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Logan’s Favorite Comics of 2021

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Even though it was a shitty year overall, I found some great comics to enjoy in 2021, both old and new. Beginning with its “Future State” event, DC easily shot up to become my favorite mainstream publisher thanks to its renewed focus on different visual styles instead of a Jim Lee-esque art style and its emphasis on LGBTQ+ characters even after Pride Month. Vault and Image continued to be the homes of both my favorite creators and SF stories, and AWA, Dark Horse and even Black Mask and Archie had titles that surprised me even if they didn’t make the cut on this list. Finally, continuing a trend that I jumped on in 2020, I continued to read or revisit classic comics (Both old and new) in 2021, like Copra, Invincible, The Umbrella Academy, Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, Wonder Woman: True Amazon, The Invisibles, Peter Milligan and Mike Allred’s X-Force, Hawkeye, and Black Bolt among others.

So, without further ado, here are my ten favorite comics of 2021

10. Alice in Leatherland (Black Mask)

Alice in Leatherland is a wholesome, sexy, and hyper-stylized slice of life romance comic from the creative team of Iolanda Zanfardino and Elisa Romboli. The book is about Alice, a children’s book writer, who leaves her small town for San Francisco when her girlfriend cheats on her and captures the fear and adrenaline of taking a big step in your life. The series explores sex and love through an expansive cast of LGBTQ+ characters that I wanted to spend more than five issues with. Romboli uses fairy tale style visuals as a metaphor to examine Alice’s feelings and self-growth throughout the series, and she excels at depicting both the hilarious and erotic. Alice in Leatherland is an emotional, funny read with well-developed queer characters and made me immediately add Zanfardino and Elisa Romboli to the list of creators I’ll read anything by.

9. The Autumnal (Vault)

The Autumnal by Daniel Kraus, Chris Shehan, and Jason Wordie was the most unsettling comic I read in 2021. The book follows Kat Somerville and her daughter Sybil as they leave Chicago for the town of Comfort Notch, New Hampshire. However, this town isn’t a rural oasis, but incredibly creepy. Kraus’ script unravels the foundation of blood that the town is built on while Shehan and Wordie create tension with the fall of the leaf or a crackle of a branch. I also love how fleshed out Kat is as she deals with being an outsider in what turns out to be an unfriendly space with her parenting style and approach to life being critiqued by her neighbors. Finally, The Autumnal is the finest of slow burns beginning with NIMBY/Karen-like behavior and then going full-on death cult. It’s a must read for anyone who has lived or experienced a place where time seems to stand still, or who thinks a NextDoor app post could be the basis of a good horror story.

8. The Joker (DC)

Contrary to its title, James Tynion, Guillem March, Steffano Rafaele, Arif Prianto, and others’ The Joker isn’t a comic looking at the Clown Prince of Crime’s inner psyche, but is a globe-trotting P.I. type story featuring Jim Gordon trying to capture the Joker for some folks that looks shadier and shadier as the story progresses. Tynion and (predominantly) March show the effect Joker has had on Gordon’s life and his family while also showing him discover himself outside the bounds of Gotham and its police department. As the series progresses, The Joker shows the impact that Batman and his rogue’s gallery have had on the rest of the world, and the ways governments, intelligence agencies, and more nefarious organizations deal with threats of their ilk. Along with a crime novel set in present time, James Tynion, Matthew Rosenberg, and the virtuosic Francesco Francavilla created several flashback comics showing the development of Jim Gordon’s relationship with the Joker over the years, and how it effected his family life and career almost acting as a “Year One” for Gordon as Francavilla’s art style shifts based on the era the story is set in. Plus most issues of Joker feature colorful backup stories with Harper Row trying to bring Joker’s newest ally Punchline to justice in and out of prison from Tynion, Sam Johns, Sweeney Boo, Rosi Kampe, and others.

7. Kane and Able (Image)

Kane and Able is a dual-cartoonist anthology featuring work by British cartoonists Shaky Kane and Krent Able. Kane’s stories flow together in a Jack Kirby-meets-David Lynch kind of way blurring the lines between fiction and metafiction, reality and unreality while also acting as an opportunity for him to draw cool things like dinosaurs, space women, aliens, the King of Comics, and even himself. Able’s stories have more of a grindhouse, body horror quality to him as a chainsaw-wielding Bear Fur battles a boom box wielding cockroach woman, who flesh bonds everyone in a listless, major city. Both creators have delightful, distinctive styles and put their own spin on genres like sci-fi, exploitation, and superhero. Kane and Able is free-flowing, clever, and most of all, fun and is tailor made for the larger page format of treasury editions.

