2011 QB50

This year’s edition of my annual countdown of comic book favorites is slightly different in that the selection was notably compromised throughout the year. For the first time since the list began in 2006 I did not make regular trips to a store or have shipments delivered to my home during the calendar year, so that everything that appears this time is something I was either lucky enough to catch or tried to keep track of, and by necessity the selection was not what it once was, so that a book I desperately wish I could include (Oni’s consistently great WASTELAND, which shipped two issues in 2011), for instance, won’t be present. I will further elaborate in the entries below.

1. RASL (Cartoon)
Jeff Smith managed to release three issues (#s 10-12) this year, during which lead character Robbie dealt with personal matters and the recurring narrative of Nikola Tesla’s incredible career was once again revisited. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I haven’t been the greatest supporter of this book in the QB50 (it ranked at 50th its debut year, but moved to 10th and then 4th last year), especially since the greater comics community has given Smith’s new project (after his seminal BONE) a tepid response at best. His vision of parallel realities comes at an interesting time, considering that the TV show FRINGE started making it a focus in the second season, yet RASL stands apart for its incredibly stark, almost impressionistic approach, which attempts to drive home how desperate and yet determined Robbie is, which has consistently been contrasted with the tough breaks a genius like Tesla was forced to endure. I’ve got a feeling the complete story of this series will receive a great deal more interest than its episodic releases have.

2. BATMAN, INCORPORATED (DC)
Grant Morrison’s latest Dark Knight saga, picking up threads of a giant already encompassing “R.I.P.,” THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE, and various other stories, had only began as 2010 came to a close, landing it 22nd on last year’s list, but there were six individual issues and then just recently the LEVIATHAN STRIKES one-shot that collected the intended final issues of the initial run for this series, which will bring Morrison’s vision to a close. The thing that’s better than any of that is that these are some of the most fun superhero stories anyone’s told in years, which you could easily enjoy without knowing or caring about the bigger picture, and that’s exactly what I liked so much and wanted to follow throughout the early months of the year, the first ongoing series I tried to keep track of after abandoning regular reading in January for financial reasons. That’s how I knew I was really hooked, and that’s what you look for when determining what your favorites really are.

3. FLASHPOINT (DC)
DC’s big event of the summer that led to the much ballyhooed “New 52” relaunch was also possibly the best story to date from Geoff Johns, focusing on his vision of a Barry Allen who lost his mother at an early age and never really got over it, the worst part of his ongoing war with archnemesis Eobard Thawne, which led to The Flash ending up in an alternate reality where just about everything had gone terribly wrong, whether it was Wonder Woman and Aquaman going to war against each other or Superman being held captive by a secret government program or Thomas Wayne becoming Batman because it was his son who was murdered (and just why is it that few creators have ever considered the death of a child to be enough to create a superhero, anyway?), among many other changes.

4. JUSTICE LEAGUE (DC)
Johns, it seems, was only getting warmed up, because he also conceived the flagship of the relaunch, another reboot of the seminal superhero team that saw it coming together for the first time, only instead of everyone being a big happy family from the beginning everyone is getting to know each other for the first time, allowing Johns and Jim Lee to present iconic characters in new and striking ways, from Batman and Green Lantern to Superman and Wonder Woman arriving on the scene, and a new version of Cyborg’s origin. This is one of the best ongoing superhero titles ever.

5. ACTION COMICS (DC)
The quality of an ongoing series can fluctuate greatly, of course, depending on the creative team. Geoff Johns on ACTION COMICS led it to 3rd in 2007, 2nd in 2008, before he left and the title slipped to 46th in 2009 and 34th in 2010. Paul Cornell had started his run by the end of last year, and the quality began to shoot all the way back up, and so as he finished up his grand Lex Luthor story in the landmark and all-around exceptional (including various backup features from other creators) #900 (best single issue of the year), I was already set to rank the series near the top, even if I didn’t read too many issues, and then the relaunch took place and Grant Morrison took the reigns, presenting an entirely new vision of the Man of Steel that returns him to his iconic roots as few writers (except for Morrison himself, and of course Johns) have been able to do in recent years, certainly since the turn of the millennium. If Superman isn’t must-read, there’s a problem. Fortunately, that’s not a problem anymore.

