2023 - That was the year that was

[icon_uk]

As the last day of 2022 arrives, it seems like a good time to review what has gone on over the year. (On Monday we will look forwards, but this is a retrospective)

It was a year that saw us lose creators like Leiji Matsumoto, Keith Giffen, Ian Gibson and John Romita Sr.

We also lost memorable comic related voices Arleen Sorkin, the original (and best IMHO) Harley Quinn, and Richard Moll, whose Two-Face in BTAS is likewise definitive.

We honour those who passed, celebrate their work and thank them.

But this was also a year which had some terrific comics too, so let's focus on the positive.

What would YOUR answers be for the following?

1) Favourite title?

2) Favourite creator?

3) Favourite moment?

4) Favourite character?

5) Favourite non-comic, but comic derived, media?

Personally, I'd nominate...

1) Nightwing remains fun, as does the Mark Waid "World's Finest" subline (so including "Teen Titans"), but I was also delighted to see more "Wild's End" ("The Wind in the Willows" meets "War of the Worlds") and a licensed English translation of "Saint Seiya: Time Odyssey" (Which I must sort out some scans of once my scanner isn't being quite so temperamental)

2) It's the usual suspects again, Al Ewing for being both a terrific writer at the very least, and one of the most reliable "Silk purse from a sow's ear" creators for dealing with corporate mandated crossovers. Mark Waid for remembering that Superman and Batman were one of the original regular super-hero team ups for a reason, they's just so FUN together. Also props to Starbite for their work on "Wayne Family Adventures".

3) Again, leaning into my favourites, but Cypher standing up to the Quiet Council and point out just how badly they had messed up governing the burgeoning Krakoan society to the extent it was hurting Krakoa itself was a highlight. Not such a fan of the "Let's trash Krakoa" with added Holocaust symbolism which came shortly thereafter. Krakoa was deeply flawed, which newer creators were starting to address properly, but it doesn't look like we're going to get a chance for it to grow or develop, just the line getting rebooted. We'll see.

Also, the confirmation that Mystique isn't Kurt's mother, she's his father, restoring to canon an idea Claremont had in the 80's, but wasn't allowed to explore, and an interesting addition to the already complicated representation of the X-titles.

4) You can probably guess my "go-to" guys, but I also like what I've seen of the new Spider-Boy.

5) Call me a sentimental soul (few do, but you can), but I really liked like "My Adventures with Superman". "Ms Marvel" made more of a stir than most recent Marvel media creations. I know "Nimona" got a lot of fans as did the animated "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World". (I might also try and sneak in Doctor Who's "The Star Beast" as an adaptation of one of the first strips in "Doctor Who Weekly" in the 70's)

So over to you! (And feel free to make posts to support your choices!)

Since we're heading towards the New Year, on behalf of the Mod Team, we thank you for your contributions to the community over the past year, for the debates, the discussions, the discoveries, the reveals and the general cameraderie you've brought.

2024 looks to be a challenging year on multiple fronts, so let's be kind to each other here.

Comments

[cyberghostface]

1. I thought ‘The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing’ was a lot of fun. Hope Joker gets more titles like this in the future.

2. Hard for me to say but I thought Kyle Starks did a great job with his Peacemaker miniseries and ‘Where Monsters Lie’.

3. I liked the interactions between Batman and Joker in ‘The Deadly Duo’. There’s a bit where the two are teaming up to stop a train from crashing by lessening the amount of weight so Joker ‘helps’ by throwing some of the passengers off which I thought was funny.

4. Maybe Daredevil just because I thought Zdarsky had a great run on the character that just wrapped up this year.

5. Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3. I’m glad Gunn was able to complete his trilogy after everything that happened. A great send off to one of the best parts of the MCU. I think he’s the first director to deliver a perfect superhero trilogy.

[iamrman]

1. Jed MacKay's Moon Knight has come to an end, so I am intrigued to see how Vengeance of Moon Knight continues the story. Mark Waid's Shazam has been wild. I am excited to see more of Al Ewing's Immortal Thor too.

I enjoyed the yuri shenanigans in I'm In Love With The Villainess. Not so hot on the moments of actual plot and certain revelations though.

2. See above. Also, Tom Taylor, obviously.

3. I am going to echo icon_uk's comments about Mystique being Nightcrawler's father.

4. Tony Tony Chopper Best Boy. Yes, I know One Piece isn't new, but I got in to the franchise in a big way this year.

5. The live action One Piece adaption was surprisingly solid. The only other comics media that really left an impression were Guardians 3 and Across the Spider-Verse. Oh, and the anime adapion of the Spy x Family cruise liner arc. *chef's kiss*

I have hugely enjoyed Pirate Warriors 3. It has taken up most of my free time since Christmas. Again, not new, but new to me.

