#20: GERANIUMS AND BACON Just like Crosby and Hope, Power man and Iron Fist, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Crisco, Geraniums and Bacon is two great tastes that taste great together! One of my fave minicomics in 2008 was the newest issue (#5) of G&B by Cathy Leamy (aka the mysterious Metrokitty, crimefighter to the stars!). Although I'd picked up a few of her minicomics in stores previously, I was lucky enough to finally meet Cathy at this year's ultra-hot MoCCA Art Festival, where she not only autographed a copy of her newest mini to me but also sketched a very handsome and debonair character:
#18: AMBUSH BUG: YEAR NONE There's no miniseries I looked forward to with more unbridled glee and drooling anticipation than DC's revival of Ambush Bug, and hoo-whee! The Bug is back and he's got yer Final Crisis right here, pallie! Keith Giffin and Robert Loren Fleming, the masterminds behind the classic Bug stories of the 1980s (thankfully soon to be reprinted in a big fat Showcase edition) have returned for this six-issue miniseries that pits everyone's three favorite all-green DC hero against his own universe. I'm not certain what readers who weren't prepped for this series by reading the old Ambush Bug comics thought of it: joyfully anarchic, bashing both the fourth wall and the hand that feeds them as it entangles and attacks the multi-series mega-Crisis-crossovers of today and even paints Dan DiDio as the ultimate supervillain. Some of it's silly more often than it is funny (much like the original Bugs), but there's plenty of good, solid chuckles in every issue, and let's face it: even if I can't quite figger out what's going on, how much different is that from most of the mega-comics of today? It's nice to know that DC doesn't take themselves so dead seriously that there's still a corner of their universe where hyperactive shenanigans are still welcome. (Now, bring back Sugar and Spike, ya mooks!)
#17: BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM! Speakin' o' little fun pocket universes in the DCU, howzabout this wonderful, funderful take on Captain Marvel by Mike "Herobear" Kunkel, which picks up the story from the Jeff Smith mini of last year but brings Kunkel's own visual and story take on The Big Red Cheese—a comic that's for kids, sure, but you'll like it too! This is Captain Marvel taken out of the ever-complicated DC Universe and given his own world to Shazam around in with mischievous and marvelous kid sister Mary. This Shazam series is like nothing DC's ever done with the character—in fact it looks like nothing else on the superhero shelf, period: highly exaggerated cartoon art, but beautifully detailed, powerful in its energy and movement and a brilliant but not blinding pallet of colors. This is work that approaches the physical comedy, visual look and energetic movement of Asterix, which from me, a little stuffed Gaulish supporter from way back, is very high praise indeed. Not only that, but BB is the best value on the superhero shelf: you can't read this in two or three minutes because Kunkel's packed each page with plenty of panels and dialogue to entertain you and move his story along. It's never cramped or padded...it's just, for lack of a better word, chock-full. If you go back to the original Captain Marvel Adventures comics of the Fawcett Comics era, you'll find that those were never comics just for kids, but amazing in their appeal and entertainment value for adults then (and now). Kunkel's Captain Marvel has much the same appeal. If your only memory of Captain Marvel is as a crazed lightning-bolt slinger from Kingdom Come, you owe it to yourself to experience the joy and fun a really fine Shazam! comic can bring.
#15: SATURN KNIGHT Earlier tonight I mentioned Cuddly Chris Sims, the Invincible Super-Blogger who will always tell you if a part of your anatomy is haunted, isn't just a cool guy who sends me free books, suspiciously trying to bribe me into listing him more than once in my year-end wrap-up...no, no, no, he's also a guy who brags about his upcoming comics projects, all of which threaten to break the comics blogosophere in equilateral thirds. Well, Chris (in collaboration with artist Pierre Villeneuve) has finally done that thing we call around my house "pooping or getting off the pot", producing the ultimate Christmas comic (and that includes that Punisher ish where Frank Castle shot an elf point-blank in the face): Saturn Knight in "The Knight Before Christmas!" It's a battle royale at the North Pole when a villainous vixen kidnaps St. Nick and the only hero who can stop her is...aw, you guessed it, Saturn Knight! This is bright and bold and brash: nothing deep or serious but just what the jolly old elf ordered in a Christmas comic. In addition to introducing Saturn Knight, the strip guest-stars some great cameo super-characters who deserve to get more time in the spotlight later: Jim Shelley and Pierre Villeneuve universe, with Chris Sims at the writing helm in this story, all bring us a solid and original heroic world in the vein of Astro City or 1963 that I'd love to explore further. And let's face it, how can you resist a villain who attacks Santa Claus using a big-ass laser gun called the Holidazer with a sound effect of KWANAZAAAP! It's all great fun, gorgeously drawn and lushly colored, and appeals to my sense of good solid superhero comics: not trying to reinvent the genre, but simply to produce a solid and entertaining comic story. And in the end, we're left with a great warm feeling and a belief in Santa Claus and superheroes. Only a Grinch would tell a kid they don't exist, and Sims and Villeneuve...and Saturn Knight...bring back belief in all that's good, fat, and dressed in a red suit. And how much is this stocking full of Christmas cheer gonna cost me, you ask? Absolutely nothin'! (Say it again!) Click on the image above or here to read Saturn Knight for free online! Who says this isn't the Flashback Age of Comics?