6. GREEN LANTERN (DC)
Geoff Johns again, although I confess to having read only two issues of the book pre-relaunch this year (#s 66-67), which came at the end of the “War of the Green Lanterns,” which seemed a little like a blow-off quasi-event even before I knew that there was indeed something else to move onto. Yet Johns was one of the few writers to have the chance to continue writing an uninterrupted story in the fall, since he’d just given Sinestro one of the more improbable redemptive strokes in comics lore, returning a GL ring to his finger for the first time (excluding “Emerald Twilight”) in decades. While I’ve long been a fan of Johns’ Green Lantern work, I haven’t always ranked it very high (19th in 2007, 15th in 2008 and 2009, and then 5th last year). This is probably a career high for material in the actual GREEN LANTERN title, now that he’s concentrating on individual characters again, specifically Sinestro and Hal Jordan.

7. DEAR CREATURE (Tor)
This was a graphic novel that creator Jonathan Case released this year, a wonderful, monster-meets-Shakespeare tale, wonderfully literate and easily one of the more imaginative stories I had the privilege to read, which I’ve since seen in Barnes & Noble, and that may be testament enough to its broad appeal.

8. G.I. JOE: COBRA/COBRA (IDW)
I managed to read only two issues of Mike Costa and Antonio Fuso’s masterful comics this year, which began (3rd in 2009 and 2010) as a mini-series support book to IDW’s big G.I. Joe launch, and this year finally gained enough moment to drive the entire franchise, leading to “Cobra Civil War.” Thankfully I was able to catch G.I. JOE: COBRA #12, the issue where Cobra Commander is assassinated, but only #4 of COBRA, the relaunch that finally saw fit to eliminate the good guys from the title. I honestly don’t know why so many critics have a hard time giving this book (by whatever name) its due, because very few creators have been able to do as convincing and piercing character work as Costa (who started these efforts with Christos Gage) and regular artist Fuso. My biggest regret of the year was not being able to read every issue of this continuing saga.

9. JOE THE BARBARIAN (Vertigo)
The final issue of Grant Morrison’s minimalist, surreal saga of the hypoglycemic youth who really just needed a sip of soda to overcome his many troubles, or maybe just a reunion with his dad, was finally released, and it was worth the wait. This is another one of those comics that may read better as a whole than in its original installments, and may prove to be one of Morrison’s definitive works, similar to WE3, where the frenetic and eclectic approach seen in most of his other works is replaced for a more user-friendly result.

10. AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE (Marvel)
Ranked 32nd last year, this is the unappreciated follow-up to the 2005 breakout YOUNG AVENGERS from Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung, as well as unofficial (?) sequel to HOUSE OF M, which finally answers the question, Whatever Happened to the Scarlet Witch? When I finally got around to discovering it for myself, Heinberg’s Avengers was easily my favorite, most lucid Marvel comic book, a series that wasn’t afraid to let its characters loose, tell a meaningful story, and that’s exactly what CHILDREN’S CRUSADE recaptures, and although the release schedule is a little loose (out of nine issues, begun in 2010, eight have been released, with five this year, and I got #s 4 and 8 in 2011), which I suppose reflects my current reading capabilities just fine. Now I only hope that I’ll be able to catch the final issue…

11. COMIC BOOK COMICS (Evil Twin)
Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey previously collaborated on ACTION PHILOSOPHERS, this year finished up (with #s 5 & 6) this history of comic books, which became more interesting (not previously ranked) the less competition it had from actual comic books. Go figure.

12. BRIGHTEST DAY (DC)
Ranked 19th last year, but pulled up nicely with the handful of issues I was able to catch (later issues apparently sold really well and I was only belatedly able to catch the conclusion), with writers Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi finishing strong, although truthfully of all the things affected by the relaunch, I think this series was the hardest hit.

13. KNIGHT AND SQUIRE (DC)
One of my early favorites in the year didn’t even rank in 2010, even though half the series was released by the time 2011 came around. For some reason my appreciation for Paul Cornell really shot up once my comics reading slowed down. I caught #4 on release, but had to wait until the trade collection to finish the rest of the story, and I wasn’t disappointed. This is exactly what I like about DC, that it can have an incredible variety of storytelling without trying very hard, even with characters some might have been tempted to take too seriously considering their connection to Grant Morrison’s big new Batman concept. Cornell simply had some fun with a very British perspective on superheroes, and it was some of the most refreshing material I’ve read.

14. THE FLASH (DC)
I did a poor job of actually reading a Flash ongoing series, in either iteration, this year, catching #s 9 & 12 of the Geoff Johns book that ran into FLASHPOINT and then only the first issue of the New 52 version spearheaded by fast-rising talent Francis Manapul. I don’t know, it seems like every time Johns writes a Flash series, it takes me a while to actually appreciate it, even though he clearly had a big idea for Barry Allen and chose to spend his most recent experience writing the character solo preparing him for his biggest story, which is certainly not a bad thing, and allowed him to then continue concentrating on Green Lantern and some new projects. Manapul is at this point a far more interesting artist than he is a writer, and I have tended to prefer the writing to the art, no matter how good it is, in a Flash series. Maybe that’ll change in 2012. Who knows? Johns previously reached 30th on this series in 2010, but nailed the 2nd spot with his combination of THE FLASH: REBIRTH and BLACKEST NIGHT: THE FLASH in 2009.

