Best Comics of 2021 (So Far): Marvel Comics
This list looks at the best comics of 2021 so far from Marvel, including the entire X-Men line, Iron Man, Daredevil, the best recent trade paperback collections, and more.
Read MoreTop Comics to Buy for October 23, 2019: Immortal Hulk, Criminal, and more!
By Zack Quaintance — This week really made me take stock of this year, featuring as it does two of the major highlights in comics for 2019: Criminal and Immortal Hulk. It’s really, in many ways, been a very solid year for comics, albeit not an overly flashy one. We’ve gotten some really stellar self-contained superhero stories, thinking here specifically of Immortal Hulk as well as the Superman epic that unfurled at DC and ultimately delivered the return of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Read MoreTop Comics of 2018, #1 - #5
By Zack Quaintance — A difficult thing about a strong year for comics (like this one) is doing a retrospective Best Of list. Now, to be sure, no one mandates websites do rankings. That would be a clear violation of civil liberties. There is, however, a part of the pop culture blogger brain that goes wild for it, whispering all year long...where does this one rank...and if you don’t satisfy that beast—well, bad things happen.
So, here we our with ours, freshly formulated for 2018 by our committee of one. Before we dive into the third and final and (let’s face it) best part, which features in descending order selections #5 to #1 (Top Comics of 2018, #16 - #25 and Top Comics #6 - #15 are also up now, btw), let’s rehash our ground rules:
No trades or OGNs: Building out our OGN coverage is a priority for 2019. We’re just not there yet. So, while I absolutely loved work like Tillie Walden’s On a Sunbeam, Box Brown’s Is This Guy For Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman, and Ryan Lindsay and Eric Zawadzki’s Eternal, you won’t find them here. Ideally, next year’s we’ll have an entire post dedicated to OGNs.
No webcomics, manga, or newspaper strips: Again, our site is a bit deficient covering these (if you are into these things, we’d love to chat about you writing for us!). I should, of course, mention that in 2018 someone under the pen name Olivia James took over the long-running Nancy strip and did amazing things with it (Sluggo is lit), but, again, you won’t find it on our list.
Longevity matters: New this year, you will find what I consider a key stat—how many issues were published this year. Late debut series like Die, Electric Warriors, and Bitter Root have tons of promise. They just haven’t been around enough to be a definitive comic of 2018. Ditto for comics that ended in April or earlier.
There you have it: guiding principles of our Top Comics of 2018. Now, without further adieu, let’s finish this bad hombre!
Top Comics of 2018
The Immortal Hulk by Alex Ross.
5. Immortal Hulk
Writer: Al Ewing
Artists: Joe Bennett
Inker: Ruy Jose
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Issues in 2018: 10
The first of the Big 2 titles to make my Top 5 Comics of 2018 is the Al Ewing and Joe Bennett-driven Immortal Hulk, a startlingly-blunt take on a long-time hero that reads more like a creator-owned book than a shared universe corporate story. We’re late in the superhero trajectory, with comics having constructed, deconstructed, and exported the concept to other mediums plenty. Our best modern stories are those that get closest to capturing a character’s core, and rarely has a title done this as well as Immortal Hulk.
At the same time, this book has found a darker place that was always there, taking existing elements and extrapolating them so thoroughly they feel novel. It’s found ground not possible for the sensibilities of the 1960s, Hulk’s heyday. Both artwork and audience have evolved, becoming more sophisticated and thereby allowing Ewing, Bennett, and others to push Hulk further into monster territory while at the same time making Banner the emotional blank slate he was perhaps always meant to be. In this book, Banner is backgrounded, standing in for humanity at large as darker base impulses drag him places no one wants to go (ahem, hell). The Hulk is not the hero—that honor goes to anyone who can live a contented and peaceful life.
On the surface, this comic has also benefited from consistent artwork from Bennett who has needed few guest replacements, plus early chapters that provide satisfying narratives independent of what came before or will come after. This is a bit of a lost art, but still very much welcome, and it’s something that Immortal Hulk did expertly.
This gem by Ryan Sook and Brad Anderson from Action Comics #1006 is quite possibly the comic book page of the year.
4. Action Comics / Man of Steel / Superman
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artists: Patrick Gleason, Yanick Paquette, Ryan Sook, Ivan Reis, w/Doc Shaner, Steve Rude, Jay Fabok, Kevin Maguire, & Adam Hughes
Inkers: Wade Von Grawbadger, Joe Prado, & Oclair Albert
Colorists: Alejandro Sanchez, Nathan Fairbairn, Brad Anderson
Letterers: Josh Reed
Issues in 2018: 5 / 6 / 6
In 2017, Brian Michael Bendis—a leading voice at Marvel Comics for almost 20 years—announced a jump to the distinguished competition, leaving fans with questions that ranged from whether Bendis could thrive there to which titles he would take over. Some suggested this would spark a creative rejuvenation for Bendis, a chance to recapture energy from bygone days. Here’s the thing, though: Bendis had quietly been doing some of his best work at Marvel. Following the stumble that was Civil War II, his Infamous Iron Man, Jessica Jones, and Defenders titles were all excellent.
This is my way of saying I predicted Bendis at DC would be successful. He’s generally praised most for early work on Daredevil, as well as for creating Jessica Jones and Miles Morales (who’s having a moment with new film Into the Spider-Verse). What gets lost is that Bendis is likely the most prolific comic writer of a generation, consistently producing three to five monthly titles and rarely (if ever) suffering delays. As I’ve written, part of what I love about comics is the deadline-driven schedules force creators to just do the damn work, to put forth ideas without belaboring them as one must in film or prose writing. When it comes to embracing child-like excitement, love of comics history, and just doing the damn thing—Bendis is the best.
Still, even I didn’t predict what he’s doing with DC’s Superman titles. Flanked by the best artists to work on the character in decades, Bendis is telling a story that breaks this hero and his mythos down to its core before (seemingly) building it back up with slight tweaks for 2018. His Action Comics, Superman, and Man of Steel miniseries have all felt both classic and progressive as he revels in iconic stature while viscerally having a blast using the DC Universe that’s been off limits for so long. The end result is that both Action and Superman continue to rise, as satisfying as they are epic.
