Best Comics of 2018: Batman’s Bookcase Contributor Picks

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By Various — Without our crack team of contributing writers, this site would just be one guy pretending to be furniture while churning out semi-coherent musings about comics. Yes, our super talented group of contributing writers are the lifeblood of Batman’s Bookcase, and as such, they have some pretty great takes about the Best Comics of 2018. From Allison continuing to surprise herself by riding hard for all things Thor to Taylor’s analytical impressions of the revived Wild Storm, there’s a lot to take in on this list.

So please now join our contributors on a trip through some of their favorite comics of 2018!

Allison Senecal

Euthanauts
Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Nick Robles
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Publisher: IDW Black Crown
What can I even say about this series that hasn’t already been said by people (Scott Snyder, for one) who are way cooler than me? We already know 2019 is going to be the year of writer Tini Howard, and it sure as #$&% better be the year of artist Nick Robles too (Best Layouts of 2018 Award, not a thing...but it should be). The protagonist of this comic, Thalia, is far and away my favorite original character of the year, and she is just rendered so lovingly. What a heartfelt, at times darkly funny, and just flat-out interesting comic. With its almost cheerfully morbid (not to forget the gut-punches) fixation on death, Euthanauts is in many ways the perfect comic for 2018, but it sure has a lot of great things to tell us about living too.

Mighty Thor/Thor
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artists: Russell Dauterman, Mike del Mundo, Christian Ward, Jen Bartel, Various
Colorist: Matthew Wilson, Marco D’Alfonso
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino
Publisher: Marvel Comics
If you told me a decade ago that my favorite Big 2 comic would be Thor, I’d probably laugh nervously at you, but here we are, and it is. Aaron and whichever stellar artist he happens to be collaborating with month-to-month (Dauterman, Bartel, Del Mundo, Ward, Moore, to name but a handful) knock this book out of the park every single time. No hiccups, no filler, all heart and tons of action. I’ve cried with Jane Foster, I’ve wheezed with Odinson, and vice versa. I also like the prospects for this book in 2019, because buckle up, kiddos, the War of the Realms is coming, and if you haven’t caught up on this entire Aaron run, do that now before it arrives.

Read more of Allison’s thoughts about Euthanauts and Thor!

Allison buys books professionally and comics unprofessionally. You can find her chaotic neutral Twitter feed at @maliciousglee.

Jack Sharpe

The Unexpected
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Various
Colorist: Various
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
Publisher: DC Comics
DC’s New Age of Heroes line produced some great comics, even if it sadly did not have sales legs. The best comic of the line for me however was The Unexpected. This book features a very personal tale while also going all out on the cosmic side of the DCU. Writer Steve Orlando crafted an amazing tale and while it’s sad this book is ending in January, there is still more greatness to come from Orlando with Martian Manhunter, which launched in December.

Read more about The Unexpected on our reviews page!

Jack Sharpe is a huge fan of history and comics. When he's not in the trenches surrounded by history, he's reading and studying comic books. You can follow him on Twitter at @JackJacksharpe5  

Maya Kesh

Abbott
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Sami Kivela
Colorist: Jason Wordie
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
The ‘70s are my personal golden age of comics. The decade is when I began my journey, with Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane as my gateway book. In 1972 I was 8 years old. I loved bell bottom jeans, the wider the better. I even used to buy flare jeans for my daughter until one day she told me that my loving them was no reason to force them upon her. So, when I read the solicitation for Abbott, I knew I had to add it to my pull list.

Abbott takes place at the end of 1972 and stars a black female reporter, Elena Abbott. Reading it this year, it felt as if somebody was writing a comic book just for me. I had high expectations throughout, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Writer Saladin Ahmed doesn’t flinch from including the racism and sexism of the time. Civil Rights had passed in 1964, just 8 years prior, and the Women’s Liberation (feminism) movement was starting to make waves. This is the context the story takes place within. Elena Abbott lives in a white man’s world and those around her don’t let her forget that. She’s also grieving her husband. There is a really touching flashback with Abbott listening to John Coltrane’s jazz masterpiece A Love Supreme, perfectly rendered by artist Sami Kivela.

The story mixes the supernatural with murders in Detroit, and Abbott is on the beat trying to figure out what is going on. Kivela’s art is a perfect fit, adding a texture and personality to the setting.

