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.