[mister_terrific]

Hmmm.

1) I've really enjoyed "World's Finest", "Shazam", "Teen Titans", and heaven help me, "G.O.D.S.". I swore I wasn't going to get into it, but damn it, Hickman did it to me again. Oh, and both "Gotham City: Year One" and "The Human Target" were a lot of fun to read (and given the content, yeah, I know how weird that sounds). And I really enjoyed "Avengers Inc", and am pissed as hell that it only got five issues.

Manga-wise, I was saddened to see the final volume of "Interviews with Monster Girls" come out, and I've been so happy to see "Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou" finally get published in English. I've loved that series for so long!

2) Gee, you'll never guess. :) Mark Waid, Tom King and Johnathan Hickman, obviously.

3) Boy. The one that springs to mind is the murderer in "Gotham City", but the last page of "Avengers Inc #4" elicited a long string of bad words as well. No spoilers!

4) Wyn from "G.O.D.S." really tickles me. As I get older, I can really relate to him. And I've always got a soft spot for the clever smartasses.

5) Hmmm. Again, Hmmm. I would say "Spy x Family" Season two or "My Adventures with Superman", but in all honestly, I haven't seen any of the former (read the manga, though), and I've practically watched the latter through clips on YouTube. We moved in October, and I haven't set up our Roku to access our Crunchyroll account yet. Need to get that done.

And if I could, I'd nominate "Star Trek: Lower Decks", comic-related or not!

[scorntx]

Ooooh, tough questions.
Not just because this was a very long year in far too many respects, but also the usual problem of when someone asks "what's your favourite song" and you forget every bit of music you ever heard...
.. um.

1: Er. Well, probably... Avengers, Inc? Or Immortal Thor? Honourable mention to World's Finest: Teen Titans. Might grumble a little about it, but it was enjoyable. (Kind of annoyed to find out it was only a limited series. I'd have read more...)

2: Ewing. Nae contest.

3: Oooohh, very tough. It's a choice between;
Venom issue #25 had a lot of good moments of DOOM. Especially his encounter with his younger self.
X-Men: Red #18 squeaking in at the last minute with what Storm did.
Immortal X-Men #18. Because while there are... several bits of that series I could gripe about, I do love the sight of villainous plans crumbling to pieces.

4: ... Pass. Don't have any particular favourite, or at least that I'm going to pick out against the others.

5: Well, probably Across the Spider-Verse (*stops to pretend they hadn't forgotten that was this year*).
... yeah, yeah, it's definitely Spider-Verse.
Distant second is the 80s Avengers What If...? Not great, but still quite fun.
(I would say maybe GOTG 3, but... no. Still too upsetting.)

[tcampbell1000]

(I can totally relate to the "forgetting every bit of music" thing!)

[zachbeacon]

Keith Giffen’s death hit me in a way that I haven’t been hit by a creator death since Darwyn Cooke …and kind of for the opposite reason. Darwyn Cooke had a relatively short career and I keep thinking about the things that we could have gotten. Keith Giffen has been making comics since before I was born and I can’t help but think about how he continued to put out great material even late into his career.

Anyway, here are my picks (with the usual caveat that I’m not current on anything … especially Marvel.)

1) I’m struggling to think of any comic that’s blown me away this year but World’s Finest has been consistently good.

2) Maybe it’s just the previously mentioned WF and maybe it’s that the original Klaus mini was the last comic I read but 2023 is the year that I really started to appreciate Dan Mora.

3) The Robin and Supergirl date in WF.

4) I WANT to say Daredevil but I don’t think I’ve actually read anything originally published in 2023. 2023 does feel like a great year for Superman (interesting status quo shakeup, new cartoon, we’re finally done with the Snyderverse, ect). Then I remembered how Irey West has consistently been the best part of The Flash so she wins despite her stupid new codename.

5) I’d probably give this to Spiderverse if it was actually a complete movie but I’m picking My Adventures with Superman instead. Either way, It's nice to see superhero media made by people who actually like the featured superhero.

