Last Month's Comics: The Best of the Marvel and DC Comp Boxes by Mark Millar Because I'm both cheap and Scottish, I'm only reviewing the comics they send me for free, and this basically amounts to the Marvel and DC books. I'm not really into bitching about the stuff I don't like, and it's unfair to criticize a comic I stopped reading around page eight. So I'm really going to accentuate the positives here. These are the best of the bunch for October, boys and girls. DC Comics 100 Bullets: I know, I know. Everyone says 100 Bullets. It's repeated like the eighties mantra of Maus and Love and Rockets when people talk about good comics. But the truth is I only just started reading it. It's been piling up under my desk for two years and I just finally sat down and read them last month and I love it. Azzarello rocks and Risso kicks major booty too (or however these Americans put it). Plus Dave Johnson covers? Does this really only cost the same money as some of the other crap out there? Hellblazer: Again, Azzarello is doing a bang-up job. "Hard Time" is literally the best Constantine story in the character's 15-year history. They've been a little slow since, but still highly entertaining, and Frusin's so good I'm already making plans to nick him. Green Arrow: Easily the best title in the DCU. The fact that Kevin and Phil have Green Arrow selling more than Superman, JLA and Batman is actually almost too insane to even think about. I mean, this is Green Freakin' Arrow, but I love it. Almost always the first thing I read in the box every month and reminder of how good DC books can be when people actually make an effort. Superman titles: I must admit, I really didn't think I'd like these. As conspiracy theorists everywhere know, Waid, Morrison, Peyer and I also pitched for the Superman titles around the same time, and sheer childishness would normally make me hate the guys who got to play with the toys we didn't. That said, I love these books. The Superman titles have finally become the Rolls Royce engine of the DC Universe, and Jeph's book in particular is excellent. These guys are really trying hard and it's paying off. Joe Casey's really turned Adventures around big-time and doesn't get enough credit, I reckon. Wieringo draws the best Superman I've seen since I was five. I haven't been able to read Superman since John Byrne left, but these are great. My one complaint? There's just too many Superman-related books. Which ones to cull? I don't know, but I feel the books are competing with themselves sales-wise and would do a lot better with some trimming. Batman titles: Again, really good-looking books, but there's perhaps a couple of Batman-related books too many every month and it makes them very inaccessible to new readers. Like Eddie Berganza's revamp of the Superman titles, Schreck and Idelson have been a shot in the arm for the Batman books, but I'd like to see a little more of the title character. Brubaker and Vaughan have been excellent choices for Batman, but I'd like to see a regular writer on the book soon and my choice would be Mark Waid. Not someone you might associate with Batman, but his Batman in Kingdom Come is probably my favourite interpretation of the character ever and, well, Waid should be at DC. They say London will fall if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, and I feel the same about Waid leaving DC Comics. Paul and Jenette should dump a wheel-barrow full of money outside his Florida home and basically just offer him anything he wants to come back, no questions asked. Waid and McDaniel doing a retitled Batman and Robin? You know it makes sense, Johnny DC. Out There: Like everyone else, I'm broken-hearted about The Authority, but Wildstorm still has a couple of truly excellent books every month. One of these is Out There and it's just a nice, consistently well-done book which actually seems to get done on time every month. Ramos is truly, truly brilliant. If he hadn't signed an exclusive, I'd already be making moves to nick him too. Planetary: Of course, the best thing from Wildstorm for the past two years has been Planetary. The pacing's great, the scripting's great and the art's great. It's by far the best book on the market at the moment and the best work of Warren's career. He might have a preposterous English accent and be literally the last man in the known universe to sport a ponytail, but he's the best in the business. I just wish he produced more books. Authority, Planetary, Transmetropolitan and Hellblazer all coming out on a monthly basis a couple of years ago just had me spoiled, I suppose. Legion: A surprise choice, considering I've always hated the Legion. Like Star Trek, it's one of those "club" things which tends to alienate anyone who doesn't appreciate the last 30 years of continuity. Besides which, someone told me when I was a kid that all Legion fans were gay, and I was always pretty nervous about being seen thumbing through it in the shops. But the arrival of Abnett and Lanning has really turned this thing around. I'm out and proud as someone reading Legion. The Establishment: When I heard they were putting this together I was aghast. Could they really stretch The Authority franchise so gossamer-thin? I picked up the first couple of issues recently and was surprised how much I enjoyed them. Edginton and Adlard are both really underrated creators and I hope this book is a breakthrough for them because it's actually really, really good. Transmetropolitan: I love the storytelling in this book. Just from a sheer technical point of view, I love Warren's stuff because there's so many new things I can always steal. Batman Adventures: Again, one of the buried treasures since it started. It's almost a cliche, but the Adventures books really do tend to be better than the core titles and incredibly underrated. I thought this would take a dip after the departure of the brilliant Ty Templeton, but Scott Peterson has really made this book his own. It's a shame more people aren't reading this. Peterson's another guy who should get a crack at the core titles and they could do a lot worse than Burchett on the art. Marvel Comics Ultimate Spider-Man: I love it. I remember Joe calling me and telling me they were going to stretch Spider-Man's origin over seven issues and you weren't even going to see him in costume until issue five or six. I told him there was no way on Earth this was ever going to work. So remember: never listen to