The supporting characters also feel alive, giving this story another important dimension. The highest compliment I can give this book, though, is that when Abbott ended, I was left wishing for more adventures with Elena as she climbed the professional ladder and began to rebuild her personal life. This was a clear highlight of 2018, and I really hope there is a second series.

Read more of Maya Kesh’s thoughts about Superman and Lois Lane!

Maya Kesh is a lifetime comic reader and a writer whose articles often focus on how women are portrayed in comics. You can follow her on Twitter at @mayak46

The Stewart Bros.

The Weather Man
Writer: Jody LeHeup
Artist: Nathan Fox
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Steve Wands
Publisher: Image Comics
The Weather Man by Jody Leheup and Nathan Fox combines sci-fi action with black comedy to spectacular effect. This book was one of the highlights of 2018. It also feels like it’s just warming up, and we can’t wait for what’s next.

Fearscape
Writer: Ryan O’Sullivan
Artist: Andrea Mutti
Colorist: Vladimir Popov
Lettering: Andworld Design
Publisher: Vault Comics
Fearscape by Ryan O’Sullivan and Andrea Mutti from Vault Comics is the best comic book story about storytelling since Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Full stop. If you have ever embarked on a creative endeavor, this is a book that will speak to you.

Check out The Stewart Bros. Top 10 Comics of 2018!

Bo Stewart grinds for the Man by day so he can create comics by night. He is the lesser half of the Stewart Brothers writing team and can be found on Twitter and Instagram @stewart_bros

Taylor Pechter

Hawkman
Writer: Robert Venditti
Artist: Bryan Hitch
Inker: Andrew Currie
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Starkings & Comicraft
Publisher: DC Comics
This is, simply put, the sleeper hit of the year. Written by Robert Venditii (Hal Jordan and The Green Lantern Corps) and drawn by Bryan Hitch (The Authority), Hawkman explores the character of Carter Hall. It weaves a story about history and self-discovery that is intrinsic to his character. From its start back in June, this has been a must-read series. Not only is Venditti’s script immaculate in consolidating the convoluted nature of Carter’s origins, but Bryan Hitch is supplying the best artwork of his career. The art is big and cinematic, but it also contains a lot of emotion within it. I’ll be blunt: if you haven’t already, go read this series.

The Wild Storm
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Jon Davis-Hunt
Colorist: Steve Buccellato
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Publisher: DC Comics
A holdover from last year, Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt’s gritty, stripped-down, espionage-fueled retelling of the WildStorm Universe continued to chug along in 2018, in all its greatness. Not only did we see the formation of the proto-WildCATs and John Lynch searching down his Thunderbook agents before IO could get to them, but Ellis, like always, was a master of character interactions. His injection of dark humor also added a great edge to this book. Davis-Hunt’s art work continued to be simple yet also dynamic, featuring some of the best rendering of action in the business. The end of 2018 brought us to the end of the third of four arcs for this series. With all the pieces set in place, the final arc is sure to be a doozy, and I am all here for it.

Check out Taylor Pechter’s Top 5 Comics of 2018!

Taylor Pechter is a passionate comic book fan and nerd. Find him on Twitter @TheInspecter.

So there you have it. That concludes our contributor picks for 2018. Be sure to check back next week for more year-end lists, including Best Image Comics of 2018, Top Creators of 2018, and our official overall Best Comics of 2018!

Find more from our contributing writers on our comics analysis page, and check out our Best Comics of 2017 to see how those choices have aged!

The Batman’s Bookcase contributors are a super talented bunch, and we’re very lucky that they’ve chosen our site as a regular outlet for their thoughts and feelings about comics. Check back often in 2019 for more great pieces!


REVIEW: The Unexpected #6 Moves Toward an Early Finale

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The Unexpected #6 is out 11/7.

By Zack Quaintance — Despite plans for additional issues (one of which already had a cover started by Yanick Paquette), The Unexpected will be ending in January with issue number eight, making it the second book (following Immortal Men) from DC’s New Age of Heroes publishing initiative to be concluded. This, obviously, is not ideal, given the initiative started this same year. I’m certainly disappointed. I’ve said this on Twitter before, but I’ll repeat it again: I can see myself years from now talking comics somewhere and insisting that the New Age of Heroes was actually really cool, and it could have even been great if it had all been handled a bit differently.

