Comics came roaring back in 2021 and we couldn’t be happier for it. As we look to close out the year, our staff wanted to highlight some of the best comics we read in 2021. Each person was asked to pick on title that resonated with them and stretched what comics could be. We all have different tastes but anyone should be able to look at this list and find a hidden gem they missed this year. Even though we love ranking things here, this has simply been presented in alphabetical order. Dig in and find a new favorite!
Action Comics
Writer
Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist
Daniel Sampere with Miguel Mendoca & Christian Duce
Colorist
Adriano Lucas
Letterer
Dave Sharpe
Publisher
DC Comics
Iâve read Action Comics pretty regularly for the last 20 years, and this year it simply knocked my socks off. After a prelude story that seemed to just be set-up for another âSuperman overcomes overwhelming oddsâ story, we instead got something much deeper and darker. After finding his footing with a Future State and prelude story, Phillip Kennedy Johnson dove into a Superman epic for the ages. By revamping Mongul into the fascist despot he really could be, Clark Kent suddenly had an enemy unique amongst his rogues. Suddenly we have a new wrinkle to Kryptonâs history that creates a fascinating mystery for the book, we have a villain that hasnât been this terrifying since Alan Moore wrote him, and a Man of Steel facing a challenge that he never expected.
The run has also been a revelation of its art team. Sampere and Lucas have been flying under the radar, but with Action Comics, they have stepped up and shown that theyâre on the cusp of being DCâs premiere art team. Their Kal-El is a grand and powerful figure, but he radiates a warmth that draws you to Superman.
This is what Superman needs to be, a hero fighting for those who canât fight for themselves, even if that means that he may have bitten off much more than he could chew. And I canât wait to see whatâs next.
-Tony Thornley
Barbalien: Red Planet
Writer
Tate Brombal & Jeff Lemire
Artist
Gabriel HernĂĄndez Walta
Colorist
Jordie Bellaire
Letterer
Aditya Bidikar
Publisher
Dark Horse Comics
Since his introduction in the original Black Hammer #1, Barbalien has used the central premise of a Martian posing as a human police officer as a parallel to the characterâs other secret double life, as a closeted gay man. What Tate Brombal does in this miniseries is to push the metaphor further, exploring the characterâs dualisms more deeply than was ever possible in the mainline series.
While the story is set against the 1980s AIDS crisis, it also echoes the serial killings in Torontoâs gay village during the 2010s. The police refused to even acknowledge that there was a serial killer until one was caught, eroding an already uneasy trust between them and Torontoâs gay community.
Gabriel HernĂĄndez Walta and Jordie Bellaire continue to be one of the best art teams in comics, and I highly recommend the oversized library edition of the miniseries, which is paired with the startlingly beautiful Colonel Weird: Cosmagog.
-Mark Turetsky
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures
Writer
CRC Payne
Artist
Rhett Bloom, with additional assistance from Lan Ma
Letterer
Kielamel âKielaâ Sibal
Publisher
Webtoon
Sometimes, you miss fun. You remember fun. It’s something that people used to have before we were all miserable. I choose this Webtoon series as my best comic of 2021 for a few reasons. When DC first announced its partnership with Webtoon back in August, I was, at best, skeptical. Thankfully, I was wrong big time. The standalone Webtoon series gives new and old readers a chance to have fun. It doesn’t rely on the audience having any prior knowledge about Batman continuity. As someone who falls into that category, it gave me a way to learn about these characters without feeling like I was being punished for not having kept up.
A great example is in Episode 7: Vigilante Bingo. There’s some great back and forth banter between the team as they talk about how many times they’ve been killed and brought back to life. The episode takes the piss out of the weirder elements of comic continuity without relying on you knowing any of the terminologies.
The dialogue and humor feel natural and, well, actually funny. The series makes the best of what Webtoon has to offer, vertical scrolling, expansive white space, and bite-sized episodes you can dive into whenever you want. That’s why Batman: Wayne Family Adventures is my pick for 2021 because it reminded me that sometimes, comics can still be fun.
