Comic Book News UK's Top 10 Comics of 2014: See all YOUR Favorite Comics Get Snubbed!

So...there were a lot of good comics in 2014. Here are our ten favorite ongoing series of 2014:

10. Spider-Verse/Edge of Spider-Verse/Spider-Verse Team-Up

(Yes, I’m cheating)

It’s the little crossover that came out of nowhere. Spider-Verse has been so much fun in these past couple of issues, even if I’m personally not fond of the Spider-Man ongoing series right now. There have been so many fantastic single issues of this crossover brought about by the main storyline that combines all the Spider-characters together to team-up against the evil inheritors. Treating the Spider-characters as totems that John Michael Straczynski played in up in his run on the title with Ezekiel, is a fun way to make the brand seem important when it has to be. While Spider-Verse is great fun, and incredibly awesome with the lovely Olivier Coipel at the helm of the artwork, where the crossover really shines are those weird issues that come out of nowhere. Edge of Spider-Verse was full of them, with Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Gwen, Sp//dr, and more. The series was a joy to read as it was coming out, and prepped us for the very fun main event with some solid one-shots along the way. The Spider-Verse Team-up #2 came out. It was the issue I didn’t see coming. That storyline combined the Spider-Man from the campy late 60’s show, along with Miles Morales the new Ultimate Spider-Man, and even the Ultimate Spider-Man from the television show were the subjects of one of the best single issues of the year. Christos Gage and Dave Williams pulled off some comic book magic in this story. They so carefully manage so many different tones and create something awesome. Also, the first of issue of the brand new Spider-Woman title has been a ton of fun, and the book along with Spider-Verse has managed to keep Silk interesting.

 

9. Annihilator

What could be said about Annihilator that would make it A. not sound cheesy or B. make any sense at all?

This is Grant Morrison operating at his most ethereal level. The first entry into the series almost turned me away from it entirely, but after taking a step back and seeing what unique sandbox that Morrison and artist Frazer irving were building from this title left wholly interested to seek out more. Nobody can make comics that look or feel quite like this, and that’s a major reason alone why this should merit a book of the year list from anybody. Since Irving is on art from this title, a big piece of Annihilator itself is building these really eerie sense of place and tone. Looking at the incredible artist on a big two title is really jarring for me, because he has such a defined style. Watching him build something with a tone that is just him alongside one of the strongest writers in all of comic books makes him so incredibly strong and poignant as a creator. This title follows the familiar structure of a screenplay that basically comes to life, but that’s where the cliches end and Morrison goes absolutely insane. The science and plot in the screenplay world is incredibly dense, and so are the ways that it relates to our world. Morrison has always been curious about breaking down that fourth wall with the reference to it in Animal Man especially, but this title gives the artist an outlet to do something else with the fourth wall and our world. Annihilator is a book that is hard to see coming in the exact way that it presented itself to us. This is the first comic from Legendary, and if the next one is this good, we are in for a real treat.

 

8. Death Vigil

Death Vigil has been a lot of things. However, it is first-and-foremost a place for Stjepan Šejić to illustrate to us that he is truly great at crafting a brand new world from the ground-up. The title is a vehicle where the artist is in complete control of everything about the story, and as a result, this title was one of my books of the year. There is some strong talent coming from the Croatian artist, who has managed to perfectly characterize his cast of grim reaper analogues to provide something interesting. The artist proves to come from the school of someone like Joss Whedon in how he depicts the dialogue and world of these characters, they are all very sweet trading off amusing lines one-at-a-time. When comics are so dark and so dense and ripping my soul apart, this title is something I can go back to and enjoy guilt free, but more importantly, it’s also a tale that I can enjoy for it’s craft alone. The different heroes in this series are just so expressive that it’s wonderful to watch them go through their typical routines. The inciting incident in the first issue of the tale should be enough for fans wanting to go back and continue to discover more about the world and characters of the story. For now, Death Vigil is only an eight issue miniseries, but it was good enough for me to remember how intriguing I found the tale whenever it shipped in the year of 2014. Anybody looking for something exotic with a sweeter tone will have fun coming to this title.

