Ooops, sorry. I forgot a few letters there. Let's try that again.
I am underwhelmed by Siege #1.
I was really excited for Marvel's new event series, too. If you read my 2009 wrap-up blog, you know that Brian Michael Bendis is one of my favorite superhero writers, and Dark Avengers one of my favorite books. How, then, could Siege not be good? And yet here is evidence to the contrary staring me in the face.
It's not that I hated Siege #1, either. I just thought it was weak. For starters, less than half the book was actually new comic story. When you take out the ads, the promotional letter from Joe Quesada, the preview of that one Hulk book, and the 7-page preview story seen in tons of other Marvel books before, you have 16 new pages of story and 23 pages of basically junk. For $3.99. So that's not cool.
Second, and most importantly, the story itself: what do we get in Siege #1? Well, the set-up for the whole event is directly taken from Civil War #1 (and the fact that the narration admits of this doesn't make it any better). Then we have Norman talking to his team for a few pages, which is fine I guess but a little stilted, and then the very beginning of the siege of Asgard, in which almost nothing happens except for people looking at each other menacingly.
I was not a fan of Marvel's last event comic, Secret Invasion, in large part because I thought the pacing was awful -- eight issues basically took place over the span of what, a day or less? Siege #1 seems to be setting up the same kind of thing. We only have four issues in this series, guys -- it seems like a mistake to waste a whole issue on set-up. It also seems like kind of a rip-off.
Secret Invasion, too, was written by Brian Michael Bendis. That seems to beg the question of why I like so many of his comics so much, and his event comics almost not at all (I have to exclude House of M from this discussion, as I haven't read it in five years). I think it's because -- and this is truly just a guess -- that when Bendis writes an event book, it's totally perfunctory. It seems like he has a story outline in front of him (possibly not even his, but editorial's) giving him the bullet points of where the script needs to go, and then he just takes the story from A to B to C with little to none of the excellent dialog and superb development we might expect from Bendis given his other works, most notably Ultimate Spider-Man, which I contend is a masterpiece. A great example from Ultimate Spider-Man that we talk about at the shop sometimes -- there was an issue (in the mid 110s) which was almost nothing but the main cast spending a day at the beach. And it was AWESOME. The story flowed so well that you didn't realize almost nothing was going on in that issue plot-wise. Those kind of issues are a chance for his characters to shine. But in Siege, which I feel is oddly self-conscious of plot despite having very little of it--nothing really shines at all.
I'm hopeful that the rest of this series lives up to the standards of other Bendis work (I'm still loving Dark Avengers), but for now, well, I just kind of want it to be over.
Grade: D
I came to this conclusion after I saw Up in the Air last night (fantastic film, by the way). As I tend to do after I see movies, I went online to do some research into the film's background, its cast, etc, and, I must admit, into its cute young supporting actress, Anna Kendrick. And lo and behold, when I read about Anna Kendrick I noticed that she'll be playing the role of Stacey Pilgrim in the upcoming comic-adapted movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Now, Anna Kendrick is a pretty big rising star. Up in the Air is a definite contender for 2009's Best Picture award (a lot of people are saying it'll take it), and Anna's received 18 nominations and 5 awards for her performance in said movie. Anna also happens to be a cast member in the Twilight saga films, which I understand are pretty popular nowadays or something. Scott Pilgrim is her next movie, and there's gonna be a lot of attention on her going into it.
And then I thought a little more, and I realized just how many people involved in Scott Pilgrim have a lot of buzz around them. Maybe not the lead actor anymore (I feel like Michael Cera's days are numbered, although that depends on how Youth in Revolt goes, and I want to see that movie just based on Zack Galifianakis... I can't be the only one who feels that way), but look at some of the other talent: it's directed by Edgar Wright, who's made a string of beloved movies (most notably Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). Playing some of the evil ex-boyfriends we've got Brandon Routh and Chris Evans, which is at least a little funny, as well as Jason Schwartzman, which is straight-up cool. Aubrey Plaza from NBC's Parks & Recreation also has a supporting role as Scott's sister's kind-of-bitchy friend Julie. That's some solid talent right there.
What I'm saying is, all these big names surrounding the Scott Pilgrim movie are going to make people curious. And I'm cautiously optimistic that that curiosity will turn into sales of the graphic novels. I mean, the trailers for Watchmen sold the related comics in a way that hasn't been seen before... Dark Knight, which did way better at the box office, didn't have that kind of effect, nor did Iron Man or any of the Spider-Mans or any other comic film. Granted, Scott Pilgrim is not instantly recognizable as a comic-book film (i.e., little to no tights), so one might be tempted to compare it more to movies like From Hell or Road to Perdition instead.
