It’s Springtime, a time of rebirth and growth. So how was March in terms of comics? Some story arcs came to an end, new ones began, characters developed, but what stands out the most? Here are my top picks for March, and while there’s simply not enough space to credit every single great creator who contributed to the world of comics last month, we can at least give these great ones their due credit.
Best Issue: “Super Sons” #2
Legacy characters working together! Here we have young heroes with so much growing to do making their first team-up, and it is great. They may not be “world’s finest” quite yet, but Robin and Superboy are well on their way, and “Super Sons” is a great start to that. I absolutely love the way the two characters work off each other; they’re so perfectly juxtaposed, with the little rebellious Damian and the mild-mannered Jon Kent, to the point where I don’t even care about this “Kid Amazo” the comic is building up to be their threat, I just like seeing them together. Combine that with the wonderful artwork by Jorge Jimenez, and it gets even better. I love the image of Lex in his Super Armor hovering behind them, illuminated by lightning; the expressions on both the kids’ faces are wonderful.
Best Writer: Kyle Higgins
Normally, when you think of “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers,” “great writing” isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. And yet, Kyle Higgins has managed to take a cheesy 90’s television show and give it new life. He explores the characters in new ways, creates threats and twists that the show never imagined, and takes “Power Rangers” in a direction that completely breaks the tired old formula of the show. Now we have an arc split between the present and a potential future, where we see characters struggling with loss, the internal conflict of their good and evil impulses, and even the emotional toll the constant monster invasions have on the people of Angel Grove. And even with all that, we still get the tale of a battle so epic the TV show never would have had the budget to bring it to life. Maybe it’s just the 90’s kid in me, but Kyle Higgins has shown that you can take a goofy concept like “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” and give it all the gravitas of any other comic, and then some.
Best Illustration: Feifei Ruan and Sonny Liew
With comics, the art can be hyper-realistic or super goofy, enhancing the story as befitting the tone. So when we get truly unique art for a comic, well, that makes it truly memorable. Unique and memorable is just what we get in March’s “Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Giants,” which looks like it was taken right from ancient scrolls detailing the story. The colors come through the lifework, utilizing primarily blue and orange (befitting their opposing sides on the color wheel), with light shading for everything else. Looking at the artwork, it looks less like a typical comic and more like it was drawn with a quill and colored ink, in all the best ways. This is a comic all about telling a story, and the artwork truly makes it feel like we’re being told a tale from ages past. Even within that, there are some brilliant designs, like the Giant King, rising above the sea, and his ominous castle, with just a hint of a skull shape at its base. The comic’s artwork is not just fantastic, it’s unlike anything I’ve seen in comics before.
Best Adaptation: “American Gods”
Would you expect anything less? Neil Gaiman’s award-winning novel may be seeing a TV adaptation soon, but the comics beat it to the punch. P. Craig Russell does a great job at adapting Neil’s story to comic form, and Scott Hampton’s artwork brings it to life. Even if a large part of it is narration, it flows together with the illustrations so well that it still shows as well as it tells, and the excellent use of color – like the grays of the prison or the passionate reds at the end – make the comic a real work of art. Toss in some well-paced storytelling, plenty of plot hooks, and questions to be answered, and you’ve got a fine example of a comic book adaptation. In fact, I had to give it the “Best Adaptation” award, otherwise there is a significant chance it would have taken the above categories by storm as well.
Continued belowBest Soft Reboot: “Rat Queens”
Now, I’m not going to lie, I’m saddened that we don’t get to see how the previous “Rat Queens” story progresses from its last stopping point. There was a lot of twists and changes, but the new volume’s soft reboot brought us back to a point of status quo. That doesn’t mean it’s at all bad, though, because it can all be forgiven if the comic is awesome, which this one most certainly is. The characters are as strong and well-defined as ever, there’s some great gags, and it moves at a fine pace. Combine that with the artwork from Owen Gieni and you’ve got an incredibly strong comic. It’s crude and violent in all the right ways when it wants to be, funny when it cares to, and touching right when it should be. Hail to the queens.
