Best Marvel comics of 2013 (part five of five): 1-5

HERE WE ARE, the best of the best of 2013. A quick note to, again, say thank you to everyone who checked in on the blog even once this year and happy new year to everyone out there. Let's count down.

5. Captain America

This is really pretty much the only book really in this top twenty that I wonder about, wonder if maybe I gave too much credit to because of my fondness for the character. However, when it's all said and done, I think that this is a book that, had it been anything less than exemplary, I wouldn't have been onboard for so the fact it's considered in the top ten, less the top five, means it deserves to be there. Captain America has been around for over 70 years so when I say this is him at his lowest point, know that it's a pretty low point to have to reach to be there. Rick Remender threw Steve into another dimension run by one of his archenemies and kept him there for a decade, re-writing the book on how sad it is to be Steve Rogers. Now, after ten years in Dimension Z, he's just returned to present-day Earth where, according to Marvel time, he's spent less time since being thawed from the ice than he had in Dimension Z and he has the added weight that he's lost the fiancee he just saw for the first time since he was trapped there and the adopted son he raised the entire time he was there. The only person who has any real sense of what it was like there is the daughter of the archenemy they killed and left behind and who is having enough trouble adjusting herself to the new world. On top of it all, Remender has done a phenomenal job showing an injured Cap, making sure that the super soldier is constantly working his way through severe injuries and convincing himself to get back up and keep fighting. It's a great new look at Steve (with a nice, never-before-seen look into his pre-super soldier days) while simultaneously being one of the hardest things to watch him go through. Very interested to see where the coming days take him and glad that Falcon is back in his life as a support and that, presumably, Bucky will be popping up sooner or later (he should be involved in the Iron Nail storyline and he'll have his own mini-series WINTER SOLDIER: BITTER MARCH coming soon not to mention ALL-NEW INVADERS next year). Should be fun.

4. New Avengers

NEW AVENGERS was a book that was gunning for number one right from the word go and only really slipped out of it as it had to dedicate too much time to tie-in. Don't get me wrong, the NEW AVENGERS link to INFINITY was very strong and still told a good story, one that was necessary to the event while still focusing on the characters we needed to see in NEW AVENGERS, but ultimately it slowed down a series that was moving at a ridiculous and very exciting pace. Regardless, the combination of this team and story was always going to ensure that NEW AVENGERS landed pretty high up on the best-of list and now HERE IT IS. Every character is extraordinarily interesting and comes off with what feels like the exact amount of weight that's appropriate for their situations. On top of dealing with the book's main threat, incurring worlds that regularly threaten to destroy our own via crashing together (okay, written out it sounds a little stupid but all the more reason for it to be up here because, in practice, it is amazing), we have some of the top egos in the world clashing, particularly as T'Challa and Namor continue to meet and try to figure out ways to stop the incursions while their countries fight a bitter war against one another. As the first year closes out, everything has come to a head with Black Bolt weakened and, if I was reading correctly, thought dead, T'Challa cast out of Wakanda, and everyone still coping with how they're going to stop incursions and how they're going to live with themselves afterwards. There's a ton happening here and this is one of those books that clearly has plenty more to say so I don't anticipate it losing any steam in the months ahead (in fact, a new issue comes out THIS VERY DAY and I'll get around to reviewing it AT SOME POINT).

3. Hawkeye

I think that HAWKEYE has unquestionably changed the way that mainstream comics can run. I'm not saying every mainstream comic has taken up its unique storytelling methods or its run-down and deeply flawed protagonist but there are certainly a number that have (I still look at SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN as something that, in the very least, started out being something of a HAWKEYE clone). On top of that, HAWKEYE has earned itself well-deserved huge critical acclaim and has brushed up against the mainstream with reviews and praise from all over various media. For all the books it's inspired and all of the lenses on it, HAWKEYE has never once backed down and continues to do its brand of character and story and storytelling best of all its competitors. It's an amazing book with an amazing core and a perfectly established cast consisting almost entirely of Clint and Kate. The writing is continually sharp and balanced, the art is always among the best in the business (even now as it oscillates between David Aja's proven style and Annie Wu's newcomer talent), and the characters are Venture Brothers-level depressing (fun fact: Annie Wu also works on The Venture Brothers). The only real reason this book didn't go even higher on this list is a delay in the publishing that meant that we didn't get it for a couple of months in the late summer, early fall. Still, an overall amazing book that's really set a precedent in the Marvel Universe and that's doing it better than anyone else, the only time Hawkeye has ever been able to say that.

