December 2013 mostly saw the comic world gearing up and teasing towards 2014: Deadpool’s getting married, Paul Rudd is becoming Ant-Man, and the ‘New 52’ is going to have another weekly series coming out.
But the fact that everyone is looking forward to 2014, and the holidays came and went and messed with shipping schedules, doesn’t mean there weren’t plenty of good comics too. Let’s check some of them out:
Best Book of the Month: “Shaolin Cowboy” #3
Geof Darrow is some kind of dada wizard or something. There’s almost zero context for whatever sort of zombie orgy the monk has found himself in, but it kind of doesn’t matter. Darrow dials up hyper-detailed double-page spread after hyper-detailed double-page spread of speechless zombie massacre. This series commits cardinal sins that we dock other comics for committing, but I guess it proves how different comics are as a medium. If you do it right, you can get away with a book like this.
Runner-Up: “Velvet” #2
Most Disappointing Book of the Month: “Superman/Batman” #6
I love Greg Pak’s Superman so far. I still believe that he can save he character and rebuild him under the ‘New 52′. That’s why, despite my real admiration for his work on the whole, “Batman/Superman” was the book I was most disappointed to have read in December. While his first 4-issue arc with Jae Lee and Ben Oliver was a gorgeous and layered character exploration, this was just the type of generic, gimmicky entry into the canon that I’d wish we’d avoided. A video game-centric premise makes it feel a little corny and dated, and while Brett Booth is well-suited to this type of book, it’s just not where I wanted the title to go after its opening arc. No doubt this type of story probably has its fan, and I’m glad that it’s a little more lighthearted than the average DC Comics’ fare, but it’s not for me.
Best Writer: Kieron Gillen
Kieron Gillen has a lot on his plate, and it’s pretty much all great. “Three” is good. “Uber” is good. “Origin II” is far better than the premise of returning to Wolverine’s famous origin could have hoped for, to be honest. “Iron Man” is…the ongoing Iron Man title. But he earns this honor mainly for “Young Avengers”, which is hitting me right in the sweet spot. Who knew mainstream Marvel books could be this cool?
This comic has everything you could want, if you just give it a chance. It’s funny as hell. It punches you in the gut. It’s big and important in the scheme of the Marvel Universe. It’s got amazing art from Jamie McKelvie and Mike Norton. It’s a real feather in Kieron Gillen’s already full hat of comic book goodness.
Best Artist: Geof Darrow
In “Saturday Morning Panels”, I called this the “Jeffy from Family Circus” panel. In one panel, it encapsulates what a visual feast “Shaolin Cowboy” has been. Geof Darrow is a madman.
Most Disappointing Trend:
Jeff Parker’s introductory issue to “Aquaman” was plagued with a problem that has really been sticking in my craw lately. Paul Pelletier and Netho Diaz split the art duties and the resulting product was messier than a writer’s first issue should have been. It’s not starting Parker off on very good footing to have inconsistent art like this. Marvel Comics (event books aside, I guess) seem to have better advance planning for art fill-ins.
Best Collection of the Month: Joe Kelly’s “Deadpool” Omnibus
Joe Kelly’s “Deadpool”, all collected in one massive volume. Even if you don’t generally dig “Deadpool”, these are great stories. If you do dig “Deadpool”, then these are honestly the only “Deadpool” stories you need at this point.
Best New Series: “Ghost” #1
I love it when a plan comes together. Kelly Sue DeConnick, Chris Sebela, and Ryan Sook interior art. Are you kidding me?
The kicker is that the book is just as good as it should be. It’s well-paced, bouncy, and the art is slick. It was my favorite debut this month, because it was exactly as good as it should have been. Check it out!
Continued belowRunner-Up: “The Saviors” #1
Best Book You Probably Overlooked of the Month: “Manifest Destiny” #2
Read my review here for the full skinny on this one. I’m guessing less people are reading this than they should. Alt-history is a genre that is well-tread in comics, but I like the trend that’s happening lately where the history is full of anti-heroes (or flat-out psychos), where they had otherwise been idolized by textbooks. Here, Lewis and Clark are not exactly benevolent leaders. They push things a little far sometimes and it comes off as a weird mix of “oh, well those were the times” and “that makes me feel icky”, but it’s a good weird.
