THE BEST COMICS OF THE 2010's:
1. Saga
- In the oo's, writer Brian K. Vaughan gave us one of the best-ever comic book series in Y: The Last Man. In the 10's, BKV returned with an incredible follow-up that is already a classic - and it's still going. Saga is a sci-fi space epic- beautifully illustrated by Fiona Staples - that mixes family drama with wry social commentary and an incredible sense of imagination and sense of wonder. Read it!
2. The Walking Dead
- The Walking Dead's long run spanned well over a decade, but man, it was still going strong in the '10's. Early in the decade, writer Robert Kirkman shook up his zombie-apocalypse epic with the introduction of iconic psycho-villain Negan. At the end of the decade, Kirkman shocked fans by surprise-ending the book with a powerfully emotional, full-circle ending. A page-turner to the end.
3. Locke & Key
- Joe Hill's masterpiece, Locke & Key put Hill on the map as a gifted writer with a similar knack for mixing chilling horror with grounded characters as his sorta-famous dad (Stephen King!). The book started in 2008, but ultimately reached its incredible conclusion in 2013. In the end, it was one of the great comic books of the decade, if not ever.
4. Lazarus
-Greg Rucka's near-future, post-apocalyptic masterwork is still running (see one of 2019's top comics, Lazarus: Risen) - but it is, easily, one of the best books of the decade. The series imagines a scenario where mega-corporations rule all - and it feels like an all-too-plausible scenario given the world we live in.
5. Sweet Tooth
- Sweet Tooth made me a fan for life of writer/artist Jeff Lemire - multiple works of whom are on this list. But Sweet Tooth - a sprawling, coming-of-age sci-fi epic - is, I think, his magnum opus. It introduced us to Gus - an unassuming boy who's half human, half deer. Gus' strange journey of self-discover leads to an unlikely adventure that's an all-time comic book classic.
6. Ms. Marvel
- The best and most vital superhero fiction of the decade, G. Willow Wilson gave us the Marvel superhero we needed in the 2010's. Kamala Khan was and is awesome - a geeky teen girl, who also happens to be Muslim, who also happens to have stretching powers as a result of an encounter with Terrigan Mist. Kamala is completely ordinary, yet also unlike any superhero we've ever seen before. And her message of hope and unity is so important.
7. Alex + Ada
- Over the last ten years, I became a huge fan of the collected works of the Luna Brothers. I went back and read through their entire back-catalog (Girls, The Sword, Ultra, etc.), and excitedly picked up each issue of Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn's Alex + Ada as they came out. The series was a thought-provoking sci-fi story that covered similar ground to TV series like Westworld and Humans - but with that humanistic touch that the Lunas are so good at.
8. Hawkeye (Matt Fraction / Alex Aja)
- Even if you have no real interest in superheroes or Marvel, I'd still highly recommend this series. Matt Fraction took the least-powerful Avenger and recast him as a down-on-his-luck protector of a shabby New York neighborhood. The series was funny, innovative, and just incredibly well-written.
9. Southern Bastards
- Jason Aaron's southern-gothic crime comic is one of my all-time favorites. It skewers Southern culture while also paying tribute to it. The overarching story - about a folk hero who returns to his backwoods town to clean things up once and for all (targeting a gang led by the town's villainous high school football coach!).
10. Kill or Be Killed
-Ed Brubaker has been one of my favorite writers for the last 20 years or so. And he continues to be at the top of his game, putting out maybe his best work yet in the form of Kill Or Be Killed. This hard-boiled crime comic - with a possibly-supernatural twist - tells the twisted tale of a mentally-unbalanced man convinced he has to kill people, or else fall victim to a vengeful demon who controls his fate. It's weird, crazy, and something that only Brubaker could make work.
THE NEXT BEST:
11. Punk Rock Jesus
- This politically-charged series put writer/artist Sean Murphy on my radar - and he's since gone on to become one of my favorites.
12. Animal Man (Jeff Lemire / Travel Foreman)
- When DC rebooted itself early in the decade with the New 52, the early standout was Lemire's haunting, strange take on Animal Man.
13. Batman (Scott Snyder / Greg Capullo)
- Speaking of the New 52, writer Scott Snyder gave us one of the definitive runs on Batman following the DC reboot - introducing such instant-classic villains as The Court of Owls.
14. Jonah Hex / All-Star Western
- Writer Jimmy Palmiotti began writing the adventures of DC's classic Western hero Jonah Hex some 15 years ago, but his extended run continued into this decade with many additional years' worth of classic stories.
15. Batgirl (Brian Q. Miller / Lee Garbett)
- I will always have a soft spot for this sadly short-lived run on Batgirl. It took the fan favorite, girl-next-door character of Stephanie Brown - also known as The Spoiler - and promoted her to Batgirl in a run that was a constant delight (and with awesome Lee Garbett artwork to boot).
16. Paper Girls
- Brian K. Vaughan's *other* great work of the decade was Paper Girls. This time-travel adventure took a page from 80's classics like The Goonies, transporting a group of street-smart paper-delivery girls on a time-spanning journey that looked back across the decades to tell us who we were then, who we are now, and who me maybe, just might, be in the decades to come.
17. Invincible
- As for Robert Kirkman's other long-running comic book epic, Invincible began well before 2010, but finished up its long, celebrated run in 2018. In that time, Kirkman used the creative freedom of writing an independent superhero book to age his characters - telling the story of how super-powered Mark Grayson went from awkward teenager to dedicated husband and father.
18. Silver Surfer (Dan Slott / Mike Allred)
- Dan Slott's take on the Silver Surfer was a whimsical, inspirational cosmic odyssey and an unlikely love story. Mike Allred's one-of-a-kind artwork made the book that much cooler.
19. Multiversity
- In one fell swoop, Grant Morrison re-invented the DC Universe and left it forever changed. Only Morrison could introduce DC's 52-world multiverse with so much imagination, awe, and wonder.
20. Injustice
- One of the most unlikely awesome comics of the decade, to be sure. What could have been a cash-in videogame tie-in instead became one of the best DC Universe epics of the decade, thanks to the great writing of Tom Taylor.
21. Black Hammer
- Jeff Lemire does it again. Lemire's superhero deconstruction led to an entire universe of stories that played with and subverted decade's worth of comic book tropes and cliches. Lemire's work was both homage and satire, and it was brilliant.
22. Fatale
- Another of the decade's many great Ed Brubaker books, Fatale was a supernatural noir that mixed a classic femme fatale story with Lovecraftian cosmic horror.
23. The Wake
- Scott Snyder writes. Sean Murphy draws. A comic book dream team if ever there was one. This underwater thriller combined Lost-like mystery with crazy monster-horror.
24. Royal City
- One more from Lemire. This more grounded, personal comic tells the story of a family torn apart, and then reunited under difficult circumstances. Lemire tells a moving, haunting story that is among his best.
25. Mister Miracle
- Writer Tom King and artist Mitch Gerads take Jack Kirby's classic New Gods characters and reinvent them as ... regular people? Well, actually - what's brilliant about this series is how it deftly, sometimes hilariously, mixes everyday issues with the cosmic drama of Kirby's Fourth World.
JUST MISSED THE CUT:
- Superman (Peter Tomasi)
- Batman Inc.
- House of X / Powers of X
- Criminal
- The Fade Out
- Trillium
- Sex Criminals
- Black Magick
- Jupiter's Circle
- Darth Vader (Kieron Gillen)
No comments:
Post a Comment