It’s been a while since we threw down on an edition of Multiversity 101, but to close the year properly, I’m going back to do another edition of my best and worst in comics of the year. Not only that, but I’m going to throw in a caveat: Saga will not factor in at all. I love the book, it was my favorite of the year, but it swept our awards and it’s now time to focus a bit on books that aren’t driven by BKV and Fiona Staples.
So, now presenting Multiversity 101’s fourth annual Best and Worst in comics awards.
Best Moment: “To me, my Galactus.”
Why it’s the best: When we were doing 2012 in Review, I received an email from MC writer Walt Richardson asking if he could simply write, “To me, my Galactus” for his write-up for Fantastic Four #604. Before I could respond, he wrote something longer, more grandiose, but far less to the point. “To me, my Galactus,” Franklin Richards says as he battles a fleet of Celestials, and for me, as a kid who grew up knowing that these guys are the most powerful of the powerful, the whole idea just shocked me. Taking on Celestials? Then, Franklin wins, with the line of “the Devourer of Worlds had many heralds. Franklin has had only one.” closing it. For me, in 2012, no moment blew me away like this one. It rocked the world found between the 28-year old mind I have and the 8-year old that existed somewhere inside.
Runners up
Franklin(s) and Leech play in “FF” #23
The Boomerang Arrow comes back in “Hawkeye” #3
Rufus escapes in “Locke & Key: Omega” #2
Worst moment: “Bitch to be you right now.”
Why it’s the worst: Oh man. The fact that this somehow entered my lexicon to a certain degree should give it some level of awesome factor, but it really doesn’t. This line penned by Brian Azzarello is the “what happens to a toad in a lightning storm?” of his career. In a bad book, this somehow overshadowed everything else within the pages of Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1.
Best Graphic Novel: Cow Boy: A Boy and his Horse
Why it’s the best: This year had a lot of greats (note: I have not checked out Ware’s Building Stories, amongst others), but for some reason, this slight all-ages GN from Nate Cosby and Chris Eliopoulos was the one that stuck with me the most. Filled with pitch perfect art from Eliopoulous and highly entertaining characters by Cosby, this story was as fun as it was surprisingly heart wrenching at times. It’s an unexpected beauty, and one that comes with all of the premium packaging we’ve come to know from Archaia. Boyd Linney, for me, was one of the best new characters of the year, as Cosby and Eliopoulos filled him with all the spark and vitality we’d expect from a kid of his age, along with some surprising depth and power. A gem of gems, Cow Boy should be in more readers collections.
Runners up
Parker: The Outfit
Underwater Welder
Best Digital Comic: The Stars Below
Why it’s the best: This year, I folded web comics and digital comics into the same umbrella, and that left me with a hard decision. Do I go with an ongoing web comic that I treasure, like Karl Kerschl’s Abominable Charles Christopher? Do I go with an ongoing digital comic, like Monkeybrain’s Edison Rex? Ultimately, the decision was easy as no comic surprised me more than The Stars Below, a one-shot from Zack Smith, Rich Ellis and Monkeybrain Comics. When I first reviewed it, it nestled its way up to match a recent iteration of Edison Rex as the highest reviewed Monkeybrain book I looked at. After time and a reread or two, I quickly realized just how much I loved this simple, beautiful comic about a pigeon on a quest for discovery. Filled with a clever concept by Smith and spot on art from Ellis, this little story – just 99 cents! – found its way into my heart and to the top spot in this category.
Continued belowRunners up
The Abominable Charles Christopher
Edison Rex
Best New Series: Hawkeye
Why it’s the best: #Hawkguy is good. Real good, bro. The reasons why are simple. You have Dave Aja and Javier Pulido providing line art, Matt Hollingsworth killing it on colors, and Matt Fraction developing one of the most singularly original and refreshing titles in comics today. It’s the perfect merging of Fraction’s character abilities and gift to tie simple high concepts with strangely innovative ideas (one and done stories? focusing on the minutiae of life? dog cops?), and what comes out is nothing short of the best book Marvel is making today.
