This Year in Panels: Year 1
September 20th, 2010 by Gavok | Tags: agents of atlas, akuma, apocalypse, authority, bane, baron von strucker, batgirl, Batman, booster gold, bullseye, captain america, daken, darkwing duck, deadpool, doctor doom, frankencastle, guy gardner, hellboy, howard the duck, iron man, joker, jonah hex, panels, punisher, robin, Secret Six, shang chi, spider-man, spider-man noir, street fighter, superboy prime, void, what if, wolverineA year ago I talked to David Brothers about an idea I had for the site. I had tried writing reviews of weekly releases before, but I never got into it. There were a couple reasons and they’re both about redundancies. I can tell you about how great the latest issue of Captain America is, but so will every other site. There are so many other comic sites that will give better reviews of new stuff that I don’t know why anyone would give a damn what I have to say among all that. Then there’s the fact that comic quality doesn’t change so often within the series’ run. If I tell you that Captain America is great one month, chances are it’s going to be just as good the next. Why waste my breath? If I want to give you my opinions, I want it to at least be interesting and hopefully unique.
I thought back to the first issue of the Agents of Atlas miniseries from several years back. The general response of people who read it and tried to push it was to point out that there’s a scene where a 1950’s robot runs down a hallway while carrying a talking gorilla and that gorilla is firing four uzis with his hands and feet. I figured that maybe that could be the unique way to cover the comics of the week. I’d settle on one panel that really pushes what the comic is about, more than often more than the cover does. It’s no longer so much a review as it is giving you a gist on what we all read. At the same time, I would make sure not to have any major spoilers. If the comic has Wolverine beat up Daken in the climax, then I won’t show it. I will, on the other hand, show them about to fight it out.
If anything, it was also an excuse to keep me from straying from doing anything for the site too long at a time. I’d have a deadline of some point every Sunday and I’ve been pretty good on that. I’ve only delayed two weeks and those were because of a lengthy power outage and the loss of my computer.
I didn’t know if it would work, but David said to go for it. Now it’s been a year and I thought it would be fun to do an extra installment in a retrospective form. The idea was to pick one of my favorite panels from the previous 52 weeks, but with the challenge of not double-dipping from the same title at any point. Here we go!
Adventure Comics #4
Geoff Johns, Sterling Gates and Jerry Ordway
Amazing Spider-Man #617
Joe Kelly, Max Fiumara and Javier Pulido
Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine #2
Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert
Atlas #4
Jeff Parker, Gabriel Hardman and Ramon Rosanas
Authority: The Lost Year #9
Grant Morrison, Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and David Williams
Avengers #3
Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr.
Avengers Academy #3
Christos Gage and Mike McKone
Batgirl #4
Bryan Q. Miller, Tim Levins and Lee Garbett
Batman #700
Grant Morrison, Tony Daniel, Frank Quitely, Scott Kolins, Andy Kubert and David Finch
Batman and Robin #13
Grant Morrison and Frazer Irving
Batman Confidential #36
Royal McGraw and Marcos Marz
Blackest Night #6
Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis
Booster Gold #35
Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Chris Batista and Pat Olliffe
Buzzard #2
Eric Powell
Captain America #605
Ed Brubaker, Luke Ross, Sean McKeever and David Baldeon
Captain America: Who Won’t Wield the Shield
Jason Aaron, Mirco Pierfederici and many others
Dark Avengers #13
Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato
Dark Wolverine #84
Daniel Way, Marjorie Liu and Giuseppe Camuncoli
Darkwing Duck #1
Ian Brill and James Silvani
Deadpool #1000
Tim Hamilton among many others
Deadpool Team-Up #894
Ivan Brandon and Sanford Greene
Green Lantern Corps #45
Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason
Guardians of the Galaxy #19
Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Wesley Craig
Hellboy in Mexico
Mike Mignola and Richard Corben
Heralds #1
Kathryn Immonen and Tonci Zonjic
Hercules: Fall of an Avenger #1
Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Ariel Olivetti, Paul Tobin and Reilly Brown
Incorruptible #9
Mark Waid and Horacio Domingues
Incredible Hulk #602
Greg Pak and Ariel Olivetti
Invincible #67
Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker
Invincible Iron Man #20
Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca
Irredeemable #7
Mark Waid and Peter Krause
Joe the Barbarian #5
Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy
Jonah Hex #50
Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti and Darwyn Cooke
Justice League: Generation Lost #2
Judd Winick, Keith Giffen and Joe Bennett
King City #4
Brandon Graham
Marvel Zombies 5 #1
Fred Van Lente and Kano
Marvelous Land of Oz #2
Eric Shanower and Skottie Young
Milestone Forever #2
Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan
New Avengers #61
Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen and Daniel Acuna
Punisher #12
Rick Remender and Tony Moore
Punisher MAX #7
Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon
Secret Six #14
Gail Simone, Nicola Scott and Carlos Rodriguez
Secret Warriors #13
Jonathan Hickman and Stefano Caselli
Shadowland: Power Man #2
Fred Van Lente and Mahmud Asrar
Siege #3
Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel
Shang-Chi Master of Kung Fu
Jonathan Hickman and Kody Chamberlin (plus a bunch of other guys)
Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without a Face #3
David Hine, Fabrice Sapolsky and Carmine Di Giandomenico
Street Fighter II Turbo #11
Ken Siu-Chong and Omar Dogan
Thunderbolts #142
Jeff Parker and Wellinton Alves
Unknown Soldier #21
Joshua Dysart and Rick Veitch
Weird War Tales
Darwyn Cooke, Ivan Brandon, Nic Klein, Jan Strnad and Gabriel Hardman
What If: World War Hulk
Mike Raicht, Lucio Parrillo, Michael Gallagher and Patrick Spaziante
Thanks to everyone who’s read and/or commented on these over the year. Thanks to David, Esther, David Uzumeri, Space Jawa and Was Taters for helping me out with all of these. And remember, if you like these and you notice there’s a series we aren’t covering, I’m totally open to contributions.
See you next Sunday.
Similar Posts:
- This Week in Panels: Week 43
- This Week in Panels: Week 40
- This Week in Panels: Week 22
- This Week in Panels: Week 34
- This Week in Panels: Week 77
Congratulations on a terrific year of panels. This is one of my favorite columns!
It’s not a monthly, but Atomic Robo has some wonderful panels, and I don’t even remember seeing a King City one, aside from the one above.
Otherwise, I love what you’re doing.
I’m pretty ashamed of myself for still finding “Prime Time” hilarious
great column, i love how you chose a lot of panels ranging from funny to dramatic… like the punisher max one
The panel with the Nazi Robo-Squid is pure, undiluted awesome.
Wish I had known this was coming. I could have given you a couple for this one. Next year, I suppose.
But anyway, glad you have this feature. It’s a nice bit, and it’s fun to see some of the out-of-context images that pop up and try to figure out what they might mean as a “review” or even just “what the O_O is going on?!”.
To another year!
Oh God, that scene from Joe the Barbarian.
Good choices all
Need more representation of the Boys, plz.
I only just got the Milestone Forever joke right now. I read that thing repeatedly and only with the panel out of context does the double entendre hit me. I am the worst reader.
Ever pick up that Spidey/FF mini?
Excellent collection.
[…] ITEM(S)! Some good bits over at the 4thletter during my video game vacation, as well. Firstly, Gavok takes a look back, with The Year in Panels, spotlighting his favorite comic panels from the past year– Booster Gold’s sad face makes me laugh. […]