By Zack Quaintance — This is the third year that our committee (of one) has done these Best Of rankings, breaking down favorite books into three separate pieces. This is the final piece, and it looks at the Top 5 Best Comics of 2019, while yesterday’s piece looked at #6 - #15 and Wednesday’s at #16 - #25. Today’s, however, is all about our absolute favorite comics from 2019.

But before we get into the top picks, a quick word about our rankings via these three simple rules:

• Don’t see your favorite? Check our other categories: We’ve already written at length about many comics this year in our Contributor Picks, Best Single Issues, and Best New Series lists. So, if you don’t see your favorite comic of 2019, it may be in there. In addition, later today we will be posting a Best Original Graphic Novel list to cover releases that hit the market all at once intact, rather than via the direct market periodical fashion. So, check back for that one too!

• No webcomics, manga, Kickstarter-released books, or newspaper strips: Our site is a bit deficient covering these (if you are into these things, we’d love to chat about you writing for us!). We’re working to change that. Last year, for example, we set out to do the OGN list, and you’ll soon see how that turned out.

• Longevity matters: Finally, each entry here also involves what I consider a key stat — how many issues were published this year. This makes it harder to put debut series or series that had just a few issues come out to wrap things up on our list. They just haven’t been around enough to be a definitive comic of 2019. Ditto for books that ended in April or earlier.

Anyway, on to the list!

Best Comics of 2019, #1 - #5

5. Immortal Hulk
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Joe Bennett
Inker: Ruy Jose
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Issues Published in 2019: 18
After one of the most surprising launches in 2018 (it’s been a good long while since there’s been a Hulk comic that transcends the usual superhero market…a good long while), Immortal Hulk continued to expand upon the dark ideas that made its start so well-received. I wrote this in 2018, but this book succeeded by diving so deep into the initial Hulk concept created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby a good long while ago, that it found new dark territory to mine. Writer Al Ewing and primary series artist Joe Bennett turned away from superhero comics and toward a body horror story that was tangled with base ideas of good versus evil, father-son complications, the long history of people hurt by the Hulk, the military-industrial complex, a literal portal to hell, the heat death of the universe, and so on and so on. Basically, this comic got off to such a strong start in 2018, that in 2019 the creators of the book had earned enough audience trust to start exploring really surprising and fascinating territory that would have been impossible to just dive into at the start of the story. This is a high-concept horror book about our modern times in superhero garb, and it’s an absolute must-read every time there’s a new issue.

4. Monstress
Writer: Marjorie Liu
Artist: Sana Takeda
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Publisher: Image Comics
Issues in 2019: 6
Monstress has been a perennial favorite of this list since we started it three years ago, regularly landing in our Top 5. This year is no different. In fact, we actually think Monstress had its best story arc in 2019 since the book launched about five years ago. There was a surprise character reveal, continued expert subplotting with some of the best side characters in comics, and a hero getting entangled with (another) war that threatens to upend the planet and become very costly for everyone involved. Writer Marjorie Liu is an expert storyteller, mining grandiose ideas from an intricate fantasy world the book has built while always keeping the plot developments firmly rooted in her well-realized characters. Artist Sana Takeda, meanwhile, continues to do the best visual work in all of monthly direct market comics. The artwork in Monstress looks impossible, too good to be produced by one artist working under deadlines. There was an issue this year in which our hero meets an entire cadre of new characters, each of which features a design that would have been the best work ever done in other comics…which is a way to say that even background designs in Monstress standout among the best in the industry. This is the best fantasy comic being published and it has been for some time, combining rich world-building and characters with the best art in comics. We’re lucky to have it.

