sense of doubt

Though the current project started as a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother, I am no longer actively grieving. Now, the blog charts a conversation in living, mainly whatever I want it to be. This is an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2018). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1779 - Best Comics of the Decade

The Best Comics of the Decade | Den of Geek

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1779 - Best Comics of the Decade

I am sharing a bunch of end of decade posts of ranked lists about comic books. I will share a partial set of the rankings from the DEN OF GEEK site followed by sharing DOOM ROCKET's list in its entirety. I will share some links from other sites with end of decade retrospectives and vet a few of the choices.

Wow, I finished this post at precisely 10:10 a.m. the time I always post as it's the time of my mother's death in 2015. I managed to review a lot more lists than I thought I would. I worked on this post for much of NYE while watching movies and drinking white wine.

I feel that the comics I noted in the various lists managed to get most of my favorite comics named. I have some issues with the content I provided, but as I wrote, there's many comics here that I have not read, which is surprising as I read A LOT of comics.

Dig into this content with me to launch the new year.

But first, an honorable mention from DOOM ROCKET's end of year (2019) list.

THESE SAVAGE SHORES

Interior page from ‘These Savage Shores’ #5. Art: Sumit Kumar, Vittorio Astone, Aditya Bidikar/Vault Comics

Ram V. (‘These Savage Shores’, Vault Comics; ‘Justice League Dark Annual’, ‘Catwoman’, DC) A balletic dance of violence and passion. A war for peace. It’s the human experience, writ large, poetic, epic—and this year, it was scripted best by Ram V.

Ram doesn’t go half-way. It was with a roar that These Savage Shores came to its conclusion. Fill-ins of Catwoman cut deeper than anticipated. His entry into the crowded capes scene (in an annual edition of Justice League Dark) was a tragic, frightening horror tale told with eloquence and vision. Ram’s best work is still ahead, somehow, and at the precipice of a new year, my primary resolution is to read all of it. — JJ

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!

OTHER LISTS:

EW's Top 15 Comics of the Decade
Monstress and Ms. Marvel both rank higher on EW's list than any others. Saga, My Favorite Thing is Monsters, and Hawkeye also appear on this list. But I am very thrilled to see Young Avengers, Batman, and the newly rebooted X-Men series at Marvel do belong on this list, though I might have ranked Hickman's Avengers or even the Fantastic Four over the new X books not even a year old.

Polygon's top twenty list of comics for the decade
Many of the same comics rank here like Saga, Afterlife With Archie, and Mister Miracle, which are on man lists. The comic I share below from Comic Beat is on this list as are Ms. Marvel, Bitch Planet, The Wicked + The Divine, Thor, and Batman (Snyder/Capullo), which are all on my list. But one comic that I had not seen on an list that along with Monstress was one of my favorite comics from its debut in 2017 as I shared here:

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #961 - Best Comics of 2017 via EW - Black Panther - pt.1.

Sadly, I never made it back to the content to post the "part two" about Monstress, which is one of the very, very best comics of the decade and has won many awards.

But Polygon ranks highly Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates and many artists inlcuding Brian Stelfreeze and Chris Sprouse.

BLACK PANTHER

Writing by Ta-Nehisi Coates, art by Brian Stelfreeze

There are many non-comics writers who took a turn at comics writing in the 2010s, but none so explosive a pull as Marvel Comics announcing out of the blue that the company had tapped political commentator and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates to launch a new Black Panther series.

It took the fresh eyes of Coates and the experience of legendary artist Brian Stelfreeze to see where Wakanda needed to go next if it was to truly maintain its thematic role as an Afrofuturist utopia. Their first arc, A Nation Under Our Feet, embarked on a new era of Black Panther stories, as the Wakandan people demanded that the country transition to a constitutional monarchy.

Their take was so red hot that some of Stelfreeze’s designs influenced Ryan Coogler’s movie, even though details for it were still being pinned down when the story arc was being announced. Minus Stelfreeze, Coates’ run is still going strong, and — in that way that only comics can — is bending continuity into shape to put elements of Coogler’s work back into the main Marvel Universe.

The Black Panther is an Afrofuturist superhero

But what is Afrofuturism?

READ THIS

The Comic Beat top 100 list

It does not seem that Comic Beat numbered this list so that all the comics have equal standing.

Many of the comics in Comic Beat's list were in the other lists. One that I had not seen in all the lists that should be in all lists is The Immortal Hulk, which is currently the best Marvel comic and arguably that best at either of the big two companies. Though I must note that Polygon listed it.

The Immortal Hulk

Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, Ruy Jose, Paul Mounts, and Cory Petit, with Leonardo Romero, Paul Hornscheimer, Marguerite Sauvage, Garry Brown, German Garcia, Brian Level, Ryan Bodenheim, and Chris O’Halloran (Marvel)

Hulk and horror are both on just one side of the coin. Whether it’s Frankenstein or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the big angry green one is inseparable from fear and terror. Al Ewing’s and Joe Bennett’s take on the character fully embraces the horror and takes it into an existential plane of thought to explore what it actually means to be a superhero that’s so scary to so many.

The creators knew bringing the series into horror territory required a deep exploration of the character’s extremes but also his history. The book does an excellent job of digging into the trauma of Bruce Banner and how it’s affected and infected those closest to him. They perfectly capture the frustrations and anxieties that come with being such a destructive force and the character’s signature rage is given new purpose as it terrifies more than it inspires. In doing so, Ewing and Bennett have given us one of the best superhero comics of the decade, with more to come. You’ll never be as terrified as you will be reading Immortal Hulk. — Ricardo Serrano

WHAT CULTURE's TOP TEN BEST OF THE DECADE

WHAT CULTURE has that annoying interface forcing the user to page through multiple pages in order to expose the reader to more advertisements. So annoying. But they did make a video.

It's great to see Batwoman listed and an honorable mention to DC's Doomsday Clock. I am surprised to see Hawkeye take number one. It's a very good book, but there are many that deserve to be ranked more highly, such as both Black Panther and The Immortal Hulk

AV CLUB'S TOP 25 BEST COMICS OF THE DECADE

Man comics appear in this list that I have not read but will now, such as Daytripper, Giant Days, Here, and March. Also, Prince of Cats appears, which is a book I did not know about, but one I have seen in almost every list. However, there are many omissions. The list seems heavily swayed toward comics outside the big companies, which is actually a very cool thing.

It also chooses from web comics, which is also wonderful.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER'S TOP TEN BEST OF DECADE LIST

SYFY DECADE IN REVIEW - INDIE COMICS

Clearly, SYFY means by "indie" all comics not produced by the big two -- Marvel and DC. Many of the usual suspects appear here, such as The Wicked + the Divine, Saga, Bitch Planet, and Sex Criminals. This Prince of Cats that I did not know appears again. I am also pleased to see Deadly Class and of course Monstress.

BEST COMICS OF THE 2010s ACCORDING TO COMIC HERALD

70-61

I am shocked that this book is not ranked in more lists and yet I have only seen it here.

61) Lazarus by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark

John Galati: Lazarus is a unique sci-fi story. It follows the life of Forever Carlyle, the deadly female enforcer who is owned by one of the 12 ruling families that control the planet. As you would expect, there’s an enormous world at play here, but readers learn much of its details through inference alone, having to glean it from Lark’s masterful artwork or Rucka’s clever suggestion. Working out those clues can be such a reward.

As I said above, Rucka is fantastic at creating heroines, and Forever Carlyle is no exception. And putting the female hero into this cyberpunk and all its timely economic oppression that makes this book such a perfect sign of the times.

60-51

This book is top 25 for me, and I would rank it over The Fade Out, which DOOMROCKET ranked in its top ten.

58) Fatale by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

John Galati: Yes, Fatale is a hardboiled noir story (among other things) and yes, this pair is known for that genre, but the book still feels like a big departure at times. Its a mixture of Lovecraftian “Weird fiction” and classic supernatural horror films that follows the immortal life of Josephine (the titular femme fatale.) We watch as she moves through decades filled with cults, lost memories, and hypnotizing men as she struggles towards meaning… and survival.

For more than 16 years, Brubaker and Phillips have been one of the most celebrated creative pairs in the industry and Fatale is another example why.

But this book may also be ranked very highly in my list:

56) Grayson (The New 52) by Tom King, Tim Seely, and Mikel Janin

With DC’s “New 52” on its last legs, Tim Seely, Tom King and various collaborators pulled Dick Grayson out of Forever Evil and into a superspy school for gifted youngsters. It’s a remarkably successful fit for the longtime combination Robin / Nightwing / Batman, and integrates everything from Huntress to Spyral to Wildstorm’s Midnighter into the DC Universe.

Grayson is the charming, stylish comic that can only exist for a member of the Bat-family well outside of Gotham’s grime and gore. Anyone wishing Morrison’s Batman & Robin never ended finally gets the post-batman inc. rendition of life for the boy who flies through the air with the greatest of ease.

50-41

40-31

30-21 - I have seen Remender and Opena's X-Force on a few of the lists. It's a very underrated book.

21) Uncanny X-Force by Rick Remender, Jerome Opena, Dean White

John Galati: I don’t know how he does it, but Rick Remender surprises me every time. And this is especially true with Uncanny X-Force.

I say this because to my mind, the X-Force team (and title) have never had a consistent vision. They’ve always felt stuck between the drama of Louise Simonson’s New Mutants and the bad plots of Rob Liefeld’s X-Force tableaus. In other words, often visually exciting, but seldom deep (or even comprehensible.) And when the team underwent yet another reboot in 2010 to become Cyclops’ wetworks team, it really seemed like one last desperate grasp towards the pouches era. A Hail Mary run by the most try-hard mutants around (minus Cable.)

Yet somehow, amazingly, Remender turned the book into an exciting, high-concept book with some of the most meaningful character development around. He leaned into everything fans hated about these characters and turned those weaknesses into incredible strengths. Deadpool stopped being the manic meme machine and instead turned into a man truly struggling with his mental illness. Archangel stopped being the aloof, puddle-shallow playboy and became a former soldier trying to fight his reprogrammed nature. Psylocke moved from mindless sexpot to an actually good character. Wolverine isn’t the headliner!

Add to that Jerome Opena and Dean White’s spectacular artwork that’s colorful, cyberpunk-ish, and intensely volumetric. A gorgeous, realistic style that, uh, simply wasn’t there in the “90s golden era.”

Writing and artwork in concert to make one more first for the title: consistent pacing. This book balances the Simonson and Liefeld influences to make a series that feels like a marathon instead of a sprint. An X-Force that could sustain itself for this long is maybe the biggest miracle of all.

20-11

For me, this is probably a top ten book.

12) East of West by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta

John Galati: True to form, Jonathan Hickman has created a meticulously planned Armageddon. There was a Civil War that never ended. What was America is now a supercontinent of seven nations, each belonging to an aggrieved people. The effect is an entire landmass that feels stuck in the 19th century, holding bitterly to the past even as they run out of future. The logical order of this creates a lot of the terror of this book. It provides a filing system for the archaic affectations, bigotries, and grudges that dominate the world. A clarity that makes it easy to see the contradiction between the cultural antiquity of their hated and the unfulfilled promise of the world’s sci-fi advancements. Add to this the ordering structure of The Message, the prophecy driving the story, and this might be the most comprehensible of end times.

At least until the conflict sets in. Death, the fabled horseman of the apocalypse, attempts to give up his role in the end of the world, sending Armageddon into disorder. Hickman’s ability to capture the nuance and poetry in Death through his connections is intensely satisfying, while Dragotta’s art captures great nuance right alongside a sort of beautiful violence. The combined effect show the terror in a well-considered doomsday, and how fearful it is to care when your world is ending.

10-01

Comic Herald lumps the entire Hickman Marvel universe -- Fantastic Four, Avengers, and X-Men -- into one category as the greatest creation of the decade. It's great to see Mind MGMT at third, which is a book I loved though I would not have put it in a top ten.