-Andrea Ayres
Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms
Writer
Crystal Frasier
Artist
Val Wise
Letterer
Oscar O. Jupiter
Publisher
Oni Press
Last year my pick was Guardians of the Galaxy. This year? It’s a YA OGN about queer cheerleaders in love. Trust me, I wasn’t expecting it either.
Honestly, Cheer Up just completely caught me by surprise. I volunteered to review it because I’m a fan of Frasier’s and an explicitly trans YA OGN sounded like it could be fun. And it was fun! And emotional. And devastating. And joyous. It gave me an experience I never had: growing up queer and trans living through all of those milestones as your true self and left me a sobbing mess, in the best way possible.
What Frasier and Wise have crafted in Cheer Up isn’t just a cutesy coming-of-age queer romance (although it is that and is ADORABLE), they have made one of the most authentic trans stories I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. The highs and lows of gender euphoria and misgendering, triumphing as yourself and hearing people who you thought were friends make transphobic jokes behind your back. Especially with Wise’s masterwork skills at body diversity and emotionality ensuring every person and emotional beat feels beautiful and genuine.
While it’s appropriate for all audiences, the story doesn’t pull its punches and crafts an emotionally satisfying, powerful story that I hope every young queer person has the opportunity to read.
-Zoe Tunnell
Dead Dog’s Bite
Creator
Tyler Boss
Publisher
Dark Horse Comics
It could only be a comic. Boss couldnât tell this tale another way. Dead Dogâs Bite is a singular ode to form and structure. The oppressiveness of his precise, instructive cartooning reflecting the all encompassing stasis of the town of Pendermills. This is a story about the patterns we fall into. The way our history echoes over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over ad infinitum.
It could only be a comic. Boss couldnât tell this tale another way. The medium is the message as Joe digs through history and spirals towards a revelation that could never been what she wanted. When sheâs stuck in patterns of Pendermills, weâre trapped in the clinical presentation of the comic. When she is confronted with a decision point, a moment her ennui never readied her for, the book looses the shackles of formalism and presents us with the vision of a wider world.
It could only be a comic. Boss couldnât tell this tale another way. As emotions quicken, and stakes rise, the tempo of the gutters begins to escalate. The form forces us to feel what Joe feels. Her pain, panic and pathetic attempts to understand a system that was in place long before her, and will remain long after. Itâs not quite dread, but it is something more than anxiety. Itâs a yearning to understand the form, to experiment with what you can do when you box yourself into a corner and have to creatively find a way out. Itâs precise in the way you can only be when you have mastered the tools of comics and are not beholden to them because you must be, but because you choose to be.
It could only be a comic. Boss couldnât tell this tale another way. Iâd never want him to.
-Zachary Jenkins
Demon Days
Writer
Peach Momoko
Artist
Peach Momoko
Localization
Zack Davisson
Letterer
Ariana Maher
Publisher
Marvel Comics
One of Marvelâs âStormbreakerâ artists this year, Peach Momokoâs array of variant covers has been one of the best choices the company has made in 2021. Momokoâs artistic vision and talent is obvious at first glance, but what Demon Days proves is how supremely good she is at making comics. Momoko introduces us to an alternate Marvel Universe grown out of Japanese folklore, full of characters we ought to recognize but under a ukiyo-e filter.
What initially reads like a whimsically light fairy tale turns out to be a clever framing device that zooms out to reveal a more engrossing tale of revenge and bloodshed. The character redesigns are great, and thereâs a lot of fun picking out what elements Momoko is remixing for her world. The fluidity of her line and painstaking devotion to her craft â clearly hand-painted â make this comic as joyful to read as Momokoâs excellent pacing and composition.
This series offers a peek at a different, dare I say better way of comics storytelling for Marvel comics. Almost every issue thatâs come out for the past six months has graced Momokoâs work on the outside, but Iâm praying for more of her work between the covers, too.
-Karen Charm
The Department of Truth
Writer
James Tynion IV
Artist
Martin Simmonds
Letterer
Aditya Bidikar
Publisher
Image Comics
I donât think I ever expected to be living through a time in human history where Americans were willing to eat dirt instead of get vaccinated. But thatâs where weâre at: a point in the American story where the myth of rugged individualism and a quiet thirst for facism has driven large swathes of citizens to snake oil salesmen ready to provide horse dewormer, or, in the case of BOO, literal dirt from a landfill, marketed to solve everything from disease to yellowing teeth.
