The 40 Years of Comics Project: Weird Metadata Post #2

A breakdown of the top 10 artists and writers in my collection, by number of entries.


Name - # entries - approximate % of collection
Artists:
John Byrne - 179 - 0.019%
Jack Kirby - 157 - 0.013%
John Romita, Jr. - 131 - 0.011%
Mark Bagley - 118 - 0.010%
John Buscema - 103 - 0.009%
George Perez - 102 - 0.009%
Brent Anderson - 101 - 0.009%
Dave Gibbons - 100 - 0.008%
Tom Grummett - 94 - 0.008%
Sal Buscema - 92 - 0.008%

Writers:
Grant Morrison - 581 - 0.049%
Chris Claremont - 307 - 0.026%
Mark Waid - 305 - 0.026%
Brian Bendis - 287 - 0.024%
Alan Moore - 255 - 0.022%
Warren Ellis - 249 - 0.021%
Jonathan Hickman - 241 - 0.020%
Kurt Busiek - 231 - 0.020%
Steve Gerber - 205 - 0.017%
Geoff Johns - 201 - 0.017%

A couple of things jump out at me. First the number of comics by individual writers far outstrips the comics by individual artists. This is most likely a function of my following writers, rather than artists, but it also might say something about the relative ease of scripting a comic versus drawing a comic.

The list of writers is unsurprising to me, except for Claremont, whose writing I don't particularly care for, but who is apparently a fairly large presence in the collection. The artist list is full of surprises. I really don't care much for Byrne either, but he's my top artist? Attests to his productivity, if nothing else, I guess. The Kirby and Bagley stuff is less surprising, as is the Grummet stuff. Both Bagley and Grummet worked on Thunderbolts, which I collected voraciously.

In contrast, there's a rather remarkable amount of writers and artists in the collection who are represented by a single work.

The Infinte Road to "Secret Wars"

I feel like this is a bit of a cop-out post, since there are sooooo many reading order lists for the "Infinity" event. Also, because there's actually an official reading order at the back of all of the comics, at least for the two Avengers series and the main Infinity series. So instead of doing a similar post as the last two "Secret Wars" posts, I'm just going to list the reading order, and do a general musing on the event.

Infinity #1, Avengers #18, New Avengers #9, Infinity #2, Avengers #19, New Avengers #10, Infinity #3, Avengers #20, Infinity #4, Avengers #21, New Avengers #11, Infinity #5, Avengers #22-23, Infinity #6, New Avengers #12.

Overall, I enjoyed the crap out of Infinity. It puts a nice cap on the Builders story that Hickman has introduced throughout his run, it shows us how the Illuminati deal with a major crisis even as they're dealing with a MAJOR major crisis, and it puts the Avengers into the kind of cosmic struggle that previously only a team like the JLA might have handled. I've said it before, and I'll repeat it now: the Avengers are the Marvel equivalent of the JLA, and should absolutely be treated as such. I think Bendis did a nice job of balancing the cosmic Avengers stories in the main title with more down-to-Earth stories in New Avengers, but Hickman has thrown that out, and put the Avengers, new, old, or illuminated, on the cosmic playing field. Where, IMHO, they belong.

This is a war story. We see Captain America really (really!) shine here, which nicely reminds us that he was, in the Marvel U, a lynch pin in World War II. As we are told in the film, the super soldier serum doesn't just enhance physical attributes, but mental ones as well. Cap is the ultimate strategist. Which, I suppose, could forgive my one little quibble with this story: its humano-centrism. I know this is a symptom of us reading stories about beings ostensibly the same as ourselves. It would be difficult to enjoy the story quite as much if the Avengers were simply cannon fodder, and the Shi'ar or Skrull were the focal characters. But this privileging of humanity as somehow much more capable and magnificent than any other species in the galaxy is stretching things a bit. If you have to ask the question "Where would everyone in the galaxy be without the inhabitants of Earth?", you're giving us, and our superheroic counterparts, way too much credit.

But that's a minor quibble, because, like all of you, I like to feel special too!

The Earth-bound part of this story I enjoyed slightly less. I'm not sure of why Thanos is doing what he's doing, and the inclusion of the Earth invasion really just seems to be a set-up for the "Inhumanity" event and to place Thanos and his lieutenants on Earth in order that they eventually join the Cabal. But I feel like that could have been incorporated somehow into the main Builder storyline more fluidly. That whole writer versus editor thing comes to mind here.

