MARKLEY’S FEVERED BRAIN: AS I WAS SAYING…

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Wayne Markley

by Wayne Markley

First off all, I would like to apologize for the delay between my blogs. I took a period of time to re-evaluate what I wanted to say, and how I want to say it, in this blog and Westfield was kind enough to let me take time away and also kind enough to let me return. So let me publically thank them. I would also like to thank those of you who e-mailed me or stopped in the store to ask where my blog had gone and if everything was all right. It was very good of those of you who asked and I do really appreciate it. but now all is resolved and I am back to blogging on a regular basis, so please let me resume where I left off a few months back.

As I was saying when I left, although I have bad rapped DC Comics various times in this blog for the new 52, and the direction it has taken. There are a number of really good titles in the new 52 which I worry readers have given up on (and I can say this with confidence from talking to customers in our retail store) in the new 52. This is a shame as I feel the following books are worth your time to read as they are very enjoyable. As an aside though, I still think that after two years, the term new 52 is no longer valid and I think DC ought to call it something else. I will leave it to the brain count on at DC to come up with a new marketing term. (After all, they came up with the catchy Holding the Line at $2.99).

Swamp thing #24

I have said numerous times in print and in person how much I did not care for the previous writer’s run on Swamp Thing. I found it to be muddled and not very well thought out. I characteristic this to editorial interference versus the writer lacking skill as I typically have delighted in the writer’s other work. With issue nineteen, Charles Soule took over the writing chores on Swamp thing and his first story arc just wrapped up and I cannot express in words how much I delighted in it. It was a fresh method to the character with a number of twists which I really enjoyed. I found the book has risen to the top of my should read pile from the bottom where it was. I like Soule’s writing so much because he is telling an original story and re-inventing the character of Swamp thing as he goes, much as Alan Moore did when he took over the book. I think a lot of the problems with the writers of Swamp thing over the years because Alan left, is that they have tried to be Alan Moore, and there is only one. I really like the fresh method Soule is taking and I hope he is on the book for a very long time. My worry is, and I have this conversation a lot at the Westfield Comics retail store as I try and get someone to try Swamp Thing, they practically always say, “I read it when it first started (New 52 #1) and I gave up on it”. I fully understand that, and I was ready to throw in the towel also, but I think the change of creators has really brought new life to this book. As word of mouth has been slowly building, the early issues by Soule are becoming harder to find, so I highly recommend the trade collection when it comes out, I am guessing this winter season some time. It is well worth your time.

Detective Comics #24

Detective Comics was another title that I really did not care that much for after the re-launch. It was overly violent and the stories did not appeal to me. Batman got all the attention and Detective sort of plodded along. With issue #13, John Layman took over as the writer and I have become this book’s most significant supporter. He has focused the book on the world of Gotham City where Gotham has become practically a supporting character. The first story arc, Emperor Penguin, was a classic noir tale which not only made the Penguin sympathetic but also told an action-packed story. (This storyline will be out in hardcover this fall. Detective Comics Vol. 3 if you are searching for it). John Layman is best known for his image Comic, Chew, which is funny, quirky, and entertaining, but his Batman is 180 degrees different; it is dark, scary and brutal (and very entertaining.) I have to also point out artist Jason Fabok, whose vision of Gotham and Batman is the best I have seen in years and greatly reminds me of the late Marshall Rogers. This book is well worth your time.

Green lantern #21

By the time we got to the end of Geoff Johns’ run on green Lantern, I admit I was pretty exhausted of it. I liked a lot of what Johns did to expand the GL mythos, but I also thought a lot of the stories went on too long and had no payoff. To be fair though, I think I will always love the 60s green lantern and I am sure that taints my opinion of the modern stories. I was hesitant to keep reading green lantern after Johns left (and based on sales I do not think I was alone), but the new writer Robert Venditti has caught my attention best out of the gate. He brings a fresh method to the character and, to me, it feels new where I was finding the Johns material stale. It is still set on OA at the moment, and it is still a long-winded space opera, but there is something that has really caught my fancy with Venditti’s storytelling that brings me back month after month. I am not ready to recommend this book as highly as Swamp thing or Detective, but I do think it is worth a second look, especially by those who stopped purchasing the book when Geoff Johns left.

Batgirl #19

When the new Batgirl first started out, I was not all that enamored with it. I read it month after month and it was ok, but it did not stand apart to me. For reasons I do not know, I find that in the last six months or so, this book has really found a groove and the storytelling has really picked up. Gail Simone’s writing has always been good, and it still is here, but the plotting and the storyline has really become gripping. Some points along the way were pretty obvious, as in who lives and who dies, but even with that I end each issue wanting more. This is the highest praise I can give a monthly comic. (It also applies to all of the titles I have discussed in this column this time.)

Nightwing #24

I have for a long time thought that Nightwing was a highly underrated book. I have delighted in this book because its beginning and I find that writer, Kyle Higgins, tells nice, tight stories that relocation rapidly and in a logical pace. I find it a bit odd that the current stories are set in Chicago as I always think of Nightwing as a Gotham character, but the story that takes him to Chi town is very good and makes ideal sense. I also greatly delight in the use of Nightwing’s history in telling these stories, from Haley’s Circus to boss Zukko. I think this book is currently as good as it was in the glory days when Chuck Dixon was writing it. give it a try; I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Regular readers of this blog will find a lot of this blog as repetitive as I have recommended most, if not all, of these titles before, but it is a few months later because I last discussed any of them and I still really delight in all of these titles.

As always everything I have written is my opinion and in no way reflects the opinions of Westfield of their employees. I welcome comments, arguments or review copies at MFBWAY@AOL.COM. I will be back in a few weeks with much more thoughts about comics. As always…

Thank you.