There could not be a better time for Tynion and Simmondsâ Department of Truth and its central conceit: That when enough people believe something, it becomes a literal, corporeal truth. In some cases, this is a magical tulpa, in others it can literally rewrite history. DoT did its fair share of world building this year, but the standout was a quiet pair of issues about a generational obsession with Bigfoot that not only used the bookâs thesis to create a dangerous physical manifestation of what can happen when enough folks become obsessed with the tale of a famous cryptid, but also managed to tell a heartbreaking story of obsession and loss.
Told in large part by handwritten letters scrawled with scribbles and symbols, Tynion & Simmonds pull off an impressive and tragic twist about the identity of the author that hones in on how nostalgia can tinge our view on the present, and how our own personal fixations can drive those we love the most away from us. Itâs a timely parable that echoes our present while also giving a nuanced look at what makes so many of us tick.
-Adam Reck
The Dreaming: Waking Hours
Writer
G. Willow Wilson
Artist
Nick Robles
Colorist
Matheus Lopes
Letterer
Simon Bowland
Publisher
DC Comics
I wrote at length the things I loved about this series, but the short of it is that it takes one of the weaknesses of the original Sandman series and turns it into a strength. When Sandman was written 30 years ago, trasngender representation in comics was next to nothing, and so it was a big deal when Neil Gaiman introduced a trans character in the biggest comic of the time. However, it was done with the biases and care that that era would be known for, and as such does not hold as good representation today. The Dreaming: Waking Hours updates the story of Sandman for a modern lens, one that has more respect and care for trans people than even allies had in the 1990s. Rather than making her a side character, but instead the new character of Heather After (a trans disaster protege of bisexual disaster John Constantine) is one of the protagonists of the story, and her transness drives the climax of the series in a way that it provides her power and not victimhood. I love Heather dearly, and hope that we see her again soon.
-Cori McCreery
The Eternals
Writer
Kieron Gillen
Artist
Esad Ribic
Colorist
Matthew Wilson
Letterer
Clayton Cowles
Publisher
Marvel Comics
Of Marvel’s various “secret races hidden from public knowledge”, the Eternals have long come in third, lacking the Silver Age creds of the Inhumans and the breadth and commercial zing of the X-Men. With their new series, writer Kieron Gillen and artist Esad Ribic set out to rectify that. Far more than the response to a commercially-driven desire to simply have an Eternals title on the stands when their movie hit theaters, the inuagural arc of Eternals, âOnly Death is Eternalâ, is presented as a murder mystery (wherein the victim is “immortality”). But by the time the story closes, Gillen and Ribic manage to both pay tribute to and completely upend the history of the Eternals, breaking their status quo and replacing it with something new to an extent not seen since House of X/Powers of X did something similar for the X-Men.
But Gillen and Ribic aren’t just changing things for the sake of change, instead using their story to probe questions about what the appropriate response is when systems we believe in break down or are revealed to be deeply flawed. In the process, the creators succeed in crafting a series about a 70s-era secret race of ancient Jack Kirby evolutionary offshoots in the service of obtuse space gods that is relevant to the world of today (while also being a cracking good read). The conclusion of the series’ first arc is satisfying on its own, but also doesn’t present any easy thematic answers, creating a compelling hook for the subsequent arc that serves to underscore the biggest flaw of the series: it simply can’t come out fast enough.
-Austin Gorton
Far Sector
Writer
N. K. Jemisin
Artist
Jamal Campbell
Publisher
DCâs Young Animal
Far sector sees her.
The Black, queer, confident, curvy woman who owns her place in a society that oscillates between ignoring and deriding her existence. We see her carve out space in deep space to protect the needy, give justice to the persecuted, and find love, lust, and an appreciation for life.
Far sector sees me.
In a galaxy filled with beings both organic and electronic, we find a treatise on the nuances of humanity: impatience and imperialist, kind and conniving, selfish and selfless. The best science fiction uses fantasy to provide dissonance so we can better examine ourselves. We might not like what we see, but we canât improve unless we can see – and acknowledge the truth.
