Tag Archives: comic-books

2023 Comics Year in Review

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2023 was the year that I really got back into comics, big time. I had been buying books and reading a few here and there, but I was having piles of comics at my house that I was not getting to and some that were still in the bag I bought them in at Comic World. And Todd is always hording those bags.

Anyway, with the beginning of the Comic Catch-Up post, I started working through those piles of books, getting them bagged and boarded. Once the piles were basically done, I switched the post to EYG Comic Cavalcade and here we are.

I have also expanded my collecting of books from just Marvel to Marvel, Image, Boom! Studios… and even DC (a little). I have a very wide swath of comics I get in a month.

So I have given out some of the year awards for EYG Year in Review for the world of comics.

Best Marvel Series: Daredevil. Daredevil was consistently one of the most enjoyable books each month. Chip Zdarsky created an amazing tale for Matt Murdock and Saladin Ahmed has continued the thrilling arc for the character in his new series. Runners-Up: Moon Knight, Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, She-Hulk.

Best Independent Series: No/One. This was a tough choice. I loved a lot of independent books this year, and I bought a bunch of them. However, I guess No/One got a bit of a push when I found the podcast that is tied to it. I have truly enjoyed this book so far. Runners-Up: Something is Killing the Children, Something Epic, Void Rivals, Killadelphia, The Great British Bump Off.

Best DC Series: Knight Terrors. This is a bit of a cheat, but this summer storyline lead me to buy the entire run of books, including all the crossovers. I liked more of this than not, with the main limited series being some great stuff with Batman and Deadman involved. Runners-Up: Peacemaker: Tries Hard, Superman: Lost.

Best New Character: Spider-Boy. Dan Slott’s latest creation in the world of Spider-Man is the young Spider-Boy who remembers being Spider-Man’s sidekick. Problem is that he is the only person who remembers that happening. Spider-Boy has been fun so far. Runners-up: No/One, Danny Dillon, Hunter’s Moon, Hallows’ Eve, Red Goblin

Best Writer: James Tynion IV. Tynion has been one of the best and most prolific writers on the independent scene all year. With Something Killing the Children being awesome every month, there was also Blue Book, Universal Monsters: Dracula, The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos, W0rldT33, The Department of Truth, The Deviant etc. It has gotten to a point that when I see James Tynion IV on a comic, I want to buy it. Runners-Up: Jeff Lemire, Al Ewing, Chip Zdarsky, Szymon Kudranski, Jed MacKay, Saladin Ahmed

Best Artist: Szymon Kudranski. His work on Something Epic was absolutely astounding. His art of those issues stuck with me and made me think of him for this book. It is so realistic that it looks photographic and I find it absolutely beautiful. Runners-Up: Lee Bermejo, John Romita Jr., Elena Casagrande, Werther Dell’Edera, Martin Simmonds.

Best Graphic Novel: Inside the Mind of Sherlock Holmes. A creative book featuring the iconic detective. Runners-Up: Parasocial, Killadelphia trade paperback. 

Best Issue #1: Something Epic #1. This book inspired me to head out and actually search down as many of the variant covers that I could find. It was such a great issue I felt excited after reading it. Runners-Up: Hellcat #1, Predator versus Wolverine #1, The Deviant #1.

Best Surprise: Predator vs. Wolverine #1. I could not believe that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. While the next couple issues were okay at best, this first issue really shocked me with how much I enjoyed it. Runners-Up: Killadelphia, Void Rivals, Transformers

Most Underappreciated: Hellcat. I loved this limited series. I know it did not have the best following, but Patsy Walker had an exciting and enjoyable mystery to solve involving her ex-husband Damian Hellstrom. Runners-Up: Moon Knight, Ghost Rider, Peacemaker: Tries Hard

Best One Shot: Hellfire Gala #1. Big things happened in this book and I was really enjoying it. The Orchis storyline kicked into high gear and the X-Men have yet to recover. Runners-Up: Fallen Friend: The Death of Ms. Marvel #1, The Original X-Men #1, Howard the Duck #1.

Best Older Series I Started this Year: Gideon Falls. I absolutely loved this series and it was a big reason why I dove into the independent scene as much as I did. Jeff Lemire created a classic with this 28-issue masterpiece. Runners-Up: Omega the Unknown, Planetary, Ice Cream Man, Howard the Duck, That Texas Blood

Cover of the Year: Amazing Spider-Man #35, Cover D. Drawn by Elena Casagrande. 

Comic Character MVPs for 2023: Spider-Man, Optimus Prime, Deadman, Erica Slaughter, Ms. Marvel, Daredevil, and Moon Knight.

The 2023 Christopher Reeve Memorial Comic Book Movie of the Year

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2023saw a bit of a decline in the subgenre of the comic book movie… at least in the eyes of some.

Personally, I enjoyed most of the comic book movies of 2023, and while there were none that were unbelievable, I do not subscribe to the theory of the narrative of the “comic book movie fatigue” that some have been pushing for nearly a decade now. It is not a theory to which I would agree as it just feels like more toxicity than anything else.

So among the films this year, I have a few that I considered for the Christopher Reeve Memorial Comic Book Movie of the Year. Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania fielded a lot of hatred, much more than it deserved. The Flash had some good moments (but not the baby-hospital rescue part), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was one of the best movies of the year.

