Welcome to the Multiversity Year in Review for 2021! To call this a weird year is a Hulk-sized understatement, but one thing that was a pleasant surprise was the sheer number of interesting and excellent comics that came out this year. We’ve got over 25 categories to get through, so make sure you’re checking out all of the articles by using our 2021 Year in Review tag.
5 (tie). Vault
For the last six years Vault Comics has felt like a publisher willing to throw every idea against the wall to see what sticks. And for the most part, the ideas and creators they unless upon us stick very well. They are the genre publisher to check out. Their goal is to give a place in the market for up and coming writers and artists to create the most imaginative and ground-breaking comics within horror, science fiction, and fantasy, Vault has done just that – and there is hardly a miss in the bunch.
Allowing these creatives to bring forth something new and interesting without the constraints of the corporate-owned big guys, has made for some of the best indie comics to hit shelves recently. With a big push in 2021 with titles like “I Walk With Monsters,” “Hollow Heart,” “Giga,” and more, there hasn’t been a consistently exciting and barrier stretching batch of new work from a smaller publisher since Dark Horse and Image were new on the scene.
Right now they’re putting out a slew of miniseries ranging from good to excellent, but a wider library, including on-going series and original graphic novels, could be the thing that puts Vault over the edge into a household name. Within the last decade there have been a handful of really great exciting indie publishers popping up, but Vault is leading the way. I only hope more comic readers realize the strength of what they’re producing and keep them going strong. – Christopher Egan
5 (tie). Viz
For the second year running, Viz comes in at the number 5 spot for “Best Publisher.” Also for the second year running, I’m doing the write-up! Last year I praised Viz for “variety of product, quality, and price point” and those points still stand. No other publisher can match the library Viz has curated, spanning decades, genres, and formats.
This year, Viz drastically increased the frequency at which new Shonen Jump titles were introduced to American audiences via the online Shonen Jump platform. Breakouts like “Blue Box,” “Elusive Samurai,” and “Witch Watch,” join the already robust library that I have frequently called “the best deal in comics.”
This year was a big one for “One Piece.” The title rang in its 1000th chapter, with Oda continuing to deliver some of his most exciting and engaging stories to date. “Food Wars: Shokugeki no Sanji” series made a surprising return, accompanied by an official One Piece cook-book of all things.
In the non-digital space, Viz had some stellar new releases. Naoki Urasawa’s latest series, “Asadora!,” saw its english debut. The seminal manga series “Fist of the North Star” received a new hardcover collection, similar to that of “Full Metal Alchemist” and “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.” “Demon Slayer,” arguably the biggest manga property of the year, saw its run in collected editions conclude. It even received an attractive box set, something that would make a great Christmas present for any shonen aficionado.
I may be a bit biased, but it’s a shame that Viz’s star didn’t rise year over year in this feature. Manga continues to be a dominating force in the medium of sequential art and no publisher is doing a better job than Viz at delivering exciting manga content, both old and new, to an english speaking audience. The next year is even more promising, with the conclusion of the Wano Arc looming in “One Piece,” the eventual continuation of “Chainsaw Man,” and the always present hope for the next big Shonen Jump hit. – Zachary Wilkerson
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4. Marvel
This has been a great year for Marvel Comics. Sure, they’ve got that Disney synergy backing them up, but even putting aside the movies and Disney+ series, they’ve been putting out some great content.
The “X-Men” comics have continued to build on the new Krakoan status quo, building up to the currently ongoing “Inferno,” and there are so many great titles to choose from there.
Series like “Thor,” “Miles Morales: Spider-Man,” and “Daredevil” have continued to put out quality issues month after month, from the triumphant return of Frog Thor to the comic romance of the century between Wilson Fisk and Typhoid Mary.
Not to mention how the “Star Wars” comics have been building on content between the movies and building more continuity between the trilogies. We have “The High Republic” taking us to the past, comics focusing on secondary and even tertiary characters to further flesh them out, and the recent “War of the Bounty Hunters” that brings back characters and plot elements from Solo to resolve them in canon. It’s a good time to be a fan of the franchise, because there’s no shortage of content to enjoy. (Again, making the most of all of Disney’s properties.)
And we’ve had no shortage of events, starting with “King in Black,” then bringing us a Squadron-centric “Heroes Reborn,” and the cosmic “Last Annihilation.” Yet they’re all spaced out enough and focused on their own parts of the Marvel universe that I didn’t once feel “event fatigue” trying to keep up with everything.
In short, what we’ve gotten from Marvel has been consistently entertaining, and covers all aspects of their own universe and the properties they can use under the Disney umbrella. It’s a good time to be a Marvel reader. – Robbie Pleasant
3. Image
It’s hard to pinpoint what Image did so well in 2021. There wasn’t any one book or franchise that they pulled off perfectly. There wasn’t a superstar creator that they landed. Really, they just kept doing what they’ve done for years now: release new comics they think are interesting. I can’t speak for anyone else, but this year was the first one in a while where my interests aligned with theirs and I really felt like their target audience again.
