While all of us at Multiversity are fans of a wide spectrum of comics, there are a few of us that tend to self-identify as “DC guys.” We’ve cried for justice; we’ve been through the blackest nights and the brightest days. And now, we’ve been culled together for a new column to focus on some of the bigger goings on in the world of Detective Comics Comics. If you’re wondering who is going to stand up and discuss what is happening at DC – don’t worry:
Today, as the year wraps up, we are going to look back at the past year and share what we felt, individually, were some of the best and worst moments of the year. We hope you enjoy it!
Best/Worst Creative Team
Brian: This should come as no surprise for anyone who knows me/reads this site, but my favorite DC creative team for 10/12 of the year was James Robinson and Nicola Scott on “Earth 2.” Their book had the blessing and the curse of being in the distant corner of the DCU, so the success of the book, more or less, depended on what the creators did exclusively. No crossovers, no tie-ins, no movie generated success or even brand name recognition could be credited for bringing that book to people. Robinson and Scott crafted a world that was more expansive, relatable, and intriguing than the world DC used 51 books to create. Tom Taylor has some mighty big shoes to fill.
The worst creative team was a tougher call. I was tempted to pick one of the “Villains Month” teams, but ultimately felt that I needed to lay the blame on a team that month in and month out disappointed readers. When looked at through that lens, the answer is simple: Scott Lobdell and the ever changing artists of “Teen Titans.” The Teen Titans are, in this writer’s opinion, the book that sets the tone for the entire DCU – they represent both the youth and the tradition of DC’s characters, and deserve a team that showcases the legacy that is the Titans in a positive light. Instead, we get the worst of all possible worlds: a dark, detached, 90’s looking bloat-show, lacking any humor or innovation, that essentially betrays everything about the characters. And while the artists share some of the blame, this is really all about Lobdell, the only man to be on that book from jump street.
Vince: My pick for best creative team is Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang, and Goran Sudzuka on “Wonder Woman.” Sudzuka is a wonderful placeholder for Chiang and Azzarello has been steering the “Wonder Woman” ship to places varied and wonderful, including the continued folding in of the New Gods. That the ‘New 52’ could contain a series this good when everything else has been homogenized and crossed over is a wonder. It’s the only DC Comics series that I can heartily recommend to any type of comics fan. Chiang and Sudzuka are bringing the cleanest, most colorful, and attractive design sense that the ‘New 52’ can lay claim to.
My pick for worst creative team is Andy Kubert and Andy Kubert. It pains me, because I’m a big fan of Andy Kubert’s art, but he wrote one of my least favorite ‘Villains Month’ issues and is writing the painful “Damien” miniseries that is not only unnecessary, but actually hurts the legacy of Damian by coming back to the character too soon and with a poor story.
Zach: For me, the best creative team at DC in 2013 is Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang, and Goran Sudzuka on Wonder Woman. Playing in their own secret little corner of the New 52, this team has slowly crafted the most engaging Wonder Woman yarn in years, weaving in plenty of New God-ly goodness for good measure.
I don’t want to be mean, but worst creative team goes to Dan Didio, Ann Nocenti and company for “Justice League Dark 23.1.” Shame!
Best/Worst Shift in Tone/Creative Team
Zach: The coming of Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino to “Green Arrow” earlier this year was a huge blessing to the floundering series. The duo had a clear and distinct vision for the Emerald Archer, in both story and style. A fun mix of street level crime and globe-trotting adventure, the duo’s new Oliver Queen is one fans can be proud of.
Continued belowHowever, “Stormwatch,” another series hanging on for dear life, was irreparably damaged by the absolutely confounding new direction brought on by Jim Starlin and Yvel Guichet. The creators took a concept that was already doing poorly and made it utterly indecipherable.
Vince: Best shift in tone has to belong to Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder on “Action Comics.” Not only is Superman a readable character again, but he actually seems to be pushing back against the very worst tendencies of the ‘New 52′. Their first issue was pure heroics – something we haven’t seen from the needlessly convoluted and dour Superman stories since Grant Morrison left.
