Hey people! As every comic fan, you know what is one of the things that I enjoy the most about reading comic books?
Praising them! (Okay yeah, this is basically a copy/paste from my previous article, sue me).
Just like I discussed on my last list here: The Top Ten Worst DC Comics of 2013, I didn't want to end this year on such a depressing mood so here I will give you the list of my favorite DC series that represent a wonderful enjoyment everytime I read them.
We're going to make a few tweaks this time though, I'm going to include the artists from the respective series where I feel they contribute as much as the writers for their quality.
We're going to make a few tweaks this time though, I'm going to include the artists from the respective series where I feel they contribute as much as the writers for their quality.
- Sterling Gates' Justice League of America's Vibe: Not a truly groundbreaking series but a quite charming one which made Vibe one of the most likable heroes from the DCU.
- J.H. Williams/W.H. Blackman's Batwoman: Such a shame that this creative team got fired since they were doing one of the best superheroine titles from DC.
- Peter Tomasi's Batman & Robin: Most of his brilliant work that includes Damian would put him on this list but since the book stopped focusing on that character (for obvious reasons) the book has suffered a bit, is still good though.
- Matt Kindt's Suicide Squad: Too short yet but is good enough to make it a nominee.
- Justin Jordan's Green Lantern: New Guardians: Again, too short but is also quite creative and full of personality.
- Charles Soule's Red Lanterns: Ditto as the previous title.
- Robert Venditti/Van Jensen's Green Lantern Corps: Together these guys are telling the best stories focusing in John Stewart since Green Lantern: Mosaic.
- Grant Morrison's Batman Inc.: While well executed, its direction ended being too dark and depressing and proved that Morrison was getting tired of the superhero genre.
- Ray Fawkes' Constantine: Fantastic series with an excellent direction.
Yep, now with those out of the way, let's count down:
10. China Mieville's Dial H
Now, recreated for the New 52 in 2012 by award-winning novelist China Mieville who made it even weirder, Dial H was one of the most creative and bizarre titles from DC that starred some of the least expected persons you would see on a superhero comic gaining different and strange new identities on a story that at times is hard to follow but ends on a satisfactory note with issue 16 on August and a special issue titled Justice League #23.3: Dial E on September
Wonderfully weird and evoking a similar tone from books like Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol, Dial H quickly became a fan-favorite despite of its low sales. Although I must note that at times it was a bit too chaotic and tried too hard at being different for its own good and those are some of the reasons why is not higher on this list.
Still, ambition and creativity are two things that I will always reward so I'm glad this was able to exist.
9. Robert Venditti's Demon Knights
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Another fan-favorite series. Created by Paul Cornell, Demon Knights never managed to set the charts on fire but it introduced a team of diverse characters full of personality on a story situated on the middle ages of the DCU, it was fun, energetic and with pretty nice character work but it also had its flaws, some of the characters were relegated in favor of others and the story was pretty directionless.
However, once that Robert Venditti arrived with issue 16, the title had a much more stronger focus on the story while also giving the spotlight to ignored characters like The Horsewoman and Exoristos while also maintain the fun tone, not only that but the character progression was even better and it allowed the cast to evolve.
Unfortunately, the last few issues lacked the strenght of previous artist Bernard Chang and was cancelled by issue 23 but such an unique series still deserves recognition.
However, once that Robert Venditti arrived with issue 16, the title had a much more stronger focus on the story while also giving the spotlight to ignored characters like The Horsewoman and Exoristos while also maintain the fun tone, not only that but the character progression was even better and it allowed the cast to evolve.
Unfortunately, the last few issues lacked the strenght of previous artist Bernard Chang and was cancelled by issue 23 but such an unique series still deserves recognition.
8. Jeff Lemire's Animal Man
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Can we all agree that Rotworld, the crossover between Swamp Thing and Animal Man, sucked? It was long, tedious and failed at creating meaningful ramifications for one of those series (Guess which one!).
