22 for 2022
Before getting into my 2022 media consumption, a few things on 2023.
Took longer than expected to see Creed III (ruled, looking forward to what MBJ does next directorially) (wrote that prior to everything coming out about Majors, jeez) because I finally had a chance opening weekend to see RRR (also ruled, do recommend Ritesh Babu's piece on it though. I mean, to be clear I blanket recommend Ritesh's stuff, but this was a major-exposure one on their part). John Wick: Chapter 4 as one would imagine fucks with a vengeance.
Finished my first novel(la) of the year in The Ballad of Black Tom; quite enjoyed it. My second book of the year is very nearly done, and it's one I'll be discussing on here soon; what would've been my third however in The Atlas Six I got about a hundred pages into before saying nah. I bought it sometime last year when the prose style appealed well enough on a flipthrough, but I misconstrued the premise as being a genre-mixing deal instead of being fully magic-centric. Obviously realizing my mistake didn't stop me from giving it a go now that I actually had it, but it didn't ultimately feel like there was a ton of 'there' there. I'm also finally reading the whole of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and I feel like I deserve credit for an honorary additional novel just for all the prose segments throughout these.
I gave a quick note of concluding Primary Color Horizons' first year in an earlier post - yes, I did change the title, thought the original sounded a little retro - but that was a passing glance than a real examination. I definitely don't think I've lived up as of yet to my initial mission statement, and it might not be something that really happens during the lifecycle of this newsletter as a regular part of my output. I've definitely expanded the breadth of my media intake somewhat, but it only shows so much for the time being - a lot of my critical writing depends on a deep understanding of the contexts the subjects exist in, and I'm still in the process of developing my understanding of some new ones.
That's nothing to mope over though; we're always absorbing new stuff at a pace suiting the moment. Trying to assemble a best of 2022 list was a fine example of that, as I kept on getting around to stuff I hadn't in the year itself (and I'm still behind! Gotta finally sit down for Glass Onion for instance), both big obvious stuff I missed because of my LCS not getting it at the time, and webcomics I only discovered after the fact.
First, some of what I saw and read outside of comics this year, in no particular order:
Movies
The Fabelmans
Everything Everywhere All At Once
The Banshees of Inisherin
The Batman
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
RRR
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero
Shin Ultraman
Plus Avatar, Thor, and Doctor Strange, but they sucked real bad so they count less. I also finally got around this year to watching (among other pre-2022 movies I'm sure I'm forgetting) a favorite of my dad's, My Dinner with Andre, which I loved myself as well.
Novels (not confined to 2022)
Light From Uncommon Stars
The Legends of Luke Skywalker
Tower Through The Trees
Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets
The Three-Body Problem
All of The Marvels
Keeping the World Strange: A Planetary Guide
Luda
Onto the main attraction; 11 of my favorite cape comics for the year first, followed by 11 of my favorite non-cape comics, 22 in total for 2022. They won't be ranked, but the last ones listed will be my favorite in each category for the year. Capes first, leading off with honorable mentions:
Cape comics honorable mentions
In recognition of the prestige Black Label books that aren't the one that made it into the top 11: Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons, Aquaman: Andromeda
In recognition of having the best Justice League #1 of all time, and I read so much Justice League for that one article last year so I know what I'm talking about: Jurassic League #1
In recognition of 'please keep giving Dan Watters and Dani those good gigs': Arkham City: The Order of the World
In recognition of laudable accomplishments in the field of pizza comics: Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty
In recognition of 'haha this gave me the good superhero comic feelings, those guys are doing the cool stuff like those guys do, hehehe': Batman/Superman: World's Finest
In recognition of titles that made characters I really never thought were gonna work again, work again: Batman Beyond: Neo-Year, The Amazing Spider-Man
In recognition of marking nerds cry for speaking truth without shame about the standing of their blorbos: Dark Crisis: Young Justice
My top 11 cape comics of 2022
Moon Knight: I'm leading off with this because yes, I recognize it's absurd to put this in my top 11 when Andromeda for example isn't. That's a better comic than this! But there truly is no accounting for taste, and while some of my peers may not share my respect for the craft behind 'merely' Rock Solid Superhero Comics, the simple fact of the matter is there were few titles this year I was more excited to pick up month in and month out. I'm hopeful MacKay can keep the momentum going as he takes over Avengers, but even if he can't? Sometimes, just sometimes, solid character development, clever macro-scale and issue-by-issue twists, lovely artwork, and a bunch of absurd badass one-liners are enough to make one of the best comics of the year.
