Top Comics of January 2018

Going back to an office or wherever you happen to work is never fun after the holidays, but this January wasn’t as bad as usual, mostly on account of all the great comics that came out. So many great comics, in fact, we struggled to fit them all on our list.

This is why, as you're about to see, we found creative ways to include extra books. Plus, we figured if you didn’t want to read about more comics, you wouldn’t be on a website called Batman’s Bookcase, right?

Enough explaining, though. Let’s get to the top comics of January 2018!

New Beginnings

A new feature! Our rankings heavily account for longevity, rewarding creative teams for the entirety of stories as well as for the quality of a given month’s issue, but everyone loves new #1s and so we've decided to highlight those too. 

Behold! We’ve chosen our first firsts.

Abbott #1 by Saladin Ahmed / Sami Kivela: This debut does everything well, from setting (hardboiled 1970s Detroit) to protagonist (equally hardboiled journalist-cum-ghosthunter) to art (wow!). The supernatural dread reminds me of Ahmed’s excellent fantasy novel The Throne of the Crescent Moon, and this book is also set in his native Detroit. Both of these things seem to make this story all the more personal. Overall: Signs point to a hit that matches (if not exceeds) what Ahmed has accomplished with his great and surprising run on Marvel’s Black Bolt.

Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles #1 by Mark Russell / Mike Feehan: There’s something deeply appropriate about Mark Russell taking The Flintstones, a repurposed corporate property, and telling stories about post-capitalist society, about everything from the military industrial complex to theology to gentrification. I expected more of this from Snagglepuss, just reoriented toward art and discrimination. Issue #1, however, builds on Flintstones while taking a subtler approach to commentary. It’s also relentlessly stylish, thanks to Mike Feehan. Overall: Can’t believe I’m typing this, but the spiritual successor to Mad Men is a comic about Snagglepuss, and I love it.

Shout Outs

Another new feature! A section for books that didn’t quite make the Top 5 but were close, starting with Captain America #697, a nigh-perfect Marvel story and another fantastic entry in this young, back-to-basics run from Mark Waid and Chris Samnee, one of comics’ best teams.

Last week, we celebrated the end of an all-time great Green Arrow run, but maybe that celebration was premature, as the book won’t officially end until April. Good thing, because with issues as funny and gorgeous as Green Arrow #36, we want to savor every moment.

News broke that Christopher Priest’s Justice League and Steve Orlando’s Justice League of America would end in April, replaced by Scott Snyder’s mega event, No Justice. This is exciting, but also sad because the current Justice League line is telling its best stories in years. Orlando’s character dynamics are intricate and compelling, while Priest is putting a fascinating real-world spin on the League. The good news? We'll still get six more issues of both books.

Superman #39, meanwhile, was a sweet and inspiring story right from the heart of the character. One of the best standalone issues of a run that has had many great standalone issues.

Finally, Sean Murphy’s ongoing Joker-centric epic Batman White Knight has been our favorite non-continuity in as long as we can remember. Murphy clearly has a real creative vision here, one that is taking him to corners of the character’s mythos that have never before been explored.

Top 5 (ish) Comics of January 2018

5. Monstress #13 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

Monstress has been one of my favorite books since it started in 2015, and, despite a nearly eight-month hiatus, this issue immediately reminded me of why. It’s just so good. Around the time this book started, I read an interview in which Marjorie Liu discussed the difficulty of world-building for an entirely original concept such as this one.

The effort she’s put into this really shows, resulting in a world that is among the best in comics. It feels like an edgier, politically-charged setting for a classic Final Fantasy, rendered more exquisitely than those pixelated realms by Sana Takeda, one of the most underrated artists in comics. Monstress #13 is largely a table-setting issue, but that doesn’t make it less worthy. This, quite simply, is a book that should be on everyone’s pull list, and I foresee it climbing higher on our charts in future months as the new arc continues.

4. Southern Bastards #19 by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour

I almost didn’t put Southern Bastards #19 on this list, even though the book was as tense and bastardly as always. I almost skipped it because #20 seems to be the issue to bring a major climax, possibly even a turning point for the book, much the way the end of the first arc did way back when. I just couldn’t resist, though; this issue was too good.

It was delayed, as always, yet the plot felt as if Jasons Aaron and Latour had a new creative momentum, so much so I think we may see the next issue in March (an optimistic timeline for this book). Southern Bastards is rife with political commentary about smalltown cronyism, corruption, and the dark side of sports, which is all compelling, but moreover the script and art here is just on a higher level. 

3. Walking Dead #175 by Robert Kirkman / Charlie Adlard

This was the first issue that felt like it had real stakes in a while, definitely since *SPOILER* Andrea’s death, maybe even since before The Whisper War. And when it was finished, Walking Dead #175 brought us yet another new status quo, one Kirkman planted the seeds for sometime back.

