It was at that moment that Captain Jack Harkness realized the alien being was asexual

Fun Fifty of 2009: #30-21

Hi hi hi, everyone! Good evening, ladies and germs and all the ships at sea! It's me, your little stuffed host, Bully, back with another action-filled, tension-thribbled, groundhog-free installment of The Fun Fifty, the only awards show that takes place not on a stage but entirely on a spinning comics rack! (Also, the Cable Ace Awards.) When we last left you, we were at.,..let me check my clipboard here...number three thousand and thirty! So let's count down the next ten, starting with number 3,029...the comic where Guy Gardner throws up blood!:

#3,029: GUY GARDNER: BLOODPUKER #43 • If you were lookin' for some high-adventure blood-puking in 2009, then there's only one comic you could have gone to. Actually, there were several, but only one featured everyone's favorite plasma-barfer, Guy Gardner! This crimson-stained comic had everybody reaching for the bucket in 2009 when Guy became a member of the Blood Puking Lantern Corps and began to...

Wait a minute! Number three thousand and twenty-nine? Who's been messing with my clipboard???



What did I tell you, you darn groundhog! Get outta here! Go bother Sims for once!

Now that he's gone, let's get on with the real countdown, 'kay? Here we go again with...

#30: DARK REIGN • What's that?!? Bully enjoyed a Marvel mega-event? Is up now down? Is black white? Is Batman Owlman? Is Mr. Fantastic The Brute? I haven't made secret my feelings about the past...can it be six years of Marvel's heroes rolling down the slippery slope that started with "Avengers Disassembled": ranging from pretty general indifference for some storylines and outright little-stuffed-entitled-rage over others. Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.? (*Strategic Hound Intelligence, Encompassing Little Dalmatians) I'd call that book Iron Man: Director of J.E.R.K.*! (*Justice Eliminated, Revering Kaos) But you know, getting me interested in the newest twist in the Marvel Universe is as simple as 1-2-3: #1: Make the villains the villains. Enough pitting hero vs. hero, let's show that when supers squabble the sinisters slither in. (Oooh, that's good!) With Stormin' Norman Osborn in charge, there's an entirely new status quo, and it's compelling to see how the heroes—from the ground level to the cosmic—react. #2: As Stan once said, Bring on the Bad Guys! We've been privy to a level of intimacy with 616's supervillains that we haven't had since the last time Doctor Doom and the Red Skull got together for brunch. I've become somewhat sympathetic to Hercules's brother Ares, thrilled by the loose-cannon exploits of Bullseye/Hawkeye, intrigued by the machinations and madness of Norman himself. It's a clever twist on the usual "hero fights villain" trope of superhero comics. Heck, there were a few moments (a few) when I even liked Daken. And of course, #3: keep it fun. With the entire event spreading across the MU, there's plenty of heroes and villains to follow, but whatever book you're reading, there's high adventure and drama and suspense and even a lot of laughs. (You gotta love the bickering the Dark Avengers mutter behind Osborn's back; squabbling among themselves just like the Fantastic Four or the Avengers.) The triumph of Spider-Man as he tricks Osborn in Spider-Man: The List, the roller-coaster twists of a hero betraying his team to save his child, and even the Sentry's Kenny McCormick impersonation every few issues, made me feel that even if each individual title didn't appeal to me, this was a world that was different and unique. After decades of promising "the Marvel Universe will never be the same," they finally did it. Dark Reign: I wouldn't wanna read about it forever, but it's a fun place to visit.


#29: SIMPSONS COMICS • Like Futurama, the Simpsons line of comics from Bongo is consistently one of my favorites: there's always at least two or three, very often a few dozen laugh-out-loud moments and sheer animation-to-page entertainment. And that's a lot of entertainment: the Simpsons family of comics includes Simpsons Comics, Simpsons Super Spectacular, Bart Simpson, Treehouse of Horror, Summer Shindig, Winter Wingding, and The Love Stories of Moe Szyslak. Among this year's stand-outs: Sergio Aragonçs came aboard to write and illustrate Bart's fiftieth issue and he continues with the charming "Maggie's Crib" feature in subsequent issues; interconnecting stories of life in the information age take our favorite yellow family into cyberspace; plus the three-issue crossover event (and future "Monday Night Mural") Radioactive Man Saga parodies everybody's favorite hobby (and it ain't collecting stamps, bub!) With jokes and dialogue as sharp and witty as the Sunday night TV show, Simpsons Comics never fail to entertain me. Why thank you, young man...I will have a cow!