Previous winners are as follows:

The Christopher Reeve Memorial Comic Book Movie of the Year

Previous Winners: Batman (1989), Dick Tracy (1990), The Rocketeer (1991), Batman Returns (1992), Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), The Crow (1994), Batman Forever (1995), The Phantom (1996), Men in Black (1997), Blade (1998), Mystery Men (1999), X-Men (2000), From Hell (2001), Spider-Man (2002), X2: X-Men United (1993), Spider-Man 2 (1994), V for Vendetta (2005), 300 (2006), Superman: Doomsday (2007), The Dark Knight (2008), Watchmen (2009), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Captain America: First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Captain America: Winter Soldier & Guardians of the Galaxy [tie] (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Logan (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Birds of Prey (2020), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

So in 2023, the Christopher Reeve Memorial Comic Book Movie of the Year is…

Winner: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was a tremendous conclusion for the James Gunn-led trilogy. The emotional backstory of Rocket informed the whole film and we truly got a chance to see how vital that character was to the overall franchise. There were some beautiful moments in the film, including many of the moments between Rocket and Lyla.

Guardians Vol. 3 was able to blend humor and tragedy together into a wonderfully epic tale.

Who is NO/ONE?

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I am taking a class for my educational license renewal on podcasts in education. I started it yesterday and one of the assignments was to basically try out a podcast. I was considering the Wolverine one, but then I remembered. The podcast that went along with Image Comics’ series No/One. I saw the ads for it at the back of the comic and I always wanted to give it a try. This gave me the perfect opportunity.

Starring Rachael Leigh Cook and Patton Oswalt, I only had to listen to the first episode for my class. I was hooked. By the end of the night, I had gone through the entire six episodes that are currently available.

I have been loving the No/One comic series. This podcast was a remarkable compendium to that book. Listening to the podcast, I had that background knowledge from the books and so when the podcast would describe something that I remembered from the comic, it was as if I was a special insider.

Rachael Leigh Cook and Patton Oswalt were great in telling the story of the Richard Roe murders and the copycats.

The comic series is ten issues so I assume there will continue to be a podcast episode for wach issue. This was a fun listen.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #72

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December 7, 2023

I was able to spend this past NEW COMIC BOOK DAY at Comic World as I used a personal day from school. Once again, it was wonderful. I was able to sit at the back table at Comic World and read most of the new books this week. I do love being able to do this.

It also appears that the curse of the number three in independent books is officially over. I have five #3s this week and they were all in my pull box. Mercifully, the long nightmare is finally over!

Books read this week:

Fantastic Four #14. Written by Ryan North and art by Ivan Fiorelli. Alex Ross did the cover art. The Fantastic Four returns to the site of the Baxter Building with the expectation that it would reappear after it was sent into the future. They discovered people (super villains actually) constructing something on the location.

Thunderbolts#1. “Worldstrike” Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly and art by Geraldo Borges. Terry Dodson did the cover art. A new team of Thunderbolts head out to take on the Red Skull. Included Bucky Barnes, Sharon Carter, Val and Red Guardian. I liked the interactions between these characters.

Amazing Spider-Man #39. Written by Zeb Wells and penciled by John Romita Jr. Romita Jr, Scott Hanna and Marcio Menyz did the cover art. Gang War is underway! There were some awesome interaction between Spidey and She-Hulk. Tombstone is up. This is a great arc so far.

Daredevil #4. “Introductory Rites” Part Four. Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by German Peralta. John Romita Jr, Scott Hanna and Marcio Menyz did the cover art. Daredevil confronts the Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich. We fins out why Ben has been acting as he has been.

The Sentry #1. Written by Jason Loo and penciled by Luigi Zagaria. Ben Harvey did the cover art. The book had me immediately when Jessica Jones showed up. She is one of my favorite characters in the Marvel Universe. The recently murdered Sentry’s power seems to have been split up among a group of other people. Intriguing for sure.

Invincible Iron Man #13. “The Mysterium Marauders” Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Juan Frigeri. Kael Ngu did the cover art. Ironheart. Starfox. Tony Stark and Emma Frost. On the way to find the mysterious metal called Mysterium.

X-Men #29. “House of Doom.” Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Joshua Cassara. X-Men head into Latveria to attempt to recruit the Latverian mutants. They end up having dinner with Dr. Doom.

Blood Commandment #2. Written and drawn by Szymon Kudranski. Vampires, werewolves and absolutely beautiful art work. It is a shocking book filled with some amazing imagery. It is a remarkably designed book.

Transformers #3. Written and drawn by Daniel Warren Johnson. Big battle between Optimus Prime and Starscream. Watching Optimus beat Starscream with his own removed arm was epic. And a shocking moment with Spike.

Nights #3. “Never Knows Best.” Written by Wyatt Kennedy and art by Luigi Formisano. Vincent started off the book with a bit of a stain… it surprised me when I saw it. This book is a oddball coming of age story that looks at some supernatural as well.

Alpha Flight #5. “Divided We Stand Part Five” Written by Ed Brisson and art by Scott Godlewski with David Cutler. Leonard Kirk and Edgar Delgado did the cover art. The conclusion of Alpha Flight as they come together to save as many of the mutants from Krakoa North. I liked this book.

Avengers #8. “Twilight Dreaming” Part Two. Written by Jed MacKay and art by C.F. Villa. The Avengers have to confront Nightmare in order to get back to Vision and Scarlet Witch who were battling the Twilight Court. I loved what Thor does near the end with Nightmare. Otherwise, I do not have a great connection with the Twilight Court.

Other books this week: Destiny Gate #3, Midlife (or How to Hero at Fifty) #3, Project: Cryptid #3, The Avengers Voices #1.