The last page here was a literal tear jerker for me, bringing a major revelation for a long-time character who, like all long-time characters in this book, has been through so much. My only complaint is the new character, Princess, feels too forced, to the point the script emphasizes her eccentricity by having her say aloud, “I’m kind of weird.” It’s all good, though. Subtly isn’t what’s for sale here; good-old fashioned survivalist apocalypse is.

2. Mister Miracle #6 by Tom King / Mitch Gerads

Mister Miracle by Tom King and Mitch Gerads is getting progressively harder to write about, because A. it’s been on our lists four times now, and B. it’s a complex and building masterpiece. Previously, I’ve gushed about King and Gerads’ other modern classic, The Sheriff of Babylon, and I’ve talked about how the beauty of this story, as in Kings’ other work, is how it uses superheroes as a lens pointed back on us, forcing evaluation of our own lives.

This time around, I’ll just note that Mister Miracle #6 has some of the trappings of mundanity that made King’s work on The Vision so special, but there’s also a deeper, meta layer here playing with dual ideas: the first being that as an escape artist and comic book character, Scott Free is a showman, a celebrity, and the second being that the nature of wanting to escape, be it a traumatic childhood or a literal hell planet, is one born of stress or depression, and it doesn't go away once you're out. The true beauty of the story will eventually be in how those notions intersect.

T-1. Doctor Strange #384 - Redneck #9 - Thanos #15 by Donny Cates / Various

Donny Cates is a man on fire. Not literally, at least I hope not, but in terms of his writing. I’d been a fan of Cates’ Paybacks, which he wrote with writing partner Eliot Rahal, but hadn’t realized his massive potential until he burst back onto my radar a year ago this month with God Country,  Image’s best new book last year.

He’s now Marvel exclusive, and the publisher looks mighty wise for it. This month emphasized that. Cates' other Image book, Redneck, is putting its characters through awful travails at breakneck speed while also doing a great job of simultaneously unspooling their secrets. And his Doctor Strange is a tour-de-force of humor, action, and ideas built upon the excellent Jason Aaron run that preceded it.

The best Cates book this January, however, was Thanos #15. Controversy about Jim Starlin aside, because it wasn’t Cates’ fault at all, Thanos is the best Marvel book going. Cates writes with a joyous and dark sensibility that reminds me of the Coen brothers' movie Blood Simple, and it fits perfectly with big bad Thanos. Geoff Shaw, who has teamed with Cates on much of his best work, seems to be having just as much fun, rendering young Thanos’ smugness and older Thanos’ condescending wisdom exquisitely, especially during the flame sword scene. This book ends on a cliffhanger involving one of my favorite characters, and I’m dying...DYING...for the next issue.

Zack Quaintance is a career journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

Top Comics of December 2017: A Look Back at Last Month

The idea behind our Top Comics of the Month feature is to run it halfway into the following month, looking back with some distance. The hope is that readers will use our lists to make informed decisions about books to add or keep on pull lists, etc.

Well, this month it’s been sort of tricky. We started January with a series of lists of our favorite books from last year, plus one featuring our most anticipated books for 2018. Also, the first half of January has been absolutely LOADED with killer books, from a Tom King double punch of Batman and Mister Miracle to the start of a weekly Avengers event to a status quo-changing issue of The Walking Dead to Christopher Priest and Pete Woods taking Justice League in a new, memorable direction. It’s just been great book after great book, but, hey, we haven’t forgotten December! (Ahem, not entirely.)

Our favorite books were dominated by superheroes, which is unusual. Consider: in September we had two DC books and zero Marvel, in October we had one Marvel and zero DC, and in November we had three traditional DC and zero Marvel. That’s an average of two superhero books per month. In December, though, our list features four superhero books plus The Wicked + The Divine, which some might call borderline superhero (we would never, shame!).

Anyway, let’s do this!

5. Catalyst Prime by Lion Forge

First up is Catalyst Prime, a new superhero universe from Lion Forge that started in May with an issue on Free Comic Book Day. In December, the line launched its seventh and final title, rounding out a roster of Noble, Accell, Superb, Incidentals, Astonisher, Kino and Summit (in that order). All of these books feature great creators, creators like writers Amy Chu, Alex De Campi, David Walker, Sheena Howard, Brandon Thomas, and Joe Casey (pulling triple duty), and artists like Pop Mahn (Astonisher), Jan Duursema (Summit), Robert Campanella (Accell), and Roger Robinson (Noble).

