We come to the end of another year, and now is the time to look back in fondness of the good stuff as to we try to drink away the bad stuff. And so it goes with the comics world, as every reviewer and blogger has fun making their list and checking it twice as we expel the virtues of the great works of the past year. Who am I to resist the siren’s song of the “Best of” list, so I present to you, my fine readers, a selection of categories chosen by me, with a bunch of winners and also runner-ups, also selected by me. Love it, hate it, agree with it, disagree with; please do me the favor of commenting below.

Runner ups – Brian Michael Bendis, Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Darwyn Cooke

Not a very difficult choice to make on this one. No writer had a more varied line-up of titles while keeping on schedule and making every book a great read. Let’s look at Bru’s hit list for this year: Daredevil, which is maybe not his stand-out book, but is good every month; Immortal Iron Fist, co-written by Matt Fraction, admittedly I’ve switched to trades on it, but the first arc was very exciting and this is well regarded by a lot of people: Criminal (see below); Uncanny X-men, I had a blast with Bru’s first arc on the title, and I’m hearing good things about his issues of Messiah Complex. Finally, there’s Captain America, which had a lot of buzz early in the year, thanks to a certain big event, but that buzz was stupidly squandered through no fault of his own because of Marvel’s production. Brubaker is telling a very long, involved plot here with a ton of characters, but the reader never feels lost. What other writer can boast having one of the best series on the market without a single appearance by the title character?

As for the runner ups, all had very decent years. Bendis is now the best part of New Avengers, as his scripts are the only thing keeping me reading. He also continues to cruise along with Ultimate Spider-Man, and he finally got Powers back on track. His downfall is Mighty Avengers, even though the non-start was not his fault, I’m still not certain this will be a decent title. Geoff Johns also had a great year, thanks mostly to Green Lantern, JSA, and Booster Gold. He’s had some issues getting Action Comics back on its feet but should make a good showing next year. Grant Morrison would be higher but he really only had two titles this year, with All-Star Superman and Batman, and while AS Supes is great, it’s too sporadic, and I don’t read Batman, but have heard that it’s not his best work. Darwyn Cooke is also brought down by a lack of production, but he’ll get his kudos all the same. In the end, Bru wins it through sheer output of work.

Runner ups – John Romita Jr., Sean Phillips, Gabriel Ba, Darwyn Cooke

Stuart Immonen started the year on one of the best series of the last few years, Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E., then came the news that he would be stepping in to replace Mark Bagley on Ultimate Spider-Man, and his rating went into the stratosphere. In a few short months, Immonen has put his own stamp on the title, while still keeping the kinetic energy that Bagley brought to the pages. He’s managed to keep the look of the characters, while keeping it in his own style. We can also sleep well knowing that although he can’t crank out quite as many pages as Bagley, the book will stay on a solid schedule. Add in his name being the one to launch Marvel Comics Presents, and you can see why he has become one of the most popular artists on the scene.

John Romita Jr. also had a good year, finishing up The Eternals, drawing the best issue of Fallen Son, and then bringing the action and destruction in World War Hulk. Say what you will about the story, but you can’t deny his work on that series. Sean Phillips quietly had a great year, bringing life to the characters in Criminal and living death to the characters in Marvel Zombies. Gabriel Ba was doing decent work at the start of the year on Casanova, creating a crazy world and having it make sense. But then came Umbrella Academy, and his work was raised to the next level. He’ll more than likely be on this list again next year. We’ll hear more about The Spirit later.

Runner ups – Green Lantern, Ultimate Spider-Man, Criminal, Captain America, Casanova, Wasteland, Booster Gold, Umbrella Academy, Fables, DMZ, Local

Look at that list of runner ups. This one was a pretty tough choice as there were a lot of great books this year. Captain America or Fables both had great years. Green Lantern had the event of the year in the Sinestro Corps War. Ultimate Spider-Man was good month in and month out. Criminal, Booster Gold, and The Umbrella Academy all had good starts and are sure to be on other people’s lists. Casanova really turned it on with the second album, changing it from a great read, to a must-read. Wasteland is one of the best indie books on the stands. Then there’s the one-two punch of Brian Wood, with DMZ being the second best Vertigo series and Local would probably be third on my list if more issues had come out.

