Best of 2014: New Comics Series

Last year I did a small roundup over at The Founding Fields with fellow reviewer Bane of Kings which contained a list of the best new comics to have come out in 2013. It was a rather small list with only 10 entries each from the two of us, reflecting our reading for the year and the consequent small pool to pick from. But in 2014, I greatly expanded my weekly reading, and so for the round-up of the best new comics to have come out in 2014, whether as mini-series or ongoings, I have decided to go much bigger.

There were a ton of new comics to come out last year and many of them started off well enough but unfortunately well by wayside since subsequent issues were nowhere near as good. That however, is a call to make on any new comic and you have to have a wait-and-see attitude for the most part. For this embiggened round-up, I have some mini-series here and some ongoing titles. Some have had multiple issues come out in 2014, while some have had less than three.

Irrespective of that, these are all the most promising new series of 2014, and I think that they are all well worth the read in 2015.

Let’s see what makes the cut and which comes close then!

Comics Picks For 24.12.2014

The last week of 2014 and I hit my Magic 40 number. That pleases me immensely. I was hoping I’d be able to make it to this number, and I did, especially with 2 graphic novels in the mix a well!

For this final week of 2014, the surprise hits were: Jungle Book: Fall Of The Wild #1 from Zenescope and Transformers: Drift: Empire of Stone #2 from IDW Publishing. The disappointing comics of the week were Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy #7 from Marvel and Secret Origins #8 from DC. The regular greats like Aquaman, Catwoman, Sensation Comics, Secret Avengers, Godzilla: Cataclysm and others struck once again in the final tally.

The graphic novels for this week were Sunstone by Stjepan Sejic and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Volume 3 by Dan Abnett, Pop Mhan, Mark Roberts, Deron Bennett and Stjepan Sejic.

Anyway, here’s another edition of “Comics Picks For…”. Full reading list, as always, is available here and all my comics reviews are available here.

12 Days of Best Covers of 2014: Day #3

The third book cover I pick for the 2014 edition of “12 Days of Best Covers of…” is for Christie Golden’s World of WarCraft tie-in novel The Shattering: Prelude To The Cataclysm. This novel marked a resurgence of my interest in reading tie-in fiction outside of Warhammer, Star Wars or Star Trek, and took me back to the days when I first read The Last Guardian and Rise of The Horde, two of the best WoW novels I’ve read to date. And since I never got to play the Cataclysm expansion properly at level, this prequel novel did much to soothe that longing.

The third set of comic covers I pick this year are for Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 #1 by Christos Gage and Rebekah Isaacs, with the cover done by Steve Morris, and the second one is for Superior Spider-Man Annual #2, also by Christos Gage, though he worked with pencillers Javier Rodriguez and Philippe Briones on this one, with the cover done by Michael Del Mundo. The former marked my first foray into reading Buffy comics, though I had read some of the Angel & Faith comics before that and the latter was another dip into the Superior Spider-Man territory, the premise of which I find rather intriguing, to say the least and love it as well.

So without further ado, hit the break to see both the covers in all their glory! The full list of all these covers is available here.

Comics Picks For 22.10.2014

Slight lows on the reading this past week since I didn’t manage to finish either of the graphic novels I started this week, and generally didn’t read as many singles either, but I did manage to get through 35 of them, so that’s something, yeah?

For this week, I’d say that the surprise hits are Dungeons & Dragons: Legends of Baldur’s Gate #1 from IDW Publishing, Catwoman #35 and Secret Origins #6 from DC Comics and Predator: Fire and Stone #1 from Dark Horse Comics. The comics that win the “disappointment of the week award” are Grimm Fairy Tales: Dark Shaman #1 from Zenescope, Arkham Manor #1 and Sensation Comics #11 both from DC Comics. Ongoings like Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 #8, Aquaman #35, Tomb Raider #9 and Nancy A. Collins’ prelude Vampirella: Prelude To The Shadows #1 were all first-rate comics this week, and quite satisfactory as well.

The graphic novels I’m in the middle of at the moment are Supergirl Vol.4 by Michael Alan Nelson and Diogenes Neves, and The Flash Vol.2 by Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul.

Anyway, here’s another edition of “Comics Picks For…”. Full reading list, as always, is available here and all my comics reviews are available here.

Comics Picks For 17.09.2014

Well, lightning might not strike twice, but I’ve managed yet another week where I read a ton of comics and also read two graphic novels. Granted, they were both on the shorter side, a bit, but still, 38 single issues AND 2 graphic novels. That is a personal record!

The surprise hits of this week were Alien Legion: Uncivil War #1 from Titan Comics, Godzilla: Cataclysm #2 from IDW Publishing Supergirl: Future’s End #1 from DC Comics, and Edge of Spider-Verse #2 from Marvel Comics. The surprise flops of this week were Original Sin: Thor & Loki #5 and Hulk Annual #1 from Marvel Comics, and Wonder Woman: Future’s End #1 from DC Comics. Of the remaining comics I read, they spanned the spectrum as always, and some that I expected to be really great, such as The Darkness: Rebirth Volume 2, Future’s End #20, Daredevil #8 and The Flash Season Zero #2 were awesome, so I’m quite happy with this week.

Anyway, here’s another edition of “Comics Picks For…”. Full reading list, as always, is available here and all my comics reviews are available here.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 #7 (Comics Review)

Following the close of the first big arc on the new season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, writer Christos Gage launched into another fun arc that saw the Scoobies deal with ghosts of the haunted house variety even as they discussed some real-life, immediate problems such as housing. Christos’ consistency on the title was matched by guest artists Karl Moline and Cliff Richards who did a great job of staying consistent themselves with how Rebekah Isaacs and Dan Jackson had handled things before and together the three of them delivered another great Scoobies adventure..

