2007 is here. Yay! And what a potentially good year this is, with the forthcoming theatrical release of the Transformers, Spider-Man 3, and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer motion pictures, as well as the end of DC Comics' 52 and the continued popularity of the superhero genre in mainstream pop culture thanks to NBC's Heroes. How well did 2006 fare, at least as far as my opinions are concerned? Here's a hint - Warner Bros and DC Comics ruled the roost with Superman!

COMICS
DC Comics' All Star line suffered from extremely irregular output throughout 2006, with the release of only a measly five issues across both titles that make up the line. However, four of those issues released were absolute gems, thanks to the wonderful creativity of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely on All Star Superman.

It should be noted that I avoided the Superman comics before John Byrne came along in 1986 to revamp the franchise, due to the silliness and sweet natured (stale) innocence of the stories. As such, it is a testament to Grant Morrison's genius that he managed to bring back the sillier aspects of Superman history/mythos and make them work within the context of modern comic book storytelling. And I would be remiss if I failed to mention how great Frank Quitely's artwork is in this series, giving a sense of real wonderment to the fantastic world in which Superman exists. The Fortress of Solitude never looked better! The only shortcoming All Star Superman has is its irregular shipping schedule, the only blemish in an otherwise brilliant comic book.

I am forced to mention Grant Morrison again, this time for the highly inventive and original Seven Soldiers mega-series that stretched across the better parts of 2005 and 2006. While the concluding chapter was delayed by six months, I fell in love with Seven Soldiers all over again after re-reading all 30 issues. While most of them were released in 2005, the 2006 issues that really captured my attention are from Seven Soldiers: Bulleteer, which has Grant Morrison applying his skewed inventiveness on the inherent T&A aspects of the super hero comic book genre.

And then there's Kurt Busiek and Geoff Johns beautiful revitalization of the Superman mythos as part if DC Comics' One Year Later stunt. Along with artists Pete Woods and Renato Guedes, their eight chapter storyline that ran throughout Superman # 650-653 and Action Comics # 837-840 brings the Superman franchise back to a leaner, more optimistic feel compared to the depressing funk that has permeated the Superman titles for the better part of this century. If anything, 2006 proved to be the year where some of the best Superman stories in over a decade were published.

Lastly, two under the radar titles published by Marvel Comics caught my attention. The first being the quarterly Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius by Marc Sumerak and Chris Eliopoulos, which can basically be considered a hyper version of Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes, but with all the typical trappings of the Marvel Universe. Each issue typically contains five standalone stories, and they are proof that comics designed for kids can entertain jaded adult comic book readers as well.

The second Marvel Comics title that I went nuts over is Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane by Sean McKeever and Takeshi Miyazawa, continuing the story from the two Mary Jane mini-series published in 2005. Again, I find myself amazed at how a romance comic (albeit one starring Spider-Man as a minor recurring character) can make me publicly acknowledge how much I love reading it, much less lending out my copies of the digests to friends! And the six month wait in between digests is utterly maddening. Looking back at these two Marvel titles, I am only saddened at how terribly unreadable the main Earth-616 titles have become.

WRITERS
Grant Morrison continues to dominate a significant chunk of my monthly pull list in 2006, what with his amazing work on All Star Superman and Seven Soldiers. He is one of the few writers talented enough to plumb the depths of old DC Comics stories and bring back the craziest, zaniest elements from these often childish stories and give them a modern age spin. While his output in 2006 was not quite as voluminous as the year before, his presence still makes a significant impact.

Sean McKeever proves to be one of the most talented new writers to hit the comics scene, with the ongoing Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane ongoing series (easily the best Spider-Man title in the market today) as well as the five-issue Sentinel mini-series. His grounded, youthful storytelling approach easily sucked me in to the amazing trappings that surround the mundane worlds of Mary Jane Watson and Juston Seyfert.

ARTISTS
While DC Comics published most of my favourite comics in 2006, Steve McNiven's artwork on Marvel Comics' Civil War mini-series is some of the most beautiful and detailed artwork to grace the pages of mainstream superhero comics. And while I have no doubt that colourist Morry Hollowell plays a significant part in giving Civil War its polished look, McNiven continues to build himself as an artist and has come a long way from his earlier work on Meridian and Marvel Knights 4.

E.J. Su underwent a significant transformation in his art style, thanks to his work on IDW's Transformers: Infiltration and Transformers: Escalation mini-series, bringing new realistic, mechanical designs to the familiar original Transformers characters that remain true to the original 1984 designs while updating them for newer vehicle models, without bastardising them for the sake of change for change's sake. There is a strong manga influence in his style, but it does not overwhelm the tone of the book, nor does it make the two aforementioned Transformers titles look like poor American counterfeits of Japanese comics.

