In the comic book industry, 2015 was more of the same, and that's a good thing.
More talented writers and artists teamed up with independent publishers, where they produced flashy, stellar works. At juggernauts DC and Marvel, there were more epic crossover events, culminating with each company rebooting its comic book universe and pushing it in new directions. Across the industry, there were more stories featuring nonwhite and female gunslingers, kaijus, Hulks, Thors, Spider-People, and Captain Americas — a sign that pop culture discussions of race, feminism, and diversity — conversations that began a few years ago — aren't just fads.
There were also more outstanding comic books — more than last year, and more than the year before. The overall quality of the medium is better than it's ever been, and more types of stories are being told. From world-crushing cataclysmic events to spy thrillers to a planetary prison for women behaving badly to a Muslim American girl who just wants a date — the subjects of 2015's best comic books were as disparate as the writers, artists, colorists, and letterers who created them.
Choosing 12 comic books from a year full of excellent ones was a difficult task. But here are my favorites from 2015:
The Book of Death (Valiant)
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While DC and Marvel were busy tearing apart their respective universes, Valiant was quietly setting the standard for how it's done. The Book of Death imagines how Valiant's superheroes would react if a child from the future showed them how they will one day meet their demise in a world-ending event. It allows for some weird stuff — including trees purposely impaling people, noxious and gnarled woodland creatures out for blood, demonic possession, and a relationship that evokes the unbreakable foster father-daughter bond of The Last of Us — that's more unbridled and sometimes even more shockingly casual than stuff you'd see at a company like Marvel or DC.
Image credit: Valiant comics
Lumberjanes (Boom)
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Lumberjanes is the kind of comic book you wish you had when you were a kid. It's part Buffy, Daria, Adventure Time, and Tumblr all thrown into the frenetic, slapstick world of a supernatural camp for young girl scouts. It's a disarming read that invites you into a world where there's no rush to become an adult — and thankfully so, because there's too much friendship, too many mermaids, and just the right number of yetis with vintage Bieber sweeps to make you want to stay a while.
Image credit: Boom
Grayson (DC)
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When Grayson — a mysterious tale about Dick Grayson's new life as a spy who's cut all ties to the alter egos of Nightwing or Robin — debuted toward the end of 2014, we had to recalibrate everything we knew about the Boy Wonder. But with each panel and each page, Grayson's decision to give up superheroics for a life of international spydom made more and more sense. It allowed us to see the character in a new way without shelving the parts that made him him, while opening up an expansive world filled with spies, double agents, and humor. Writers Tim Seeley and Tom King and artist Mikel Janin (who's made Grayson the sexiest man in DC comics) invested a substantial amount of effort in building out the comic book's world, and it paid off in the 12th issue, when Grayson was reunited with his Bat family and not everyone was pleased to see him. The moment was emotional and human, revealing just how well these creators know and trust the splendid story they've created.
Image credit: DC Comics
Monstress (Image)
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Marjorie Liu's and Sana Takeda's Monstress might be the most ambitious comic book of 2015. It takes guts to go all out and create a swirling fantasy adventure against an industry that's been trending toward sci-fi, superhero, and more grounded stories, but in this case, that gamble has paid off. Liu and Takeda have created a world that's as gorgeous — think the dreamy steampunk aesthetic of the best Final Fantasy games — as it is gruesome and a story that's as urgent as it is enduring. Our heroine is Maika, a girl with a monster (a literal, hairy monster) inside of her; we get to watch her learn, and she teaches us about survival. It isn't natural. It isn't easy. It's earned.
Image credit: Image comics
The Wicked + the Divine (Image)
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In 2015, The Wicked + the Divine (WicDiv) grew up.
WicDiv was my favorite comic of 2014, a chic book brimming with so much swagger. The story — 12 gods are reincarnated every 90 or so years and only allowed to live for two, so they become pop stars — began as riveting mystery. But since the title's early meteoric rise, things have settled down a bit, allowing creators Jamie McKelvie (the artist) and Kieron Gillen (the writer) to have fun and be more ambitious than they were in the first arc. The standout issue is No. 14, a dark dive into the psyche of the misogynistic Woden, a norse god who's taken the form of one half of Daft Punk. It splices together art from every other issue of WicDiv and sets that art under the patina of digital technology — exactly as a misogynistic DJ god might do.
Over the past year, this book has unfurled its wings and unveiled something bigger, badder, and grander than it first showed. When it launched, it was clear that WicDiv could be the hippest comic book in the land. What I didn't realize at the time was how good it would become at everything else.
Image credit: Image Comics
Ms. Marvel (Marvel)
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creative team behind the character and comic
Ms. MarvelMs. Marvel Ms. Marvel
Image credit: Marvel Comics
Seven titles that could have easily made the list…
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Ody-C is an acid-trip, high-concept riff on Homer's Odyssey. I Hate Fairyland makes me feel like a kid who just learned his first curse word and experienced all the joy that comes with it. Saga and Descender are just so very good at sci-fi. Jupiter's Circle makes me miss Mad Men a little bit less each day. And finally, I cannot stop reading Midnighter and Bizarro, two immensely entertaining DC titles that are criminally underloved.