This week’s new issue sees Xander moving in with Spike, which is followed by some excellent bonding and bromance between the two, and also sees the rest of the gang dealing with their own problems, such as coming to terms with some of the recent changes in their lives. A good part of the issue is devoted to how Xander feels about Dawn, and how Spike feels about Buffy and that was kind of fun, to see some of the lingering threads addressed here. As always, I only have good things to say about this creative team, and nothing negative since they are so damn good each month..

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 #6 (Comics Review)

Last month writer Christos Gage and artist Rebekah Isaacs closed out their first arc on the new season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and it was a pretty damn awesome issue by all counts. Pretty much perfect in fact, an issue that I really, really liked. The two of them were a really solid team and with this new season of Buffy they’ve made me really nostalgic for the good old days of watching Buffy and Angel on the small screen. That’s as it should be, by my count, since these are tie-in comics that continue on the story of the shows once they finale’d themselves and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 especially is one of the best new comics of this year.

The new arc on this series sees Rebekah Isaacs replaced by the duo of Karl Moline and Cliff Richards, and what’s great is that the two of them stay really close to Rebekah’s own style. Christos still tells a damn good story, one which involves all the members of the team as they try to get back to some semblance of a normal life after the recent events involving Dracula and the demon Maloker. The personal story here really speaks out to some real problems the team faces and I loved how that transitioned to a really great mission.

Comics Picks For 23.07.2014

As per my plans, I didn’t do one of these posts in the past 2 weeks since I was on a holiday. And a great holiday it was indeed. I didn’t get to do more than a very small handful of reviews, more like just two or three in all, but I managed to read a fair bit and kept myself on target for my comics reading.

The surprise hits of this week were Storm #1 from Marvel and Star Spangled War Stories #1 from DC Comics. The surprise flop of the week would be Batman #33 from DC Comics. Not exactly a bad comic but just a disappointing one. All the other comics were pretty much good, excepting Flash #33, where I still can’t really connect with what the new creative team is doing there. I wanted to read a trade paperback comic as well during this week, but the first few days of the vacation were very busy and all these comics were pretty much read in the last 2-3 days of the week so that didn’t happen.

Anyway, here’s another edition of “Comics Picks For…”. Full reading list, as always, is available here and all my comics reviews are available here.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 #5 (Comics Review)

Christos Gage and Rebekah Isaacs launched the tenth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in great fashion some five months ago, and they’ve made this book into one of my top favourites of the year, something that I can depend on being super-good month after month. As I’ve said before, I got introduced to this due through their work on Angel & Faith Season 9 and they’ve brought the same awesomeness to this title. Reliving the adventures of this entire group through this new lens of comics is an incredible experience and the best things about it all remain the best still.

In last month’s Buffy #4, we saw that Dracula, out of his own hubris and inconsiderate manipulation of Xander, had begun to turn into the demon Maloker, the demonic father of all Vampires. In the midst of all the great character interactions, Christos Gage told a really involved story about friendships, love, betrayal, infatuation and manipulation, and he continues all of that in last week’s Buffy #5 as the first arc of the new season draws to a close. Not to be outdone, Rebekah also turns in some fantastic artwork coupled with brilliant colours from Dan Jackson.

Best of 2014 Part 1b: Monthly Comics

A few days ago I did my best of 2014 list for the novels I have read in the first half of this year. That list followed the same format that I have been using for 2 years now, but with this new list I decided to make a big departure, owing to how many comics I’ve been reading in recent months, often 80+ comics in a single month! That’s crazy.

So, with the books already having been covered, I now delve into my favourite monthly comics of the year. The next post will be at the end of the year for the second half of the year.

You can check out my top-of-the-month lists on my Reading Awards page and this list is both an extension, and a continuation of what goes on there.

Let’s see what makes the cut and which comes close then!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 #4 (Comics Review)

With the return of magic to the world and Giles to the world of the living at the end of Season 9, there have been quite a few interesting things happening in good old Sunnyvale, not the least of which is that there are some powerful vampires out there right now, vampires who exhibit some powers similar to Dracula, one of the most powerful vampires to have ever lived, and indeed a master vampire himself. With their first three issues Christos Gage and Rebekah Isaacs have knocked the story out of the park and made Buffy the Vampire Slayer an absolute must-read series.

In the new issue released yesterday, the duo deal with the resulting consequences of Dracula coming to Sunnyvale with Xander and Dawn to help the team against the powerful newborn vampires and then absconding with the book that rewrite the rules of magic as the owner sees fit. There are some true-to-form hilarious moments in the issue that make all the doom and gloom worthwhile and we also see some great examples of solid chemistry between the different characters, as well as their inter-personal relationships. Oh and the art is gorgeous and awesome as always too.

Comics Picks For 21.05.2014

My quest to push my reading habits week after week continued this week when I read 26 comics in all, which includes 23 individual issues and three graphic novels, two of which were larger than normal Fables trades. Those three trades proved to be the difference this week since my reading from the previous week was quite different. Plus, two of the issues I read this past week were from the same series so in the list of comics read, they count as one. Still, I had a ton of fun this week since I read the two (big) Fables trades back-to-back in less than an hour, which is pretty new for me.

The surprise hits of this week would definitely be Savage Wolverine #19 from Marvel and Angel & Faith Season 10 #2 from Dark Horse whereas the surprise flop would be DC’s Justice League #30 (just one this week as it happens). Books that I expected to be good, such as Marvel’s Elektra #2, IDW’s Transformers: Windblade #2, Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 #3, and Image’s Velvet #4, managed to deliver on their promise quite well.

Anyway, here’s another edition of “Comics Picks For…”. Full reading list, as always, is available here and all my comics reviews are available here.