Then I hope we can all agree that Animal Man post-Rotworld has been awesome. Unlike Swamp Thing which stopped being written by Scott Snyder (and that was for the better in my opinion), Animal Man continued being handled by Jeff Lemire and based on the quality of his following stories, I think it's pretty obvious who was guilty for the flaws of the previous event.
Lemire makes Buddy Baker go through one of his hardest moments after the death of his son Cliff and starts putting him into a series of new and horrific menaces that are threatening to destroy his life even more. Full of inspired ways of storytelling, heartbreaking scenes and terrifying scenarios, Lemire has demonstrated that he still has what it takes to continue on this book.
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Can we all agree that Rotworld, the crossover between Swamp Thing and Animal Man, sucked? It was long, tedious and failed at creating meaningful ramifications for one of those series (Guess which one!).
Then I hope we can all agree that Animal Man post-Rotworld has been awesome. Unlike Swamp Thing which stopped being written by Scott Snyder (and that was for the better in my opinion), Animal Man continued being handled by Jeff Lemire and based on the quality of his following stories, I think it's pretty obvious who was guilty for the flaws of the previous event.
Lemire makes Buddy Baker go through one of his hardest moments after the death of his son Cliff and starts putting him into a series of new and horrific menaces that are threatening to destroy his life even more. Full of inspired ways of storytelling, heartbreaking scenes and terrifying scenarios, Lemire has demonstrated that he still has what it takes to continue on this book.
7. Francis Manapul/Brian Buccellato's The Flash
You know what I absolutely hate? Geoff Johns' second run on The Flash. It was depressing, uninspired and downright wrong.
You know what I absolutely love? What came after it!
Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato were two unproved writers when they arrived to the series since both were mostly famous due to their artwork, Manapul being the artist and Buccellato being the colorist. Still, they managed to create a pretty interesting premise and direction for Barry Allen, their execution was pretty uneven at times but it was compensated by such a great concept and of course, Manapul's creative and gorgeous art.
However, they were consistently improving by each issue and in 2013 they become one of the best creative teams working at DC with storylines like The Reverse-Flash they achieved to polish their techniques and delivered a quite satisfying final tale for the Scarlet Speedster and in issue 25, their final one, they told an excellent one-and-done story that reminded us the classic love between Barry Allen and Iris West.
This is the series that put them on my radar and I will always be grateful for such an outstanding run.
You know what I absolutely hate? Geoff Johns' second run on The Flash. It was depressing, uninspired and downright wrong.
You know what I absolutely love? What came after it!
Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato were two unproved writers when they arrived to the series since both were mostly famous due to their artwork, Manapul being the artist and Buccellato being the colorist. Still, they managed to create a pretty interesting premise and direction for Barry Allen, their execution was pretty uneven at times but it was compensated by such a great concept and of course, Manapul's creative and gorgeous art.
However, they were consistently improving by each issue and in 2013 they become one of the best creative teams working at DC with storylines like The Reverse-Flash they achieved to polish their techniques and delivered a quite satisfying final tale for the Scarlet Speedster and in issue 25, their final one, they told an excellent one-and-done story that reminded us the classic love between Barry Allen and Iris West.
This is the series that put them on my radar and I will always be grateful for such an outstanding run.
6. Brian Azzarello's Wonder Woman
Here we have something special. This is a sincere question: Before Brian Azzarello came on board who was really interested in Wonder Woman?
Calm down hardcore fans, I know that you will always love and buy her series no matter what but previous runs truly failed at getting new readers even if they were well written like it was the case with Greg Rucka's run.
Anyway, after the failure that was JMS' work on the character (Seriously, what's wrong with him currently?), Azzarello saved the title by recreating Wonder Woman's universe and make it more concentrated on her mythological roots while also destroying previous beliefs about her life.
Some would say that this was made just for shock value and was disrespectful for the history of the character, I'm not one of those. This has been an excellently told title since 2011 and it continues to be in 2013, the best part of any Azzarello's work is the dialogue and Wonder Woman is no exception since most of the plot and character work is developed by it.
