Celebrating the Unpopular Arts
 

My Best Comics of the Year List is the only best comics of the year list you need!

It’s time for MY VERY OWN Best Comics of the Year List! You need no others – would I steer you wrong? I think not!

I decided to do a “Top 30” list this time around. I noted that I bought about 360 comics this year, so this will be around 10% of the total, if you don’t count the 50 books I bought that are older reprints, so they don’t really count. I figure that’s not a bad representation. So that’s the preamble. Let’s go!

Here are a few comics that just missed the cut. If I did a list of 40, these would be on here, but we need a cut-off somewhere! In alphabetical order: Dark Ride volume 1, Detective Comics, Elephantmen 2261, A Nice House on the Lake, Night Fever, Nottingham volume 2, Phantom Road volume 1, Roaming, Stringer, and Trve Kvlt. All very good, but just not quite good enough!

30. The Ojja-Wojja by Magdalene Visaggio, Jenn St-Onge, Avery Bacon, Arif Kudus, and Micah Myers. This seems like it would be catnip for certain comics readers, so the fact that it didn’t make CBR’s Top 100 list is a bit of a surprise (I’ll point this out here, because I reference the CBR list a bit – it’s not a list of readers, it’s a compilation by CBR staffers, so they ought to be more in tune with indie stuff and they probably read a lot more than most “regular” folk … at least, I choose to believe that!). I’ve never been the biggest fan of Visaggio, but she does really nice work here with this story of two ostracized teenagers who accidentally call up a demon that wrecks their town. It’s a good story, with excellent art by St-Onge and terrific colors by Bacon and Kudus … it’s just really good. I wonder why the voters for the CBR list ignored it? Anyway, my review is here.

29. Above Snakes by Sean Lewis, Hayden Sherman, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. This is a neat Western with gorgeous art – the art is a bit stronger than the story, but that’s going to happen sometimes. As I noted in my original review (from way back in January), it feels a bit more like Lewis is writing about the idea of a Western rather than a true Western, which doesn’t make it bad, certainly, but which is a bit harder of a needle to thread. Still, it’s pretty keen.

28. Minor Threats by Patton Oswalt, Jordan Blum, Scott Hepburn, Ian Herring, and Nate Piekos. Here’s another one I’m surprised didn’t get love from CBR, as Oswalt is fairly famous, after all. This is a pretty good satire of DC icons, and Blum and Oswalt do a good job showing why D-listers in the superhero world can still make a difference. It works, I think, a lot better if you know about superhero comics, but I assume not many people who don’t know about superhero comics are going to read this. I reviewed it here.

27. Public Domain by Chip Zdarsky. This was #6 on CBR’s 2022 list, and while I don’t think quite so highly of it, it’s still a very good comic. As I’ve noted before, Zdarksy is hit-or-miss for me, but when he’s flying a bit under the radar, he seems to do better work, and this seems like one of those (obviously, it didn’t fly under the radar because it ranked so high last year, but I mean when he’s actually doing the comic, not in the aftermath). This is an interesting story about creators’ rights, a subject obviously near and dear to the hearts of artists, and Zdarsky crafts an intriguing narrative around it. This is another comic from way back in January!

26. Black Cloak by Kelly Thompson, Meredith McClaren, and Becca Carey. I try to read everything Kelly writes, and so I read quite a few of her comics this year, and Black Cloak was the best of them. I know it’s from a year or two ago, but I don’t subscribe to her Substack, so leave me alone, people! Kelly effortlessly creates a fascinating fantasy world and gives us a main character, Phaedra, who’s just interesting to follow as she tries to solve a disturbing murder in a city where status is extremely important. McClaren is superb, as always. I’m keen to read The Cull, Kelly’s latest comic, but I do hope we get more of this series in the future. I reviewed this here.

25. The Exile by Eric Kriek, Sean Michael Robinson, Graham Miller, and Frits Jonker. This dark and violent Viking story was originally published in 2019, but 2023 was when it was published in English, so I’m counting it! Kriek tells a story about a Icelander who returns to the island after several years in exile and the ripples that his return sets off, which affects everyone on the island. There are many secrets that many people would rather keep buried, and the title character’s return threatens to bring those to the light, and some people will kill to keep them hidden. The story is a slow-burning, tense build-up to a tense finale, and Kriek’s art is marvelous. I reviewed this here.