Far Sector sees us.
Jamal Campbell beautifully illustrates fanciful flowing action juxtaposed with familiar, forthright faces. The art is a tour de force, itself well worth the price of admission.
You need to see it – to experience it – to fully understand.
You should see Far Sector.
And youâll see parts of you (and me, and her, and us) too.
-Jude Jones
The Good Asian
Writer
Pornsak Pichetshote
Artist
Alexandre Tefenkgi
Colorist
Lee Loughridge
Letterer
Jeff Powell
Publisher
Image Comics
You ever read a book, and then think âWait, this can exist?! This is possible in this space?! Well why the hell havenât I been getting it?!â? A book so striking that you feel like youâve been robbed all along, because what the hell, if you knew you could get this? Youâd never have settled for a zillion other lesser things. You would never have compromised. You would have asked for nothing less than this.
Thatâs The Good Asian, an Asian-American noir drama set in 1930s America. Following detective Edison Hark, inspired by real-life figures like Chang Apana, itâs an exploration of the first generation of immigrants to grow up under the weight of The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Itâs the kind of comic that makes you go âThatâs what I want more of. This is the future right hereâ. That special comic that feels like a gift, but also a sort of âWell, why the hell didnât this exist until now?â. Itâs all of that at once, and itâs a hell of a thing. It is fury, it is sadness, it is beauty, and by god, does it really work. Alongside The Swamp Thing, this is the comic most representative of what I want moving forward, that Iâve deeply been craving in this Direct Market space, which I also have almost never gotten. This is the food you eat, which makes you tear up, as you suddenly realize how truly starved you were, and how bad it really was before you got to eat it. We need this. We need more people to read this. Itâs bloody brilliant.
-Ritesh Babu
Home Sick Pilots
Writer
Dan Watters
Artist
Caspar Wijngaard
Letterer
Aditya Bidikar
Publisher
Image
As an old, a comic about 1990s garage punks forming depression-metaphor bonds with ghosts and using those bonds to power mechs speaks to my very soul. Watters writes teens stumbling and fumbling their way through trauma and grief, but with Kaiju-sized stakes, while Wijngaard swaps palettes from neon to pastel as the action rises and falls, excelling at all of it.
One minute, characters are dissecting the legacy of Joe Strummer, the next, a giant mech is careening Kong-like through downtown Seattle as it seeks out its nemesis, a haunted house that walks like a man. My favorite indie series of the year, and itâs not even close.
-Dan Grote
Hoops
Creator
Genie Espinosa
Publisher
Sapristi
An unexpected delight for me this year, Hoops is a tight graphic novel about three girls transported from their world (in which all men disappeared around a year ago) to a fantasy jungle, from which they must make their way home. Hoops does not dwell on its premise, however, sticking close to its three main characters. The girls have an easy, natural rapport that keeps the focus of the book close even as they fight against giant creatures from the other world. Hoops is also both funny and touching, lighthearted and full of visual gags that pull back in time for the more serious and thoughtful scenes, dealing mainly with the main charactersâ concerns about body image and past with now-missing boys.
Where Hoops shines brightest is in its artwork. Espinosaâs spreads are evocative and delightful, filling her characters with life and charm. Her lettering fills the page, wobbly and hand-drawn when the action rises. Espinosaâs colors are muted and subdued in one world, all blues and whites and blacks, and in another full of deep greens and reds and yellows. But the moments of sublime beauty come in the sunrises and sunsets, filled with soft gradients and empty panels, a tranquil and lonely vision of another world.
-Ian Gregory
I Breathed A Body
Writer
Zac Thompson
Artist
Andy MacDonald
Colorist
Triona Farrell
Letterer
Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Publisher
Aftershock Comics
It was a good year for Magic in comics. For a medium whose modern era has been so defined by two wizards, I find itâs very rare for a book today to do anything at once serious, complex, and novel with narrative magic. But 2021 saw the Chaos Magic so important to Morrisonâs work expanded and interrogated in The Department of Truth, and inverted or reshaped into something new in The Trial of Magneto. Esoteric, occult, and mystical traditions are being employed in interesting ways in stories ranging from superhero dramas to horrifying interrogations of our failing institutions.