The worst shift in tone belongs to the Batman comics, oddly enough. Hear me out. With the departure of “Batman Inc”, there is now no refuge from dark and grim Batman stories. Morrison and Burnham had a bit of wackiness, humor, and color going in this series. Now that it’s gone, we get one tone of Batman story, and I think that’s unfortunate.
Brian: On the positive side, I think both of my compatriots nailed this on the head – “Green Arrow” and “Action Comics” are the two books that changed the most, and for the best, in 2013. To throw one more in the mix, however, would be the three books with Green Lantern in the title. While the books were still enjoyable under the Johns/Tomasi/Bedard regime, each of the three titles has really come into its own under its new creative team, and the books, though probably less inter-connected, all feel like they are in the same shared universe right now.
As for the worst shift, “Stormwatch” went from being a forgettable and unfortunate series to a downright terrible one – but that is a slide from bad to worse. To me, the worst shift is the departure of J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman from “Batwoman.” While the new creative team might do good things, Williams, Blackman and the rotating artist of the moment were doing something completely different and idiosyncratic on that book and no one, regardless of their skill or ambition, could replace that. It would be one thing if their story came to a finite conclusion, and then they were replaced by a new team, but ending their story mid-stream is bad for all parties involved. I mean this as no disrespect to Marc Andreyko and Jeremy Haun – their story could turn out to be great. But no matter what it is, it won’t be what “Batwoman” has been. And, sadly, that’s a downgrade.
Best/Worst Arc
Vince: The best arc of the year in DC Comics has to be Greg Pak and Jae Lee’s opening 4 issues on “Batman/Superman.” It contained faithful and thoughtful examinations of four characters – 2 Supermen and 2 Batmen. This bit of ingenuity saw Pak exploring 2 completely different sides of two different characters, and had them somehow coming out both feeling like valid interpretations of each. Lee’s ethereal art kind of speaks for itself when it comes to its positive qualities, but its dreaminess was perfect for a story where 2 heroes meet themselves in a strange land.
Can I list ‘Villains Month’ as the “worst arc”? It’s not really an arc, but it span across an entire month and blew up a lot of DC Comics series for me. I stopped reading a handful of books because it was just easier for me to let them go. We covered all of these in earlier columns and there were very few that were as good as, much less improved upon, the average issue of a DC Comics series.
Brian: Vince is right, the first arc of “Batman/Superman” was the best of the year. It was a stunning achievement in subtle retconning, as well as using fill-in artists in a way that didn’t feel disingenuous to the story itself. While there were other fine arcs this year, this one stood out as the one that had a beginning, middle and end with little drop-off in quality throughout.
Continued belowAs for the worst arc, there are a lot of options to consider but, ultimately, depending on how we define “arc,” Vince is right again. “Villains Month,” though not without its good issues, was a weird pitstop in the year, derailing stories, mucking up characters, and generally just being a slog to get through. If we have to isolate one book’s arc, I’ll put my vote to the first arc of the Palmiotti/Gray “Batwing” run. That one arc took just about everything interesting about Batwing as a character and dumped it, in favor of making yet another Gotham-based Bat associate.
Zach: There were quite a few standout arcs of 2013, but the big money goes to ‘Zero Year,’ which marks Scott Snyder’s best “Batman” work since his pre-New 52 “Detective Comics” run. Snyder and Capullo have, and continue to craft a reverent re-telling of the Batman origin, one that manages to encompass several key parts of the established mythology without feeling like a retread. I didn’t expect to like this arc, but I ended up loving it.
Conversely, my worst arc goes to “Death of the Family.” Granted, there were countless story arcs that were far worse than this one in 2013. However, this one struck a particularly negative chord with me. While it started out strong, it lost its way. Maybe it was the absurd number of tie-ins, the frustratingly stubborn Bruce, or the nauseating amount of gore and violence, but this is a low-mark for the kind of “Batman” stories I want to see.
Best/Worst New Character
Vince: Greg Pak’s Lana Lang is my best new character. She’s not really new, I guess, but she’s not really Lana Lang either. And dammit, I like her.
