I might be one of the few that thinks this, but it seems to me that comics are on a bit of a two month slide. After a weak May, I found June to be an even bigger disappointment. Such is life though, and I do want to note one thing before I get started on this: my reading list is substantially smaller than many of the other writers at Multiversity. If my negative votes seem odd, it’s because I had to pick from a smaller audience to begin with.
So let’s do this.
Best Comic of the Month: Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #1
This is not likely to be a popular opinion given the hatred towards this project as a whole, but when I look back on the month, two books stood out more than the rest, and they were both Before Watchmen ones: Silk Spectre #1 and Minutemen #1. Now, this might seem like a weird way to decide to some, but I knew Minutemen was going to be great. Darwyn Cooke writing and drawing? That’s a win right there.
I knew I would like Cooke and Amanda Conner’s Silk Spectre too, but I was blown away by it. Cooke and Conner co-wrote a story that added a lot of depth to two of the characters of “Watchmen” that weren’t developed nearly as much as the rest, as both versions of Silk Spectre were humanized and made far more three dimensional than ever before. Of course, it helped that Conner’s art was spot on, alternately charming and emotionally resonant, powerful and full of heart. It was stellar work from both creators, and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here. Plus, if you’re looking for great work on female characters from a female creator, look no further than this.
Runners up: Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1, Saga #4, Morning Glories #19, B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Exorcism #1
Worst Comic(s) of the Month: Casanova: Avaritia #4 and Avengers vs. X-Men #5
I loved the first two issues of Casanova: Avaritia. I can’t really say that about AvX, but these books do have one commonality besides splitting my worst book of the month spot: they were both written by Matt Fraction.
Now, I like Fraction generally, but in these two books I found myself disliking the books he worked on for two very different reasons. For AvX, it was almost entirely tied to the fact that this was just a massively mediocre comic. For an issue that was designed to be the big game changer, everything in it sure came out in a whimper. 50% of what happened in this issue was laughable, and the other 50% was just oppressively bad. Oddly enough though, I quite enjoyed AvX #6.
Then, you have the bigger disappointment in Avaritia. This series has been a dense read even at its easiest point, but with issue #3 it began to fall down the rabbit hole that Gula fell into by losing its tenuous grasp on a narrative structure, and the fourth issue completely abandoned that, as my ability to comprehend what I was reading was snuffed out like the many, many universes both Casanova and Luther Desmond Diamond were taking out. Granted, it does not help that this issue suffered from…delays, but as a whole, if I cannot even fathom exactly what I am reading, it’s hard to call that comic “good.”
But I might just not get it, I suppose.
Best Scene of the Month: Every look into Laurie Jupiter’s head
These are hardly full scenes, but man, every time Amanda Conner gave us a quick look into Laurie’s head, I was positively overjoyed. It added so much fun and depth to the story and the character herself. Just wonderful work.
Runners up: Hunter visiting his mom in Morning Glories #19, Ursula’s scene in Minutemen #1, The Will sends Lying Cat away in Saga #4
Worst Scene of the Month: Like…a million of them from AvX #5
Wolverine repeatedly getting straight up murdered while everyone else is okay. Tony Stark’s Phoenix killer suit. The fight sequence at the beginning and what is going on with Cap’s shield during it. The Phoenix Force Five. All of it. Good lord. What a mess.
Continued below
This is basically a huge coronation for the Cooke books of the month. Everything Cooke touches is gold, so it’s no surprise that his efforts in Before Watchmen are great. But man, this great? That’s straight up unfair for other creators.
Runners up: Brian K. Vaughan, Jeff Parker, Jonathan Hickman
Worst Writer of the Month: Matt Fraction
See: worst books of the month. Although I do want to say I hardly blame Fraction for AvX #5 so much as I blame all of the architects.
Best Artist of the Month: Amanda Conner
Are you guys getting the picture here yet? I really, really liked Silk Spectre #1.
Runners up: Darwyn Cooke, Fiona Staples, Cameron Stewart, Oliver Coipel
Worst Artist of the Month: John Romita, Jr.
To me, JR Jr. is an all-timer, but man, he really phoned in his work on AvX. And he saved his best (worst?) for last on AvX #5, which found some comically bad scenes in theory become even worse in his hands. I cannot even express how much better AvX was in Coipel’s hands rather than Romita’s.
Best #1 of the Month: Planetoid #1
I’m going to pass on the Before Watchmen pair so I can give a shout out to Ken Garing’s Planetoid. I figured I’d like this book, and I really did. It was both very well drawn and written, giving us a pretty fantastic introduction to a rad sci fi story, and one filled with a lot of originality within the trappings of a familiar idea. I’m really looking forward to seeing where this goes next.
Most Oddly Disappointing Book: The Manhattan Projects #4
There’s a lot of love out there for this comic, and I really felt like I was finally starting to get it with this issue. For the first, oh, I don’t know, 4/5 of it I was totally engaged and digging anything and everything in it. But then the ending came, in which yet another of the main cast was revealed to be essentially an evil version of the character we know. Not only does that read to me as kind of lazy, overly twist heavy storytelling, but it also is perplexing in the idea that this is the biggest collection of geniuses on the planet…and no one can figure out that they have evil bastard versions of Einstein and Oppenheimer running around their house? Back on the fence for me with this book.