3. Thor
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artists: Russell Dauterman, Mike Del Mundo, Esad Ribic, More
Colorists: Matt Wilson, Ive Svorcina, More
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Issues in 2019: 20+
This year saw the end of the longest current run in superhero comics — writer Jason Aaron’s Thor. Since Aaron started writing the character back in 2012 with Thor: God of Thunder #1, he has gone on to pen more than 100 issues within the world of Norse superheroics. He’s worked with some of the industry’s best artists including Russell Dauterman, Mike Del Mundo, and Esad Ribic, who started the run with Aaron and returned this year to finish it out with the four-part King Thor conclusion. This year was perhaps the best of Aaron’s run, although the opening story with the God Butcher as well as the 2016 story arc with Jane Foster becoming Thor are both in the conversation. What the run delivered this year, however, was one of the best big dumb superhero events in many years with War of the Realms, which saw dark elves and frost giants and demons lay siege to the entire Marvel Universe. As Aaron’s main story unfolded, creators from throughout Marvel’s line told stories about Daredevil wielded a sword that made him see all, or Marvel’s many growing men characters posing as Frost Giants, or Spider-Man hilariously learning to speak horse. It was huge and fun and excellent. Aaron then followed that up with the aforementioned King Thor series, which reached to touch points from throughout his lengthy run, both to wrap them up, give readers one last chance to visit with them, and add vast meaning to the best stories told with Thor since Walt Simonson. This wasn’t just one of the best superhero runs of the modern era; it was a narrative achievement of the highest order.

2. House of X/Powers of X
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artists: Pepe Larraz & R.B. Silva
Inkers: R.B. Silva & Adriano di Benedetto
Colorist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Issues Published in 2019: 12
It’s fair to say no series generated as much conversation and interest among monthly comics readers in 2019 as the 12-issue, inextricably-linked duo of House of X and Powers of X. Penned by visionary superhero writer Jonathan Hickman (who previously wrote a years-long Fantastic Four -> Avengers epic that ended the Marvel Universe for like 10 minutes), these books were beautifully illustrated by Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva, with colors by Marte Gracia. Good-looking superhero comics aren’t unusual (people like money and the Big 2 has it), but these books were more. Basically, what House of X/Powers of X did was return the one-time king franchise of the X-Men to the throne of superheroics, reinvigorating the core concept of Marvel’s mutants. Reinvigoration, of course, is the aim of many new superhero #1 issues, but there were major differences here from a usual relaunch. The X-Men have languished of late with minimal corporate support due to a movie rights thing, but that’s changed. So, with HoX/PoX, we got an X-Men relaunch with talented creators, huge ideas, and full backing from the mighty Marvel machine. Hickman and team also executed almost flawlessly, delivering a 12-issue story that reframed the X-Men, taking away temporary character deaths that have acted as a narrative crutch, and giving us with the most exciting X-Men comics in something like 20 years. This is a story at the intersection of geopolitical interests and long-standing marginalization of the other. It combines a current surge in hate with the world’s inevitable-yet-controversial turn toward globalization, giving us the first X-Men comic in 20 years that’s both timely and prescient, rather than an homage to comics past. It is an absolute feat of work-for-hire storytelling, and all involved are to be commended.

1. Ice Cream Man
Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist: Martin Morazzo
Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Good Old Neon
Publisher: Image Comics
Issues Published in 2019: 8
The range of what the creators are doing with this book is just absurd. It’s an anthology series, so every issue is wholly singular, but since this book first launched back in 2018, the creative team has pushed it past that even, often jumping through time, consistently toying with the medium’s structure, and always telling stories that blend painful life contemplations with a narrative fearlessness. In 2019, we got an issue that tied together a background through-line from the past eight installments, we got an issue that felt like Cormac McCarthy by way of Stephen King with a strong majority of dialogue in Spanish, and we got an issue that functioned as a palindrome in that it could be read backwards or forwards. No other book is using the comics medium as well as this one. Every new issue of Ice Cream Man feels like an event. These books are conversation pieces for aspiring creators, horror fans, young parents, aging suburbanites…you name it. The best art to me feels like a gift that the creator had to put into the world because to hold it back would be too painful, and that’s what Ice Cream Man feels like. It’s a comic born each month from the thoughtful psyches of writer W. Maxwell Prince, artist Martin Morazzo, and colorist Chris O’Halloran, and it never deigns to tell readers what they should think about the world or even about the stories. No, this is a book that says here’s what I’m thinking, worrying about, or feeling, and here is the story I think best explores it. The rest is up to you.

Check out the Top Comics of 2019, #6 - #15….and the Top Comics of 2019, #16 - #25!

Check out our other Best of 2019 lists, including Best Single Issues of 2019, Best Superhero Makeovers, and Best Comics of 2019: Contributor Picks.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.