A major strength of Catalyst Prime is its narrative unity. Each book has a plot that stems from FCBD's Catalyst Prime: The Event, which makes the universe feel truly shared while also establishing a compelling mystery; basically, The Event left us with many questions that the books now seek to answer. Another strength is the way these titles aspire to realism, both in the demographics their heroes reflect (white, black, Latino, disabled, etc.), as well as in the science on the page. In other words, we’re not going to any different dimensions here. Instead, we're staying grounded in our world. Next, month we’ll take a more detailed look at each title, but for now we’ll just say the future of Catalyst Prime is bright and these are all books you should be reading.

4. The Wicked + The Divine Christmas Annual #1 by Kieron Gillen / Various

Leave it to The Wicked + The Divine—Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s mediation on religion and mythos and music—to do a Christmas annual that catches readers up on tons of sex that has happened off panel during its 33 excellent issues. This, obviously makes for a very entertaining read, even if the connection to Christmas stops at the cover.

This book is somewhat of a diversion from the main plot, one you could technically skip, even though it does flesh out (flesh, get it? this issue is about sex!) some of the history and backstory  between the reincarnated gods of the pantheon this book is about. This “Christmas” annual tells a few contained stories, anecdotes really, that give breadth and context to our ongoing narrative, which, by the way, just got shook by a whole bunch of revelations in issue #33. Overall, this is a really strong book, impressive given the creators are heading into their end game. The stories here are so well done they feel generous rather than like an excuse to prolong the story, which is no small accomplishment given how exciting the main series has been of late.

3. Batman #37 by Tom King / Clay Mann

I’ve talked about this before, but it’s relevant again: during the DC Rebirth streaming event that announced Tom King as Scott Snyder’s replacement on the publisher’s most popular title, Batman, a moderator (maybe it was Geoff Johns or Dad Didio? maybe Jim Lee?) asked Snyder what he thought of King taking over after his 51-issue all-time great run on the character. During his answer, Snyder grumbled about how one always hopes the next guy up will be Hacky McScripty, but he was also glad to know Batman would be in good hands.

Man, has he ever. King has had a torrid career in comics since breaking out in 2016, penning a trio of modern classics: Omega Men, Vision, and Sheriff of Babylon. His Batman books also dominate sales charts. King has, rightly so, earned what seems like creative carte blanche at DC, and he’s humanized Batman in a way we haven’t quite seen.

In this issue, *SPOILER* Batman and his new fiance, Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman, go on a double date to a carnival with Superman and his wife, Lois Lane. I’ve mentioned this before too (dude, seriously? do you have any original ideas? … um, no, all the creative energy in the comics’ ether is being bogarted by Tom King), but what King does best is use superheroes as a lens through which we must view ourselves. What he wants us to see here are our patterns in love, and man, does he have some fun doing this.

I should also note Clay Mann does some great things with his artwork to illustrate the difference between Superman-Lois Lane and Batman-Selina Kyle, with one of my favorite scenes being Clark and Lois sweetly holding hands as they float through the tunnel of love, while Selina sits on Bruce’s lap while they make out like teenagers. Great stuff all around.

2. Doctor Strange #382 by Donny Cates / Gabriel Hernandez Walta

Three issues in, newly crowned superstar writer Donny Cates has established his run on Doctor Strange as one of Marvel’s best ongoings. Marvel is like a long-dominant sports team going through a rebuilding year right now with the loss of some key creators, specifically Brian Michael Bendis and the stable of artist he works with who will presumably be joining him at DC, including David Marquez. Newcomers to the publisher like Donny Cates, however, are absolutely a reason for Marvel fans to have some hope. Heck, I’d go so far as to say they are entitled to some downright optimism.

Cates’ Doctor Strange really packed a strong emotional punch this issue, when a character that initially seemed like a throwaway gag (Bats, the talking dog the doctor befriended during his new career as a veterinarian) **SPOILER** was killed and used as an offering for Strange to gain mystical favor and get back some of his power in the wake of Loki taking his place as sorcerer supreme.

Cates is going to do great things at Marvel. Hell, after powerhouse indie series like God Country and Redneck that playup the mythos of his home state of Texas (Texas forever, man...I used to live in Austin), Cates has already become the most exciting new writer since Tom King. He’s also been teasing that he’s about to work on a bigger Marvel book in the near future. Here’s hoping it’s Amazing Spider-Man, although my official guess is Wolverine.

1. X-Men Grand Design #1 by Ed Piskor

This auteur comic from Ed Piskor attempts something monumental - streamlining and simplifying more than 50 years of convoluted X-Continuity, and, in its first issue at least, it succeeds wildly, resulting in the most compelling yet easy to read history of Marvel’s mutants I’ve ever encountered. He’s also made a straight up gorgeous comic, one that you can show panels of to your non-nerd friends and likely get back excited and interested reactions.