24. Ask for Mercy by Richard Starkings and Abigail Jill Harding. Starkings’s other comic is a wonderfully weird horror/time travel/fantasy comic, in which a normal woman finds out she’s from another dimension and she has to fight weird insect creatures who are trying to invade our dimension, and she has other weird creatures as her allies. She fights not only the insect creatures but Nazis and the ghost of Andrew Jackson (because why not). Harding’s amazing painted art is a very big factor in the book’s success, but Starkings has a lot of fun with the story, too. I took a look this back in April.

23. Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise by Tradd Moore, Jensine Eckwall, Heather Moore, and Clayton Cowles. I noted when I reviewed this that Moore’s story is just fine, and that’s ok. Moore gives us an intriguing premise that allows him to have Strange in some weird predicaments without upsetting his status quo, which is what you want from a comic like this. So the story is fine, but Moore’s staggering art is really why this book is so high on the list. Moore has been a great artist for years, but he really goes all out with this comic, and every page is just breathtaking. It’s one of those books that shows you why comics are often far superior to movies, as this would all be CGI in a movie and wouldn’t look quite as nifty. I wish more comics were like that!

22. The Blue Flame by Christopher Cantwell, Adam Gorham, Kurt Michael Russell, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. Cantwell, who’s done a lot of interesting comics but none, I don’t think, that I’ve really loved, nails this story of a superhero/vigilante (he doesn’t have any powers) who is dealing with a personal tragedy while trying to defend humanity in court on an alien planet. That’s a lot to handle! Cantwell does tend to write thoughtful comics, but there’s something always a bit off with them, but here, he manages to tie a lot of plot threads together and give us a story about why superheroes do what they do and why we should always hope for better things. It’s pretty keen. I wrote about it here.

21. Light Carries On by Ray Nadine. This is a charming story about a dude who befriends a ghost – one who was a punk rocker in the 1970s. Cody, the ghost, wants to find out more about his death (he committed suicide, but he claims he wouldn’t have done that), while Leon, the living person, is suffering from PTSD after he’s gotten out of the army. It’s a slight book, plot-wise, but Nadine does a wonderful job creating these two characters and showing how their quasi-romance evolves, and it’s just a good comic. I reviewed it here.

20. Squire & Knight by Scott Chantler. This is another book that I’m a bit surprised didn’t make CBR’s list, as Chantler is a fairly well known creator and YA books are all the rage. This is a neat story about a squire to a knight who goes off to kill a dragon. The knight is a bit of an idiot, the squire is far smarter than he, and the dragon isn’t exactly what we expect. The squire tries to figure out a solution that doesn’t involve killing anything, and Chantler does a nice job with a clever plot. I really am surprised it didn’t make a dent in the CBR list, but oh well. You can read my review here.

19. Mindset by Zack Kaplan, John Pearson, Jimmy Savage, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. I mentioned in my review that Kaplan wants this to be a biting social commentary, and it’s not the greatest at that, but it is a pretty cool thriller. Nerds invent an app that can control minds – oh, you know things will get bad! It’s a well-constructed thriller, and Kaplan shoe-horning some woe-is-us tech fears doesn’t hurt the story, just doesn’t help it too much, either. Still, it’s a nifty comic, and Pearson’s art is quite good.

18. Anaïs Nin: A Sea of Lies by Léonie Bischoff and Jenna Allen. This is another book that’s a bit old but newly translated into English, so that’s the way it has to be! Bischoff’s amazing and beautiful art helps tell this story about Nin’s sexual awakening. I like the art a bit more than the writing, but it’s still a thought-provoking work about a woman in a man’s world who decided she wasn’t going to live by their rules. I have some issues with how Bischoff tells the story, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good comic. Check out my long-winded review here!

17. Eight Billion Genies by Charles Soule, Ryan Browne, Kevin Knipstein, and Chris Crank. This ended up at #31 on CBR’s 2022 list, so I like it a bit more than the people who voted last year, I guess. I’ve been a fan of Soule since his first comic (at least, I think it was his first one!), and while he’s not always great, he usually does a good job, and his conceit – everyone on Earth gets a genie and one wish – is very clever and allows Browne to have a ton of fun with the art, and he does. The story takes many dark turns, as you might expect, but Soule does a good job focusing on a core group of people who need to figure out what to do now that society has effectively collapsed. We also get a pretty cool story about why the genies show up, so that’s neat. I wrote about this book here.