So, that's Infinity. From here on out, things get crazy. Crazier?

This Week's Picks

To say that my updates of all of my blogs have become erratic of late is an understatement.  That's grad school for you.  I'm making an effort, now that it's summer.

This week

Age of Ultron #7 - I think it was somewhere on Facebook I was decrying Bendis's later Avengers stories.  I thought he was running out of ideas.  And I think there was something to that, and it's probably a good thing he left.  But "Age of Ultron" is a nice return to form.  It's very dark, which I think is something that the Avengers have lacked over their history.  And perhaps that was the problem with his run, that it was always quite dark.  I'm enjoying "Age."  It's epic, it's disturbing, it's surprising.  I know, as an experienced comic reader, that this crossover will have no real lasting effects, but it has a lasting effect on the reader.  It's part of my thinking that superhero stories are much closer to mythology than to fiction.  Think about Odysseus, going off to fight the war at Troy, the most epic war ever fought, and then in his next adventure, we have the Odyssey.  A completely separate adventure, one that makes reference to previous adventures, but stands by itself just fine.  Anyway, topic for another time perhaps.

Avengers #11 - (And all the ones before, really)  I know I've said it before, and will again, but Jonathan Hickman is writing some of the best superhero comics right now.  With his Avengers series (the main one and "New Avengers"), he's giving the team the sort of treatment that really pushes them into JLA territory.  This links a bit with what I was just saying about mythology.  The Justice League are mythic.  They always have been.  The Avengers have always had that Marvel U realism attached, which keeps them from achieving mythic status, even characters like Thor or Hercules.  But Hickman's putting the team into adventures that truly force the characters past humanity and into achetyp-ity (?).  It's a bold move, and a good move, though I worry as to how the team will be handled after this.  How do you go from (spoiler alert!) interacting with entities designed to save universes, or collapses of multiverses, back to dealing with the Masters of Evil?  Hopefully Hickman will be around for a while so we won't have to answer these questions quite yet.

Dial H #12 - remember how much you loved Morrison's "Doom Patrol?"  Remember how fucked up and weird it was, how if made you feel as if there was something you weren't grasping just around the corner, and that when you did finally grasp it, it would make you wish you hadn't found out at all?  Maybe just me, then.  But Mieville's "Dial H" is very much like that.  Yes, it's a New 52 DCU title, but it's in a creepy and weird little corner of the DCU (which is in Toronto, apparently) that would make Superman shudder a bit.  Once more, spoiler, but we've got power-thieves and telephonic hell-dimensions, and a very unlikely couple, and now a team.  A team?  Of dialers?  I am burning with curiosity as to where this story is going, but it's very definitely going somewhere.  I urge you to get on board.

This Week's Picks (Nov. 28)

Lots picked up this week.  I have to give Brian Bendis some credit.  He is finishing off his monumental run on Avengers and New Avengers with some excellent stories.  I would hesitate to say they're the best Avengers stories he's done, but they are heavy with what Bendis does best: amazing characterization.  Every character in those books has a distinct, and stable, personality.  He writes dialogue like no one else (I think I may have said that somewhere already.)
His Avengers #34 came out recently and finished things off.  Haven't got New Avengers yet, but it's on the list.
Issue #7 of Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra's "Manhattan Projects" also came out recently.  I cannot recommend this series highly enough.  Bizarre science fiction tale starring all of the greatest scientific minds of the mid-20th century.  If you aren't reading Hickman, you should be by now.  His run on "Fantastic Four" and "F.F." that has just concluded was genius.  He's taking on the Avengers now that Bendis has moved on, and I, for one, could not be more excited.
Grant Morrison's Batman epic continued this week with "Batman Inc. v.2" #5.  Weaving all the way back to his early story of Damian as the cursed Batman of future Gotham, and all sorts of story threads start to weave back together.  I get the suspicion that we're seeing the endgame of Morrison's Batman, and I'm looking forward to re-reading the whole epic thing.  I'm glad to see that he, for all intents and purposes, ignored the New 52 (which I quite like, don't get me wrong), and just got on with the story he's been telling for the past few years.  If I have learned one thing about Morrison, it's that he's not for everyone.  But these comics are amazing.
Finally, I picked up the first issue of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic."  My son's a fan of the show (a Brony), and recently got my wife and I watching it.  It's quite clever and funny.  And the time travel episode in season 2 is really excellent.  Anyway, I went to get this comic, and the young lady behind the counter looked at me and said "Is this for your daughter?"  I said "No, that copy's for me, and the other one's for my son."  She looked at me again and said, "Lot's of people have been using the daughter excuse today."  I laughed, but I think it's a bit sad that you would have to hide liking something.  I don't care what a comic is about, where it's set, who it's ostensible target audience is, as long as it's a good comic.  (That said, I haven't been able to read it yet, because it contains, according to my son, spoilers about season 2, which we haven't finished yet.  I'll let you know.)
That's all for this week.  Oh, except for "Batman" #13, the first part of Death of the Family, which my friend Braydon picked up and gave to me, and which I finally read.  It's quite good, and Snyder's Joker is chilling. 