Paging through this book feels like watching a deliberate and joyful puzzle come together. It’s all really straight forward, which speaks to the presumably massive amount of research Piskor has put into this, and it’s executed so well that it could potentially have an industry-wide impact on the way we preserve superhero continuity, as Piskor and others influenced by him may be asking for years to come to make books like this that can serve as a simplified guide to new readers and old.

I’ve only really seen a project about history of this scope attempted twice, the first time being Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s History of the DC Universe, which immediately followed the landmark Crisis on Infinite Earths and gave readers a broad blueprint as to what had and hadn’t happened after that event cleaned up DC’s convoluted continuity. The second time being Piskor’s own excellent Hip Hop Family Tree, a nonfiction detailing of the history of, what else, hip hop. I can’t wait for the rest of this series, and here’s hoping there will be interest by both Piskor and Marvel in doing similar projects about Spider-Man, The Avengers, Hulk, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four and onward until we run out of heroes. It just makes so much sense. A common barrier for would-be new comics readers is knowing what to start with, and books in this mold would be a great recommendation for clerks to make at comic stores everywhere. Plus, to borrow from Agent Dale Cooper, this is one damn fine comic.

SPECIAL NOTE: As Piskor points out on Twitter, his story in Grand Design is actually more like a remix than an official retelling. This, however, doesn't change how I feel about the potential for his style to streamline continuity. He's super respectful with the intent of the original stories, which to me alleviates any concerns about stepping on the intent of the original creators.

Top 5 Comics of November 2017

How about November? It was a great month for comics, so good I could probably get away with saying that this post is tardy because I spent weeks debating the order. And yes, while I did grapple with that, truth is my rankings are always late and I’ve just been busy. But, again, the idea behind this monthly piece is to maybe help with pull list decisions, rather than single issue purchases.

Anyway, without further adieu (wait, there was adieu?! Did I miss the adieu??!!), here is November’s list:

Honorable Mention: The Batman Who Laughs #1

The Batman Who Laughs is one of the year’s best Batman stories, and it isn't even the best Batman book this month (more on that later). This one spun out of DC's Metal event, which has been grandiose yet laden with sheer comic book goofiness, all transposed against a terrifying threat of alternate Bruce Waynes. This story lacks the goofiness (like in Metal how the Justice League piloted robots that unified to form a Voltron — I know!). This story is all darkness.

And it’s a story that expands a bit on an idea in The Killing Joke regarding the commonality between Batman and Joker, minus the one bad day idea (which, c’mon). It takes us to a dark Earth where *SPOILER* Batman kills Joker and is transformed by gas released upon his death into a hybrid of their two personas. There have been many stories about how Batman and Joker are similar, or different, or parts of the same coin, but this one shows us Joker’s volatility complimenting Batman’s capability and drive, creating something else that's utterly terrifying. Also, how about that title?

5. Mister Miracle #4

That Mister Miracle has appeared here twice and I’ve only been writing this for three months says a good deal about how much I like this comic. As I noted when it landed on my Top 5 Comics of September 2017, writer Tom King is inclined to play with form. This book does that by putting Mister Miracle (aka Scott Free) on trial in the living room of his schlubby apartment, then using spurious logic and rapid questioning to give us a window into the titular character’s mental state, which is tinged with depression and PTSD.

Free is tried by Orion, who took his place when the benevolent High Father swapped Scott with the malevolent Darkseid, hoping it would put their worlds at peace (Narrator: it didn’t). The tension, resentment, and differences between the characters is on full display as Orion grills Free within Mitch Gerads’ intricate nine-panel pages. I’m not the first to call this 12-issue series a modern classic in the making and certainly won’t be the last. In fact, I do it again in two months at this rate.

4. The Wild Storm #9

I’ve been a little baffled at the seemingly low profile writer Warren Ellis and artist Jon Davis-Hunt’s The Wild Storm has had during its excellent run. I’m either missing the buzz about this book, or too many people are disregarding it as a ‘90s throwback relaunch that relies purely on nostalgia. This is, however, far from being that. The Wild Storm stands easily on its own as a rich and compelling story.

What landed it on my list this month was Davis-Hunt’s artwork, particularly during the incredible feudal Japan fight sequence, among the best action storytelling I’ve seen in the medium all year. It was actually one of two fantastic action sequences this month, with David Marquez’s Elektra and Iron Fist battle in Defenders being the other. This one gets the nod because The Wild Storm has been stronger for longer, and I also feel like Davis-Hunt didn’t get enough credit for his fantastic pencils in Gail Simone’s highly-underrated Clean Room series, which recently concluded but is very much worth reading in trade.