7. Avengers + New Avengers

No comic book made me as angry off as both Avengers and New Avengers did this year. When Infinity wrapped in November of 2013, I was scratching my head wondering where each of these titles were going to go. The answer came late this year in something I could never have possibly expected. After repeatedly jumping back-and-forth through time, Hickman was ending his run in arc entitled 9 Months Later. It was a move that made me insane, because Avengers itself was continuously jumping further and further into the future. Everything is jumping so far ahead to the future and messing with a timeline of three. What point could Marvel have been trying to make in this comic? The answer seems to be Secret Wars, a comic that was announced this year, and slated for next year. If the author was always planning to launch these characters into that event, we could be in for something incredibly special. The next steps of the main Marvel Universe were masterly played out in all of these issues. The Captain America arc that saw Steve Rogers jumping forward in time led to some truly incredibly moments with the different idea that Hickman spun. It also served as a warning for what was to come in Steve’s own future. His future is now in 9 Months Later, when all the bad things that could have ever happened did. New Avengers fostered the most good will when they dealt with the Namor issue head-on in the pages. Watching Black Panther duke it out with Namor is always a great deal of fun, but particularly notable for everything that happened afterwards in the storyline. These comics are so ambitious that they often become too difficult to follow. Anyone with a magnifying glass and strong attention span is going to be enthralled in the narrative that Hickman is spinning here.

6. Rai

Valiant had some great books in 2014, but nothing captivated quite like the new developments from the latest issue of Rai. The title has a great big world with several clever ideas and new developments from the nature of the growing comic. Rai is just so interesting with all of the ambitious plays that it makes to nature. The title also has this wonderful feeling if 70’s British paranoia with shout-outs to the mysterious Father that is following everybody at all times in Japan. These bits of intrigue keep things interesting long enough for the book to truly become special. The interesting cast of characters has also made this title fun. The first couple of issues themselves are also notable for sowing Rai’s turn against his father and the state of Japan as it currently is. This was a massive moment that Lazarus is handling in a completely different way. In many fashions, the two books could almost be twins, yet they are both respectably handling different subject matters with a sense of splendid grace. The futuristic use of technology and the bits of mythology contained in Rai have truly made some amazing uses of the world’s mythology as a whole.

Guess what our next pick is:

5. Lazarus

Lazarus was another tale that continues to impress throughout the span of 2014. The story has been building so slowly towards something that feels magnificent, This title gets better as we get closer to whatever Rucka has in store for the title coming up next. This means that when Lazarus hits the gas it’s going to be a pretty nasty ride. Forever is still not ready to turn against her family quite yet, or the world of Lazarus as a whole. The story has been slowly building to that climax over the span of a couple years now, and I firmly expect something dangerous to spin out of the next installments of Lazarus. Author Greg Rucka and artist Michael Lark are both so perfectly in tune with their craft of how they have been building these characters. It’s hard not to see the sheer craft that is put into the way that these people tell the stories that they are working on. Lazarus is a commendable achievement in so many ways, but more importantly, it’s something that is simply enjoyable to continue to read each-and-every month that these two creators pound out the issues in. The series built to an incredible character beat in the latest installment where Forever discovered her hidden talent: dancing. In a story so focused on action, that was the perfect way to cap off the year of Lazarus.

4. Swamp Thing

This list wouldn’t be complete without Swamp Thing, which hit some truly emotional notes this year. With the recent cancellation of the next comic imminent, it’s hard to stomach this title leaving the DC stable. Charles Soule was built off of the break-up of Swamp Thing and Abby Arcane, the author managed to build up the title with a different character, someone that kept Swamp Thing on his feet, and someone that made this series a joy to read. When everybody else was stabbing Alec Holland in the back, one character always had his back. When she was mercilessly ripped away in the most recent annual, Swamp Thing became the one comic in 2014 that made me cry this year. Then, of course, it should be considered that there is also the great Future’s End one-shot that Soule perfected, along with the intensely great Machine arc that continually kept me interested to read the title. While Swamp Thing is going to be sorely missed by me, I respect that DC is putting Holland to rest for a little while, just like Animal Man. Continuing Swamp Thing just for the sake of keeping the title around would be a mistake.

