Best Marvel comics of 2013 (part four of five): 6-10

Here we are, the official TOP TEN for the Marvels blog. Okay, well the official bottom part of the top ten but STILL really impressive comics. Let's find out what they were, shall we?

10. Iron Man

I hinted yesterday (okay, probably more than hinted) that SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN got bumped into 12-spot by some rabble-rousing book that had leapt clean over AVENGERS and into the top ten and, you guys, this was that very book. I think Iron Man has a lot of interesting foibles (fun fact: foible is also the name of the weaker part of a fencing sword!) as a character but his books don't really tend to hold my interest. I wish I'd paid a bit more attention to Fraction's run because I think he probably did a remarkable job on the character and did a lot more than I gave him credit for at the time (though I think I'm in the camp that tends to find Larroca's art somewhat boring). Regardless, Kieron Gillen has taken a lot of those aspects of Tony and really focused in on them while also telling a story that is quite probably more engaging than any other single Iron Man story I've read in a long time. "The Secret Origin of Tony Stark" was a phenomenal story and one that really changed the way I viewed the character (I'm still a little sour on Tony after all the CIVIL WAR stuff). Also, Gillen created one of the most complex and interesting villains I've seen recently in 451. There were twists and turns and retcons and re-retcons and just everything and, here's the thing, it all worked for me. Really brilliant stuff and now it seems to be giving way to Tony the futurist and the guy obsessed with fixing things working on a way to fix the future. Excited to see what this year holds in store for Tony both in this book and in the AVENGERS titles.

9. Daredevil

I struggled on this number a WHOLE LOT you guys and I think it's only going to get harder from here on out. I feel as though I've talked a lot about DAREDEVIL in the past few weeks so regular readers will probably know my feelings on this series. I think that Mark Waid has done a tremendous job turning Daredevil around as a character. This was someone who spent the majority of the last thirty years (since Frank Miller's run on the character) brooding and being dark after a start as a fairly fun (if overly similar to Spider-Man) somewhat unique (again, a little overly similar to Spider-Man) character. Not to say I didn't like aspects of Daredevil over the last few decades (okay, I liked him plenty, but bear with me, alright?) but that just made Waid's run with Daredevil all the more likable. If this run had been anything less than perfect, it would have been thrown out immediately. A new and cheery, NAY, CHIPPER feel to Daredevil? This is coming directly on the heels of Andy Diggle showing Daredevil snapping and killing Bullseye and taking over a criminal empire in Hell's Kitchen. So it's a drastic change of pace for the character but one that seems, in retrospect, ultimately necessary. Between Mark Waid's crisp and fun writing and Chris Samnee's similarly crisp and fun art (with the occasional pleasant interlude from Javier Rodriguez), Matt Murdock has been brought nicely into the folds of the Marvel Universe again. Looking forward to the way this series ends and then, promptly thereafter, the new one begins.

8. Uncanny Avengers

Rick Remender has been doing a spectacular job and, frankly, a rather underrated job in the Marvel Universe. I've enjoyed every book he's touched over the last couple years. He jumped on my radar with UNCANNY X-FORCE and made a real impact before kicking off VENOM (which ended up on this top list, even after he'd left it) and taking over on SECRET AVENGERS following Ed Brubaker and doing a stellar job of it before landing himself this year on CAPTAIN AMERICA and UNCANNY AVENGERS, both of which deserve to make the top ten (and both of which, spoilers, will). UNCANNY AVENGERS seems on the outside like a can't-fail book; a team that is specifically comprised of Avengers and X-Men fighting foes that may threaten each? Neat! However, you dig a little deeper into that and you realize just how tenuous the arrangement is and just how bad this book COULD have been. Instead, it's been a really thought-provoking and very challenging book. At times, it's been remarkably hard to read. At other times, it's illustrated the Marvel Universe better than almost any other book. Overall, it's been an always engaging and worthwhile read with a sharp story and solid dialogue to match the consistently incredible art. The intricacies of the Marvel Universe are best shown here and Remender is clearly the best man for the job.