The worst new character, on the other hand, is anyone from “The Movement.” I’ve said it before, but I have no idea if I’m supposed to like any of these characters. I know I’m supposed to hate the cops, but apparently I’m supposed to be cheering for this annoying bunch of self-righteous and entitled twerps.
Zach: Get ready guys, my pick for best new character of 2013 is….Lobo! That would be, of course, the new real Lobo introduced by Marguerite Bennett and Ben Oliver in “Justice League #23.2.” I love the new take on the character, and hope that he gets a big push in 2014. Haters, sorry. Not sorry.
Worst new character is tie between two Ann Nocenti creations, the Joker’s Daughter and the revamped Creeper. Both characters were ill-conceived, poorly written, and left a sad empty pit deep inside me.
Brian: I am truly lucky to work with such smart guys – I was really struggling with both of these categories, if only because of the lack of new characters that DC rolled out this year. But these guys nailed it on all fronts. I have nothing at all to add to this conversation.
Best/Worst Series
Brian: Best series, for me, is “Earth 2,” but I’m not mad at those who consider “Wonder Woman” or “Batman” the best of 2013. But, to me, “Earth 2” is a success on a different sort of level, as I said in the Best Creative Team discussion, because of its isolation and the relative free-reign given to its creators. In fact, “Earth 2” and “Wonder Woman” might be the most isolated books of the New 52 – it can’t be a surprise that when creators are left to (mostly) their own devices, they create work that resonates. Until you push one of those creators out the door, that is.
While I think there are lots of books that are really bad, I think “Superman” takes the cake for the simple fact that people walking into comic shops off the street must be more likely to reach for the self-titled comic of a character they know. This is why it is so great that “Wonder Woman” and “Batman” are doing such great stuff right now – it invites the casual reader into a marvelous story featuring an iconic character. But “Superman” has been such a consistent disappointment from day 1, and the Lobdellization of it has hurt it even more. There is not much, beyond Kenneth Rocafort’s great (but out of place, tone-wise) artwork to redeem the book.
Continued belowZach: Best series of the year is undoubtedly the previously mentioned “Wonder Woman.” No other series matched the consistent level of tight plotting, strong characterization, and fantastic art presented in this series.
For worst series, I think I’ll cheat a little and go with the overarching “Superman” work of Scott Lobdell. That guy just does not get the character, his world, or his cast. The sooner someone at DC sees that, the better.
Vince: “Wonder Woman” is my pick for best series for all the reasons I highlighted in the “Best Creative Team” category.
The worst series remains “Teen Titans” for all of the various atrocities that it continues to do to some of my favorite characters. This series should be light and fun, but it’s not. These characters should look up to the Justice League, and the Justice League should be looking over them, but they’re not. I don’t know where these kids stand in the grand scheme of things – and that’s a bad thing.
Best/Worst Trend
Vince: The best trend is DC Comics’ continued commitment to excellent digital comics. Quite frankly, these are more exciting than the regular series that DC Comics are putting out. Most importantly, if there’s ever a bad story (and there rarely has been), chances are it’ll be over in a week or two and some new direction will show up.
The worst trend is the continued darkening of the DCU thanks to the juggernaut success of Man of Steel. That movies’ box office success might end up being downright bad for superhero storytelling.
Zach: Was there a good trend at DC in 2013? I suppose the company did give a lot attention and opportunities to up and coming writers like Charles Soule, Ales Kot, and Aaron Kuder, as well as writers not usually associated with the company like Greg Pak. There was definitely a small creative “revival” towards the end of the year that bodes well for 2014.
Related to that, I would say the worst trend at DC in 2013 was the number of prematurely announced, and subsequently aborted, creative shifts. The year was marked with controversy surrounding the departures of Jim Zub, Andy Diggle, Josh Fialkov, and others from several high profile and heavily publicized books. This built up an unhealthy level of distrust between DC and its vocal online fan base that the publisher is still fighting to recover from.
