While we have discussed our picks for the top ten superhero books of 2013 and many other groups of ten things, that doesn’t mean those were the only books we read, or the only ones where cool things happen. There’s a wide array of comics out there, and we can’t possibly cover them all, but my esteemed colleague Iann Robinson and I put our heads together and brainstormed some of our other favorite stuff in the year of comic books that’s drawing to a close. It’s nowhere near exhaustive, and after you read it, we’d love to hear your suggestions for your favorites as well, since anyone publishing lists like this always feels like they’re forgetting something. It’s just like when you’re going to travel for a week or so and you remember you left your underpants at home, but not until you’re on the plane. Keep that in mind before accusing us of gross negligence. If you dig something we should’ve mentioned, tell us about it!
Anyway, here are a few more of our miscellaneous favorite things about comics in 2013. These ain’t rankings, they’re just stuff we like.
FAVORITE MONSTER
SHUMA-GORATH
Mighty Avengers #2 (Al Ewing, Greg Land)
This splash page transformed this tentacled eyeball beast from some old obscure thing to the greatest monster ever.
FAVORITE ALIEN
CORVUS GLAIVE
Infinity #2 (Jonathan Hickman, Dustin Weaver)
An evil, sadistic, spiteful sonofabitch, Corvus Glaive is the right hand of Thanos, and the leader of the Black Order of Infinity. With a creepy skull-face, and a flowing black cloak. Corvus is death, and he loves it. A terrifying alien for sure.
Honorable Mention: Groot & Rocket Raccoon
FAVORITE “HELL YES!” MOMENTS
THE DEATH OF STEPPENWOLF
Earth 2 (James Robinson, Nicola Scott)
This was a tremendous fuck yes moment for multiple reasons. First, it was completely out of nowhere. Just when it looked like Steppenwolf was going to triumph, an evil Superman posing as a slave took him down. Second, this evil Superman sliced Steppenwolf in half with his heat vision, which was unexpected. Finally, it was the last issue for James Robinson.
PHIL URICH IS EXPOSED AS THE HOBGOBLIN
Superior Spider-Man #15 (Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos)
The newest Hobgoblin had been running a scam at his uncle Ben’s news outlet, The Daily Bugle – the classic Peter Parker scam, actually, where he took footage of himself in action and sold it to them as exclusives. Of course, he wasn’t a Friendly Neighborhood Hobgoblin – he was a complete tool. So when Otto Octavius decided to get rid of him once and for all (that’s kind of how he operates), he proved just how high he can raise the stakes by hijacking every screen in New York to broadcast Phil’s secret identity to the entire city in order to hunt him down and ruin him. It was awesome, because he was such a tool.
EVERYONE REALIZES HAL JORDAN IS A COMPLETE DINGUS
Green Lantern #21 (Robert Venditti, Billy Tan)
After nearly a decade of Geoff Johns stroking the ego of Hal Jordan, the new team of creators went to work cutting him back down to size as soon as they came on board, because they realized that having every single character that knows Hal Jordan constantly praising him for being the greatest thing in the history of time tends to make readers go ‘enough, I get it, already!’ It started coming through when Carol Ferris realized that, although her love for Hal is what attracted her Star Sapphire ring to her, she can only maintain that love if she sees him as an ideal and doesn’t have to ever actually BE with him – because BEING with him makes her not love him. Why? Because he’s a complete dingus. Soon after, the New Guardians make him into the leader of the Corps, and every decision he makes sucks, and everybody continually calls him on it. That’s a breath of fresh air.
HULK PICKS UP THOR’S HAMMER
Indestructible Hulk #6 (Mark Waid, Walt Simonson)
Do you really need this one explained? Perhaps you didn’t hear correctly. HULK PICKED UP THOR’S HAMMER.
THE TIDE FINALLY TURNS AGAINST THE BUILDERS
Infinity #4 (Jonathan Hickman, Jerome Opena)
In case you weren’t sure why Thor’s hammer is such a big deal, the Thunder God’s use of it by throwing it around the sun in order to gut the head Builder with it is an excellent illustration of it. These galactic destroyers had seemed unstoppable, until the Avengers turned a moment of ultimate surrender into the galvanizing of an interstellar rebellion.
