Troy's Bucket: December 2008

I keep meaning to make this a monthly feature on Troy's Bucket but as I have been whining in other posts, time has become more and more a problem. But thankfully I have about two hours before I have to go and pick up the kid from his Grandma's house so I thought I would give my two cents on the current state of comic books. I went through a few books last night from Publishers Marvel and DC and I think I really need to deeply consider dumping both of them. Anyone who knows me has good knowledge that I am an avid consumer of comics and usually that means mainstream publishers and titles. But lately I've been having trouble following these plot heavy books like Final Crisis, Trinity and Batman R.I.P for D.C. And I have been very disappointed with Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers: Initiative and sometimes New Avengers for Marvel. But I really enjoyed Star Trek Year 4 from publisher IDF and I picked up the graphic novel for part 2 of The Boys from Dynamite Publishing, and it is as awesome as the first. Now that I myself have been writing comics I have found the courage to branch out a bit from the mainstream and I think it may be time to kill my DC and Marvel addiction.

DC : Positives

Green Lantern & Green Arrow. The country is going Green and I think DC should heed the same advice. The Rebirth of Hal Jordan, the best Green Lantern of all, was a master stroke of genius. It rebuilt one of DC's best heroes from obscurity and made him enjoyable again. We have seen a horribly written plot in the 90's to make Hal Jordan evil and become Parallax, then reinvented by Geoff Johns to not only make sense but he ended up creating a new Universe of baddies that make Lex Luthor look like a panty waist. But most importantly he gave the best explanation why Green Lantern's have difficulty using their powers against the color Yellow. That one always used to irk me. (It's the Yellow alien impurity in the power battery that causes the problem.) Now we have Blackest Night to look forward to where now instead of just the Green Lantern Corp. We now have eight Lantern Corps: Yellow is the Sinestro Corps which is powered by fear. Violet is the Corps of the Star Sapphire which is powered by Love. Blue is the Corps created by outcast Oan Ganthet which is powered by Hope. The Red Lanterns are the Corps started by Atrocitus and is powered by Rage. The Orange Corps is powered by Avarice. The Indigo Corps is powered by compassion. The Green Lantern Corp is powered by willpower. The last and most feared Corp is the Black Lanterns which are powered by death. Every issue has been a joy to read and I can't wait to see how this one ends up.

Judd Winick, former MTV Real World guy turned comic writer, is most definitely the reason Green Arrow continues to thrill me. I never read Green Arrow before not even when Kevin Smith gave him a rebirth of sorts. I started to read the Arrow when Star City, GA's home turf, get's majorly screwed and GA as Oliver Queen takes over as Mayor. He's a great character, sure he's not the tier hero like Superman or Batman but he's clever. He doesn't have powers and he has a great sarcastic attitude. He's tough and he blantently shares my political world view, what's not to like. It's also very entertaining reading, not too deep and heady like the Batman books. Ollie and Black Canary have a great Honeymooners kind of relationship and even if the main plot is so-so it's just great watching these two go at each other may it be in battle or under the sheets. It's a great fun read that really is what super hero comics should be about. I'm curious to see how GA turns out after Winnick leaves the book this month. He will surely be missed on the book, but I liked the first issue sans Winnick. The new writer is Andrew Kreisberg (JLA Classified and the Simpsons) with pencils from Mike Norton who has been with the book for a little while now. Everyone is moving out Speedy and GA's son Connor it's a brand new day in the world of Green Arrow. What'll happen next.

DC: Negatives

Final Crisis, Trinity and sometimes Batman. Final Crisis has been a bit of a disappointment for me. I think I'm detecting a pattern at DC of who I like and who I don't like and maybe instead of going after the books perhaps I should be going after the guy creating all of the stuff I don't like. At the moment his name is Grant Morrison. Morrison is doing double duty on Final Crisis and on Batman R.I.P. I've never been a Morrison fan. To put it more aptly I have never read much or any of Morrison's stuff before now. He's really into philosophical thought and meditation and psychological storylines. Which is normally cool but he like many writers at DC like to bring in a shit load of characters from the Universe to make the story complete. I think this is why generally Marvel tends to win out when it comes to substance issues because even though the Marvel events are loud and huge they are fairly intimate utilizing a few characters in the lineup and they almost all are tier characters and are well known. Not at DC, they bring out crazy characters like Uncle Sam and Aqua Lad and shit. It takes me out of the story when they bring in all of these characters because on one level I'm like who the hell is this guy so I'm trying to figure out who he is and what he does. Then on another I feel like because I don't know who this guy is and what his power is that I'm not fully understanding his role in the larger arc or if he's even important to the story in the first place. For instance Bat Mite? Why the hell is Bat Mite in this Batman R.I.P story--I get it that Batman is losing his mind and all but when you put Bat Mite into the story I tend to not take you seriously. There is no question that Grant Morrison is a great writer and he has some very interesting story lines but my request to you is STOP PUTTING ALL OF THESE RANDOM FRIKING CHARACTERS INTO THE STORY FOR NO GOOD GOD DAMN REASON!!!! There I said it, I think I got it all out of my system.