6. Static Season One (DC/Milestone)

As far as pure visuals go, Static Season One by Vita Ayala, Nikolas Draper-Ivey, and ChrisCross was easily one of the best looking books on the stands in 2021. This was in addition to reinventing the iconic Black superhero through the lens of contemporary social movements, like Black Lives Matter and protests against police brutality in summer of 2020. Static Season One doesn’t merely pay homage to the classic Milestone series, but brings it into 2021 with fight sequences straight out of the best shonen manga and a three dimensional supporting cast that holistically explore the Black experience in the United States while also being a coming of age and superhero origin tale. Draper-Ivey’s character designs are sleek as hell, and his high energy approach to color palette adds intensity to fight and chase scenes. I’m excited to see what the talented creative duo of Ayala and Nikolas Draper-Ivey bring to Static’s journey as Season One wraps up and Season Two (hopefully) begins in 2022.

5. Renegade Rule (Dark Horse)

Renegade Rule is an original graphic novel from Ben Kahn, Rachel Silverstein, and Sam Beck that is a perfect fusion of a sports manga and a queer romance story set in the world of competitive video games. Even if you’re like me and have only attempted to play Overwatch a single time, Renegade Rule and its world are quite accessible via things like hypercompetitiveness, sexual tension, and breathtaking fight choreography. The in-game sequences are almost like musical numbers and use shooting, sniping, and various acrobatics to make characters’ unspoken thoughts real. Renegade Rule is like if your favorite sports movie and romantic comedy had a gay baby who loved kicking ass at video games, and I pumped my fist every time the Manhattan Mist overcame adversity or overwhelming odds and smiled when certain characters ended up with each other…

4. Echolands (Image)

After a four year absence from interior art, co-writer/artist J.H. Williams III didn’t mess around with Echolands, a love letter to both genre fiction and double page spreads. Done in collaboration with co-writer Haden Blackman and colorist Dave Stewart, Echolands is an epic fantasy quest loaded up with all kinds of genres and art styles leaking off the page and was one of the most immersive comics I read in 2021. It has a sprawling cast and world, but Blackman and Williams know when to slow down and dig into Hope Redhood and her allies and antagonists’ motivations and when to drop in a multi-page underwater or underground chase sequence. With its unique landscape layouts and all the details in J.H. Williams and Stewart’s visuals, Echolands is definitely a book worth picking up in physical format and has backmatter that both humorously and seriously adds to the worldbuilding.

3. DC Pride (DC)

In honor of Pride Month, DC Comics put some of its most talented LGBTQ+ creators on its most iconic LGBTQ+ characters in a super-sized celebration of overcoming adversity, being yourself, and loving whoever you want to love. DC Pride covered a spectrum of sexual and gender identities from a fast-paced date night story featuring the non-binary Flash, Jess Chambers, to James Tynion and Trung Le Nguyen’s fairy tale influenced story of Batwoman’s younger days and even the first appearance of transgender superhero Dreamer (From the Supergirl TV show) in the comics. Depending on the character or creative team, the different stories could be adventurous and flirtatious, heartfelt and emotional, or a bit of both. This book shows that superhero comics have come a long way since the stereotypes of the 1980s and 1990s, but there’s still room for improvement as many of the characters featured in this anthology are relegated to backup stories or are supporting cast members of cisgender, heterosexual heroes.

2. Barbalien: Red Planet (Dark Horse)

Barbalien: Red Planet is a masterfully crafted, queer rage infused superhero/sci-fi comic from Jeff Lemire, Tate Brombal, Gabriel Walta, and Jordie Bellaire. It understands subtext is for cowards and draws parallels between Barbalien coming out as gay and a Martian with his new friend/potential lover Miguel, who is a Latino activist fighting for the US government to do something about the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Barbalien: Red Planet pays homage to the Black and Latinx activists who fought for queer liberation and is also an emotionally honest character study for Barbalien, who is easily my favorite character in the Black Hammer universe. Lemire, Brombal, and Walta use the superhero and sword and planet genres to explore the conflict between queer folks and power structures as Barbalien struggles with trying to fit into Spiral City as a white cop or being his true, gay Martian self. And to get personal for a second, Barbalien: Red Planet inspired me to speak out against my city’s Pride organization’s open support of police even though it led to me resigning as chairperson of my work’s LGBTQ+ employee affinity group. It’s both a damn good superhero book and a story that had a huge impact on my life in 2020-2021.