7. Avengers Arena

It's possible that AVENGERS ARENA skipped a few spots up on the chart by sheer defied expectations. Following the example set by Christos Gage's AVENGERS ACADEMY, Dennis Hopeless gave us a roster of untested teen superheroes and made sure we cared about them. Unlike with Gage in ACADEMY, though, he then proceeded to kill the majority of them. Also unlike Gage, Hopeless had an initial cast of 14 and only 18 issues to show them off and still tell a worthwhile story. He succeeded on all counts and gave us a book that was simultaneously well-written, enjoyable, and tense all the way through. Even though I (sort of reluctantly) liked AVENGERS ACADEMY, I came into this book thinking of it as a sort of stunt, something where the kids would have to band together in order to defeat Arcade, a supervillain hardly worth the time of real heroes in the universe. Not only was it immediately proven not to be a stunt (thanks to the explosion of fan-favorite Mettle in the first issue), the kids never really banded together to stop Arcade. Instead, they turned on each other when the cards were all down, just as Arcade had wanted, and those who eventually survived only did so because the most innocent of them killed the most cold-blooded of them. Guys, it was a really good book, is what I'm saying. Even as I'm recounting it, I'm a little jealous of people who have yet to read it but who plan to (also, I'm sorry if I just spoiled most of the story for you). Solid work by Dennis Hopeless and I'm excited to see where he moves next (including the upcoming AVENGERS UNDERCOVER, which will pick up the reins from this book next year).

6. Captain Marvel

Yeesh, this was another tough one to place. I knew from the get-go that Captain Marvel was in the top ten and, honestly, had it in the top five in my preliminary thoughts but then there were a LOT of good books out there this year. I always liked Carol Danvers, even when she did some pretty nasty things for what I considered to be the wrong side in CIVIL WAR, there was always a character there who, while maybe a little boring in her own books, was a real character, a woman who was both competent and extremely powerful. Kelly Sue DeConnick has taken that same character and turned the camera JUST A BIT to give us a character who is both the same one who was created all those decades ago but who was completely her own and unique at the same time. My girlfriend and I talk about this series a lot in terms of a book that has maybe changed the tone of the character (for the better) while still sticking to her roots. One of the things I like best about comics is that these are characters who have existed for as long as they've existed and still find ways to surprise while ultimately remaining those characters. Usually this is accomplished by a new creative team deciding to take a chance on the character. DeConnick has shown herself adept at exactly this while also managing to create new characters and stories that stand out. One of my favorite aspects of CAPTAIN MARVEL over the year and a half or so it's been coming out has been her cast of supporting characters, something I almost NEVER point to as a bonus of a series. DeConnick created a cast and showed us tiny glimpses every issue, never so much that we lost track of Carol or the main story but just enough to establish that character when his or her number was called for a bigger role. Great writing, some outstanding Filipe Andrade art this year, and a wonderful character; I couldn't have asked for better from Captain Marvel.

Best Marvel comics of 2013 (part three of five): 11-15

Let's keep it rolling with picks 11-15.

15. Scarlet Spider

One of the real surprises on the list even though it probably shouldn't have been. Writer Chris Yost has an impressive resumé and 2013 saw issues 13-25 of SCARLET SPIDER so it's not like we hadn't had a year's worth of comics to deem this one "good" already. Even still, I think there's a part of me that still believes this book had no right being good. An evil clone version of Peter Parker flees New York to start a new life in Mexico and gets held up doing good in Houston with a whole new cast of characters doesn't really sounds like the best pitch. Yost never gave it up, though, and showed us what a well-written and well-established Kaine can do. The character was great, the writing was fun, the story was engaging, the fights were impressive and unique, and the ending was appropriately brutal for Kaine. After establishing himself as a reluctant hero in Houston, a city that apparently desperately needed one, and finding himself a slew of new friends in the city, Kaine's life was turned upside down by none other than Kraven the Hunter, the man who most recently killed Kaine, and things spiraled out of control quickly from there, culminating in an unhappy ending as Kaine finally reaches Mexico after all. Sad to see the series go, glad that Yost will pick up Kaine's reins again on NEW WARRIORS in the coming year.