#13: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS In 2007: #3) Over in the Marvel Universe, there's still umpty-ump gajillions of X-Men titles, most of which feature Wolverine. Excuse me if I step over those books to grab X-Men: First Class off the rack: it's been consistently the most entertaining and fun X-comic since Grant Morrison left New X-Men ten seconds before all his stories were retconned. 2008 saw the end of the regular First Class series, but never fear: it was followed up with a lovely Giant-Sized special (featuring two of my favorite X-stories of '08, Roger Langridge's Edward Goreyesque Charles Xavier storybook, and Michael Cho's gorgeous black-and-grey-and-ruby-quartz toned 1950s-style take on that movie with 
SIMPSONS COMICS #146: This comic is fun. The front cover of Bongo's flagship cheerfully proclaims "A cover so nice we did it twice!" referring to the Separated at Birth nominee previous issue #145 (itself a candidate for matching up alongside all those Supes/Flash covers), but the story itself is ultra-familiar as well: Marge gets a wildly inappropriate job outside the home (in this case, a roller derby queen, yee haw!) and learns A Valuable Life Lesson™ from tiny tyke Lisa in being true to yourself. It's reminiscent of such televised Simpsons episodes as, say, The One Where Marge Becomes a Cop or The One Where Marge Works Out and Gets Really Scary Abs, not to mention other Bongo Comics like The One Where Marge Becomes Krusty. But who cares? Part of the Simpsons's charm is the familiarity in the face of new events. F'r instance, is it any surprise that Homer does something dumb-ass in this issue? It is not. Not only that, but SIMPSONS #145 contains The Best Panel of the Week: Marge and Duff-Man displaying their crime-fightin' skill with a near-perfect Fastball Special!
MARVEL APES #2: This comic is sorta fun. The first issue of this alternate Marvel Universe high adventure (is this Earth-Six-One-Simian?) was amusing, energetic and funny, pretty much right up to its final cliffhanging page. But a dark twist pretty much comes out of nowhere and gets even blacker in the second issue, causing me to sigh and say, "Is there nothing Marvel can't attach the word 'dark' to?" There's a lot of good stuff here: entertaining monkey puns as names for the Earth-Ape heroes, the mystery of Ape X, a likeable and compelling protagonist in the Gibbon, but oh! That twist! [SPOILER WARNING] Ape-Captain America and the Invaders are vampires. They beat Doc Ock to near-death and feast on him, then kill Reed Richards and in a gory, blood-splattered panel, Captain America drinks Reed's blood. Then the vampires plan to invade and feast on the regular human Marvel Earth. Cheese and crackers! This is just another riff on the Marvel Zombies issues of Ultimate Fantastic Four except with less Greg Land. Oh dear. But then why (you're asking me), am I grading this as sorta fun then? Well, take out the dark vampire apes and it is a pretty fun and goofy series with a lot of potential. I'll be checking in on this series to see if the tide turns for a happy ending, and if this ish's cliffhanger means there's a rebellion combing against Cap-Ape and Co. (Also, the "Bonobo-Pen Bulletin" page is pretty funny: I'd pay good money to read a comic starring "Aperaham Lincoln."
GREATEST HITS #1: This comic is fun. The idea's so simple I wonder nobody's thought of it yet: a quartet of British superheroes become the biggest pop stars of the swinging sixties. I remember a letter way, way, way back to Marvel's What If? which proposed a story of "What If the Beatles Had become the Fantastic Four?" (To which the editor jokily but disappointingly dismissed with "You mean they didn't?") Well, this, folks, is that concept at last brought to the comic book pages. Convergent plots from 1966 and 2008 fill in the history with beautiful art by Glenn Fabry. This one's not for all ages (and probably not for a little stuffed bull...I didn't get all the adult jokes!), but as the first in a six-ish limited series, it's a good start for something a wee bit different from Vertigo.