The “Reckless” graphic novels from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have been wonderful, and I’m thrilled to see Image supporting alternatives to the 32-page monthly schedule. “The 6 Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton” was my pick for best miniseries this year, as the unexpected and off-the-wall comedy had me laughing out loud each issue. “Time Before Time,” which is still early in its run, has been a refreshingly consistent time travel book. The horror anthology “Silver Coin” is a worthy successor to “Eerie” and “Creepy.” Then there’s the comics that I’m tradewaiting but no less excited for: “Frontiersman” and “The Good Asian.” No other publisher came close to adding this many titles to my pull in 2021.
Not every book was good, of course, but I won’t name them in this ode to Image’s successes because even those rare missteps weren’t enough to dampen my enthusiasm to look through the monthly Previews catalog to see what’s coming next. – Drew Bradley
2. BOOM! Studios
At this point you can expect to have BOOM! Studios in our list each year. The Folks at BOOM! had one of their best years ever in 2021, with over 40 titles published between their imprints BOOMBox, Archaia and the main line.
Their success can only be attributed to their trust on their creators and their stories, representing every community, we got wonderful all-ages books like “Mamo,” “ORCS,” “Specter Inspectors,” “Save Yourself!” “The Last Witch” and “Wynd”. They are the masters of horror and horror-adjacent books with “Abbot 1973,” “Maw,” “Eat the Rich,” “Dark Blood,” and “Proctor Valley Road.”
When you sell licenced titles, planning is key to get successful, lasting books, and they are experts in that, like the new “Power Rangers” era, including “Mighty Morphin;” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Firefly,” and “Dune.” Each of those books got spinoffs like mini-series, specials and OGN’s.
On the numbers side, we have Tynion’s Slaughterverse, the hottest books on the market, with “Something is Killing the Children” selling between sixty and fouty thousand copies per issue, and the new book “House of Slaughter” reaching over 460,000 copies of issue #1 sold. And of course, the record-breaking beast that is “BRZRKR” by Keanu Reeves, Matt Kindt & Ron Garney, which first issue sold over six hundred thousand copies.
Continued belowBut sales are not everything, and BOOM! titles were also critically acclaimed, like the action packed and thoughtful “Seven Secrets” by Tom Taylor and Daniele Di Nicuolo, or the exploration of Britain’s past and present in “Once and Future” by Kieron Gillen & Dan Mora; and Ram V & Filipe Andrade’s gorgeous exploration of death, “The Many Deaths of Layla Starr,” that might be the best regarded comic of all time, according to the aggregator Comic Book Round Up.
2022 is looking bright for the folks at BOOM! – Ramon Pina
1. DC
Very rarely does the firing of a key personality act as a the bellwether for an extraordinarily successful year, but that’s exactly what Dan DiDio’s dismissal signaled for DC. But that’s only telling half the story, as many of the things that led to DC’s 2021 are a direct result of DiDio’s ‘5G’ initiative which, although not coming to fruition, led to the more interesting and risk-taking thinking books that currently make up DC’s best books.
While it is easy to point to the Bat-books as a reason to celebrate DC’s success, the Bat-books are like Coca Cola or Budweiser: they are the measuring stick by which other comics are judged, sales-wise, so they’re always at a certain level of success, regardless of quality. But the Bat-books have been really good! James Tynion IV wrapped up his “Batman” run a little quickly, but that book’s success empowered titles like “Nightwing,” “Harley Quinn,” and “Catwoman” to all do more interesting things than we’ve seen in those titles for some time.
Legacy has also been a key component in DC’s 2021, whether it is “The Flash” title being a Wally West book, Hal Jordan barely appearing in “Green Lantern,” or Jon Kent coming into his own as Superman. “Teen Titans Academy” is building the next generation of superheroes alongside heroes who used to hold that title.
But maybe the biggest different in 2021 vs 2020 is how DC is handling two of its most important, but oft ignored corners of its universe: Themyscira and Atlantis. “Wonder Girl” and “Nubian and the Amazons” are bringing together the wider Amazonian world, while “Wonder Woman” is attempting to re-focus Diana’s place in Man’s World. In “Aquaman: The Becoming,” Jackson Hyde is taking control of his powers and his destiny, while “Black Manta” sees the titular villain deal with an even more dangerous underwater threat.
This doesn’t even mention the best “Swamp Thing” series in 20 years, Cliff Chiang’s triumphant “Catwoman: Lonely City,” or the new status quo of Kal-El on Warworld. DC is brimming with new ideas, old favorites, and compelling stories that feel fresher and more vital than they have in years. Let’s hope that the slow incline that DC has been on for the past 5 or so years continues to push them higher. – Brian Salvatore
