Top 5 Comic Books of 2015

In similar fashion to my year-end ‘Top 5’ lists for video games and anime, the stories detailed below are the five best comic books/graphic novels that I read between January and December of this year. Some of these series may have been released in years prior, but I simply did not get around to reading them until recently. Also, keep in mind that while comic book reviews are one of the newest additions to my blog, having only started in April of this year, that some of the earliest reviews posted here were of comics I read in 2014 or earlier, and are thus ineligible for making this list.

#5) All-New Ghost Rider: Perhaps the strongest debut in the Marvel NOW! launch next to Nova, All-New Ghost Rider sees teenager Robbie Reyes raising his younger, wheelchair-bound brother without parental aid in a rough Los Angeles neighborhood. Surrounded by frequent gang shootings, drug lords, and common school bullies, Robbie works twice as hard to earn money as an underpaid mechanic to afford basic necessities for his brother’s medical care. When he is granted the powers of the Ghost Rider, Robbie decides to try and clean up the town, and hopes to make it a safer place for his brother, himself, and increase the overall quality of living for locals who – whether directly or not – are affected by the criminal goings-on.

#4) X-Men ’92: Exactly as its name implies, X-Men ’92 is a trip down memory lane, as the cartoon counterparts of the classic X-Men team debut in comic book form as part of the 2015 Secret Wars event. An original story that takes place after the Brotherhood of Mutants have been defeated, the miniseries sees Jubilee, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Gambit, Rogue, Beast, and Storm reunited for one more adventure, as they investigate a suspicious rehabilitation facility run by one Cassandra Nova. Other faces drop in as well, such as the X-Force team, while the finale offers plenty of satisfying, slightly goofy homages to the X-Men history, and still manages to successfully tease future storylines, as X-Men ’92 has since been greenlit as an ongoing series post-Secret Wars. X-Men ’92 is strikingly self-aware, occasionally breaking the fourth wall to land a joke about the X-Men arcade game, or the 1990s censorship rules regarding what could or could not be said on a children’s television program

#3) X-Men: Age of Apocalypse: A bold reimagining of the X-Men universe from the mid 1990s, Age of Apocalypse details an expansive ‘what if?’ scenario, where Charles Xavier was killed by his unstable, time-traveling son Legion, leading Magneto to champion all of Charles’ ideals and form his own team of X-Men. As the years pass, Apocalypse rises to power, corralling humans into prisons and pens, only serving to further strain relations between humans and mutants. Despite all this, Magneto and the X-Men strive to help those humans still living in the futuristic dystopia created by Apocalypse and his four horsemen, and intend on striking directly at the villainous conqueror, no matter how greatly the odds may be stacked against them.

#2) Guardians of the Galaxy: The Complete Collection: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s Guardians of the Galaxy run stands as the highest point of the already-superb Marvel cosmic renaissance of the mid 2000s. A broad cast of strange, yet oddly intriguing characters drive a plot that is just complicated enough to suck readers into to these spacey adventures, without getting lost within its own backdrop. This series stands masterfully on its own as the premiere cosmic Marvel storyline, while also acting as an effective bridge between the two Annihilation events and The Thanos Imperative finale.

#1) Black Science: A wild and unrelenting ride into outlandish realms and alternate realities, Black Science is bold; unafraid to mash vastly different scenarios together. Much of the series’ visual spectacle comes from equally fantastical and terrifying backdrops that include of a World War I-era battle between ill-prepared German soldiers squaring off against Native Americans who have repurposed hyper-advanced alien technology for their own needs, a tribal conflict between fish people and frog people on a moving island set on the back of a giant turtle, a society of territorial snow monkeys who are skilled in both clockwork and steam-based mechanicals, and a fallen Roman Empire where troops travel by jetpack while a virus has killed the majority of the populous. The plot, meanwhile, revolves around Grant McKay and his team of scientists, as they are stranded in these increasingly dangerous locales. One of the team members has broken the Pillar, the device that allowed them to make the initial jump through time and space, and as such, the series begins with all of them becoming suspicious and distrusting toward one another. The other significant conflict is Grant attempting to reconcile with his children, who have also been swept up in these events, over years of being emotionally and motivationally absent from their lives, and for causing his marriage to their mother to fall apart due to an affair with one of his co-workers. These interactions between the core characters ground the series in relatable terms, and the character progression therein is surprisingly satisfying. There are a few twists along the way, and the payoff of each proves worthwhile. Though there is still plenty to be explored in future releases, these first three trade paperback volumes do well to cap off what is essentially the first story arc of Black Science.