#28: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN • Your mileage may vary depending on the writer and artist on a particular arc, but I've been digging the whole post-MJ (who?!?) Spidey-saga more than I've thrilled to our friendly neighborhood you-know-what in years. New characters, old characters kept fresh with new intriguing subplots, an unexpected wedding, the meanest mayor in Manhattan, and the ever-growing threat of Dark Reign: all these elements thrown into the mix and spun out intricately kept me hanging like a...well, you know. My favorite arcs included "24/7," a fun twist on how nothing ever works out for Spidey no matter how hard he tries, the aforementioned wedding story, done reverently and joyfully, and may I say, 'bout time May found a new man of her dreams, and the main Dark Reign tie-in: "American Son," the last temptation of Harry Osborn that pits him against his father, with Spider-Man in the middle. Add in the return of Stan the Man for a funny tale of Spidey visiting his therapist, and the return of that red-headed stranger, and you've got a Spider-year that 2010's going to have to work hard to beat.


#27: THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN • Tony Stark makes you feel he's a cool exec with a brain of oatmeal, thanks to Matt Fraction's scripting on one of the finest Shellhead tales in recent years, "World's Most Wanted." On the run from Norman Osborn and his Dark Avengers, Tony's not only got to keep not only Stark Industries's technology out of the hands of H.A.M.M.E.R....but the secrets of the entire superhero world that Tony has in his head. Stark sets off on a global chase to destroy his factories...and his knowledge...by systematically erasing his brain bit by bit. As Norman gets closer, Stark gets dumber...and his Iron Man armor is downgraded every time until he's clomping around in the old grey metal shell. But even a disgraced Tony's got allies, especially perky Pepper Potts, who gets to try on a tin suit of her own. #19's final faceoff between Stark and Osborn is one of the best single issues of 2008. Hey, movie guys...looking yet for a great plot for IM3? You could do yourseves, and us, a favor by picking up Fraction's story!


#26: MARVEL ADVENTURES: AVENGERS • 2009 saw a farewell to my favorite Avengers book since...oh, around the glory days of Michelinie, Byrne, and Perez. Paul Tobin's kid-friendly Avengers are nevertheless the real deal: wisecracking Spider-Man, earnest Captain America, innovative Iron Man, regal Thor...but all with a sense of humor and rollicking fun missing from New and Mighty Avengers. This past year saw more action in each single issue than most entire Bendis arcs: the Avengers time-travel to Ancient Egypt and team up with Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos (stopping for pancakes with Abe Lincoln along the way); join a dating service to thwart Batroc's schemes; face off against a vengeful genie intent on stomping Bruce Banner...and they clean up Avengers Mansion. I can think of no finer Marvel book to introduce kids...or, indeed, anyone...to the Marvel superheroes and their sense of justice and fun. By the end of the year MA: A was gone and Marvel Adventures Super Heroes rebooted the Avengers with even more diverse characters (Nova! The Invisible Girl!), but I'm already nostalgic for the genial but dense Hulk and the Spider-Man with wisecracks that actually do make you laugh of MA: Avengers. This book will be missed.


#25: TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH • 2008 only gave us five episodes each of Doctor Who and Torchwood, but whoo-hoo, what a ride! I was glued to the edge of my seat (darn you, Shelly! Put the paste away!) through the five-night Torchwood miniseries in sorta-real-time: darker and edgier than most of the regular episodes, with mysteries and cliffhangers that send a chill up your spine. For best results if you have the DVD, watch a chapter a night, but don't watch the accompanying documentary until after the miniseries! Even saying too much might ruin the fun, so I'll simply say that we find out one of the darkest moments of Captain Jack's past, and I don't wanna work for Torchwood anymore. It's just too dangerous. Fine, spooky, moody stuff reminiscent of alien-vistation films of the fifties and sixties with a twist of the twenty-first century (when everything changes).