14. Venom

This is another one of those books that lasted far longer than I would have predicted going in. This book kicked off a few years ago with Rick Remender at the helm of a Flash-Thompson-is-Venom story where the high school bully of Peter Parker turned war hero turned paraplegic alcoholic is called back into duty as a newly weaponized military-controlled Venom. Solid start to the series back then and Cullen Bunn this year managed to take the helm and still tell a worthwhile story with some worthwhile characters. As everything starts to crash down around Venom from his new home in Philadelphia, Flash is put up against challenges in the form of Toxin, Carnage, and his own demons. That's not a metaphor, he really did get his own personal demon fighting for control of the Venom symbiote somewhere along the line. On top of that, he lost longtime girlfriend Betty Brant and he gained new pseudo-sidekick Mania after he tossed some symbiote to her to protect her from the attack of his kind-of archnemesis Jack O'Lantern. A more angry and wild new symbiote-wielding character, Mania had the demon transferred to her and began fighting like the dickens (if that's what the dickens does) to avenge her father's death while Flash struggled with the morality of allowing this girl to be a symbiote and a killer. Nice book all the way around and one that allowed Cullen Bunn to play around a little in the Spider-Man world and come out of it with a successful book after all was said and done.

13. Red She-Hulk
For as much as I said I couldn't really believe SCARLET SPIDER worked, RED SHE-HULK certainly shouldn't have worked, at least for me. I was never the biggest Hulk fan (though my top-ten books to watch list early this year will describe my turnaround on the character) and I didn't know these characters very well. Jeff Parker, though, did a phenomenal job creating and developing a wonderful friendship between the rather new character Red She-Hulk and the older but not particularly used X-51. The two had really distinct personalities and their team-up came about incredibly naturally as X-51 was tasked with keeping tabs on Red She-Hulk and bringing her down when the Avengers decided she was a hazard. X-51 analyzed his own findings and decided there was something more to her than what the Avengers had seen and chose to intervene on her behalf, eventually siding with her in the fight against the sketchier branches of SHIELD and General Fortean. Really good characterization supported by an intriguing story that took the pair all over the world and eventually into an alternate reality where Betty Ross became the Hulk back at the test site when Banner should have. This series certainly would have ranked higher if it had continued past the summer but what we did get was a really great book that was able to very clearly do what it set out to do and tell a story worth telling with characters that mattered. Very fun book.

12. Superior Spider-Man

The way I went about constructing this list was to first list off every book I thought worthy of consideration for the top (then) ten. When the list got too long, I adjusted it to the top twenty. Then I looked a little deeper into it and started to arrange by "top ten" and "bottom ten," finally beginning after that to sort more directly within those lists. As we near the top ten, only two books have really switched sides, one jumping out of the bottom ten and into the top ten (to be revealed TOMORROW) and the other sinking down to number 11, only to eventually fall to number 12. That was THIS VERY BOOK. I really love the way that SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN started this year, giving us a look at the brand-new Superior Spider-Man, Doc Ock with the powers and (kind of) the responsibilities of Peter Parker. It was a real separation from the Peter Parker Amazing Spider-Man, someone who leapt headfirst into danger to help and save those who needed helping and saving, no matter if he was playing into a villain's hands. The Superior Spider-Man, meanwhile, plotted and planned, rapidly developing his own methods for protecting the city and doing it with such aplomb and vigor that...well, that he was put on probation from the Avengers. Regardless, it was a great new look at a new type of Spider-Man and one that Dan Slott really stuck with despite plenty of hate tweets and death threats (still illegal, you guys). It slipped out of the top ten with the last few months of 2013 as it started to get into weaker arcs (notably one that stranded Spider-Man 2099 in the present) and started to present more of Doc's personality than I think we really needed at this point. Still, the series never became a bad read, necessarily (okay, it got a little tedious in the late months there) and it seems to be coming out of its spin a bit but the first half of this year with the new Spider-Man really solidified its place somewhere in this list; then it just became where it would land.

11. Avengers

Jonathan Hickman has taken over the major part of the Avengers wing of the Marvel Universe and has really done absolutely phenomenal things with it. I said in that very same top ten list at the start of this year that I wasn't really onboard with what Bendis had been doing in Avengers the last few years (as I'm suddenly even more vehemently against the happenings over in the majority of the X-books now) and that I was hoping for a solid change out of Hickman. Well I got it and I couldn't really be happier about it. All three of Hickman's AVENGERS related titles (INFINITY, AVENGERS, and, spoilers, NEW AVENGERS) will have made this list when it's all said and done and everything about that part of the universe seems to be on the upswing. AVENGERS has been a really interesting book, one that hoped you'd be following along but wasn't ultimately too concerned if you missed a beat or two. There were a lot of really cool single issues at the start of the series to establish some of our newer characters (like Smasher and Hyperion) and eventually the whole series got wrapped into INFINITY and told the tale of the story with a focus on the fight against the Builders. It was a pretty masterfully executed event and all of the groundwork was laid here, in AVENGERS. Looking forward to the next movements by Hickman as the Avengers celebrate one of their biggest victories with no doubt larger foes on the horizon.