Runners up
Thor: God of Thunder
Danger Club
Fury MAX
Best Mini-Series: Punk Rock Jesus
Why it’s the best: Even before reading the stellar final chapter – which dropped in 2013 – I knew Sean Murphy’s Punk Rock Jesus was undoubtedly the best mini-series I read in 2013. With parallel stories showing the growth of two angry, powerful men in Thomas McKael and Chris, the clone of Jesus Christ, we’re given character arcs that show the power of truth, of religion, of free will, and of plenty more. These two characters are instant classics, especially McKael, a hulk of a man who is in pursuit of absolution yet all he can find is violence. It’s a heartwrenching tale with big ideas, a believable foundation and some of the more thoughtful storytelling in comics today. Then you have Murphy’s art, which is where he normally hangs his hat, and with good reason: the guy is absolutely one of the best in the business. Combine all that, and this category isn’t even close. It’s a Punk Rock Jesus world, we’re just living in it.
Runners up
B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Long Death
Reset
Best Return: Valiant Comics
Why it’s the best: This also could be called “Most Unexpected Return,” but if I had to place money on Valiant returning in 2012, and successfully, I would assume I would have lost. Yet here we are, with Valiant now having a pretty full line-up of books that are critically and commercially successful. Not only that, but they’ve done this whole thing right. Want a good book? Get good creators. Names like Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry, Robert Venditti and Cary Nord, Justin Jordan and Patrick Zircher…you name it, they’ve got talent behind their titles. By simply getting back to the basics – X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Harbinger, etc. – and putting consideration into who crafts these titles, Valiant crushed 2012 and is looking for even more growth in 2013. I’m looking forward to seeing more from them as we move along.
Best Arrival: Monkeybrain Comics
Why it’s the best: The exciting thing about an endeavor like Monkeybrain Comics, the digital publisher from Chris Roberson and Allison Baker, is that its foundation is pure, unbridled creativity. I was talking to Brandon Seifert, one of Monkeybrain’s favored writers, and he was telling me that they just look for creators they like and give them the ability to tell comics the way they want. Not only that, but they put them out at prices that consumer can afford – $1.99 is their most frequent price point, but $0.99 is often around as well. So far, 2012 has been a really big success for them it seems (highlighted by the firebrand moment they had where all of Roberson and Baker’s earnings went to the Hero Initiative in November), and 2013 looks to be even bigger. It’s shocking what getting good creators to make good comics at affordable prices can do, isn’t it?
Best Series Revamp: Prophet
Why it’s the best: I recently said this is the comic book equivalent of squeezing coal until it turns into a diamond, and I stand by that. The original idea was…well, it was limited in terms of the execution it received. However, what Brandon Graham (and Simon Roy, Giannis Milonogiannis, Farel Dalrymple and Ed Brisson) has done with this book isn’t just revitalize it – it’s been reinvention at its finest. A sprawling adventure story that travels through both time and space, this is one of the most unique and innovatively told comics on the shelves today. It’s taken a core concept and turned it into so much more, and has quickly become a showcase for some of the best young talent in the industry, especially when you factor in the back-ups that appear in the back of each issue. Brilliant, inventive stuff from some of the best in the business.
Continued belowRunners up
Thor: God of Thunder
Indestructible Hulk
Why it’s the worst: Following up what effectively amounts to as Mike Carey’s legendary run on this title (there was some Christos Gage after that, but let’s ignore that), Si Spurrier and Tan Eng Huat had the deck stacked against them. But the first issue of this relaunch was rough enough that my potential interest in it was quickly driven away by a Ferrari with rocket boosters loaded at every available space. The first mistake was leading with Legion in the book. The second mistake was stripping away all of the legacy that preceded it and replacing it with…well, a mental ward for Legion effectively. A bust from the get go, this is my clubhouse leader for first Marvel Now title canceled and/or refreshed.