3. The Multiversity

The Multiversity has been worth the wait. That’s something that is hard to express in words after years of waiting for this comic. After it’s all done and shipping to us now, it’s easy to see why it took so long. Each issue of the series is a one-shot that is usually incredibly long and drawn by an artist who doesn’t do monthly work all that often. In addition, all of these ideas are being built from the ground-up here to give us something in each tale that has never been-seen-before. The idea is certainly ambitious, and frankly, so is making anything new in the Big Two. This is where Morrison proves he isn’t scared of doing anything. Many of the best artists working at DC Comics have made an appearance somewhere in these stories including: Cameron Stewart, Ben Oliver, Ivan Reis, Frank Quitely, and Chris Sprouse, with more issues on the way. To put it simply, there is just so much creativity bursting in every page of these stories. Morrison had a quiet year in 2013, but he’s loaded the cannons with such devilish intrigue now that it’s hard not to just sit and bask in the greatness of this singular world that he has created. I often feel like my own preference for superheroes gets in the way of my own enjoyment of comics, but nothing else this year has made me open up each page of the same comic and made me scratch my head about what I am reading, or what could possibly be happening next. Show me another series where every issue required the artists of the title to make an entirely new world in each issue with a separate cast of characters! Morrison is sounding his cannons with a loud bang and 2014, which means that we are reaping the fruit of his labor.

2. She-Hulk

She-Hulk broke all of my expectations in anticipating the last story-arc for the title. I didn’t see what Charles Soule had in mind for the title coming. He was pulling such a heavy load in how he was making such a firm stride in blinding Jennifer Walter’s courtroom case, explaining the basic rules of the courtroom, and trying to tell an actual story. The different story-arcs of the comic previously weren’t quite as notable as this story, but they were always interesting at the very least. It’s a shame that Soule wasn’t able to continue exploring his interpretation of the character, as the audience has been so responsive to the stories he has been trying to tell with Jennifer in the courtroom. She’s such a notable heroine, capable of many great things. The author managed to look through Jen’s life in a manner that explored each aspect of what she truly does. The She-Hulk has always been a fringe character, and sometimes can come off as a wildcard, but this seemed like such a fairly balanced interpretation of the heroine’s life. Something this good was meant to be killed off too young. Many of the early Marvel All-New Now titles have received this same fate, as well as the other properties that Soule was working with. Rest in peace Jen, we loved your book endlessly, may the next writer continue the legacy of Soule with as much grace as possible. Javier Pulido’s artwork is so perfect for the title, wonderfully capturing the precise mood of the writing of Soule and giving fans this unique feeling.

1. Starlight

Starlight was an anomaly. It was the one comic this year that I never expected to come from Mark Millar and company, it was another story filled with light in a comic landscape that seems to relish in darkness. The characters here were written with such great subtlety and such firm care. Duke McQueen’s life wasn’t yet complete, and Mark Millar was the great historian that seemingly finished his story. This sense of restraint is absolutely unprecedented from the writer that brought us such great work from a long time ago. That version of Mark Millar that brought us things like The Ultimates, and Superman: Red Son was thought to have been lost to everyone. Thankfully, Millar brought back that part of his persona with a great results. The real star of this series has been Goran Parlov. The artist had such simple line-work in this tale that amounted to such a greater whole. Parlov tuned the art of this series into that of a Pixar tale. This a simple story that was elevated by the creators stepping away, and letting Starlight be something both simple and beautiful. This was the comic in 2014 that reveled in both simplicity and beauty to create something that was so much more grounded and beautiful than many other stories populating 2014. I dare you to find me a better comic than Starlight in 2014 in the comments below.

Nearly 3,000 words later, I proclaim this list finished, to all a good night!