Similarly, Takeshi Miyazawa is an artist than managed to combine the best elements of Japanese and American comic book art to make a hybrid style that goes amazingly well with on the Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane romance comic. It's a crime that his work here has yet to propel him to higher profile projects. On the other hand, perhaps his style is equally to blame for hampering his popularity since it is hardly suitable for mainstream super-hero titles as seen with his lacklustre fill in issues on Uncanny X-Men in 2004. Still, he is a talent definitely worth paying attention to, if only to see where he will go in 2007 once he leaves Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane.

Another new talent that made an impression on me was Paulo Siqueira, who had a brief, but memorable, run on Birds of Prey. In my opinion, he was responsible for the sexiest and most beautiful Black Canary, outdoing the likes of Jim Lee and Ed Benes, both of whom opt for pure T&A, while Gary Frank's version lacked the internal softer nature of Dinah Lance, and was more like a fighter/soldier. Its unfortunate that he only did seven issues of Birds of Prey, as well as was saddled with some of the weaker stories by current writer Gail Simone.

DVDs
Continuing their tradition of mammoth box sets for their venerable motion picture franchises, November 28 2006 will be forever etched in the memories of Superman DVD fans with the release of the 14-disc Superman: The Ultimate Collector's Edition box. Featuring the 1978 theatrical and 2001 expanded editions of Superman: The Movie, the 1980 theatrical cut of Superman II, the recently created Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, Superman III, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, and Superman Returns as well as three long form documentaries in the form of Look, Up In The Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman, You Will Believe: The Cinematic Saga of Superman, and Requiem For Krypton: The Making of Superman Returns, along with a bevy of features ranging from audio commentaries to vintage TV specials to all Fleischer Bros./Famous Studios Superman theatrical shorts, the previously unaired pilot for The Adventures of Super-Pup, George Reeves' 1951 feature Superman and the Mole Men, and many other short featurettes too numerous to list, this is definitely the most comprehensive Superman home video release to date.

Everything ranging from the Donner/Salkind controversy to the maligned third and fourth Christopher Reeve movies is covered here, along with embarrassing moments in Superman's celluloid history such as the god-awful Adventures of Super-Pup pilot and the 1974 TV musical special, and even the character's impact on American culture! Housed in a beautifully crafted metallic tin, this set is worth every single cent, even despite the manufacturing snafu that resulted in missing contents in the first and eighth disc of the set.

Coming in at a close second is Sony-BMG Music Entertainment's Transformers: The Movie 20th Anniversary Edition. On top of featuring a proper Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, digitally remastered and colour corrected video, and the first home video release of the theatrical 16×9 presentation, this double disc set is packed to the brim with new featurettes and interviews, archival and heretofore unreleased material, and new audio and text commentaries. Heck, the DVD-ROM section even unlocks special parts of the official DVD website that contain additional interview sessions as well as a mildly entertaining Flash-based trivia game. All this, plus a lenticular cover featuring new artwork by Don Figueroa!

MOVIES
I was torn on whether or not to put this here, since this is basically a new cut of a 26-year old movie. However, considering that 70% of the footage contained in Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut is previously unreleased and aired material, I think this more than qualifies this as a 2006 movie. Edited and compiled from six tonnes worth of footage originally shot in 1977 and 1978, reconstruction producer Michael Thau worked closely with director Richard Donner and creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz to create something that matches Donner's original intended vision for the first Superman sequel as closely as possible. Most of the Richard Lester footage were excised, save for those absolutely required for continuity and storytelling purpose, and even then those were trimmed down to a bare minimum.

As such, this is a true Richard Donner movie, which has been given the stamp of approval by the director in this DVD's introduction as well as full page ads containing his message to fans that appeared in various DC Comics titles cover that thanked the die hard fans for making this project a possibility. In my opinion, this is vastly superior to the original 1980 theatrical version of Superman II, and the scene with Christopher Reeve and Marlon Brando together is powerful and a testament to the talent possessed by these two great actors.

Superman Returns is the best two and half hours I spent in a theatre in 2006, finally moving past a decade's worth of false starts that plagued the fabled fifth Superman motion picture. By going back to basics and retaining the same tone and feel of the original Richard Donner Superman movies, director Bryan Singer and screenwriters Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris tells the story of a tortured Superman who returns to Earth after a five year sojourn to the remains of Krypton only to find the world has moved on without him, and how he has to re-assimilate himself back to life in Metropolis, the Daily Planet, and around those closes to him.

While Superman Returns was flawed, what with its overly long running time and uneven pacing, I felt it was much more entertaining than the likes of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 or X-Men: The Last Stand, despite their larger box office haul. From the opening credit sequence to Brandon Routh's subdued performance, to the wonderful score by John Ottman that pays homage to and expand the original John Williams leitmotifs, this is very much a love letter to fans of both the comics and the original Richard Donner movies alike.