OK, it's roughly the halfway point of the year. What in the comic universe are your All-Stars?

Here's mine:

BEST ONGOING BOOK
Last year it was Astonishing X-Men for me, but an OK-but-not-outstanding story arc and an inconsistant shipping schedule gives my All-Star vote to JSA. Honorable mention to Ex Machina, Fables, Captain America, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Young Avengers.

BEST MINI-SERIES
Adam Strange in an upset over Green Lantern: Rebirth, but Villians United, Day Of Vengence, and Seven Soldiers are coming on strong.

BIGGEST SURPRISE
By far, Young Avengers. If not for the inconsistant shipping, this may have been my best ongoing. Honorable mention to Manhunter, Batman: Dark Detective, Adam Strange, Ultimate Iron Man, and the return of Hawkman as a damn fine book.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
I'm going to go with Green Arrow here, since it squandered so much good feeling, and Avengers Disassembled was last year and I still have hope for The Ultimates 2.

BEST WRITER
Despite a tour de force showing for Grant Morrison (We3, Seven Soliders, Vinimirama), I'm going to have to give this one to Geoff Johns. JSA hasn't been this good in over a year, the Rogue War arc in Flash may be his best ever on that title, his exquisitely handled resurrection of Hal Jordan, and the always-solid Teen Titans. Honorable mention to Bill Willingham (Day Of Vengance, Fables, Robin) and Greg Rucka (Wonder Woman, OMAC Project, Gotham Central, Adventures Of Superman).

BEST ARTIST
So much goodness to choose from, but I'm going to go with Rags Morales for Wonder Woman, Adventures Of Superman, and Countdown To Infinite Crisis. Honorable mention to Ethan Van Sciver (Green Lantern), John Cassaday (Astonishing X-Men, Planetary), Bryan Hitch (The Ultimates), and Joe Bennett (Birds Of Prey, Hawkman).

My thoughts:

BEST ONGOING SERIES:
At the moment, Flash is wowing me more than anything else, but JSA is a close contender (and could easily take the lead once Johns leaves Flash). New Thunderbolts is pretty solid as well, and would definitely be my top Marvel pick.

BEST MINISERIES:
At the moment, I'd probably say GL: Rebirth, but it's not likely to remain so; Villains United is probably going to overtake it by year's end.

BIGGEST (POSITIVE) SURPRISE:
The Superman titles. I started picking them up simply for the summer of crossovers... and to my surprise, I'm actually enjoying all three on their own merits.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT:
Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, for squandering a good premise. New Avengers would run second, but not closely.

BEST WRITER:
Geoff Johns gets my vote here as well.

BEST ARTIST:
Ethan Van Scriver, because it would have been so easy to do GL poorly, but Tom Grummett's New Thunderbolts comes in at a razor-close second.

BEST ONGOING SERIES:
I'll go slightly off the beaten path and say Ex Machina. It has been consistently golden since it started.

BEST MINISERIES:
Oy. I guess I'll say Rebirth. But like CO, I doubt it'll stay that way.

BIGGEST (POSITIVE) SURPRISE:
Flash. I'd only gotten one issue of Flash before, but Rogue War is blowing my mind.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT:
Judd Winick. Once among my favorite authors...he has tanked and tanked hard over the past several months.

BEST WRITER:
Err, uh, yeah. Johns.

BEST ARTIST:
I think I'll throw the "midseason" bone to Mike McKone right now. I don't think I'll vote him for a McCrea at the end of the year, but I've really missed him on Titans, and it's only been a couple of issues.

Okay, I'll play your dirty little game....for now.....


BEST ONGOING SERIES:
Young Avengers, no question. I'm actually planning on writing a large review on the entire first arc once it's over.

BEST MINISERIES:
Yeah, I'll go the Rebirth rout here for now.

BIGGEST (POSITIVE) SURPRISE:
Flash. I'll be honest, I had never read a Flash solo comic in my life untill a few issues before Rogue War started, and now I buy it whenever it comes out. Close second goes to the Secret Wars: From the Files of Nick Fury one shot, written by Mike Raicht. It explains more than Bendis ever did, and it's way more fun than the rest of the series.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT:
Secret Wars. Since it's not over yet, I'm calling it this year.

BEST WRITER:
Allan Heinberg. I can't even begin to tell you how much I like Young Avengers. Very close second goes to Brian K. Vaughan.

BEST ARTIST:
Jim Cheung, again from Young Avengers. Although I'll admit that I'm drawing a blank on most everyone else, even if he wasn't my #1, he'd still be close.

BEST ONGOING BOOK

Conan.

Planetary is hurt here by its quarterly schedule (although they are consistent with it). Legion gets an honorable mention.