The Comic Book Herald's top 500 comic books of all time

Image result for mind mgmt

IGN'S BEST COMICS OF THE DECADE

Looks like this list may consist of close to 100 books. Many of the usual culprits but several books

I am happy to see some books on this list that did not appear on others, such as Die by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, one of my most recent favorite books; Gideon Falls by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino; also a new favorite that I picked up in trade format because Image lures readers with a low cost ($9.99) first volume and then jacks up the price on the subsequent volumes; Green Arrow by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino, because one can never have enough of this team; Rachel Rising by Terry Moore; Moonknight by Warren Ellis, Declan Shavley, and Jordie Bellaire, though, for this team, I would have picked Injection instead; Secret Wars by Hickman and Esad Ribic; Seven to Eternity by Rick Remender and Jeremy Opena; and The Old Guard by Rucka and Leandro Fernandez.

written by Jeff Lemire, art by Andrea Sorrentino (Image Comics)

Madness and mystery clash in this horror comic set in a small rural town. Urban legend tells of The Black Barn, a harbinger in the shape of a building that appears just before tragedy strikes. The fates of two men are intertwined with this ill omen in this dark, suspenseful tale.

Here's one last book that should be on a list and I did not see it on ANY LISTS:

Velvet #1

https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/velvet-1

ED BRUBAKER and STEVE EPTING redefined Captain America with the “Winter Soldier” saga... and everything they've done so far has been leading to VELVET!

When the world's best secret agent is killed, Velvet Templeton, the Personal Assistant to the Director of the Agency, is drawn off her desk and back into the field for the first time in nearly 20 years... and is immediately caught in a web of mystery, murder and high-octane action.

Sexy and provocative, with a dark twist on the spy genre, this EXTRA-LENGTH first issue by two of the industry's best-selling creators will knock you out!

HERE WE GO........

https://www.denofgeek.com/us/books/285089/the-best-comics-of-the-decade
The Best Comics of the Decade

We've read a TON of great comics in the
last 10 years, and we picked out the
100 best for you to passionately disagree with.
FEATURE Jim Dandy Dec 30, 2019

What a century this last decade has been.

Seriously, the pace of change over the last 10 years has been steadily rising, and has been somewhere between “dangerous” and “murderous” for the last 3, and that isn’t just about geopolitics: the comics world of today is certainly recognizable to a time traveller from 2010, but it would look extremely weird.

- Webcomics and medium press publishers are EVERYWHERE now.

- Marvel has embraced multiple restarts of its line.

- DC has rebooted its universe at least twice.

- Comics are for kids again.

- Nerds rule culture, for all that’s good and bad.

These changes have been catalysts for some very, very good comic books, and we wanted to give you a list of some of our favorites. Here are a few guiding principles to our list:

I am one person who can’t possibly read everything. There’s some stuff that won’t be on this list because I didn’t have time to get to it. Please share what was missed in the comments!

It’s also an exercise in opinion! I didn’t want to be redundant and talk about the same creators or characters over and over again, though there are some repeats. I ranked these according to what I enjoyed, and not some externally objective measure of what is the finest art. If anything, I’m biased towards what was interesting - books that have stuck with me for years, stuff I still think about or reread or recommend. That said, for longer runs like Scott Snyder’s Batman or Criminal, I tried to pick arcs that were symbolic of the entire run, or the best stories within a bigger picture.

And finally, it’s imperfect. I’ve been fiddling with a good chunk of this list for a month and a half, and every time I look, I realize something I forgot, or something I could move, or something that shouldn’t be ranked lower than something else. But ultimately, I’m pretty happy with everything here, and I’m willing to bet you’ll find something interesting you’ve never considered before in it, even if I’ve missed a few glaring stories.

With that in mind, Den of Geek is proud to unveil our empirically sound, objective, and absolute BEST COMICS OF THE 2010S

....................................

I am not copying this site entire top 100 instead I am grabbing a few key choices in the 100-11 range and then sharing the top ten.

100. Batman & Robin

Pete Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, John Kalisz (DC Comics)

Tomasi and Gleason’s run never got the attention it deserved because it ran alongside huge ones - Grant Morrison’s Batman and Batman Inc. to start, and Scot Snyder and Greg Capullo’s monster New 52 series later. But I might like this one more: Tomasi writes hands down the best Damian Wayne I’ve ever read, and Gleason and Gray do bulky, shadowy Bat people perfectly. The high point is an issue around the middle of this run, post-Damian’s death but before he came back, when Batman is teaming up with Two-Face, and it might be my favorite single issue of Batman of all time. It’s such a perfect take on Two-Face that I come back to it every couple of years. Give this era of Batman a shot, I bet you love it.

read Batman & Robin on Amazon

99. Black Science

Rick Remender, Matteo Scalera, Moreno Dionisio (Image Comics)

Black Science is a comic full of Rick Remender’s fears and worries. Scalera and Dionisio turn them into bright, colorful, wildly creative visuals as Grant McKay bounced around the Eververse trying to find a way at first to express his anarcho-scientistism, and then to save his family. It wrapped up earlier this year, and Remender and the team did an elegant job landing the plane on one of the best books from a wave of big name creator owned books that launched back in 2014.

read Black Science on Amazon

98. Black

Kwanza Osajyefo, Tim Smith 3, Jamal Igle, Khary Randolph (Black Mask Studios)

Osajyefo, Smith, Igle and cover artist Khary Randolph’s comic about what would happen in a world where only black people got superpowers stripped the “mutant” part from “the mutant metaphor” and also the “metaphor” part, and gave us a story about black people being treated like exploitable resources by the US government. Igle’s black and white art was terrific, and the story is rough when you explain the plot, but rougher when it plays out on the page in front of you.

read Black on Amazon

97. Assassin Nation

Kyle Starks, Erica Henderson (Image Comics)

Starks and Henderson are both gifted comics creators on their own. Pairing them together gave us something beautiful – a book that’s about the world’s greatest assassins banding together to fight for their lives. It’s got unique characters with distinct voices and ridiculous, over the top action.

read Assassin Nation on Amazon

96. Boundless

Jillian Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)

Time has sped up immensely in the last three years. Things that feel momentus happen and are forgotten four hours later. Trends are microtrends, fads are localized without geography, and entire 24-hour news cycles are compressed to the space between weathers on the 1s. So it’s really weird how a collection of in-the-moment short comics drawn (presumably) in 2016 feels extremely relevant and timely now. Tamaki takes a bunch of quick stories – about a mirror Facebook that shows you what might be in a parallel world; a Twilight Zone-esque cultural phenomenon mp3; a porn sitcom from the ‘90s gaining more than a cult following 25 years later – and uses the characters to say something interesting about them or us or our world. It’s a great book.

read Boundless on Amazon

95. Imperium

Joshua Dysart, Doug Brathwaite, Scot Eaton, Cafu, Khari Evans, Ulisses Ariola (Valiant Entertainment)

Toyo Harada is a underratedly great villain, and Imperium is the story of him trying to impose his will on the world. Valiant books have, since their return early this decade, been pretty tightly intertwined, but most of their central narrative has revolved around Harada. He’s a great choice for that. He’s as big an egomaniac as Lex Luthor or Dr. Doom, but he’s got the benefit of operating in a world where the political rules are more like those of ours, which enhances everything good and bad about his character. Dysart and the art team give us an outstanding story about megalomania here.

read Imperium on Amazon

94. X-Men: Second Coming

Matt Fraction, Zeb Wells, Mike Carey, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, David Finch, Terry Dodson, Greg Land, Mike Choi, Ibraim Roberson, Rachel Dodson, Sonia Oback (Marvel Comics)

Second Coming is the payoff to my favorite era of X-Men books so far, the Messiah Era. It starts out blazingly fast, and then plays out over the course of 14 issues and somehow speeds up as it goes along. It’s a straight up summer blockbuster action movie in comic form that does an excellent job blending voices, art styles and ongoing plots with the overall narrative of the crossover without losing any momentum.

read X-Men: Second Coming on Amazon

93. Ultimates 2

Al Ewing, Travel Foreman, Christian Ward, Dan Brown (Marvel Comics)

Al Ewing is well on his way to stardom because of how good The Immortal Hulk is, but the cool kids all knew where he was going after he teamed up with Foreman and Ward to tell a story about the self-aware multiverse and cosmic entities of the Marvel universe in The Ultimates/Ultimates 2. This book is weird and gorgeous, and even if it leaned towards implying some big changes for the greater Marvel cosmology without ever seeing those changes bear fruit, it was still a terrific story on its own right.

read Ultimates 2 on Amazon

92. Adventure Time

Ryan North, Shelli Paroline, Braden Lamb (BOOM! Studios)

A licensed property like Adventure Time is tough to get right. The cartoon is so inventive that even if you match what shows up on the screen, it’s still just a pale shadow because the creativeness of the ideas is the point. So it was a huge surprise when the comic nailed it – it was every bit as wild as the show, only it also captured the voices of the characters perfectly and delighted in being a comic in a way that made it a celebration of the medium. This was the first time North managed to get rollover text into a printed comic, and it works, man.

read Adventure Time on Amazon

91. The Divine

Boaz Lavie, Asaf Hanuka, Tomer Hanuka (First Second)

The Hanukas do two things really, really well in The Divine. They do great scale shifts. The camera zooms from pulling in really close on an eye about to bleed to pulling waaaay back to show giant beasts roving what looks like a fantasy countryside, and each decision about where to put the camera serves the story well. And the coloring adds to the surrealness of the story. It’s bright and full of greens and pinks almost to the point of being disorienting, which is I think the goal of that palette choice. The story is excellent too, about Burmese (or I guess Myanmarese now) child soldiers defending the land of their gods from resource extractors.

read The Divine on Amazon

90. Ivar, Timewalker

Fred Van Lente, Clayton Henry, Brian Reber (Valiant Entertainment)

Ivar is surprisingly emotional and a ton of fun. Tonally, it’s one of the most distinct Valiant comics – it threads the needle of Quantum & Woody comedy, X-O Manowar high adventure and Eternal Warrior mythmaking. Van Lente takes pieces from all of those genres and knits them together with a ton of humor to make a super entertaining comic. What’s not to like about a book that starts with the main character throwing up his arms and shouting “LET’S KILL HITLER!”?

read Ivar, Timewalker on Amazon

89. Virgil

Steve Orlando, JD Faith, Chris Beckett, Tom Mauer (Image Comics)

What I liked most about Virgil is how little it felt like Orlando and Faith were shading the story. It’s simultaneously about how reprehensible Jamaica is towards gay people; crooked cops; and a love story; and a revenge story, and no one aspect overrules the others. Virgil is a dirty cop in Jamaica and also a gay man who loses his love and goes on a rampage. Every part of the story is given equal attention, and the final result is really, really good comics.

read Virgil on Amazon

88. Memetic

James Tynion IV, Eryk Donovan (BOOM! Studios)

It’s shocking how prescient Memetic feels. It’s genuinely creepy horror work from Tynion and Donovan, but it’s also about a meme and the homogenization of culture, and it landed like, 3 years before those ideas really penetrated the cultural zeitgeist. Donovan’s art manages the tricky feat of nailing the genuine horror of the situation, from the shock on the characters’ faces to the gross-out body horror later in the book, but it’s also genuinely funny at times. That damn sloth meme has been stuck in my head for five years.

read Memetic on Amazon

87. The Manhattan Projects

Jonathan Hickman, Nick Pitarra, Jordie Bellaire (Image Comics)

Some books need long explanations to justify inclusion on a best books of the decade list. Some just need you to say “Richard Feynman and Albert Einstein gun down a space station full of FDRobots.” Guess which one Manhattan Projects is.

read The Manhattan Projects on Amazon

86. O.M.A.C.

Dan DiDio, Keith Giffen, Scott Koblish, Hi-Fi (DC Comics)

O.M.A.C. is secretly the best New 52 launch title. Honestly, though, this book is and will always be an underrated gem: it’s DiDio, Giffen, and Koblish trying to do Jack Kirby with modern sensibilities. And it’s extremely, beautifully Kirby in so many different ways. I can’t believe it worked.

read OMAC on Amazon

85. All-New Wolverine

Tom Taylor, David Lopez, David Navarrot, Nathan Fairbairn (Marvel Comics)

One of the best X-Men comics from the last ten years is also one of the most unexpected: it’s a Marvel book that steals DC’s traditional schtick about how to be a great legacy hero. Laura Kinney takes over Logan’s mask after her clonefather dies, and decides to make it a more outwardly and publicly superheroic mantle. Spoilers: she’s GREAT at it. Taylor gives her real growth as a character, and uses the best new character of the last 10 years (Jonathan the Wolverine and also Scout nee Honey Badger) to great effect. I was stunned at how much I loved this comic.