 Because I need another comic to add to the list...

A very brief, but very urgent recommendation...

If anything good has come out of the extended mess that is the Marvel Comics crossovers of the last 5 to 6 years, that entangled mesh of Avengers Disassembled, House of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion, World War Hulk, Dark Reign and countless other lesser stories in countless other titles, if we can pull from this morass (which, to be fair, has included some decent stories, but far, far too many tie-ins and crossovers) a lump of coal that has turned into a diamond under the enormous pressure of the mountain of stories, it is "Secret Warriors." You know all those things that you always loved about James Bond that were in the older movies, and to a certain extent the newer movies, but were never all in the same movie at the same time? Do you know what I'm talking about? 'Cause "Secret Warriors," the latest venue for that Bond of Bonds, Nick Fury, has all of it, and super powers. And it sparkles with every issue.

Johnathan Hickman, who writes (along with the ubiquitous Bendis for the first 6 issues) has made it onto that list of writers I will keep my hungry-for-more eyes on.

To sum, "Secret Warriors" has my seal of desperate approval. Here's what you need to know:

During the "Secret Invasion," Fury assembles a group of what he calls "caterpillars," superhumans that no one on earth knew about but him. Then he fashions them into a unit to pull the heroes collective asses out of the fire during the Skrull invasion. That's all you need. Go find issue #1.

This Week's Picks

The New Avengers #52 - Okay, bar none, this is the best title Marvel is publishing right now. Bendis' magical grasp of dialogue is put to great use in this title. The team is great, the fugitive angle they've been playing for the last year and a bit is still working, and the stories are top notch. If you aren't reading New Avengers, go grab the "Breakout" trade and get started. This is the title that's defining what's happening in the Marvel Universe.

Batman: Battle for the Cowl - Arkham Asylum #1 - In my new quest to give the Bat-titles a try I'm starting off with the specials surrounding the search for a new Batman. This one was the creepiest, but it was a nice little stroll down memory lane. Maybe it's time to read Morrison and McKean's "Arkham Asylum" again. That book is a trip. As for this special, the new (are they new?) villains are neat. I'm excited to see where the Bat-universe is going, especially with Morrison and Quitely doing their thing in the coming months.

Skrull Kill Krew #1 - Throwback to one of the few bits of Grant Morrison's ouvre that I would label "mediocre." I probably won't pick up the second issue of this one. But with a name like "Skrull Kill Krew," I had to pick up at least the first one.

Fall of Cthulhu: Nemesis #1 - I will not be able to read this comic until I've tracked down 3 of the 20-some odd issues that preceded it. Thoroughly annoying.

The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft - When I last read a comic story about Lovecraft, it was the Necronauts. This one is somewhat different, and the story (of a young HPL haunted by dreams that seem to come true) hasn't quite grabbed me yet. However, Tony Salmons can draw a stunningly beautiful 20's flapper.

Pride & Prejudice #1 - I was so hopeful for this one. The cover by Sonny Liew is great. The source material is classic. Unfortunately, the contents don't measure up. Sure, it's a faithful adaptation, but the interior art reminds me of Grimm Fairy Tales from Zenescape. All the women are beautiful, but it's like they're wax dummies set in poses. There's no life to the art. Add to that the stilted language of the 19th century, and it spells failure. Shame.