16. Swamp Thing volume 3: The Parliament of Gears by Ram V, Mike Perkins, Mike Spicer, and Aditya Bidikar. Last year, when I noted that this book was #23 on CBR’s list, I mentioned that I had liked the first two volumes of Venkatesan’s Swamp Thing, so I’d probably like the third, and here it is! This is the finale of the run, and we get a new parliament that Swamp Thing has to deal with, of course, and Perkins does a marvelous job with the art. When I wrote about this, I noted I was annoyed that we only got 16 issues out of Ram V on Swamp Thing, but that doesn’t mean the quality isn’t high!

15. The Good Asian by Pornsak Pichetshote, Alexandre Tefenkgi, Lee Loughridge, and Jeff Powell. Last year, this ended up as #13 on the CBR list, so for a very brief moment, I’m aligned with those tastes. This is a very good comic set in 1930s San Francisco, and it’s a terrific noir story that just happens to star a Chinese man and feature the Chinese culture of the time period. Pichetshote gets into racism, of course, but the social commentary in the book is blended in very nicely with the story, which is why it’s so effective. It has nice art, too, which is always helpful. I wrote more about it here.

14. Do a Powerbomb! by Daniel Warren Johnson, Mike Spicer, and Rus Wooton. This also showed up on CBR’s list last year, at #61, which surprised me a bit, as I thought Johnson had more fans. I certainly thought better of it than most people last year! It’s a gorgeous book, naturally, and while Johnson doesn’t re-invent the wheel with the story (it’s about a wrestling tournament … in another dimension), he’s so good with the characters that you care about what happens to all of them, even the very minor ones. It’s just a very cool book. Read more about it here!

13. Bad Karma by Alex de Campi, Ryan Howe, and Dee Cunniffe. As I noted when I reviewed this, I like it more than Parasocial, de Campi’s other graphic novel from this year, but that one made CBR’s list while this one was nowhere to be found, and that’s a bit puzzling. Parasocial, I guess, is a bit more “critic-friendly,” in that it’s about fans and celebrities and seems to be more psychological than just straight-up thriller, but I argue that Bad Karma, with its focus on PTSD in soldiers and the very real costs of war, is just as psychologically incisive as Parasocial and it’s a better thriller. But, I mean, what the hell do I know?

12. Love Everlasting by Tom King, Elsa Charretier, Matt Hollingsworth, and Clayton Cowles. I love the conceit of this series – Joan is trapped in romance comics, and whenever she falls deeply in love with a dude, a cowboy shows up and kills her, sending her to the next story, and eventually she begins to remember her past lives and decides to do something about it. In the second volume, she decides to marry a dude she is specifically not in love with, so she can see how it plays out. King, as usual, does very good work when he’s not writing Batman, and I love Charretier’s art, so this is just a very good comic that makes good use of the elements of the 1950s romance comics. It was #34 on CBR’s list this year, but obviously, I think it should be higher. I reviewed volume 1 here and volume 2 here.

11. W0rldtr33 volume 1 by James Tynion IV, Fernando Blanco, Jordie Bellaire, and Aditya Bidikar. I noted this when I looked at CBR’s list that #83 seems low, but again, what do I know? Tynion has gotten better as a comics writer, and he’s been doing some really good stuff recently, and W0rldtr33 – which is about, basically, the evil internet becoming sentient and trying to kill humanity – is very good and creepy and weird and fun, with absolutely superb art by Blanco and Bellaire. Tynion might be spreading himself a bit too thin and I hope that doesn’t mean the quality of his books will start to slip, but for now, he’s on a roll. Take a look at my review here.

10. Blink by Christopher Sebela, Hayden Sherman, Nick Filardi, and Frank Cvetkovic. I’ve liked Sebela’s writing for a while, but this might be the best thing he’s ever written, as he gives us a young woman who goes back to the brownstone where she was raised (and where she experienced some kind of trauma) and finds that it’s a lot weirder of a place than she remembers. It’s a creepy psychological horror story, and Sherman absolutely kills it on the art (Sherman had has a good few years, art-wise). I wrote more about it here.

9. On the Way by Paco Hernández and José Ángel Ares. Hernández gives us a seemingly simple but emotionally complex story of Emma, a young woman who decides to go on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain after her relationship falls apart. She meets many interesting people and learns a lot about herself. Ares’s art complements the story marvelously. This is another book that I’m surprised didn’t make the CBR list, because it’s very good and it seems like the kind of thing critics would like. Again, what do I know? Read my review here.