read All-New Wolverine on Amazon

84. Assassination Classroom

Yusei Matsui (Viz Media)

I’m not sure how I would briefly describe this book, and that’s part of why I love it. A monster destroys ¾ of the moon and says more is coming. But he gives mankind an out: Kill him inside of a year, and he’ll leave them alive. Then, and this is where it gets nuts, he takes over as homeroom teacher for a group of misfit teenagers and starts teaching them how to kill him. It’s basically Bad News Bears with a little more murder and some great manga art from Matsui.

read Assassination Classroom on Amazon

83. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Robert Hack (Archie Comics)

The best thing about Chilling Adventures of Sabrina isn’t that it spawned a great TV adaptation on Netflix. The best thing about it is how faithful to the comic the TV adaptation is. Part of Archie’s horror renaissance, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a genre anachronism that revels in its horror story trappings and delights in placing wholesome Archie characters in it. It’s drawn well and smart and a lot of fun from start to finish.

read Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Amazon

82. Uber

Kieron Gillen, Canaan White, Digikore Studios (Avatar Press)

Early on in Uber’s run, Gillen recommended Antony Beevor’s comprehensive history of World War II as something he leaned on heavily when constructing this book. It shows: Uber reads like a military history, rather than your typical comic about “What if they had super powers in World War II?” The supersoldiers are treated like any other military technology - resources to be deployed, depleted, exploited and overcome. This is probably the most interesting treatment of super powers I’ve seen in a comic in the decade.

read Uber on Amazon

81. The Spire

Si Spurrier, Jeff Stokely, Andre May (BOOM! Studios)
Simon Spurrier does two things better than almost anyone in comics: he chooses incredible artists to work with, and he (and the artists) put together some stunning worlds for their characters to live in. The Spire is a murder mystery set in a fantasy city with a rigid class structure, and he and Stokely make a city that I felt immersed in immediately upon starting the book. One other thing Spurrier and crew do really well: wreck their main characters and break your heart, and The Spire is some of his best work.
read The Spire on Amazon

80. Aliens: Dead Orbit

James Stokoe (Dark Horse Comics)
James Stokoe could have drawn 100 pages of character models and it would be on this list. He’s an incredible artist who draws incredibly detailed everything. Everything! Rubble. Ribcages. Control panels. Inner mandibles. Giving him an Aliens book is the no-brainer of no-brainers – this is what HR Geiger would have drawn if he was raised on anime.
read Aliens: Dead Orbit on Amazon

79. Shade the Changing Girl

Cecil Catellucci, Marley Zarcone, Kelly Fitzpatrick (DC Comics)
It takes a really gifted eye to see the absurdity in everyday life and expose that to your readers with only a modest tweak to reality. Zarcone and Castellucci use dropping Rac Shade’s madness vest and Loma the alien bird into the body of a comatose mean girl as their way to show just how silly teenage life can be, and it’s beautiful. Shade the Changing Girl and its follow up, Shade the Changing Woman, both do magnificent work of using insanity to take you through a rollercoaster of emotions.
read Shade the Changing Girl on Amazon

78. Wuvable Oaf

Ed Luce (Fantagraphics)
I think the best part about Wuvable Oaf, the indie book about black metal San Francisco bears is just how nice it is. It’s a really sweet, funny courtship story about an ex-underground wrestler starting a relationship with a small, blood-drenched metal singer. I find myself recommending this book to a surprising amount of people.
read Wuvable Oaf on Amazon

77. Upgrade Soul

Ezra Claytan Daniels (Lion Forge Comics)
Ezra Claytan Daniels went for messed up, twisty sci fi right out of the gate, and it was a home run. Upgrade Soul is an ugly body modification story about trying to prolong one’s life unnaturally, and what happens if that’s not all really well thought out beforehand. It’s drawn really well: even now, the scene with the gauze coming off layer by layer, the pacing of it and the skill of setting that sequence up, is amazing.
read Upgrade Soul on Amazon

76. Strong Female Protagonist

Brennan Lee Mulligan, Molly Ostertag
“What if superheroes were real” is usually an exceptionally stupid premise for a comic, but there are plenty of ridiculous components to the superhero conceit that are worth examining. One of them is the value of superheroing – does flying around punching shit really actually fix anything? In Strong Female Protagonist, Alison Green asks that question, decides it doesn’t, and quits capes for college and activism in New York. This is a great story well told, but what I enjoy about it now is how New York it feels. It’s a really thoughtful take on superheroing, but it’s also a really good story that transports you to an age and a place.
read Strong Female Protagonist here

75. Journey Into Mystery

Kieron Gillen, Doug Brathwaite, Ulises Ariola & others (Marvel Comics)
Journey Into Mystery shouldn’t have been successful. Loki wasn’t quite at the height of his powers yet, and while he was getting there, even now he can’t really carry his own book. It was also a legacy numbered relaunch coming out of a big summer crossover event. And yet, Kieron managed to take new kid Loki and use him to tell a story about stories and fate and myth that stands up there with some of the greatest Asgard stories ever told. What he does with the trickster god is actually sad and moving (and also generally hilarious – he writes a really fun Loki). it It’s one of my favorite things he’s ever written.
read Journey Into Mystery on Amazon

74. Kinski

Gabriel Hardman (Monkeybrain Comics)
Sometimes, a comic is just plain good. Sometimes, a comic prominently features the GOODEST BOY on a cover. Sometimes, as is the case with Kinski, a comic does both. Hardman is a master of the form, and Kinski is one of his most underrated works. It’s the story of a guy bored with his life and trying to save a black lab puppy – not especially complicated or deep, but enough to hook me in, especially with the VERY GOOD BOY on the cover. But his art is magnificent. It’s black and white, and Hardman uses just about every inking style and manner to help tell the story. It’s virtuoso stuff. I loved it.
read Kinski on Amazon

73. The Sheriff of Babylon

Tom King, Mitch Gerads (Vertigo Comics)
With a list like this, sometimes it’s not the full sweep of a story that gets it on, but the remembered moments. I’ve seen King and Gerads work together a hundred times since then (or at least it feels like that – time has no meaning anymore). It’s all been spectacular, but the scene with Chris and Fatima in the Saddam’s old pool sharing a bottle of vodka talking about pointlessness still stands out hard for me. The Sheriff of Babylon has gotten better with age, and it started out really, really good.
read The Sheriff of Babylon on Amazon

72. Genius

Marc Bernardin, Adam Freeman, Afua Richardson (Image Comics)
If you call a book Genius, it damn well better be brilliant. Fortunately for us, it was. Bernardin, Freeman and Richardson told us the story of Destiny, a precocious and brilliant military mind born into South Central and using her strategic genius to bring down the corrupt cops who have been terrorizing her neighborhood. It feels like it was timely when it came out, but it doesn’t read like a political statement. It reads like a really good revenge story. Richardson’s art was sharp and well laid out, and is a huge part of why Genius was so good.
read Genius on Amazon

71. Judas

Jeff Loveness, Jakub Rebelka (BOOM! Studios)
This book came out of nowhere for me. Loveness and Rebelka expanded on the story of Christ and Judas in a fascinating way. Judas is a whip smart comic that thinks around a lot of the unspoken corners of Jesus’s story. And it’s gorgeous: Rebelka draws the hell out of Hell. His backgrounds and settings are every bit as impressive as the storytelling accomplishment. Judas turned out to be an outstanding story.
read Judas on Amazon

70. Midnighter

Steve Orlando, ACO, Hugo Petrus, Romulo Fajardo, Jr & others (DC Comics)
Sometimes I just want to see a man punch his own ears off to stop from hearing a killing word.
read more: The Best Comics of 2015
Orlando and ACO gave us one of my favorite fight comics of all time in Midnighter (and continued in Midnighter and Apollo). It’s clever and sexy, and it delights in being a comic the way all the greatest fight comics do. The flow of the fights is spectacular – these are some of the best punching scenes I’ve ever read. It’s basically an ultraviolent, morally indignant James Bond. It’s terrific.
read Midnighter on Amazon

69. Black Hammer

Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston, Dave Stewart & others (Dark Horse Comics)
Something always feels off in Lemire’s best work. In a good way. And something feels really off throughout Black Hammer, which is the entire point of the story. The universe Lemire and Ormston create is a love letter to silver age DC books, but at the same time it misses those comic sensibilities a lot, and Lemire makes his characters mourn that loss on the page. It’s a really interesting structure for a story, paired with some terrific art from Ormston and some inventive fill-ins and spinoffs from David Rubin and Matt Kindt and others. Black Hammer is top to bottom a great book.
read Black Hammer on Amazon

68. My Friend Dahmer

Derf Backderf (Abrams Publishing)
I’m not usually one for true crime stories, especially not ones that try and humanize monstrous serial killers, but Backderf’s story of his old high school acquaintance, human eater Jeffrey Dahmer, is really good. Backderf’s art is very much of the underground comix style, which elevates the story, I think. Dahmer is disturbing and troubling throughout the book, but he’s also very much a weird gawky teenager, and in this art style, everyone is. The story humanizes him without excusing him, but I think the real reason it works is because it’s tinged with regret on Backderf’s part about the ways his relationship with Dahmer could have been different.
read My Friend Dahmer on Amazon

67. No Mercy

Alex de Campi, Carla Speed McNeil (Image Comics)
De Campi and McNeil took a book that could have been a lazy Lord of the Flies-but-with-social-media premise and turned it into a great character book. No Mercy takes a bunch of shitty teens on a field trip, and slowly turns several of them away from their shitty teen-ness and fleshes them out into an interesting dynamic and a great story. McNeil’s art is excellent: when they’re stuck in the desert, you feel hot and dry reading it, and every emotion these kids feel is beautifully shown in their face and their body language. This wasn’t a book I expected to come back to when I finished it, but it’s been a strong read even down the road.
read No Mercy on Amazon

66. Runaways

Rainbow Rowell, Kris Anka, Matthew Wilson & others (Marvel Comics)

Rowell is a revelation as a comic writer. The way she juggles this huge cast is incredibly skillful writing. She’s got a good grasp on everyone’s voice and knows all the continuity of the old team cold. The book is vastly more enjoyable than the TV series as a teen hero soap opera, and Anka and Wilson make it way cooler to look at, too.

read Runaways on Amazon

65. Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man

Chip Zdarsky, Adam Kubert, Jordie Bellaire & others (Marvel Comics)

Chip Zdarsky’s growth into one of Marvel’s most earnest writers was a surprising and outstanding development. I don’t think he’s done better work on any character than Spider-Man. It makes sense – Peter lends himself to stories that walk a tightrope between funny and tragic, and Chip is able to fine tune his characters and plots to nail both aspects.

64. Ragnarok

Walter Simonson (IDW Publishing)

It’s Walt Simonson drawing a Thor comic. He already did the best Thor story of all time. This is more of the same. I don’t think I really need to go into greater detail here, right? I will, for the sake of argument: there’s a full page splash at the beginning of the first issue that has Thor facing down the Serpent of Midgard and it is gorgeous. You can almost count the scales on the serpent.

read Ragnarok on Amazon

63. Mox Nox

Joan Cornella (Fantagraphics)

Cornella’s absurdist comic strips still, years later, make me die laughing. Mox Nox is a collection of his work that shows just how many situations you can put his ridiculous, Weeble-looking figures into that will shock you with their gore or make you shout laughing.

read Mox Nox on Amazon

62. The Valiant

Matt Kindt, Jeff Lemire, Paolo Rivera, Joe Rivera (Valiant Entertainment)

Valiant has published some consistently excellent comics over the last decade, but they hit a high point with The Valiant, an Avengers-esque team up of all the heroes of the Valiant universe that focused on Bloodshot, the Geomancer and the Eternal Warrior. It worked so well for two reasons: the relationship between Bloodshot and the Geomancer was incredibly well written and heartbreaking in the end, and the art from the Riveras was incredible. Paolo Rivera doesn’t draw anywhere near as many comics as I would like (that number is generally “nearly all of the comics”), so when he is on a book, you know you’re going to get some beautiful stories.

read The Valiant on Amazon

61. One Punch Man

ONE, Yusuke Murata (Viz Media)

I didn’t even realize I needed a fight manga parody in my life, but then One Punch Man rolled through and I love it and want more.