1. Die (Image)

My favorite comic of 2021 was Die by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans that wrapped up with the mother of all quest arcs. But beyond having cool fantasy landscapes and wrapping up each party member’s arc, Die nailed the importance of stories, whether games, comics, films, prose, TV shows etc., to change how we view and interact with the world in both a heightened and realistic manner. Most of the realism came in Die #20 where the main characters escape the world of the game into our reality with the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing and have emotional reunions with loved ones or just hang out by themselves. However, the final arc of Die also is full of existential nightmares courtesy of Hans’ visuals as well as awakenings and self-realization, especially in Die #19 where Ash comes out as non-binary and discusses how games and fiction shaped their identity. The final issues of Die is a double-edged look at the power of narrative and games to shape us done in both glorious and surprisingly intimate fashion, and I felt I really knew Ash, Matt, Angela, Isabelle, Matt, Chuck, and Sol in the end.

Honorable Mentions: Casual Fling (AWA), Nightwing (DC), Made in Korea (Image), Barbaric (Vault), Superman and the Authority (DC), Catwoman: Lonely City (DC/Black Label)

Review: Batman #50

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Batman50Batman #50 is an epic capper on the ten part “Superheavy” arc that closes out Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s almost five years on the title as Bruce Wayne returns as Batman and with the help of Jim Gordon, Duke Thomas, and even Geri Powers banishes Mr. Bloom and the people he has infected from Gotham City. In the issue, Snyder reiterates the theme of a family and  community approach to heroism that has echoed throughout his run from Batman’s mistakes in “Death of the Family”, his growing relationship with Jim Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth in “Zero Year”, and finally in “Superheavy” where it’s the aging, dying ex-police commissioner, who saves the day using the literal power of the people, and not the superhero at the peak of his powers. (This is because the dionesium that revived Batman healed all his scars and wounds from his crime fighting career in a clever bit of plotting from Snyder.)

Basically, rugged individualism gets you someone like Mr. Bloom, who in trying to make Gotham a better place for the disenfranchised, ends up literally twisting the people he wants to save. Newly energized, Batman tries to do everything himself early on in the issue, but fortunately, Gordon overrides his command, and a simple command for his “rookie” suit that was used early on in “Superheavy” ends up turning the tide. A Yanick Paquette drawn epilogue hints at a more teamwork friendly Batman working closely with the GCPD (who is being supported financially by Geri Powers) as well as training Duke Thomas as the new Robin. It will be interesting to see what the new Batman team does with this new status quo as Gotham tries to bounce back from Bloom’s attack, which crippled Gotham’s willpower and electrical power.

The art team of Capullo, inker Danny Miki, and colorist/Why hasn’t he won an Eisner extraordinaire FCO Plascencia give Batman #50 an air of bombast, horror, and triumph with a side of tragedy while Snyder furthers characterization and themes through his novelistic narration and dialogue that has been a hallmark of the series. Everyone is at the peak of their powers from an early double page spread where Batman quickly takes out some of Bloom’s goons in a hail of fire, steam, and blood as Alfred quips about him having some new wounds to stitch up even though he is fresh for now to a pretty frightening sequence where Bloom overrides the various Powers Corporation Batmen and gives them the faces of various Batman villains, including the Joker.

BatmanandDuke

But it’s not all explosions and robots as Capullo and Miki do an excellent job of showing the physical and mental punishment Jim, Julia Pennyworth, Batman, and Duke Thomas take on this long night of the soul. And their depictions of Bloom’s victims are incredibly creepy, especially when Duke finds out that his cousin Daryl is behind the program, which went horribly wrong and is a powerful conclusion to his subplot throughout “Superheavy”. This is the trauma that causes him to fight back and take the final step in his journey to become a hero and Robin in his own right. He gets to a drive a blimp too, which is cool and reminded me of when Carrie Kelly saved Batman from the Mutant gang in The Dark Knight Returns with the help of the Bat-tank. Duke is a living embodiment of what Jim Gordon says in his speech about Batman teaching the people of Gotham to save themselves and become heroes in their own right.