3. Descender #26

There’s a tendency in shops and online to take Image’s many long-running super strong books for granted, books like Wicked + Divine, Saga, Sex Criminals, and even The Walking Dead. Descender is a prime example. The story has slowed a bit after its breakneck early issues to log a few backstory installments, but it’s really picked up in The Rise of The Robots arch, which concludes here.

Jeff Lemire’s books often make this list, in part because his work has so much nuance. There’s a literary quality to Lemire’s comic writing, in that characters and stories are layered with meaning (at least as I read them) and tend to land places that are unpredictable and so organic that truth rings through. This is even true of work he's done for the Big 2. Descender is no exception. It’s a slow-burn, and whatever the payoff ends up being, Lemire is doing the important work to earn it.

2. Doomsday Clock #1

Geoff Johns's comic work is rare these days, now that he’s guiding DC's larger direction across various media. Johns, however, is among the best superhero writers of all time, and he follows up here on his industry-shaking DC Rebirth one shot from last May. This is a huge deal, as it has promised to incorporate Watchmen characters into the DC universe proper. I think it's telling that a friend of mine who posts online maybe once a year about comics went out to check it.

And I was thoroughly satisfied by the story. There’s a significant percentage of fans who are super weary of messing with anything Watchmen, creating scrutiny for this book, but I’m all in. Johns and artist Gary Frank have earned trust. On another Johns note, I think it’s folly that his role in the DC movie universe is rumored to be changing because Justice League bombed. I mean, Johns came on board for Wonder Woman, which was the best superhero movie in years, and by that time, Justice League’s trajectory already seemed firmly in place. Hell, director Zack Snyder seemed to have had it planned before Batman V. Superman even opened. Not much Johns, or anyone else, could have done to make the wholesale changes needed. I know someone had to fall on their sword for Justice League bombing, but Johns is the WRONG answer.

1. Batman Annual #2

Okay, so more praise for Tom King: his work is so good it helped draw me back into being a Wednesday Warrior with my comic reading. I’d been following via trades at the library for a few years when Marvel announced its All New, All Different relaunch. I went back to shops, feeling that as an adult with steady income, I should directly support the industry. However, minus a few exceptions, I was disappointed with the storytelling. One of those exceptions was Tom King’s incredible Vision series with Gabriel Walta. From there, I read Omega Men and Sheriff of Babylon. It was all so good, so willing to take chances to make the text more beautiful and the story human. I was, of course, upset when Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo ended their all-time great run on Batman, but King taking over cushioned that blow. Issues like Batman Annual #2 are the reason why.

This is a fairly straightforward love story between Batman and Catwoman, one that transcends costumed ridiculousness and speaks to the beauty and tragedy inherent to romantic love. Drawn by Lee Weeks, King's collaborator from Batman Elmer Fudd (another improbably great work from Tom King), this is a heart-rending love story that is easily among the best comics of the year.

Top Comics for October 2017

Comic book critics have a tendency to over-review #1 issues. With good reason, I suppose, as the first installment of a series is generally a jumping on point read far more than future issues, and, presumably, one that more people want to read informed takes about before deciding whether it’s worth their $4, or whatever.

I get that, but I have an aversion to putting #1 issues on this list, unless they really earn it. I don’t want to reward potential over a solid track record. Besides, I don’t write real-time reviews aimed at helping decide what books to buy. I write retrospectives on what did and didn’t work each month, sometimes not until weeks after said month has ended (ahem, this month).

Maybe, my thinking goes, such pieces will help influence decisions about what to keep on a pull list. That would be rad. Really, though, I just try to discuss what is and is not working in the industry. It’s a conversation that’s particularly relevant now, with reports suggesting comic sales are on pace to finish 10 percent lower than they did in 2016. So yeah, while series like Kid Lobotomy, Wildstorm: Michael Cray, and Slots all launched in October with strong debuts, you won’t find them here. Instead, I’ve gone with two concluding issues for great runs, two issues from series that seem to be hitting their strides, and...oh snap, a #1. It’s a weird #1, though. Not technically a debut...ah, let’s just get into it.

5. Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil #1

I know what the cover says, but this isn’t a real #1. It’s not a jumping on point, like, at all. It’s actually the first of a four-part interlude within Jeff Lemire’s superhero deconstruction, Black Hammer, which just finished a brilliant 13-issue run with Dark Horse Comics in September, concluding in a way that (cliche alert) left us with more questions than answers. But I won’t get into plot here.

What I loved about Black Hammer, and by extension the “first” issue of Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil (perfect name for a comic, btw) is the subversion of the mood of traditional superhero deconstructions like Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns, both of which are exceedingly grim. That’s not to say Black Hammer is cheery or optimistic. Far from. Its prevailing tone is somber. Those classic works, in spite of their realism, still trade in excitement, but this is a subdued story about purgatory, about dedicating one’s life to others and as a result being lost, possibly imprisoned. It’s a story in which what’s NOT on the page speaks volumes, like, for example, how there are next to no fight scenes.

