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: Black Science, Volume Three: Vanishing Pattern

The final act in the first arc of Rick Remender’s Black Science continues to thrill with wildly inventive hodge-podge realities and a more pinpointed take on the established narrative style than was seen in the previous two volumes. As volume two concluded, we were made privy to the fact that Grant McKay was in fact alive, despite having been led to believe he had perished beneath the crushing weight of clockwork machinery. And smartly, this third volume makes an early objective of explaining just how the scientist, pioneer, and previously deadbeat dad cheated death. The explanation is brief, yet befitting the tale that has been woven through the previous installments, and simultaneously provides some concrete footing for the answers that are revealed before this third volume’s climactic finale.

If there is one theme that rings constant through volume three, dubbed Vanishing Pattern, it is a story of redemption – specifically, the redemption of Grant McKay in the eyes of his children and unlikely comrades. There are still misunderstandings among the exploration team, and selfish actions that lead to physical confrontations. But the emergence of a father who actually cares about his children and the chance to see them reach home safely is a rewarding payoff having understood Grant to have previously been a cheater, a liar, and a workaholic who was absent for the majority of his children’s formative years. It may not a complete hero’s journey, but it is refreshing to see him act the part of a decent human being, not only taking responsibility for his poor judgment in the past, but also taking the role of leader more seriously.

Meanwhile, Grant’s children appear to have a greater stake in the story as a result of their placing faith in their father. While Nate received a healthy amount of time in the spotlight during Black Science’s second volume, his elder sister Pia takes center stage for a couple of chapters in this third volume, standing up to a couple of key characters who would dare to try and tell her to sit back and let the adults make decisions on her behalf. While it is true that the cast has been thinned a decent amount since Black Science’s first chapter, the dynamics played off among the current band of misfits feels the most natural and manageable yet. Grant still does not trust Kadir, and Kadir may not be out to prove himself a hero to anyone, but it is that very uneasiness between the two most action-oriented males of the party that makes their relationship so perfect.

Vanishing Pattern sees the party visit but one lone world, whose situation is worse than ever. In this reality, the counterparts to Grant, Shawn, Rebecca, and the other cast members concocted some form of virus that spread across the planet – a planet where Roman Praetorians make use of jetpacks, wrist-bound flamethrowers, and other space-age tech in their quest to punish those who allied themselves with the scientists who damned their world. As is the case with nearly every encounter made across the various planes of reality the main cast has made, the initial run-in with these royal warriors turns violent quickly, and they slowly but surely begin to unravel the mysteries of what went so horribly wrong in this world, while simultaneously deducing the pattern of events that has led them to this place and time.

As random as the Pillar’s jumps appeared to have been, there is, in fact, a pattern that is revealed, as well as an intended vector. Volume three does not answer all of Black Science’s lingering questions, but it does clear up a few key mysteries prevalent during this first act. The art style is, once again, superb throughout, with terrifyingly gorgeous decayed cityscapes splashed across full pages, and the high-flying action of jetpack chases expressed with incredible intensity. The oranges and reds of blood and fire clash violently against the dull and darkened interior of this world’s facilities, wonderfully symbolic of the death and destruction that has been wrought upon this reality, as well as how starkly out of place the exploration team is as strangers in yet another strange land. The finale is, yet again, a cliffhanger – one that excels in shock and horror, yet feels a very appropriate tail-end to this more intensely-focused portion of Black Science’s grander narrative.

My rating: 9.25 (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 review: Black Science, Volume Two: Welcome, Nowhere

My review of Black Science, Volume Two: Welcome, Nowhere. Written by Rick Remender, illustrated by Matteo Scalera.

My rating: 9 (out of 10)

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.

Comic Book review: Black Science, Volume One: How to Fall Forever

My review of Black Science, Volume One: How to Fall Forever. Written by Rick Remender, illustrated by Matteo Scalera.

My rating: 9.5 (out of 10)