I'm not saying that the title is perfect though, sometimes the pacing can a bit slow and some of its novelty has worn off. Still, its Vertigo style and consistent level of quality puts it into one of my most anticipated books each month.
Here we have something special. This is a sincere question: Before Brian Azzarello came on board who was really interested in Wonder Woman?
Calm down hardcore fans, I know that you will always love and buy her series no matter what but previous runs truly failed at getting new readers even if they were well written like it was the case with Greg Rucka's run.
Anyway, after the failure that was JMS' work on the character (Seriously, what's wrong with him currently?), Azzarello saved the title by recreating Wonder Woman's universe and make it more concentrated on her mythological roots while also destroying previous beliefs about her life.
Some would say that this was made just for shock value and was disrespectful for the history of the character, I'm not one of those. This has been an excellently told title since 2011 and it continues to be in 2013, the best part of any Azzarello's work is the dialogue and Wonder Woman is no exception since most of the plot and character work is developed by it.
I'm not saying that the title is perfect though, sometimes the pacing can a bit slow and some of its novelty has worn off. Still, its Vertigo style and consistent level of quality puts it into one of my most anticipated books each month.
5. Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo's Batman
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Yes, yes, Death of the Family's ending was incredibly underwhelming and anticlimactic but as I said before, if there is something I will always reward is ambition and despite of the flaws it could have, Scott Snyder's Batman is definitely ambitious.
You know what I'm talking about. Zero Year, the current storyline in the title, already feels like a modern epic, Snyder wisely decided to go back to the style of his Detective Comics run (meaning that it was a big arc that contained several little arcs) and is retelling Bruce Wayne's first steps to become Batman and of course, his first adventures as the Caped Crusader. Full of great character moments, bombastic action scenes and strong storytelling, Snyder has been able to redeem himself.
Even now that I think about it, Death of the Family was not really a bad arc. It started promising enough by making the Joker a bigger threat than ever, the problem is that Snyder went overboard with his fanboyism for the villain and obviously that conclusion, but overall it wasn't bad at all.
However, just like I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I will give credit to the pencillers that contribute to half (or even more) to the quality of the book and Greg Capullo is certainly one of those. Wonderful widescreen panels, powerful storytelling techniques and incredible detail, Capullo complemented and improved Snyder's script perfectly.
At times overwritten and taken too seriously but always big on scope warrants it number 5 on this list.
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Yes, yes, Death of the Family's ending was incredibly underwhelming and anticlimactic but as I said before, if there is something I will always reward is ambition and despite of the flaws it could have, Scott Snyder's Batman is definitely ambitious.
You know what I'm talking about. Zero Year, the current storyline in the title, already feels like a modern epic, Snyder wisely decided to go back to the style of his Detective Comics run (meaning that it was a big arc that contained several little arcs) and is retelling Bruce Wayne's first steps to become Batman and of course, his first adventures as the Caped Crusader. Full of great character moments, bombastic action scenes and strong storytelling, Snyder has been able to redeem himself.
Even now that I think about it, Death of the Family was not really a bad arc. It started promising enough by making the Joker a bigger threat than ever, the problem is that Snyder went overboard with his fanboyism for the villain and obviously that conclusion, but overall it wasn't bad at all.
However, just like I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I will give credit to the pencillers that contribute to half (or even more) to the quality of the book and Greg Capullo is certainly one of those. Wonderful widescreen panels, powerful storytelling techniques and incredible detail, Capullo complemented and improved Snyder's script perfectly.
At times overwritten and taken too seriously but always big on scope warrants it number 5 on this list.
4. Geoff Johns/Ivan Reis' Justice League
Have you ever seen a title turn from mediocre to awesome over the course of a year? No? Then you must check Geoff Johns' Justice League.