BEST MINI-SERIES

Adam Strange without a doubt. That was a fun, fun ride. Good story by Andy Diggle and excellent art by Pascal Ferry.

BIGGEST SURPRISE

Young Avengers. A. Strange may have gotten my vote here too, but I had seen previews of the art on that mini and knew going in how much I would like it. I knew nothing about YA.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

House of M and New Avengers are both in contention (Sorry Gelf). Batman has been dissapointing. I'll have to do some recollection to come up with the answer for this one.

BEST WRITER

Warren Ellis. Planetary continues to blow my mind, and his work on Ultimate FF was excellent. Along the way he had time to put together a solid sci-fi mini in Ocean.

BEST ARTIST

I'm going to have to go with Cassady right now, with honorable mentions going to Cary Nord (Conan), Pascal Ferry (Adam Strange), and Phil Jimenez (Other World). But there's some big names coming out to play soon, including Jim Lee, Alex Ross and Rob Liefeld!

Actually, I just remembered Villains United. Hands down my biggest disappointment of the year. Love Lex Luthor. Love Deathstroke. Both of them combined have gotten a panel and a half in this "Battle of the C-Listers".

Also, looking at the Shipping delays, I forgot that Ellis was involved in Iron Man (who wouldn't, when the hell's the last time that thing came out? February?) - Its a misstep for sure. Leaving this category open again for me. But I wouldn't go with Johns. Johns - to me - manages to be steady on like eight different titles a week. Which is impressive. But none of them are great IMO. Rogue War is good, but it's not gonna make my top ten this year (At least I hope the rest of the year plays out stronger than this). The one GREAT arc he did so far this year is Teen Titans. The one where they go to the future. That was great, really great. We'll see what he does with JLA, that got off to an excellent start.

Wow, you are hard to please. Rogue War has been awesome.

But yeah, I almost put Ellis in the "disappointment" category between a so-so Ult Fantastic Four run and a boring-as-hell Iron Man.

I can't see how anyone can read Villians United and be disappointed. That is just one fun, wicked book.

What gets me about this complaint is that the heads of the Society are primarily C-listers as well. I mean, sure, you've got Lex, who is the alpha-Villain of alpha-Villains, but other than that... Deathstroke, who's kind of big right now, and Black Adam, who is a solid B-lister. Then you've got Talia, who's a supporting character to a villain that up until this latest movie was a B-lister at best, Dr. Psycho, a definite C-lister, and Calculator, who before Identity Crisis aspired to be a D-lister.

That said, while I personally am loving the look at things through the eyes of Catman & company, it would be nice to see more of what the Society is up to, since now they should be doing more than just organizing.

It's completely not about them anymore. We're halfway through now. This is a book that stars the Secret Six, or whatever the heel they are. They're you're new heroes, and the rest is ancillary.

K2, you're not seeing Ellis at his best if you're not reading Planetary, which I'm pretty sure you're not.

Meanwhile, Iron Man has been a snore, you're right.

Rogue War has been pretty good. I never said it wasn't. I like it. But it's not awesome, or great really. The books I give those titles to are few and far between.

I use this measurement. If I had one chance to turn someone on to comics for life, would I give this to them?

CO, you make a good point about listing all the C-Listers in the Society, but that's just another argument for it being disappointing. I want all the biggest baddies. Thought they'd be here. But they're not. Meanwhile, I haven't been able to complain about the Society because I don't get to see them

Heh. I think if I had one chance to turn someone on to comics for life, I'd probably give up unless I really knew the person well enough to know just what comic to pick. Now, sometimes that's not too hard, but I don't think there's any one comic -- no matter how good -- that I would point to as the catch-all (I think it was the Watchmen/KC discussion in the Storylines Battles that made a particular point of this.)

I can understand that. I always thought the idea of, for example, Joker and Luthor teaming up was more than a little farcical on the face of it, but really, they're the biggest names in the bad guy department, and I can't blame anybody for expecting to see more of the big guns here. I don't think the story has been hurt one iota for it, but the expectations mismatch I can understand, at least insofar as we're going about the premise (big supervillain team-up) in a roundabout way (viewing it from the outside instead of the inside).

I do fully expect that when the actual Infinite Crisis miniseries hits, Luthor's Society will factor in in a big way.

The only disappointment for me so far in Villains United is Simone's inescapable urge to put food in her comic books. I thought it was just a BoP thing...until Catman and Deadshot spent a night enjoying scrambled eggs. I just don't understand it....was Simone a chef at some point or something?

Other than that, it's been good. But I'm certainly in no place with it to claim it the best mini of the year. There's still a lot of time and issues for it to turn to suckage. I'll wait until I know who Mockingbird is before I praise it that highly.

Well, at least it was manly food. Eggs are a pretty in-character breakfast for those two.