Detective Comics #853 - Whenever Neil Gaiman ventures back into comics, it's a big deal. That said, I wasn't a big fan of "1602," and I never even looked at "The Eternals" (though I really should). So, when it was revealed that he was writing a 2-parter after the death of Batman, I had to pick it up. I just had to. It's Gaiman. And in this, I was not disappointed. I had a pretty good look at the first part here. The second part eschews the form of the Canterbury Tales, but tells a brilliant story about Batman and his death. If Gaiman came back to comics and wrote stories like this all the time, we'd have another Sandman on our hands. It's a shame he's left comics behind. We miss him.

That's it this week. One other item I have to point out is The Freedom Collective #1. I haven't read it yet, but I grabbed it last week. The premise is "What if Jack Kirby and Stan Lee were living in the Cold War-era U.S.S.R. when they decided to create The Avengers?" Inspired. I looked into Communist comics when I was researching Batman vs. Mighty Wing, but it turns out that comics were strictly forbidden under party rule. Which makes Freedom Collective that much more interesting.

Crossovers, Mega-Crossovers, and the Fools Who Love Them interlude

So, as I'm considering the massive marketing machine that has for so many years been the multi-part crossover, Marvel and DC are in the midst of their BIGGEST CROSSOVERS EVER!!!!

I am, of course, talking about Marvel's "Secret Invasion" and DC's "Final Crisis". The two have taken decidedly different approaches to the crossovers, and the effect is quite interesting.

Marvel have apparently been building the secret invasion for years. Or rather, Brian Bendis, the evil genius mastermind behind the crossover, has. Years back, when he started up New Avengers, Bendis alluded to a sinister force within S.H.I.E.L.D. Little or nothing was ever mentioned of it again, the House of M came and went, as did the Civil War, and all of a sudden the Skrulls invaded and everything made sense. The main series, Secret Invasion, is a surprisingly stand-alone story. We have invasions of Skrulls, and heroes doing their best to repel them. The really interesting bit is when you follow not only this title, but Bendis' two Avengers titles as well. In these, he travels back to various events he set up all those years ago, and shows how they were actually pieces of the invasion. One likes to think he set it all up. I really believe he did, because that makes the last few years of Avengers comics even better than they already were. And they were pretty amazing. Of course, Marvel has the invasion spreading out into all of their titles, which really does give the feeling that this event is impacting all the of the heroes and forging changes in the shared universe.

DC, on the other hand, have gone a different route. As far as I can tell, the Crisis is not impacting any of the currently published titles. Instead, we have a number of mini-series branching out of the main one. I have to admit to having a soft spot for Final Crisis, as it is written by my favourite comics writer, Grant Morrison. But it just doesn't seem to have the impact that Marvel's invasion is having. I feel a little hypocritical writing that, as one of my biggest problems with the previous Infinite Crisis series was that you have to have read 5 or 6 other series for it to make any sense whatsoever. Final Crisis seems to mostly stem from Morrison's mega-crossover (which will be discussed in greater detail in a later column) "Seven Soldiers", most specifically Jack Kirby's New Gods and their fall to Earth. Perhaps I'm jumping the gun, and once the series, which is only 3 issues strong so far, gets more steam, it'll bleed into the other series. However, as my fellow comic fans will atest, an important part of following one hero or another is trying to keep straight just when in the hero's life a particular even happens. If Batman is undergoing a mental breakdown in his own title, when are we supposed to assume that he was captured by the Apokaliptan gods in Final Crisis?

(Try geeking out more than that. I dare you.)

So, the verdict, so far, is that the "Secret Invasion" event seems to be hitting more emotional highs than "Final Crisis". The action is faster, the consequences more far-reaching. "Final Crisis" seems to be a self-contained story, rather than the crossover it was advertised (or assumed, perhaps) to be. Morrison has said that if DC hadn't allowed him to do the story in official continuity, he would have done it as an All-Star title, which perhaps explains why it doesn't seem to be having any affect on the DC universe. Again, with "Secret Invasion" more than half done, and "Final Crisis" not quite to the halfway point, it may be too early to tell which is the better story.

But don't take my word for it. Go read them. They're both excellent.