Lavender Jack: I'm really also counting Dan Schkade's assorted superhero-related Twitter posts from throughout the year as well, whether smaller gag scribbles or the likes of Yona Meets John's Brother. If I'm being honest I think the final extended hiatus seriously hindered my enjoyment of this last stretch, but the fact of the matter is that Lavender Jack was the wittiest, most vibrantly engaging material in the genre for substantial chunks of its run, and I'll follow Schkade literally anywhere he goes next.
Batman: Killing Time: Truthfully I couldn't even comment much on the comic as a whole if pressed beyond that it was a consistently enjoyable yarn and it was nice to finally see David Marquez on material worthy of his talents. But sometimes? An issue ends so strong that there's no question this is one of the best of the year by default. Batman: Killing Time #5 is one of those.
Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise: Another in the category of 'couldn't tell you much about it if pressed', albeit for different reasons. I'm sure if I reread it all at once I could tell you what happened! But let's be real: who gives a fuck about trivialities like "what happened", this is Tradd Moore utterly unleashed and that on its own is an event in the history of the medium.
Detective Comics: I'm loaning this one a bit of credit, as while I very much like Ram V and generally enjoy this run on an issue-by-issue basis, it still feels squeezed between his aesthetic ambitions and the artistic realities of a monthly Batman comic, even as I think it's finding its rhythm more and more confidently the further it goes in. I'm including it however for the following:
While it's uneven for how much it has to dip back into familiar 'and then Batman beats up a buncha guys but then he has trouble with another guy' waters, the frequent moments it does swing toward achieving V's vision in full are sublime.
Rafael Albuqueque was the initial star attraction, but the huge get of the book for me has been Ivan Reis. Finally being used as an artist instead of an event comic assembly machine, he perfectly straddles the line of the post-Adams mold for Batman's mode of traditional superheroism, and the lurid, elevated, self-awarely 'posed' nature of the runs' shadowy operatic air.
It again remains to be seen where it goes, but Detective Comics 2022 Annual is the first time someone's gone directly for the meat of Grant Morrison's impact as I've discussed it in the past, and I trust V and company to deliver a coda that'll sit satisfyingly as a cap to that era alongside Superman and The Authority.
Everything Will Be The Same Ever Again: You know the Dracula and RANDOM BULLSHIT GO Moon Knight shitposts? That guy made a comic on Webtoons! But while your first instinct may be to go "Uh...okay. Good for him I guess," it turns out David Watkins and companies' effort here is absolutely stellar and you should read it immediately. One-third relatively straight take multi-genre, multi-style, multi-format superhero epic, one-third surreal horror, one-third okay yeah still a shitpost but an excellent shitpost, a plot description would be virtually useless, but this is a comic where that works in its favor: it's the rare ongoing where I can sincerely say I never know what I'm going to see next.
Defenders: There Are No Rules/Defenders: Beyond: I am virtually incapable of parsing the actual artistic merits of Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez's mapping of Marvel cosmology here. It's too precisely my shit on too many levels for me to be remotely objective about it. That a prospective third volume was scrapped is heartbreaking, and lieu of that I demand an oversized treasury edition.
Catwoman: Lonely City: Probably the actual best Bat-related material to hit all of last year. A stunning effort on every front by Cliff Chiang, a rare actually effective new framing of Gotham and its cast of tragic oddballs, and a crunchy, bittersweet, and without contradicting that in the slightest joyfully warm noir adventure. The comic White Knight's spouse pictures in bed.
Bloodshot Unleashed: I'd call it the best ongoing on the stands if it hadn't for now been unceremoniously cut at #4. Camp, Davis-Hunt, Bellaire, Otsmane-Elhaou, and guest-artist Eric Zawadzki made me give a shit about Bloodshot, which by itself speaks to the scale of the accomplishment here. Perfect, brutal, brilliant, melancholy little standalone slices of high-concept American nightmare.
Eternals/Judgement Day: The superhero comic so outrageously good its conclusion in a big dumb summer crossover with a couple unrelated franchises also ruled. Eternals was the conceptual, tonal, stylistic, and emotional rising to the challenge of House of X/Powers of X that Hickman himself could not meet. Judgement Day can not only sit alongside Final Crisis and Secret Wars as one of the true great event titles, but is probably the first time since the latter I've really cared about 'the Marvel Universe' as a collective idea, wrapping every major layer of it into an epic of small gods and mortals made giants struggling with the faith placed in them by themselves and one another.
20th Century Men: Either you've read this, in which case you don't need me to tell you why this was the best comic of the year, or you haven't, in which case any description would be insufficient. The next link in the Watchmen -> Marshal Law -> Flex Mentallo -> The Authority chain of 'so what are we doing next with this whole genre thing?'