Batman #50 is both an action packed and a thematically resonant conclusion to the “Superheavy” arc and Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, and FCO Plascencia’s Batman epic. There are a lot of moving parts and MacGuffins flying about in this double sized, definitely worth your $5.99 issue, but Snyder ties it all together through a powerful speech from Jim Gordon about the power of ordinary human beings working together to fix things, like poverty, inequality, and crime. But Batman can only be Batman, and Paquette shows this in the heartbreaking final pages as Julie Madison rebuilds the daycare center that an amnesiac Bruce Wayne built and sadly can’t be a part of any more.

Story: Scott Snyder Art: Greg Capullo, Danny Miki, and Yanick Paquette
Colors: FCO Plascencia and Nathan Fairbarn
Story: 9 Art: 10 Overall: 9.5  Recommendation: Buy

Review: Batman #42

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batman042One of the most compelling stories which can be told about iconic superheroes are those stories which involves their deaths, that is at least from a novelty standpoint.  This trend started in the 1990s with the Death of Superman, and then spread like wildfire, with the death of Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman as well as Batman’s back being broken and Aquaman’s arm being eaten off.   Part of the iconic nature of the superheroes is that they can’t lose, and so death or severe disability is not supposed to happen, and so at its base it tells a different story as opposed to the usual for comic book characters.  The problem is too that the novelty wears off pretty quickly usually as well, as fans want their beloved characters back.

Such is the problem facing this series now, as Bruce Wayne is presumed gone, and replaced in the role of Batman by Jim Gordon.  The plot here tells the story of Jim, still in his early missions, as he has to deal with a crime lord in the Narrows, and one that has grown out of control in power, somewhat inexplicably.  Although the story focuses somewhat around this, it also gets a bit deeper than it has yet with the Gordo-Bat, relying on some detecting skills as opposed to just the armor, as Jim and his team try to put together the bigger mystery of who has been targeting the crime lords and thus pulling their strings.

The first issue of the new Batman has already come and passed, and after the initial novelty wears off of having an Iron-Man like Commissioner Gordon in the guise of Batman, it will remain for the creative team to put together a story which is worthy of the title.  As one of the standouts thus far of the entire DC reboot (first new 52 and now DC You), it is still not entirely clear how this is going to happen here.  The concept is there, and while the characterization is matching what is expected out of this title, it is not clear yet how the story is going to work.  There is at least a little bit more of clever storytelling here as opposed to the first issue of this new direction which was a little bit all over the place.  In the end though, if this is going to be more than a novelty, the creative team is going to need to pull together something more engaging and while this issue is a definite improvement over the first of this new direction, it also isn’t quite there yet.

Story: Scott Snyder Art: Greg Capulo
Story: 7.6  Art: 7.6  Overall: 7.6  Recommendation: Read

Review: Detective Comics #42

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dc042In a sense, Detective Comics is DC Comics.  DC owes its name to one of its flagship series, and although the series has gone through tough times before, it has always persisted.  In the 1970s during the DC Implosion, the title was almost lost in favor of the Batman Family comics, but Detective Comics was too important, and became Detective Comics featuring the Batman Family.  Except for the brief period just before the new 52 when the series featured Batwoman, the series has also always had Batman, be that Bruce Wayne, Jean-Paul Valley or Dick Grayson.  That is to say that DC is Detective Comics, and Detective Comics is Batman, which is an easy way to identify one of DC’s main two heroes.

The recent story arc in the Batman titles deals with the fallout of the Endgame story arc in the main Batman series.  With Bruce Wayne gone, there needs to be someone to fill in the gap as the Batman, and it has fallen to the unlikely choice of Jim Gordon to fill the suit.  It is not just any suit though, rather an Iron-Man like mockup, but with a few kinks.  This series has also put some focus on the renewed partnership of Montoya and Bullock, and the story here finds itself somewhere in between.  Jim is still trying to figure out what it takes to be Batman, especially as some criminals have figured out how to weaken the suit, and Harvey and Renee are trying hard to make work what was once a great partnership.

