The best comics of 2010

Let's talk Aguachile Alley

Postby reversemigraine » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:06 am

Dunno if this ever came up in the main thread, but were you much of a Young Avengers/Heinberg fan prior to Children's Crusade, and would you consider yourself more of a fan of either/both now?
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Postby donut » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:07 am

I really like Black Widow. Thunderbolts is pretty good too.
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Postby zamboni » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:08 am

are you listening to history of howard
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Postby reversemigraine » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:17 am

For the sake of trying to keep this thread as civil as long as possible...

My award goes to Jonathan Hickman, for FF, SHIELD, Secret Warriors, and Ultimate Thor.

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Postby lunatic96 » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:25 am

Off the top of my head, but I need to give this some more thought.

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Postby donut » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:27 am

reversemigraine wrote:For the sake of trying to keep this thread as civil as long as possible...

My award goes to Jonathan Hickman, for FF, SHIELD, Secret Warriors, and Ultimate Thor.


Haven't read SHIELD, but I really enjoy those other three.
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Postby Mandingo » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:39 am

I highly suggest picking up Shield 1979.

it's worth it. I dunno if It's gonna make my final list, but it's great.
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Postby reversemigraine » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:41 am

Odds on Mandingo picking a Peter Milligan book as his #1?
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Postby Mandingo » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:42 am

Top Five probably but not the top stop.
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Postby donut » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:43 am

Yeah, I'll probably see what issues they have when I go pick up books this week.
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Postby Mandingo » Tue Dec 21, 2010 3:07 am

Tried to limit myself to one story arc, issue or book per writer. So while Joe the Barbarian probably would've made the top five I felt the need to make space for other great books.

1. Charles Burns - X'ed Out
2. Grant Morrison, Frazier Irving, Cameron Stewart & Chris Burnham - Batman & Robin 13-16
3. Anders Nilsen - Big Questions 14-15
4. Brian Chippendale - If 'N Oof
5. Peter Milligan, Giuseppe Camuncoli & Simon Bisley - Hellblazer
6. Geoff Johns & Francis Manapul - The Flash 1-6
7. James Stokoe - Orc Stain 1-5
8. Michael DeForge - Loose #2
9. Zeb Wells, Chris Bachalo & Emma Rios - Amazing Spider-Man Shed
10. Johnny Ryan - Prison Pit 2
11. Joe Casey & Chris Burnham - Officer Downe
12. Matt Fraction & Carmine DiGiandomenico - Invincible Iron Man Annual
13. M.F. Wilson & Nathan Fox - Fluorescent Black
14. Paul Cornell & Pete Woods - Action Comics
15. Johnathan Hickman & Dustin Weaver - S.H.I.E.L.D.

I do think that this is pretty much the tip of the iceberg as far as awesome comics that come out this year. I had to limit myself otherwise I'd probably have a list of 50 or so.
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Postby j_brooks » Tue Dec 21, 2010 3:09 am

shed was almost certainly my least favorite arc of amazing spider-man since sins past
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Postby Mandingo » Tue Dec 21, 2010 3:16 am

that's because you're a poopyhead.

edit-seriously though i think we discussed that in depth in the main comics thread. I respectfully disagree with you.
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Postby Mandingo » Tue Dec 21, 2010 3:22 am

man, i can't believe i forgot about Zak Sally's Sammy the Mouse.

it's my fucking avatar for crying out loud.
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Postby j_brooks » Tue Dec 21, 2010 5:24 am

my ex has taken a bunch of comics classes taught by zak sally

most of the people at the comics program at her school only really like manga apparently so when he brought in doug mahnke as a guest one day she was the only one who really knew anything about him. apparently he had to knock out his final crisis #7 pencils in like a week. i got tons of texts that day.

i'm not sure what my list would look like if i was capable of making a proper one - i read tons of comics and my memory can be sort of iffy if i don't write things down. some stuff that mattered to me:

1. bendis & copiel - siege #2

i deeply loved the conceit of norman osborn as the world's greatest superhero. every page of dark avengers that he spent rolling up his sleeves and setting about trying to make the world a better place was total bliss for me. it's well established that the fundamental thing that made marvel characters so different from their pre-stan lee forebears is that they were more like regular people with regular problems. another important thread running through marvel's publishing history that isn't acknowledged as much, i think, is the idea of redemption. marvel is full of wonderfully compelling characters undergoing or who have undergone genuine redemptive arcs. osborn's almost certainly beyond any hope of real redemption but it was totally riveting drama to see him get within a hair's breadth of it, like doom in the "triumph and torment" ogn or magneto under claremont's direction. i fucking loved this shit.

siege was a pretty fun and visually breathtaking mini that hit most of the right buttons for me and managed to blow me away completely with issue 2. i loved ares and can safely count him and phobos as a couple of my favorite marvel characters, and it definitely caught me off guard seeing him get torn to shreds by the sentry in such gruesome detail. for a series i wasn't expecting a lot from in terms of surprises, it definitely delivered. copiel's art was fucking immaculate throughout, and the visual gag on the final page took what coulda been a pretty dull ending and lent it some genuine gravitas. probably the single comic i was most psyched on all year.