60. Darth Vader

Kieron Gillen, Salvador Larocca, Edgar Delgado (Marvel Comics)

The way the Star Wars prequels neutered Darth Vader is a crime against a character. Miraculously, the move to Disney shifted him back from the hurt puppy dog teenager that the prequels turned him into (and the mystical waste of time that the Special Editions and the books made him) and into a merciless badass force of nature. That shift started in earnest in this book – Gillen and Larocca made him mad again, and a pissed off Sith Lord is a force of nature I loved reading about.

read Darth Vader on Amazon

59. The Highest House

Mike Carey, Peter Gross, Fabien Alquiler (IDW Publishing)

Carey and Gross are a great team. Their work together on Lucifer is some of the best comics of all time, and the world they built in The Highest House is as good or better. It’s my favorite type of fantasy comic – one that builds a rich, full, beautiful world, and then tears it down through deft character work. It’s a fantasy comic that’s so easy to disappear into, both the world that’s created and the possibilities it opens up.

read The Highest House on Amazon

58. The Nib

Matt Bors & others

“Mister Gotcha” is up there with “This is Fine” as probably my favorite quick comic gags of the decade. Bors is an extremely sharp cartoonist and a gifted satirist, and The Nib is a regular stop in my daily routine.

read The Nib here

57. The Wild Storm

Warren Ellis, Jon Davis Hunt, Steve Buccellato (DC Comics)

The Wild Storm stands on its own as an amazing comic series. It took everything great about the old Wildstorm world and updated it for a modern, more paranoid, more technologically advanced society. Davis Hunt drew some stunning action sequences and used panel layouts and pacing to incredible effect to propel the story. But the most interesting part of it to me is how it functions as a self reassessment by Ellis, a weird and fun sort of remix and update of his own prior work. It’s excellent.

read The Wild Storm on Amazon

56. House of X/Powers of X

Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, RB Silva, Marte Gracia (Marvel Comics)

HoXPoX made it fun to be an X-Men fan again. It’s beating a dead horse at this point, but these books were tremendous accomplishments. Larraz and Silva vaulted to superstardom, Hickman rewrote the entire history of the X-Men, and Gracia made every panel sing.

read House of X/Powers of X on Amazon

55. Sex Criminals

Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky (Image Comics)

Qualifying a raunchy sex comedy as weirdly sweet almost seems cliche at this point, but Sex Criminals is the rare story that can match graphic depictions of Urban Dictionary sex positions, a story about people who can stop time when they orgasm, and brutally honest depictions of intimate relationships and make it all entirely relatable. It’s a wonderful story. But also I’m still mostly here for the comedy - Zdarsky puts so much detail into it that every splash page is like a Where’s Waldo of insane sex jokes.

read Sex Criminals on Amazon

54. The Nameless City

Faith Erin Hicks, Jordie Bellaire (First Second)

The Nameless City feels like if Avatar The Last Airbender was about class and not martial arts and the pressure of leadership. It’s one of the few graphic novel series that I remembered to put on a pull list, every volume improving on the last. Hicks’ art is gorgeously cartoony, detailed and loose at the same time, and it builds an engrossing world with fascinating characters that tells the story of a city and a people in major transition. It’s a series I can’t wait to share with family.

read The Nameless City on Amazon

53. Exit, Stage Left! The Snagglepuss Chronicles

Mark Russell, Mike Feehan, Paul Mounts (DC Comics)

I’ve said this a thousand times before, but it’s worth repeating: I don’t understand how the hell this comic got made, and my gast is further flabbered by the fact that it’s amazing. Exit Stage Left recast Snagglepuss as a ‘50s gothic playwright living in New York City; Huckleberry Hound as his novelist best friend; and Quick Draw McGraw as Huck’s down low cop boyfriend, and told a compelling story about fame and society that was equal parts clever, funny, sweet and sad. Brilliant and wry, Mark Russell is one of the best new additions to comics this decade. If you haven’t read this book (which doubles as a stealth period piece about the dawn of the gay rights movement in America I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE I’M TYPING THIS), you should go get it right now.

read Exit, Stage Left! The Snagglepuss Chronicles on Amazon

52. These Savage Shores

Ram V, Sumit Kumar, Vittorio Astone (Vault Comics)

Ram V, Kumar and Astone do a wonderful job of building a story with a rich world that’s unlike most stories I’ve ever read before, and they do it with incredible skill. The period aspects of the story are lush and gorgeous, but Kumar and Astone’s art is magnificent, paced perfectly with a flow of movement that belies a storytelling skill that you don’t often find in small press superhero comics. The panel flow is really exceptional, and Astone’s colors make this vampire/demon battle sing.

read These Savage Shores on Amazon

51. The Dark Angel Saga, Uncanny X-Force

Rick Remender, Jerome Opena, Mark Brooks, Esad Ribic, Dean White & others (Marvel Comics)

X-Men comics have picked back up recently, but prior to HoXPoX, their pinnacle for me was the Dark Angel Saga. Specifically, Psylocke and Angel’s moment of eternal bliss as their world was destroyed around them. Jerome Opena and Dean White made the visuals so vivid that I could hear the wind roaring around Betsy and Warren, and Remender had done such a good job of building the duo’s relationship that I was almost in tears reading it for the first time. The rest of the run is essential reading: it has my favorite non-movie Deadpool and some of the best Apocalypse stuff since the Age of Apocalypse, but that moment is just so amazing.

read The Dark Angel Saga on Amazon

50. Wytches

Scott Snyder, Jock, Matt Hollingsworth (Image Comics)

Snyder is a terrific horror writer, and Wytches is by far the scariest thing I’ve ever read from him. That is probably due in large part to Jock and Hollingsworth. The story is dark Americana horror, pure and uncut Snyder right on the page, about monstrous ancient covens and their secret network around the world. Jock makes the normal humans look terrified and the Wytches stretched, shrouded beasts escaping from knots in trees to steal kids and ruin families, and Hollingsworth changes palettes deftly to match the tone of the panel (or even half panel, sometimes). Wytches is incredibly well made comics.

read Wytches on Amazon

49. Fantasy Sports

Sam Bosma (Nobrow Press)

Fantasy Sports isn’t complicated. It’s about a treasure hunter who has to beat a mummy at basketball to loot a pyramid. See? Super straightforward.

read more: The Best Comics of 2018

Bosma’s art is the star here. It’s somewhere between sports manga and Adventure Time. It’s vibrant and fun, full of great movement in a story that hums along. And it’s really accessible – it’s shelved closest to the ground in my house, so kids can pull it out and get hooked the same way I did.

read Fantasy Sports on Amazon

48. Sexcastle

Kyle Starks (Image Comics)

I don’t know if any comic in the last ten years has more quotable lines in it than Sexcastle. I have found a way to work “You brought a YOU to a ME fight,” and “Are you okay? Just kidding, fuck you” into more professional conversations than I’m comfortable with, frankly. Sexcastle is a hard riff on ‘80s action movies that has Shane Sexcastle, the badass killer and star of the comic, spouting bad pun catchphrases almost exclusively throughout the book. Sexcastle both loves and viciously parodies those movies, and the resulting comic is almost flawless. Starks is an absolutely hilarious writer, talented enough to get a shot on anything he writes, but nothing will be quite as surprising or as funny as Sexcastle.

read Sexcastle on Amazon

47. G.I. Joe: Cobra

Mike Costa, Christos Gage, Antonio Fuso, Lovern Kindzierski (IDW Publishing)

It took IDW a minute to get going with G.I. Joe after they got the license, but once they did, these series turned into one of a couple of shockingly good, well-thought-out licensed comics they put out over the decade. Almost immediately, Costa and Gage put Chuckles in deep cover at Cobra Command and went hard dark on the tone. From there, they assassinated Cobra Commander, set off a nuke, and launched a power struggle to control the terrorist organization that included a Joe killing competition. Costa, Fuso, and Gage did an amazing job of juggling enormous casts and controlling for different voices. Everything from G.I. Joe: Cobra through the Cobra Civil War is amazing stuff.

read G.I. Joe: Cobra on Amazon

46. Battling Boy

Paul Pope (First Second)

Battling Boy is unlike any other comic I’ve read in the last decade. I spent a good three hours trying to come up with a clever analogy for this book, like “Witch’s Night Out meets Thor in a Flash Gordon strip,” but they’re all grossly inadequate. Pope is one of the most unique minds working in comics. He puts more character in one grease smear on a face than a lot of creators can fit in long runs. Battling Boy is fine pulpy adventure comics that work for any comic reader.

read Battling Boy on Amazon

45. The Omega Men

Tom King, Barnaby Bagenda, Jose Marzan, Jr., Romulo Fajardo (DC Comics)
Omega Men is still, several years on, some heavy, heavy shit. The shock of the twist, hell the shock of the series still makes me smile. That it was a comic book that was advertised with Kyle Rayner seemingly beheaded on camera and beamed around the galaxy was stunning; that the seeming beheading wasn’t the most shocking part of the book is amazing. It’s a miracle this book happened (literally – it was cancelled and uncancelled midway through), but I’m so glad it did. It was ambitious and smart, and unlike anything we’d seen in comics in years at the time.

read The Omega Men on Amazon

44. Lady Killer

Joelle Jones, Jamie S. Rich, Laura Allred (Dark Horse Comics)

Joelle Jones is a superstar now. I’m fairly sure that it started because of this comic, and I’m absolutely certain it’s deserved. Lady Killer is the story of a ‘50s housewife who’s an assassin on the side, and it’s everything the premise suggests. It’s grindhousey and funny and gory, but through it all, Jones’ art is amazing and Allred’s colors are perfect. It’s a lot of fun to read.

read Lady Killer on Amazon

43. Infinite Kung Fu

Kagan McLeod (Top Shelf Productions)

Kagan McLeod’s story in Infinite Kung Fu is a little bit rote for the genre – it’s a kung fu movie put to page, nonsense and all. But my god the art. The pages are practically crackling with life. The big swoopy inks and the way McLeod makes the characters move and the way the fights flow from panel to panel and the scale of some of these fights and it’s all just incredible, incredible artwork. Even if the story is a little pedestrian, the art is some of the best I’ve ever seen.

read Infinite Kung Fu on Amazon

42. Bandette

Paul Tobin, Colleen Coover (Monkeybrain Comics)

Bandette is about an adventuring teen art thief in Paris. It’s silly and cute and charming and gorgeous. It’s also extremely uncomplicated: this is an easy book to love because Coover’s art is lovely, and Tobin’s plots are clear and clever. I try my hardest to find some deeper meaning or hidden skill that the creators have that makes a book stand out, but Bandette is just a really straightforward, fun, nice book.

read Bandette on Amazon

41. Hawkeye

Matt Fraction, David Aja, Matt Hollingsworth & others (Marvel Comics)

Hawkeye launched David Aja into the stratosphere, and gave Fraction the juice to do whatever he wanted (like, for example, write a sci-fi gender flipped Odyssey adaptation comic in dactylic hexameter). It radically changed Clint Barton for a decade. And in a lot of ways, its influence still rings out now, because it’s just really good.
Aja is a madman. His art flows differently from anyone who came before, but it’s been mimicked so many times since, and even when imitators try and fail to live up to his standards, they still usually do something interesting. Fraction succeeded at a time when Marvel was going in a million different directions by pulling the camera way in on the Marvel Universe – focusing on an apartment building, making a street crime book with a regular guy and turning Kate Bishop from a supporting Young Avenger into one of the best characters in the Marvel library.

read Hawkeye on Amazon

40. Batman: The Black Mirror, Detective Comics

Scott Snyder, Jock, Francesco Francavilla, David Baron (DC Comics)

Scott Snyder is one of those creators I’ll follow just about anywhere, and it all stems from how ridiculously good his Black Mirror story was in Detective Comics. Back when Bruce was still traipsing about the world, turning the International Club of Heroes into Batman, Incorporated, Dick Grayson was back in Gotham being the best Batman and solving this dense, moody, disorienting crime. It was a deep Grayson character study, a deep Gotham character study, and a showcase for the incredible art of Jock and Francavilla.

read more: The Best Comics of 2019

Snyder did some incredible things with Bruce Wayne when he and Greg Capullo got control of the main Batman book post-New 52 (especially the last story arc – stunning stuff). But The Black Mirror is even better. Whenever someone asks me for a Batman comic gift recommendation, this is what I tell them to buy.

read Batman: The Black Mirror on Amazon

39. Giant Days

John Allison, Lissa Tremain, Max Sarin, Julia Madrigal, Whitney Cogar (BOOM! Studios)

Pick any issue of Giant Days at random and read five pages of it, and I promise you will recognize every character who speaks immediately. Allison and the art team have that tight a grasp on conversational dialogue that this entire book was relatable all the way through. It’s a smart, funny comic about growing up that focuses on the growing you do in your early 20s, which is a breath of fresh air considering most coming of age stories stop at 16. Seeing the characters flourish into adults is part of what made Giant Days special, but it’s mostly the ridiculous skill of the creators.

read Giant Days on Amazon

38. Berlin

Jason Lutes (Drawn & Quarterly)

Lutes has been working on this for 20 years and finished it in 2018, and you can see the unbelievable care and craft in every page. Berlin follows a couple of working class people through the fall of Weimar Germany in the late 20s until the Nazis take over, and even though it’s fictional, it’s incredibly interesting to see Germany’s collapse as it related to regular people, and not as big, momentous historical events. The history comes across as a much more jagged line. Lutes is wonderful at using the pace of layouts to tell the story, and his art is immaculately clean and clear.

read Berlin on Amazon

37. The Underwater Welder

Jeff Lemire (Vertigo Comics)

When Jeff Lemire draws his own stuff, watch out: you’re about to get something profoundly uncomfortable. And The Underwater Welder is precisely that. It’s so good at making you feel like something’s wrong.