Black Hammer is a mystery, so I could be way off, but my take is Lemire is concerned more with implications. He’s asking if violence is ever justified, if it is ever righteous enough to come without a steep price. It’s a theme that has recurred in his recent work, specifically in the excellent 2015 Image Comics mini-series Plutona, which turns a lens on readers who exalt superheros, and in his even better original graphic novel Roughneck, which does the same for hockey fans (and which Lemire both wrote and drew, while continuing to produce several high quality monthly comics...don’t think too long about that).

I’m in on Black Hammer until the end, and I highly suggest you get with it, too. Once this mini wraps up, I fully expect a return to the main plotline, likely with a new #1 that’s also not really a #1.

4. Royal City #6

Speaking of work Jeff Lemire both wrote and drew, the next comic here is Royal City #6. This is also a somber book, with nothing cartoony about it. This is, simply put, one of the most outwardly-personal serialized stories from a major publisher, and I’m continually surprised to see it stocked at high volume in local comic shops alongside tights and spaceships and time travellers.   

Royal City landed on my list after I was wondering if Lemire would be interested in continuing past the first five issues. These are slice of life stories, tied thematically (by loss, nostalgia, love of music) rather than by grand plotlines. The first arc was poignant and haunting, and I wasn’t sure where the story would go. The answer, turns out, is an obvious one: the same place, only deeper.

I’ve also been impressed with how well this book uses the graphic medium. With the possible exception of Grass Kings (a kindred spirit to Royal City in some ways), no book right now is better using the flexibility of hand-drawn images to convey losses that characters hold tight, with visual representations of phantom loved ones blending seamlessly into the current lives their absences have so greatly impacted. To have a protagonist talking to his dead brother all the time would take viewers out of a film, but it’s a perfect fit for comic book storytelling.

3. Paper Girls #16

Brian K. Vaughan’s body of work is among the most impressive of any writer in comics. He’s not as prolific a creator as Lemire (who is?), but his career is filled with landmark, influential series that have reached beyond the insularity of comics to win fans in the mainstream, like Runaways (coming soon to Hulu), Y: The Last Man, and Saga, an issue of which made my favorites list last month.

Vaughan has earned our trust, which is why I never worried when Paper Girls began with muddled narrative clarity. None of Vaughan’s other series had been so hard to decipher early — hell, Saga arguably has the best narration in the history of the medium — so I figured withholding was intentional and destined to be used to great effect. Plus, Cliff Chiang’s artwork was sharp and compelling. And guess what, looks like my figuring was right!

Paper Girls #16 is the start of a new arc in which the reasons for the adventure seem poised to get clearer. I’ve long suspected the letters page of being a clue, oscillating from a bygone-era male paperboy voice to a modern (possibly futuristic) female voice that describes print as anachronistic and dead. Plus, whether or not the window has closed to get a membership card to the paper delivery guild seems to fluctuate wildly. That’s got to be significant. Theorizing aside, this issue was great because it naturally delivered the first character with an interest in figuring out the time struggle our namesake paper girls have been engaged with for the past 15 issues. I can’t wait to learn all that she knows.

2. Victor LaValle’s Destroyer #6

I’ve been aware of Victor LaValle for some time through literary friends and fiction circles, but didn’t know he wrote (or had interest in writing) comics. It’s not surprising. In fact, many of my favorite literary writers either dabble in or have been influenced by the medium (Junot Diaz, Mat Johnson, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem, Benjamin Percy, Ta-Nehisi Coates, to name a few). So, based on the creator’s reputation, I pre-ordered Victor LaValle’s Destroyer months before the first issue came out.

Now that it’s over, I’m excited I did. I try to keep my comic consumption to 75 titles a month (I know, how noble of me) and what first drew me into this book was LaValle’s clear obsession with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which shapes this narrative. What kept me reading was the characterization and thematic exploration of the ongoing American police violence against young black men. LaValle’s story, spread over six issues, is exciting on a surface level, too, so much so that by the time the emotional scope becomes evident and you realize the cost paid by the family at the center of the story, it’s entirely too late to avoid being devastated, especially if you’ve been following the news. It’s a poignant and expert bit of storytelling.

Last month, #5 could have just as easily made the list, but I knew the end was coming in October and wanted to hold off until it had been completed, sort of like how the academy awards waited for the last movie to give best picture to Lord of the Rings. I also want to note that Boom Studios has been putting out great, creator-driven work as of late, titles like Mech Cadet Yu and Grass Kings, and Destroyer is part of that wave. So yeah, if you haven’t been reading it, I highly suggest making it a point to pick up the trade.