Gaming, Anime, and Comic Book Update: "See You, Space Cowboy..."

2015 saw many major titles delayed into the following year. From Star Fox Zero, to the new Legend of Zelda, and even Persona 5, the holiday game offerings for this Fall and Winter were slim compared to years past. Those aforementioned Wii U titles, as well as the Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem title, will certainly be purchases for me this coming year. I also recently picked up Xenoblade Chronicles X. While I’ve spent a decent amount of time with it already, given how long the game is reported to be, I highly doubt I will get around to reviewing it until January, at the very earliest.

Fast Racing Neo, meanwhile, will likely be my last game review to be posted for 2015. It has managed to impress me so greatly that I have no doubt that it will land in my top 5 games for the year. I also recently purchased SteamWorld Heist for the 3DS, which is reported to last around 13 hours or so. I’m not sure if I will get a chance to write up a review for that game by the end of the year, so for the time being, given how I intend to continue devoting most of my gaming time for the next month or so to Xenoblade Chronicles X. Also on the radar for early 2016 will be Shin Megami Tensei IV, as I recently added it to my 3DS library as it was on sale in the eShop. I’ve never played a core SMT title before, but my experiences with the Persona series that spun off of it have been largely positive thus far.

On the anime front, while I did manage to start a number of series this year, I didn’t finish nearly as many as I had hoped. This was due in part to my trying to juggle too many series at once, and also partly due to personal events outside of the blog that demanded my attention more so than my viewing of these anime. As such, I hope to deliver quite a few anime reviews early next year, but am expecting to cut my year-end anime countdown to a ‘top 3’ this year, instead of my usual ‘top 5’.

On the comic book front, however, I manage to crank out quite a few more reviews than I initially expected. The short-lived nature of many of Marvel’s Secret Wars spinoff series helped bump the overall number of comic book reviews up significantly, while I was still able to devote time to more intense and lengthy reading material, like Black Science and Age of Apocalypse. I still have a number of comics that I picked up at this year’s Grand Rapids Comic-Con that I have not yet begun to read through, and those will most likely make for some of my earliest comic book reviews in 2016. The remainder of the year, meanwhile, remains largely ambiguous. No doubt I will continue reading Black Science, Tokyo Ghost, Nova, and Guardians of the Galaxy, but there are a couple of series I’ve had my eye on that may serve to replace Saga on my reading list.

Comic Book review: Age of Apocalypse, Volume One

Considered by some to be one of the best Marvel event series of the 1990s, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse tells the story of an alternate history where Charles Xavier was killed by his psychotic son Legion decades before his school for gifted children could provide a safe haven for troubled youth, and before the legendary X-Men could become a fighting force for good among mutant and humans alike. Instead, Xavier’s death provides Apocalypse and his loyal horsemen a clear path to launch a campaign against humankind, keeping with the all-powerful mutant’s beliefs in ‘survival of the fittest’. Born of Apocalypse’s conquest is a dire future, where humans are corralled into pens like cattle, where mutants are hunted to either be hired into Apocalypse’s ranks or killed for opposing him, and where one Erik Lensherr champions the causes of his old friend Xavier and forms his own team of X-Men.

What is so captivating about the Age of Apocalypse story is the manner in which it takes familiar characters, partnerships, and rivalries, and turns them on their heads. Magneto is now a hero, an icon among those mutants who would dare to stand against Apocalypse and strike back at his dystopian regime. Rogue is Magneto’s wife, and together they have a child whom they name after the late Charles Xavier. Logan is still survivor of the Weapon X program, but is never referred to as Wolverine, and loses one of his hands in a battle with Cyclops, the latter of whom works for Apocalypse under Sinister as one of their most trusted officers. Nate Grey, the X-Man, is a highly powered telekinetic who travels with a band of misfit performers including Toad, Sauron, and Forge, while Sabretooth, Wild Child, Blink, Iceman, and Morph round out Magento’s team of X-Men.

It’s a dark, gritty vision of the X-Men, but rarely feels like it is pushing an ‘edginess’ simply for the sake of selling to older teenage audience. The dialogue is appropriate to the setting, while remaining overall friendly to readers of a broad age range. Character and environment artwork maintain a consistent direction throughout, though each artist does add their own slight spins on these faces and places with which readers will spend many hours.