After a really rough start due to having to relaunch the whole New 52 and dealing with inconsistent art by Jim Lee, a lot of people were considering this one of the worst books of the relaunch but then, salvation came into the form of Johns' constant collaborator Ivan Reis.
Their first storyline, Throne of Atlantis, was not only one of the best crossover events from the New 52 but one of the best DC crossover events, period. Excellent action, great character moments and even some really interesting twists focusing on Aquaman, a character that both Johns and Reis hold close to their hearts.
Johns managed to utilize the new direction cemented by this storyline to introduce new and wonderful personalitites to the JL which produced really great one-and-done and two-part stories culminating in Trinity War, DC's crossover between the JL titles, and while that story was flawed it was still pretty fun and the main Justice League title written by Johns was the best part. The current plot is focused in Forever Evil, DC's first big crossover event, and is exploring the different characters from the Crime Syndicate, the Justice League's counterpart from Earth 3, the recreation of origins is fantastic and the best work so far for those villains.
I honestly have never seen this kind of improvement on a series that conserves the same writer. Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis showed that people shouldn't write off a title so soon.
Have you ever seen a title turn from mediocre to awesome over the course of a year? No? Then you must check Geoff Johns' Justice League.
After a really rough start due to having to relaunch the whole New 52 and dealing with inconsistent art by Jim Lee, a lot of people were considering this one of the worst books of the relaunch but then, salvation came into the form of Johns' constant collaborator Ivan Reis.
Their first storyline, Throne of Atlantis, was not only one of the best crossover events from the New 52 but one of the best DC crossover events, period. Excellent action, great character moments and even some really interesting twists focusing on Aquaman, a character that both Johns and Reis hold close to their hearts.
Johns managed to utilize the new direction cemented by this storyline to introduce new and wonderful personalitites to the JL which produced really great one-and-done and two-part stories culminating in Trinity War, DC's crossover between the JL titles, and while that story was flawed it was still pretty fun and the main Justice League title written by Johns was the best part. The current plot is focused in Forever Evil, DC's first big crossover event, and is exploring the different characters from the Crime Syndicate, the Justice League's counterpart from Earth 3, the recreation of origins is fantastic and the best work so far for those villains.
I honestly have never seen this kind of improvement on a series that conserves the same writer. Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis showed that people shouldn't write off a title so soon.
3. Geoff Johns' Aquaman
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Another series written by Geoff Johns which most people probably saw coming on this list. I have talked about it more profoundly here: How did Geoff Johns turn Aquaman into one of the most successful DC franchises today?
Still it bears to repeat, how? Well for starters, he embraced the pop references about the character and turned them into his favor to create the most impressive and compelling run on the character.
Aquaman has finally achieved his true potential as one of DC's most important superheroes and people have finally been paying attention to his adventures after being ignored for years. Johns gave the King of the Seven Seas the respect he deserves.
Expanding his universe, introducing new and compelling characters, revitalizing old ones and giving the property the possibility of keep growing. Being accompanied with either Ivan Reis or Paul Pelletier, Geoff Johns wrote this series splendidly.
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Another series written by Geoff Johns which most people probably saw coming on this list. I have talked about it more profoundly here: How did Geoff Johns turn Aquaman into one of the most successful DC franchises today?
Still it bears to repeat, how? Well for starters, he embraced the pop references about the character and turned them into his favor to create the most impressive and compelling run on the character.
Aquaman has finally achieved his true potential as one of DC's most important superheroes and people have finally been paying attention to his adventures after being ignored for years. Johns gave the King of the Seven Seas the respect he deserves.
Expanding his universe, introducing new and compelling characters, revitalizing old ones and giving the property the possibility of keep growing. Being accompanied with either Ivan Reis or Paul Pelletier, Geoff Johns wrote this series splendidly.
2. Geoff Johns/Gary Frank's Shazam!
I know, I know, yet another series written by Geoff Johns, but can you blame me? The guy has been on fire this year and no other series has demonstrated that better than Shazam!