It works because it’s never completely honest about what the story is about. Jack is an underwater welder, like his father was, and he’s got a wife and a kid on the way. But he becomes obsessed with his father’s old watch, and that obsession is a focus for his panic about becoming a father. Lemire’s art is all rough-looking freehand and watery inks, perfect for a guy who spends most of his time in a diving suit. The atmosphere of The Underwater Welder is almost asphyxiating. I love it.

read The Underwater Welder on Amazon

36. Ms. Marvel

G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa, Nico Leon, Ian Herring (Marvel Comics)

As I sit down to write this, I literally just came back from picking up the first collection of Ms. Marvel for a Christmas present for my niece. Wilson, Alphona, Sana Amanat, and Jamie McKelvie (who did designs for the character) created maybe the best fictional teenager in the last decade in Kamala Khan. It’s been a long time since I’ve been a teenager, but I think the response from actual #teens will back me up here: her struggles with time management, emotions, and awkward social interactions felt incredibly real. The art, from Alphona, Miyazawa and Leon was spectacular, doing an especially great job of showing who Kamala is through her powers. This is a great book to have around.

read Ms. Marvel on Amazon

35. Deathstroke

Christopher Priest, Carlo Pagaluyan, Jason Paz, Jeromy Cox & more (DC Comics)

It just ended, and at every point during its 50 issue run, Christopher Priest’s Deathstroke felt like it was made specifically for me. It was a sneaky family soap opera on par with the greatest X-Men stories, but with Priest’s signature banter and pacing to bring it to the next level. The art was always superb from Pagaluyan, and the editing team brought in some absolutely killer supplemental teams (Cowan and Sienkiewicz are always a yes), but it was the story and how it was presented that made this run really special.

read Deathstroke on Amazon

34. Monstress

Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda (Image Comics)

Takeda’s art looks like an illuminated manuscript. Seriously, it’s so detailed and intricate that it makes me slow down when I’m reading, which is a feat, because I’m predisposed to blaze through comics. But that detail work is what makes her art special, and what pushes Monstress from very good to great. The world that Liu and Takeda built in Monstress is lush and rich and incredibly easy to disappear into, and it’s a consistent joy to read.

read Monstress on Amazon

33. The Vision

Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Michael Walsh, Jordie Bellaire (Marvel Comics)

I’m pretty sure I spent more time shaking my head at the events of The Vision than any other book on this list. What Tom King did to this family is deeply, profoundly messed up. Walta, Walsh, and Bellaire were essential to building the eerie, uncomfortable atmosphere that pervaded this whole story, and the facial expressions especially helped land the twist in the middle, the plot point that shifted the story from “oh no that’s super messed up” to “aww that’s really sad and also super messed up.”

32. 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank

Matthew Rosenberg, Tyler Boss (Black Mask Studios)

This one is all about the patter. Rosenberg makes the kids sound so entertaining and makes their interpersonal dynamic so engrossing that you get wrapped up in the world of 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank easily. Tyler Boss’ art is terrific, selling the exaggerated expressions that kids make, where a smile often starts in their legs, and landing all the humor just as comfortably. It’s a comic that could have ended up as nostalgic tripe, but instead, 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank turned out great.

read 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank on Amazon

31. Kid Gloves

Lucy Knisley (First Second)

Kid Gloves is amazing for a lot of reasons. It’s informative and moving and personal, with a lot of history and politics that I think are really important components to a larger conversation that the book can be part of. Here’s the thing about it for me, though: I started reading it at the library. About halfway through, I put it back on the shelf, walked up the street to a book store and bought a copy. I knew from how much I was talking to the book while reading it that it was something I wanted to keep on my shelf and refer back to in the future. And I feel really good about that decision.

read Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos on Amazon

30. XKCD

Randall Munroe (Webcomic)

It didn’t inspire any stirring condemnations from legendary filmmakers, but I wonder if Randall Munroe’s half webcomic/half infographic didn’t have the biggest low key impact of any comic in the last decade. I feel like you’re vastly more likely to see an XKCD strip on someone’s desk, or tacked to the door of an office, or passed around on social media, than you are anything from Marvel or DC that isn’t designed to trigger the internet outrage cycle.

This is because Munroe is really good at cartooning. I mean, okay, he’s not going to paint you a Rembrandt, but his stick figures have a way of sneaking emotion up on you, through their shoulders and their heads. And he’s whip smart, too, but his comics help present his knowledge in an accessible, open way. XKCD has been in every iteration of blog reader I’ve had since 2010, and I’ll be checking in on it until it ends, because it’s terrific.

read XKCD here

29. Two Brothers

Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon (Dark Horse Comics)

Ba & Moon do some amazing work in this adaptation of a novel from their native Brazil about two brothers, their doting mom, and the woman who comes between them. The artwork in Two Brothers is stunningly good and improves on the source material by taking some of the novels most impactful scenes and making them visually striking. Two Brothers isn’t a splashy comic, but it’s a damn good one, one that will stick with you for a long time.

read Two Brothers on Amazon

28. Lumberjanes

Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Brooke Allen, Carolyn Nowak, Carey Pietch, Maarta Laiho & more (BOOM! Studios)

Lumberjanes takes a lot of what worked about The Goonies and makes it smarter in a different way to give us one of the most fun and purest adventure comics in recent memory. It’s no surprise that Stevenson is kicking so much ass on She-Ra.

The book has been going for some time now, so the creative teams have shifted, but the art is remarkably consistent through the volumes, and it’s clear, sharp cartooning that’s exaggerated in all the right ways for a woodsy, camping adventure tale like this. Lumberjanes is another book with a huge cast that’s well managed, and it’s a lot of fun to read through.

read Lumberjanes on Amazon

27. Showa: A History of Japan

Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quarterly)

Technically, Showa is like, 30 years old. But it took 25 of those years for it to be released in the States, and there are no rules to this list, so I’m counting it.

Mizuki is one of the fathers of manga as a form, and as someone who came to his work after reading folks like Otomo and Urasawa, and decades after becoming familiar with anime, his work feels quaint and unsophisticated. Which is a really interesting pairing with the subject matter – Showa is a history of Japan in the Showa era, spanning the ‘20s through the late ‘80s, a period of massive transition for Japan that I mostly knew from broad strokes. He switches back and forth between a hyper-detailed realistic style that looks like (and sometimes is) tracing, and the cartoony manga style he uses to illustrate personal moments that tie into that history. It’s an incredibly effective storytelling technique and a useful way to bring the reader’s attention past the big picture and down to the regular peoples’ perspective of that big change. Showa is an incredible history book, and a masterpiece of the form.

read Showa on Amazon

26. Copra

Michel Fiffe (Bergen Street Comics/Image Comics)

It’s still amazing to me that Copra can even get made. It started out as a…spiritual sequel to Ostrander/Yale/McDonnell Suicide Squad in that it was almost an actual direct lift of Ostrander/Yale/McDonnell Suicide Squad only with Doctor Strange and Clea added in. But it was done with weird indie linework and colored pencil coloring, with a big zine aesthetic that made it immediately compelling. And once I got into it, I realized that Fiffe had captured everything great about that Suicide Squad run but turned it into something distinctly his own, and I’ve loved it ever since.

read Copra on Amazon

25. Afterlife with Archie

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Francesco Francavilla (Archie Comics)

This comic should not exist. It should not be good. It certainly shouldn’t be one of the best comics I’ve read in the last decade. And yet, Afterlife with Archie remains incredible. In fact, it might be the purest, finest zombie story I’ve experienced in a while. The slowly building tension is a masterclass in mood. Aguirre-Sacasa does a great job of taking Riverdale’s existing dynamic and plopping it into a zombie horror story so you get something that is recognizably both things at the same time. Francavilla’s art is probably the least surprising part of the equation, in that it is incredible. And the fact that you can probably draw a straight line between some of the themes here and what ended up on your screens in Riverdale is...pretty insane. And amazing.

read Afterlife With Archie on Amazon

24. Scalped

Jason Aaron, R.M. Guera (Vertigo)

The best thing about Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera’s Scalped is the cast. It’s a HUGE book, about an FBI investigation into corruption on a reservation that sends Dash Bad Horse back home undercover to investigate. Everyone Dash encounters, and everyone who’s conspiring to make life in Pairie Rose garbage, is a full character within two sentences. They all sound different, move different, look different. They carry the weight of a rough life in their posture and their cadence.

Superhero comics developed the distinctive costumes so artists could distinguish between characters easily. It’s hard to draw distinctive, consistent, recognizable people in street clothes, but Guera is amazing at it, and Aaron puts so much care and character into everyone who sets foot on the page that Scalped is impossible to put down.

read Scalped on Amazon

23. Nancy

Olivia Jaimes (GoComics)

“Sluggo is lit” isn’t quite the cultural phenomenon it was when Olivia Jaimes, the pseudonymous cartoonist, first introduced it to the strip she took over in 2018. But it’s still damn funny. I’ll admit, I completely blew it on Nancy in 2018 – it hadn’t registered with me because I don’t get print newspapers and only have a passing knowledge of their comic strips anymore. But when I first saw it, I died laughing.

And then I took a closer look at some of the comics – the one where Nancy steals the cookies from the top of the fridge by tossing them between panels to herself, or the joke about filler where the last panel is mostly an empty word balloon – and I realized that Jaimes, in addition to being funny as hell, really gets how to screw with the flow of information from comic to reader. She’s exceptionally talented, and Nancy is amazing work.

read Nancy here

22. The Hard Tomorrow

Eleanor Davis (Drawn & Quarterly)

The Hard Tomorrow stressed me out, and then lifted me up at the end. It’s very much a comic about our current moment (and by “current moment,” I mean the singularity that the last four years have compressed into). It doesn’t capture the terror that some groups might feel, but it does a great job of conveying that background hum, like a cultural migrane, that makes everything more difficult in the world. And then, intentionally or not, it swings the story back around and pumps you full of hope and meaning with the last ten pages. It’s incredible comics work from Eleanor Davis, an amazing talent.

read The Hard Tomorrow on Amazon

21. My Heroes Have Always

Been Junkies

Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Jake Phillips (Image Comics)

You can read any Criminal comic and come away happy. Okay, maybe not “happy” per se - My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies is an extremely unhappy comic, about a girl who meets a boy in rehab, gets him back on drugs with her and then goes on a trip with him, framed around her pretentious love of drug addicted musicians. It would be obnoxious if it wasn’t so incredibly well done and packed in with a twist at the end that makes it go from messed up to REALLY messed up. Everything Brubaker and Phillips have done together, back to Sleeper, has been superlative, but from the last ten years, I really feel like this is their best work.

read My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies on Amazon

20. Through the Woods

Emily Carroll (Margaret K. McElderry Books)

I don’t think there’s anybody doing slow, creepy, gothic horror like Emily Carroll right now. Through the Woods is a collection of short stories that’s full of dark blacks and loose line work, the letters worked into the art organically to amplify the creepiness and the stories built to scare. She comes at normal relationships and injects them with something horrific, but paces it so incredibly well that you barely notice it until the end, when something happens to finally make your skin crawl. Carroll is a gifted storyteller, and Through the Woods is some of the best horror stuff out there.

read Through the Woods on Amazon

19. The Flintstones

Mark Russell, Steve Pugh, Chris Chuckry (DC Comics)

Anytime a comic can get a physical reaction out of me, it’s usually a sign that it’s a very successful storytelling endeavor. I think The Flinstones’ hold music on the suicide hotline joke is the loudest I’ve shouted “holy shit” at a comic in a decade. Mark Russell is the best satirist working in comics right now, and certainly in the past decade. Steve Pugh was equal to the task of packing every joke and sly look and absurdity implied by the dialogue. The Flintstones is one of the funniest books you’ll ever read.

read The Flintstones on Amazon

18. Atomic Robo & Other Strangeness

Brian Clevenger, Scott Wegener, Ronda Pattison (Webcomic)

I love Dr. Dinosaur. I will buy anything Dr. Dinosaur is in, contribute to any crowdfunding campaign that gets me Dr. Dinosaur goods, and I will take every opportunity I can to share that “the light is for ambiance” page.