What is unusual about this first numbered volume in the Age of Apocalypse series is that it gathers a strangely disjointed collection of issues together. Unlike the later volumes, the span of time that is passing across the issues collected in this first trade paperback is hard to pin down. Likewise, it would appear that certain events from issues placed toward the back of this volume actually occur simultaneous or even before issues that are placed near the front. Some of the storylines in this first volume lend a significant amount to establishing the characters and state of the world in Age of Apocalypse. Others, like Blink’s solo romp through the Negative Zone wherein she loses her memories and is caught up in a power struggle between Blastaar and Annihilus’ loyalists, add very little to the core plot, acting as largely uninteresting (sometimes annoying) distractions.

Still, Age of Apocalypse is a wildly engrossing story, and even with its shortcomings, this first collected volume offers some genuinely enjoyable subplots. Its disorganized nature simply falls a bit short of the quality of the later volumes. For those who enjoyed the Prelude or random issues of the later Age of Apocalypse tale, I can assure you that the series only gets better from here.

My rating: 7.5 (out of 10)

Comic Book review: Age of Apocalypse (2015)

Set in a similar dystopian future realm as the original 1990s comic run of the same name, the Battleworld warzone of Age of Apocalypse sees the titular mutant overlord attempting to quash any rebels that might rise up against his new world order. Apocalypse’s ideology is that of ‘survival of the fittest’ and believes mutants superior to homo-sapiens in every possible way. Apocalypse relies on his loyal horsemen, as well as twisted and villainous versions of otherwise-iconic heroes like Beast to carry out his will.

The 1990s run of Age of Apocalypse spanned practically every conceivable X-Men series of the era, and to this day remains an epic undertaking of the Marvel brand. Therefore, it was inevitable that this 2015 Secret Wars tie-in was destined to fall short of the original’s magnificence. With only five issues to deliver its own spin on the Age of Apocalypse narrative, this 2015 story does more ‘telling’ than it does ‘showing’, expecting that readers are already familiar with the themes of survival, alliances of necessity, the path of anti-heroes, and fighting for what little hope remains in a bleak future despite overwhelming odds, that were at play in the 1990s run.

Age of Apocalypse significantly shakes up a familiar cast. Iceman, Rogue, Sinister, and Weapon X (aka Wolverine) are all present, but play significantly smaller roles than before. Instead of having a child with Rogue, Magneto is married to Emma Frost, while Captain Marvel, Namor, and other non-mutants are worked into the narrative, but not necessarily in ways that benefit the story. While this new Age of Apocalypse limited series does throw a couple of major curve balls into the mix, the final chapter feels like an afterthought, tacked on as an idea that sounds better in theory than in actual application.

The art style is solid throughout, while the environments are appropriately dark and dreary. However, given that the X-Men and the readers alike are fully aware that Apocalypse’s domain is but one of many that make up Battlworld, the dire atmosphere that permeated throughout the 1990s original is almost entirely lost. Age of Apocalypse is a quick read that serves to deliver its own self-contained narrative well enough, but similarly is a tad generic, and lacks the spark of imagination and intrigue sported by some of the other Secret Wars tie-ins.

My rating: 6.5 (out of 10)

Comic Book Update: "Bub, I'm the best at what I do!"

Most of the Secret Wars tie-in series I had been following have just recently wrapped up. It’s been a brief, but wild ride. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each of these series, for the very different narratives and characters they bring to the table, even if they did only last four or five issues a piece. Obviously the most high-stakes story lies with God Emperor Doom, the central figure that has cobbled all these realms of Battleworld together, but it’s been fun to branch out and explore series I might not have otherwise been so keen on investing the time and money into.

Age of Apocalypse still has one issue remaining in its 2015 reimagining. Meanwhile, Armor Wars (2015), Ghost Racers, Guardians of Knowhere, X-Men ’92, and Inhumans: Attilan Rising have all come to a close. I’ve already posted my review for Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies, which concluded last month, and which you can read here. As for the other previously mentioned series, expect reviews for them to gradually trickle out between now and the end of October.

The mid-1990s run of the original Age of Apocalypse will resume as my priority reading material. Expect reviews of the first and second numbered trade paperback releases soon. I also plan to post (somewhat long-overdue) reviews for the fifth volume of the Marvel NOW! Nova series, as well as Thanos: The Infinity Relativity, and I recently completed the third trade paperback volume of Captain Marvel. Beyond those, I will likely pick up the sixth volume of Nova, and the fifth volume of Guardians of the Galaxy later this Fall. There may also be a few odd additions to my comic book library that I purchase at this weekend’s Grand Rapids Comic-Con. Either way, expect all of the comics listed above to be among the last series I will be reading and writing reviews for between now and December 31st, as I believe that a reasonable stack for this one-man production to appropriately cover in the months that remain before year's end.