If you say so. I'd never even heard of the kind of eggs that Catman made. Furthermore, I never really imagined that supervillains had breakfast anyhow....I mean, who has the time?

You've never heard of a Denver Omelette?

Well, it's an omelette with a bunch of red and green peppers, usually onion, sometimes cheese (I prefer it with cheddar), and some form of pork product -- ham is most common, but some people substitute or add bacon.

Die-hards will often add hot sauce. I admit I haven't tried it that way, but it's pretty good without.

Why is it called a Denver Omelette? And how do you know about this, considering you're no where near Denver?

I do not know why it's called a Denver Omelette. I would guess it originated there. But it's spread out pretty far and wide.

I've read all the issues that's available in trades (and I love it), but you're right, I haven't read any issues this year.

As for Villians United... who gives a flying flip who's in it? Can't it be enjoyable on it's own merits, independent of "A-list" or "C-list" status? Lex is a fine villain, but does he have to be the star villain all the time? Hell, he's got his own miniseries right now.

I think it's been brilliant so far. I like the presentations of these villains, who by their nature tend to be two-dimensional when used in superhero books, as real people with motivations, fears, and anxieties. No reason they can't eat breakfast too.

I just hope Dr. Psycho gets a chance to kick ass before then end instead of just being comic relief.

Get thee to an IHOP!

I do.

I'll say it again, since I guess I didn't get my point across the first time. A series Starring Catman and Catgirl and the Catkids is fine. But if you promote it with someone else on the cover, and advertise it with someone else as the lead, shame on you.



Of course it can, but let's say "Joe Author" decides to create a comic about the walk to the corner to get a pack of gum. Don't Superman and Batman make that a better read than Catman and Manhunter?

Forget that, you'll find a way to say yes it does.

Let's look at the torture fest that was this month's issue. If you were going to tell me that this month's ish was about Lex Luthor being tortured, my ears would perk up. "Huh? What?" He's a character I've known all my life, and I've seen him in movies, etc - I've got attachments to this guy.

In order to get to that level with some "No Name" character, the author has to work 10x as hard. Thats it. Period. In order to build THAT level of caring/concern/interest, you've got to be brillaint in your development, whereas the "Big Names" have it going in.

Hence my reaction to seeing all of these "Stars" of this series being tortured. "Eh."



No, of course not. Never said he did. Or any other big names. However....Don't sell me a comic based on a name and then do a switchabout and not have them in it.

Then what happens is not only am I pissed about the switch, I'm constantly comparing the comic I'm reading to the comic I'd hoped for.

Big events are better served by big names. Development of these C-Listers is better served in the title of their chief enemy. Johns redefined the Rogues in Flash, its a great example. Hawkman has put together some great villain moments lately. Thats when you build them. And before you know it, they're ready for primetime.



Well, man, if I'm hard to please, you serve as Yin to my Yang. Calling this brillaint is a stretch. a big one. Forget my pissy "Where's my Luthor" stance, this book is good at best. Personally I'd only go so far as decent. The art is nothing to celebrate, and just because they show villains eating eggs doesn't make it genius.

I make a mean Denver Omelette.

Sell me your copies the Fogs, then you can drop it, and I can give them to a friend.

Clearly just a matter of taste, so I see no sense in continuing the arguement.

Actually, I'm waiting for him to get his ass kicked. I wouldn't say, I can't stand him, but I'm certainly yearning for him to be hit. Hard.

And since I'm responding to this topic, I figured I would toss in my choices.

BEST ONGOING BOOK
Without a doubt, Young Avengers. I picked this up on a whim when I saw issue number one in the store. I was pretty much blown away and I continually look forward to it more than any other book I regularly get. Honorable mentions to Teen Titans and Astonishing X-Men.

BEST MINI-SERIES
I haven't gotten too many mini-series this year but of the completed one's I have gotten (Deadshot, The Question, Green Lantern: Rebirth), I'd have to give this one to Green Lantern. I loved the artwork and thought that Hal Jordan was really well explained. Only downfall of it being that Batman got slugged by Hal.
However, I do expect this pick to change when Villain's United is completed. I don't mean to add fuel to any arguement/debate, but I'm really enjoying that this mini. Of course, I am not a very hard person to please. I like action and intrigue and this book has both. It really doesn't matter who the characters are to me, as long as they're well written and interesting. Now, what makes them interesting to me, may not make them interesting to someone else. I'm just saying that I'll continue to buy and enjoy this miniseries even after it's ended because I predict it will affect Infinite Crisis.