Brian: If there is a good trend to look to, it is certainly the bringing in strong writing talent to revitalize “important” – the aforementioned Soule and Pak, along with Jeff Parker, have all stepped onto books that, for one reason or another, DC considers important to their overall brand strength. Even a year ago, these books would have gone to more established creators with a more distinguished DC backlog of work. Instead, these three are (relatively) risky choices for the books they’ve been put on. Parker has yet to have an issue released, but the other two are proving the gamble was a wise one.
The other side of that coin is that art-wise, DC is still really suffering. The influx of new talent is one thing, but when those creators are doing unannounced fill-in work, very much in the established DC house style, it doesn’t help either the creator or the fan. As far as DC has come in bringing in writing talent, there are far fewer artists coming in with any sort of real discernible style. It is great to see guys like Aaron Kuder step up to the big boy’s table after being a regular fill in for the past few years, but he’s the exception to the rule. Until DC loosens their house style, I fear this trend is on the upswing.
Breakout Creative Team
Brian: This is easy – Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder, in just a few issues, have brought some serious game to “Action Comics.” Their styles are so complimentary and fun that they have turned “Action” into a must read comic, after lots of weird starts and stops throughout the past year.
Zach: In a year that promised several major new takes on the Man of Steel, it’s Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder’s bright, fun, and hopeful take on the character that stands out as the strongest. Coming in at the eleventh hour, this team is set to tell the kind of Superman stories we’ve all been dying to read for years, at the very least since Geoff Johns left “Action Comics.”
Vince: Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder is the clear breakout, if you ask me. Kuder has been up-and-coming for a while now, but now he’s truly “A-list.” Pak, on the other hand, has been well-known and well-traveled for a while now, but even in all of his time at Marvel he was never able to carve a spot for himself among the architects. Over at DC, hopefully that has changed for him and he rightfully becomes a top cornerstone in their universe.
Breakout Character
Vince: Vibe, quite honestly. And even though the series is ending, I want to see Sterling Gates put on something that can succeed, because he did a really nice job with a really tough assignment.
Brian: This is a technicality, sure, but I’m going with Superman. After being a stunted, unrecognizable character for the first 2 years of the New 52, this year has seen the Man of Steel (but not Man of Steel) start to come out of his shell a little. In “Justice League” he started to resemble himself a little more, and in “Superman Unchained,” “Batman/Superman,” “Superman/Wonder Woman” and the Pak/Kuder “Action Comics” he’s been slowly but surely becoming the hero we all fell in love with. Let’s hope that 2014 pulls Lobdell off of the titular book and we get even more superb Superman stories.
Zach: The character that stands out most in my mind in 2013 is Lex Luthor. Writers like Geoff Johns, Sholly Fisch, and Charles Soule have done a terrific job bringing the character to the forefront of the New 52 over the course of Villain’s Month and “Forever Evil.” Plus, if I’m reading the signs right, 2014 seems like it will be an even bigger year for villain we all love and love to hate.
Breakout Series
Vince: “Harley Quinn” was my breakout series. We already knew that it would sell gangbusters, because what comic having anything even tangentially to do with the Joker doesn’t? But I didn’t know that it would actually be fairly smart, funny, and good? And that’s not even mentioning the art, where Chad Hardin, quite honestly, is killing it. I couldn’t have been more cynical and skeptical about this one – and I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Zach: DC dropped the ball regarding new series in 2013, after the fairly successful new “waves” of 2013. Very few of DC’s new series in 2013 managed to stick with any kind of satisfaction. “Batman/Superman” started out brilliantly, but did a quick about face after the first arc. “Harley Quinn” looks particularly promising, but has only had two issues published. I would argue that DC had more success with revamping series, like “Green Arrow,” “Suicide Squad,” and “Action Comics,” than with launching new ones.
Brian: “Batman/Superman” has been, hands down, the new book that has excited me the most, even with, as Zach notes, the fall off in the second arc. “Harley Quinn” is an interesting book, but it is trying a bit too hard to be the “Deadpool” of the New 52. I think, when we look back on this year, both “Batman/Superman” and “Superman/Wonder Woman” will be seen as books that started to bring Superman back to prominence, and for DC nothing should be more important.
See you in 2014!
