The Inevitable Best and Worst List of 2018

Well, I failed to get this out in a timely manner once again! Oh well, 2018 is gone and in the books. The double shipping nonsense has continued and in some cases lead to WEEKLY books! (I’m looking at you Uncanny X-Men). I have continued to buy even more books, if you can believe it. However, my tastes are getting more and more diverse as I still consume a lot of super hero books, but I am also grabbing a lot of other genre books from the independents. Also, apparently, this year was one where I jumped back on to old favorite titles as they either shifted creative teams or came back after a long hiatus.

Anyways, without further ado, here is my review of 2018.

Dearly Departed (The Comics I dropped this year)

Before I get into the rest of my list, a moment of silence for the number of comics that I dropped this year after giving a good go at it:

• Green Lanterns – DC
• Iron Man – Marvel
• Doomsday Clock – DC
• Astonishing X-Men – Marvel
• Avengers – Marvel
• Gideon Falls - Image

Favorite Comic Book Movie of 2018

Black Panther (Marvel Studios) – There were a LOT of comic book movies that came out this year and although the year started with this movie, it remained my easy choice for favorite movie of the year. There was a cultural zeitgeist behind this movie and it was well deserved. I made my feelings pretty clear in my post about this movie, so I won’t regurgitate that here. Even though this came out in February, I felt that there was going to be nothing to beat it for my movie of the year. It held this title easily.

Honorable Mentions: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures)

Worst Comic Book Movie of 2018

Venom (Sony Pictures) – This was the easiest choice on this list. I also made my feelings known about this movie. It should have never been made and the fact that it was and actually did well, makes me sad on so many levels. Just thinking about this movie is making me mad all over again.

Honorable Mention: N/A

Favorite Comic Book TV Show of 2018

Daredevil – Season 3 (Netflix) - Since Netflix seemed content to just push all of their series out the door this year, there were a LOT of shows to take in. Also, there were all those CW shows. My TV stayed busy. At the end of the day, season 3 of Daredevil was so fantastic, that it nudges out my honorable mentions on this list. No other show does fight choreography like Daredevil.

Honorable Mentions: Luke Cage – Season 2 (Netflix), Black Lightning (CW)

Worst TV show of 2018

Jessica Jones – Season 2 (Netflix) – On the other side, we had this show. The first season was pretty strong and all that momentum was lost in this season. I won’t get into detail, but my full thoughts on this show already exist on this blog. It is easily the worst of the Marvel shows and other than Iron Fist, I’ve never been more bored or rolled my eyes so much. It’s a show I hate watched if we’re being perfectly honest.

Honorable Mention: N/A. This show sits alone.

The “Oh you still come out and I buy you” of 2018

Quantum & Woody (Valiant) – This is a book I can honestly point to and not understand why I still buy it. When it first came out decades ago, it was a very good indy book. Then over the past few years we have seen diminishing returns. The characters are borderline unlikeable at this point and I continued to buy it out of my damn problem with being a completionist. It’s not that I can’t stop a bad book, it’s just that when I need certain amount of books to get discounts at my local comic shop, some titles have their role to play…

Favorite New Artist of 2018

Bengal – Death or Glory (Image) - This category is misleading. I don’t mean this artist is new, they are just new to ME. This year I finally discovered work by Bengal and it is gorgeous. He showed some masterful cartooning and dynamic panel layouts. All of his action felt very kinetic. I think Rick Remender definitely wrote to Bengal’s strengths in this book.

Honorable Mentions: Lee Garbett – Skyward (Image)

Worst Artist of 2018

Mike Del Mundo – Thor (Marvel) – Look, every person has their own opinion of art and everyone always has their fans. As far as Del Mundo’s art, I do not like his art at all. His art has made me seriously consider if I want to keep reading Thor, even though I have loved everything Jason Aaron has done with these books. That says a lot. Bad art can ruin an expertly written book. I don’t know what this guy’s appeal is, but I hope they move on from him soon.

Honorable Mentions: N/A

Favorite Artist of 2018

Kris Anka – Runaways (Marvel) – I am going to have to give it up to Kris Anka this year. His work on Runaways has been outstanding. Even more amazing, in this day of double shipping, he had a consistent run which is increasingly rare. The quality never dipped and his portrayal of the Runaways is a big part of its success and my love of the new series. I’m glad he has been on the book for so long and appears to be staying after taking a few issues off. There was a lot of great art this year, but as I thought about it, his work is what I always come back to.

Honorable Mentions: Joelle Jones – Batman, Catwoman (DC), Pepe Larraz – Extinction (Marvel), Pere Perez – Rogue & Gambit (Marvel)

 Favorite New Writer of 2018

Saladin Ahmed – Abbot (Boom Studios!), Spider-Man (Marvel) - He’s been writing comics for a while, but I finally got exposed to a few of his series this year. From Abbot, to a few guest spots on Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel, I liked what I saw from Saladin. He’s going to be writing Miles Morales and it is good to have a person of color writing his adventures. The fact that he is younger also should bring a fresh voice. I might go and find his Black Bolt mini-series.

Honorable Mentions: Joe Henderson – Skyward (Image)

Worst Writer of 2018

Marc Guggenheim – X-Men:Gold (Marvel) – I usually like Guggenheim, but I don’t know what happened this year. He was writing X-Men: Gold and although I bought all the issues (which I shouldn’t have), I felt just exhausted reading this book. It just felt like the most bland, middle of the road characterization of the X-Men. They teased a wedding between Colossus and Kitty Pryde and then that turned out to be a swerve, ala the Batman/Catwoman wedding. Here it was not as masterfully done. Most of the writing this year was good, but this stood out because I had enough of a sample size.