Clevinger and Wegener have created a near-perfect, accessible, entertaining adventure story with Atomic Robo. The writing is smart and sharp and Wegener does some outstanding action sequences. I don’t think there’s any comic I’ve been dedicated to for longer – I think I’ve been regularly reading Robo longer than I’ve had Batman on my pull list – and there’s no comic I recommend more frequently. Other Strangeness has two amazing Dr. Dinosaur stories and Jenkins, but you can pick up any volume and get the same high quality action adventure comics.

read Atomic Robo here

17. The Private Eye

Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, Muntsa Vincente (Panel Syndicate)

Vaughan, Martin, and Vincente made a beautiful, compelling comic book that was uncomfortably prescient.

Sixty years from now, the cloud bursts – all of the private data stored on the cloud gets released to the public. It destroys lives and relationships, and triggers an anti-internet backlash. And an anti-journalist one. It then follows an unlicensed journalist as he travels around solving a mystery in a world where everyone wears masks to throw off facial recognition tech.

The Private Eye was cyberpunk that inverted some cyberpunk formulae – it was bright and warm and shiny, distrustful of tech and very human, but it was still a grimy near-future full of people navigating a world that sucked. It was an incredible read and one of the comics I think about most, even five years down the road.

read The Private Eye here

16. Secret Wars

Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic, Ive Svorcina (Marvel Comics)

I’m using Secret Wars as a stand in here for all of Hickman’s prior Marvel work from the decade, and really the entire story that started in Fantastic Four and paid off with the final Doom/Reed battle at the end of this story. “Epic” doesn’t even begin to describe a story that starts with the council of Reeds, breaks the Avengers, destroys the multiverse, then reforms it again out of a love of adventure. I reread these comics more than any in my collection because they’re beautiful and immersive and impossibly grand.

read Secret Wars on Amazon

15. Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye

James Roberts, Alex Milne, Josh Burcham (IDW Publishing)

I still can’t believe how much I love this run of comics. I am even more flabbergasted at why: it was one of the most surprisingly thoughtful comics about sexuality and romantic relationships that I’ve ever read, and it came as part of a broader Transformers story (when paired with the story in Robots in Disguise) that had some of the best takes on gender identity and politics that I can remember.

Every word of that paragraph still makes no sense to me. I am continually delighted by this fact.

More Than Meets the Eye follows Rodimus and a group of breakaway Transformers as they search the universe for the lost Knights of Cybertron. It features a fascinating and touching relationship between Rewind and Chromedome (with Cyclonus as a third-wheel/homewrecker WHAT IS HAPPENING), and it has a deep dive into Ultra Magnus’s history as Cybertron’s premiere stick in the mud. Honestly, just take my word for it: this comic was incredible.

read Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye on Amazon

14. The Multiversity

Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Nathan Fairbairn & Others (DC Comics)

The Multiversity still contains my single favorite page of comic art from the decade: Frank Quitely breaking down Peacemaker kicking the hell out of a great lawn full of soldiers outside the White House. I can’t even begin to describe how technically fascinating that issue was or how breathtaking it still is to see. The rest of the series brought me great joy, but that issue might be the best single issue of comics I’ve read in the last 10 years.

read The Multiversity on Amazon

13. My Favorite Thing is Monsters

Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)

Everything about Emil Ferris’ debut work is absurd. The production value of the book is stellar. Her deft storytelling made me feel literally dropped into the comic several times, overwhelming me by the world she brought me into. And that this was her first published work is still, what feels like an eon later, ridiculous to me. My Favorite Thing is Monsters will make you feel like a ten year old girl, whether you’ve ever been one before or not, and that is some magical work.

read My Favorite Thing is Monsters on Amazon

12. Here

Richard McGuire (Pantheon Books)

Here started out as a comic strip in 1989, and got blown out into a full graphic novel in 2014, and both are incredibly interesting experiments with the form of comics storytelling. It sets the “camera” pointed at the corner of a room, and then spins time out in both directions, showing us what that corner looked like 2000 years in the past, hundreds of years in the future, in the 1950s, today, and a bunch of other times. And the way that McGuire manages to tell a coherent story under those restrictions is masterful work.

read Here on Amazon

11. Hellboy in Hell

Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart (Dark Horse Comics)

There’s something beautiful about Mignola spending 25 years weaving just about every mythological cosmology from human history together, and then ending that whole story by having Hellboy walk across Hell, into his childhood home, and just disappear. It’s a very quiet, peaceful ending for what had at times been a loud comic in the past, but it’s a beautiful end that refers back to other work of Mignola’s, which lends the ending a kind of peacefulness that cuts through the sadness of the loss of this story. Hellboy in Hell is a really great ending.

read Hellboy in Hell on Amazon

10. Thor: God of Thunder

Jason Aaron, Esad Ribic, Dean White & others (Marvel Comics)

There is actually some debate in my mind as to whether or not Jason Aaron’s Thor run, stretching from the stunning God of Thunder through The Mighty Thor and War of the Realms and into King Thor, is better than Walt Simonson’s Thor. It’s probably still Simonson’s run, but the fact that there’s an open question should tell you how good Aaron’s story has been. The best Thor stories have a bigger point than “Can Thor beat up the Hulk?” Aaron’s has been “What responsibilities does being a god bring with it; how do they carry them out; and how does that impact us?” It’s masterful work drawn by a collection of incredible artists.

read Thor: God of Thunder on Amazon

9. Saga

Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples (Image Comics)

The best thing about Saga to me is that the characters have grown with me. That’s not necessarily why it’s one of the ten best comics of the decade - Fiona Staples is an utterly incredible artist who without fail puts something singularly amazing into each issue - but it’s why I care about it so much. Hazel, Marko and Alana have all grown beautifully as characters since issue 1, and the world is so inventive and different from what you always get in science fiction that it’s a joy to read every time a new issue drops.

read Saga on Amazon

8. Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit

Donald Westlake, Darwyn Cooke (IDW Publishing)

Darwyn Cooke is one of the most talented people to ever work in the comics industry. He’s still, years after his passing, an enormous influence on how people conceive of the DC universe because of The New Frontier. But it’s his adaptations of Westlake’s ‘60s crime novels starring Parker that might be his best work. The Outfit is the second and my favorite, but all of them are amazing pieces of comics storytelling. Cooke’s storytelling techniques bounce all over the place, but all work amazingly well. He especially excels at showing complicated heists - the way Cooke plays with time and sequencing makes these books an amazing read.

read Richard Stark's Parker: The Outfit on Amazon

7. Prince of Cats

Ron Wimberly (Image Comics)

Wimberly’s Prince of Cats is pretty close to a perfect comic. Repurposing and adapting Shakespearean dialogue and patter to a hip hop aesthetic is, strangely, exactly what I want out of a story. Wimberly’s art is stylish as hell, with fantastic layouts and odd angles, and it is colored beautifully. It’s the story of Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet, but set in a city that’s a mishmosh of all five boroughs, in a time that’s anywhere from the mid ‘80s to present day. It’s a little bit Shakespearean tragedy, a little bit samurai anime, a little bit Planet Rock, and ultimately an amazing piece of comic book art.

read Prince of Cats on Amazon

6. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

Ryan North, Erica Henderson, Derek Charm, Rico Renzi & others (Marvel Comics)

I love how Unbeatable Squirrel Girl never talked down to readers, and in a wonderful example of what superhero comics could be (and occasionally were), how Doreen was always trying to find a way to solve problems that didn’t involve violence and would endure. Her supporting cast was terrific, guest characters were phenomenal, and Henderson has impeccable comic timing. And the book was surprisingly experimental and innovative - the zine issue and the choose your own adventure issue are two of the best single issues of comics I’ve read this decade, but even without them, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl will go down as one of my favorite comics of all time.

read The Unbeatable Squirrell Girl on Amazon

5. Hark! A Vagrant

Kate Beaton (Webcomic/Drawn & Quarterly)

Beaton is one of the smartest, funniest cartoonists out there. Hark! A Vagrant catches the best of the early decade webcomic ethos - it’s loose and fast, about anything and everything and just funny as hell. She’s got bits about Tesla, a ton of jokes about Austen and classic literature, idiot Victorian chimney sweeps. All of it lands because Beaton’s got a sharp eye and a strong voice for absurdity. I think my personal favorite remains Straw Feminists.

read Hark! a Vagrant here

4. Hip Hop Family Tree

Ed Piskor (Fantagraphics)

I’ve watched several documentaries since reading this and interrupted them, going “oh shit, I already knew this from Hip Hop Family Tree.” Piskor’s brief history of the birth and first couple of phase transitions of one of my favorite art forms is informative, smart, funny, and informed deeply by his love of comic book culture, which only enhances some of the stories he tells about early hip hop, which was also deeply informed by comics. And in retrospect, the fact that HHFT ended up circling back on superhero comics, giving us X-Men: Grand Design is too perfect for words.

read Hip Hop Family Tree on Amazon

3. Mister Miracle

Tom King, Mitch Gerads (DC Comics)

I’m pretty sure Mister Miracle is the best comic I’ve ever read as it came out. This is King and Gerads operating in peak form. Everything about it, from the content to the pacing to the characterization, was absolutely perfect. And the ambiguity of the ending, how it showed a way forward in dealing with trauma and how it inadvertently turned into a poignant love letter to the (at that time recently) departed old guard just made it all stick even harder. I loan this out to friends having kids, because I love Mister Miracle and I want everyone else to find their way to loving it, too.

read Mister Miracle on Amazon

2. Smile

Raina Telgemeier (Graphix)

I came to Raina’s world late. I have a niece who’s brilliant, and I was looking for a way to get her into comics so I’d have someone at family gatherings to talk to about this stuff. I knew that these books were popular, so I grabbed one at a bookstore and started on it. Twenty minutes later, I was walking out of the store with Smile and Sisters, and my niece finished both of them in about six hours and started asking for more. Raina tells a hell of a story, and Smile deserves to be on this list just based on craft, but it’s this high because she’s single-handedly hooking a new generation into our favorite medium. I will always appreciate that.

read Smile on Amazon

1. March

Rep. John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell (Top Shelf Productions)

I don’t think I could have landed on a different comic here if I tried. March is a unique combination of craft, relevance, and timelessness. Powell’s art is staggeringly good, full of gorgeous storytelling. And when I think about moments from comics that have stuck with me the most, I keep coming back to the bombing of the Freedom Riders’ bus at the end of volume 1. I knew it was historical and that still scared the hell out of me. Kudos and thanks to Rep. Lewis, Aydin and Powell for making an incredible book.

read March on Amazon

another one...

https://doomrocket.com/best-comics-of-the-decade/

by Molly Jane Kremer, Arpad Okay, Clyde Hall, and Jarrod Jones. It might be the most obnoxious list to put together of them all: “The Best Comics of the Decade“? Even the headline sounds obnoxiously authoritative. As the years pass us by, the memory of the many comics we’ve read and loved begins to dim. Our passions for certain projects start to pale. It happens to everyone who writes about comics. Before long, we move on to the next thing, and the next. Before long, a decade has gone by.