8. All Against All by Alex Paknadel, Caspar Wijngaard, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. I liked this more than the CBR readers, apparently, as it ended up #71 on that list, but #8 in my heart! It’s a terrific sci-fi epic, using the Alien template with a cool twist – this time, a human being is the “xenomorph” and the aliens are the ones being hunted. It makes perfect sense! Wijngaard, as usual, draws the hell out of it, and Paknadel makes some very cool points about culture and war. I wrote about it here!

7. Guardians of the Galaxy volume 1: Grootfall by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Kev Walker, Matt Hollingsworth, Cory Petit, and Travis Lanham. I might pick on superhero comics, but I do want to love them, and I insult them because I’m disappointed that so many superhero comics are paint-by-numbers. When one comes along that’s not, I have to celebrate it, and Kelly and Lanzing’s devastating new GotG series is one of those – the Guardians, dispersed a bit and not really on the best of terms, are desperately trying to save planets from Groot, which sends spores down onto the surface and terraforms them, killing everyone in the process. It’s an adventurous book, true, but it’s also emotionally devastating, and Walker’s art is stupendous. I know the writers can’t keep it going too long, but I do hope volume 2 is as good as this one! I wrote about this comic here.

6. Clear by Scott Snyder, Francis Manapul, and AndWorld Design. I know I’m a bit behind the times on this one, as the “issues” (it was on Comixology) came out a few years ago (2021, I think?), but what the heck – the trade came out in 2023, and print media rules, fools! I just wrote about this, so you should remember it well, but it really is amazing – Snyder’s future noir story is very well done, with a good hook (VR filters have become ubiquitous, and our hero is one of the few who doesn’t like them) and a neat mystery and some very good emotional resonance, while Manapul’s art is absolutely stupendous – probably his best in a career full of good art. It’s a groovy comic!

5. Danger and Other Unknown Risks by Ryan North and Erica Henderson. Of all the books on this list that didn’t appear on the CBR list, this might be the most perplexing. It’s by critical darlings North and Henderson (I mean, Henderson drew Parasocial, which is on the CBR list!), it’s YA, and it’s just damned excellent. I’m a bit flabbergasted about its omission. Anyway, the comic is about a girl who needs to figure out how to rein in all the wild magic in the world, and the obstacles she overcomes to do just that. It’s very funny in places, very heart-wrenching in others, and Henderson’s art is marvelous. I wrote about it here, if you’re interested. Why am I so right about this book and all the CBR people so very, very wrong?

4. 20th Century Men by Deniz Camp, Stipan Morian, and Aditya Bidikar. Camp gives us an alternate world of the late 1980s, in which the U.S. went to war with the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. It’s absolutely gripping, as Camp throws a lot into the pot and just keeps ramping up the tension, and the book is full of parallels to our own world, in rather depressing fashion. It’s beautifully drawn, as Morian gives us some different styles based on the different scenes, and despite its scope, Camp is able to keep the focus on a few characters, making this more humanistic than you might expect. I don’t know anything about Camp or Morian, but dang, they really knocked this right out of the park. My review is here.

3. Damn Them All volume 1 by Simon Spurrier, Charlie Adlard, Sofie Dodgson, Shayne Hannah Cui, and Jim Campbell. I like this more than the CBR folk, who put it #28, but that’s just me. This is the “Chick Constantine” comic, and Spurrier does an excellent job with Ellie, who learns that every demon in Hell is loose on Earth and if you can control them, they will do horrible things for you, and it’s up to her to send them back before the world goes to shit. Spurrier throws some nice twists in there, and his Ellie is a wonderful character, and Adlard turns in career-best work. This is only running for 12 issues, which is too bad, but I hope that means that Spurrier won’t hold back in volume 2! Take a look at my review here.

2. Inside the Mind of Sherlock Holmes by Cyril Lieron, Benoit Dahan, Christopher Pope, and Lauren Bowes. I would not have pegged this as my second-best comic of the year, but when I went back and surveyed everything, yeah, it fits. It’s a wonderful mystery – a bit unusual but not too weird, and as I noted in my review, there’s no Moriarty anywhere (and no Irene Adler, another plus). Lieron leads us through the story nicely, with Holmes puzzling things out and Watson helping in his way – Holmes is not dismissive at all of Watson, even though Watson isn’t as smart as Holmes is – and we get an evil scheme that is tied in nicely with the British imperialist mission and its elegant brutality. Meanwhile, Dahan’s art is amazing, as he brings 1890s London to vivid life and does some clever things with the visuals to take the reader into Holmes’s mindset. It’s just a wonderful mystery, even if you’re not a big Holmes fan, and I have no problem putting it in second place!