I Breathed A Body begins as a dystopian, sci-fi critique of the business of social media and the resulting culture. Partway through, however, it becomes something wild, magical, fae. This twist in genre isnât just intended to shock. Weâre forced into an entirely different paradigm to engage with the material. This kind of book attempts to show us something about the corpse of our culture; as the story begins, it is grotesque in the way of a cadaver on the operating table, but as the narrative shifts, our experience becomes less cold and diagnostic. Reading this book is like stumbling upon something fetid in the woods. The rot and decay is so intense that its smell is almost something you can reach out and touch, even if the body is somewhere you cannot see. Writing about the book resulted in one of the most personal bodies of criticism I have produced in my short career. Both kinds of stories hereâ fantasy stories with other worlds, and dystopias that critique structures in our ownâ can be extremely removed from us, or clinical in their execution.
But you canât stand back from I Breathed A Body, you canât keep it separate. Anyone who, as a child, found such a thing somewhere out there knows: When the stench hits you, when you go on, when you turn the corner in the path, when you see the decaying flesh, when you glimpse mycelial stems emerging from the mound, when you turn around and run, that thing is with you now, forever.
-Robert Secundus
I Walk With Monsters
Writer
Paul Cornell
Artist
Sally Cantirino
Colorist
Dearbhla Kelly
Letterer
Andworld Design
Publisher
Vault Comics
Monsters grow from darkness and pain. They are around us and within us, but we choose how we interact with them. We can try to bury them and let them fester within. We can surrender and let them control us. But I Walk with Monsters teaches us that we can also transform them as a mode of healing.
Jacey had a dream to be an astronaut, but growing up in a world of abuse from her father, a world where her brother was sold to a monster, and she never saw him again. Her love and hope was stolen with only ruins of hurt and anger left in its place. That hurt and anger never subsided. Now she travels to punish the monsters out there who look to take the love and dreams from others.
David made a mistake. Thatâs not enough; David hurt other people and caused immense suffering. He did something inexcusable. Now he has a monster inside of him and it is hungry. He doesnât want to be the person who committed those actions, who caused that pain. He has to live with that monster, so he might as well use it for good and take down other monsters in the world who donât share Davidâs hope for repentance.
Monsters donât just go away, and no matter how much we try to turn them outward, unless we reflect on their existence within us, they will only cause damage. Paul Cornell and Sally Cantirino take us through the internal reckonings Jacey and David have with monsters external and internal to show us that monsters may never go away, but they can transform into something healing.
-Ari Bard
The Joker
Writer
James Tynion IV
Artist
Guillem March
Colorist
Arif Prianto
Letterer
Tom Napolitano
Publisher
DC Comics
An ongoing starring the Joker is a dicey proposition to me, from a character standpoint. The Joker shouldnât be a likable protagonist; he is, and always should be, the monster under your bed.
So James Tynion IV made the right decision in making the Joker the inciting incident of the ongoing under his name, and the quarry of the cast, while making Jim Gordon the lead of this story. Gordon, now retired, is on his one last case, having been hired by mysterious forces to track down and finally end the Joker, the man who has on numerous occasions made his life a living hell.
As the series has progressed over the year, weâve seen the whole thing expand, including new factions hunting Joker and an international conspiracy that feels oddly real for something set in a superhero world. But at the heart, the series remains about one man trying to decide if he can bend his morals without breaking them, and if breaking them is worth it to prevent a monster from roaming free. That character work is what makes The Joker such an engaging read.
-Matt Lazorwitz
The Many Deaths of Laila Starr
Writer
Ram V
Artist
Felipe Andrade
Letterer
AndWorld Design
Publisher
BOOM! Studios
Comics can get you down. Not because of the corporate timidity (constant though it is), or the gross inequities of pay scales and creator representation (extreme though they are), or the exhausting online culture of fans and creators leaning toward their worst learned behaviors (be sure to follow me on twitter, ComicsXF fans!).
