A Philosophy I Can Get Behind

One of the things I have struggled with as a new or returning reader is trying to remember who happened to what, when and in which universe for a lot of the big Marvel or DC titles.  It's not a task that I dislike, or am surprised by, but, it is definitely one of the reasons I was deterred from getting back into reading comic books, and felt safer just watching Movies, Cartoons or TV shows to get my fix.  While I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of re-discovery of what has happened to several of my favorites like the Punisher, anyone in the X-Men universe, and Thor, most of my delight has come from simpler stories put out by mostly the smaller publishers.

And then, over Christmas break, I saw this on Twitter.

James Tynion IV to me wrote what is probably my favorite book of the year in Something is Killing the Children.  That book has a very interesting premise, and from release to release I am able to jump back in with ease.  The same is true with several of my other favorite releases from the past year.  Books like:

• You are Obsolete-Mathew Klickstein
• Everything-Christopher Cantwell
• Shoplifters Will be Liquidated-Patrick Klindon
• Safe Sex-Tina Horn
• Killadelphia-Rodney Barnes
• Bad Reception-Juan Doe

(No disrespect to leaving artists, inkers, letterists etc. off, I just needed a simple list)

All have that in common.  An interesting premise that is simple and strange. Easy to read, easy to remember, easy to explain.  Don't get me wrong, I loved reading House/Powers of X or whatever new happened with the Punisher, Venom, and Carnage this year, but sometimes with each new issue of the big-box titles, I feel like I need to go back and check my notes on what happened 2-3 issues before (don't get me started on what feels like the 50000000000 active Spider-Man titles).

I am interested in seeing what Tynion does with his turn at Batman, will it stay true to his philosophy of simple and strange, or will he be tied to the decades of lore/canon of the Batman universe?

With all that being said, it was refreshing to see one of my authors-of-the-year who works with a variety of story styles say what I have had in my mind since July, and I hope more creative teams adopt this thought process.