The thing is, as good and acclaimed as they are, From Hell wasn't winning any sales awards when the movie came out. Ditto Road to Perdition. But Scott Pilgrim is already a hot property in the comic world. As you might have seen in my last blog, Scott Pilgrim vol. 1 was the best-selling graphic novel for all of 2009 at OUR store, while Scott Pilgrim vol. 5 was a huge commercial success last year nationwide.
I'm hoping what we see here is some crazy kind of alchemy where two strands of popularity--comic and film--merge to create an uber-successful franchise in both media. Would I bet on it? No, probably not. But will we be stocking several copies of all available volumes of Scott Pilgrim come summer 2010? Yes, most definitely.
Maybe we won't sell through Scott Pilgrims as furiously as we did Watchmen. But if we did, that would be okay with me.
Almost every website concerned with things that are new and interesting does some kind of big year-end wrap-up at the end of December, saying what they thought was best/worst/most cromulent or what-have-you about new products in their field from the preceding year. I purposefully waited til 2010 for ours, because I've got something maybe a little more interesting than just opinions: sales data! Thanks to the nifty new POS we got in mid-February, our computer has been keeping track of every sale we've made throughout the year and I thought it would be cool to include some actual hard facts in my personal "Best of '09" list. Please note these sales reflect only OUR store, and as such they are a SUPREMELY USEFUL gauge of what comic fans around Lansing, IL enjoy. SUPREMELY USEFUL. Also please note that this data doesn't include any sales made in January or the first two weeks of February.
After the hard sales data is the usual slough of opinions from yours truly.
FROM THE STAND-UP COMICS POS:
Top single issues of 2009:
1. Captain America Reborn #1
2. Blackest Night #1
3. TIE: Blackest Night #2/Blackest Night #3
4. Amazing Spider-Man #600
5. Blackest Night #4
Top ongoing series of 2009 by average sales:
1. Batman & Robin
2. New Avengers
3. Green Lantern
4. Dark Avengers
5. Justice League of America
Top graphic novels/trade paperbacks of 2009, including CBC:
1. Scott Pilgrim vol. 1: Precious Little Life
2. We3
3. Fun Home
4. Arkham Asylum
5. Watchmen
Top graphic novels/trade paperbacks of 2009, not including CBC:
**note: once you get past the books that got a bump from being CBC books, there's a humongous tie, so I'm just going to alphabetically list all the books that are tied for first**
-Batman: The Killing Joke
-Batman: The Man Who Laughs
-Irredeemable vol. 1
-Sandman vol. 5: A Game of You
-Walking Dead vol. 1: Days Gone Bye
-Y the Last man. vol. 1: Unmanned
FROM THE MIND OF ERIC GARNEAU
Top ongoing series of 2009:
1. Batman & Robin
2. Adventure Comics
3. Dark Avengers
4. Detective Comics
5. Unwritten
Top events/miniseries of 2009:
1. Blackest Night
2. Wednesday Comics
3. Strange Tales
4. Superman: Secret Origins
5. Transformers: All Hail Megatron
Top graphic novels/trade paperbacks of 2009:
1. Masterpiece Comics by R. Sikoryak
2. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
3. I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly
4. Sulk vol. 3 by Jeffrey Brown
5. Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi
Top writers of 2009, superhero:
1. Geoff Johns (Blackest Night, Adventure Comics, Green Lantern)
2. Grant Morrison (Batman & Robin)
3. Brian Michael Bendis (Dark Avengers, New Avengers, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man)
4. Greg Rucka (Detective Comics)
5. Fred van Lente (Incredible Hercules, Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men Noir, Marvel Zombies)
Top writers of 2009, other:
1. Jeffrey Brown (Sulk, Funny Misshapen Body)
2. Fred van Lente (Comic Book Comics, Action Philosophers)
3. Mike Carey (Unwritten)
4. Joe Kelly (I Kill Giants)
5. Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Essex County)
Top artists of 2009:
1. JH Williams III (Detective Comics)
2. Frank Quietly (Batman & Robin)
3. Doug Mahnke (Green Lantern)
4. Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Essex County)
5. Scott Kolins (Solomon Grundy, Superman/Batman, Blackest Night: Flash)
And finally, because I'm a music nerd... top albums of 2009:
1. Def Leppard/Taylor Swift: CMT Crossroads
2. Neko Case: Middle Cyclone
3. Art Brut: Art Brut vs. Satan
4. The Mountain Goats: The Life of the World to Come
5. Pearl Jam: Backspacer
So there you have it: a two-pronged look at the top comics of 2009. I have some reflections on the data above, which will probably be the topic of my next blog post. Until then... maybe go listen to one of the albums I listed at the end there? You won't be disappointed. (And yes, I'm serious about Def Leppard/Taylor Swift being #1).