15. ATOMIC ROBO (Red 5)
Another big loser in my reduced capacity was Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener’s fantastic robot monster fighter, who like Jeff Smith’s RASL also has a connection to Nikola Tesla (by cosmic coincidence). I was only able to catch their annual Free Comic Book Day appearance, which I guess was enough. I keep hoping that Robo will catch on in at least cult-sized way, because I think he’s at least good enough to become the next Hellboy. It doesn’t help that he’s Red 5’s only significant property. Previously ranked 20th in 2009 and 33rd in 2010.

16. MYSTIC (Marvel)
One of the CrossGen relaunches under the Marvel banner, my main interest was writer G. Willow Wilson, who wrote the two-time 1st-ranked AIR (2009 and 2010), cancelled well before its time. MYSTIC is a story about two friends who become separated by opposing fortune in a community that approaches magic in a very OWS kind of way, and is a very fun read.

17. NIGHTWING (DC)
Of all the launches in the New 52, this was the one I was most nervous about, considering Dick Grayson’s sketchy publishing history in a Nightwing book for the past five years, but I was pleased to discover that Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows have probably come up with the best material since Chuck Dixon and Devin Grayson (with Marv Wolfman coming in third and then maybe Peter Tomasi, the last writer in the previous series). I will be keeping my eye out for this one no matter if I’m reading or “reading” comics.

18. THE MICE TEMPLAR, VOLUME III: A MIDWINTER NIGHT’S DREAM (Image)
When everyone was going gaga over MOUSE GUARD, I had to scratch my head, because I knew there had to be something better than that, and lo, there came MICE TEMPLAR, which definitely was. Previously ranked at 29th in 2007, 36th in 2008, 14th in 2009, and 35th in 2010, Brian J.L. Glass has ably taken the reigns of his co-creation with Michael Avon Oeming, weaving a modern fantasy epic that’s as distinctive as the material it takes as inspiration is impressive, some of the most well-known narratives in literary history (you can read about that sort of thing in the back of every issue thanks to Jeff Turnham). The sole issue I read this year, #6, was easily enough to remind me just how awesome this work has become.

19. OZMA OF OZ/DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ (Marvel)
Eric Shanower and Skottie Young continue to provide the greatest service to modern readers in comics today by adapting the virtually forgotten original Oz tales from creator L. Frank Baum, and demonstrating just how ridiculously creative he really was, like the Tim Burton of his day (who better to make a new Oz film, right?), and though I read a combined two issues from the two mini-series published during the year, it was enough to keep the spirit alive for me. I’ve previously ranked their efforts at 33rd in 2009 and 24th in 2010.

20. THE SHADE (DC)
Another big victim of my 2011 reading capacity was James Robinson’s much-anticipated follow-up to STARMAN, which has apparently been getting terrible readership overall, which is itself terrible, because even just from the first issue, I could tell he was bringing his A-game, something he hasn’t done since JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE (which ranked 5th in 2009). Maybe DC erred by launching this beauty only a month after the big New 52 initiative, but for some readers, this was probably more anticipated.

21. STEEL (DC)
A one-shot released early in the year, written by Steve Lyons, this was ostensibly the opening salvo of the big Doomsday crossover, but was far better read as a refresher course on everything that made John Henry Irons special in the first place, something that’d been overlooked for more than a decade, and thankfully not after Grant Morrison’s new ACTION COMICS. Deserves to be remembered as such.

22. FANTASTIC FOUR (Marvel)
I wish I’d known that Jonathan Hickman really would be firing on all cylinders by #600, because I probably would have made a greater effort to read more of it (and maybe FF), given that he seems to have approached writing the series less like a comic book and more like a TV show. Any idiot could (and many did) have guessed that Johnny Storm didn’t necessarily die after the events of the much-hyped #587, but it took a lot of guts to actually write a lot about what actually happened to him upon his actual return. I was guilty of being a little prejudice against Hickman’s ambitions. It’s definitely something to consider when looking at 2012.

23. RETROACTIVE 1990s: SUPERMAN (DC)
I guess not everyone is as crazy for the classic SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL creative team of Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove, but for me, their reunion was easily the highlight of DC’s series of one-shots celebrating past eras. I loved most of 1990s Superman, but they were always some of my favorites, and their presence has been sorely missed.