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS #16: This comic is fun. I've made no secret of my love for Jeff Parker's various X-Men: First Class series, which are pretty much the sheer definition of fun. It doesn't matter to me that these stories contradict or rewrite some of the carefully spun history of Marvel-Earth: what's important is that this has been consistently the most entertaining X-Series in years. By this issue, #16, Parker's firing on all cylinders with a very delightful tale of Iceman moving out of the X-Mansion in frustration and moving in with Johnny Storm. They're not just roommates, they're teammates, firing crooks with fire and ice! There's a lot of lovely touches in here: Scorpion and the Beetle arguing over their team name, Professor X's self-satisfied smile on assuring the other X-Men that Bobby will be back, and the twist ending that spells an end to the Iceman/Human Torch team-up. Plus, not-yet-dead Gwen Stacy at a pool party. Parker avoids a couple of the clichés of earlier issues (there's no well-meaning but misunderstood monsters in this issue) and Bobby's defection and return is handled with a lighter and more natural touch than the same recent storyline for the Angel. That makes it all the sadder that #16 is the final issue in the series, but never fear, as Iceman himself points out: they'll be back again 
BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM! #2: This comic is fun. I'm in love with Mike Kunkel's gorgeous and unique artwork for this all-ages series, a sequel of sorts to the Jeff Smith Shazam! mini of last year. Kunkel reinvents Black Adam as a school bully (hey! I resent that remark!) intent on capturing Billy and Mary's magic word, getting them in trouble at school and capturing the power of the Seven Deadly Sins. Sounds grim, don't it? Nope, it isn't. It's joyful and expressive and dense (it takes a lot longer to read this "kids" comic than it does most decompressed superhero comics)—there's a lot of meat in this slim $2.25 book. If all Kunkel did was bring his wonderful art style—busy without being crowded, and oh-so-full full of energy—to the page, he'd well deserve praise for giving us a book with a unique new look. That he's melded it with an entertaining and funny storyline and dialogue is even more worthy of applause. This series shows great signs of placing high on my year-end Fun Fifty list, and it woulda been the most fun book of the week, if it had been a week that hadn't included...
ALL STAR SUPERMAN #12: This comic is fun. Thus ends the most picture-perfect dozen issues of Superman since...oh, man, I can't remember when. Like the Twelve Labors of Hercules, Superman series isn't complete until he finishes issue #12, and his tasks on Earth aren't over as long as Luthor rampages free, gorged on the superhuman power of the dead Superman. Did we say dead? Aw, that trick never works. Grant Morrison's dialogue is wonderfully read-out-loud delightful (try it yourself with Luthor's proclamations and see if you don't wind up cackling with glee) and Frank Quitely's art is such a natural fit with Morrison's writing that it's hard to imagine any other team taking over after this storyline. Quitely's style is...look, I can't quite describe in words but let me try. Each panel is set up like a photograph or movie still: there's no cartoon clichés like speed lines or sound effects...but read 'em as sequential art and the movement is so smoothly natural and so intensely commanding that you begin to realize we sometimes take for granted the power and versatility of comic panel art. And his expressions are sublime: check out the surprise of the subway riders as Lex and Superman crash in, Steve Lombard's near-panicked tears trying to revive Clark, or Luthor's time-addled confusion when Kal defeats him using science!—a Flash Fact of a solution concerning gravity and the passage of time that has me slapping my forehead with my little stuffed hoof and going "Of course! I shoulda thought of it!" But I didn't, Superman did. And Grant Morrison did. And entertained me every step of the way. I'll miss this series tremendously. I'll miss All Star Superman himself. That's why ALL STAR SUPERMAN and no other comic could possibly be the most fun comic of the week. Even tho' it made me cry like a baby. Yup. This comic made tears roll out of my button eyes. In fact, I can't write anymore. Let's listen to this instead:
NEW AVENGERS #39: This comic is evil. Even if you could get David Mack to put away his &!@#ing tracing paper for one issue, this'd still be an evil comic on all fronts. Dumbass action, liberal gore and blood, pointless sex scene, and absolutely no heroics at all. Plus: a focus on Echo, a character nobody really gives a damn about? Bingo. It's an evil comic all the way around, and the only thing that could make it eviler would be if it were part of a multi-issue mega-storyline. Or wait, it is. EVIL!
