GCA 2007: Fan Award for Best Comic

One more time: this is the ONLY GCA award that the fans vote on - and you can still vote on it by going here.

Black Panther: The Bride
2006 WINNER for Black Panther: Who is the Black Panther?
Writer Reggie Hudlin: “I think one of the reasons it’s shocking to people is because we’ve never seen to characters from two different ‘camps’ …Storm as a long time leader of the X Men and The Black Panther, a long time Avenger…getting hitched. Which means the most incredible guest list of a wedding EVAH… Why did it move quickly? Why not? They love each other. They’ve loved each other for a long time, as you can see in Eric Jerome Dickey’s great STORM mini-series. They had ‘issues’ to work out, like most couples, but it makes sense. Why else would two sexy, amazing people NOT be in successful relationships? Something was holding them back. They were waiting on each other. Once they moved the old emotional baggage out of the way, they wanted to commit to a lifetime together.”

Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre
Artist Cliff Chiang: “I think that, historically, the Spectre has been drawn with a more rendered style, but I find that for me, the less rendering on the Spectre the better. He’s an agent of God, the Spirit of Vengeance. I want people to feel that religious connection, as opposed to the more ghoulish interpretations I’ve seen. I don’t want people to see him as a half-naked man in a cloak. He should be like a moving marble statue, that kind of power and stillness. I’m trying to evoke something epic and biblical. I want a slight glow around the Spectre — the idea is that he’s always illuminated by a light from above. It’s a constant reminder that as powerful as the Spectre may be, he still reports to a higher, otherwordly authority. It reinforces the fact that he’s on a mission. And I like the notion that he’s being watched.”

Firestorm the Nuclear Man #28-32
Writer Stuart Moore: “When I took over Firestorm, we decided to take a two-pronged approach to the book: Create a compelling narrative with long-range plot threads and great, steady art AND take full advantage of the big DC crossover action that was happening. Everyone from Steve Wacker to Dan Didio to Geoff Johns was fantastic about letting me know what was planned for Firestorm in Infinite Crisis, so I had plenty of leeway to work my own stories into and around that event. The worst thing you can do with a book is tie it wholly to crossovers; if it doesn’t have its own integrity as a story, then its sales will drop like a rock the month the crossover is over. On the other hand, tie-ins really are the best tool we have to get people to try a book out… To me, the whole Infinite Crisis business — the OMACs, the Society, Donna Troy’s mission into space — was all a big metaphor for the adult world that hits you when you graduate from high school. In all those issues, Jason’s just barely hanging on, figuring out as much as he can on the fly. Post-One Year Later, he’s a little older, more experienced, and more in control.”

New Avengers #22
Writer Brian Michael Bendis: “[Luke Cage] almost had a …hmmm, let’s says a ‘King Arthur’ heaviness in him in New Avengers #22, where he made decisions to fight for what he believes in no matter what the cost to himself or his family. And now here he is having survived the war and kind of being put in position to lead the team to where it needs to go. He is, of all of them, the biggest believer in that what happened to the New Avengers in the first arcs – in the Savage Land, discovering there is something rotten in S.H.I.E.L.D. – is all connected, all the way from House of M, to the Secret Wars, to Civil War … that there has been something pulling at them this whole time, and they’re going to get right back to trying to figure out what it all is and putting it all together. There is something so interesting about an unbreakable man who now has such a weakness in having a wife and child that he cares so much for. Jessica can take care of herself, but that little baby… that poor little baby.”

Storm
Writer Eric Jerome Dickey: “The first thing that worried me was not the characters, but it was about writing about Africa itself. All of a sudden it’s like, ‘Well, I don’t know anything about Africa.’ A lot of places I write about in my novels, I would drive there and do research so I can get the five senses of places… I was reading about [Marvel’s African] reality and I just didn’t… a lot of times, they showed Ororo growing up as a thief and it looked like she was always dressed nicely and her clothing didn’t really look tattered… I thought, ‘this is what they really look like,’ and that was the feel I wanted to go for. I know that she’s a very beautiful woman as an adult, but I wanted the 13-year-old whose body is going through changes and does not think she’s attractive; who hasn’t come into her beauty yet; where every other girl for some reason looks better to her… I think Ororo is 5’11” so, make her too tall for her age, make her lanky; make her… not quite comfortable with her own body yet. That’s the girl I wanted. I wanted the one who was very determined and tried really hard, but everybody else could run faster than her. They could do this, they could do that. But she was damn good at picking locks. I wanted someone who couldn’t jump off of a building, do a triple flip and land on their feet yet; someone who was a little bit afraid of heights. I wanted her to feel human. I wanted her to feel like, ‘Heeeey, I can break my leg. I can break my arm.’”