#24: WEDNESDAY COMICS • Some comics look great. Some comics are innovative in format. Some are thrilling to read. Wednesday Comics, while flawed, hit pretty close to those three marks each of its twelve weeks. This clever and cool anthology replicates the big Sunday comics sections of old, with a modern DC twist: each of the strips is a continuing adventure of DC heroes big and small. Curiously, the three least effective strips were those of DC's big guns: the trinity of Batman (fairly standard and somewhat mundane Bat-adventure), Superman (poorly-paced, frequently action-less), and Wonder Woman (pretty to look at, strenuous to read: a dream does not a story make). The strips that stood out—the ones I looked forward to every week—were those that took experimental new approaches to not only their starring heroes but the format of the strips. Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook's Prince Valiant-flavored "Kamandi" gave a grandeur and solemnity to Kirby's over-the-top world. Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred's playful and sixties-tinged "Metamorpho" played games with panels and layout, including a snakes and ladders board game and trippy hip-hop through the periodic table where Metamorpho changes into every element plus works each chemical abbreviation into his dialogue. Kyle Baker's "Hawkman" is big, gorgeous, all-action fun of a guy with wings and a big-ass mace fighting dinosaurs; best cliffhangers in the series. But by far my favorite couple features were Karl Karschl and Brenden Fletcher's "The Flash," where a time-zipping Barry Allen shared a page with the soap opera comic "Iris West," paralleling his adventures from his wife's POV; and "Supergirl" by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, with Kara chasing superpets-gone-wild Streaky and Krypto with the aid of guest-stars Dr. Mid-Nite and Aquaman (and his "shell-phone"). Conner's artwork is bright and energetic; I'd love to see her draw a regular Supergirl series. Wednesday Comics is a mixed bag: some duds, an assortment of good but uninspired comics, and a few polished gems. In the Silver Age, DC spotlighted characters and artists in rotating books like The Brave and the Bold and Showcase. The best of Wednesday Comics has the right stuff to stand alongside those classics.


#23: DARK REIGN: FANTASTIC FOUR • I loved Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's FF with its way-out science concepts and inventive twists on the mythology of Marvel's First Family (altho' I'll say it one last time: where the heck was Alicia during all this?!? Nice handkerchiefy ending to the Ben wedding story, tho'). As up and down as the FF's book can be in recent years...heck, throughout its existence...I was a little worried about the departure of Messrs. M. & H. and the arrival of Jonathan Hickman as my favorite team's new scripter. I needn't have worried, and didn't, when I read Dark Reign: FF. Hickman's got the characters voices and personalities down perfect (I love, love, love his Ben Grimm!), and he uses the wonderful emphasis on family that few other superhero teams have to spin off new and interesting stories. DRFF (durff?) features Reed opening alternate realities to find one in which his recent, Civil War-period errors might have been rectified, while Sue, Johnny and Ben tumble through diverse Earths, encountering and teaming up with different versions of themselves. So who's left behind to hold the fort against Norman Osborn and his invading Dark Avengers? Why, Franklin and Valeria, "home alone" in the Baxter Building, of course! I'm enjoying Hickman's regular ongoing issues of the FF series (especially the recent birthday party story and the wonderful covers by Alan Davis), but DRFF tickles me pink with its concept and execution, not to mention The Most Fun Panel of 2009:





#22: FIN FANG 4 RETURN • Okay, you were paying attention last night when I told you how much I enjoy Roger Langridge's work on The Muppet Show, right? Well, that goes quadruple for the sequel to his much-beloved monster team-up, setting loose four of the Atlas Era's classic monsters (shrunken to handy-human scale) in today's Marvel Manhattan. Googam (son of Goom) has a therapy session with Doc Samson and plots to be adopted by a child-collecting celebrity; Gorgilla has a "curious" adventure; Fin himself works the grill at a Chinese restaurant and (ultimately) bums out Professor X as well as saving Christmas with the help of Dr. Strange's right-hand man Wong.; Elektro falls in love (again? but that trick never works!) Golly, this is goofy, grand fun for anyone who doesn't take the Marvel Universe too seriously...and with ancient monsters running around it in their underpants, why should you?


#21: MARVEL DIVAS • Sure, Models Inc. had the better covers by far (really, what was up with that T&A-tastic Marvel Divas ish #1 cover that Marvel still had to use it on the trade?), but Marvel Divas bought a joy and gentle humor to the quartet of Hellcat, Firestar, the Black Cat and Captain Marvel Photon Pulsar the smart one in Nextwave Monica Rambeau. Solid and mostly subtle writing by Robert Aguirre-Sacasa and lovely nuanced and cartoony art by Tonci Zonjic highlight the lives of four superhero women partying, gossiping, shopping and dealing with the tough things in life: love, money troubles, cancer, and an ex-husband literally sending you through hell. The ending's a little pat and predictable but leaves room open for a sequel (please!) and it's wonderful to see four strong and well-defined women in an adventure that doesn't involve punching someone on every page. This series is a great kick-off to Marvel's focus on their female characters in 2010's Girl Comics and Marvel Her-oes. Just try to keep those covers classy, guys, okay?


Whew! That's a whole spinner rack of fun-osity from the past twelve months. And we haven't even gotten to The Plaid Lantern Corps, Giant-Sized Thor Goes Shopping on the iTunes Store Annual, Dark Power Pack, and It's Called Superman But Superman's Not Actually In It, No, No, Work With Me Here, Hey, Don't Put Me Back on the Rack! And can you even believe #1 is going to be Ultimatum? Oh, whoops, darn!!! I've spoiled the big surprise. Well, if you come back tomorrow I'll give you candy? Will that work?