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS #10: This comic is only half evil. That's because it features Cyclops, the X-Man nobody likes (not even his dead, dead mama), and very little of the rest of the X-Men, especially that delicious little fire-head Marvel Girl. She'll make you wanna do evil things, I'm tellin' ya! But at least this issue features all the X-Men except Cyclops overcome by explosive Mexican diarrhea, so it is somewhat evil. Then again, if I'd published the freakin' thing, I woulda dunked it in germs that would give everybody who touched it explosive diarrhea. BWAH-HA-HA-HA! I'm EVIL!
COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS #5: This comic is evil. Screwing up fanboys's indexing systems by numbering the comic backwards? That's EVIL. But not as evil as this mean-pirited, bleak and nihilistic (yes—I used the word 'nihilistic'...what's it to you, doughboy?) reboot of the OMAC and Kamandi stories for a new readership for whom, apparently, Kirby is not good enough. That's evil, and I applaud it. Even more evil? The first appearance of 2008's Sensational Evil Character Find, Dog with a Carving Knife.
STAR TREK: NEW FRONTIER #1 This comic is evil. Well, first of all, it's written by Peter David.
THE MIGHTY AVENGERS #11: This comic is only half evil. Here's all the bland Avengers, the ones nobody gives a damn about. Yeah, everybody loves Wonder Man...not! And what's with the cheap-ass thought balloons? A sleazy way to prove that character's not a Skrull? Evil! But by far the most evil bit about the book is that Doctor Doom uses his time machine to get his sweet, sweet lovin' on with Morgana Le Fay. Using a time machine to defeat the Avengers? Pretty wicked. Using his time machine to knock iron boots with a bitchy medieval sorceress? Now that's EVIL!
ALL STAR SUPERMAN #10: This comic is evil. At first glance I was gonna code this comic disgustingly not evil because it's got competent art, innovative writing, clever and original concepts and it celebrates the overall weak goody-goodyness of that namby-pampy Superman. So why am I celebrating it as an evil comic? Because Superman dies. That's right, fanboys, choke on your memorial black Death of Superman armbands, the big blue Boy Scout is worm food! He's pushin' up daisies! He is an ex-Superman. And who is to laud for this evil turn of events? Grant Morrison, of course. All hail to thee, Grant, Son of Morris! All hail for your comic which is EVIL!
COUNTDOWN SPECIAL: ECLIPSO #1: This comic is evil. What's this? A comic featuring one of DC's evilest, more amoral characters? Some blaspheming to attempt to place stories from the Bible within the canonical history of the DC Universe by painting DC villains as the cause? Heads being ripped off, blood spurting, and skulls being vomited? Pretty evil. But not as evil as the existence of this comic book all by itself, in which DC has reprinted three old issues of the Ostrander Eclipso series from the mid-nineties, three books you could find in the quarter bin of the sleaziest comic book shop in the country, and charged five clams for the whole thing. Why, that's brilliant evil, and you know who the sucker is for buying it? You, fanboy! BWAH-HA-HA-HA! That's why COUNTDOWN SPECIAL: BUY SOME OLD CRAPPY ISSUES OF ECLIPSO #1 is the most evil comic of the week! Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha! EVIL!
Look! Fabulous stars and celebrities are arriving in their stretch limousines and stepping onto the plush red carpet to stroll into the amphitheater as we prepare for the Big Awards Night: The Top Ten of the Fun Fifty of 2007. Quick! Sidestep Joan Rivers before she makes fun of your outfit and avoid Isaac Mizrahi's wandering hands, duck away from Amy Winehouse before she collapses on you, and find your way to your seat. You may have to whack Jack Nicholson on the head if he's bobbing around in front of you, but look!: the lights are going down and the curtain is coming up, and here comes Billy Crystal soaring into the theater on a jet pack...oh my gosh look out Mister Crystal...oh, no! Oh no! He landed right on Miss Jolie! (Boing!) And Michael Douglas's hairpiece has burst into flames! Oh the humanity! Oh the humanity!
#10: ALL STAR SUPERMAN Only four issues of the finest and funnest Superman comic came out this year, but I'll gladly trade four of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's comics for a truckload of most other creators'. All Star Superman (don't acronymize it!) has a modern spirit infused with the nanotechnology and quantum theory thinking that's a trademark of Morrison's works, while, like his work on Batman, at the same time it homages and salutes the joy and goofiness of the 1950s Superman stories without making them seem silly or outdated. It's like the Reeses Peanut Cup of comics: delicious, creamy nostalgia surrounded by a sweet savory twenty-first century shell. 2007's stories advanced the general meta-saga—the slow death of Superman—at the same time individual stories took front stage: the Bizarro World, new Kryptonians...but the stand-out of a fine year was #6's "Funeral in Smallville," bringing the concept of mortality home to Clark in a very personal way.