The winner though is Darwyn Cooke‘s The Spirit. Cooke has managed to take a character I had zero interest in or knowledge of before and has created the most artistically perfect book on the stands. Cooke, along with inker J. Bone and colorist Dave Stewart, have given us the most unique book from an art and design standpoint. From the covers, to the title page, to the layouts, this book never fails to impress me with new ways of doing things. Cooke has filled this book with the spirit (pun intended) of creator Will Eisner, and just as the original series was a way to advance the comic art-form, this series does the same thing. I can’t imagine anyone filling the shadow that Cooke will leave behind in a few months when he leaves the book, but I certainly wish them luck. My only hope is that this book is at least in the running come this time next year.

Runner ups – The Spirit, Booster Gold, Umbrella Academy, Immortal Iron Fist

In the name of not repeating myself, I’ve disqualified The Spirit, but needless to say, it’s basically co-winner of this category. Criminal takes it on the strength of its compelling story and always interesting back-matter. Through the first two stories Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have created a seedy universe for the characters to inhabit, with connections between characters coming up in an organic way, and plots that are well-worn but constructed with total professionalism. The first arc “Coward” gave us the story of Leo and a heist gone badly. The second tale, “Lawless,” is hardly concerned with crime as it is with telling the story of revenge. Sean Phillips is the perfect artist for this kind of book. He can handle the action scenes fine, but he excels at the inter-personal relationships and at showing the emotions of the characters. It’s not really flashy work, but is the perfect fit for this series. Val Staples creates the perfect mood with the colors, keeping things dark, but never muddy or hard to read. Adding to the package is the inclusion of essays by a number of writers, directors, and comedians all exploring famous aspects of the noir genre. There’s always some off-beat film or book to check out after reading this. It might not be as good as Casanova‘s back-matter of looking into the creative process, but I love reading it. February can’t come soon enough for the series to return for a second season.

Runner ups – New Avengers: Illuminati #2, Criminal #5, Green Lantern #25

In which we learn the origin of The Spirit and Darwyn Cooke shows us just how good this run of issues will be. I could have picked any issue of The Spirit as my favorite, but this one still sticks out in my mind as being a great story with perfect art. Honestly, I can’t imagine this book without Cooke’s creative direction on it, and I don’t know how it will continue without him, and that’s not to say that the next team will do a bad job. I just loved, loved, loved this book that much.

As for the rest of the issues on this list, each had great art paired with a great story. New Avengers: Illuminati #2, or Jim Cheung‘s break-out party, showed everyone how good his work is and made him an even bigger name than his work on Young Avengers did. Bendis’ story meanwhile set up some great stories for the future, but managed to make the single issue work on its own. It was definitely the best issue of a very good mini. Criminal #5 brought an end to the first story arc with a bang and a surprising yet totally expected twist. Whether issue #5 or #10 had the best ending is very much up for debate, and either one of them could have been here. Green Lantern #25 brought an end to the Sinestro Corps War story and was chock full of great moments, such as the defeat of the Anti-Monitor and the rally of the people of Coast City as well as setting up the next batch of GL stories. A lack of perspective on the issue kept it out of the top spot; I just can’t bring myself to say a book that came out so recently is best. I’m sure there are dozens of other issues that could fit on this list here, but for brevity’s sake, I kept it short.

Runner ups – Iron Man: Hypervelocity, World War Hulk, Shazam: Monster Society of Evil

I had Shazam as the winner until I started writing, and then I realized that it really wasn’t and that the New Avengers: Illuminati mini was not much better, but certainly had a step on the competition. I almost feel like dropping this category because I don’t feel like any of these were particularly “good.” They each had strong points going for them. Illuminati, World War Hulk, and Shazam all had some of the best art you could read this year. Jim Cheung, John Romita Jr., and Jeff Smith all did stellar work, probably Romita doing the best of them all. He made you feel every hit in this fight-filled mini. Iron man: Hypervelocity was just a blast to read, and told the best Iron Man story of the year, in no small part to Tony Stark being mostly dead for the bulk of the series. It was written by Adam Warren, but didn’t have art by him, which if he had drawn it would have put this at the top. The art wasn’t bad, but I love Warren’s manga-inspired work, so points off for that. And while World War Hulk was fight-tastic (I think I’m in the minority of people who enjoyed it), Illuminati was retcon-tastic, Shazam was fun-tastic, and Iron Man was robot-tastic, I can’t say any of them were super great. Illuminati was my favorite of them though, so I guess I’ll give it the win, begrudgingly. Anyone else have any suggestions? I’m sure I missed a ton here, but there’s only so much I can read.