From Monstress #18. Artwork by Sana Takeda.
3. Monstress
Writer: Marjorie Liu
Artist: Sana Takeda
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Publisher: Image Comics
Issues in 2018: 6
This was the year of Monstress, with Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s expansive creator-owned fantasy hitting big at the Eisner’s and (presumably) finding a much larger audience. For fans of the book from the start, it was incredibly rewarding to see this story get its due. Liu’s world-building is phenomenal, drawing loosely from traditions while first and foremost exploring original elements. Takeda’s artwork, meanwhile, is second to no artist keeping as regular a release schedule (save for possibly the great Fiona Staples), with an intricate manga-influenced look that makes every panel of Monstress feel like the product of months of design work.
This year saw Monstress play out its third arc, a grandiose story heavy with confidence. The world-building continues, but it’s not as noticeable as it was in earlier arcs (both of which were also phenomenal, btw). The real focus of the story now is the journey of the main character. Given this is a fantasy comic (the fantasy comic of the decade), we wouldn’t have it any other way.
What started as a revenge story in 2015, has grown into a powerful young woman reckoning with a range of life: her relationship with her history, with her mother, with the mysterious power inside her, with the most responsible way to use it, and with the repercussions for noble actions that grew out of a simple desire to escape oppression and survive.
Black Hammer: Age of Doom, Quantum Age, Doctor Star, and Chtu-Louise.
2. Black Hammer
Black Hammer: Age of Doom / Doctor Star and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows / Quantum Age: From the World of Black Hammer / Black Hammer: Cthu-Louise
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artists: Dean Ormston, Rich Tommaso, Max Fiumara, Wilfredo Torres, Emi Lenox
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Todd Klein
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Issues in 2018: 7 / 4 / 5 / 1
This past year also saw the establishing of a new superhero universe: Black Hammer. Technically, this homage-heavy universe was created back in 2016 with the advent of Black Hammer #1 from writer Jeff Lemire and artist Dean Ormston. That issue was the start of a specific story. The wider universe grew later, doing so with an adjacent miniseries that broadened the plot in 2016 (Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil from Lemire and artist extraordinaire David Rubin).
In 2018, however, we got an even broader expansion. This past year, the Black Hammer universe continued with its main title, while adding two more miniseries and a one-shot. Add to that all kinds of rumors about what’s coming in 2019—from Lemire himself writing/drawing a 12-issue series, to a crossover between Black Hammer and DC Comics—and all signs point to this universe being here to stay. I had a chance to interview Jeff Lemire at San Diego Comic Con, and he agreed, saying as much.
I point this out as a way to note Black Hammer is so well-done that it has found a strong foothold in a market over-saturated by superhero concepts since basically 1970 (if not sooner). This is Lemire in all his brilliant Lemire-ness, following his deepest ideas and tragic lonesome sensibilities. He’s created a tone that allows him to write a few pages of funny before lapsing into full-blown meditations on the nature of generational comic book stories. Shared superhero universes function best with a strong guiding voice or perspective (see Marvel in the ‘60s). Black Hammer is doing just that, and I for one feel lucky to experience it in real time.
Saga #50 (cover by Fiona Staples) finds the family in happier times.
1. Saga
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Fiona Staples
Letterer: Fonografiks
Publisher: Image Comics
Issues in 2018: 6
I’ve written about this often, but it’s easy to take long-running creator-owned comics for granted, forgetting what a rare thing it is to have talented writers and artists string together wholly original stories with only their keyboards and pencils. For many of us, our lifetimes have been marked with a mainstream comic selection dictated by corporations and distributors, plus whatever experimental work was on the fringes. In recent years, this has changed, and, leading that change, has been Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ familial sci-fi epic, Saga.
This year, however, was one in which we were all but forced to stop taking Saga for granted. The first reason for this was Saga’s latest story arc (which ran in issues #49 - #54, and wrapped up in July) was obscenely consequential. I don’t want to give anything away, but $@#% goes down and it’s bad, so bad I wrote about why it hurts, partially to make sense of why I was so devastated. It’s a testament to this story that it can hit such intense emotional beats so far into its run.
Second, the book announced it would be going on a year-long (minimum) hiatus. Obviously, you can’t take something for granted once it leaves you. Kind of bummer (we’re compensating with a year-long Saga re-read), made all the more bumming (is that a word? ah well) by how good the comic got before the announcement. There really is, quite simply, nothing else like Saga, not in terms of the scope of the story, the artful thematic explorations undertaken within, or the industry-best action and design graphics generated a whopping six times a year (or more!) by the massive talent that is Fiona Staples.
This site is dedicated to discussing comic books in thoughtful and analytical ways as the medium enjoys a new golden age. To us, Saga remains the leader of an ongoing renaissance, and a big part of the reason we think it’s so important to volunteer time to cover the artform. It is an absolute honor to give the book and its devastating 2018 story (kind of fitting, in sooooo many ways) our Top Comic of 2018 honor.
Check out Best Comics of 2018, #16 - #25 and Best Comics of 2018, #6 - #15! And check back later in the week for more year-end lists, including our Best Single Issues and our Top Creators of 2018!
Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.
Top Comics to Buy for November 7, 2018
By Zack Quaintance — I’m not going to lie: I was so caught up with anticipation for Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp to start their run on The Green Lantern, that I kind of lost sight of the other books that were coming out this week. So, you can imagine my surprise when I sat down to look at the slate for this first Wednesday in November, and I found other highly anticipated titles waiting for me too.
I’m talking specifically here about the first issue of the new Marvel Knights 20th Anniversary, mini-series, which is being show-run by Donny Cates with future issues from Matthew Rosenberg, Tini Howard, and Vita Ayala. Also, new Immortal Hulk! That comic is so good that it’s reach a rare point where each individual issue feels like a weighty event, not unlike the best of my favorite creator-owned titles, the likes of Southern Bastards, Monstress, or Saga.
Anyway...without further adieu...let’s do it up!