If DC needs Batman, and specifically Detective Comics, then it is hard to see how this fits in.  The idea of Jim Gordon as Batman is one which breaks certain base assumptions about the group of characters.  Though both defined by a moral code, Batman is not Jim Gordon, nor can Jim Gordon be Batman.  Others that have taken up the title have done so in the spirit of Bruce Wayne, but this new version is a bit bizarre, asking the reader to forget key parts of the publication history of the characters, so that an unconventional story can be told.  Unconventional stories can be great, as any work of fiction should try to push the boundaries of what is the expected, but in this case it still doesn’t quite feel right, as Detective Comics still feels like it is missing its Batman, even when it ostensibly has one.

Story: Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellatto Art: Fernando Blanco
Story: 6.8 Art: 6.8 Overall: 6.8 Recommendation: Pass

Review: Batgirl #41

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batgirl041As a phenomenon there are few better than what Batgirl has managed to impact on the comic industry in the past year.  Although really not at the heart of the changing outlook towards young female superheroes (the source might be better located with Ms. Marvel) the character got noted for the change in direction that was taken as she was made to be more approachable to fans.  The subsequent “Batgirling” of other series led to this being a real trend, one that comic companies try to create for themselves but which often fall flat.  On the opposite side of the spectrum are the changes underway with the main Batman title, where Bruce Wayne is presumed to be dead and Jim Gordon has taken his place inside a robotic Batman armor.  This is specifically the kind of controversy that DC Comics has tried to create before with the replacement of Bruce by others, even if it has never really been that effective.

The grassroots versus astroturfing approach to comic trends butts heads in this issue as Barbara returns for her first appearance post-Convergence and she has to deal with the introduction of an unlikely hero as well as the interjection of her father in his Batman gear.  She is on the track of people still under the impression of the villain from Hooq from her first story arc, and it leads her to an abandoned house where she faces the cult-like followers as well as the new Batman.  After a nice interjection with some father-daughter time, where Jim admits to being the new Batman, the heroes face off against each other once again.

In terms of what wins between the manufactured trend of the new Batman versus the organic trend of the new Batgirl, the hands down winner is Batgirl.  The new Batman is a strange direction to take Batman and it remains to be seen if it will connect with the fans at all.  Batgirl on the hand continues moving along with the same momentum, which is built on her solid characterization and a supporting cast of characters that makes her seem more believable.  The Jim Gordon Batman likely has a short shelf life as fans will get tired of the stunt and look for the return of Bruce, but it seems like this new Batgirl is here to stay which is good news for everyone.

Story: Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher Art: Babs Tarr
Story: 8.7 Art: 8.7 Overall: 8.7 Recommendation: Buy

 

Review: Batman #41

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batman041There is perhaps no other character that could best benefit from Convergence than Batman.  The two month long crossover event drove a wedge into the continuity of DC Comics as story arcs before the break tried to wrap before a short hiatus.  In this title Batman had been battling the Joker and with his apparent death, the Convergence break gives the illusion of some time passing before the return of the new Batman, under the guise of Jim Gordon.  It is not the first time that someone else has taken over the role of Batman, at least temporarily, but the tone is different here.  Jim Gordon is a trusted ally, but has never really worked in the same function, rather always acting as a balance against Batman’s darker inclinations.

This new Batman is one that is quite different from the previous.  As the issue is quite clear to highlight, Batman is needed by Gotham, and while a division of the police is being trained to take on the role of Batman in the case of his disappearance, none quite fir the bill.  None that is except for Jim Gordon.  The problem is that the character is old, his 46 years of age in this issue eliciting a reaction of surprise from his closest allies.  What is more interesting is the implementation of this new Batman, as Jim Gordon is thrown into his first mission while also trying to figure out the use of the armored suit which he now uses to do the vacated job.  he faces off against a technological threat, but ends up using some basic police work to prove why he is a better choice than others.

It is sometimes said of Batman that the man makes the suit, but here it is reversed as the suit makes the man.  While this is a potentially interesting direction to take for this title, it is also kind of confusing.  Part of the appeal of Batman is that he can accomplish wonders that even superpowered people cannot, and he does it with his willpower and his wits.  With the replacement of Bruce Wayne in the role with this Iron Man/Batman hybrid, it doesn’t have the same feel as what makes the character so approachable to so many.  The infallible character is now one that takes necessary technological shortcuts, and this issue kind of comes off having the same overall effect.  It is ok, but not memorable, and seems like it will be another passing fad to file away under the file of “Other People that Have Been Batman for a Few Issues.”

Story: Scott Snyder Art: Greg Capulo
Story: 7.0  Art: 7.5  Overall: 7.0  Recommendation: Pass