Comic Book review: X-Men: Age of Apocalypse Prelude

Before Age of Apocalypse’s wildly different vision of the X-Men universe properly came into its own, Charles Xavier’s insane son Legion awoke from his long coma to find he had gained some degree of control over the multiple personalities swimming around in his head – enough control, that is, to formulate a plan to travel back in time to kill Magneto and alter the present day, but enough foresight to consider the ramifications of such a major rewriting of mutant history. The buildup to Legion actually putting his plan into action is something of a slow burn, but an effective one just the same. Seeing all of the major X-Men and a handful of both their allies and enemies as they are most well-known makes the transition to their dystopian Age of Apocalypse counterparts all the more powerful, as the contrasts between these are often drastic. Similarly, it offers better context to readers not as intimately familiar with the X-Men legacy.

There are two prominent points in history that this Prelude volume covers: the ‘present day’ before Legion’s actions cause a rewrite of the history of the X-Men readers once knew, and the past when Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr (aka Magneto) shared a newly-forged friendship and were only just becoming familiar with the emergence of mutants around the globe. It is both insightful and amusing to see the relationship these two prominent leaders shared in their younger days, with Charles exhibiting more aggressive and impulsive behavior at times, and Magneto questioning the extent of the power other mutants could possess. While it is clear that these two do not share a perfectly matching view on the world and the struggles that it might one day face, there is a mutual respect that serves to shape Magneto’s ideologies in the later volumes of Age of Apocalypse.

Given how dark and desperate the world has become by the time volumes one through four of Age of Apocalypse roll around, it should come as no surprise that the X-Men, despite their best efforts, fail to stop Legion’s plans. However, these events do not play out in a predictable manner, as Mystique is the first to attempt to kill Legion in his comatose state, only to be thwarted by the members of X-Factor. The fact that different parties of mutants spend enough of their time squaring off against one another as opposed to focusing solely on Legion, as well as the fact that the extent of Legion’s powers are largely unknown until late in this Prelude, are what grant him the upper hand.

The X-Men throw nearly every plan that can scramble together on such short notice once the past becomes threatened by Legion’s intent to kill Magneto and alter the present. Cable and Domino are called upon, and both Charles and Jean attempt to maintain a psychic link with the mutants in the past. When the final hour is upon these heroes, they share a few somber, yet appropriately intimate exchanges with one another, before an awe and terror-inspiring wave wipes over the Earth, erasing the world as it once was and putting the Age of Apocalypse in its place.

My rating: 9 (out of 10)

Comic Book Update: “I am as far beyond mutants as they are beyond you!”

I’m going to be altering the format with which I handle comic book/graphic novel reviews from this point forward. While I certainly feel there is a benefit to seeing the visual artwork and layout of the graphic novel format within a video review, the comments sections of my YouTube videos have, over the course of the last year or so, become increasingly populated by lazy, rude, and overly demanding individuals. As such, comic book reviews going forward will be adopting a format similar to my video game and anime reviews. With perhaps rare exceptions, I still expect to review individual volumes of a longer running storyline, as opposed to the entirety of that storyline. However, when the end of the year ‘Top 5 Comic Books of 2015’ list is posted (alongside my ‘Top 5’ lists for video games and anime) it will list my best-of-the-best selections for this year as the sum of its parts – or, at the very least, the extent of what has been released before the end of December 2015. In short, my comic book reviews are not going away, they are simply seeing a format change that will be more in line with the style I have already established for my video game and anime reviews.

With that order of business taken care of, what follows is the current list of upcoming reviews. Keep in mind that I have no concrete date in mind for the posting of these reviews, only that they will be coming sooner rather than later. From the Marvel Now! line, I’m still following along with Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy, and while the latter won’t see its fifth proper installment released until later this year, I recently finished the second crossover with the X-Men, titled The Black Vortex. I also picked up the first volume of Angela: Asgard’s Assassin, as I rather enjoyed how they opted to introduce her character in the Guardians of the Galaxy run, and am hopeful that a solo series of her own can garner a solid balance between Marvel’s cosmic and fantasy realms. It certainly doesn’t hurt that she kicks all kind of ass on her journeys of self-discovery.