Top Comics to Buy for November 7, 2018
PICK OF THE WEEK
The Green Lantern #1
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Liam Sharp
Colorist: Steve Oliff
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $4.99
In this debut issue, when Earth's space cop, Hal Jordan, encounters an alien hiding in plain sight, it sets off a chain of events that rocks the Green Lantern Corps-and quite possibly the Multiverse at large-to its very core. There's an inter-galactic conspiracy afoot, as well as a traitor in the GL Corps' ranks, so strap in for more mind-bending adventures in this masterpiece in the making.
Why It’s Cool: Well, for starters just look at it. Liam Sharp’s artwork is bringing a level of detail and psychedelic imagination we’ve never seen in DC cosmic, and it’s really something to behold. This is book is also being billed as back-to-basics approach that simultaneously expands DC’s space enforcer mythos to new and farout locales. More over, it’s Grant Morrison taking yet another DC character and teasing out the core essence of a classic character while simultaneously telling new stories in a modern context. It’s going to be a beautiful and complex thing.
Fearscape #2
Writer: Ryan O’Sullivan
Artist: Andrea Mutti
Colorist: Vladimir Popov
Letterer: Andworld Design
Publisher: Vault Comics
Price: $3.99
Heroic plagiarist Henry Henry faces his first trial in the Fearscape! Within The Weeping Castle, home to The Children of Prometheus, Henry Henry encounters wondrous and fanciful creatures-including The First Fear. With courage and calm, he endures the heart of darkness, refusing the easy temptation of light. No Legs can outrun-no Mind can outwit-no Heart can outlove our hero.
Why It’s Cool: Fearscape #1 earned a rare 10/10 review from us, and so we’re obviously really excited to dig into the second issue. If it grows from the foundation laid in the first chapter, this will be deeper dive into territory, a story about what it’s like to tell stories, and a razor sharp one at that. *Special Note* this comic was initially solicited last week before being delayed by one, but we’ve seen an advanced copy and like it more than enough to include it again here.
Immortal Hulk #8
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Joe Bennett
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
Bruce Banner is dead. His corpse has been dissected, his organs catalogued, and his inner workings are being studied by the scientists of Shadow Base. Bruce Banner is no longer a threat. That just leaves the IMMORTAL HULK…
Why It’s Cool: This book is a serious contender for the best superhero book today, as well as in the conversation for best monthly comic, period. We’ve been over and over this, but it really is that good. Expect to see it on our list whenever it comes out unless something major changes.
Marvel Knights 20th #1
Writer: Donny Cates
Artist: Travel Foreman
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $4.99
In celebration of the legendary imprint founded by Marvel's CCO Joe Quesada, a new crop of talent stands poised to tell a groundbreaking story across the Marvel Universe! In the cemetery, the blind man does not know who he is, or why he has come to this particular grave at this moment. He doesn't know the burly police officer with the wild story who has approached him. Or the strangely intense man who sits in the rear seat of the patrol car, his eyes flashing green. But all of that is about to change. Because Matt Murdock is beginning to remember...In a colorless world without heroes, the spark of light...must come from the dark…
Why It’s Cool: Marvel’s brightest star right now is arguably writer Donny Cates, who has a no-nonsense conversational omniscient narrative style and a keen talent for capital B, Big ideas. Now, the publisher is deploying Cates to honor the 20th birthday of its legendary (to readers in their late 20s or early 30s, anyway) Marvel Knights imprint, and it all starts here with this issue.
Sideways Annual #1
Writers: Dan DiDio & Grant Morrison
Artists: Will Conrad & Cliff Richards
Colorist: Hi-Fi
Letterer: Travis Lanham & Dave Sharpe
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $4.99
Sideways unleashes his "super" secret weapon against Perrus in an effort to free the oppressed people and escape to his home dimension. He'll get some additional help from the newly discovered Seven Soldiers, but only if someone makes a heroic ultimate sacrifice. Plus, a bonus backup story in which Sideways meets the Unseen!!
Why It’s Cool: Despite the absolutely absurd number of different fonts on this book’s cover (six? I think I see six…), this comic is actually pretty exciting. Sideways has unexpectedly been a strong series from its start, and now Grant Morrison is coming on to presumably cross the character over with his Seven Soldiers concept and probably also some multiversal shenanigans. We can’t wait.
Top New #1 Comics
Auntie Agatha’s Home for Wayward Rabbits #1
Battlestar Galactica Classic #1
Empty Man #1
James Bond 007 #1
Outer Darkness #1
Suicide Squad: Black Files #1
Others Receiving Votes
Border Town #3
Crowded #4
Deathstroke #37
Death of Inhumans #5
Dreaming #3
Farmhand #5
Giant Days #44
Infinity Wars #5
Justice League #11
Leviathan #3
Redlands #8
Sparrowhawk #2
The Walking Dead #185
Wrong Earth #3
X-Men: Red #10
See our past top comics to buy here, and check our our reviews archive here.
Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase. He also writes comics and is currently working hard to complete one.
Top Comics of September 2018
By Zack Quaintance — This month is one that has the potential to be infamous, in that it ended with an event—Heroes in Crisis—that saw one of the Big 2 (DC) embrace a sort of grit and darkness that feels outdated. Word is now coming out that in addition to being a viscerally uncomfortable book, Heroes in Crisis also undersold expectations. Really, it almost feels to me as if the larger line itself is working like an antibody to reject Heroes in Crisis, purging its anachronistic themes from a shared superhero universe that is now bent on being brighter.
But, hey, this isn’t a piece about Heroes in Crisis! This is, instead, a piece about the comics from last month that I really liked, and within it you will find talk of some of my usual favorites—Wasted Space and Immortal Hulk—as well as some discussion of comics I haven’t written as much about, including The Seeds and Supergirl. And because I can’t help myself: yes! Okay, fine. I found Heroes in Crisis disappointing, but I still enjoyed September holistically as another great month for comics.
Let’s take a look at why!
Shout Outs
Snotgirl #11. I’m just so happy this book is back. The art is phenomenal, even if the story has seemed to search for direction. Still, there’s nothing else quite like this comic, one of the most singular today. It’s like reading a guilty pleasure Instagram feed.
While I thought the opening arc of Jason Aaron’s Avengers run was maybe two issues longer than it needed to be, Avengers #7 & #8 are two of my favorite standalone Avengers stories in years, Avengers #7 for its biblical qualities and #8 because of its deep focus on team dynamics.