24. ANIMAL MAN (DC)
Most people are perfectly willing to associate Grant Morrison with the best Buddy Baker material, and with good reason. It’s enough to say that Jeff Lemire is finally giving Morrison a run for his money.

25. AQUAMAN (DC)
A lot of people were hoping that BRIGHTEST DAY was a preview of sorts for some other franchises Geoff Johns could dig into, and he fulfilled some of that promise by tackling Aquaman in the New 52. Another series to keep an eye on in the coming year.

26. WONDER WOMAN (DC)
J. Michael Straczynski’s “Odyssey,” like his Superman story “Grounded,” ended up becoming a casualty to other commitments, and Phil Hester did his best to salvage it early in the year, and I think he was off to a good start, but I also didn’t have a problem abandoning it when I had to abandon a lot of stuff, not because of Hester (who I wish could enjoy far greater success than he does), but because I think Joe didn’t really consider enough material for the length of story he’d planned. Thankfully, Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang started fresh with the relaunch, and can potentially have the best run Wonder Woman has ever seen on their hands. Definitely a book to reckon with in 2012.

27. RETROACTIVE 1990s: GREEN LANTERN (DC)
Another returning pair that I was delighted to revisit was Ron Marz and Darryl Banks, who handled with a considerable amount of flare the debut of Kyle Rayner all those years ago, and so all those little touches that were signatures of their run were real fun to see again. The reprint at the back of the issue, surprisingly, was less enjoyable, now feeling considerably dated (at least in the unflattering style of swimwear some artists seem to favor, like Banks and Dan Jurgens).

28. FLASHPOINT: DEADMAN AND THE FLYING GRAYSONS (DC)
A mini-series that run with an intriguing mash-up last seen in NIGHTWING: YEAR ONE, this was a definite perk of FLASHPOINT, exploring odd bit of continuity that could easily have supported itself in an Elseworlds-style book (because that’s basically what the whole event was about, with fairly loose interconnection). J.T. Krul is easily one of the DC writers who received a notable downgrade in his stature after the big relaunch, which was a shame.

29. FLASHPOINT: HAL JORDAN (DC)
Another perk of FLASHPOINT is that it served as an unofficial tie-in to the Green Lantern movie also released over the summer, and this mini-series written by Adam Schlagman clearly had the pilot glimpsed in the movie on its mind, a what-if scenario that proved Hal would be a hero with or without the ring.

30. GREEN LANTERN CORPS (DC)
This is a series that has ranked consistently in the past, from 23rd in 2007 to 40th in 2008, 35th in 2009, and finally 21st in 2010, so always somewhere around the middle of the pack. There have certainly been moments I really enjoyed in the title, and Tony Bedard’s “Weaponer” arc certainly ranks among them. I made it a point to sample each of the Green Lantern titles in the relaunch, but I’m not sure I found any of them as essential as Geoff Johns’ work in the flagship.

31. GREEN LANTERN MOVIE PREQUEL: HAL JORDAN (DC)
Geoff Johns was one of the hands involved in this particular movie prequel, which reads like an alternate version of what was seen on the big screen. In case you hadn’t guessed, I was a big fan of the movie.

32. BATWING (DC)
This was a title I was excited about when I first read about the series involved in the New 52 relaunch, and the one issue I sampled demonstrated that Judd Winick and certainly artist Ben Oliver probably justified my faith in this spin-off from the Batman, Incorporated concept.

33. RETROACTIVE 1990s: JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA (DC)
Because hey, who’s really going to argue about new material from the team of Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire?

34. SPIDER-GIRL (Marvel)
The one issue (#4) I read featured “Kraven’s Next Hunt,” a spin-off from the incredible “Grim Hunt” saga that helped launch AMAZING SPIDER-MAN to 17th last year, and that was enough to land the whole series on this list.

35. STAR TREK (IDW)
IDW in general has done a really good job with its Star Trek comics (hitting 26th and 31st for various projects in 2009), and this new ongoing series seeks to reinterpret the original TV series through the lens of the J.J. Abrams reboot, which at worst is incredibly bold and certainly another book to keep an eye on.

36. SUPREME POWER (Marvel)
When I heard this dude named Kyle Higgins was being entrusted with Dick Grayson in the New 52, I became a little nervous, and started sampling the projects he was releasing in 2011, which included this latest iteration of the Marvel interpretation of the Justice League. Suffice to say, I liked what I saw.

37. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN (Marvel)
The smartest thing Brian Michael Bendis ever did was introduce a new Spider-Man. It was the thing he absolutely needed to do after establishing that new record with Mark Bagley in the original Ultimate comics. This may be his superhero legacy.

38. VENGEANCE (Marvel)
For some reason, Marvel started releasing a bunch of off-beat mini-series that answered to nothing but themselves, and this Joe Casey ditty was among them. I’m still not sure I entirely understood what I saw, but I liked it.

39. WAR OF THE GREEN LANTERNS: AFTERMATH (DC)
It was Geoff Johns who received all the benefits of the story, but it was Tony Bedard who officially launched Sinestro into his bold new era in this two-volume epilogue to the crossover. Y’know, strictly speaking for the record.

40. AVENGERS 1959 (Marvel)
Howard Chaykin is an iconic creator I will try my best to cherish for as long as he continues producing new material. This is his offbeat look at a prior incarnation of the Marvel superteam, which includes the eclectic mix of Nick Fury, Kraven, Sabretooth, and Namora.

41. AZRAEL (DC)
Fudging just a tiny bit, including issues #15 & 16, one of which was actually released in 2010, rounding out David Hine’s strongest stories with Michael Lane (“Killer of Saints” got him 14th last year).

42. BATMAN/DETECTIVE COMICS (DC)
This entry is understood to represent material created by Tony Daniel, and so straddles pre- and post-New 52 alignments. Most readers seem to favor Scott Snyder these days, and so the natural order would seem to be the reverse of what I’ve detailed here, but Daniel continues to be my man for alternate Batman tales (his work previously reached 45th in both 2009 and 2010). He seems to have the most fun out of creators not named Grant Morrison (possibly because they worked together during “R.I.P.”), so it’s an easy call for me.

43. BATMAN AND ROBIN (DC)
Grant Morrison wasn’t solely responsible for last year’s rank of 18th (but he was for 2009’s 8th), but combinations of Paul Cornell & Scott McDaniel, Peter Tomasi & Patrick Gleason, and Judd Winick & Jason Todd helped to compensate for his complete absence in 2011. I haven’t read the book since the relaunch, though I remain pleased that Tomasi and Gleason (who were so good together in GREEN LANTERN CORPS and BRIGHTEST DAY) were tapped as creators, both before and after.

44. BATMAN: GATES OF GOTHAM (DC)
No fictional city in comics has received as much attention as Gotham, and it was again the subject of intriguing material from emerging superstars Scott Snyder and Kyle Higgins. I have a feeling that this story would have been more significant had it been told in an ongoing series, even the cancelled STREETS OF GOTHAM (would have been appropriate, anyway).

45. CHARMED (Zenescope)
My sister is a big fan of the late WB series, and so through her I’ve maintained a link to the Paul Ruditis comic launched last year. It’s not bad, really.

46. FLASHPOINT: ABIN SUR (DC)
I’ve always wondered why DC hasn’t found more excuses to tell stories revolving around one of the most famous characters in Green Lantern lore, the one who happened to famously die in his first appearance. Again, thanks to the movie released this summer, the company had excuse enough to populate FLASHPOINT with scenarios that would get around the awkward fact that technically speaking, Abin Sur is dead. In the altered reality of FLASHPOINT, he’s still Green Lantern. Then White Lantern!

47. FLASHPOINT: THE CANTERBURY CRICKET (DC)
Mike Carlin wrote this one-shot that introduced a new character into DC lore, one who will hopefully pop up again later!

48. FLASHPOINT: CITIZEN COLD (DC)
Before Francis Manapul there was Scott Kolins, another Geoff Johns collaborator who began as an artist and then branched out as a writer. I thought out of all the FLASHPOINT spin-offs, this would have a good chance of standing out, and at least for me, I wasn’t wrong. This one will probably be one of the more fun ones to read on its own in a few years.

49. GREEN ARROW (DC)
I’m cheating again, because the issues I’m referring to happen to straddle 2010 and 2011, specifically #s 7 & 8, featuring J.T. Krul and Mike Mayhew’s visionary Oliver Queen-as-Robin-Hood (more literally than ever before!) work, in the mystical forest where he teams up with Galahad, a character I thought had great potential. Hopefully at some point they can reunite, Krul and Mayhew, I mean!

50. GREEN LANTERN MOVIE PREQUEL: ABIN SUR (DC)
See above for the general prelude, but I was also pleased to find Michael Green (one of the writers involved in the movie’s screenplay, along with Marc Guggenheim, whose RESURRECTION I sorely missed during the year, and a few others) and Patrick Gleason involved in this one.

***

Complete listing of QB editions (these links are almost uniformly bad at this point, except for the last two):

2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011