We’re continuing our ten-year celebration of borg today with our favorite comic books. If you missed them, check out our Top 40 movies here and our Top 40 TV series here.
We reviewed thousands of books and comics that we recommended to our readers since June 2011, and some even made it onto our favorites shelf. We don’t publish reviews of comic books that we read and don’t recommend, so this shortlist reflects 21 comics and creators we view as the Best of the Best.
So let’s get going!
The 2014 Eisner Award nominations were released today. Not a lot of surprises again this year. The nominations tend toward more serious subjects in the year’s comic book offerings as opposed to action-packed superhero titles, sci-fi, fantasy, humor, or popular works. But there are exceptions, and some can be found this year. And should you think the books reviewed and lauded here at borg.com might be out of touch with the Eisner nomination committee, actually some of our favorite books from 2013 can be found throughout this year’s nominees.
The ringer of course is Marvel Comics’ Hawkeye series. Not only do we like it, everyone seems to agree this is the best book around, two years running. And it’s up for multiple awards again this year.
But no Afterlife With Archie? Where are all the Dynamite Comics nominees? Where is recognition for the jaw-dropping visuals on Dark Horse Comics’ landmark series, The Star Wars? Why not more from IDW and Dark Horse? How about some variety?
So… congratulations to all the nominees, and extra snaps to some of our favorites (the full nomination list is after the break):
Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
Hawkeye #11: “Pizza Is My Business,” by Matt Fraction and David Aja (Marvel). This made the borg.com Best of 2013 for Best Single Issue. I even bought extra copies of this one. It’s that good.
Best Continuing Series
Hawkeye, by Matt Fraction and David Aja (Marvel)
I read books this year from other nominations in this category: Saga, East of West, and Nowhere Men (we weren’t fans, but reviewed Issue #1 here), and the others just didn’t make our review list.
Best Limited Series
The Black Beetle: No Way Out, by Francesco Francavilla (Dark Horse).
We reviewed this series here at borg.com this year and decided it should have made our Best of 2013 list had we reviewed it earlier.
I also read nominee Mike Richardson’s 47 Ronin–a good read, which I may review here later this year. I had a review copy of The Wake from DC Comics, but didn’t find the story or art as gripping as others.
Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 7)
Itty Bitty Hellboy, by Art Baltazar and Franco (Dark Horse). Reviewed here, I’m glad this wasn’t passed up for consideration.
In the same way that Matt Fraction and David Aja’s Hawkeye series took us by surprise as the best new series of 2012 (and hasn’t let up in 2014), Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto’s Black Widow monthly comic book series is proving to be at the top of the 2014 titles. Strange that the duo of Hawkeye and Black Widow is well-known to be a second tier partnership within the Avengers, yet they are the stars of some of the best monthlies the Marvel universe has to offer.
The Black Widow series follows Natasha Romanova and her attempt to atone for her past sins as a mercenary, assassin, general all-around “bad guy.” She selects missions these days very carefully. Her goal is making money but not hurting anyone in the process. And that money goes into trust funds and pays off her web of back-up operatives around the world—nothing in her plans is about profit-taking.
That doesn’t mean she won’t be tapped for S.H.I.E.L.D. or Avengers projects from time to time. Former agent and now director Maria Hill (who you’ll recall is played by Cobie Smulders in the live-action Marvel universe) brings her in on a few missions. They make a great team. Edmondson has a great feel for Romanova. In the same way Fraction was able to show the personal side of Hawkeye, Edmondson scratches the surface of what makes this lethal heroine tick, but her character shows great depth. Yet as she says at the beginning of her series “my full story will never be told”.
If you want to understand why Marvel Comic’s Hawkeye series is up for five Eisners next month–for Best New Series, Best Continuing Series, Best Writer, Best Cover Artist, Best Penciller/Inker (and could easily win them all)–all you need do is ask your comic book store to get you a copy of Hawkeye Issue #11, which hit the shelves last Wednesday.
Matt Fraction has delivered what I had been after for some time–when writers like Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns get endless acclaim and you never quite get that one issue that solves for you why they have such a great following–Fraction’s Hawkeye series has cemented his status for me as a top comic book writer. We at borg.com also loved David Aja’s cover art for the Hawkeye series last year, declaring him our runner-up for Best of 2012 for comic book cover art. Together Fraction and Aja gel together to make what we’ll look back on years from now as a classic Marvel Comics creative team. Matt Hollingsworth’s color art rendering plays an integral role in the series, too, highlighting Aja’s panels just where it is needed. Their Hawkeye series is subtle, slow-paced, beautiful, and thought-provoking.