Relay #3. I’ve been enthralled by this book from its start. It’s, to be reductive, mind-expanding sci-fi brought to life with illustrations that oscillate from detailed and realistic to totally psychedelic. It’s a complex read, one I’m doing my damndest to analyze via reviews.
I’m all in on the SuperBendis run these days, and I liked Superman #3 and Action Comics #1003 quite a bit. Supergirl #22, however, was a fantastic surprise. This is a smaller title, but it’s bringing a welcome additional depth to Bendis’ larger aspirations.
September’s Wonder Woman #54 & #55 teamed one of my favorite rising comics writers, Steve Orlando, with one of my favorite underrated art teams, Raul Allen and Patricia Martin. The results were (unsurprisingly) to my liking.
DC Comics is in a bit of holding pattern in a couple places, waiting for new superstar runs to start (Aquaman, The Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, etc.), but Justice League #8 & Justice League Dark #3 continue to establish its team-up book as a true flagship.
In Black Hammer: Age of Doom #5, some of this series’ mysteries become clear, and the team of Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormstron have more than built a satisfying resolution.
I continue to be impressed with the world-building going on in Skyward, a charming comic that’s clearly lasting for a long haul. Check out our review of Skyward #6.
Not to give too much away, but the last panel in The Wild Storm #17 is well worth your time, provided you’ve read The Authority...
Tom King and Mitch Gerads work in Mister Miracle #11 is once again excellent, featuring action, a future classic nine-panel grid of Darkseid double-dipping a carrot, and a promise that mysteries will be unraveled next month (maybe).
Top Comics of September 2018
5. Wasted Space #5 by Michael Moreci, Hayden Sherman, Jason Wordie, & Jim Campbell
This month saw the conclusion of Wasted Space’s first arc, and what a doozy. What I find most compelling about Wasted Space is that it lives a double life, both as a slapstick space opera and as a deep ideological exploration of culture and society. I’ve said this before but it’s worth reiterating: there’s a David Foster Wallace-esque quality to the ideas and concerns in this book, one that is especially evident in some of the lengthiest bits of dialogue as well as in the intelligence woven throughout.
Aesthetically, it’s a bright and vibrant comic with a quick plot and jokes that feel surprising yet never inappropriate. I’m a vocal proponent of Vault Comics, and, as such, I’m often asked where new readers should start. After this issue (and arc), my answer is now Wasted Space.
4. Doomsday Clock #7 by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank
This issue caught me off guard. In Doomsday Clock #7, there is more plot and action than in the first half of this maxi-series combined. Indeed, the first six issues here were almost introspective in nature, carefully building the individual concerns of different Watchmen characters as they moved from their world into the proper DCU.
In Doomsday Clock #7, our principals start to slam together, with a good deal of direct involvement from usual DC heroes as well. The result is a comic that almost serves as a mission statement for this entire event. It’s an entertaining read that has me more excited for the final five issues. There is a little bit of a bittersweet tinge to it, in that one can only imagine what it would have been like had this book kept to a monthly schedule, as well as what it would have meant for the larger DCU, too. Sigh.
3. Immortal Hulk #5 & #6 by Al Ewing & Lee Garbett
September brought us two new issues of my favorite Marvel comic, Immortal Hulk, and so I’m including them here together. It seems to me like these two books together took a deeper turn into the supernatural, opening the door for the titular undead Hulk to explore some darker, perhaps even supernatural spaces.
The glowing red visage of Banner’s demon father is the MVP of this new scary turn. Designed to horrific perfection by usual series artist Joe Bennett, the face is memorable and terrifying, a fitting personification of this book’s ambition to be a different, unnerving sort of Hulk story. I also like that this book is seemingly separate from the usual cash-grabby fray of crossing over Marvel titles. Indeed, it’s starting to feel like the publisher is actively separating prestige titles from gimmicky cash grabs, and discerning readers are better for it.
2. Batman #54 by Tom King, Matt Wagner, Tomeu Morey, & Clayton Cowles
Batman #54 was a comic that made me emotional. As I wrote in my Batman #54 review, I found this issue to be an all-time great Batman story, a father-son take on one of the most famous duos not only in comics but in the entire world. It’s also largely indicative of what I’ve liked most about King’s run so far: its humanity.
I think I’m far from alone in saying King’s Batman has been one of peaks and valleys, and I attribute this to a two steps forward, one step back journey he has Bruce on. King is trying to slowly humanize and grow a character whose owners have everything to gain by keeping him static. His solution seems to be a series of small pushes in lieu of any major leaps. This issue is one of the most blissful small pushes forward so far.
1. Seeds #2 by Ann Nocenti & David Aja (read our review of Seeds #1)
I didn’t know what to make of Seeds’ first issue. It was a blatantly creative comic, one that intrigued me and seemed to have something much deeper to say beneath the compelling visuals that made up its veneer. The first issue, though, withheld much about what the book intended to be about, and, as such, I withheld a bit of enthusiasm. After reading the second issue this has changed. I’m all in on The Seeds, to the point I now suspect that when the four-issue series concludes, it is likely to be praised as one of the best comics of the decade, if not longer.
This is a story that feels both impossible and real, that feels of our moment and also forward-looking. It’s thematic interests are disparate at first glance, ranging from sex between humans and aliens, the environmental death of the earth, and the bludgeoning impact of human reliance on technology. Look closer, though, and you’ll find a creative team that is almost unnervingly prescient. This is a comic book story that in my opinion is clearly laying out what should (or soon will be) easily the most pressing concerns of our time, and doing it with some of the finest art in the industry. Simply put, if you’re not reading this comic, you are making a mistake.
Check out our Best New #1 Comics of September 2018 plus more of our monthly lists here.
Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.
Top Comics to Buy for September 19, 2018
By Zack Quaintance — This was an especially strong week, with the penultimate issue of Mister Miracle sort of headlining the books I’m looking forward to. It kind of seems like that book has been going on for years (even though it launched in August 2017) and like we’ll have it for the rest of our days (the last issue is currently due out on Oct. 24...although if recent issues are an indication it's probably likely to slip).