I won’t go into what my thoughts on that here (track me down in a decade for the full brunt of it), because this is, after all, a review of The Unexpected #6, but I do think the impending finale of the book is a lens this comic should be viewed through. With all that in mind, this issue features more of what I’ve liked so far about this series: big time superheroics (SPOILER: this one features a million trapped souls badassedly erupting from the villainous Synn as he battles Hawkman, thereby tearing the former apart), complex character drama, and a whole lot of swagger. Knowing that there are only two installments left, however, does change my perspective on all that.

Whereas before I’d been viewing this book as a story building towards a permanent team dynamic, it now feels like a mini-series about a particularly intense few days in the lives of our leads. Really, I think that may be for the best. For a few issues now, The Unexpected has shone brightest during combat (which has been all but constant), never having even a few spare moments to clearly establish situations where the heroes of the story could have quiet moments together. Now with the end in sight, it doesn’t have to concern itself with any of that; The Unexpected is free to be a combination of a street fight and far out multiversal Grant Morrison sensibilities, which is an interesting combination, to be sure.

What I liked best about The Unexpected #6, though, was the manifestation of a couple of long-simmering twists I always suspected were coming. To discuss these even further would be to reveal a bit too much about the issue. Here’s hoping the final two installments of this story are brimming with madcap action sequences.

Overall: The Unexpected #6 is yet another continuation of the one large set piece that this book has become. With the end now in sight, the story starts to maybe prematurely wrap things up for its heroes. 8.0/10

The Unexpected #6
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Ronan Cliquet
Colorist: Jeromy Cox
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $2.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

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.

REVIEW: The Unexpected #5 by Steve Orlando, Ronan Cliquet, Jeromy Cox, & Carlos M. Mangual

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The Unexpected #5 is out 10/3.

By Zack Quaintance — The first line of this comic is Hawkman saying, You two are trespassing on my past. Which is objectively awesome and also fitting, because if The Unexpected #5 were an episode of Friends (bear with me here), it would be the one where Hawkman joins the team. This joining is a great move for a couple of reasons. One, it gives Steve Orlando—an absolute ace with DC continuity—an opportunity to write a long-time character he hasn’t written before, and two, adding a familiar hero to our compelling newbies gives this story a new layer as it pushes forward into (sorry) unexpected territory.

That unexpected territory is actually something we’ve seen recently—Hawkman’s involvement in Dark Nights Metal and the dark multiverse, where he was enslaved by Barbatos with the help of Mandrakk (I think). One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about The Unexpected is how it seems almost deliberately tasked with expounding upon the ideas from the event it grew out of, more directly than any of its brethren from the New Age of DC Heroes line (which seems to be fading...fast), and we definitely get more of that here, as Hawkman explores his resultant trauma. It’s a compelling hook, and The Unexpected #5 drops it right at its start.

The story then does a great job of giving us motivations for Hawkman to join our team, be it solving the mysteries behind his own life (see the excellent ongoing Hawkman solo comic for more of that) or behind Nth metal—the material that literally makes up one of our main character’s heart—or behind the battle with Onimar Synn, who Hawkman explains is one of Thanagar’s seven devils. Simply put, The Unexpected continues to have one of the most complex and engrossing storylines in all of the DCU.

This is also an outrageously comic book-y story in the best possible way, featuring scenes in the Castle Frankenstein, a villain who absorbs an underling’s soul and then conjures a dragon, and a scene in which gravity gets upended. From its start, The Unexpected has been a journey book, bouncing between twists rather than building toward any sort of repeatable status quo, and this issue again keeps a constant state of flux, introducing new characters and variables.

Artist Cary Nord, who’s been aboard from the start and is off now to draw G. Willow Wilson’s forthcoming run on Wonder Woman, is missed, to be sure, but Ronan Cliquet is a more than capable replacement, an artist whose linework is clean and kinetic. Fortunately, Cliquet will also be on this book for the foreseeable future, assuaging the one concern I have about this issue: that the shelf life for The Unexpected (and indeed, all of the New Age of Heroes books) is limited.