#9: THE SPIRIT Darwyn Cooke's year-long tenure on The Spirit is over, but I'm gonna look back on this run with extreme fondness. Cooke, J. Bone, and Dave Stewart clearly had a lot of love for Will Eisner's blue-masked mystery man and his extensive supporting cast (including the gorgeously re-realized Central City). With a great mix of humor and drama, the new Spirit has been brought up to modern times (including a street-wise but no-longer politically-incorrect Ebony). But there's still plenty of room to acknowledge the great stories of The Spirit's past, as Cooke has in a couple beautifully drawn and touchingly scripted Sand Sarif stories. Even #7 and #13's triple-storied anthology issues were a delight, which just goes to prove that The Spirit isn't simply a Cooke-only franchise. That said, while I'm very much looking forward to Aragonés, Evanier, and Ploog on the title, these first twelve issues will remain near and dear to my little satin heart for keeping the spirit of Eisner's great hero alive.
#8: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD I try not to have a sense of fan entitlement (it's not becoming in a little stuffed bull), but the revived Brave and the Bold
was one comic I was definitely being a back-seat driver: it wouldn't work unless Batman was co-starring in every issue; it needed done-in-one stories rather than a continued saga; you can't mix Legion of Super-Heroes mythology with the Batman mythos. And boy, was I wrong! There's been dozens of team-up titles over the years and I have a weakness for 'em, but Brave and the Bold may just outfun 'em all in my book. (Yes, even Marvel Two-in-One!) The initial extended "Luck Lords" storyline brought in everyone from Batman to Green Lantern to Supergirl and the Legion, and the inclusion of these diverse heroes seemed organic and logical rather than haphazard and coincidental. Bonus points for introducing the merged Batman/Tharok (Batrok?), minus a couple points for the slightly skeevy attraction of Green Lantern towards the teenage Supergirl. If the second story arc is half as fun as the first, however, then this series might have a shot at outlasting the original B&B. Heck, they can even bring back Bat-Hulk if they do it right.
#7: BIFF-BAM-POW! What this world needs: more comics by Evan Dorkin. Biff-Bam-Pow! (don't forget the exclamation point!) is an anthology title by Dorkin and wife Sarah Dyer with more action, humor, and pure punching power per page than all other comics released in 2007 had in their entire run combined! (Note: hyperbole about level of punching power is for entertainment purposes only and not a legally-binding contract). It an all-ages comic that's perfectly appropriate for kids, but manly, yes, adults liked it too! Meet One Punch Goldberg, the fightin'-est girl around: she can lay out a brigade of monkeys with a single fist! (And I'm not using monkeys metaphorically...they really are monkeys!) If that's not enough, the ever-thrilling Kid Blastoff, plus a couple comedy-action reprint comics (that I hadn't seen before) round out BBP!, and the only disappointment is that the comic comes to an end and there was only one issue in 2007. More, Mister Dorkin, please!
#6: RATATOUILLE Not merely the finest animated movie of 2007—Ratatouille is quite simply one of the best movies, period, of the year. You may not like rats...you may certainly not like rats in your kitchen...but rats in a kitchen in a movie is cinema gold, and for the folks at Pixar, a way to chalk up another acclaimed success. But look beyond the million computer-generated hairs on the plump little body of Rémy the rat or the gorgeously-realized cityscape of Paris's alleys and rooftops and you'll find a story of love...love of food, love of your work, and love for a beautiful and spunky French chef (the quirky Collette, aptly voiced by Janeane Garofolo). In fact, it's the mix of human and animal characters that make Ratatouille more than just another Disney animal fable—to the little button eyes of this stuffed bull living among human, it's one of the first and one of the finest cartoons that have mixed the animal and human worlds without giving either species' story time short shrift. It may be that the CGI technology has finally reached the point where the human characters—charicactured tho' they may be—look as realistic within their world as the animal figures, but I think it's also because the script gives both its two- and four-legged heroes room to shine. Also, it taught me how to pronounce and spell the word "ratatouille," so it was educational as well.