1. Silver Surfer #14

At my top spot this month is the finale issue of writer Dan Slott and artist Mike Allred’s run on Silver Surfer, which started back in March of 2014 and saw the duo put out 29 phenomenal issues, some of which were innovative (the endless Silver Surfer #11 from the Marvel Now run, namely) and all of which were filled with Slott’s ambitious emotional concepts and Allred’s incredible eye for pop art.

The release schedule for this title was sporadic, and I often assumed (correctly) that each issue would be a month late, minimum, but when they arrived it became evident that the extra time (which Slott has said was his fault, always) was put to good use. I’ll really miss this book, and, to be honest, I can't intellectualize much more beyond that.

This Silver Surfer run accomplished one of the most difficult feats in modern superhero comics: it gave us (cliche alert!) a rich tapestry of installments driven by character, while at the same time serving as a set of contained chapters that could be appreciated for individual merits. My favorite was the penultimate Silver Surfer #13, which was about our human desire to share life with a deeply beloved partner, all while knowing time will eventually claim one of us, knowing how painful that day will be and not caring. It drove me to tears with its beauty. It’s hard to think of a better way to spend $3.99.

Top 5 Comics for September 2017

September was a great month for long-running series reminding us what made them so compelling in the first place, specifically Saga #47 and The Wicked + Divine #31 (Southern Bastards #18 was also close). This is comforting. There’s been much quality churn in the big two of late (blame superhero box office success and resulting corporate interest) and I wonder where comics would be without these steady books from the vanguard of Image Comics’ recent renaissance. There's always imaginative and strong work to be found in true indies — ahem Vault Comics, ahem Lion Forge — and while I suppose the mainstream might consider Image indie, it hardly seems like it, as the company's books are in most shops.  

Marvel and DC, though, are basically like struggling sports teams in die-hard cities: no matter how much they suck, hope springs eternal because we grew up rooting for them and, hey, how cool would it be if they defied all odds and got better? Keeping with sports analogies, DC Rebirth is a resurgent team having a surprising big year … in that this is nice and all but fans are still waiting for them to fall apart because we've been burned in the past. Two things I’m doing, though: 1. Knocking off sports analogies (‘bout time, right?), and 2. Enjoying DC Rebirth while it's strong. This month is a good time to savor DC, to be sure, with the publisher delivering a foundation for a character-defining maxi series in Tom King’s Miracle Man #2 and a rare well-done modern mega event in Scott Snyder’s Dark Knights Metal #2.

Also, my top five for September includes Snotgirl. So, without further adieu...

5. Snotgirl #7

Snotgirl’s Lottie Person is the anti-hero antidote (antilote?...antilottie?...oh jesus, I'll stop) for the hyper-masculine angsty middle-age men that swept prestige TV a few years ago, your Don Drapers and Heisenbergs and whatnot. Where those guys methed it up or leveraged power and looks to abuse women, Lottie is just selfish and vapid and consumed with appearances. She also has severe allergies and green hair. Like Don Draper and Walter White, though, one can make a case that she’s a product of environment.

I’ve been all in on Snotgirl from issue #1, enthralled with the promise of monthly work from Scott Pilgrim’s Bryan Lee O’Malley, and, sure, after returning from hiatus this summer, Snotgirl is now every other month, but one of the reasons I gave this book a top five slot is that the added time really shows. This seventh issue is a significant improvement over the end of the last arc. The script is just as clever, but the book has regained a sense of purpose and pacing that had gotten a bit jumbled, evidenced here by intriguing B and C plots —  her foe waking up and the detectives, respectively — that seem to be building.

Basically, this book is funny, hip, and could be a timely satire of Internet/Instagram looks versus truth culture, something (correct me if I’m wrong) no medium has quite nailed.

4. Dark Knights Metal #2

Much has been written about Metal, and even more has been said during awkward exchanges at registers in comic shops (one side always seems to enjoy those more than the other, btw), but I still want to note that Metal, the biggest event so far in the Rebirth era, is a perfect blend of what the publisher got right in the New 52 and the back-to-basics simplicity of Rebirth.

The Snyder-Capullo Batman run was New 52's best sustained work, possibly one of the best runs ever done in-continuity for the character, or any other big two character really (I may compile a list of my all-time favorite in-continuity runs soon). It obsessed over the idea that Batman’s insistence on fighting crime was at its core a young man escaping the trappings of adulthood, not getting married, having kids, settling down, etc. This was great (and also a theme in all of Snyder’s short stories from his excellent collection, Voodoo Heart) but what gave it lasting emotional heft was often funneling it through Alfred’s perspective, the ersatz father who wanted his adopted boy to just be a happy man, pitting Alfred's desire against Bruce's powerful trauma and Gotham City's need for safety. Anyway, my point is it was serious and well done.