1. Where the Body Was by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Jacob Phillips. I didn’t put this at #1 just as a dig to the CBR list, which, as I noted, was compiled too early for this to make the cut (this came out on 20 December). When I read this, I knew it would be near the top of my list, and when I sat down and thought about it, it was clear that this was the best comic of the year. Brubaker and Phillips have been working together for 20+ years, and they certainly make good comics, and I don’t want to call this their crowning achievement because for all we know, their next book together could be better, but man, this is probably the best thing they’ve ever done up to now, although their standard is pretty dang high. Since I didn’t get to review this, here’s a brief summary: in the summer of 1984, the residents in a neighborhood cul-de-sac have a lot of secrets, and things are about to heat up a bit. The actual body doesn’t even show up until halfway through the book, at which point it becomes even more mysterious, but even before that, Brubaker does a wonderful job creating a bunch of interesting characters and turning them loose. I don’t want to give too much away, because it’s so much fun watching the mystery unfold. We get several characters “speaking” to us when they’re much older, reflecting on the events of that summer, and we get a lot of different perspectives on what was happening, which adds layers and nuance to the things that are going on. Nobody is a true villain, and nobody is a true bad guy either, and the events, while a bit traumatic, aren’t earth-shaking – this is just a book about realistic characters living their lives, making mistakes, overcoming obstacles, and trying to find a bit of happiness. The only slight flaw in the book is that the explanation of mystery is a bit awkward, but that’s a very minor thing. Meanwhile, Phillips and Phillips continue to dazzle with the artwork, creating a bunch of visually interesting characters, designing a neighborhood and keeping it all straight as to where houses are and how some people could see what’s going on and others couldn’t, and giving the whole thing a color palette that evokes a nostalgic summer haze without being a straight sepia tone. Phillips doesn’t get to do weird monsters or violent shoot-outs like he has in other Brubaker books, but he makes his characters real, and that makes Brubaker’s excellent story even better. This is just a wonderful comic, and it’s just another reason why this team is one of the best writer-artist pairings in the history of the medium.

So there you go – my list of the best comics of 2023! Agree? Disagree? Never heard of any of these? Wonder why I hate superheroes so much? Sound off in the comments!

17 Comments

  1. I am years behind on my reading and nowhere near caught up on new stuff. I bought a number of these and haven’t read all of them yet.

    Of the ones I did read, I think you liked them all more than me. Especially All Against All, which had a great premise but didn’t work for me in the end. Public Domain was good, and I’m hoping to see more of it. I’m hoping it morphs into a kind of Ted Lasso for the comics industry, if that tracks?

    I almost ordered Where the Body Was, but I’ve bounced off of Brubillips in multiple previous tries and I’m trying to save a few bucks. Alas! I’ll keep an eye out.

    I just checked my orders from this year, and here are a handful of things I dug:

    – Rorschach TP by King and Fornes and Strange Adventures TP by King, Gerads, and Shaner– okay, these came out a while ago and even the paperbacks were late December ’22, but still.

    – Batman: One Bad Day – Clayface, by Kelley, Lanzing, and Xermanico, and Batman: One Bad Day – R’as al Ghul by Tom Taylor and Ivan Reis. My favorite of the One Bad Day one-shots. The Clayface one is a great piece of writing, and turned me onto those writers. And Taylor nails a definitive al Ghul tale that is mean and righteous.

    – Nice House on the Lake by Tynion and Bueno: I was more of a fan of the first trade than the second, but this is the series that got me to read more Tynion.

    – Kaya by Wes Craig: I like the graphic art style of this, which is a simple but good post-apocalyptic-ish fantasy adventure series.

    – Superman: Space Age by Mark Russell and Mike Allred: An off-kilter pop epic about how we keep going even though we know the world’s doomed.

    – Cindy and Biscuit: We Love Trouble by Dan White: Reprints of webcomics from the heyday of the blogosphere, but arranged all in a row like this, it’s really effective. Lovely cartooning, and quirky, haunting, Calvin and Hobbes meets Quatermass kind of stuff.

    – Superman vs Meshi v1 and 2: A blissfully delightful manga about Superman drowning his sorrows in Japanese chain restaurants and occasionally dragging his Superfriends along. I love this to pieces.

    – Cereal by Mark Russell and Peter Snejbjerg: A dark comic opera about cereal mascot parodies. Delicious.

    – I Hate This Place v2 by Kyle Starks and Artyom Topilin: Paced like an out of control roller coaster, this comic throws a ton of crazy shit at our protagonists as they fight to live to fight another day.

