots are predictable and his dialogue is groan-inducing. My best guess is that they needed someone to tread water while Grant Morrison’s big picture…
Jim Doom: Ivan Reis! Blackest Night is as good as it is because of him. He makes everything as huge, horrific or heroic as it needs to be. He can handle zombies, superheroes, different faces, gorgeous superheroines, realistic or creepy landscapes, scenes on Earth or on some other planet, intimate conversations, massive battles and basically…