Pages and Panels

While we celebrate Free Comic Book Day on the first Saturday of May, today, September 25th is actually National Comic Book Day. It also happens to be National One-Hit Wonder Day. So here are a few of my favorite self-contained storylines from DC!

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Nightwing #87

If you know me, it’s no surprise that Tom Taylor’s Nightwing makes an appearance on this list. While the title hasn’t been totally free of controversy, I’ve really enjoyed the life that Taylor and the creative team have brought to my circus boy. But Nightwing #87 doesn’t just rock my world from a writing standpoint. Instead, Taylor helps to highlight the incredible talents of artist Bruno Redondo, colorist Adriano Lucas, and letterer Wes Abbott, letting the intricate details of the artwork do the heavy lifting of the storytelling. The entire issue is one image, meaning if you’d lay each page down next to each other, it’s all one cohesive and fluid story panel. It’s comic artwork at its greatest, without the need for an intense arc to support it.

Superman/Shazam: First Thunder #4

While technically, this issue concludes an arc, I think Superman/Shazam First Thunder #4 one of the best stories to highlight the humanity of Superman and the weight heroism takes on these characters. While facing off with a group of mercenaries, young Billy Batson shazams himself into Captain Marvel but fails to save his best friend. His quest for justice is clouded by his emotional state, reminding readers Billy’s a ten-year-old kid. And when his new friend Superman takes him to task for his behavior, Clark Kent’s in for a heck of a surprise when he discovers the truth behind Captain Marvel’s childlike behavior.

Batman Black and White #1 : Perpetual Mourning

In a shocking twist of events, I’m admitting my favorite DC comic of my life thus far isn’t actually a Nightwing story. Instead, it’s a single story in the first Batman: Black and White titled “Perpetual Mourning”. Batman heads to the morgue to gather evidence from the body of a murdered girl. Ted McKeever’s take on morality was nominated for an Eisner award and, to me, is why we read and write comics. It’s not flowery language or thrilling action. It’s the emotional connections that we’ve assigned and established to the characters on the page- strangers we feel we know so well. The next-to-last lines of the story are hands down my favorite line in comics and fight the opening of Rebecca hard for my favorite thing ever written.

You only have your thoughts and dreams ahead of you. You are someone. You mean something.

Ted McKeever “Perpetual Mourning”