Another year is coming to an end, and what better time than this to look back on the year that was in the world of comics. Of course, the biggest news this year was Disney’s purchase of Marvel Comics and its vast library of characters, with the reorganization of DC comics being just as big a story. In terms of actual product, this was a big year for DC. With Grant Morrison owning the first half of the year with the end of Final Crisis, leading into Batman R.I.P. and the start of Batman and Robin, and Geoff Johns taking over for the last half of the year, with the re-launch of Adventure Comics, reintroducing Barry Allen to the DCU in Flash: Rebirth, and the event he has been building to since bringing Hal Jordan back, Blackest Night.
Across the street at Marvel, things were mostly tied up in the Dark Reign storyline, which has largely been a disappointment for me (how many times can I read the same story? We get it, Norman Osborne is a jerk; it’s time to move on.) There were some bright spots though, with Mark Millar and Steve McNiven mixing Wolverine with Mad Max and The Unforgiven to create Old Man Logan. We also got the return of Steve Rogers (kind of) in Captain America: Reborn and another (mostly) decent year of Amazing Spider-Man, but for me, it was kind of a down year in terms of my excitement for Marvel books.
The land of independent comics was ruled by Chew from Image Comics. This little book that could went through multiple printings of its first and second issues, with early printings going for large amounts before the supply caught up with the demand. Sadly, there weren’t a lot of other Big with a capital B indie books drop this year, although as always, there were pockets of greatness.
So here are the things I have decided were best this year in comics. All these were nominated by me, voted for by myself, and are now presented by I. I have used no scientific measures for these, they are neither fair nor balanced, and were decided largely by my buying habits, which means if I didn’t buy it, it’s probably won’t be nominated. Hey, I mean, I can’t buy everything and even if I could, there’s not enough hours in my day to read everything. Without further ado”¦
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