And now we’re supposed to rifle through our collections, our critical memories, our long-deleted notes to put together an authoritative list on the best comics of the decade? Bah!

And yet, here we are. We’re DoomRocket, and we have something to contribute to the conversation. Selected for your approval (or rampant disapproval; it makes no difference to us) is a list of our personal favorite comics that we haven’t been able to stop thinking about, regardless of the time that’s passed. Authoritative, rage-click-y headlines be damned, this is how we feel and these are…

THE BEST COMICS OF THE DECADE

The Fade Out

Written by Ed Brubaker.

Art by Sean Phillips.

Colors by Elizabeth Breitweiser.

Letters by Sean Phillips.

Published by Image Comics.

A 1948 Hollywood noir murder mystery might be considered ‘not commercially viable’, but Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips made this 12-issue series anyway. They revel in the period, the battles for artistic expression during the Red Scare. In the protagonist who’s a writer, not a fighter, but sallies forth with uncertainty, remorse, and tarnished armor anyway. Hungover.

Just like a passionate tryst you know won’t end well, you allow Brubaker and Phillips to pull you into a relationship with characters surrounding the death of a starlet. You can hardly resist, lured by their glimpses of grime beneath the glamour. Their crime fiction teaming has never been better.

By curtain close, you’re left with friendly characters who’ve turned rat, despicable ones who maybe aren’t the enemy, and all monochrome tints of black and white overshadowed by a Technicolor of ambition. Following Hitchcock’s advice, avoid showers and have yourself dry cleaned when the reel ends. — CH

Superman

Written by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Michael Moreci, James Dale Robinson.

Art by Patrick Gleason, Doug Mahnke, Jorge Jiménez, Ivan Reis, Ryan Sook, Tony Daniel, Clay Mann, Sebastian Fiumara, Barry Kitson, Tyler Kirkham, Scott Godlewski, Travis Moore, Stephen Segovia, Art Thibert, Jack Herbert, Philip Tan, Sergio Fernandez Davila, Ed Benes.

Inks by Mick Gray, Jaime Mendoza, Joe Prado, Keith Champagne, Norm Rapmund, Christian Alamy, Mark Morales, Marcelo Maiolo, Sandu Florea, Seth Mann, Arif Prianto, Trevor Scott, Vicente Cifuentes, Dinei Ribeiro, Ray McCarthy, Matt Santorelli, Scott Hanna, Rob Hunter.

Colors by John Kalisz, Wil Quintana, Alejandro Sánchez, Gabe Eltaeb, Hi-Fi, Sunny Gho, Tomeu Morey, Stephen Downer, Tony Aviña.

Letters by Rob Leigh, Dave Sharpe.

Published by DC.

Bright sapphire skies, a glint of gold emanating power. Zooming through it all, twin streaks of red, yellow, and blue. It was optimistic, it was pure, It was Superman.

Rebirth. That’s what DC promised in 2015. The revitalization of a line grown dark. Legacy was promised, too. Superman proved to be the epitome of the sheer potential of what those words carry. Patrick Gleason and Peter J. Tomasi inherited a broken home and mended it with love, care and a bit of Kansan elbow grease. (They had a lot of help, as you can see from the credits above.)

Superman: A family book? Made perfect sense to me at the time, and it’s something I find myself yearning for these days. Past incarnations of Superman had our Man of Steel offering stodgy lectures and broad heroic gestures—lip service in place of genuine morality. When young Jonathan Samuel Kent came running into the DC Universe—soon floating, then soaring—Clark Kent and Lois Lane suddenly had a level of responsibility that transcended their steel-clad codas of truth and justice. They needed to raise this child, guide him towards whatever tomorrows might come. (And, of course, they needed to teach him how to navigate a proper dinosaur stampede.)

Things have changed from here, which is only expected from a neverending battle. But for a time in the 2010s, Superman was a squishy family title and my heart was so full. — JJ

Prince of Cats

Written by Ronald Wimberly.

Illustrated by Ronald Wimberly.

Lettered by Jared Fletcher.

Published by Image Comics.

Originally published by Vertigo/DC.

The DJ cuts the record and Romeo and Juliet drops as a NYC retro remix, rival graffiti gangs who also carry samurai swords. The emcee dedicates this one to the pencil that rewinds the tape and kiss Mercutio goodbye.

The amount of work that went into Prince of Cats is staggering. The adaptation and its influence on the script, getting the Native Tongues as tight as the Bard’s, writing in metered verse. Wimberly’s art flows, loose and expressive, tightly defined and controlled, electrified vivacity captured on the page. Vintage color finishes bring paper to the page and Jared Fletcher’s pro lettering clarifies and moves in a bend to the beat.

Prince of Cats is Ron Wimberly bringing the tablets down from the mountain. The epitome of cult classic masterpiece, a triumph for the medium, an evergreen read. Postpunk Letraset matured into professional, substantive bookmaking. — AOK

Thor

Written by Jason Aaron.

Art by Russell Dauterman, Esad Ribić, Mike del Mundo, Ron Garney, Olivier Coipel, Chris Sprouse, Goran Sudžuka, Mahmud Asrar, Jen Bartel, Steve Epting, Jorge Molina, Jackson Guice, Nic Klein, Emanuela Lupacchino, Julio Martínez Pérez, Tony Moore, Christian Ward, Lee Garbett, Scott Hepburn, Daniel Acuña, Agustin Alessio, Pascal Alixe, Simon Bisley, Chris Burnham, CAFU, Becky Cloonan, Rafael Garrés, R.M. Guéra, James Harren, Frazer Irving, Kim Jacinto, Andrew MacLean, Ramón Pérez, Valerio Schiti, Walter Simonson, Jill Thompson.

Inked by Tom Palmer, Karl Story, Dexter Vines.

Colors by Matt Wilson, Ive Svorcina, Mike del Mundo, Marte Gracia, Israel Silva, Jorge Molina, Julio Das Pastoras, Dean White, Nic Klein, Julio Das Pastoras, Christian Ward, Jesus Aburtov, Agustin Alessio, Simon Bisley, Jordie Bellaire, Marco D’Alfonso, Antonio Fabela, John Rauch, Veronica Gandini, Rafael Garrés, Matt Milla, Jay David Ramos, Frazer Irving, Mat Lopes, Frank Martin, Daniel Acuña, Dave Stewart, Jill Thompson.

Lettered by Joe Sabino.

Published by Marvel.

The final month of 2019—mere weeks from this writing—brings us the final issue of King Thor, a miniseries that serves as culmination and coda to seven years of Thor comics written by Jason Aaron, lettered by Joe Sabino, and drawn and colored by some of the greatest artists working today. I regularly refer to this run as “the best superhero comics of the last fifteen years” and with a nigh innumerable talent lineup that includes the likes of master storytellers Esad Ribic and Ive Svorcina, Russell Dauterman and Matthew Wilson, and Mike Del Mundo, how could it be anything but?

Somehow Thor managed to make all of modern superhero comics’ typical pitfalls work for it. The series title hopped between including subtitles, adjectives and honorifics after numerous relaunches, but Aaron made each “new start” necessary in the metastory with nary a wane in reading quality. A legacy character—and a woman, no less—successfully took the mantle and wielded Mjolnir for almost forty acclaimed issues, making the narrative more powerful and even expanding the reading audience despite ‘fan’ outcry from certain corners of the internet. The run itself even climaxed in a good ol’ universe-wide crossover event, but War of the Realms was that rare crossover that—gasp!—actually felt organic and earned, even inevitable, after a slow-burn six-year build up.

Beyond being flawlessly crafted within and among the limitations of today’s Big Two, Thor muses on heavy matters without losing its sense of fun. While darker arcs obviously occur (hell, the series starts with a villain named Gorr the God Butcher who wields All-Black the Necrosword, if your interests tend towards the heavier of metals) the series keeps its eyes on the stars and its heart on its sleeve. After what will be one hundred cumulative issues, Thor never lost its joy for the medium and the genre, or its hope in humanity’s potential for goodness. Verily. — MJ

Secret Six

Written by Gail Simone and John Ostrander.

Pencils by Nicola Scott, Carlos Rodriguez, Jim Calafiore, Javi Pina, John Kalisz, Peter Nguyen, R.B. Silva, and Marcos Marz.

Inks by Doug Hazelwood, Rodney Ramos, Javi Pina, Javier Bergantiño, Mike Sellers, Mark McKenna, Carlos Rodriguez, Jim Calafiore, Alexandre Palamaro, and Luciana Delne

Colors by Jason Wright, Travis Lanham, and John Kalisz.

Letters by Steve Wands, Sal Cipriano, Rob Clark, Jr., Pat Brosseau, Jim Calafiore, and John Kalisz.

Published by DC.

Good dialogue covers a multitude of sins. While the sins aren’t in multitudes, the 36-issue run of Secret Six suffers editing and production stumbles. Also, company-wide crossovers. But Gail Simone’s writing (with fill-ins by John Ostrander) makes it one of the best team books of the 2010s.

The neo-noir of a supervillain crew following their own code for profit never falters, from the Battle for Skartaris to the bowels of Hell. The members are disturbed and divided, yet fiercely independent. They balk at altruistic supers dictating ‘right’, but also tell Luthor to get skull-polished when he demands they join his Villains United initiative.

We learn about the core group mostly through mingled truths and fabrications they spin relating with each another. Neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’, they’re complicated. When Worse shows up, it’s Simone’s twisted antagonists we fear. The Six reflect our revulsion and apply sizzling, savory, street justice. — CH

Mirror

Written by Emma Ríos and Hwei Lim.

Illustrated by Emma Ríos and Hwei Lim.

Lettered by Emma Ríos and Hwei Lim.

Published by Image Comics.

On a living asteroid, a gift in human hands gives animals a voice at the cost of their freedom. Mirror is a velvet blanket of stars on space and the mystery of the sphinx. A soldier’s tale, that the end of everything cannot stop hope.

This comic is the paragon of Image’s rebirth: intellectual science fiction that is both immersive-escapist and a critique of the time it was written in, dense and rich and excellent storytelling, with sophisticated, unique artwork. Mirror is the dream.

Writer and artist collaborators Emma Ríos and Hwei Lim both work in a watercolor style that is more informed by upper echelon mangaka than sterile Epcot utopia, with intense, psychedelic quasi-fashion character design, part Yoshitaka Amano, part Iris van Herpen. Imagine the alabaster hands of the minotaur overgrown with rainbow vines. — AOK

Kaijumax

Written by Zander Cannon.

Art by Zander Cannon.

Color assists by Jason Fischer.

Published by Oni Press.

What’s this? Kaiju plushes broke bad? Squishy ‘bot cops gone crooked? A King Kong-sized trifle? Kaijumax is, yes, all of these things, save for that last bit. First impressions still count for something on an over-stuffed comics shelf, but give Kaijumax a second glance. Then look deeper. You’d be surprised how closely this candy-colored monster mash resembles the ruin that is our modern lives.

Kaijumax is an excuse for Zander Cannon to draw big monsters and even bigger robot suits, sure. But Kaijumax is more, far more, than indulgent Gundam vs. Godzilla what-ifs and whats-its. It’s Eisner-caliber sequentials with HBO sensibilities. Cannon’s kaiju roll hard, fuck up, wash out—and redemption is often the one boss battle that can’t be beat.

If Kaijumax gives the impression that it was made by a man who’s worried sick about the future that lies in front of his kids, who wants to make sense out of why the powers meant to protect us are in fact built to ruin us, then you’re reading it right. That’s precisely what it is. — JJ

Interior page from ‘Wonder Woman’ #4. Art: Nicola Scott, Romulo Fajardo Jr./DC

Wonder Woman: Year One

Written by Greg Rucka.

Penciled by Nicola Scott, Bilquis Evely.

Inked by Bilquis Evely, Nicola Scott.

Colored by Romulo Fajardo Jr.

Lettered by Jodi Wynne.

Published by DC.

In 2015, along with more than a few DC properties, Diana of Themyscira needed a refresh. (A “rebirth”, not to put too fine a point on it.) Enter our saviors: Greg Rucka, lauded veteran of the Amazonian ranks in a triumphant return; Nicola Scott, longtime DC artist finally given a chance to redefine her favorite character; and Romulo Fajardo Jr., a phenomenal colorist whose work ultimately became Wonder Woman’s throughline for over eighty issues.

