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Andrew Winckles’ Top Ten Comics of 2018

AndrewThere were a lot of comics I liked this year and a lot that happened in the comic industry that I was excited about. I was especially excited because it felt like a watershed moment for comics by and about women and minorities, though we still have a long way to go. The films Black Panther and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in particular felt like breakthroughs in that, not only were they formally innovative, but they illustrated to big movie studios and publishers that there is an audience for these types of characters and stories and that, as a result, they can be profitable for them. Furthermore, comics continued to do a good job of engaging with important contemporary issues, using story-telling to speak to larger truths. As the late, great Stan Lee put it, if “in the process of providing off-beat entertainment… we can also do our bit to advance the cause of intellectualism, humanitarianism, and mutual understanding… and toss in a little swingin’ satire in the process… that won’t break our collective heart one tiny bit!” To teach and delight – this should be the goal of all good story-telling.

Before I get to my top ten comics of 2018, though, a couple apologies to comics that didn’t quite make the list. Firefly, Die, Bitter Root, and Middlewest simply did not put out enough issues before the end of the year to be included, though I love all of them and expect to see them in my top ten next year. If you aren’t already pulling them, they deserve a look. Likewise, X-23, Royal City, Descender, Infidel, X-Men: Red, Killmonger, Black Bolt, and Daredevil were consistently excellent this year, there simply was not enough room on my list. So, without further ado, here are my top ten comics of 2018:

Days of Hate10. Days of Hate (Image Comics)

Ales Kot has been on fire this year with Bloodborne and The New World connecting with very different types of audiences. Days of Hate may be his best work, however, a slow burn thriller set in a very near future where the country has become dominated by a mildly fascist, anti-immigrant government. It follows the lives of two women who have decided to take stands against this government in very different ways. At the end of the day, though, it is a love story about these two women and the power of love to overcome the most toxic forms of hate. Brilliantly paced with subtle art and paneling by Danijel Zezelk and Jordie Bellaire, Days of Hate is an all too believable look at what our country is becoming. 

 

Man Eaters

9. Man-Eaters (Image Comics) 

Chelsea Cain (Mockingbird) returned to comics this year with a bang – publicly calling out Marvel for cancelling her Vision series and for their treatment of freelancers – and then with her independent title Man-Eaters. This book takes place in a world where have become infected with Toxoplasmosis-X, a virus which (untreated) causes them to mutate into killer panther-like cats when they reach puberty and start menstruating. As a result, the government has pumped the drinking water full of estrogen to prevent girls from getting their periods. Man-Eaters follows the adventures of a young girl named Maude, the daughter of a policeman and cat hunter, who gets her period and has to hide it from her parents. A bitingly brilliant satire on the way culture talks about and treats women, Man-Eaters creates a fully developed world – complete with satirical ads and magazine articles – that feels refreshingly new and important. It was one of my favorite new comics of the year. 

Coyotes8. Coyotes (Image Comics) 

During a year in which immigration and the border were never far from the headlines no comic did a better job of addressing these issues and the intertwined questions of identity and otherness than Coyotes, by Sean Lewis and Caitlin Yarsky. Set in an almost mythical borderland, Coyotes tells the story of Red, an orphan who is taken in by a group of all-female militants known as the Victorias, whose primary mission is to protect girls and women from roving gangs of men who have mutated into vicious wolves. Coyotes asks difficult questions about gender, identity, and the possibility of redemption – imagining a potential space within which a genuine community of equals could exist peacefully together. This book deserved more than eight issues, but it makes those eight issues all the more worth tracking down.

She Could Fly7. She Could Fly (Berger Books) 

Luna Brewster is a sixteen-year-old girl who suffers from an extreme form of obsessive-compulsive disorder which causes her to fixate on worst case scenarios that have little basis in reality. One day she witnesses a mysterious woman flying over the streets of Chicago but, before she can be identified, she explodes in mid-air. This sends Luna on a quest to figure out who the mysterious flying woman was and why she died. While this premise seems strange on the surface, in the hands of Christopher Cantwell and Martin Morazzo, it is developed into a touching and nuanced portrayal of mental illness. Cantwell offers no easy answers or closure in She Could Fly, but instead presents a story of a young girl struggling with her inner demons and ultimately learning that she is not as alone as she thought.

Catwoman6. Catwoman (DC Comics)

After leaving Batman at the altar, a heartbroken Selina Kyle flees to Villa Hermosa and attempts to live off the grid – crashing in a self-storage unit filled with most of her earthly possessions. She is reluctantly dragged back into action, though, when an army of Catwoman copycats start committing crimes all over town. Behind it all is the villainous Raina Creel – the governor’s wife – who owns perhaps the creepiest reveal in all of comics this year. Jöelle Jones is one of the brightest new talents in comics and she proves it here, both writing and drawing a captivating book that dives into Selina’s past and the compounded effects of the traumas she has experienced. Most impressively she takes a character who is often one dimensional and turns her into a complex, interesting anti-hero. The story telling is compelling, the art is stunning, and Catwoman is hands down one of the best comics of the year.

