September 2005 Comic Book Wrap-Up

The summer has come to a close and with many of the mini-series from Marvel and DC are coming close to finishing up. This summer has been filled with fantastic mini-series from both of the main corporate publishers, DC Comics & Marvel. As far as my dollars are concerned, DC was the clear winner. They're strategy of having multiple mini-series serving as a lead up to a upcoming maxi-series is a fantastic marketing ploy and offered up some interesting stories for us fans. Of all the "Infinite Crisis" countdown mini's, Villians United had to be the one I looked forward to the most. I've always been a reader whose enjoyed the stories and series that focused squarely on the villians as the main characters. When I was a kid I loved Marvel's occasional super-villian team-ups or the occasional story that focused on a villian like the Joker or Dr. Doom.

Villians United through out its 6 issue run has served up an interesting mystery and has given readers the glee of seeing pages filled with a who's who of DC's stable of villians, in my opinion the most colorful variety of characters in comics. The artwork has been consistently solid and the writing has been strong. The characters all seemed true to their past selves, with the notable exception of the Catman, whose change in personality is one component explored in the series.

Other notable series from DC that have also been fun to read include the new Green Lantern Corp series that started last week. Seeing the Green Lantern Corp's return to the DC Universe is actually more exciting to me then the return of Silver Age Lantern, Hal Jordan. I always enjoyed the assortment of characters in the GLC books. I'm still adjusting to the artwork in the series by Patrick Gleason, but I love the writing stylings of Geoff Johns and Dave Gibbons. The first issue is promising, I'm hoping it will continue to build from this positive start and maybe lead to a permenant series. With so many characters and potential storylines I can easily see it being a vehicle for the other popular GL characters.

Other books from DC that must reads, include my long-time favorite from the Vertigo line, Fables and back in the superhero world the first story arc in JSA Classified has been increasingly intriguing as the clues behind Power Girl's origins are revealed along with their possible connection to the upcoming Infinite Crisis.

These are fun times to be a DC Comics reader and a comic book reader in general. There is a high-level of talent both in writing and artwork that hasn't been present in the industry for a long time. If only they could bring the prices back down to 60 cents or even a buck, then I'd be totally happy.