The book has just been so so good, and we will most definitely be sad to see it go. That said, we’re also enjoying the heck out of these final few issues. Tom King is one of the best and most introspective superhero writers, and what he’s done first with The Vision and now with Mister Miracle is work that seems likely to find a wide audience for a good long while. It’s been really rewarding to follow it in monthly issues, even with these minor delays.
Oh hey, and also there’s a lot of other good stuff, too! Let’s take a look...
Top Comics to Buy for September 19, 2018
Crude #6
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Garry Brown
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Thomas Mauer
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
Piotr has fought his way across Blackstone to avenge his son's death. Now he faces off against the biggest bastard of them all, and only one will walk away.
Why It’s Cool: This is the finale of a fantastic book about closure, violence, secrets, acceptance, and fathers and sons. If that sounds like a lot, it’s because it is. Creators Steve Orlando and Garry Brown, however, streamline their many powerful themes into a cathartic and powerful story.
Harley Quinn #50
Writer: Sam Humphries
Artists (In Order of Appearance): John Timms, Whilce Portacio, Agnes Garbowska, John McCrea, Kelley Jones, Jon Davis-Hunt, Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund, Scott Kolins, Dan Jurgens, Guillem March, Mirka Andolfo, Babs Tarr, Tom Grummett, Cam Smith
Colorists (In Order of Appearance): Alex Sinclair, Gabe Eltaeb, John Kalisz, Michelle Madsen, Andrew Dalhouse, Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $4.99
In a special anniversary story, "Harley Saves the Universe!"-no kidding! While reading a mysterious Harley Quinn comic book, H.Q. accidentally breaks all of reality. And you know the saying: if you break it, you bought it! Now it's up to Harley to travel through both time and space to fix all the continuity errors she created. Luckily, she'll have a little help, 'cuz riding shotgun is none other than special guest star Jonni DC, Continuity Cop! Good thing, too, because if Harley fails, it means her own mom will be lost forever. Gulp! That doesn't sound very funny!
Why It’s Cool: Listen, I’m not a big fan of Harley Quinn stories. The zany superhero books (ie Deadpool) don’t usually do it for me, but this one takes a gigantic and meta idea, using it to tell a poignant story about the nature of superhero franchises, sprinkled liberally with fun deep cut nods to DC continuity. It’s a must-buy for long-time DC readers.
Ice Cream Man #7
Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist: Martin Morazzo
Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Good Old Neon
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $3.99
"MY LITTLE POLTERGEIST"
Another sullen, sequential short! Here, a little girl's best friend comes back from the dead. Or does she? It's hard to say, ghosts being an unreliable sort.
Why It’s Cool: Ice Cream Man #6 was one of my favorite books of 2018 so far, accomplishing some really impressive feats of comic-making craft. It did, however, leaving me wondering if this book was becoming a bit nihilistic...until this issue put that question at rest. This is the most heartfelt issue yet of one of the best comics on the stands, and I highly recommend picking it up.
Immortal Hulk #6
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Lee Garbett
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
"THE GREEN DOOR" STARTS HERE! Bruce Banner is alive - and everyone knows it. Now he's hunted by the government, Alpha Flight, the mysterious Shadow Base...and the Avengers. And someone's going to find him first. But Bruce has bigger problems. Something terrible has infected him. Something with unspeakable plans for humanity. And the only one who knows about it...is the IMMORTAL HULK.
Why It’s Cool: I’ve liked Immortal Hulk quite a bit from its first disturbing issue, but last month’s Immortal Hulk #5 introduced a new villian that in my opinion gives this story a chilling new sense of direction, one that stands to make it an even more powerful book. This is, quite simply, my favorite comic at Marvel right now.
Mister Miracle #11
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Mitch Gerads
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $3.99
If there's one thing popular fiction has taught us by now, it's: never make a deal with the devil! And yet Mister Miracle is still listening when Darkseid approaches him with just such a devilish proposition-if Scott sends his newborn son to Apokolips, there will be peace on New Genesis. Since when has Darkseid been famous for his honesty?! It'll be a miracle if this doesn't blow up in Scott's face.
Why It’s Cool: Our site and many others have spent the past year or so heaping praise upon Tom King and Mitch Gerads Mister Miracle, and that’s not going to stop now that we’ve reached the penultimate issue. This is a series filled with equal parts introspection and misdirection. Expect some answers here, but also expect to wait for Mister Miracle #12 to really get a clear idea of what’s been going on.
Recommended New #1 Comics for September 19, 2018
Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1
Batman: Damned #1
Burnouts #1
Captain America Annual #1
Dick Tracy: Dead or Alive #1
Gideon Falls: Directors Cut #1
Return of Wolverine #1
Others Receiving Votes
Avengers #8
Batman #55
Black Badge #2
Black Hammer: Age of Doom #5
Britannia: Lost Eagles of Rome #3
Ether Copper Golems #5
Justice League #8
Lost City Explorers #4
Pearl #2
Skyward #6
Teen Titans #22
Thor #5
Usagi Yojimbo The Hidden #6
Venom #6
The Wild Storm #17
See our past top comics to buy here, and check our our reviews archive here.
Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.
Top Big 2 Books That Read Like Indie Comics
By Cory Webber — As someone who jumped into comics fairly recently—I started reading in 2014—I quickly found myself overwhelmed by decades of superhero continuity and backstories. Where should I begin? How do I keep track of things in both multiverses? What do I cut out of my life to make time for my newfound passion? The answers were start by identifying favorite characters, give up on ever entirely keeping track of both multiverses, and sacrifice sleep.
As I learned more about superhero comics, I also discovered Image, which opened a new world to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Big 2, but it was incredible to find Image and its trove of rich, self-contained stories unburdened by prior continuity or connections to other books. These creator-owned comics are stories I can open and enjoy on their own individual merits. I like and respect both types of books. I have, however, found there is a special intersection between the two, and that’s what I’d like to talk about today.
So, why not turn this into a list? Well, here you go: my Top Big Two Books That Read Like Indie Comics, in no particular order. My criteria is simple: the book either has to read as a self-contained story, or transcend superheroics to incorporate elements of other genres, or at least have hints of them (Editor’s Note: No Big 2 imprints are included..this list is strictly superheroes).