(I just realized what could be best mini of the year, although I’m not sure if it counts though, because it’s part of a series of minis, but Fear Agent: The Last Goodbye is my new unofficial winner. Fear Agent is a great book worth picking up, and that story is a great place to start.)

Runner-ups – Elektra/Black Bolt are Skrulls, Zombie Gustave Eiffel attacks, Sharon Carter kills Cap

There were a ton of great moments in comics in 2007. Pages or panels or story points that just left me wanting to read more, and I’m leaving off a bunch here, mostly DC moments, because I don’t read much from DC. About the only thing I find enjoyable is our winner though. My praise for the Sinestro Corp story has been vocal and massive. I really enjoyed it. There were so many cool story moments throughout, whether it’s the Battle of Mogo, Super(boy)man getting another beat-down, the reveal of the seven corps, the preview of the eighth corps, or Sinestro’s beat down at the hands of Hal and Kyle. But the last page of the first chapter of the story takes it for me. When the Anti-Monitor showed up at the end of Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special #1, it said to me that this was going to be a story to pay attention to. DC did a great job of keeping it hidden and surprising, and it was one of those things that I couldn’t believe they would do. I know a lot of people complain about DC focusing too much on the original Crisis and over using it, but this is one resurrection that got me excited.

Across the street at Marvel, they had they’re own big reveal, namely the coming of the Skrullocalypse in New Avengers #31, as well as the reveal of Black Bolt in New Avengers: Illuminati #5. This one was also pretty surprising, although not as well kept as DC did with the Anti-Monitor. It does set up some good stories, but it seems like maybe they revealed it too early. The execution of the story just hasn’t been done well due to production issues, mainly with Mighty Avengers. The story has stretched itself out for too long, and I get less interested with each passing month. That initial moment though got a lot of tongues wagging.

And then there was that thing that happened in Captain America #25. Yeah, even though Marvel kind of spoiled the death for a lot of readers, the skill that Ed Brubaker used to show how the death affected the other characters and what he has written coming out of that one event makes this basically a co-winner.

And then there’s the moment in Umbrella Academy #1 when the characters reveal who’s attacking them, and I fell in love with the series. When the zombie Gustave Eiffel attacks, my soul did a little dance of joy at the shear craziness of the moment. With one page I came to realize that this Gerard Way guy might have some comics writing chops. It didn’t hurt that Gabriel Ba never looked better to my eyes.

Runner ups – More Umbrella Academy, More Casanova, Criminal Vol. 2

Looking forward for 2008, there are some big projects coming and a lot of things to look forward to. I guess the first thing up will be the next issue of Captain America, which will see the new cap wearing a new costume designed by Alex Ross. If you read the last issue you pretty much know who it’s going to be. February brings us the glorious return of Ed Brubaker’s Criminal with a completely unnecessary new #1. Oh good night has the wait been painful. May will see the end of DC’s Countdown and the start of their next big event, Final Crisis, and if you believe it is the “final” crisis, I’ve got some Arizona swamp land to sell you. With the end of the first Umbrella Academy mini, I’m looking forward to seeing what future stories are to come, and hoping that Ba stays on as artist, or is replaced with someone else I enjoy. Matt Fraction’s second volume of Casanova will also be coming to an end fairly soon, but I’m sure there’s more fun coming, this time I hope that Gabriel Ba’s brother, Fabio Moon, will be staying on this, as his work has really improved an already great series. Then there’s Jeff Smith’s Rasl, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 3, here’s hoping we see Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5 come out this year, Brand New Day which will get a lot of people interested in Spider-Man again, and will at least get me to read the first trade. There’s also the end of Joss Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men and the start of Warren Ellis’ run. With John Cassaday finished on Astonishing, hopefully will see the end of Planetary this year (and a final trade for us trade readers). Then there’s whatever big shake up Jeph Loeb has in store for the Ultimate universe. All that and whatever else we haven’t even heard of yet.