No, what gets you about comics is the fatiguingly unambitious roteness of it all: the unavoidable sense that creators and readers alike are going through the motions, churning out 10 pages of talking heads and 10 pages of swinging fists each month because that, my dear friends, is the club we signed up for. What gets you is the nagging, timid voice in the back of your head that periodically pipes out, âforgive me, really, I know this is all supposed to be exciting and fun butâŠare you absolutely sure that we still want to be here?â
And then you read a comic like The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, and you remember what comics can sometimes dream. This is a story about mortality and its limitations; about the bonds we make and lose with one another, and what humanity means to each of us; about the liminal separation between the divine and the prosaic.
Its central conceit â a god of death is punished by inhabiting a human form, and fated to live eternal life â is not new: a recurring motif in mythologies of many stripes, it also happens to feature as the premise of a couple of well-known prestige comic series. What writer Ram V brings to this project is a haunting, lyrical tone and a sensibility rooted in a sensibility outside the limiting confines of Western folktales. To this is married the clear sketchbook lines of Filipe Andradeâs art and, perhaps most memorably, the pink and teal pastels of Ines Amaroâs coloring, which turns everyday moments into something like a dream or a fable.
And if Ram Vâs words can sometimes strain just a little too hard to be poetry? If the ending feels just a little too self-conscious in its moral lesson? Well, these are the failings of a series that reached far enough and high enough to fail at something. In a field of desultory commerce, The Many Deaths of Laila Starr had the courage to unabashedly try to be art. And thatâs reason enough for comics to live another day.
-Zach Rabiroff
Maw
Writer
Jude Ellison S. Doyle
Artist
A.L. Kaplan
Colorist
Fabiana Mascolo
Letterer
Cardinal Rae
Publisher
BOOM! Studios
Maw is exactly what I had hoped it would be; scary, immersive, critical, and honestly down right realistic. This tale of two sisters tells of their journey to a feminist retreat and through the harms that they’ve experienced at the hands of men. One develops monstrous desires as she reluctantly joins her sister in this journey, while her sister confronts that maybe she hasn’t really been harmed by men in the world at all.
This comic takes a hard look at many uncomfortable things like sexual assault, broken justice systems, the patriarchy, and white feminism and the trauma each entails. Each issue sets the tone with Mascolo’s muted colors and Kaplan’s striking lines. Rae’s letters pace the story well, giving the reader time to take in the simultaneously disturbing and peaceful scenes of the retreat while Doyle dares us to question each character’s histories and our own perceptions of acts through our life. Although it’s not quite a pleasant read, it’s an engaging one and I highly recommend it!
-Cat Purcell
The Nice House on the Lake
Writer
James Tynion IV
Artist
Ălvaro MartĂnez Bueno
Colorist
Jordie Bellaire
Letterer
Andworld Design
Publisher
DC Comics
How many deaths do we have? Other than the final, rather permanent one. We each live several lives, moving on from high school to a career, moving between states. The death isnât physical, itâs more a death of a time, of a feeling, or of the closeness of a friendship. Sometimes we try to preserve this life, like during a visit to your hometown during the holidays. But even as you try to rekindle a relationship, you canât rekindle an old life. An old life, a friendship, canât be fully preserved unchanged. I thought a bit about this in June on my first flight since the pandemic started, hurtling through the midnight skies on a much delayed plane as I read the first issue of The Nice House on the Lake.
Walter gathers his group of friends for a nice trip to a gorgeous lakehouse. And by friends, I almost mean a collection. Some of them are close to each other, some are more tenuously connected. You know how some friend outings are. You go with your best friend, and they bring that girl theyâve been seeing, and she brings her friend, etc. Without going too deep, because this comic has a banger of an opening, this is the story of a bunch of people with varying degrees of familiarity navigating a very unfamiliar situation. Some of Walterâs guests are friends of his from high school, some are from college, some were people he met during his adult life. And like pins through a butterflyâs wings on a collection, Walter has forced this group together as he tries to force the distinct periods of his life together. Tynion is of course on fire this year, but MartĂnez Buenoâs art brings a scratchy, slightly difficult to parse tone to the art while Bellaireâs moody colors paint us an unsettling picture in what should be paradise. With fantastic use of epistolary materials, Nice House is an incredibly engaging story about the strange web of an expanded friend group, connected by someone who turns out to be a stranger..