Best Marvel comics of 2013 (part two of five): 16-20

NOW, after that teaser first post, we're on to the actual top twenty. Let's not tarry any longer...ranked from 20 right down to 16 (I broke the top twenty into four separate posts to save you scrolling down too far to find out everything after I inevitably talked for TOO LONG), the list of my best 2013 Marvel books starts HERE.

20. Winter Soldier

This one BARELY squeaked by the not-quite-the-best list, where it would have landed only for the inconvenient timing it had for 2013. It only went from issue 14 to issue 19 in 2013 but they were, upon further inspection, very solid issues. We kicked the year off with Ed Brubaker's final issue with the character he created not so very long ago and it really rather changed the game, showing a depressed Bucky telling SHIELD to stop trying to restore Natasha's memory of him, as she's been through enough. One of the ways that I know this blog has made me a better comic reader in general is that, in going back to fetch a picture for this entry, I re-read the comic and it broke my heart in far more ways than it had the first time through. Beautiful work. Jason Latour did a fine job in his short time on the book but ended up stalling a little out of the gate and only picking up steam as the end was in sight. Very strong book showcasing one of the most popular new characters in his first (but undoubtedly not last) shot at a solo book. No one really gets it in one, Bucky, chin up.

19. Thunderbolts

THUNDERBOLTS absolutely made the list on the strength of newcomer Charles Soule when he took over the book with THUNDERBOLTS 12 and when he started his first full arc back in THUNDERBOLTS 14. Soule brought a new feel to the book and took a series that was promising but a bit forgettable and made it into something worth reading for various reasons each and every time out. The team was already extremely interesting on paper back when it kicked off but Daniel Way had taken it in a bit of a more gritty way than I think was necessary, which is weird to say about a book that consists of Flash-Venom, Elektra, and Punisher. Of course, the rest of the team is Deadpool, Red Hulk, and the Leader, so maybe the cold-blooded coup feel of the book wasn't ever going to work. Soule has done a great job revitalizing the book and making it a refreshing and fun read issue to issue or as a full arc. Looking forward to this one going forward and, even more surprisingly, looking forward to Soule's addition of the new Ghost Rider to the team next year.

18. Infinity

I'm as surprised as you are to find that a mini-series, no less an EVENT, has made the top twenty but here it is. In fact, the only reason Jonathan Hickman's INFINITY is so low in the top twenty is that I found it hard to divorce it entirely from the fundamental help it got from the titans that were AVENGERS and NEW AVENGERS, not to mention the various tie-ins throughout the universe. I wonder if this book stands up as strong if read by itself. I have a feeling it still stands up pretty well but the other books in the sort of required reading elevated the event as a whole. That was by design, sure, but I can't award this mini-series those points. INFINITY lands on the list for being an entirely engaging read and an event worthy of being an event. The other two major events (AGE OF ULTRON and BATTLE OF THE ATOM) this year were total busts for me and events in the last few years have really fallen flat even as they grow more popular than ever within the business. INFINITY was a breath of fresh air as we got an event big enough to really be called an event and to warrant the action with real implications that we'll be seeing through the coming year(s). Also, no one from our casts died, which was an exceedingly bold choice in this day and age (throughout, I was predicting the shock value deaths we'd get only to be disappointed and equally not disappointed when they did not come to pass). Hopefully Hickman helms any other major events in the near future.

17. Journey into Mystery

This is another book that landed this low only after a mid-year cancellation stopped it short of contending all year long. As someone who truly loved Kieron Gillen's run on the book that turned the ever-devious Loki into a lovable rapscallion only to see him destroyed and have his true nature take the credit, I was both looking forward to Kathryn Immonen's look at Lady Sif and a little wary of it replacing a book that was a long-form love story to the form. After it was all said and done, though, Immonen took us on one of the most fun and most thoroughly engaging treks through Asgard I think we've ever seen. Sif is a character who is typically explored through the eyes of Thor or Loki or someone bigger in that Marvel-style pantheon but we got a book here that viewed her as every bit the warrior we hope she'd be outside of the pages of THOR or any other Asgardian based book. Immonen gave a real character to Sif and stuck to it. The final art, featuring Valerio Schiti art, really solidified the greatness of this book, one of those rare occasions where the perfect people teamed with the perfect character for them and really made it shine. Solid stuff all the way through.