Candy and a nickel. That's my final offer.

Okay, a dime.

Fun Fifty of 2008: Part 2 of 5

The Archies, ladies and gentlemen! The Archies! Let's give 'em a big, big hand for that beautiful musical number, a special salute to that spice we all like to call...sugar. Thanks, guys! It was great of you to get Ronnie out of rehab for the reunion!

Welcome back, everyone, to the Third Annual Fun Fifty of the Year, as presented by me, Bully! Before the commercial you saw the dramatic twists and turns we came across counting down from fifty to forty-one, and in keeping with that theme, let's kick this show back into gear! In the words and the voice of Shaggy and Robin the Boy Wonder, "Here's number forty on our countdown!"


#40: MAD SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON SPECIAL EDITION "The best things in life are free," sang Barrett Strong, and he oughta know...he co-wrote "Heard it Through the Grapevine." But he never got his picture on a bubblegum card, and he never went to Comic-Con San Diego, where he coulda picked up a free copy of MAD magazine's special, which features The Usual Gang of Idiots spoofing America's favorite gathering of the comics fans, Stormtroopers, Gothic Lolitas and little stuffed bulls! There's a funny "Comic-Con Bingo" where you score points if you can locate a Homeless Man Mistaken For Alan Moore, a Huge Campaign for a Doomed Movie (hellllo, Frank Miller!), A Forgotten Celebrity, or MADman Sergio Aragones! Speaking of which, Sergio has contributed four full-color pages of silent strips set at Comic-Con! But the main attraction is a dead-on spoof of Watchmen (entitled, in the grand MAD manner, "Botchmen"). Written by Desmond Devlin and Drawn by Glenn Fabry in a perfect Dave Gibbons imitation, it manages to be a satire not only of everybody's favorite graphic novel featuring Rorshach™ but also a parody of the movie nobody's even seen yet! Plus, just like the real modern-day MAD, plenty of ads! And the price? FREE! (Cheap!)


#39: FREDDIE & ME One of these days I shall write a grand opus of a graphic novel about my life and times spent listening to the CDs of Miss Jane Wiedlin. I shall call it..."Jane, Stop This Crazy Thing...Called Love." Until then, however, enjoy Mike Dawson's autobiographic novel Freddie & Me about his life-long obsession with the rock band Queen and their outrageous, charismatic frontman Freddie Mercury. The parallel narrative of his family and the history of Queen are warm and sensitive, celebrating the importance of music and hero worship, in naturalistic narration and dialogue, and expressive and dynamic art that reminded me of Joe Sacco's powerful graphic journalism. You don't have to be a Queen fan to enjoy Freddie & Me—Mike's experiences and encounters with love, life, and death will be familiar to anyone who's worshipped a hero from afar. But if your toes start tapping and your head starts bobbing when you hear the opening chords of "Fat Bottomed Girls" or "I Want to Break Free," well then, you'll go...to coin a phrase..."Radio Ga-Ga" over it.


#38: FRANKLIN RICHARDS Chris Eliopoulos and Marc Sumerak brought us four reality-spanning adventures this past year of the most Fantastic kid of 'em all: Franklin Richards (son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman) and his harried robotic nursemaid H.E.R.B.I.E. The plots are generally pretty simple and similar: Franklin gets into one of his dad's crazy inventions despite H.E.R.B.I.E.'s warnings, and manages to wreak havoc for several pages before putting things back before earning a rubbery spanking. This Franklin's more energetic, mischievous, and fun that his Earth-616 counterpart, and I vote that we replace the whining and moody kid of Marvel-Earth with this one, who knows how to have a good time even if it destroys the Baxter Building. 2008's quartet of Franklin Fun featured stand-out issues where Franklin faced off against his meddling Skrull imposter (proving you don't have to be Norman Osborn to put the hurt on a bumpy-chinned green alien) and in the super-saga full-book story in Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses, he accidentally unlocks a dimensional portal that brings dozens of alternate universe Franklins to Marvel-Earth: super-hero Fantastic Frank, Ape Franklin, green alien Franklin, and even Francine Richards. Aiee! If there's anything worse than supervillains, it's girls! Never worry: as usual, Frank 'n' H.E.R.B.I.E. save the day, and at the same time provide us with a light and colorful romp through one of the fun corners of the Marvel Universe where, even if a crossover...um, crosses over, we know it's gonna be for laughs rather than shock value.