Non-cape comics honorable mentions
In recognition of Nadia Shammas having a good year between this and Squire, but god DAMN what Marie Enger is doing here: Where Black Stars Rise
In recognition of being happy to see Tate Brombal start to take off: Behold, Behemoth
In recognition of an interesting failure I'll be writing on in the near future: We Only Find Them When They're Dead
In recognition of comics I'm not caught up into the 2022 chunks of that probably would've made the top 11 if I had: Blue Period, Ranger Reject (published as Go! Go! Loser Ranger! in the US, but that title fuckin' sucks)
In recognition of comics I'm not caught up into the 2022 chunks of that probably wouldn't have made the top 11 if I had, but it was charming and I liked it enough to mention it here anyway: Castle Swimmer
My top 11 non-cape comics of 2022
Survival Street: Listing this upfront the way I did Moon Knight for much the same reason of 'this is the one that probably shouldn't be here'. Not-Mark Russell comics about not-Sesame Street waging a guerilla war against capitalism sounds like the most insufferable thing on Earth, but y'know what? A friend recommended it, I tried it, and I dug it. This was funny and sincere in a way name-brand Mark Russell hasn't been in awhile. Glad to have read it.
Ducks: Fucking harrowing. One of the best commands of tone in any comic I've ever read, and a sickeningly deep dive into the weird bonds you form with people you hate when stuck together, such that it's still possible to feel betrayed when they remind you why you hate them.
Matchmaker: The latest of late inclusions, I came across this Twitter-serialized cute hangout comic by Cam Marshall a month or two ago and it is an all-out charm offensive, not to mention the pleasure in watching Marshall rapidly evolve as an artist and storyteller across the length of it. You can preorder the print collection now, easy recommendation.
The Department of Truth: Not as strong this year as its opening, but c'mon this comic still rules, and as as a middle-school conspiracy buff this is as solidly in the 'for David' category as Defenders.
Ghost Cage: Dragotta on full throttle, and moreover a comic that sensibility-wise plays like Jack Kirby was ferried to the 21st century, handed a duffle bag full of Hickman comics, and told to do his version of that kind of thing.
Agent of W.O.R.L.D.E.: The last of Camp's triumvirate of successes for the year, and while I don't think W.O.R.L.D.E. thrums with the same kind of energy as 20th Century Men or Bloodshot Unleashed, he and Filya Bratukhin/Jason Wordie/Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou are doing ingenious, gloriously ugly, dense as hell unfiltered brainsplatter work here.
Do A Powerbomb!: While I enjoyed it, probably wouldn't have made it on strength of 99% of its merits. The remaining 1% however is a double-page spread in the final issue - if you read it you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about - so raw that it simply leaves me no choice but to rocket it into the top 11.
Monkey Meat: I'd probably call #1 and #2 the best single issues of the year at least of anything this side of what 20th Century Men has to offer, and #3-5 ain't exactly slouches themselves. The capitalist action-horror comic other social satires dream of being when they grow up, Image deserves some kind of formal international recognition for greenlighting a second volume of this from Ba.
Goodbye, Eri: The first I've read from Tatsuki Fujimoto, and a rare comic about THE NATURE OF ART with real gas in that tank. Get me in the right mood and I might go the hell with it and call it the actual best of the year, and that's even without it correctly concluding that the only difference between a good story about love and loss and life and a great one is whether everything explodes.
The Boxer: This one is so tough because the finale of the story proper just edges into the beginning of the year and that is as good a stretch as any comic in the history of the medium has ever had, but most of the year was then taken up by the still good but distinctly lesser spinoff arc.
It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth: A good comic, on its creators' best day, might just reach deep and pull off something I've never seen comics do as a medium before. This does every few pages. It can't quite match 20th Century Men's incendiary power as my favorite of the year overall - though that's not to suggest this is at all a cold technical exercise, Thorogood goes shockingly raw here - but this belongs on the shelf next to Asterios Polyp as a proof-of-concept for comics as a medium.
And that's 2022 behind me a mere four months in! This certainly took longer than expected, not only for other reasons I'll get to momentarily but because my laptop began to rebel against me during this process; I'll have to get it checked out soon.
The other reason: I finally knocked out my next comic script I'm offering up to collaborate on! My first went terrific thanks to David Lee Ingersoll, and my new one is one I've had in mind for even longer and at last found the time to hammer out. Any followers of mine who think they'd do well with a horror strip, get in touch and I'll see if we might be able to make this work together (for which you'd be compensated appropriately).