Best Single Issues of 2004

The twist ending. It’s been a staple of literature for ages, as well as cinema. M. Night Shyamalan has made a career on twist endings.

Comics are no different. And no comic does the twist ending better than Peter Milligan’s Human Target.

Batman Adventures vol. 2 issue #11 finds the Dark Knight confronting a reformed Edward Nigma who has managed to grow quite wealthy legitimately and no longer has any desire or need to commit crime. The problem being is the Nigma’s psychotic fixation on riddles still compels him to seek out the Dark Knight just out of sheer boredom and loneliness. Batman’s simply the only person clever enough to stimulate The Riddle’s intellect, that’s the part that just kills Bruce Wayne. Raising a number of Freudian questions about the traditional superhero/villain relationship most writers (much less those on a book aimed at children) wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot poll, this hilarious tale manages to spin a surprising amount of mileage out of an often misused and marginalized character.

If you have seen the emotion John Cassaday poured into his drawing of her when she sees her first true love, long thought dead, standing before her… You’ll know… You’ll know…

Colossus, sorry, PETER, charges through her to take out the guards and protect her. Stunned, weakened, exhausted, he collapses to his knees before the only thing he has in this world – Kitty – and throws his arms around her, sobbing with relief. He gets to see her again. He must be dead, right?

That scene is capable of melting glaciers, I tell you. Thankfully, however, the storyline didn’t rely purely on that moment. It was merely some damn tasty, inch-thick frosting on a warm, crumbly, fresh-from-the-oven cake. The rest of the issue sparkles with the sinister comedy that Whedon has made a staple of his villains, as Ord invades the X-Mansion only to find that the X-Men aren’t actually in right now, I’m afraid, can I help you with something? The rest of the X-Men, in this case Cyclops, Beast, Wolverine and Emma Frost, work coherently as an actual legitimate TEAM for a change, which is always nice to see, until they are actually soundly DEFEATED, which is also pleasant to see. No infallible supermen are these… No, it’s just people. Flawed, beautifully characterized, stunningly drawn people. Whedon and Cassaday made these characters feel fresh and real again at long last.

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Downbeat, yet strangely moving, X-STATIX #26 was the final issue. Not just the final issue of X-Force/X-Statix, but also the end of an era: The Bill & Joe Golden Era of Marvel, where chances were taken, indie artists were assigned to the top titles, censorship was defied and content was more important that the cover. Some might argue that era died with Diana’s corpse, but this issue made it official. The X-Statix are over.

The issue opens up, ironically enough with the death of Dead Girl. The X-Statix are in the middle of a heated battle, surrounded. When you turn the page, the helicopter appears through the broken glass: the same helicopter that sealed the fate of the first team in their first appearance, in X-force #116. Are they going to meet the same fate? Mr Sensitive is shot through the chest. He loves the way it hits him, like that hit of very good champagne. He flashes back to the X-Statix farewell party, where they’re offered one last gig: go out in style, earn a good buck. Guy feels the sympathetic wound in his chest, at the party. Venus heals the sympathetic wound, just as the Anarchist heals the real one. In the battle, they all fall, one by one. Vivisector and Doop die behind the scenes, we only see their bodies in passing. Venus uses her last breath to defend the men she loves. Guy and Tike decide to take their last stand as heroes. Tike takes off his glasses for the first time. They both close their eyes and face their death. Then one last flashback. “Are you ready?” “One last payday”. Venus teleports everyone out of their headquarters, to their death. The last page shows the empty theatre where they held their meetings. No captions, just ‘the End’. Show’s over, curtain call for the X-Statix.

For three years X-force/X-Statix was my favorite title on the stands. It was the one title I was looking forward to each month, the one I would read in the comic store or as soon as I got in the bus, because I just couldn’t wait. The reason I loved comics. This issue reminded me one last time, why. I wasn’t shocked at their deaths. Because, first of all, every X-Statix fan knew that was the only way the series could end. And secondly, because their deaths were comic book deaths, one last nod to the fans by Peter Milligan. All of their deaths are ambiguous. Scattered energy in the air, bruised and battered bodies whose pulse nobody checked, two best friends heading to their deaths before the scene changes. But the scene changed. And for all we know, the X-Statix had hired their attackers and staged their own deaths to retire in anonymity. The Elvis way.

Guy: Let’s get back to base and call in the others.

Venus: I sure hope so.

Goodbye, Guy, Tike, Venus, Myles, Doop and Dead Girl.

In a unique bit of storytelling, JMS and Gary Frank used four horizontal panels on each page to let four individual stories flow on their own. Princess Power embracing her might, Nighthawk unraveling a mystery with the help of a reluctant Hyperion, a superhuman conspiracy building in Washington, and a deranged killer having his way with a victim. Each of these stories would’ve stood well on their own, but JMS seemlessly juggles them all, and puts the reader through a roller coaster of moments. One second I’m curious, the next I’m horrified.

Human Target #14 is an issue that I have gone on about at some length in both my column and my review of it. If I was ever asked to hand someone the storyline that was a perfect example of how good Human Target truly was I would hand them The Weathermen story and if I was ever asked to hand them a single issue that fulfilled that role, it would be this one. Chance is on the rebound, finally “enjoying” his transformations for the first time since the series began. Bruno’s devotion to a cult leader/possible new messiah that has been building since issue #1 is given the spotlight and treated with healthy doses of both skepticism and respect. There is an abundance of dark humor, particularly in the back and forth between Episcopalian and Catholic hitmen who are forced to work together. I have always said that Human Target does an excellent job of representing American life and this issue proves it. Taking on one of the most potentially explosive and divisive topics in the United States these days, Milligan does not compromise but still manages to never condescend or gloat over the faithful. Issue #6, the choice of two of my colleagues, is an excellent one (it is an issue of Human Target, after all), but it is not really a story about religion, it is a story about abusing power and the fallout of our bad choices. Thus, 14 is the first time Milligan tackles the issue head on and it is incredible.

WE3 #1 came when my interest in Morrison’s creator owned works had been cut down. Seaguy, as I have said, before seemed overly obvious and not a particularly strong work of satire or a hero’s journey (as Morrison himself claims it was intended to be). The first issue of it had proven interesting, but the bits of heavy handedness that appeared in it came to dominate the entire story over subsequent issues.

That, combined with Quietly’s subpar work on New X-Men, made me apprehensive about this book. The idea behind it sounded amusing enough, but would it be worthy of the two monster talents involved?

Thankfully, I am an idiot.

Quitely’s work was brilliant. The ugly rushed quality of X-Men was but a memory. His faces, typically criticized as a weakness of his, were the most humane of his career (and that includes his animal faces for 1, 2, and 3). Of particular interest in the art was the excellent use of tiny panels and frames to tell the story through glimpses. “Cinematic” is a term that if often thrown out to describe art, but Quietly smartly steered clear of trying for that approach, choosing instead to show off how comics can tell a story in a way movies and TV would be hard pressed to achieve.

And Morrison’s writing? So good! First, one has to recognize that the germs of the plot were born out of his head and for that alone we should be impressed. But that he then took those ideas and crafted them into a coherent, fascinating, and touching comic is worthy of standing ovation. Not to mention he developed a unique way for each of the “pets” to talk that played up their animal nature (dog=loyal, cat=selfish, rabbit=a bit clueless to give a few quick examples) through minimalistic dialogue.