Comic book makers I love: an evolving post

Writers:
Greg Rucka- I just read his 'Detective Comics' Batwoman run and was so impressed. He readily handled all kinds of things, including an origin story (such treacherous waters for most writers) of a red-headed lesbian jew without making her a) tied to the holocaust in some silly trying-too- hard way. She's just Jewish, you know, like most other jews. Or b) making her a hooker (Catwoman bit this one HARD, to my everlasting nausea*) or dominatrix or high class call girl who gets involved with the mob and has to become a vigilante to revenge her secret lady-lover who walked in on her servicing the mob boss and got killed for it, or some other dumb ass women-in-comics plot.
*[edit- I just looked up the Catwoman dirty ho thing and - shoulda guessed- it was Frank Miller who wrote her that way. Fuck I hate that guy. And now I know that I've hated him since I was fifteen. If I ever write a 'comic book makers I loathe' list, he is at the very top. Seriously he made CATWOMAN A DIRTY HOOKER. Not dirty like, it's a possibly unhealthy and demeaning profession, dirty like, filthy bedding and curtains with holes and cockroaches running around and including, oh yes, A PIMP. He gave CATWOMAN, one of the most independent, iconoclastic, smart, strong women IN THE BIZ a mothereffing pimp and made her a cheap ass 'ho. Because a woman with that many admirable qualities could OF COURSE only think of one way to survive poverty and achieve upward mobility in life. I haven't read that comic in over ten years and that scene is STILL burned into my brain, so great was my righteous outrage.]
Mike Carey- I've read quite a few of his 'Lucifer' books, and he's one of the only writers I've seen who writes a god-type character in a way that seems... god-ish. When he fights someone, it's not just two guys who can destroy continents hitting each other with their fists. It's always way more interesting than that, and much closer to how I imagine ultra powerful, intelligent and long-lived beings would fight. I also read his Hellblazer book, 'All His Engines' and though I'm not familiar with the Constantine character, I liked his take on it, at least. Again, I liked his sideways approach to magic and god-creatures. It doesn't have to just be fireballs blasting against each other.

Artists:
J.H. Williams- He also participated in that wonderful 'Detective Comics' Batwoman run, and ohmygod can women always be portrayed like this in comics please? Yes she's beautiful and sexy but she never comes across as coquettish or sexually manipulative in the way comic women are drawn so frequently it's practically a default setting. She has a face! With complicated expressions, and body language, and appropriate clothing! Yep, she can be super sexy in lingerie for her lover, but she can also wear sweats without her g-string hanging off of her cocked hips and her shirt falling off of her shoulders while magically also straining against her breasts.
I didn't know this until just now, but apparently Williams also drew the epic 'Promethea', and now that I know I can't believe I didn't put that together sooner.
Hiroaki Samura- Get this: Manga, that most cartoonish of comic art, drawn realistically. What? How is that even possible? Add to that one of the neatest rogues galleries ever created, fight scenes that range from thuggishly brutal to horrifically grotesque to absolutely, lyrically, graceful (pretty much all of Makie's fights, god she's cool). Fighting styles for each of the characters that befits their personality, size, gender and background (what other artist do you know of that puts that amount of thought into it?) AND someone who can draw scenes of repose, recreation, or emotional complexity with the same degree of mastery. Truly a perfect storm of awesome.

Aasgardians for World Peace

Okay, so I just saw the AWESOME trailer for Thor, and I gotta say I'm a little confused on one thing.
Now, I've never followed the Thor book, actually I've never really cared about any of the Avengers. JLA seems to kick the shit out of them in terms of iconography, and the X-men eat up all the awesome in the Marvel universe (with a few exceptions), as far as I've always been concerned. I mean, to a point where they have to make Wolverine an Avenger! Ridiculous. That man is in enough books. What, do he and Captain America have old-dude super-soldier offs?

Anyway, my point.
"... At the center of the story is The Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans as punishment."

Why is he punished for starting a war by a society who sees war as the bestest thing ever? LIke to the point that the only way to get to the good afterlife is to die in battle, and when you get there it's eternal happiness fulfilled by... endless war?



If you are, as I was, curious about whether this was the actual Marvel universe Thor story, I asked one of my nerd friends to explain it to me.
This was his response:

"First off, best email I've gotten in months.

If I remember correctly, originally Thor was banished to Earth to learn humility. He was so proud that he was basically just irritating all the other Norse gods. Odin steps in and as a punishment sends him down to Earth to learn humility by placing him in the body of a crippled human doctor. In the book it wasn't for starting the war, but for the way he was acting. I'd assume they are using the starting a war excuse as an easier way to get into the story. Thor was kind of a hard book to read. Whenever he was in Asgard, they were constantly besieged by something. Asgard was under attck by trolls, giants, and everything else under the sun (the hardest part being almost all of them were of the nameless minion variety and Thor could take them out 5 at a time). They did some cool stuff with the other Asgardians, but it helped to know the stories behind them. When he was on Earth, he was fighting some of the lamest enemies. Absorbing Man, the Wrecking Crew, etc.

Surprisingly enough, I almost always enjoyed the Avengers book. JLA is amazing, but almost everyone there can hold down a solo title. I always liked the Avengers who couldn't. I read a ton of the 70s and 80s Avengers books, and they did a great job of doing the character interaction between the members. You got to see Cap training people in the Avengers mansion in their version of the Danger Room, Beast and Wonder Man pranking each other, and see people interact with one another in the base when they weren't fighting. They did a bunch of cool stories where the Avengers would go out on dates, have social lives and stuff like that. Not a lot of people read those old Avengers books, but they did what the X-Men did in that they really built the story behind them as well. But in all fairness...X-Men was better. I very much dislike the way that Avengers grew more and more into a knock off of JLA. As much as I like Spidey and Wolverine, I don't feel that the Avengers needs to be made up entirely of huge names.

Don't even get me started on Wolverine. I have so many issues with the way he's handled."