Overall: The Unexpected #5 is a book set in a series of rapid moments, which inherently makes it one best not fretted about long-term. Basically, this story is a wild ride and I’m content to sit back and enjoy the fireworks. Of the New Age of DC Heroes books, The Unexpected continues to be my favorite. 9.0/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

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

REVIEW: The Unexpected #4 by Steve Orlando, Yvel Guichet, Cary Nord, Scott Hanna, Jeromy Cox, & Carlos M. Mangual

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By Zack Quaintance — The Unexpected has featured locales, ideas, and lore from throughout the DCU…and now in issue #4, we get other heroes, too, right from page 1 panel 1. New characters in superhero comics often face world-ending threats, and a natural question becomes why don’t they reach out to the experienced shared universe heavy hitters? This story nicely addresses that, making for another strong single issue in one of my favorite new Big 2 books in ages.

As an individual issue, The Unexpected #4 clearly has a specific goal to reach before its end, and it definitely gets there, landing in a place that promises a new evolution for the book in #5. Along the way, we see our new heroes—Firebrand and Neon the Unknown—study their plight with the tense aid of Bat-family detectives. We also see another of the grandiose set pieces that have so far appeared in every issue, plus a continued push to address the aftermath of DC’s recent Dark Nights Metal event, extending plot points from that story to new and interesting places, essentially contextualizing what happened into the history and future of the DCU.

That’s all to say writer Steve Orlando’s main strengths are very much on display here: his vast and impressive command of continuity, his commitment to taking the shared universe concept seriously, and his ability to have muscle-bound folks punching each other with stakes.

Art-wise, the book is in transition. Cary Nord, on-board from issue one, is off to G. Willow Wilson’s forthcoming run on Wonder Woman, launching in November. That leaves us with the team of Yvel Guichet and Scott Hanna, plus Jeromy Cox providing colors. And this book looks good, to be sure. Next issue will see Mark Farmer drawing, followed by Ronan Cliquet. There’s no reason to believe future installments will suffer, but if we could just take a brief moment in honor of Nord’s contributions. He will be missed.

Anyway, with The Unexpected I remain impressed by how compelling the team has made original characters—no easy feat within a publishing line of adventures that span many decades. The book being a natural extension of Metal helps. Thematically, I think The Unexpected also addresses an idea prominent in the post-Metal DCU: restraint. In surviving Metal, the Justice League broke the source wall, ushering in complex threats. The Unexpected’s central use of the volatile Nth Metal builds on that. Here, we have a powerful character who must resist giving into violent urges, lest she destroy herself and maybe the world, as threats accelerate around her. In many ways, it’s a metaphor for 2018, and I love it.

Overall: The Unexpected continues to be a standout book of DC’s New Age of Heroes line, expertly incorporating bits of the DCU’s past while making an argument for being part of its future. Artist Cary Nord’s departure is a bummer, but this book clearly still has big plans. 8.5/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: The Unexpected #3 by Steve Orlando, Cary Nord, Mark Farmer, Scott Hanna, Jeromy Cox, & Carlos M. Mangual

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In its third issue, some of the cost of the deaths in The Unexpected's earlier issues becomes clear.

By Zack Quaintance — If you read The Unexpected #1, you know the book feigned as if it were a story of a new hero (Firebrand) joining some kind of oddball super-crew (Neon and team). But then—spoilers—the book swerved, killing two of Firebrand’s would-be teammates plus also its presumed big bad. In The Unexpected #3, the price for some of that death has now come due.

With its first two issues, The Unexpected established itself as a rock-solid new concept in the DCU, one driven by a pair of compelling leads and their nascent dynamic. Introductions, however, have now ended and it’s time for the plot to push forward as its mysteries and ramifications rapidly expand.

Consequences is a major theme in The Unexpected, and not just consequences for characters but consequences for the world following the recent event story, Dark Nights Metal. Scott Snyder and team’s Justice League is currently exploring all that on a marco/galactic level, specifically the broken source wall. This book, meanwhile, is taking a more nuanced approach, extrapolating upon some of the other effects of Nth Metal (and the mystery of the Nth Metal Isotope at the heart of it all...sorry) as well as the existence of the Dark Multiverse. I don’t want to give anything away, but this issue also fully unveils The Unexpected’s actual big bad (who has appeared briefly in past issues and also in Metal...but I’ll say no more).