BIGGEST SURPRISE
I'm gonna have to go with Young Avengers. I was gonna give this to Batman but then I noticed the next category. I really didn't think too much of the Young Avengers hype and really taught it was gonna be pretty goofing/corny, whatever. But as I said, I picked it up on a whim because it was a first issue and because I had just finished reading Teen Titans and was really open to the idea of reading about another teen super hero team. And as I said, this title blew me away. I hope it continues to do so for quite a while.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
Batman. This title is turning up with Jason Todd but before that it wasn't really living up to my expectations. Now granted, I probably have the highest set of expectations of any of my comics for Batman but I just can't stand a poorly written Batman. I don't really believe Winick wrote Batman poorly but I didn't really think his arcs were all that interesting. The Scarecrow and Penguin arc was pretty boring and confusing, I thought. But now we have Andersen Gabrych so let's hope he writes some more entertaining stories.

BEST WRITER
Geoff Johns. Continually the best stories come from this guy. I'm always impressed with each book of his that I read and I'm overjoyed that he's writing JLA now.

BEST ARTIST
This is a tough one for me because I'm not so knowledgeable of artists. I just know which issues I like the art in when I'm reading it. Thinking back, I really liked the art on Green Lantern:Rebirth so I think I'd have to go with Ethan Van Sciver. I thought the detail this guy did was great. And my only beef with his work was that he made Batman completely shadowed. I thought this worked really well in last week's issue of Gotham Central but for a story where Batman is consistently being viewed by his peers and they have the opportunity to look at him all over, I think we the readers should be able to see him in just as much detail as Superman and Wonder Woman see him in.

Honorable Mention to Jim Cheung for Young Avengers.

What the heck..I'll throw in on this too, even if I keep it brief.

Best Ongoing Book: Legion of Superheroes. Waid and Kitson are just simple magic together, and even though I have no previous investment in Legion characters, I now look forward to this title more than any other every month. And I am always awed by the words that come out of Brainiac's mouth.

Best Mini-Series: Great Lakes Avengers, all the frickin way.

Biggest Surprise: I just picked up some Hawkman issues for the first time since Johns left....and I was blown away. Great art, great story. Hawkman.

Biggest Disappointment: Green Arrow. Once my favorite title, now my least favorite. Winick has been taking a year-long crap, and GA is his toilet paper (did I just channel Flan or something?.. )

Best Writer: Waid. But Johns will probably surpass him for me by year end.

Best Artist: Van Sciver.

Holy crap, I forgot about GLA. I change my answer for best mini to that.

I think everyone did. But, really, how can you beat Doom vs. Monkey Joe?

It's hard to top, that's for sure.

Good call on LoSH too. It doesn't supplant JSA for me, but it should have gotten a mention from me. Always a good read.

Best Ongoing For me, I have to say that JSA. I've just continued to enjoy the quality work that has been done by everyone involved with this book.

Best Mini-Series Loved Deadshot, GLA, and Rebirth. I give the nod to Rebirth. It's going to have the biggest impact on other series. In selecting this, I looked at this as having to be a completed series.

Biggest Surprise Legion of Superheroes- I've always like Legion, but haven't really cared for the last few reboots. I've been blown away at how well Waid has recreated this franchise.

Biggest Disappointment Several good candidates, I'm going with Marvel Comics. Avengers disassembled, late books, Secret Wars, why just single out one poor showing when they have so many....

Best Writer Geoff Johns- It seems like all of his books have been consistently good

Best Artist Ethan Van Scriver.

BEST ONGOING BOOK
Kabuki... bar none. I've even gotten my wife addicted.

BEST MINI-SERIES
We3- This book was damn good.

BIGGEST SURPRISE
I also would have to say Young Avengers. Came out of nowhere and completely rocked.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
Definately Secret War. While not wholely without merit (especially the art) It completely derailed itself and never recovered. Too bad, because I still think the original story would have been great, if Bendis had told it to us.

BEST WRITER
I'm gonna surprise some of you by NOT saying Bendis. right now I think it's a 3 way tie between Warren Ellis, Mark Millar, and Kurt Busiek
Edit: 4 way tie... add BKV

BEST ARTIST
MACK!

Yes sir! That's what makes him a great villian. I for one absolutely loathe him. And that's a good thing.

Glad we agree!

Indeed, and thank ya. It tops JSA for me...because I stopped reading JSA after the issue where Stargirl is crying over Captain Marvel leaving, and Degaton appears. Not that JSA is bad or anything...I think I just got burnt out of it, since my favorite JSAers are not usually the ones in the limelight (or weren't in the story arcs I read). Stargirl, Hourman, and Jay are probably the least interesting members to me, and yet they seemed to get the most focus. I'd rather have more Wildcat.

Wow, those are like, my three favorite. And Alan and Kendra. And Wildcat too.

You should read the Stars and STRIPE series, if you can find back issues. Courtney is a lot of fun.