    – DC Horror Presents Sgt Rock vs The Army of The Dead HC by Bruce Campbell and Eduardo Risso: Look, it’s simple but effective, Bruce effing Campbell writing a Nazi zombie action movie sumptuously illustrated by Risso.

    – Mobilis by Juni Ba: I had a similar idea for a Nemo comic, so I thought I had to read this. Nothing like what mine would’ve been like, but it’s a nicely cartooned story about how we’re leaving a lonely hellscape to the next generation, and yet how we hope our children will do better than we did.

    That’s more than I thought! Maybe by this time next year I’ll have read the other 2023 stuff I bought. But don’t hold your breath.

    1. Greg Burgas

      I’m getting some of the DC ones if they come out in trade – the Superman Space Age one and the Sgt Rock one. Or I’ll get the hardcovers if the trades don’t seem to be coming out.

      I hated the Riddler One Bad Day comic so much it soured me on the whole concept. I got only the Catwoman one, solely for McKelvie.

      Fuck this Place was ok, but just ok.

      Catch up on your reading, sir!!!!! 🙂

  2. Chris Schillig

    I’ve loved just about everything that Brubaker and Phillips have done together, but somehow the release of Where the Body Was slipped right past me. I’ve remedied this with an order ASAP. Thanks for the tip!

  3. conrad1970

    One series I’m surprised to see didn’t make the lists was DC’s Danger Street.
    It’s been a blast and I find it so hard to really enjoy much from the big two these days. This is as good as it gets from DC at the moment, and anything that features The Creeper is always a win.

    1. Greg Burgas

      Danger Street was #97 on the CBR list, but as I read a good 95% of my serialized comics in trade, I haven’t read it yet. I’m sure DC will have a nice 12-issue hardcover out this year, and I’m looking forward to reading it. Maybe it will be on my list next year!

      1. conrad1970

        Hopefully they will release a nice Deluxe Hardback edition. Really shocked it was only #97 on CBR’s list, considering the amount of crap they had on it.

    2. I read the first Danger Street trade. As someone who read the 1st Issue Special collection in preparation and who loves these goofy characters… it’s fine. Will have to see how the series concludes before I know how I feel about it.

      This past year, I caught up on nearly everything Tom King has written. Loved some, shrugged at others. He has a tendency to “break” characters and not put the pieces back together, if that makes sense. He has a certain story he wants to tell, and that’s fine, but the characters don’t always feel “right” to me, and the portrayals are not particularly additive. And yes, I realize Danger Street is filled with characters so obscure that only a wonk like me will care about this. But I’ve felt the same way about his Mister Miracle, Strange Adventures, Human Target, and a couple others.

      Also there’s a lot of grawlix in Danger Street. Greg will hate that.

      1. Greg Burgas

        Stupid grawlix!!!!!

        That’s not a bad way to describe King. I don’t mind too much, because it’s clear these are meant to be a bit out of continuity (which is the defense my retailer gives for his awful Riddler book, but you know DC won’t mind making that the “real” Riddler!), but that’s still a good description.

        1. See, they all definitely read out-of-continuity for me, and then you ask Tom King himself and he just sort of raises and eyebrow and says “or is it!?”. Basically, “if fans and other DC writers like this enough, it will become continuity.” The Killing Joke Effect.

          1. Call Me Carlos the Dwarf

            I really enjoyed Gotham: Year One – only quibble with it existing in-continuity is that it would rule Slam out of modern stories, haha!

      2. conrad1970

        To be fair though you could say that about the majority of writers from both Marvel and DC.
        There’s very few titles these days which go more than a year before a new creative team come in, do as they please and move on. It’s like rinse and repeat.
        I haven’t bothered with continuity of creative changes for about the last 20 years, I just read whatever I like these days, for however long it lasts.

        1. Yes, as do I. And I must be getting something out of these King books– I’ve bought all of them! Even when I don’t love them, I find them interesting.

          But I do find a difference between (for example) Morrison bringing back an old character and tackling them from a new angle or applying a new premise and building them up for future stories, and King bringing back an old character and then ruining their life and leaving nothing for the next writer.

          Sorry, I’m complaining too much. I think Danger Street is an insane idea for a comic that I happen to be the target audience for, and I just wish I liked it a little more.

  4. conrad1970

    The thing I like about these lists is that I can generally find something that I totally missed on release.
    I’ve just picked up a copy of ‘Danger and Other Unknown Risks’ I plan on giving it a read over the coming weekend, thanks Greg!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.