After a nice Christmas break in Florida (a balmy 80 degrees all week), I’m back to Atlanta and back to the world of comics. In the upcoming weeks, I’ll have plenty more reviews, previews and news, as well as … get ready for this … exclusive interviews with Jeff Smith, Brian Wood and Mark Waid!
For the moment, since we have literally only hours left till the calendar flips to 2008, why not look ahead to the year to come in comic books?
For me, the countdown to 2008 is literally a countdown to the end of Countdown, the malignant DC weekly series that’s completely and utterly dropped the ball from the quality conclusion to 52. So many DC series have tied into Countdown that I’ve dropped most DC books in order to avoid the crossovers, and it’ll be nice to not have that specter hanging over everything. Of course, Countdown is counting down to Final Crisis (which makes Infinite Crisis a bit of a misnomer, doesn’t it?), and there’s no guarantee DC won’t bungle that as well.
Perhaps a boycott is in order, since the powers that be seem to think the only way to get readers is to have a mega event, kill off a few boring characters, suffer several delays, then largely return the status quo once things wrap up.
On Marvel’s side of the mega event madness (also known as the comic arms race) is the looming Skrull war. Marvel sent over the image seen here accompanied with a single word: “Skrulls!” You can say many things about that marketing tactic, but at least it’s to the point. I can’t say that I’m especially excited about this one either, and it seems to guarantee even more crossover impact than Final Crisis (Marvel has pretty well mastered the art of squeezing event storylines into any and every comic, as evidenced by last summer’s fight between Ghost Rider and Hulk… for no reason at all).
Superhero comics… Don’t you just love them? On that note, what are the odds we’ll finally see the conclusion to Joss Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men this year? How can John Cassady be this slow when he doesn’t draw backgrounds?
Luckily, there’s a whole world of non-superhero comics to look forward to. Brian Wood’s rough-and-tumble Viking series Northlanders is just ramping up. Vertigo has an impressive sounding graphic novel coming along titled Incognegro. The great Jeff Lemire will be concluding his Essex County trilogy with The Country Nurse.
The book I’m most looking forward to? Swallow Me Whole, by Nate Powell (cover seen at right). If you’re wondering who Powell is, don’t worry, few people know about him. He’s worked in comics for several years, putting out the occasional indie story. His brilliant high-contrast art (all black and white) is some of the best in comics, and this book (a story of love amid challenges) should be the one to put Powell on the map.
If you’re looking for more of Powell’s work, you can pick up a complete collection of his stuff, Sounds of Your Name, from Microcosm Publishing (yes, there’s a blurb from yours truly in there).
So, what are you all looking forward to in the year ahead?