Why it’s the best: From my section of 2012 in Review:
“This comic was freaking epic. I hate to use that word, but let’s call a spade a spade. Many books promise “game changers” and things of the like, but often they’re long on promise and short on delivery. Not the case from Mike Carey and Peter Gross’ 35th issue of The Unwritten, which found all of the major story points of the series coming to a head and changing everything about the story — and the world it exists in — irreversibly. It was comic storytelling at its absolute finest, with some of the biggest moments of the year being executed in stellar fashion from both a writing and art standpoint.
Plus, it had the greatest cover of the year from Yuko Shimizu. What else could I ask for from a comic?”
Runners up
FF #23
Fantastic Four #604
Hawkeye #6
Why it’s the worst: There were a lot of contenders for this spot, but man, my 4 Color News and Brews co-host Brandon Burpee and myself read this comic for our podcast and somehow, it was worse than I could have expected. Mashing up rough, sensationalistic art with lowest common denominator writing that was neither funny or horrific, this book may not have been the most disappointing and might have been exactly what we thought it would be, but good god, this thing was an ugly beast of a book. And that’s compared to some Zenescope books we subjected ourselves to.
Why it’s the best: These two books for the span of Forever told parallel stories that were as epic in scale as Lee and Kirby’s Fantastic Four, getting cosmic while keeping things in the family. Featuring the return of Johnny Storm, the unleashing of Franklin Richards, and the taming of the Celestials, this arc was everything I ever wanted from a Fantastic Four story, with little bits of treasure thrown in that I never knew I wanted. When it was all said and done, I knew for a fact: Hickman’s Fantastic Four run was the best I ever read. Bravura work within from all involved, but most of all Mr. Hickman.
Runners up
B.P.R.D.’s “The Return of the Master”
Chew’s “Space Cakes”
Worst Story Arc: AvX “Vs.”
Why they are the worst: To call this an arc might be too strong, but man, AvX Vs., which should have been a lot of fun, completely sucked. It retold fights that showed up in Avengers vs. X-Men proper in completely different ways, but ultimately never did anything of value with the characters or anything really interesting for the story. It was, without a doubt, a cash grab of the lowest order. Sure, 8 year old David Harper might have loved this once upon a time, but these days? It was a little rough, for sure.
Why he’s the best: What else can I say about Murphy? When working on others books, like Grant Morrison’s Joe the Barbarian or Scott Snyder’s American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest, he crushes it and gives us art that rivals anyone else in the comic art game today. When he works on his own book? Forget about it. Murphy’s art on Punk Rock Jesus was filled with iconic shots, huge levels of detail (I really loved the panel that showed what materials had been spurning Chris’ transition – a study of who’s who in science and punk music, it was) and incredible character work. Not only that, but his storytelling is unrivaled. Murphy brings drama to life on his pages, walking us through whole worlds and situations in purely logical, story driven ways. It’s style and substance, and it’s the best art I saw this year in comics.
Continued belowRunners up
Dave Aja
James Harren
Nick Dragotta
Why he’s the best: Not only was he the man responsible for my favorite arc and moment of the year, but the guy wrote The Manhattan Projects and Secret for Image, relaunched Avengers and New Avengers for Marvel in stellar fashion, and even wrote the best parts of Avengers vs. X-Men. To say he had a good year is to underrate good years: Hickman was stretching himself thin across many titles yet perpetually churned out high end work with the best of them. He revitalized three Marvel titles in the recent past, and continues to push the medium with his creator-owned work. And the crazy thing, for me, is that 2013 is shaping up to be even bigger for him.
Runners up
John Arcudi
Sean Murphy
Why it’s the best: I already went on and on about this book in Best New Series, but let me quickly state why it ended up at #1 on this list.
When I was reading the most recent issue, #6, I actually sat with a smile on my face the whole time. Ear to ear grin, driven by Clint Barton, dog cops, Dr. Druid the tech guy…you name it. This is the most fun I have reading comics, and even though it has only had six issues, that’s not too soon to know that Hawkeye is my favorite (non-Saga) book on the racks of 2012. Hawkguy is just too hard to deny, and why would I want to?
Runners up
B.P.R.D.
Hickman’s Fantastic Four/FF
Locke & Key
