Top 5 Comic Books of 2014

Though I only started posting my comic reviews to this blog earlier this year, I first started uploading them to my YouTube channel back in 2012, beginning with Y: The Last Man and Saga. However, they did not become a regular part of my channel’s uploads until 2014, and that year saw quite a few video reviews. Below are my picks for the five best comic books that I read last year. Rest assured, I will be posting a list of the five best comic books I’ve read in 2015 this December, but I first wanted to go back and give credit where credit is due on last year’s reads. (Note: in the same vein as my year-end top five lists for best video games and anime, not all of these comic books were actually released in 2014, rather they were comic books that I read between January and December of 2014.)

#5 – Nova (volumes 1-3): One of the strongest runs in the Marvel NOW! series, Nova carries on many of the themes that drew me to the Spider-Man comics years ago, before the webslinger’s plotlines became so convoluted and of a sub-par quality. Picking up the mantle of Richard Rider and the now-annihilated Nova Corps, young Sam Alexander slowly familiarizes himself with the cosmic powers of becoming a human rocket. Sam is a wonderfully likeable kid – he stumbles in the company of long-established heroes like Beta Ray Bill and Rocket Raccoon, he has to balance the cosmic adventures of heroism with his school studies and helping his mom with household chores, and he’s willing to admit his faults and learn from them to become better as the new Nova one day at a time.

#4 – Annihilation: The first major pillar of Marvel’s mid-2000s cosmic renaissance, Annihilation lays the foundation for the eventual formation of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the tensions that would lead to the War of Kings breaking out, and the eventual invasion from the Cancerverse in The Thanos Imperative. Annihilation opts to place some of Marvel’s stranger cosmic heroes and villains in the spotlight, with tales centered on Drax the Destroyer, last surviving Nova Corps member Richard Rider, shamed warrior Super Skrull, lawful extremist Ronan the Accuser, and the many heralds of Galactus. Annihilus and his insectoid army seek to devour everything in the galaxy, and with the events of Civil War playing out on Earth, Richard Rider must (reluctantly) step up to the plate as the champion and leader the galaxy needs during one of their darkest hours.

#3 – Inhumans: One of Marvel’s more bizarre cultures, The Inhumans’ future-tech and medieval hierarchy saw a revival in the late 1990s. This series, spearheaded by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee, focuses on the Inhuman society and the way the royal family keeps the city of Attilan in order, far away from the prying eyes of mankind and other superhumans. The Terrigen Mists proves a weird, but compelling rite of passage for young Inhumans once they reach maturity, and what lies in the future of each Inhuman is a greater unknown factor than even the mutants of The X-Men face on a regular basis. This Inhumans series is brilliant for its uncompromising choice to focus almost exclusively on its titular culture – Reed Richards and Namor both have minor cameos, but the remaining ninety-five percent of this story is focused on conveying just how secretive the lives of the Inhumans are, and what desperate measures a gun-jumping military division will go to in order to try and topple the fabled city of Attilan.

#2 – Venom: Reinventing one of Spider-Man’s most popular villains/rivals is no small task, and the Flash Thompson-led series (penned by Rick Remender, and later Cullen Bunn) is a bold new vision for the symbiote soldier that pays off in spades. Having returned from his military service, and having lost both of his legs in the line of duty, Flash Thompson spends many of his nights emptying bottles of alchohol, until he is presented with a highly-classified opportunity to make use of the Venom symbiote’s powers as a black-ops super soldier. Flash is sent in to the most hostile of hot zones, ordered to rescue civilians caught in the cross fire and quash enemy forces, but it isn’t long before he discovers the involvement of sadistic supervillain Jack O’Lantern, and subsequently picks up a thread that will eventually lead him to a criminal organization so closely tied to the missions Venom is tasked with putting an end to. Venom is very smart in its writing, and hones in on the difficult balance of Flash Thompson’s personal life and romance with Betty Brant, with his tactical operations as Agent Venom, ever-aware of the fact that his employers have placed a kill-switch on him in the event that the Symbiote gains control and runs rampant. Venom is one of the best examples of Marvel taking a character of relatively minor importance, rounding them out, and giving them their own series wherein they are not only consistently human and imperfect in nature, but where they emerge to stand so tall in the company of long-established heroes and villains.