Honorable Mentions: Matthew Rosenberg – Phoenix Resurrection (Marvel)

Favorite Writer of 2018

Brian Michael Bendis – Superman, Action Comics (DC)/Spencer, Nick – Amazing Spider-Man (Marvel) - I am going to have to cop out and split it between Bendis and Spencer. Nick Spencer did the impossible and got me to read Amazing Spider-Man again. Meanwhile, Bendis has made as splash with Superman. He has felt re-energized writing Superman and it feels like he’s really enjoying himself. He’s continued to humanize Superman in a way that we have not seen much of over the years. He’s run the gamut of having Superman deal with small time crime and big time events. We are getting good Bendis right now. As for Spencer, he gets credit for another award on my list which is just below…

Honorable Mention: G. Willow Wilson - Ms. Marvel (Marvel)

Pleasant Surprise of 2018

Amazing Spider-Man (Marvel): I have not read a main-line Spider-Man book on a regular basis in years (not counting the Miles Morales ones, to be clear). So the fact that I not only jumped back in with the new creative team, but that I enjoyed it so much speaks volumes. When I read the free comic book day preview, I was pleasantly surprised. Little did I know that they were able to keep up that same energy and put out an amazing (see what I did there?) run of issues. This run has brought back some deep cuts from the Spider-man lore and instilled that old sense of Marvel wonder. The way he expertly handled the Black Cat/Spider-Man dynamic was fantastic. Starting off with Ryan Ottley was another reason I picked up this book. I’m glad to see him in something else after his time on Invincible. I’m so happy to have Spider-Man back in my life. This was very close to being my favorite book of the year. While Nick Spencer was bad on Captain America, he is perfectly suited for the Amazing Spiderman.

Honorable Mentions:  Superman (DC), Action Comics (DC)

Worst Mini-series of 2018

The Wakanda Forever crossovers (Marvel) - There was a three part mini-series event starring some of the Dora Milaje from Black Panther with Avengers, Spider-Man and the X-Men. While well intentioned, every issue of this crossover mini-series was bad. It was definitely a cash grab after the success of the Black Panther movie. Instead, what we get is some poor characterizations of some of our favorite characters such as Spider-Man and the X-Men, namely Nightcrawler and Rogue. The art was also pretty pedestrian, bordering on bad. That didn’t help elevate the story at all. Nnidi Okorafor is new to comics, but I can’t give that a pass if the story isn’t at least enjoyable.

Honorable Mentions: Phoenix Resurrection (Marvel)

Favorite Mini-series of 2018

Rogue & Gambit (Marvel) – This series compelled me to actually write a post about it and that is very rare. This book made me wax nostalgic about their romance throughout the years, which I admittedly have not kept up with. What it did was made me realize how perfect these two are for each other. The art on the book was fantastic and the writing was superb. The story blended elements of their past history and used it to have them really talk things out because theirs is an extremely complicated history. They (and you the reader) realize finally how devoted to each other that they really are. I was happy that new series spun out of this and that Kelly Thompson continued to write it.

Honorable Mentions: The Man of Steel (DC)

Favorite New Series of 2018

Skyward (Image) – This has been an imaginative, high concept series. What we have here is a book about what happens to the world when Gravity is essentially lost and the world has to adapt. We pick up the story about twenty or so years after those events and follow the exploits of Willa. The art has been great and the writing has been superb. On another level, what I like is we have a person of color as the main character in the book and she is written like a normal person. Not some stereotype or any of the trappings you typically see. Out of all the debuts this year, this one has stuck with me.

Honorable Mentions: Farmhand (Image)

Worst Series of 2018

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Boom Studios!) – It pains me to say this. I was happy when this series began due to my love of the series. As it has gone on though, I’ve become less and less under the spell of nostalgia for this book. This year, there was a big, epic event called “Shattered Grid” that was going to change things forever. It combined Rangers from all over reality (various tv series). Instead, I found this event to be overly complicated. In juggling multiple characters outside of our main cast, there was less focus on Jason, Zack, Trini, Kimberly and Billy that we were supposed to be reading about. I don’t care about those other rangers. The story was extremely drawn out. Right now, the past few issues have been dealing with the fringe and not the main cast, as the previous writer has left. I don’t know where they are going, but I am teetering on the edge right now, about to jump off. Quite simply, I think this book has tried to do too much and did not do it very well.

Honorable Mentions: Jughead: The Hunger (Archie Comics)

Favorite Series of 2018

Marvel 2 In One (Marvel) - This was the Fantastic Four book that was not a Fantastic Four book. Writer Chip Zdarksy went a long way in really showing the friendship between Ben and Johnny. It was so good that I was sure that Zdarsky would be writing the revived, mainline Fantastic Four book. He even left breadcrumbs to explain what happened to the Richards family, who you knew were going to be coming back at some point. I was truly saddened when that book went to Dan Slott instead. With this book he earned the right to be able to write that book. It was always at the top of my reading list and I had always looked forward to it. While the art was not the strongest at the end of the run, starting off with Jim Cheung was a treat and put this book on the right footing. In the very least, I will now follow Zdarsky to his other works (Daredevil, Peter Parker: Spider-Man) and hope he gets to write another book within the FF family someday.

Honorable Mentions:  Amazing Spider-Man (Marvel)