Big 2 Books That Read Like Indie Comics
Pizza Dog from Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye.
Hawkeye by Matt Fraction and David Aja
Hawkeye was the first superhero book I read that really subverted what I thought I knew about comics. Matt Fraction took the most obvious thing about Clint Barton (his lack of superpowers), and used it to not only humanize him, but to showcase what he was truly capable of (being a real pain in the butt, mostly). Also, the relationship between Barton and Kate Bishop (the better Hawkeye) developed into something special. Their back-and-forth banter, and Clint’s inability to be a decent partner, is something still being mined in comics today. Namely, Kelly Thompson’s recently concluded Hawkeye run. If you haven’t, do yourself a favor and read it!
The issue that really stands out in this run is issue #11, the pizza dog issue, which won an Eisner in 2014 for Best Single Issue (or One-Shot). It’s told from the perspective of Lucky, aka the titular pizza dog. What transpires and how it is presented is utterly brilliant, and this remains the single best issue of anything I’ve ever read.
Tom King's Vision applies an overly-logical robotic lens to family life in the suburbs.
Vision by Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta
Vision was my first introduction to Tom King, and I was blown away. In this 12-issue maxi series, we see what happens when Viz creates his own family and attempts to assimilate into suburb living. What comes to pass is equal parts intriguing, disturbing, and heartbreaking. Watching this android family attempting to fit in and be normal was quite different from anything I’d read before, and I don’t think I’m alone there.
King’s writing was poetic and poignant. There was something fascinating about the interactions between Viz and Virginia, and how they precisely, and concisely, analyzed everything. Whether it was discussing the ironic usage of the word nice, or the semantics of ideas like certainty, belief, and luck, it was interesting to see them process information and incorporate it into their attempt at emulating a human pathos.
Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett
Al Ewing and Joe Bennett's Immortal Hulk is one of the best horror-mystery books today.
This book is the most recent on this list. At the time of writing this, only 4 issues have been released. The only thing you need to know here is that the Hulk was dead, and now he is not. Al Ewing’s choice to tell this story as straight up horror was an inspired one. Joe Bennett’s art, combined with Ewing’s script, makes for an eerie, unnerving setting as Bruce Banner goes from town to town trying to lay low while also unraveling mysteries involving gamma-ray exposed individuals like himself.
Most impressively, the last two issues have barely focused on Banner. Rather, they have centered on reporter Jackie McGee, and her investigations into these other gamma-ray afflicted individuals plus a seemingly mysterious green door that connects them all. If you don’t like the Hulk, you may still want to give this a shot. It’s unlike anything on shelves today from either of the Big Two.
The Omega Men by Tom King and Barnaby Bagenda
Surprise, surprise—I’ve included another of Tom King’s works. In Omega Men, King takes lesser known characters from the DC pantheon and weaves a space opera laced with murder, adventure, and betrayal...lots and lots of betrayal. I recently read this for the first time, and I’ll be honest, the early issues were rough. I was unaware of the previous Omega Men from the ‘80’s, nor was I familiar with Kyle Rayner.
Both of these 9 panel grids have a poetic symmetry to them.
King quickly changed all that. In fact, by #4 I was comfortable and fully-immersed. Also, Rayner may have just become my favorite lantern. One of the things that stands out, which King does well and often, is the 9-panel grid. One sequence that stood out, in particular, was a two-page affair where each grid mirrored the grid opposite it. For example, the same dialogue that was used in panel 1, was used in panel 9; same for panel 2 and panel 8, and so forth, with the middle panel having no dialogue. It was a minor thing, but it really highlighted King’s poetic tendencies.
Being one of King’s early books and one of his first Big 2 comics, it maybe comes as no surprise that there were so many parallels between this story and the conflicts he witnessed as a CIA agent in the Middle East. For example, going to war to acquire resources, branding those who oppose you as terrorists, the role of religion in all of it, etc…However, despite all the political and religious content, this book does not come across as heavy-handed. Rather, it is ultimately a densely woven tale about love, loss, and relationships.
As for the art, Barnaby Bagenda absolutely blew me away. His action had great movement, and he was able to superbly convey the emotion of this story via great facial expressions and body poses. Moreover, Romulo Fajardo Jr.’s colors really complement Bagenda’s art. In the backmatter of the trade, the team detailed its fascinating art process. They didn’t do any inking, rather they flattened right after pencils, then did the color work and added special effects. It all adds up to a gorgeous, dynamically-drawn story that grabs you right away and doesn’t let go until the final page.
Hot take: If this were published by an indie publisher, and an ongoing series, it would be spoken of in the same breath as Saga. As it stands, the book is still critically-lauded, and it helped land King firmly on everyone’s radars, and rightfully so.
Dan Slott and Mike Allred's Silver Surfer is a touching and epic cosmic love story.
Silver Surfer by Dan Slott and Mike Allred
So, ummm, apparently a superhero comic can make a grown man cry. Dan Slott and Mike Allred’s Silver Surfer did just that. This series ran for 29 issues, and it tells the story of Norrin Radd and Dawn Greenwood as they traverse both the expansive cosmos above, and the ever-expanding love from deep within. You know, the kind us humans can only hope to aspire to.
Slott’s use of Dawn as a lens, through which we get to see the Surfer and the multiverse, also served as a lens through which we got to see the good in everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. This optimism was refreshing and welcoming. Furthermore, Allred’s art, and his wife Laura’s colors, really drove the positivity home with unique character designs and out-of-this-world, Kirby-esque scenery that spanned space and time.
As with Hawkeye, my favorite issue was issue #11 from Vol. 1. Again, another Eisner-award winning single issue. The layout of #11 is something that just has to be seen. Never has a layout design been so integral to a story as it has been here - it’s simply brilliant!
Cory Webber is a work-from-home entrepreneur who also reads and reviews comics for fun. Find him on Twitter at @CeeEssWebber. He lives in Lehi, Utah with his wife and three sons.