Metal isn’t that, not entirely. It posits a New 52-ish question — what if DC had a corresponding dark multiverse —  while also delivering rocking set pieces (Justice League-themed Voltron, anyone?). Basically, Metal blends high-minded motifs from the Snyder-Capullo New 52 run with rocking superhero accessibility from Rebirth. It’s a great hybrid, even better because the Rebirth storyline (especially with Superman) is bending towards a reality that deliberately includes bits of both pre- and post-New 52 continuities as a plot device (the full extent of which is likely to be made clear in Rebirth mastermind Geoff John's forthcoming event/Watchmen sequel, Doomsday Clock). 

3. Saga #47

The first act of Saga #47 is jarringly normal. A boy watches dysfunctional caretakers interact in what might be Earth, might even be suburbia. Jarring because this Saga arc started with an old west-themed issue on an alien abortion planet, something far nearer its cruising altitude than the suburbs. The second and third acts then contain plenty of the factors that have made Saga Image's most successful book since The Walking Dead: twists, earned obstacles, increased stakes heading for our protagonists, ongoing exploration of a central metaphor (star-crossed inter-species lovers from perpetually warring species), plus world-building, world-building, world-building. It's amazing that this deep in the run Saga's world is still being satisfyingly fleshed out.

Saga is my favorite ongoing series in comics, and this issue is a digression from its central plot, to be sure, but these sort of side trips are one of Saga’s strengths. Basically, issues like this are the reason why, upping the stakes significantly for the little family at the story's core, an impressive narrative feat that never feels like filler. Even one of the best writers in the industry (if not the best), Jeff Lemire, has struggled with this at times in his own excellent sci-fi opus Descender. But Brian K. Vaughn consistently nails it in Saga.

They say this is an unfilmable story (who’s they? I don’t know, the Internet? Someone says it), and that may very well be true. But Saga is tailor-made for serial monthly graphic storytelling, and an issue of this quality after 47 tries is even more remarkable because it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect.

2. Mister Miracle #2

Look everyone, it’s a month of proclaiming my favorite this and my favorite that! I’ll come right out and say it: Tom King is my favorite writer in comics. I’m a sucker for a backstory that involves struggle, and King’s creative journey is filled with it. He’s late to the comic creator game, having logged time in the CIA after 9/11 (no big deal), and he took a risk by quitting his full-time to stay home, watch his kids and write at night. He misfired on a novel (which I'd still like to read), before fighting into comics and rising to the top. Since then, he's been cranking out modern classic after modern classic (Omega Men > Vision > Sheriff of Babylon), and Mister Miracle is poised to be next in line.

King’s stuff on more well-known superheroes has been fine, better than fine, but he really shines when taking characters with inherent wackiness seriously and then going right for the heart strings. He certainly did that with Vision and within his Batman run with Kite Man (Kite Man!), and he’s doing that again here with Mister Miracle, aka Scott Free.

Issue one hinted that King would play with form, one of his strengths, while issue two reminds us who exactly Scott Free is (grew up child-swapped to the evilest being in the universe as part of a peace agreement, escaped horrendous conditions over and over again until it become second nature). Issue 2 isn’t as offbeat or perplexing as issue 1, but that’s fine. It does the unsung work of giving Scott Free meaningful relationships in his life. This story is going to land somewhere powerful, and it's on us to enjoy the journey as much as we can. 

1. The Wicked + The Divine #31

Let's compare The Wicked + The Divine this month to Saga, both of which were reminders of how excellent and taken for granted these books can be. Yet, whereas Saga has long been a carefully-paced slow burn with occasional flare ups that tear you down and make you cry, Wic + Div has been crescendo after crescendo, putting readers in a small boat in a tumultuous sea of remixed religious dogma and obsessive music fandom.

This month’s wave was the biggest to crest since the demise of the series primary antagonist, Ananke. Kieron Gillen loves telling readers broad strokes of upcoming arcs in this book's backmatter, writing stuff like in three issues there’s a major surprise, in four issues we have a guest artist, etc, and I swear he’s said a few times that we'd be ramping to an end game soon. Now, however, I suspect Gillen is still having better ideas, still not ready to start winding this story down, and it's not hurting the book at all. He's got so many pieces in play that suddenly losing one in this issue was surprisingly tough to see, a reminder of the lush and mysterious journey we've been taking with all these people. That's good writing.

We’ve been given one certainty over and over from the start: Every ninety years, twelve gods incarnate as humans. They are loved. They are hated. In two years, they are dead. That's right, our sexy embodiments of modern music stardom are not long for this world, but how exactly they will destroy each other is the pressing question Gillen continues to ask on a scale as effective as it is grand.