But itâs really about how we internalize our relationships with people, and the ability (or lack thereof) to allow the people around you to grow and change. Thereâs something in us that wants to crystallize our friends and loved ones in a particular time. A prison of nostalgia. What if you COULD do that though? Would you? What if you could force your old friends together with your new friends? What if you could save themâŠwhat if you had to save them, from you?
-Chris Eddleman
The Other History of the DC Universe
Writer
John Ridley
Layouts
Giuseppe Camuncoli
Finishes
Andrea Cucchi
Colorist
José Villarrubia
Letterer
Steve Wands
Publisher
DC Comics
History matters. The stories of how today came to be matter. They add depth, they add weight, to the stories being told today, and how that story is told matters most of all. The problem is, superhero comics and history donât mix together well. Heck, superhero comics barely manage to hold their own history up very well. Between sliding timescales, retcons, and multiversal reboots, most continuity falls apart the moment you think about it for too long. The Other History of the DC Universe does a magical job of giving the past a voice – and a voice to DCâs characters whose stories arenât as widely told as they ought to be.
The comic blends the histories of the real world and DCâs fictional one into its own vision of a DC Universe where heroes age, and the timescale isnât sliding. It takes the stories of five of DCâs most intriguing minority characters – Black Lightning, Katana, Bumblebee, The Question and Lightning – and grounding their stories in something personal. It places their impossible stories in a more real world context, an impossible task – but it FEELS like it works. The unique layouts and the prose that comes with make each page feel like its own self-contained window into a history, exposing the flaws of a superhero universe filled with superhumans who have very human failings.
Each story feels personal. Each story feels weighted. Itâs not perfect, but it is impactful. Every issue is a long read that will drag you deep into DCâs complicated lore, seeing it through a perspective rarely explored in its regular comics. Itâs as much a criticsm of DCâs past as it is an exploration of it, and as it moves through the decades, it does the same for America as a whole, too. Itâs a spellbinding book, and just might be the most compelling thing DCâs put out all year.
-Armaan Babu
Static: Season One
Writer
Vita Ayala
Artist
Nikolas Draper-Ivey, ChrisCross
Colorist
Nikolas Draper-Ivey
Letterer
Andworld Design
Publisher
Milestone Media
Itâs not hyperbole to say that Vita Ayala is one of the best writers in the game right now, and Static has been an absolutely amazing fit for them. Staticâs a franchise with big shoes to fill, but Ayala more than does the job, bringing a feeling of love and sincerity to the book that makes every issue a delight. The characters have genuine weight to them, with clear motivations and emotional depth that makes the book stand out from its peers. Itâs rare for any media, not just comics, to have interpersonal conflicts that arenât mostly reliant on a lack of communication, so itâs legitimately refreshing to see the Hawkins family be open and honest with each other, and respectful of each otherâs perspectives even when they donât quite see eye to eye.
And, speaking of eyes, the book is an absolute visual delight. Nikolas Draper-Ivey and ChrisCross bring a manga-inspired artistic style thatâs astoundingly dynamic. As Draper-Ivey takes the lead later on, it only becomes more refined, leading to some of the most badass sequences Iâve seen all year. The bookâs not just beautiful, it flows, to the point where I can play it all out in my head. Thereâs never any unclear action, or question of whatâs supposed to be going on, every single panel knows exactly what it needs to do, and hits it out of the park. The character design is an absolute blast as well, with Draper-Iveyâs sense of style coming to the forefront to make some of the most fashionable characters in comics.
As a Black nerd who grew up in the 90âs, Iâve got a lot of love for Virgil and his crew. Like Miles Morales is for a lot of kids now, Static was the dude for me and mine, from the show, to the original Milestone comics, to just running around on the playground, yelling âget zapped!â with our coats trailing behind us. Itâd take a lot to make a comic that I love more than those nostalgic memories, but this book, this team, brings that energy without question. If you havenât read it yet, you owe it to yourself.
-Corey Smith