2. Young Avengers

Guys, I legitimately had to walk away from the computer for a bit so that I could decide which book belonged in which spot up in the top two and it ended up meaning that I actually walked away from the computer for like, four hours and, frankly, I still haven't really come to a decision. YOUNG AVENGERS did some things that I've never seen done in mainstream books (actually, each of the top three picks here read unlike any other mainstream book I think I've ever read) and brought Kieron Gillen's signature writing excellence and Jamie McKelvie's signature absolutely outstanding artwork to the project. As a book, I think that this one probably merits being number one. There were times that I finished an issue and my mind was just absolutely blown. There were times where I would turn a page and lose my mind because something so gorgeous or so striking or so very different had happened. I came into this book with rather high expectations, given that Gillen was pretty fresh off the amazing JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY and that Jamie McKelvie was Jamie McKelvie. Despite raised expectations and a certain amount of attachment to the characters, this book never once disappointed. Brilliant every step of the way and had a cast that rivaled any in comics in likability with a story and artwork to challenge anything I'd ever seen before from Marvel. Simply put, this book was next-level in every single aspect. If you believe it was better than the number one pick and deserved to be there, well, I don't disagree necessarily and please feel free to read these two in any order. So so sad to see this one go next week.

1. X-Men Legacy

Had you asked me at the start of this year, or even several issues into this run, if this book was going to hang around and be such an important book in 2013, I'd've probably shrugged and said "well it's pretty good. Surprisingly good. But I don't know about best of the year good." Still, here it is, December 31st and that's precisely what I'm saying. Like HAWKEYE and YOUNG AVENGERS, this book has done things I've never seen done in books before and given us a character in David Haller who is so challenging to read and so perfectly formed that it feels impossible to read this book and not love every second of it, not get so invested in it that each week it's not released feels like a let down. Just a really impressive title and one that, from the outset, had no right being so impressive. David Haller is not a massive character in the Marvel Universe, despite his power set and despite his lineage. He's had big storylines here and there throughout the X-Wing of the Universe but he's never really reached beyond that. So I can only imagine what it was like to Si Spurrier to jump onto a book where David would be the main character and have to work backwards from the crazed and ultra-powerful being that was Legion and try to make him relatable. I don't know if this was a book Marvel wanted written and pegged Spurrier for it or if it was a pitch that Spurrier made to Marvel but I have to imagine it was the latter because the sheer weight of Spurrier's run and the intricacies with which he plays with David makes me believe that Spurrier was born to write this book. This book may not have been the knockout every issue that YOUNG AVENGERS or HAWKEYE was but its slow-burn and its gutsiness really catapulted it up the chart. This is a book that is entirely unique for Marvel and that works so incredibly well. Every piece of it: the not-entirely likable main character and his extremely human problems despite all of his massive powers, the girl troubles (and the trouble that stems from the idea that she's the only one who has the ability to stop him if things get to their worst inside of him), the prison inside David's head for all of his powers, the amazing idea to have the narration play in loudspeakers inside of David's head whenever we peek in there, the villain of the series, the character interactions, the story itself, the X-Force feel of the lone character, everything, felt so perfectly placed and so well-executed that this series has staying power well beyond its years. This deserves to be in every top ten list and deserves to be the sort of book that's revisited years and years down the line. I wasn't sold on the art it first but it slow-burned just as well and now I can't imagine this book with any other art. Tan Eng Huat and Koi Pham alternated on some issues and both brought such a perfect design to every character and such a sharpness to each situation while also staying appropriately psychedelic when need be. A near perfect full series. Guys, how sad is it that the two top books of this year are both ending in the next couple of months?




So that's that. Enjoy your New Year's Eve everyone and tune in tomorrow for the top ten books to look for THIS COMING YEAR.