#1 – Age of Ultron: An alternate history where Ultron bested the Avengers in one fell swoop, few heroes remain to challenge the vengeful A.I. The remaining Marvel heroes are battered, beaten, and have practically no plans for taking down Ultron, until Captain America comes up with a desperate plan. I found the cast of Age of Ultron a wonderful mix of the more mainstream heroes and some of the less iconic Marvel characters. Age of Ultron does not present a ‘who’s who’ of the most physically powerful of characters in Marvel history, rather a collective of the most quick-witted and capable during the descending mechanical apocalypse, or those who simply lucked out in not being at the epicenter of Ultron’s attack. Gone are Hulk, Thor, three members of the Fantastic Four, and the majority of the X-Men. Tony Stark’s sanity begins to slip, Cap’s faith in his own leadership abilities waver, and an uneasy alliance is struck between Red Hulk, Black Panther, and Taskmaster. Age of Ultron paints a bleak picture, a seemingly unwinnable scenario, and the extreme measures that these heroes are willing to go in order to return the world to some semblance of its state prior to Ultron’s takeover.

Comic Book review: Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies

Among the wilder concepts to come of Marvel’s 2015 Secret Wars event is the four-part Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies. On the far edge of Battleworld, a giant wall has been constructed to keep the more problematic creations from Marvel’s comic history quarantined – those problems, of course, being the undead hordes of Marvel Zombies fame and the ever-evolving rage-filled A.I. known as Ultron. The Zombies wish only to devour those individuals who are tossed into their so-called Deadlands as punishment by the Thors for breaking God Emperor Doom’s laws, while Ultron seeks to eradicate the zombies and their impure nature in his quest to perfect this no-man’s land.

While this is certainly a curious pairing, it would prove a tiring conflict very quickly were a third party not introduced. At the start of this limited series, a version of Hank Pym from the wild west town of Timely is banished to the Deadlands. With little to defend himself and limited knowledge of the Battleworld realms beyond Timely, Hank would most certainly be a goner, were it not for the arrival of Vision, Simon Williams, and Jim Hammond. The trio rescues Hank Pym, bringing him to their makeshift fortress/home in the middle of this desolate region, with the hopes that he might be able to create a counter to Ultron and his devious machinations.

This stranger-in-a-strange-land Hank Pym is, naturally, taken aback, having practically zero knowledge of their modern technology. But he did manage to partially construct a clockwork equivalent of Ultron once upon a time, and, after some convincing, agrees to aid these three synthetic men. Vision, Simon Williams, and Jim Hammond, are not the only three whose lives are factored into Pym’s decision, as there are many other survivors living in their shielded community – most notably, the love interests of these three heroes.

What lends Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies to be a more compelling tale than the cover art might let on is the juxtaposition of this bleak environment and its terrifying armies with a focus on classic Marvel heroes, all of whom have previously struggled with the concept of what it means to be a man versus what it means to be a machine, and where they fall in that spectrum. Hank Pym, meanwhile, is more so the tether that binds the story together.

There are some more frequently vocal members of the undead hordes, which lends the zombies some personality beyond shambling, starving husks. And the situation becomes even more so dire when Ultron proposes a plan that could unleash both armies on the rest of Battleworld. At four issues in length, Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies has nearly-perfect pacing. It incorporates daring science projects, golden age heroism, and a nicely varied but appropriately-contained cast. It has fun with its diverse roots, embracing its oddities and weaving an entertaining and well-rounded narrative.

My rating: 7.5 (out of 10)

Comic Book review: What If? Age of Ultron

My review of What If? Age of Ultron. Written by Joe Keatinge, illustrated by Raffaele Ienco, Ramon Villalobos, Mico Suayan, Piotr Kowalski, Neil Edwards, and Ming Doyle.

My rating: 7.75 (out of 10)

Comic Book review: Age of Ultron Companion

My review of the Age of Ultron Companion. Written by Al Ewing, Matt Fraction, Cullen Bunn, Christos Gage, Kathryn Immonen, Gerry Duggan, Rick Remender, Matt Kindt, and Mark Waid, illustrated by Butch Guice, Andre Araujo, Phil Jimenez, Dexter Soy, Amilcar Pinna, Adam Kubert, and Paco Medina.

My rating: 5.75 (out of 10)

Comic Book review: Age of Ultron

My review of Age of Ultron. Written by Brian Michael Bendis, illustrated by Brandon Hitch and Bryan Peterson

My rating: 9.75 (out of 10)