#37: FUTURAMA COMICS Good news, everyone! Every year on the Fun Fifty I mention the love I have for Bongo Comics and their flagship Simpsons books, but I always forget to mention that their other Matt Groening cartoon book, Futurama Comics, is a particular fave of mine. Well, forgotten no more, Phillip J. Fry, Turanga Leela, and all the rest! I don't read many media tie-in comics...no Buffy Season Eight or Hardball with Chris Matthews: The Comic Book for me, and I'm most certainly not allowed to pick up A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila Comics and Stories. (Neither is anyone else, says the Board of Health.) But I never miss an issue of Futurama, the official comic book of the thirty-first century. If you've seen the series or any of its follow-up movies, you know the routine: the adventures of the Planet Express Delivery team in the year 3008. Highlights this past year featured a flashback to the famous "Less Than Hero" episode in which Fry, Leela and Bender became superheroes, Bender turning an entire planet into a themed gambling world (theme: himself), and a plot by the Evil Robot Santa to take over Earth using robot Santa's Helpers as his slave. (Featuring a kool Kirby-style kover!) The writers and artists capture the look, feel, humor and pacing of the show uncannily: you can hear the voices of the characters practically coming out of the page. Dense with funny dialogue and jokes, Futurama Comics delivers.


#36: MARVEL APES Okay, I admit it: I almost missed out on this one. I picked up issue #1 of this four-part miniseries based on the premise: a planet where superapes evolved from men! (Hmmm, that would make a catchy movie.) When ineffectual Earth-616 minor mutant menace Marty Blank, The Gibbon, falls into an alternate world where every intelligent being is a member of the ape family, Marty thinks he's at long last come home: accepted by the Mighty Apevengers as a member and a hero. That is, until he finds out his idol, the ape version of Captain America, is a killer and a vampire. Eek! This was the point I nearly gave up the series, disgusted with how even a light and fun concept could be made dark by modern Marvel. But curiosity got me to pick up subsequent issues, and I'm pleased I did: there's dark moments, yes, but the villains are faced by true heroes, and there's an explanation behind the villainy that doesn't sully the name of Captain America and provides a happy ending (and the possibility of a sequel) for Marty and pals. After too long seeing gruesome zombie-infested alternative Marvel Earths, Marvel Apes was as tasty and delicious as a banana...with plenty of "a-peel."


#35: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Curse you, Joe Quesada...you were right all along! Sure, you took a dumbass, out of character path to getting rid of Mary Jane's marriage to Peter...instead of the time-honored tradition of tossing her off a bridge...but the Brand New Day-era has returned fun and adventure to Spidey, not to mention making it easier to remember what Spider-Man comic you want to pick up and when: Amazing Spider-Man, most every week! The three-times monthly schedule has allowed a rotating crew of artists and writers to come aboard and work on Marvel's flagship character, providing a fresh new mini-arc every month, so if ya don't care for this issue's writing, art, or plot...hang on, we'll have something new swingin' across town from you in a few weeks! Not every ish trickled my fancy, but a lot of them did, with standouts being a Punisher crossover and the six-ish "New Ways to Die." Sure, it was a Spider-mega event, but it was over in two months and didn't leave us scratching our heads wondering which one was real and which one was the clone. Nothing deep here, just good old-fashioned primal web-swingin, wise-crackin' fun.


#34: THE BLUE BEETLE RADIO SHOW His radio adventures thrilled the wartime audiences: a superhero who battled saboteurs, mad scientists, drug peddlers and Nazis, all while wearing a mask colorful mystery man costume. Whozat? Batman? Captain America? Ma Hunkel, the Red Tornado? No! (But darnit, Ma Hunkel shoulda had a radio series!) It's the superhero you never knew had a radio show, Blue Beetle! Well, I never knew he had a radio show, at least not until I discovered the Blue Beetle Vintage Radio podcast! This is Golden Age Beetle Dan Garrett (Ted Kord and Jaime Reyes aren't even a twinkle in an eye yet), based on the 1940s Fox comic book, so the emphasis is on derring-do, fisticuffs, chilling cliffhangers and radio studio sound effects (watch out for the cornstarch!) You can read more about the show here, but what you wanna do is listen to 'em, right? Right! Fire up your iTunes by heading to this link to download 24 different episodes of Blue Beetle, or, if you don't have iTunes, you can download or listen to the shows here. These shows from 1940 may not technically quality as something fun for 2008, but just like old comics, whenever you discover 'em for the first time...that's the Golden Age.