The current one on my mind is Brian Michael Bendis’ and Leniel Yu’s Secret Invasion. This will probably be the big event for Marvel this year, and sees Bendy taking the reins again of the major Marvel plotline all other’s are built on. This has been building for a while and I can’t wait to see what Bendis does, hopefully giving us a proper ending as opposed to the non-ending of House of M. I’m a big fan of Yu’s art and I’m hoping that he will have enough time to do his best, and not to do what seems like rushed work that he is doing currently on New Avengers. If he has time and an inker, his work can look spectacular. I know his run on New Avengers is coming to an end soon; hopefully there will be enough lead time for him to do his best work.

Runner-ups – Whiteout, Iron Man, Watchmen

And finally we look at the big comic book movies coming out next year, and there’s a good crop coming up. After 2007’s lousy line up, which included the likes of Ghost Rider, Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four 2, and 30 Days of Night (300 stands out to me as the only really good one from last year, and a lot of people disliked it as well), we get what looks like a great set of movies. Of course, the one I’m looking forward to most is Christopher Nolan‘s second batman flick The Dark Knight. Batman Begins is one of my favorite movies, and I have a lot of faith in the cast and crew that they can do just as well with this one. I’m intrigued with the addition of Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, who seems to be an important piece of the film, but has not been shown much in the promotional material. Like a lot of others, I wasn’t so sure when I heard Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker, but the images and previews I’ve seen have alleviated most of my fears. There is of course a shadow hanging over the production now, in light of the passing of Heath Ledger, but it sounds like all of his work was completed. My only hope is that this film stands as a tribute to the talent lost by his untimely death. This is definitely a movie I’m seeing on opening night.

What could be this year’s 300 (standout non-comic comic movie) is Whiteout, based on the Greg Rucka series. The plot is about a murder investigation at the South Pole and should make for a good thriller if done right. I haven’t heard much about it or seen many images but I really enjoyed the book enough to want to see this. Kate Beckinsale is cast as the lead, and while she doesn’t fit the look of the character from the book, I enjoy what she’s been in so she doesn’t scare me off. Hopefully this is well done and we can get maybe a Queen and Country movie out of it.

The trailer for Iron Man is reason enough to get me excited. It looks like they have captured the spirit and look of the series and I’m hoping they pull it off. Jon Favreau does not have a lot of experience as a director, but it looks like he’s doing a good job so far. The cast looks awesome, and the trailer showed that Robert Downey Jr. has the part down. I’m excited to see it, but I’m curious to see how it turns out.

Then there are the rest of the films coming out, which include the big daddy, Watchmen (2009), which has a largely unknown cast and a pretty young director. I just wonder what will be kept and what will be lost from the book. Unless they really pull it off, fanboys are going to hate it one way or the other, so it’ll be more important to see how non-readers will feel about it. Also noteworthy is Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. I enjoyed the first one enough but I’m not a religious Hellboy fan, so my anticipation is a bit dialed down. It looks good so far so I might be seeing this. Incredible Hulk gets another shot, this time staring Ed Norton and Liv Tyler in a battle against the Abomination. It sounds like they want to distance themselves as far as possible from the Ang Lee’s ultra serious film of years past, but I just worry they’ll go too far the other way and not take it seriously enough. Again, I haven’t seen any Hulk shots, but the cast is decent enough. I’ve got a wait and see approach to this one, but my hope is for a good action movie at the very least.

And that’s my wrap-up to the crazy world of comics. Here’s hoping 2008 sees as many great releases as this one did, and here’s for a huge step up in comic book movie quality. With the writer’s strike still going strong, these may be the last ones we’ll see for a while, so enjoy them while they last. At least with no movies or TV, I can catch up on my reading. Happy 2008 to one and all!!