I also recently finished Thanos: The Infinity Relativity, the second of three original graphic novels by Jim Starlin, focusing on the Mad Titan himself, as well as plenty of other familiar cosmic Marvel faces. And I continue plugging away at the magnum opus that is X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, a series which, frankly, has no right holding up as well as it does in this day and age (it continues to blow me away, in the best ways possible). In a similar gamble to Black Science, I decided to pick up Divinity from Valiant Comics (a label with which I have no prior knowledge of), as it too dabbles in the territory of fringe science and men playing gods. Meanwhile, the third volume of Black Science is en route to me as I write this, and in all likelihood, I will power through this latest release on the day it arrives on my doorstep.

While I typically wait for the trade paperback releases of comics to purchase them, some of the current Marvel Secret Wars/Battleworld storylines proved too appealing for me to pass up, and so I am currently reading X-Men ’92, Inhumans: Attlian Rising, Guardians of Knowhere, Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies, Armor Wars (2015), and Age of Apocalypse (2015). Currently, X-Men ’92 is my favorite of the bunch, but Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies is proving a surprisingly solid read as well. I’m only one issue into Age of Apocalypse, so I can’t properly gauge that series as of yet, while Inhumans: Attilan Rising, despite being one of the more wildly inventive offerings from the bunch, has not yet left as strong an impression on me as most of the other series. Perhaps it will prove a slow burn. Either way, I certainly appreciate the fact that these storylines will all be limited runs, and that Marvel isn’t pretending that the Secret Wars/Battleworld mish-mashing of different places and times in their history is in anything but temporary. On a side note, I have been reading the main Secret Wars series on loan from a friend, and it is easily one of the better crossover events in recent history – possibly a better read than Infinity, depending on how these upcoming later issues play out. More likely than not, I’ll end up purchasing the Secret Wars trade paperback before year’s end.

Comic Book Update: Higher, Further, Faster, More

Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day, and while I nabbed a handful of preview comics and free issues on ongoing series, I also decided to purchase a few trade paperbacks as well from a local comic shop. All three were Marvel properties, the first being Ms. Marvel: Best of the Best, as I’ve really been digging Carol Danvers’ role as Captain Marvel in the more recent Avengers tales and her current solo series. I thought it appropriate to travel back to some of her earlier tales of action and heroism. Along those same lines, I picked up the Avengers/Invaders collection, a post-Civil War story which appears to highlight Ms. Marvel, Captain America, Black Widow, and many other Avengers members who I am familiar with, as well as some that I would like to read more about. Finally, I grabbed the second collection in the X-Men: Age of Apocalypse epic, a release which, as I understand it, was something of a confusing series of trade paperbacks, as this second volume is where the Age of Apocalypse story truly starts, while the first collection is comprised largely of side stories and supplementary material. Until very recently, it had been years since I had read a proper X-Men story, but upon finishing X-Factor Forever, my interest in the mutants was somewhat rekindled, as I wanted to learn more about Apocalypse as a villain – the vast majority of my pre-existing familiarity with X-Men tales stemmed from the conflicts between Charles Xavier’s titular team and Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants.

Also among my semi-recent purchases are Avengers: Ultron Unbound, an early 1990s story wherein Ultron attempts to take down the West Coast Avengers and build himself a robotic wife in preparation for his plans to kick-start dormant volcanoes to wipe out all life on the planet. It’s a bit corny, and the oddball cast that makes up the West Coast Avengers is a striking reflection of Marvel’s 1990s style, but Ultron is an entertaining villain as always, and the interactions between some of the Avengers members imply some less-than-happy-go-lucky outcomes. I recently finished the second trade paperback collection of Rick Remender’s Black Science, a series which – if it continues to fire on all cylinders while maintaining a scope that balances intrigue with a focused plot, as it has been from the start – may go down as one of my all-time favorite graphic novels. I am somewhat wary in stating that, as I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but Rick Remender’s writing has consistently impressed me across the many different storylines and genres he has tackled.

By the end of this month and into early June, I expect to have added the latest volumes of Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, Captain Marvel, Legendary Star-Lord, and Captain America to my collection, as well as Jim Starlin’s latest original graphic novel, The Infinity Relativity, and the Realm of Kings reprint in order to round out my collection of Marvel's cosmic renaissance works. I may also end up purchasing the Annihilation Conquest Omnibus for that same reason. Other trades that I have my eye on and may bundle into orders later this summer include Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without a Face, Infinity War, Infinity Crusade, Thanos: A God Up There Listening, Uncanny Avengers, and the Thunderbolts series featuring Agent Venom, Red Hulk, Elektra, Punisher, Deadpool, and Ghost Rider.