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Friend of ComicHacks.com, ADD at ComicBookGalaxy, has posted his 2007 Year In Review which includes his best and worst of 2007.

First, let me say that I’m just not really sure that it was a great year for comics (I accidentally typed “vomics” and, truth be told, that’s what I feel that we, as readers, were exposed to all too often this year) because I still feel disappointed in several ways:

- Late comics (I know, that’s no surprise)

- Comics that should have been GREAT but just weren’t (All Star Batman & Robin, The Authority, Wildcats, anyone?)

- Too much mediocrity or just plain crap (52, Countdown, or simply insert just about any DC title here)

Hammering on DC, ain’t I?

To be honest with you, there was so much that I was disappointed with in 2007 that I was looking forward to announcements more than actual comic book releases in the hopes that there would be something that I’d want to get or at least try. Also, with my time and income being so limted by nursing school, I had to really like what I was spending my limited funds on.

Marvel definitely proved this year that they have no idea what they want to do or need to do with the Ultimate Universe and now it appears that the entire universe will be placed (mistakenly?) in the hands of Jeph Loeb for a complete overhaul. He’ll also be writing what was once my favorite Ultimate title, The Ultimates, and I’ll check it out, but it won’t be for the writing. I’m a MAD fan from way back and from what I’ve seen of U3, this looks to be his best artwork ever. I’d give Marvel kudos for bringing MAD back to comics, but I think that’d really belong to Loeb more than Marvel. I’m not sure what it is with McGuinness, MAD, or Liefeld, but these guys seem to absolutely love Loeb while I have yet to be impressed with any comics that he’s written. Maybe U3 will change that…we’ll see.

DC seems to have bitten of more than they can chew from their own kitchen table. The obnoxious advent of 52, all of the different seemingly cumbersome Countdown titles, the major editorial screwups with Wonder Woman and the All Star titles, thinking they knew what to do with The Boys, and, finally, seeming to have no clue what to do with Wildstorm or how to restart it (they’ve basically handled Wildstorm just like Marvel has handled the Ultimate universe for the past year) has led me to believe that there’s been very good reason that Marvel has kicked the crap out of them for the majority of the year in terms of sales and creativity. Marvel and DC have their times of being absolutely clueless, but, I gotta tell ya, DC took the cake this year.

Avatar and Dynamite were the breakouts this year. Avatar got me hook, line, and sinker with The Chronicles of Wormwood and then just kept pulling with Black Summer and Streets of Glory. Dynamite scooped up The Boys and now have a major series coming with Superpowers by Ross and Krueger that will put them on the map like they’ve never been before.

Anyway, back to ADD’s lists of the good and the bad of 2007. I haven’t read all of the books that he’s listed in the good and the bad, so I’ll comment on the ones that I have read.

Crecy - As much as I like Ellis, Crecy did nothing for me. I barely even remember that I read it and all that I can remember about that experience was that the art gave me a headache. Not the art by itself, but the major contrast of all of the artistic detail on plain black and white that just hurt my eyes to look at.

Criminal - Criminal has been good, and I buy it, but it’s not a must read title to me like Sleeper was. Still, it’s one of the best books being released by Marvel right now and it’s still on my pull list. I recommend that you add it to yours.

Marvel Zombies 2 - Yeah, just plain, perverse fun. I haven’t read any of the other spinoffs, so I can’t comment on them.

All Star Superman - Ditto. But DC still screwed this up beyond belief. More on that to come in another post.

The Boys - You know, I thought that I would love this book and I don’t. So far, to much of it has been just shock and awe with no real substance, or at least not enough substance to satisy me. I want to see what Ennis does with the group in Russia, but this may the last arc that I get.

Thor - Wow. Talk about a disappointment there. Having read the first 3 issues, I get the impression that JMS really has no idea what he wants to do with the character and is padding out this first storyarc as a means of actually getting some kind of idea as to where he wants go. #1 was probably the weakest debut of a major character that I have ever seen in my life.

Some things that were missed that I liked:

Daredevil: Battlin’ Jack Murdock - This was a phenomenal miniseries that really struck a cord with me as a father. It just did. The art was fantastic and the story blew me away. It actually maybe the best Daredevil story I’ve ever read. Get the trade.

Green Arrow: Year One - Another miniseries that took me by surprise. Diggle and Jock actually made me interested in reading Green Arrow like I never have before. Get the trade.

Scalped - Who would have thought that this story was so interesting? Jason Aaron has hit Vertigo screaming with this breakout series and I’m loving every issue of it. I want more of this kind of creativity and ingenuity. Again, get the trades.

Fantastic Four by McDuffie and Pelletier - Wow. This creative team has made the series so enjoyable that I want them to stay on longer. I was only getting the series because Pelletier was on it, but McDuffie writes a fantastic FF! Just give Millar and Hitch their own FF series and leave McD & PP on this series. Get the trades.

Black Summer - Though the series isn’t finished yet, it’s already shaping up to be one of Ellis’ best works, on par with The Authority or Planetary. Also, my retailer and I were talking about Juan Jose Ryp and how fantastic his art has been for this series. The main question that we pondered was why he doesn’t do any work for any other company because I could see him drawing an awesome Punisher or Batman series. Regardless, I’m glad to have him on this series because his artwork has been stellar.

That’s it for  me. Hopefully 2008 will be a lot better for readers, but we’ll all have to wait and see.

All I can say is this: choose wisely.