This is a first, but we’re blending Week’s end and Month’s End for the cost of space and my own damn sanity. First Week’s End then Month’s End, in the same post. This should be interesting. Sit back and let’s hope I’m not whistling bonkers by the end of this.
Week’s End –
Comic of the Week: Ultimatum Spider-man: Requiem #2
A bit of a tough decision, much as I loved this issue I can’t deny that Young Avengers did a great job this week of renewing my interest in the series. Still Spider-man Requiem steals the show for a heart string tugging ending to one of the greatest comics of all time (even though it will be right back in 2 weeks, let’s not spoil the moment) as Bendis ends Ultimate Spider-man on a high note.
Of course the artwork was a
Runner Up: Dark Reign: Young Avengers #3
Moment of the Week: Spider-man is alive!
An easy choice, man it seems July was a month of survival (more on that later) as I was very excited to see Spider-man alive and well. Okay not well but he was still alive at least. Some may say that Ultimatum was a cop out on promising the death of Peter Parker, I’m just happy that he’s alive so I don’t see the problem.
Cover of the Week: Dark Reign: Young Avengers #3 by Mark Brooks
There’s something so badass about this cover yet so simplistic and mature about it. Vision pondering his victory while standing over the corpse of his victim Egghead. Sadly we didn’t get a badass fight like this would lead us to believe but still the coloring, the pose and overall character’s badass expression just al looks so cool.
Runners up: Spawn #194 by Greg Capullo, Spider-man Requiem #2 by Stuart Immonen
“Whoa” of the Week: Immonen on 3 books!
Man, you want to talk about a hard working guy who loves his job and goes above and beyond the call then just mention Stuart Immonen. Truth be told up until recently he hasn’t been my favorite artist really, his style at first didn’t really appeal to me but like so many before him it grew on me and I came to love his work.
But damn…3 comics in one week? That’s dedication. That shows a respectable hard working artist. Sadly one of those comics was just as a fill in artist on Fantastic Four but it’s still cool. Mr. Immonen I salute you to your awesomeness and hard work.
Artist of the Week: Stuart Immonen
I’m sure you saw this coming but come on, the man did an incredible job on Spider-man Requiem and I’m sure he did a great job on the 2 other comics as well. The fact that he did 3 comics and they all look good alone should be a testament that he’s a great artist and win him the award this week.
Runners up: Mark Brooks, Kev Walker.
Character of the Week: J. Jonah Jameson
I’m sure there may be some confusion over this choice. After all Jonah has been the most notorious villain in Spider-man history, and with Spider-man Requiem here you’d think that Spider-man would win the award but no Spider-man was more like an element this week compared to Jonah who gave a heart wrenching final word on the wall crawler he once hated so much. I don’t think Jonah has ever been better.
“Ugh” of the Week: Ultimatum
Just Ultimatum folks. This event was a groan inducing kill fest that would make god awful torture porn films like Saw look away in disgust. Now as I mentioned character deaths are merely a delay for a character but that doesn’t make useless deaths like these any less useless. The only death out of all these deaths that I Liked was Thor’s, and I kind of liked Wolverine’s but he’s not even dead.
It’s amazing how Loeb took an event that had a great premise of Magneto becoming the Ultimate Villain (pun intended) and doing all this crazy stuff but he ruined it so badly. If I could give reviews with negative numbers I just might give Ultimatum a big fat -10. I thought Secret Invasion was an exercise in pointlessness, at least in Secret Invasion we got SOME interesting moments.
Ultimatum along with still hiding the Red Hulk’s Identity and that…ugh….migraine inducing, desk smashing, brain popping…”design” for the Red She-Hulk have finally convinced me to never read a Loeb comic again. I almost feel bad about that since I did enjoy Ultimates 3 and his first arc on Hulk but gods Loeb just took any potential as a good writer he had and killed it with Ultimatum. The biggest victim of it all I suppose.
But was Ultimatum worth it? Well we get a really cool sounding reboot but I’m starting to think not. We could have easily gotten this reboot without any of the bullshit that was Ultimatum. It’s comics like Ultimatum that make me regret reading comics.
Question of the Week: Will you be buying Ultimate Comics?
A fairly simple question, are you guys going to pick up the Ultimate universe reboot that is Ultimate Comics Avengers and Ultimate Comics Spider-man? Now I’m of course buying Spider-man but for now not picking up Avengers but I am curious as to what the readers will be reading come August.
So with Month’s End we’re tweaking things a bit, dropping Artist//Character of the Month since I’d have to just totally recycle from old Week’s End but I’m keeping the original 3 as well as Most Anticipated of the upcoming month.
Month’s End – July 2009
Comic of the Month: Blackest Night #1
A very tough decision, this month had some really great stuff but Blackest Night’s debut dominated all of the competition. Sure it was a little too much recapping things and catching us up but by the end of it things where in full swing and it seems that the world will be coming to an end very soon. This is just how a debut event comic issue should be and it was great.
Runners up: Spawn #193, Spider-man Requiem #2, Invincible #64
Moment of the Month: Eve is Alive!
An easy decision, Eve’s survival had me jumping for joy and was great. Not everyone was happy that Eve survived but I certainly was one happy customer as I’m really excited to see where Kirkman goes from here next time.
Cover the Month: Reborn #1 covers
This was a very tough decision, trust me. This Month had some seriously excellent covers and to pick one was impossible. Looking at all the great covers for Captain
The Hitch cover has an awesome dynamic pose and the scene of war behind Cap looks cool as all hell. The Ross cover (the one I got) has a great use of the two light colors to display a warp like image. Cassidy’s image was just very bold, especially with the colors. The Quesada variant was just very imposing and it looked badass as far as Cap is concerned.
So yeah, 4 awesome covers that win the award since their of the same comic.
Runner Ups: Young Avengers #3, Cap #601
"Whoa” of the Month: Survival of the heroic!
I must admit I was damn near stunned at how 3 heroes I figured where dead all survived. Sara Pezzini, Atom Eve and now Spider-man. It’s almost strange that the writers all didn’t keep these characters dead. Almost as mostly it’s just plain awesome and left me very happy. Also it’s very odd that this all happened on the same month.
Comic deaths are more like roadblocks for the lives of super heroes and villains but still there are some deaths you just don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel for them. With writers like Robert Kirkman and Ron Marz I was sure their characters would remain in the grave even if Spider-man’s survival didn’t shock me this much.
Most Anticipated of the Upcoming Month: Ultimate Comics Spider-man #1
Trust me when I say this was a tough decision. DC has Blackest Nigh #2 and Streets of Gotham #3 both are incredible looking comics. Invincible #65 will wrap up the excellent Invincible War: Aftermath story so I’m sure that will be great too. But it all comes down to one thing that gives Spider-man the win, Brian Bendis and David Lafuente.
I’ve said it a billion times but to say it again, Bendis and Lafuente where an amazing team on the superb Spider-man Annual #3 last year and the fact that their the core team brings me incredible joy. I can’t wait to read this book, Spider-man is back, the main cast is back, this is going to rock all kinds of ways.
I originally was worried who would be the new Spider-man, now I’m sure it’s Peter. With Spider-woman hopefully as a main cast member (and entering what I’m sure will be a creepy relationship with the Human Torch that is wrong on so many levels) this is looking to be an incredible book. Sure it was probably just Marvel’s excuse to get us to pay a dollar extra for Ultimate Spider-man but I’m more then positive that the admission will be worth it.
Runner Ups: Invincible #65, Blackest Night #2, Streets of
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