#5: JACK OF FABLES Rogues and con men are always fun to read about (long as it's not your pocket they're pickin'...hey, hands off my Hello Kitty change purse!), which is why Jack of Fables overtook regular-flavored Fables on my fun list of 2007. After he was banished from Fabletown, I wondered exactly what sort of adventures Jack could possibly have. The short answer is: he's taking his act on the road, from that most famous of American destinations (Las Vegas) to his current extended road trip around mythological America, all in search of fame, fortune, gold, and a pretty girl. As the makers of The Han Solo Show will tell you, however, a rogue's nothing without his extended supporting cast, and Jack's got some of the finest: Gary the Pathetic Fallacy, sexy librarian (aren't they all?) Hillary, and certainly my role model when it comes to comic book heroes: Babe, the Tiny Blue Ox with a very rich fantasy life. While Fables itself seems to be heading towards an ending, Jack's still got plenty of road to travel, and I'm happy to tag along with him.
#4: DOCTOR WHO: THE TEN DOCTORS Nope, you didn't miss picking up this Doctor Who comic at your local Android's Dungeon: this is a fan-made webcomic that you'll find online here (click on the arrows in the upper right to progress through the pages) and you'll be transported into the dream of every Doctor Who fan: an extended, time-spanning adventure featuring not just one or three or five but all ten Doctors...their entire cast of companions (including several time-versions of some companions)...a rogue's gallery of the 
#3: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS The best X-Men title being published today? Well, your mileage may vary. But don't let the complaints of anal fanboys that these stories "don't matter" because they "aren't in canon" keep you from picking up the most fun mutant-stuffed comic on the market. It's got the original X-Men of the Lee/Kirby issues, the light humor of the early Claremont/Cockrum run, and the "teen heroes" riff of the first few dozen New Mutants. There's a wonderful emphasis on learning experience for Cyclops, Angel, Beast, Iceman, and Marvel Girl in every issue: the discovery, so important to the theme of mutant comics, that hideous or monstrous does not equal villainous. At the same time the heroes are having a heck of a lot of fun (almost as much as we are): road trips, extra-curricular excursions, clever and inventive text page introductions and some of the natural teen dialogue without being over laden with quickly-outdated slang. The icing on this X-cake? Colleen Coover's occasional Marvel Girl backups are funny, charming, beautifully drawn and inventive. I don't care if canon tells us Jean and Wanda never hung out together—by golly, reading about them doing so seems right. And more important, fun.
#2: THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST P'raps the fact that it's been mostly divorced from the widespread super-upheavals of the past couple years (Civil, Hulk, and Skrull wars all cascading into one another) gives The Immortal Iron Fist its appeal and charm—stripped of the need for massive tight continuity with every other book in the line, Iron Fist is free to be an inventive globe-trotting adventure. Maybe it's just that deep down, Danny Rand was a heck of a character whose past has always been acknowledged but never deeply examined. Or it might be that this book features a high level of kicks to the face in every issue. Whatever! At the recommendation of Chris Sims, a man who knows kick-ass when he sees it, I picked up IIF in mid-story-stream but not only was I not lost, I rushed back to the store to grab as many of the back issues I could find. It has the same vibe I felt when I first read James Robinson's Starman: a legacy hero done right, even including periodic flashback tales that dovetail into the main narrative, but it's got its own vibe and energy, especially in the current storyline featuring an extreme fighting tournament against a cast of skilled warriors from competing mystic cities, while on the outside Luke Cage, Misty Knight, and Colleen Wing fight the Hydra hordes. It's that rarest of superhero comics: thoughtful and subtle, reverent of its past, but with amazing fight sequences. Kickassery. It does a comic good.
#1: BOOSTER GOLD 52's MVP makes the big leap to his second solo series. Like the first, it's got a gimmick, but this time it's custom-made for those of us who love comics: Booster is now the appointed guardian of the history timeline in the DC Universe. Like Doctor Sam Beckett, he travels back in time, putting right what once went wrong, hoping that his next leap will be the leap...to save his dearest friend. As a gimmick, it's dandy. What's even better is the execution: in the first six issues alone Booster zips from Green Lantern history to the Cosmic Treadmill-era Flash, from the old west of Jonah Hex to the hard-learned lessons of history and temporal causality when he tries to save Barbara Gordon from 
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQenrY-T9_-EUVG2XBTW-ZiSnvw_V3JFU-8tiFlhrdgKCUBaE56ekbiILucymY9gA-xa4zdGy_z1Njojw78Z-YnlUiN4PIRRurK7GzqoEg3B-PmXl2RJaS1ZaVKVCEHP-m-WVr2xjqailLu1jlzylysiBGc3sVXLXNMFDzAURyrHhKBfcqyO4/s1600/button-libertybellmarch.jpg" "It's...")