16. Ultimate X-Men

ULTIMATE X-MEN surprised me when it appeared on my own top-ten list last year so this year I was a bit more ready for it and it didn't disappoint. Things in the Ultimate Universe are almost unquestionably worse all the way around than they are in the 616 and it was never so obvious as it was with the ULTIMATE X-MEN this year (unless we're talking about book quality, am I right you guys? Ha, I am though, which is sad). Sure, things aren't great for mutants in the 616 but Brian Wood showed us a tremendously diminished mutant population being given practically desert land and not much else and being left to sort out their problems themselves. These problems included questioned leadership, limited resources, hate and paranoia from the country surrounding them (which was just full to the brim with the stuff), and secret infiltrators. Whenever things started to look up for the X-Men, something interfered and pushed them two steps back. They're given a new place to start over, free of US jurisdiction? An omega-level telepath hidden amongst them works in secret to overthrow their new leading party. They create the sentient seed? The US government claims ownership over mutants and their creations and nearly starts a war to get its property back. They begin to succeed as a little nation all their own? Tian, a jealous sister country, instigates war and pretends that Utopia started it. Tensions were CONSTANTLY up in Utopia and Brian Wood never once backed down. The pacing, the characters, the story, the art, it all added up to a superb book overall, and certainly the best that the Ultimate Universe had to offer this past year, and maybe ever.

Best Marvel comics of 2013 (part one of five): Not quite the best

It's that time of year again, the time when everyone starts pulling up the year-in-review lists and begins to wave away the year with little blurbs about bits of it. Hm. That wasn't exactly poetic. Whatever, moving on. LAST YEAR, I wrote this year-in-review list about five days into this new blog with nothing but a shoddy memory and a love of comics. This year I'm coming at it with much of the same in my arsenal but ALSO, fortunately, armed with a YEAR'S WORTH OF BLOG POSTS ON THIS VERY SUBJECT so suddenly I remember far more comics deserving of this list.

Marvel put out an awful lot of books this year and I reviewed just about every single one of them (this is my way of patting myself on the back, obviously). What's particularly impressive about that is that I genuinely liked PROBABLY the majority of them. There were still a distinct number of books that did not really move me or did not carry a lot of weight with me or that I fully did not like (the X-Wing of the Marvel Universe will be not-so-mysteriously absent in this countdown) but by and large, I really enjoyed this year at Marvel comics. Considering that, I decided to stretch this review to the top TWENTY books released by Marvel this year. I figured I would just end up with a section of "these books only didn't make it because there wasn't room" that was as long or longer than the top ten so why not just expand? Guys, I have the authority to make that call. That said, let's start with the "these books only didn't make it because..." section (even this ended up being long enough that I wanted to separate the 16-20 picks into a different post...geez guys).

Books not appearing in this list for, you know, reasons

Avengers Assemble
Really fun book, the most fun of the AVENGERS titles but one that ultimately couldn't crack the top twenty in a stacked competition

Cable and X-Force
You guys, this one was really close after a really strong opening. I felt that it kind of stumbled in the middle and I don't think, in retrospect, that Salvador Larroca's art really fit the book well enough to give it that last little push. Still a fun book, for sure, and one I'm sad to see end but one that was ultimately just a hair too weak.

Dark Avengers
I can see this making the top twenty with very little effort if it had continued a bit longer. Really fun spin by Jeff Parker with an intriguing cast and an ever-interesting story behind it.

Indestructible Hulk
This one's another one right on the cusp but I think it was really hurt by event tie-ins. I'll temper that by saying it had consistently interesting tie-ins but, in the end, it wasn't able to spend enough time telling its own story and had to waste too much telling everyone else's.

Thor: God of Thunder
I think the incredibly strong opening arc (led by Esad Ribic's great art and an interesting premise from Jason Aaron) overstayed its welcome just a bit and then led into a considerably weaker second arc. I would say that telling two stories in a little over twelve months was a downside to the book but there's a book that cracked the top ten that's pretty much on par with that so it's not really a valid excuse.