Riddle Me This! What are your Favorite Comics of the Year?
Who’d win in a fight between Superman and Spawn? How the f*ck old is Cable? And what in the holy hell is a Megatron? When the tough questions arise, Panels on Pages will gather the facts, but it’s up to the PoP!ulation to draw its own conclusions. So come on… Riddle Me This.
As we count down the final days of 2010, we’ll be seeing a lot of articles online and in print publications that list the writers’ favorite entertainment offerings of the year. This year, however, we at Panelsonpages.com decided to leave the list-making to our devoted readers, who no doubt have a lot to say about the quality of the comics that came out this year. With all the BLAARGHing we do every week, it’s time we devoted a column to all the stuff we liked in our four-color obsession throughout this first year of the new decade.
This was an interesting year to say the least, with Marvel and DC bombarding us with numerous events and mini-events, promising big changes but for the most part resulted in a return to the status quo. Personally, I have shied away from most of the big events, though I did get into Grant Morrison’s Return of Bruce Wayne storyline, which I had very mixed feelings about. There were some great mainstream superhero comics this year, from Ed Brubaker’s quality writing on Captain America, Secret Avengers, and The Marvels Project to Gail Simone’s awesome work on Secret Six and Birds of Prey. Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Grey’s newest Freedom Fighters series has been very enjoyable as well. For my money, however, the best comics of the year have mostly come from outside the Big Two, from Nick Spencer’s mind-blowingly awesome Morning Glories to Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, and Guy Davis’ uber-fun B.P.R.D. miniseries. In the all-ages realm, BOOM! Studios’ Darkwing Duck comic perfectly captured all the zany fun of the old Disney cartoon show, while on the “mature readers” tip, Vertigo’s Daytripper miniseries by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon was one of the most moving comics-reading experiences I’ve had in quite a while. Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber’s Underground offered a unique and highly enjoyable action mystery, and Marvel’s underutilized MAX line continually upped the ante in wacked-out, over-the-top craziness with Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon’s Punishermax – and it didn’t even have to turn Frank into a Frankenstein to do it. I’m still a trade behind on perennial favorites Ex Machina and The Walking Dead, but the issues I have read from this year were all consistently solid, and I am particularly eager to read the final Ex Machina trade to see how Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris wrap up that excellent book.
So now the torch is passed to you, devoted readers. What of all the sequential offerings of the year did you really enjoy? Leave all your comments below, and maybe someone else’s comments will inspire you to pick up something you may have missed from this year. Show your comic-reading brethren on the Internet that there are indeed good things out there to read, and let’s all hope that 2011 will offer up far more raves than rants.
Filed Under: Columns • Riddle Me This
For me, 2010 was the year of Green Lantern again. Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors was always at the top of my reading pile. I also very much enjoyed Batman and Robin and Red Robin. Flash was also a favorite.
Since dropping single issues in favor of TPBs, this is a much more challenging task for me than it used to be. I want to come up with a more definitive list once I’ve had the opportunity to sift through all of the books I’ve picked up this year, but for now here are a few key titles that pop to mind.
Fables
The Walking Dead
The Unwritten
Greek Street
Ex Machina
Sweet Tooth
Secret Six
Jonah Hex
Batman & Robin
Underground
Ghostopolis
If you’re not reading Thunderbolts, I have no room for you in my life.
My favorite book this year is without a doubt Red Robin. I love that book so much. Batgirl is a close second. I’ve also loved Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors, Captain America, Secret Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ulimate Enemy, Ultimate Mystery, New Avengers, Birds of Prey, Green Lantern, The Flash, Green Lantern Corps (when Tomasi was writing it), Avengers Academy, Justice League: Generation Lost, Darkwing Duck, and Red Hood: Lost Days.
I was also enjoying Daredevil until Shadowland started.
I have gotten way behind on it, but Secret Warriors is also great.
It’s interesting that a lot of the books people are listing are the ones that I completely fell OUT of love with this year. That said:
Thunderbolts
X-Factor
Black Widow (RIP)
Stuff of Legend (‘natch)
Transformers
Atomic Robo
Star Trek: Leonard McCoy; Frontier Doctor
My?tery Society
You’ll notice a few of these are from 52 Pick-Up, so… that worked. As far as straight up monthlies go, the first five on that list were undoubtedly the five books I most look forward to week in and week out. Every time it was an off week for any or all of them, I was a little down trodden. That’s how I used to feel about X-Men when I STARTED reading comics. In regards to Thunderbolts, I never read the original Zemo/Masters of Evil run, but everything since then has been pure joy, from Osborn’s pet project to his self-destructive wetworks team, and now onto Cage’s babysitting club. Great comic books. Period. And Peter David easily tops my list of X-family writers right alongside Kyle and Yost. These guys get the material they’re working with and know how to make the most of it. Black Widow WAS great, Stuff of Legend is ALWAYS on point, and the new Transformers run is just different enough from the old stuff to be interesting, but similar enough to keep the proper feel.
And of the 18 Thor books Marvel’s releasing on a monthly basis right now, the main title, Ultimate Thor, AND “For Asgard” are all pretty fantastic.
“If you’re not reading Thunderbolts, I have no room for you in my life.”
For what it’s worth, I plan to pick the Jeff Parker Thunderbolts TPBs once they’re out, assuming I haven’t already missed them.
Chew
Stuff of Legend (Thanks Kwhack)
Walking Dead
The Boys
Crossed
Batman & Robin
I also loved Transformers.
For DC, I’ll second that nod to the Green Lantern titles. To steal Aussie’s quote, “even a not-so-good GL book is still better than most stuff out there”.
Secret Six and Justice League: Generation Lost have been consistently solid
For Marvel, it’s been great to see the Dark Tower series expanded in this medium. Anything that gives Cuthbert and Alain more facetime is gold.
Stuff of Legend and Mouse Guard are my Indie picks.
Walking Dead – The first book I buy no matter what.
The Boys – I am just a few issues away from being caught up, and it is amazing.
Dark Tower – Stephen King + Comic Books, equals a Win.
Thor – My favorite Marvel character has had some good stuff going on for awhile now.
Ultimate Spiderman is leaps and bounds better than the 616 and has been for nearly 2 years.
Secret Warriors – This is just fun to read and the art is always top-notch.
Secret Avengers – Nova + Beast + Moon Knight + Cap there is no beating that combo of kickassery.
X-Factor – This book has singlehandedly made me interested in the mutants again.
And Thunderbolts of course.
Fables
Unwritten
Generation Lost
and of course 2000ad I mean the shocking events of Nikolai Dante and Strontium dog alone wipe the floor with half the crap america pubished this year
Thunderbolts
X-Factor
Captain America
Green Lantern
Batman and Robin
Deadpool Pulp
Black Widow
Unknown Soldier
Batwoman