London’s Civil Love–catchy powerpop, crisp and fun.

Can’t seem to get the bandcamp code to work on this one…Click below and you can hear ‘em.

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=1560861900/size=grande2/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/

But the news of this book got me thinking: These kinds of books often don’t come off very well, but they sure do sell.  It’s basically a book driven by the title, it’s (clearly) not canon, and it has to have something in it that’s more than just the titular character slaughtering people because, as cool as it might be to see Deadpool off Ms. Marvel or Franklin Richards, it’s a one-joke concept that can get old fast.

So, when have they been done well?

THE TOP 5 “VERSUS THE UNIVERSE” TYPE COMICS OF ALL TIME

5.  Sergio Aragonés Destroys DC by Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier.  This one is pretty good, but not great—but it’s better than Sergio Aragonés Massacres Marvel, so it gets the bottom slot on this list.

4.  Fred Hembeck Kills the Marvel Universe.  Hembeck was huge in the late 1980s—he even got to do a cover for Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man.  Comics didn’t take themselves so seriously back then.  But for an even better Marvel work by Fred, see The Fantastic Four Roast #1.

3.  Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe.  There’s a reason this 1995 one-shot by Garth Ennis and Doug Braithwaite still demands a high price at comic-cons: It’s great.  And it’s a true title: Castle does indeed kill ‘em all.

2.  Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher by Jonathan Mayberry and Goran Parlov.  This came out a few years ago and was quite underrated.  It’s a zombie-type tale, but it features one of the funniest (and scariest) Deadpools ever, the art is simply tremendous, and it’s actually got a good story to boot.  Mayberry’s follow up, MU vs. Wolverine, is nowhere near as good.

1.  Superman and Batman: World’s Funnest.  A one-shot, extra long bound paperback by   is an American single issue prestige format comic book published in 2000 by DC Comics. It was written by Evan (“Space Ghost Coast to Coast”) Dorkin with art by some truly great folks including Mike Allred, Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Jaime Hernandez, and even Frank Miller.  It’s flat out hilarious, telling the tale of Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite competing to see how many DC heroes they can kill in about 100 pages.  This book took the one-joke conclusion to (and beyond) it’s logical conclusion, and gets my highest recommendation.  Lots of re-read value, too.  In fact, just writing this blurb is making me want to read it yet again…

Here’s MPfrees:

Heart

Where is the Way?

You can vote for yourselves here.

TOP 10 SPIDER-MAN WRITERS

Runner ups: David Michelinie and Chris Claremont (for his work with John Byrne on Marvel Team Up).

10. J. M. DeMatteis. He’s here for “Kraven’s Last Hunt.” He’s not here for his work on the Clone Saga.

9. Zeb Wells. As part of the “One More Day” team, Zeb wrote some of the most interesting recent Amazing Spider-Man arcs (including the remarkable “Shed” story featuring Lizard), and went on to Avenging Spider-Man, a much underappreciated title.

8. Bill Mantlo. Not only did he create Cloak and Dagger, but he wrote some great White Tiger stories as well. People forget that Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man was actually a very good book—and quite different in tone than Amazing Spider-Man.

7. Gerry Conway. Creator of Hammerhead and killer of Gwen Stacy. And the guy who tried to get Aunt May to marry Otto Octavius.

6. Stan Lee. Although his run with Steve Ditko (see #1, below) was his best, post-Ditko Stan Lee created in many ways more mature storylines, including the death of Captain Stacey and the introduction of crimelord The Kingpin, among other things. Stan Lee’s imagination seems to know no boundaries.

5. Brian Michael Bendis. He did the impossible: Altered Stan Lee’s blueprint and made it work as a separate, self-standing work of art.

4. Peter David. I forgive him for making Ned Leeds the Hobgoblin because he wrote one of my favorite story arcs ever: The Death of Jean DeWolff.

3. J. Michael Straczynski. Lots of folks find his run controversial: It introduced the Spider-Totem, for one thing, but to me it is just fantastic from start to finish. It really changed the book and freshened it up. Yes, he also did “One More Day,” which was kinda lame, but my understanding is that he did that story under protest.

2. Roger Stern. Stern did lots of great stuff, but if he only did Juggernaut and The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man, he’d still be my #2. But he also created Hobgoblin and wrote some of the best done-in-ones ever for the Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man title.

1. Stan Lee/Steve Ditko. According to the rules, Lee/Ditko “is one writer. Stan Lee with everyone else is another writer. You just can’t fairly separate Lee from Ditko on those first 40 issues.” And those first 40 issues are some of the greatest and most imitated comic books of all time, introducing dozens of iconic characters: Doc Ock! Electro! Aunt May! Mysterio! Green Goblin! Kraven! Chameleon! J Jonah and John Jameson! The Vulture! Sandman! Lizard! Gwen Stacy! The Osborn family! Comics truly don’t get better than these 40.

TOP 10 SPIDER-MAN ARTISTS

10. Chris Bachalo

9. Ron Frenz

8. John Byrne

7. Gil Kane

6. Marcos Martin

5. Todd McFarlane. I kind of think of Todd as more of a designer than a comic book artist, but his work on Amazing Spider-Man is undeniably iconic.

4. Mark Bagley.

3. John Romita, Sr. He took over for Ditko and set the tone for most 1970s-80s Spidey comics. Great, classic stuff.

2. John Romita, Jr. Why? Dude designed the first Hobgoblin.

1. Steve Ditko.

Is this superhero news? Kinda. I have to say that The Dark Knight on Community is better than the Batmen I’ve seen in at least 6 movies/TV shows.

Community is the smartest and funniest show on the air, and the best show of all time since the first eight seasons of The Simpsons.

The bad news is, it’s gonna be on Friday night in a block with the failing “Whitney” and “Grimm” shows. The good news may be that Friday night is one with low expectations attached to it, so it’s likely that NBC will let “Community” ride out the year to conclusion.

Mark Harmon has always said that his vision was a 4-year show about a 4-year college, so if the show makes it all season, his vision will be fulfilled. I already own season 1 on DVD and plan to by season 2 soon, but I’d be up for a nice 4-season box set as well. I love the show that much….

In not-at-all-comic-book-news, my favorite trash show is coming back: ABC’s Wife Swap. I love that show!

In other not-at-all-comic-book-news, “The Office” is coming back without Dwight. It’s also losing one of its best writers, Mindy Kaling. The only good loss for the show is James Spader, who never worked. This is a show that has long outlived its usefulness. Buy the Ricky Gervais DVDs of the original show instead.