2. marvel strange tales 2

i loved the first volume of this, too, honestly in a year where superhero comics felt so uninspiring there were few greater thrills available to me than nick gurewitch and kate beaton doing strips about marvel characters. gurewitch's galactus one was classic shit and though beaton's contributions couldn't compete with surly wonder woman they still made me smile almost as much as a good, cornball mark millar comic can

3. johns and manapul on the flash

manapul's art is a total delight, i love the expressions on his characters' faces, i love the superspeed sight gags, i love his city backdrops, i love how alive and human characters like iris allen who previously barely registered as doormats to me have suddenly become. van scvier's stiff, brooding portrayal of barry allen in flash rebirth did absolutely nothing to sell the character on me, but scarcely five or six pages into flash #1 i was already convinced that it was a very special book. i'd trade a hundred pages of johns/van scvier green lantern for one pages of johns/manapul flash, and i hope this run is as long and seminal as johns' run with kolins

4. that last batman and robin arc with the frazier irving art

look now that this whole batman rip/final crisis/return of bruce wayne thing is over i've got a lot of mixed feelings about it. there were definite high points, there were definite low points, unfortunately one of those low points was the return of bruce wayne finale issue that was supposed to explain everything, but let's not focus on the bad, i guess

holy shit that art. holy shit. i had no idea dude was capable of that shit. there are so many panels from those issues just absolutely burned into my mind, not even from re-reading them but just from being so stunned the first time i saw them. morrison's run on b&r fortunately ended a lot more satisfyingly than his run on RoBW so overall the experience was so enjoyable i almost forgot completely about the fill-in art

5. mark millar's ultimate avengers

month in and month out this ended up being possibly marvel's most purely enjoyable book on the stands, fantastic art by yu in volume 2, a shockingly timely shipping schedule, and millar's usual combo of smart, tight plotting, delightfully crass humor, widescreen action, and tons of heart. while i'm also enjoying nemesis and superior i think it was ultimate avengers that i ended up getting the most enjoyment out of
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Postby Mandingo » Tue Dec 21, 2010 6:11 am

Strange Tales 2 was definitely in the running for me, but as with most anthologies it was just a bit too uneven for me to justify it making it on my list.

I agree 110 percent that Ultimate Avengers is easily the best work that Millar is doing now. I don't know what else to say about it other than the fact that that shit is FUN.
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Postby Mandingo » Tue Dec 21, 2010 6:14 am

Overall i think ROBW was a bit of a letdown. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the standout i was expecting it to be.
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Postby sevenarts » Tue Dec 21, 2010 7:16 am

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Postby Mandingo » Tue Dec 21, 2010 7:25 am

FUCKING CHRIST.

how on earth did Weathercraft slip my mind?

BAH.
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Postby Fullscreen » Tue Dec 21, 2010 7:58 am

lunatic96 wrote:Off the top of my head, but I need to give this some more thought
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love everything i've read from brubaker and phillips, need to check out that Sinners asap.

dunno anything about the outfit but i'd give it a shot based on that cover.
doomedhuh wrote:only love can break your heart
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Postby coma kid » Tue Dec 21, 2010 8:09 am

Powr Mastrs Vol. 3 by C.F.:

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Wally Gropius by Tim Hensley:

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Acme Novelty Library #20 by Chris Ware:

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Postby coma kid » Tue Dec 21, 2010 8:14 am

ah, nearly forgot If 'N Oof by Brian Chippendale:

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Postby reversemigraine » Tue Dec 21, 2010 8:56 am

OK, now that the cat's out of the bag, B&R 13-16 is really my #1.
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Postby endor holocaust » Tue Dec 21, 2010 12:55 pm

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Not necessarily this issue, but the entire mini:
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Postby pink snake » Tue Dec 21, 2010 12:59 pm

zach galifianakis
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Postby derek » Tue Dec 21, 2010 1:26 pm

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Postby Mandingo » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:02 pm

i don't know if me & derek have ever agreed on anything else before this but well done sir.
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Postby reversemigraine » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:31 pm

endor holocaust wrote:Not necessarily this issue, but the entire mini:
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I probably shouldn't be, but I'm a little surprised that it's not clocking on many (any?) best-of lists, especially from "I like graphic novels with serious artistic merit" types. Then again, it's not in trade yet, and that's where most of those people will first encounter it.

I fucking loved this series, and that means I have more quibbles with it than stuff that kinda came and went. Thought issues #1-9 were A+, and really thought it could have ended there. The last issue fell flat for me -- I'd still give it a B, but the whole thing felt unnecessary, like I already had all the closure I needed with the issue before.

And having not read the whole thing straight through in one sitting, I do wonder whether the structure will work at all in a collected edition. Seems more like the kind of story where you NEED to the chapters to be spaced out by a few weeks. Otherwise, it really is like he's alive/he's dead/he's alive/he's dead over and over.
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Postby endor holocaust » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:43 pm

Agree with your last point a lot. It was great episodic reading, and I think if my first read were in trade, I'd just roll my eyes every time a new chapter started.

That said, I hope the series does well in trade and award season so that we could possibly get some form of an oversized hardcover at some point.
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Postby Mandingo » Tue Dec 21, 2010 3:03 pm

To be totally honest i thought that the "What matters is how he lived and not how he died" just got pounded into the ground. I think that kept me from outright loving the book the way you guys did.
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