me. Amazing Spider-Man: Again, I remember reading JMS's plans for a Spider-Man lineage stretching back through history and I winced. This just sounded too Swamp Thing, and besides, if we've learned anything over the last four decades it's that anyone who fucks with Spider-Man's origin gets dragged through the streets by his fingernails and fed to the dogs. I picked up the first issue, read the second issue, loved the third issue, and it's been one of my favourite books ever since. I'm reading and enjoying Spider-Man for the first time since I was six years old. This is a great, great superhero book. I'm going to have to start watching Babylon 5. New X-Men: The pick of the core X-titles and yes, even better than X-Force. I think this is perhaps the first time Morrison has written something he genuinely loved as a teenager. Yeah, he was into Justice League and kind of liked Animal Man and Doom Patrol, but he was precisely the right age to be hypnotized by Chris and John's pioneering work and was incredibly influenced by Uncanny, both as a writer and as an artist in his early forays into the medium. He's clearly reveling in an old favourite and any long-time readers must be creaming their pants at the sudden jolt back to top quality X-Men stories. X-Force: Pete is back and thank Christ. Comics are just too dull without him because he surely claims the prize for writing the most human and emotional stories in the business. The Enigma is possibly my all-time favourite comic and nabbing him for X-Force was a stroke of genius on editor Axel Alonso's part. Likewise, Allred's cross between Jack Kirby and David Cronenberg makes this one of the most original-looking books out there. How can the indies compete when an X-title is this radical? Sales and integrity. The rest of us should be jealous. Tangled Web: Another great book from Alonso's stable, "Flowers For Rhino" being perhaps my favourite story of 2001. I'm reading Spider-Man books. What in God's name is happening to me? The Punisher: Garth and Steve are like DeNiro and Scorcese. You can always count on them to do great work, but put them together and the synergy is explosive. The Spider-Man issue a couple of months back surely ranks as the greatest Team-Up in the history of shite Team-Ups. Origin: As awful as it sounds, I admire Jenkins's balls. Taking on this assignment was a genuine risk, but he's pulled it off. And Andy Kubert's doing the best work of his career. Ultimate Marvel Team-Up: This three-part Daredevil/Spider-Man/Punisher story is great. Sienkiewicz rocks ass. Or something. Daredevil: Yellow: The best Marvel Knights book since Kevin, Joe and Jimmy were on Daredevil. I must admit, I didn't like the sound of this when I first heard about it. Year One-style stories have been done to death and we'd already seen the Miller/Romita Junior version in Man Without Fear. But this is great, great stuff. Sentimental without being sugary, old-fashioned without being dated. I really like this a lot. Alias: Ah, Bendis. I love you. Who else would have Luke Cage shagging the title character up the arse in the opening issue of a new Marvel comic? I haven't read issue two yet, but the buzz seems to be really building on this so I'm looking forward to it. Fantastic 4: 1234: Great. Morrison and Lee do the FF without resorting to Stan and Jack cliche and actually update the material for a new, sophisticated audience. It's just a shame this slipped under the radar for a lot of people. Do all minis do this? I'm starting to think so. They end just when the word of mouth is building, I reckon. Nevertheless, I think this book should have been held back for a bigger launch as one of the Marvel MAX titles because, let's face it, it's Mature Readers FF and I think the profile would have been higher. Still, the benefit of hindsight, I suppose. Banner: Between "Hard Time" and Banner, Corben has become one of my favourite artists. He's probably older than my Dad, but nobody draws a cooler Hulk than this guy, and I'm starting to hunt out back issues of the guy's stuff with Jan Strnad. Azzarello shows he can write super-heroes as well as crime and this mini leaves me really looking forward to the same team's upcoming Cage mini-series. Again, beautiful stuff. A really nice little mini-series. Overall: Christ, I hope I haven't forgotten anything. There's nothing worse than hitting "send" on the computer and then realizing you've left out something brilliant... especially the next time you bump into the creative team in San Diego and they've grogged in your dinner. But looking over the list, I'm surprised how many very good books are out there at the moment and how many are on the horizon. As expected, Marvel have really seized the initiative over the last 12 months and upped the number of Marvel titles I'm reading from around zero to about 10 or 15. Creatively and commercially, they're kicking DC's arse all over the shop at the moment and this only looks to get worse as Bruce Jones and Johnny Junior team up for The Hulk (my big pick for 2002) and, ahem, Hitch The Bitch and I bring out The Ultimates among a variety of other goodies. Will DC be able to hang onto their big players like Azzarello, Ellis and Loeb? Will they ever lure back some of the serious talent Marvel captured in their midnight raids during 2001? Personally, I think that's all going to hinge on the success of The Dark Knight Strikes Back and whether this becomes Dark Knight 2 or just Star Wars Episode One. If it's a hit, DC knows they can rest on their laurels and live well on past risks and 1980s success stories. If it flops (and a lot of money has been paid up-front for this book), I think DC's going to have the industry equivalent of a nervous breakdown and finally realize that they need to start investing in the creative community again. But if they do make a play to both keep and steal back the big names, they're really going to have to pull out all the stops because Marvel is a very, very nice place to work right now. It's almost astrological how the planets have aligned for so many good writers and artists to be working at the peak of their powers for one company at the same time. Looking over this list, I don't think any line has been this strong since 1986. Mark Millar has written a wide range of comics from Superman Adventures to Vampirella. He is currently the regular writer on Marvel's Ultimate X-Men. Feel free to discuss this column on the Fourth Rail message board.