Thor

5. The Mighty Thor (Marvel Comics)

Jason Aaron’s take on Jane Foster as the Mighty Thor has been exceptional from day one. From the moment Foster was found worthy to wield Mjolnir, Aaron has taken the Thor mythology to new places and new heights. Her body wracked by cancer, wielding the hammer reverses the effects of the disease, but only as long as she holds it, when she puts it down the cancer advances even more rapidly. “The Death of the Mighty Thor” story arc finds Foster at the end. She only has the power to pick up the hammer a couple more times but is needed more than ever to save both Asgard and Midgard. What could have been a cheesy or disappointing finale becomes, in the hands of Aaron, one of the best comics of the year. It is moving and affecting in a way that I don’t often experience in comics. Here we see gods weep and we bear witness to the fact that true strength doesn’t come with force of arms, but through humility and self-sacrifice. Simply put, The Mighty Thor re-imagines superhero mythology in a way that can and should have a transformative effect on the industry. 

Snagglepuss4. Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles (DC Comics)

Mark Russell is a genius. After completely re-thinking The Flintstones last year, this year he takes on Hanna-Barbera’s iconic pink cougar, re-imagining Snagglepuss as a gay southern playwright in the era of Joseph McCarthy and the House Unamerican Activities Committee. Snagglepuss is the most famous playwright in America but is also hiding the secret of his sexuality and trying to stay out of the sites of the HUAC. Along the way he is paid a visit by Huckleberry Hound, his childhood friend who Russell imagines as a William Faulkner style novelist, and whose story intersects with the tragic history of violence against LGBTQ individuals in America. The Snagglepuss Chronicles is a book that shouldn’t work but, in the hands of Mark Russell it is a masterpiece.

 

Doctor Star3. Doctor Star and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows (Dark Horse) 

What Jeff Lemire has done in developing his Black Hammer universe at Dark Horse Comics is nothing short of astonishing. What began with a central Black Hammer book, has now extended to an entire universe, filled with an increasing array of characters and stories. Doctor Star, with incredible art by Max Fiumara, is one of the best. The eponymous Doctor Star is an astronomer who, pre-WWII, develops a wand that allows him to travel through time and space. He uses it to help the allies win the war, before beginning to travel further abroad. On one of these trips to space, however, he ends up on a planet where time moves faster than on earth and, when he returns, he finds that decades have passed. His wife has fallen into a deep depression and his son has never forgiven him for leaving. A heartfelt, moving meditation on heroism, fatherhood, and regret, Doctor Star will have you in tears by the final issue. A brilliant comic book that deserves a place on every reader’s shelf.

Hulk2. The Immortal Hulk (Marvel Comics)

The first issue of Marvel’s relaunched The Immortal Hulk, by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett, finds Bruce Banner damned, unable to die and almost completely at the mercy of his Hulk persona, which stalks the night out of control. Taking the Hulk back to his horror roots, Ewing and Bennet tell the tale of a Hulk unhinged, a monstrous presence who even the Avengers must ultimately rally against. While The Immortal Hulk chooses to tell its story primarily within self-contained issues, the cumulative effect of the loosely connected arc is a meditation on evil and monstrosity, an exploration of how these monstrous elements are tearing Bruce Banner’s soul apart. Issues 7 and 8 are particularly notable for how they pit Hulk against his former allies, the Avengers, who are faced with the necessity of (literally) disassembling the beast. Bennett’s pencilling on these issues in particular is out of this world and take the book to a whole different level. This is the best Hulk book in years and, even if you don’t generally like the Jade Giant, you should be reading this comic.

Gideon Falls1. Gideon Falls (Image Comics)

Jeff Lemire has had an incredible year. In addition to penning Doctor Star, he has continued to develop his larger Black Hammer universe, while also wrapping up his ongoing Descender and Royal City books and writing The Sentry for Marvel. All of these titles could easily be in my top ten, but it is his work on Gideon Falls with Andrea Sorrentino that really rises to the top this year. A tightly plotted thriller about a man named Norton Sinclair, who is collecting pieces of garbage for a mysterious purpose, and a country priest who is haunted by his past Gideon Falls sucks you in from issue one and doesn’t let you go. Along the way we are introduced to the mystery of the Black Barn, which haunts both men, and come to realize that not everything is as it appears – the men are connected in ways that are only just becoming clear. Andrea Sorrentino’s experimental art and paneling are really what make the comic, though, pushing the boundaries of what is artistically possible in comic books, while at the same time presenting a readable and tautly paced story. Gideon Falls is hands down the best book of the year.

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