The most impressive aspect of it is that this has been a pretty ignored and maltreated property for years, in fact the longest ongoing series, called "The Power of Shazam!" written and drawn by Jerry Ordway in the 90's, lasted 48 issues which is nothing compared to the popularity of the character in the Golden Age when he rivaled Superman in sales. After that came a lot of failed attempts to recreate the character and while some of them were interesting (The Trials of Shazam!) none of them were able to click with the audience.
Then the New 52 started and Johns came on board with project. Recreating the classic mythos, connecting the old stories and characters into a more mystical and logical angle and finally giving the protagonist, Billy Batson, a personality that you can relate to, Johns was able to gain the interest of the public and their passion for the series.
Of course, this series wouldn't have been the same without Gary Frank's pencils. Portraying powerful moments, redesigning characters and displaying scenes, Frank managed to give new life to the members of the cast, the expressions for each one of them was quite detailed and automatically told you what you needed to know about them.
People are actually excited and asking for a new Shazam! series and I thank this creative team for that.
So which series could be number 1? Come on, you guys have read enough of my passion and obsession to guess which one deserves the spot:
I know, I know, yet another series written by Geoff Johns, but can you blame me? The guy has been on fire this year and no other series has demonstrated that better than Shazam!
The most impressive aspect of it is that this has been a pretty ignored and maltreated property for years, in fact the longest ongoing series, called "The Power of Shazam!" written and drawn by Jerry Ordway in the 90's, lasted 48 issues which is nothing compared to the popularity of the character in the Golden Age when he rivaled Superman in sales. After that came a lot of failed attempts to recreate the character and while some of them were interesting (The Trials of Shazam!) none of them were able to click with the audience.
Then the New 52 started and Johns came on board with project. Recreating the classic mythos, connecting the old stories and characters into a more mystical and logical angle and finally giving the protagonist, Billy Batson, a personality that you can relate to, Johns was able to gain the interest of the public and their passion for the series.
Of course, this series wouldn't have been the same without Gary Frank's pencils. Portraying powerful moments, redesigning characters and displaying scenes, Frank managed to give new life to the members of the cast, the expressions for each one of them was quite detailed and automatically told you what you needed to know about them.
People are actually excited and asking for a new Shazam! series and I thank this creative team for that.
So which series could be number 1? Come on, you guys have read enough of my passion and obsession to guess which one deserves the spot:
1. Jeff Lemire/Andrea Sorrentino's Green Arrow
No other series this year has shown such improvement with a new creative team. Hell, I haven't seen no other series in recent years that has shown such improvement.
No other series this year has shown such improvement with a new creative team. Hell, I haven't seen no other series in recent years that has shown such improvement.
Again, I have been rambling enough about this series here: What makes Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's run on Green Arrow the best the character ever had? and I'm sure you're also tired to see so many links on this list but it deserves all the appreciation it gets.
Worldbuilding, intriguing stories, reinvention of myths, creation of myths and that beautiful, beautiful art. Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino not only exceeded my expectations on the title but they completely destroyed them by giving the series and character a new identity that takes inspiration from the different eras while also making it stand on its own. They have introduced concepts that I didn't even know that I wanted and now I frankly couldn't live without them.
I can't recommend this book enough, start with issue 17 and you will be ready to read the greatest title that DC is currently releasing. Start with any issue and you will be ready to love it.
Anyway folks, those are my Top Ten Best DC Comics of 2013. If you also love them, cool! If you don't, then sucks to be you! (kidding, love you all!).
I'm glad that this year brought me so many good memories and I'm excited for what 2014 can bring.
Green Arrow has been great, its the only DC tittle I added on my pull list in 2013. Even though you hear complaints that its borrowing heavy from the TV show...I dont mind..the art is amaizing. Congrats Green Arrow!
ResponderBorrarPeople who think that the current GA titles is copying things from Arrow don't actually know its background.
BorrarLemire actually created the premise before he saw the show and he's only introducing characters from it sine he's already taking inspirations from the different GA incarnations.