I feel like I haven't written enough about comics here of late. Modern superhero comics aren't really much to write home about, although the world of the X-Men is rather good at the moment - rather than follow the usual pattern of reinventing the whole series on an annual basis, they've stuck with a status quo and told a fair few good stories in it. "Immortal X-Men" is especially worth reading, and "X-Men Red" can be pretty good too.
But way back in May I said something here about Amazing Fantasy #1000, saying I'd buy it "however overpriced and minimal its content might be", and I should probably apologise for being unreasonable there (about the 'minimal' thing, at least, and you do get a good amount of entertainment for the eight-dollar price). It's actually really awesome!
72 pages, plus the covers, and containing nine different complete Spider-Man adventures. That's the kind of format that started the popularity of superhero comics in the first place, and the kind of thing Marvel and DC should be doing more of! Modern writers and artists struggle to tell a story in eight pages or so; it's becoming a lost art. But the ones featured in this collection all do a good job of it, and I hugely recommend reading this celebration of Spidey if you haven't seen it yet!
Dan Slott wins the Zoomy prize for the best story of the lot - Spider-Man's sixtieth birthday goes the way his life always goes, but shows along the way what a great guy he really is. Kurt Busiek, with typical brilliance, gives us a sequel to Amazing Fantasy #15 with a twist, and Anthony Falcone and Michael Cho provide a perfect restatement of Spider-Man's core principles. And the others are all great fun as well, letting each writer/artist combination explore their own personal take on the iconic webslinger! Go out and buy it, if you haven't already! It's well worth a read!
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