#33: FANTASTIC FOUR There's much more to Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's Fantastic Four than a cosmetic change to the covers (although that's pretty neat too): Millar (previously on Ultimate FF) has cranked up both the science and soap opera aspects of the classic Marvel quartet, and Hitch's beautifully realistic (without looking lightbox-traced) artwork excels at portraying both facial expression and galactic conflict. These stories are divided into four-issue arcs that plunge the FF into new adventures against new enemies, but the past isn't forgotten either: Galactus, Doc Doom, and the wisecracking Ben Grimm all get their chance in the solar flare. I may quibble about a subplot or two (Ben, have you totally forgotten Alicia?) and the occasional issue lacking any sort of physical action at all, but Millar packs his FF with so many cool concepts and clever ideas that it's hard not to be compelled to pick up the next issue: even when your confronted with an "Again? But that trick ever works!" plotline like "The Death of the Invisible Woman," there's always a new twist. Which just goes to prove, the more Things change, the more I wanna read FF.


#32: TORCHWOOD (In 2007: #14) "Oh no!" I shouted in tense nervousness at the BBC America screen while watching Torchwood Series 2. "How are they gonna survive this one...oh. Oh. Oh. Uh oh." Captain Jack Harkness returns from his Doctor Who Series Three crossover episodes (collect 'em all!) to once again lead his Torchwood team against spooks, phantasms, wee ghosties and other things that go bump in the night. Oh, and his murderously vengeful brother, too. Torchwood cranked up the volume this season with even more chilling adventures with a humorous edge: the grotesque but you can't tear your eyes away "Meat" examined why we really oughta all become vegetarians, "To the Last Man" gave Tosh a reason to smile once a year, and Gwen and Rhys's eventual wedding is complicated by an alien invasion in the one place Gwen least expected it. The stand-out storyline is the dramatic mid-season death of Owen Harper, but that's the delightful thing about Torchwood: just because a team member has died doesn't mean that character's not on the show. Still, there's major upheaval and a dramatic "no second chances" final episode, and I dare ya to keep your eyes dry. I'm looking forward to Series Three, but after this one, the show'll never quite be the same.


#31: IRON MAN Holy cow look at that the armor looks like it does in the comic books but even better and Robert Downey Jr is a great and funny actor and oh wow is that really Sam Jackson and geez louise look out Pepper and holy cow he built it in a cave! That's what was goin' through my little stuffed brain, popcorn cooling and forgotten, as I sat on the edge of my seat and watched Iron Man, the most joyful Marvel superhero movie to date. The dialogue is sparkling, the special effects fantastic, the deviations from Marvel "canon" nothing to cry about (if you care about such things), and holy geez look it's Gwyneth Paltrow running in spiked heels. Run, Pepper, run! Give or take an Incredible Hulk aside, if this is the sort of movie the new Marvel Studios is going to bring us, well, I can't wait for Captain America, the Ken Branagh Thor and the all-together-nowness of The Avengers. See, just like the best comic books, a fun comic book movie leaves you breathlessly waiting for the next installment.


Whew! That's a whole lotta fun packed into 2008, and we're not even halfway through our sparkling presentation awards ceremony! Coming up after the commercial break: a special musical salute to 2008's Many Deaths of Janet van Dyne! You don't wanna miss it or anything else in the next installment of...The Fun Fifty of 2008!

Fun Fifty of 2007: Part 4 of 5

Here I am, wallowing in a big pile of comics, books, DVDs and croissants I've been saving up since last year, sorting them into piles of varying level of that indefinable quality of what we call funness. Over here, in the back, is that big towering pile of issues of Civil War and World War III, all destined for the dustbin. Those are not fun. So from that, we can deduce: "War! Huh! What is it good for?" To which the only possible answer is "Absolutely nothin'!" But here, a little closer to me, is a pile of ten things which are so fun they can only get numbered as some of the Fun Fifty of 2007. More sp'fically, and mainly 'coz we did numbers 30 through 21 yesterday, these are numbers 20 through 11. In that order. Starting with this one...


#20: THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: THE BLACK DOSSIER Probably one of the most eagerly awaited comics of the year (because it was actually due in 2006), the sequel to Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's metafiction high adventure comics brings back Mina Harker and Alan Quatermain into the strange and bizarre world of 1958 Britain (curiously enough, a 1958 that's post-1984). As always, part of the fun is in spotting the literary allusions and characters that sneak in—I howled with delight when I spied a Winged Avenger comic book from the Avengers TV series, and Moore writes one of the funniest, and perhaps most hapless, James Bonds since Ian Fleming. If I gotta make a few quibbles? Well, most of all, it doesn't really seem to tell a story, being more concerned with a series of documents within the book which tell past histories of the League. To my eyes, Moore's pastiche of P. G. Wodehouse crossed with Lovecraft, which I have to review one of these days, isn't especially convincing on a literary level, but it's at least fun. And if the ending is the equivalent of a big splashy Broadway musical number that wraps up the story but doesn't really make any sense, well, then at least it's in 3-D. Any book that comes with 3-D glasses? I'm so there.