Top Comics of July 2018
By Zack Quaintance — Maybe I’m suffering from recency bias, but I’m hard-pressed to think of a summer in my life (I’m 22 give or take...SEVERAL years) as good for comics as this. Seriously. There are top-notch stories being told at both major superhero publishers—with characters ranging from Mister Miracle to Captain America—while the creator-owned market hits unprecedented peaks for variety and quality.
Being in the midst of this wave is a blessing and challenge for writing lists like this. Obviously, I don’t lack titles, but it’s tough to narrow things down. I recently faced the same dilemma sorting the Best New #1 Comics of July. My answer is do it and spend the next month regretting choices. Act recklessly and then deal...that’s a strategy I’ve long employed.
Joking aside, I put a lot of thought into this month’s list, agonizing until I landed on the titles below. Sooooo—let’s do this!
Shout Outs
Batman #50 was a good comic with a messy release (the above variant cover is by Jae Lee).
Let’s start with a mess: Batman #50 and the spoiler fiasco. I didn’t get spoiled (thankfully), but I’m sympathetic to all who did. Regardless, this was a fine issue with a welcome twist, especially if as Tom King says, this is the run’s halfway point.
Have you all read IDW’s Black Crown imprint? You should. July saw the end of two early titles: Assassanistas and Punks Not Dead. Put simply, what a glorious wave of odd books, heavy on craft, humor, subversion. Can’t wait to see what Black Crown does next.
The darling of this year’s Eisners, Monstress, wrapped its third arc with a thundering crescendo and the most action in any single issue since the book’s debut. Perhaps most importantly, Monstress #18 also laid great track for future stories. Very well done.
Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen concluded their sci-book Descender, a beautiful watercolor epic about childhood friendship. This issue was great (like the entire series), but it was less a finale than a continuation, setting up a sequel called Ascender that launches this fall.
Al Ewing and Joe Bennett continue to make The Hulk terrifying.
In Immortal Hulk #2 and #3, Al Ewing and Joe Bennett continued to strike a horrifying tone, telling a story closer to prestige horror than standard superheroics, leading to half of comics Twitter saying I don’t usually like the Hulk but I like THIS.
There’s a reason Incognegro by Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece is taught in schools: it’s a well-done historical mystery steeped in questions about race. Its sequel wrapped this month with Incognegro Renaissance #5, a worthy successor.
Sideways #6 gives its teen hero a defining tragedy, and ho man did it sting. Speaking of The New Age of DC Heroes, The Unexpected #2 and Terrifics #5 were both great too.
Apparently Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt’s phenomenal new take on old characters, The Wild Storm, is selling well (at least online), but not enough fans are talking about it. I wish that would change. It’s so good.
Finally, Flash #50 was an emotionally-satisfying conclusion to a long-simmering plot thread, one that also featured that page with the return of that character at the end.
Top 5 Comics of July 2018
Cates & Stegman seem bent on a character-defining run.
5. Venom #4 by Donny Cates & Ryan Stegman
I don’t want to go into the plot, except to note there’s an expert connection to Jason Aaron’s all-time great run on Thor, and that superhero comic fans love that type of thing. There’s also just a feeling of excitement around everything Cates is writing; he’s like an athlete having his first MVP season, entrenching himself as a lead voice at Marvel, even extending his exclusive with the publisher.
Which is all great, as is Venom #4. It’s still relatively early in this run, but Cates and Stegman have talked about doing a prolonged and character-defining stretch on this book. Also, like Immortal Hulk, this is another book that seems to have many fans reading a character they otherwise wouldn’t. No easy feat.
4. Wasted Space #3 by Michael Moreci & Hayden Sherman
Wasted Space, the frenetic space opera about addiction and cultism and 100 other things, just keeps getting better. People who write about comics often use that line, but in this case it’s true. Wasted Space is a complex comic with so many big ideas that the experience of reading it improves as more of its scope becomes visible. That’s been my experience, anyway.
I loved Wasted Space #3 (read my review of Wasted Space #3). The ideas and plotting that made the series so engrossing is still here, but this issue also (organically) ups the humor, especially when the big all-powerful gigantic enemy guy tells some rando he’d feel better about himself if he approached work with pride—hilarious. I don’t know if I can be clearer: you should all be reading this book.
Bold design choices elevate Gideon Falls to lofty creative levels.
3. Gideon Falls #5 by Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino
Holy wow, the art in this comic is insane. I know that’s vague and non-descriptive, but if you’ve read it, you’re absolutely nodding along. The truth is it’s hard to to describe these visuals without using dude, did you see that language. The art is imaginative to the point one wonders exactly when Andrea Sorrentino disregarded conventions and straight up started doing whatever he wanted.
There are bold choices, to be sure, every one of which pays off, including red circles around details for emphasis, and arrows telling readers where to look. It could come off as proscriptive, but given how engrossing this story is, it instead feels helpful. I’ve liked this comic from the start (see my long-ago review of Gideon Falls #1), but Gideon Falls #5 somehow reaches new levels of creativity, storytelling, and absolutely bananas visual stimulation on every page. Absolutely bananas.
2. Wonder Woman #51 by Steve Orlando & Laura Braga
With Wonder Woman #51, Steve Orlando and Laura Braga tell a stand-alone story with a deep and nuanced understanding of this character, one that shows exactly why she’s been relevant all these years. It’s the type of small-scale story that plays to a hero’s essence, the type done ad nauseum with Batman and Superman but not nearly as much with Wonder Woman. This comic, however, helps to fix that.
It’s just so perfect. Aside from the adept characterization, it features an engaging and emotional narrative that speaks to Diana’s core values. It sounds cliche, but I teared up here at the drama and and smiled at the jokes. This is, to me, an issue we’ll be hearing new creators talk about on podcasts 10 years from now, citing it as an influence for the way they write/think about the character.
Read our review of Wonder Woman #51.
Just, ouch.
1. Saga #54 by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples
Nothing will ever be the same. If you’ve read the issue, check out Why Saga #54 Hurts So Bad. If you haven’t, please read the issue and then click that link. There’s just no good way to discuss this without spoilers. Simply put, though, we’ll just note that this is the most consequential issue yet in the best series in comics.