At the same time, Orlando, Nord, and team are building new ideas into the DCU with this book. In this issue it is revealed that orcks once ruled the Earth and lived in floating cities powered by Nth Metal (known to them as Uk Metal). This is used to flesh out one of the deceased character's importance, as well as to illustrate the cost of his death, but now that it’s been put on the DC board, it’ll obviously always be there moving forward. Building onto mythos is something Orlando seems bent on doing in all his work, and, in fact, a creation from his Justice League of America—Monster Valley—shows up again here.

Simply put, this is all a very cool approach to superhero storytelling, one that for detail-oriented readers (myself included) is quite rewarding. That aside, this book is also telling an action-heavy story that any reader could just pick up and enjoy (I’d reckon). Living in both of those worlds is most certainly to The Unexpected’s credit. This is easily one of the least predictable and awesomely surprising books at DC Comics right now, and I, for one, can't wait to see where it's all headed.

Overall: The Unexpected continues to be heavy on both action and detail, creating a book with as much to offer casual readers as it does obsessive superhero fans. The Unexpected #3 delves even deeper into Dark Night Metal’s fallout, a nice reward for DC devotees. 9.0/10

For more comic book and movie reviews, check out our review archives here.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: The Unexpected #2 by Steve Orlando, Cary Nord, Wade von Grawbadger, Jeromy Cox, and Carlos M. Mangual

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In The Unexpected #2, we get Neon the Unknown's origin story.

In The Unexpected #2, we get Neon the Unknown's origin story.

By Zack Quaintance — The Unexpected #2 builds well on its predecessor, deepening the book’s characters while remaining true to its title by continuing the first issue’s fantastic plot twist. Spoiler alert for those who haven’t read it, but The Unexpected #1’s cover seemed to advertise a team book starring four characters...but then killed two of them, also axing its presumed antagonist.

It was incredibly well-executed misdirection, justified well enough by virtue of being—for lack of more elegant language—pretty freaking awesome. This second issue, however, goes past pretty freaking awesome to give the twist significance, extrapolating impressive character development for one of The Unexpected’s dual leads, the blind Doctor Strange analog, Neon the Unknown.

The loss of Neon’s team, it turns out, evokes nigh-crippling thoughts of past trauma connected to his origin, expertly told here in a concise two-page spread same as the other lead’s was last issue. The book then trampolines off that trauma to start building a compelling dynamic between Neon and its other lead, Firebrand. Without going into too much detail (ahem spoilers), Neon is a tortured artist so riven by guilt he fails to truly embrace his powers. Firebrand, meanwhile, is a paramedic saddled with a powerful heart that requires her to fight (and likely harm) someone every 24 hours. Neon is on a self-tortured redemption arc, while Firebrand is a no-nonsense practical hero with agency. She needs his expertise and he needs her tough motivation. It’s great.

Orlando’s script just does so much here while remaining tight. It gives Dark Nights Metal continued significance by incorporating key concepts from that event—Nth Metal and the World Forge—it nods to larger DC continuity via June Robbins and the God Garden, and it has the badass swagger of Orlando’s best work, including Midnighter (2015) and his Image Comics creator-owned revenge story Crude.   

Orlando and Nord are building Firebrand into one of the DCU's best original characters in recent memory.

The lone knock on The Unexpected is its prospect for longevity, which is harmed by it being part of the New Age of Heroes, which some fans have (rightly) criticized for being branded as artist-centric before quickly swapping out artists on nearly every book. Will Orlando and Nord get to play out their full vision? It’s unclear. I do, however, think Firebrand is one of the strongest new Big 2 superheros in recent memory, cut in the mold of Midnighter, but whereas Midnighter was a weapon with little memory of normalcy, Firebrand juggles a dual life as a human weapon and a nurturing paramedic. Surely, DC Comics will always have a place for a character battling such a poignant contradiction.

Overall: The Unexpected #2 is a strong follow-up to the best debut of any New Age of DC Heroes title. It invests well in many of the key qualities of strong superhero comics — action, absurdity, character development, continuity nods, and plot twists. Put simply, this series is one of the more exciting original properties at either Big 2 publisher in recent years. 9.0/10

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.