#19: GROO 25th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL He's back! The greatest barbarian of the modern comics age returns with a vengeance, aptly drawn by MADman Sergio Aragonés, with Mark Evanier doing whatever it is that he usually does. One of the great joys of a new Groo story is that it's almost exactly like every other Groo story, and there aren't many series in which you can say that as a positive. Plus, plenty of special features, including a funny and clever "Groo Alphabet." And it leads into the first Groo series in years, Groo: Hell on Earth, which ain't half as dismal as it sounds. Groo is always silly, never stupid, and as long as Evanier and Aragonés keep puttin' 'em out, I'm standing in line with my dimes to buy 'em.


#18: SHAZAM: THE MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL Jeff Smith proves there's life after Bone in this delightful, colorful, and sometimes creepy reinvention of the Captain Marvel legend, which , while making changes to the mythos, preserves more of the joy, charm, and adventure of the original C. C. Beck creation than the current dark-spirited The Trials of Shazam mainstream DC comic does. Smith's tale springs from the classic Monster Society serial of yesteryear but adds his own touches, including the most charming Mary Marvel ever put on paper. Shazam is one of those rare comics that'll appeal to adults as well as children, and I repeat my original request when I first reviewed this: pick up a copy for a kid as well and I bet you'll get him or her hooked.


#17: POPEYE VOL. 2 "WELL BLOW ME DOWN!" For the first time since comic strips were regularly and frequently published in mass market newsstand paperbacks, we're living in a Golden Age of newspaper comic strip reprints, and the range and quality of the projects is enough to please even the fussiest of collectors and fans. Dick Tracy, Peanuts, The Far Side, Gasoline Alley, Dennis the Menace, Pogo, and many more to come are all being reprinted in beautiful archive editions. I'm a big fan of all of 'em (tho' I likely won't be buying The Complete Mary Worth, Volume 1: Mary Meddles in The Affairs of Others). But by far my favorite new reprint project has been Fantagraphics's monolith-sized reprints of Thimble Theater starring that spinach-chawin' sailor man, Popeye. Volume 2, as beautifully designed as the first (with a hard-board cut-out cover and large pages that preserve a full week's worth of continuity). The Popeye stories in this book are some of the best comedy and adventure tales told in the medium: The Rough-House War, King Popeye, and Skullyville (Toughest Town in the World!) Plus, nearly two years of full-page, full-color Sunday strips (including the lower-tier "Sappo" strip by Segar), and an extensive historical essay by Donald Phelps. Pure joy—the only way this could be better were if the book had a scratch-'n'-sniff spinach-scented cover.


#16: THE SIMPSONS MOVIE Eighteen years in the making (sorta) made The Simpsons Movie eagerly awaited, and it didn't disappoint, unless you're one of those cynical, curmudgeonly critics who claim the series hasn't been funny since Mister Plow. Me? I howled with laughter, cheered with excitement and sniffled during the sad bits. It's a bigger and broader story than your average 22-minute TV episode, with more detailed 3D animation and backgrounds but still the same loveable characters (and a few new surprises). You might lament that your favorite didn't get much screen time (me, I was disappointed there wasn't more to do for Mister Burns), but how can you not love a movie that introduced The Sensational Character Find of 2007: The Amazing Spider-Pig:



#15: EMPOWERED Let's get this out of the way right from the start: little stuffed bulls shouldn't be reading Empowered. Uh uh. No way. Not until they're at least late-teenage stuffed bulls. There's enough sex, violence, and near-but-not-complete nudity to rate this a "mature audiences only" and safely shrink-wrap away the naughty bits. But if I were allowed to review this, I'd probably tell you not only how sexy but how relentlessly funny it is: the adventures of a superheroine with serious self-esteem issues (she more often hostage than hero), her burly boyfriend Thugboy, BFF Ninjette, and TV-addicted interdimensional conqueror The Caged Demonwolf. Adam Warren (Dirty Pair, Gen13) is turning out some of the most beautiful work of his career, gorgeously reproduced to look like the original pencils, and the sexy girls and guys stretched out across the pages don't distract from Empowered being one of the most incisive and satirical looks at hero worship and the cult of celebrity in a world with superbeings. It's a pity that superhero fans probably won't pick this up because it looks like manga—and a pity that manga fans won't pick this up because it looks like superheroes. They're missing out on one of the comic delights of 2007 (with more volumes to come in 2008).