That does it for our July list. Please check back to the site tomorrow for our new feature, Five Questions With Creators, which is being kicked off with writer Zack Kaplan, of Eclipse, Port of Earth, and Lost City Explorers!
Check out our Best New #1 Comics of July 2018 here plus more of our monthly lists here .
Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, CA.
The Most Tragic Comic Cancellations of Recent Years
New Super-Man ended last Wednesday after 24 issues.
By Zack Quaintance — Last week marked the 24th and final issue of Gene Luen Yang’s New Super-Man. The book was a standout of DC Rebirth, a publishing initiative that returned most of the company’s superheroes to familiar status quos. New Super-Man, however, was an exception, featuring an entirely new cast and situation.
Put simply, the comic was a story of a Chinese teenager indoctrinated into a government-run superhero program. It dealt with teen superhero tropes (while also subverting them—our hero actually starts out as the bully) as well as with current Chinese politics and ancient mythology, telling stories at the intersection of all three. Add Luen Yang’s writing—moving from poignant to funny from panel-to-panel—and the result was both unique and refreshing.
This is, of course, coming from me, a seasoned superhero fan, and when writers like me call Big 2 books unique or refreshing, they’re often bound for poor sales and swift cancellations. New Super-Man was certainly no commercial hit. Launching a new character, even one blatantly capitalizing on the popularity of Old Superman, is difficult. Volunteer critics react positively but the comic-buying public is generally unaware or, even worse, unimpressed.
With that in mind, it’s amazing New Super-Man lasted long as it did, especially since it was slated to end at #18 before getting a generous extension. This, sadly, is rare. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today: recently cancelled books that ended too soon. Ranging from gritty to whimsical, these books date back to 2015 and share one thing in common: they were all—to borrow from Twin Peaks’ Special Agent Dale Cooper—damned good comics.
Let’s do this!
Unfollow seemed to rush its narrative, presumably because its run was cut short.
5. Unfollow (2015) by Rob Williams & Michael Dowling
Unfollow, which was part of a wave of new Vertigo titles in fall 2015, reminded me of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s 100 Bullets, with its modern noir concept built to span triple digit issues. In Unfollow, an eccentric tech billionaire dies and picks 140 users of his social media network to compete for his fortune. The last alive wins. The book started out methodical, removing a competitor or two per issue and tracking how many remained with a counter on its cover.
It became apparent (to me, at least) the narrative was being rushed when competitors started dying en mass or off panel. It’s a shame. There was a sharp literary quality to both the ideas and writing in Unfollow, especially the character that was so clearly a re-imagined Murakami. I’d have liked to have seen more of this vision. Ran For: 18 Issues
4. Spider-Woman (2015) by Dennis Hopeless, Javier Rodriguez, & Alvaro Lopez
As usual, the team of Javier Rodriguez and Alvaro Lopez did incredible work on Spider-Woman.
I suppose technically this book dates back to before Jonathan Hickman & Esad Ribic’s reality-ending Secret Wars (2015) event to when Dennis Hopeless started writing the character, but the incarnation I’m bemoaning began when it welcomed the incredibly versatile, frenetic art team of Javier Rodriguez and Alvaro Lopez (and later Veronica Fish). Together, they told a wonderful story about a superhero who decided to have a baby on her own.
In Marvel’s All New, All Different (2015) line (which followed Secret Wars), the publisher tried many slice-of-life comics, combining everyday problems and superheroics, ala Matt Fraction and David Aja’s all-time run on Hawkeye. Spider-Woman was the best of the bunch, and it’s a shame it ended with 17 issues. Although, unlike others on our list, it did get a neat and satisfying ending. Ran For: 17 Issues
3. Clean Room (2015) by Gail Simone & Jon Davis-Hunt
Clean Room was another title launched on Vertigo in fall 2015, and it was absolutely killer, with writer Gail Simone laying down an incredible depth of original ideas and Jon Davis-Hunt establishing himself as a Frank Quietly-esque star artist. This book had so much going for it. The one thing it lacked, however, was timing.
After this book ended (Gail Simone has said on Twitter she’ll do more someday), I read a rumor that DC had come to view its once-vaunted Vertigo imprint as a sales liability. This has maybe changed, with an even newer wave of Vertigo titles announced this week. Even so, Clean Room was a nigh-perfect body horror book that explored saviors, trauma, and belonging. If it had come during Vertigo’s heyday, it would have run 50 issues, easy. It was that good. Ran For: 18 Issues
2. The Ultimates (2015) & The Ultimates 2 (2016) by Al Ewing, Kenneth Rocafort, & Travel Foreman
Al Ewing's Ultimates came together to proactively solve the biggest problems in the universe.
The Ultimates showed up in the wake of Secret Wars (2015) and did my favorite thing comics teams can do: state a mission and work toward it. The team was America Chavez, Black Panther, Blue Marvel, Captain Marvel, and Monica Rambeau; and their mission was to solve the biggest problems in the universe—starting with Galactus in #1.
Ewing is a writer who for some reason (low sales) can’t seem to sustain a title, despite having done strong work on books like Contest of Champions, New Avengers, and the Inhumans book Royals. Sigh. In a different world, this could have been the flagship title of All New, All Different Marvel, but it got lost in the shuffle and ended up doing 22 issues (just shy of New Super-Man) over two volumes. Ran For: 22 Issues
1. Nighthawk by David F. Walker, Ramon Villalobos, & Tamra Bonvillain
Nighthawk was a Batman, analog, a wealthy black man who fought corporate explotation, corrupt police, and racism in Chicago.
Nighthawk isn't just one of the best cancelled titles in recent years, but one of the best period. It’s a seeringly-relevant story starring a Batman analog who is a black magnate in Chicago. Racial politics factor heavily into it, but the book also contextualizes race with how society is under assault by corporate agendas, corruption, and segments of the public acting against their interests because change is scary.
Also, Villalobos and Bonvillain's art is incredible (side note, they’re re-teaming on the first of the aforementioned new Vertigo titles this fall, Border Town), and Walker’s script is just as good, with expert pacing, character motives, and straight-up action. As someone on Twitter said, this loss would be harder to bear if it wasn’t for the perfect final panel. No spoilers, though...go read this trade for yourself! Ran For: 6 Issues
Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.