Ah, November. As Americans make their last turkey sandwiches for lunch and everyone looks down the barrel of the last month of the decade, we must think about the finer things in life. Comics. November brought us a number of things regarding that four-color medium. New Graphic Novels, new debuts, “New Mutants”…maybe we should call it New-vember eh?
Um.
I’ll just start now.
Most Exciting Debut in Comics
“Far Sector” saw not only the debut of brand-new Green Lantern, Sojourner “Jo” Mullein but also the comics debut of the acclaimed science fiction writer, N.K. Jemisin. Jemisin is a force in the sci-fi prose field with her “Broken Earth” series netting her three consecutive Hugo Awards for Best Novel so Young Animal’s decision of giving her a corner of the DC Universe to go wild with is an inspired choice. One that more than pays off in “Far Sector” #1. Jemisin is joined stellar artist, Jamal Campbell in creating an incredibly textured and imaginative corner of the galaxy. Jemisin’s huge ideas are brought to life by the beautiful art of Campbell whose colors provide a completely fresh sci-fi world which readers are drawn to. All of this is excluding, Mullein as the enigmatic protagonist of this new series whose history is drip-fed to us by Jemisin and will keep us coming back for more.
Best Graphic Novel That Shares the Name of the Month it Came Out In
“November” by Matt Fraction and Elsa Charretier is a difficult read but that is by design. Fraction has referred to this book as the most formalist work he has done and being told in a non-linear format does not make this graphic novel trilogy an easy read, but Charretier’s artwork and page layouts work so well in drawing readers in, if not just to make sense of the gorgeous pages they are looking at. “November” centers around three ordinary women’s interactions with a vast and insidious criminal plot. The book serves as an exploration of the interactions between the ordinary and the unordinary and the dangerous spiral that follows. In terms of style, as mentioned before, the non-linearity of the book adds to the difficulty to parse but even the satisfaction of making connections in the first read-through is satisfying enough along with Charretier’s artwork to provide an incentive for giving the book a try. Is it perfect? Probably not, but hey I didn’t make this category. (I did.)
Best New Ongoing Series About Old Friends Who Are Mutants Who Go To Space
Dawn of X has been the X-Lines time to put their money where their mouth is following Jonathan Hickman’s game-changing “House of X” and “Powers of X” and a majority of the book have done so by offering new looks at the new Krakoan order. Some engage with the state-making process, some explore Mutant Magic, and some are just so much fun. “New Mutants” is one of those fun ones. Hickman is truly having a good time writing Xavier’s Not so New Class of Merry Mutants. There is a warmth and joy in “New Mutants” that is just so infective that it’s hard not to crack a smile reading this book. Rod Reis also brings so much to the book with his channeling of original “New Mutants'” artist Bill Sienkevich and giving this book a distinct look that sets it apart from the Dawn of X books. Whether you are a fan of the original New Mutants wanting to see your children again or someone curious about these weirdos running around in space, this book has something for you.
Best Comic Book TV On Air Right Now
Although the show debuted in the back end of October, it’s dropped so much of its heat in November that I feel morally obligated to mention Watchmen. Set in the world of the graphic novel of the same name, in the year 2019, Daman Lindeloff’s show serves as a remix and sequel to the original work. On paper, it shouldn’t work but it works so so well. Whereas the original takes on the anxieties of the Cold War, this series looks at race, intergenerational trauma, and policing in America and it does so in conversation with the original in such groundbreaking ways. Characters from the original are figures within Watchmen in dynamic ways without overpowering original characters such as Tim Blake Nelson’s Wade Tillman aka Looking Glass and Regina King’s Angela Abar aka Sister Night. The vast and insidious conspiracy that connects them all is slowly picked at over the course of the seven episodes that have been released so far. And for being unashamed fan fiction, the quality has yet to drop with the episodes released this past month, reintroduce a classic character, change the meaning of “Careless Whisper”, and literally change the history of the Minutemen forever.
“Who Watches the Watchmen?” You should be.
