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By Jason Bourgeois
Welcome back to Grey Matters, an ongoing look at comics! It's been a long time since I've done a 'list of things I'm thankful for" in one of my columns, and since this month is American Thanksgiving, I figured what the hey, and do a new one for 2008. So, without further ado, just what is there to be thankful for from this past year?
- One More Day/Brand New Day. No, seriously. Making Peter a loser again? Breaking him up with MJ in the most ham fisted, obviously dictated way that violates rules of good storytelling? Saves me the money on three titles a month, easily. Thanks, Marvel! And hey, I got some really good columns out of those storylines.
- A cohesive direction for the X-Men line of comics. Well, cohesive may be putting too fine a point on it, but for the first time in about a decade, it feels like the X-Men are a whole again, working together, and going somewhere. Where that may be, and individual issues may be questionable, but having that feeling that the X-Men have goals again is nothing but a good thing.
- Finally getting to a San Diego Comic Con, where I had a blast, met cool people, and it's all thanks to the folks here at Collector Times.
- The trend lately that seems to have a lot of female versions of male characters cropping up. I always thought Supergirl and Batgirl were fun ideas, and while they've been mocked in the past, likely dating back to their inception, and they've become beloved characters, and enduring ones as well. It's fun to see that continuing today with Miss Martian, Batwoman, a new Supergirl, Mister Sinister becoming Miss Sinister, a new female Black Panther, and others I know I'm forgetting. Hopefully some of them have as much longevity as Batgirl.
- Trinity. DC's latest attempt at a weekly comic is leaps and bounds better than Countdown ever was, using the strength of a single writer or two, and one main artist, with a few others rotating on secondary stories, all feeding into one large superstory. Kurt Busiek has crafted a hefty mystery that will run the course of the year, and he's got the room to really let it breathe, and build, and show off the DC Universe. I may even say this is better than 52, but I have to wait.
- Cyclops being a bad-ass. Cyke is a favourite character of mine, almost without rival, and to have him finally stepping up, being the leader for the remains of the mutant population, and growing a backbone, or showing the one he's always had IMO, is a logical outgrowth of where the character has always been heading. It is long past time Scott gets some respect, and the last few years have been very good to him indeed.
- SKRULLS! Yes, I'll admit it, I love me an alien invasion. And while Secret Invasion hasn't knocked it out of the park, it's been a pretty good 'summer action movie' type story, and pretty fun. If only the pacing were better.
- Greg Rucka. I don't love everything he does. I usually don't like his subject matter or the characters he chooses. I'm not a fan of the non-powered characters, since I want to see fantastical things in this medium. But he's taken characters like the new Question, and Batwoman, and thrown them up against people like a cult of evil, and made it interesting even to people like me. That takes some skill, and I look forward to what he has coming up next, even if I may not read it in the end.
- Girls kicking ass. Usually they're being stuffed into fridges, but they get some love too. Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Spider-Woman...all strong female characters kicking butt and taking names, and not backing down just because they're silly girls. I'd rather face the Hulk than a pissed off Carol Danvers. Ok, so Spider-Woman's a Skrull, but that just means she's behind an entire invasion of our culture. How bad-ass is that?
- Cosmic stuff is back in a big way. Booster Gold, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, Green Lantern and his Corps. I love the cosmic comics. They really get to play with just what you can do with comics, which have an unlimited budget, effectively. If you can imagine it, you can draw it. Drawing a cosmic war costs no more than drawing a guy walking down the street. This is the stuff I read comics for. And with these titles, we've got imaginative cultures, amazing spacescapes, and fascinating characters not found in Terran nature. And a telepathic Russian cosmonaut dog. These books are the ones I look forward to the most each month, and I am so psyched for the Black Lanterns storyline coming next year.
While there's been quite a bit of crap, I'm generally pleased with where comics are these days. There's always room for improvement of course, but comicbooks aren't that bad right now. There is a lot to like out there. Just take a deep breath, and enjoy the ride, folks.
Jason M. Bourgeois
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