#14: TORCHWOOD SERIES 1 Rearrange the letters of "Torchwood" in the correct order and you know what you wind up with? That's right: Hot Rod Cow. For those of you who aren't interested in the weekly series about a little stuffed race car driver, check out Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin-off that's done more for Welsh tourism than any production since How Green Was My Valley. John Barrowman is back as Captain Jack Harkness, surrounding himself with a crack team of experts to investigate the crimes beyond the skills of the Cardiff police—or indeed, the imagination of most mortal men. Darker and grimmer than Doctor Who, but never bleak, Torchwood brings sensibility of The X-Files into the twenty-first century with a compelling cast of characters whose stories grow and intertwine throughout the season. And when it clicks, it strikes dead aim at your heart and brain at the same time: stand-out episodes like "Captain Jack Harkness" and "Random Shoes" had me on the edge of my seat and reaching for my handkerchief to sniffle in at the same time.


#13: COVER GIRL Remember those old To Tell The Truth episodes where a panelist would exempt himself from the final round because he already knew the secret contestant? Well, in the interest of true and honest disclosure, Cover Girl co-creator Kevin Church (mastermind of BeaucoupKevin(dot)com) is a pal o' mine. And yet, I'm including his comic in my Fun Fifty. Or, as an instant message conversation 'tween yours little stuffed truly and that paragon of Pet Shop Boys fandom went:

bully: i have to decide what comics I'm going top put in my year-end Top Fifty.
kevin: Well, that's easy.
kevin: COVER GIRL #1-5
kevin: TEN TIMES EACH.


Well, I did have 49 other choices, Kevin, but you get one slot right here for your, co-creator Andrew Cosby, and artist Mateus Santolouco's fast-paced, funny, and beautifully drawn action adventure of an up-and-coming movie star and the gorgeous and deadly bodyguard assigned to protect him after he saves the wrong girl from a car crash. Cover Girl is both fast-paced and dense—this is not a fast five-minutes-per-issue read, and Church's genuinely funny yet believable dialogue rewards re-reading. For my money, it's the most entertaining Hollywood-based comic book since Crossfire. Someday, this will be a Hollywood film, and you can say you read it in comic book form before you bought the action figures and got the McDonald's Happy Meal.

Now can I have my tricycle back, Mister Church?


#12: THE ART OF BONE Jeff Smith goes for the hat trick and makes his third appearance on the Fun Fifty list with this dazzling oversized gift book covering the design and evolution of his award-winning Bone series. Beautiful full-color reproductions of covers minus logos, penciled roughs, extensive history and commentary, plus a large collection of Smith's college-era "Thorn" comic strips which inspired Bone. If you're a Boneophile, this is the closest thing to pure heaven—at least until Smith starts work on the sequel Bone 2: Electric Boogaloo.


#11: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS In the course of the Fun Fifty, I've mentioned a few eagerly anticipated 2007 projects—but none have been so intensely awaited worldwide than the concluding volume of J. K. Rowling's Happy Potter series. We've followed Harry from age 11 to age 17 and bought billions of his books, and if you're a fan, the final adventure doesn't disappoint—the last standoff against Voldemort and his minions, a search for mystic talismans as well as the mysterious past of Dumbledore, and more deaths than an issue of What If?. I could be Scroogesque and complain about the massive infodump chapters, including one that brings the climatic battle to a complete halt while we rewind to the past of Harry's family, and that Rowling really could have used an editor in some sections, but I can't deny I awaited this book with increasing excitement the nearer its release approached, and that I devoured it in one night of eager reading...and that I read it all over again the next day. No spoilers here from me if you haven't read it, but the final three words of Deathly Hallows are not only a summation of Harry's life but also a reflection of our contentment with the entire saga.


Well, that's all, folks! The most fun comics, movies, books and all kindsa other stuff in 2007. I sure hope you enjoyed it, and you'll join me around this time next year when I look back at 2008 and tell you how much fun we had reading that Secret Invasion and Final Crisis thing, and how much we laughed in relief and joy when Stephanie Brown, Steve Rogers, and Mary Jane Watson-Parker all showed up together in the shower in the morning after a terrible long nightmare...

Oh, wait! Not done yet! There's ten more to come! So, tune in tomorrow and we'll take the final swing through the Ten Most Fun of 2007. There'll be laughter, and tears, and Skrulls. And this time...it's personal!