An origin story could be considered “easy” (and Hera knows we have enough of them for Diana) but this was the intent in a line-wide relaunch, and the Wonder Woman: Year One arc became exactly what the character—and the publisher—needed.

It was intriguing, inspirational—and goodness was it a glory to gaze upon. Six issues built on strength, brilliance, action, and adventure. Giving us a hero’s hopeful eye towards the future and, no matter what tomorrow might bring, Diana’s enduring faith in the ability to meet it head-on. This was the superhero archetype at its aspirational apex. Absolutely captivating. — MJ

Cover to ‘Locke & Key: Keys To the Kingdom’ #2. Art: Gabriel Rodriguez/IDW Publishing

Locke and Key

Written by Joe Hill.

Art by Gabriel Rodriguez.

Colors by Jay Fotos.

Letters by Robbie Robbins.

Published by IDW Publishing.

It begins with death. It ends with death. In between, though, are wonderments and heartaches and growing up. The 37-odd issues of Locke & Key were about horror and hope. Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez slapped their mystical edifice with enchanted doorways in Lovecraft, Maine, but the characters lived in a world beautiful and brutal as ours.

Which made the odd goings on at Keyhouse, whether spooky or wondrous, equally real. Gabriel Rodriguez’s art echoed Hill’s dread-ly delights. His Locke family in the everyday was charmingly real. Their travels through neverways fantastic. Their confrontations with evils hovering Beyond or lurking down the street were hair-raising.

The series set standards for modern comics horror excellence, and it’s still superior to many that have followed. The eloquence of Hill’s truths resonated above the vulgar realities and unrealities his characters faced. “Death isn’t the end of your life… Your body is a lock. Death is the key.” — CH

SuperMutant Magic Academy

Written by Jillian Tamaki.

Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki.

Lettered by Jillian Tamaki.

Published by Drawn & Quarterly.

A school where everyone has insane powers is still a school and by definition kind of sucks. SuperMutant Magic Academy should not be so relatable but beyond the cat ears and invulnerability is the restlessness and absurdity of real life. Jokes become vignettes become a world, driven by comic genius.

Jillian Tamaki’s artwork is simple, clean black and white. Never rushed, never stumbling, capable of bringing frustration to a face and then touch the furthest reaches of time while also all fitting on the back of a basement show handbill. Tamaki’s art is strong and there’s a deep, essence-of-cartoonist euphoria to be found in her hand’s voice.

Her work in the YA scene, and the YA scene itself, may truly be the defining comics of the decade. But this book here is for us. The modern burden with all the blood and tears flowing free with the laughter. — AOK

The Wicked + The Divine

Written by Kieron Gillen, Lizz Lunney, Chip Zdarsky, Chrissy Williams, Romesh Ranganathan, Hamish Steele, Kitty Curran, Larissa Zageris, Kate Leth.

Art by Jamie McKelvie, Kate Brown, Leila Del Duca, Brandon Graham, Stephanie Hans, Tula Lotay, Kris Anka, Jen Bartel, Rachael Stott, Chynna Clugston-Flores, Emma Vieceli, Carla Speed McNeil, André Lima Araújo, Aud Koch, Ryan Kelly, Erica Henderson, Lizz Lunney, Chip Zdarsky, Clayton Cowles, Julia Madrigal, Hamish Steele, Kitty Curran, Larissa Zageris, Margaux Saltel, Kevin Wada.

Colors by Matt Wilson, Dee Cunniffe, Nathan Fairbairn, Kate Brown, Brandon Graham, Stephanie Hans, Mat Lopes, Tula Lotay, Tamra Bonvillain, Ludwig Laguna Olimba, Brandon Daniels, Fernando Arguello, Aud Koch, Erica Henderson, Juan Castro, Lizz Lunney, Becka Kinzie, Chip Zdarsky, Hamish Steele, Kitty Curran, Larissa Zageris, Margaux Saltel.

Letters by Clayton Cowles.

Published by Image Comics.

In The Wicked + The Divine, a pantheon of young gods incarnate are bequeathed two years of godhood before an untimely demise. Two years to be loved and hated, two years to set hearts aflame with their gifts. Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Matt Wilson and Clayton Cowles depicted those two years (give or take a few centuries) in epic fashion over the course of an acclaimed five-year run that ended mere months ago. With the industry’s average series dwindling closer to five issues in length, five years of a monthly comic is an enormous accomplishment in itself—let alone one that packed in this much heartbreak and beauty and passion, issue after issue.

Most of the series takes place within a fixed two-year period starting in 2014 that somehow still feels like fingers on the thudding zeitgeist heartbeat of the immediate now. But then it also feels like being nineteen years old (whenever that was or is) with the wide world rolled out before you, waiting to receive your everything. That fumbling, fleeting, capricious nature of youth—as much as its end—is the spirit of the series, delusions of grandeur hand-in-hand with the enormity and responsibility of creation.

Life creates story and story creates life even if they both move inevitably towards The End, and The Wicked + The Divine is about being unabashed in the face of that, and unabashedly embracing your love for people, for inspiration, for living. And your love for Baphomet’s abs. (They’re really lovable.) — MJ

Giant Days

Written by John Allison.

Art by Lissa Treiman, Max Sarin, Julia Madrigal, John Allison.

Inks by Liz Fleming, Irene Flores, Jenna Ayoub.

Colors by Whitney Cogar, Jeremy Lawson.

Letters by Jim Campbell.

Published by BOOM! Box, an imprint of BOOM! Studios.

Life is a whirlwind of chaos and obligations, and before long you’re looking back on those hard-as-heck formative years and marveling at how great you looked, how it seemed you had all the time in the world. The present version of you sucks because your jerk job has you feeling nostalgic for a time when you were a social paragon of superheroic proportions. But, really, back then it was all you could do to keep your body upright as you attempted to discover how to be the person you were supposed to be.

That was Giant Days. Juggling everything, living your best life and blithely neglecting your worst qualities. Sometimes directly confronting the latter to the destruction of all. More, Giant Days was an entire encyclopedia of mood, ranging from ennui to euphoria. Every exquisite moment of social agony met with a crooked grin and a smashing quip. (Or, sometimes, the absence of both, because no one is perfect and that includes the characters of Giant Days.)

Did it capture the best days in the lives of Esther de Groot, Susan Ptolemy and Daisy Wooten? I hope not. I hope their lives became even more rich, more full, more exasperatingly wonderful. But we’ll never know because the series ended at its peak and right at the moment when these incredible people hit that dreaded post-university fork in the road. And just a glimpse at what came after. Now back issues of Giant Days come packed with the swelling nostalgia of a well-kept diary. When I visit them now, I miss them always. — JJ

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2001.01 - 10:10

- Days ago = 1642 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

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I am Christopher Tower the gmr

I am Christopher Tower (or Chris), and I am a writer of stuff. I grew up in Michigan; I now live in the Portland, OR metro area. I play Ultimate, ride a bike, and supposedly educate college persons while myself being educated in college. I am married with two kids, a beagle, a curly lab, and a fiesty pug/frenche mix. I like sushi. I love all SF, fantasy, comic books, D&D, board games, and Gnosticism. I am a Jungian. I am currently studying Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Walden University.

SENSE OF DOUBT STATUS AS OF 0705.04 - 16:45

Sense of Doubt is not currently dedicated to any themes or special interest. The subject matter is mine and may range from comic books to ultimate or from Baseball to feminist-centered media criticism. Until I feel I have enough content for multiple blogs, or until I am seized with a desire to create multiple blogs, this is it, and appropriately so. "Sense of Doubt" came about in Bowie’s Berlin period and the dark, ambient collaborations with Brian Eno. Like the Bowie of 1978, I have my own darkness that steals over me and through me, infecting everything. At the risk of sounding far too melodramatically obsessed with my own self-flagellations, this blog dedicates itself to that darkness, that infection. But it’s fun, too. Hey, I can be amusing? Or not. It’s the way of the [w]rench. Neurosis compelling action in insecure double-checking and misunderstanding evasions. It is my way.

More from the original description text that needed editing in 2015: Furthermore, Sense of Doubt is dedicated to the random. The theme is no theme. Just questions, doubt, and uncertainty. Feel the power of not knowing the answer. So dedicated on the last day of July 2006 by the Galactic Monkey Wrench.

The Galactic Monkey Wrench

This is the logo of the Galactic Monkey Wrench. I was given the nickname Galactic Monkey Wrench in college by a friend of mine who felt that I threw the monkey wrench into the cosmos at every available opportunity. Later, in discussions with my best friend, who is the Lord of Chaos (the Loc), he asked for my title and when I told him, without thinking, he blurted out "the gmr!" Since this was random and we appreciate randomness, I became the gmr, even though technically I should be the gmw. But gmw sounds like a car or some industrial manufacturing firm that makes a strange widget of which one has never heard. This acronym fetish may make no sense to anyone else, but my friend and I are quite driven to provide acronyms for many things. At the very least, it allows us to keep our conversations obscure and often private as no one knows about what we're talking.

Monkey Wrench Books

Chris's books

A Feast for Crows

by George R.R. Martin

This book is a little slower than the others. But if you become invested in this series, it provides key information about the history of Westeros and the lands across the Narrow Sea. It may not contain chapters with my favorite characters ...

A Game of Thrones

by George R.R. Martin

Do I really need to review this book? It's one of the best books I have ever read. Martin is a great writer. All the books are great, and I am loving my time rereading them. If you have not checked out these books, start here and get ready ...

The Golden City

by John Twelve Hawks

These books are immensely entertaining. Treat yourself to some strong writing, great action, compelling characters, and a mix of metaphysics and theology. The ending of this third book, which is presumably the last, is anti-climactic and so...

Pathfinder

by Orson Scott Card

This was a fun book. Not OSC's best but very good OSC nonetheless. The best thing about is the time travel, slowing, and speeding powers of the characters and how OSC engages the reader in discussion of causality and time paradox. For fans ...

Swamplandia!

by Karen Russell

This book came to me via my wife Liesel who discovered it and urged me to read it. Beautifully written with compelling characters and a sense of the magical (yet realistic, somewhat). Funny yet full of the pathos that marks a good if not gr...

Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1779 - Best Comics of the Decade

The Immortal Hulk

61) Lazarus by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark

58) Fatale by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

56) Grayson (The New 52) by Tom King, Tim Seely, and Mikel Janin

21) Uncanny X-Force by Rick Remender, Jerome Opena, Dean White

John Galati: I don’t know how he does it, but Rick Remender surprises me every time. And this is especially true with Uncanny X-Force.

12) East of West by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta

100. Batman & Robin

99. Black Science

98. Black

97. Assassin Nation

96. Boundless

95. Imperium

94. X-Men: Second Coming

93. Ultimates 2

92. Adventure Time

91. The Divine

90. Ivar, Timewalker

89. Virgil

88. Memetic

87. The Manhattan Projects

86. O.M.A.C.

85. All-New Wolverine

84. Assassination Classroom

83. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

82. Uber

81. The Spire

80. Aliens: Dead Orbit

79. Shade the Changing Girl

78. Wuvable Oaf

77. Upgrade Soul

76. Strong Female Protagonist

75. Journey Into Mystery

74. Kinski

73. The Sheriff of Babylon

72. Genius

71. Judas

70. Midnighter

69. Black Hammer

68. My Friend Dahmer

67. No Mercy

65. Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man

64. Ragnarok

63. Mox Nox

62. The Valiant

61. One Punch Man

60. Darth Vader

59. The Highest House

58. The Nib

57. The Wild Storm

56. House of X/Powers of X

54. The Nameless City

53. Exit, Stage Left! The Snagglepuss Chronicles

52. These Savage Shores

51. The Dark Angel Saga, Uncanny X-Force

50. Wytches

49. Fantasy Sports

48. Sexcastle

47. G.I. Joe: Cobra

46. Battling Boy

45. The Omega Men

44. Lady Killer

43. Infinite Kung Fu

42. Bandette

41. Hawkeye

40. Batman: The Black Mirror, Detective Comics

39. Giant Days

38. Berlin

37. The Underwater Welder

36. Ms. Marvel

35. Deathstroke

33. The Vision

32. 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank

31. Kid Gloves

30. XKCD

29. Two Brothers

28. Lumberjanes