My view of comic books is best described by a master of the medium, Howard Chaykin as "individual chapters in extended pictaresque novels." (From The "100 Bullets vol.1 tpb collection).
100 Bullets is excellent graphic storytelling at it's best, even though not really my cup o' tea.
Brian Azzarello (writer) and Eduardo Risso (artist) are absolutely brilliant, and their run on Batman in 2004 (collected as the "BROKEN CITY" tpb) was definitely the darkest that title has ever seen.
Not long ago I was generaly a neigh-sayer of the spandex set,the l980's and 1990's were pretty much the worst times for mainstream superhero comics, and great for everything else.(EPIC COMICS, DC Vertigo, Dark Horse, etc.), but in light of recent events in our everyday world, we really all need to escape a little.
Crime is everywhere, on the news, in the top television shows, in your front yard... I think we all need to find the hope that there are Peter Parkers, Bruce Waynes, and Clark Kents out there making it a safer and nobler place to live.
SUPERMAN and SPIDER-MAN, Major shake-ups in two flagship titles (DC and Marvel respectively).
SPIDER-MAN is now a NEW AVENGER. BATMAN, WONDER WOMAN, and SUPERMAN have confronted their dark sides, and doing so provided an entertaining and thought provoking look at the darkness in super-hero comics over the past 15 to 20 years..
DC COMICS big event of 2005, "IDENTITY CRISIS", lead directly into 2006's events, "INFINTE CRISIS", "52", and "ONE YEAR LATER".
MARVEL countered with "HOUSE OF M", "CIVIL WAR", and "ANHILATION".
Marvel has been stting up 2007's WORLD WAR HULK, starting with the revelation that there is a elite group among The Avengers, THE ILLUMINATI (Black Bolt,Captain America, Iron Man,and Dr. Strange), and they make a disission to send the Hulk into space because he is too dangerous on earth. This makes the green giant absent during the events of CIVIL WAR, and puts him into a storyline reminescent of John Carter Of Mars, and the 70's classic JARELLA'S WORLD from the INCREDIBLE HULK series. Well, now the Hulk is heading back to earth. 'Nuff said!
DC's big three are back from 52, and it's A BRAVE NEW WORLD! The Big show down is WORLD WAR THREE, and then, The event of the year is here! This brand-new, year-long weekly series features a cast of hundreds where anything goes! With head writer Paul Dini and a rotating team of some of the industry's best writers and artists, COUNTDOWN will serve as the backbone of the DCU in 2007.