(Honorable mention to the Venture Bros finale. It technically isn’t a comic book movie … but it’s totally a comic book movie)

[tcampbell1000]

1) Last year, I was reading a lot of Webtoon and other phone-formatted comics; this year, for largely personal reasons, I went back to more traditional comic books. It was nice to see the World's Finest books waiting for me there. Mark Waid still delivers the intelligent fun I want out of a superhero series and makes it look easy. EDIT: But the #1 book for me this year, which I can't believe I forgot to mention, was Ryan North's fantastic Fantastic Four.

As a contrarian, I'll give the runner-up spot to The Human Target, which annoyed some JLI fans but hit my sweet spot. (If we're really going to do alternate versions of the same characters until the end of time, maybe make some of the variations interesting ones? Gasp, but you can't, Ice would never!)

2) There are a few writers I trust on a perennial basis, but those names are often the same year to year, so I'll go in another direction. After his passing, I've been rereading a lot of Keith Giffen. (See my last parenthesis: if there was one guy who was flexible about rewriting others' characters and even his own to pursue new creative directions, it was Giffen.)

3) "Would you know more?" No matter how many times The Immortal Thor repeats those four words, I love their meta energy. It's like somebody finally figured out how to replicate Stan Lee's cheerleader enthusiasm for the story that's being told, by putting it in the voice of an Asgardian bard.

Plus, it's not a comics moment, but my heart absolutely leapt into my throat at this GotG 3 snippet. And God damn, the actors sell the hell out of it. (You already know the one I mean, right?)



4) She's been in some truly wretched stories this year, but that just made me feel a little more attached to Ms. Marvel. At least those bad stories haven't compromised what's appealing about the character...when she opens her mouth, I still know what sort of dialogue should come out. And she's had plenty of great moments, too. (Can't say either of those things about Power Girl, I'm afraid.)

The character who's had the best year, though? Harley Quinn is a strong contender. I see her on the page, I know something interesting is likely to happen.

5) I liked a lot of GoTG 3 and Ms. Marvel, and ATSV is the best possible version of itself. But overall, it's My Adventures with Superman all the way. The series' infectious charm and effortless zoomerism just kept delivering great moment after great moment, and even the multiverse shit didn't weigh it down in the end. I think my favorite part was how it compressed "Lois's first suspicion Clark is Superman" and "Lois forces Clark to admit it" into one single episode, hitting the highlights of a whole Silver Age's worth of shenanigans but then gliding past them because it has its own stories to tell. The Avatar storytellers know what they're doing. Just don't let Shyamalan near this one, okay?

[deh_tommy]

I’m never any good at these sorts of things. Like, I forgot My Adventures with Superman was this year, I thought it was last year. I’ve never been good at tracking the time, but this year has simultaneously been very long yet everything kind of blurs together.

I think The Help is a fun addition to Batman’s rogues gallery, and Surge and Kit from Sonic the Hedgehog are really cool. In terms of titles... ugh, I never like choosing a singular favourite... maybe Al Ewing’s Ant-Man/Wasp stuff? I’ve heard good things about Freiren, I should check that out.

[leahandillyana]

Favourite titles:
-for American comics The Spirit World by Alyssa Wong and Haining, for gorgeous anime-style art and a story rooted fully in non-Christian spirituality, an interesting nonboinary protagonist and two of my favourite DC characters in supporting roles
-for Japanese comics Spiky Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama, a gorgeously illustrated fantasy series where a very important if not main theme is the situation of disabled people in a magical setting. The series has been published since 2016, so it’s not exactly new, but I’ve read it in 2023.
Favourite creators:
Hard to say, I tend to enjoy things more or less the same. I really enjoyed Alyssa Wong’s work on Doctor Aphra and The Spirit World, Greg Pak’s Hulk and City Boy, or Si Spurrier’s various X-Men stories, as well as a very, very, VERY long list of Japanese, Korean and Chinese creators.
Favourite moments:
-in American market, both Pride specials had a lot of well thought out, fresh tales, but Marvel anthology’s Everywhere story by Shadi Petosky, Roberta Ingranata and Ceci de la Cruz absolutely blew my mind. Lacie is an amazing character, and her story adds surprisingly much depth to Marvel universe. If you read it, you know.
-in Polish market, in late 2022 a small company publishing specifically hentai and ladies’ comics started releasing first titles. This is absolute novelty on the local market, as explicit comics with het content were completely absent (even though gay adult manga are released regularly and there were several releases of explicit lesbian comics).
-not really a comic thing, but I felt ecstatic when the last episode of The Witch from Mercury not only didn’t kill any major character (the franchise has a tradition of killing off large numbers of the cast in the final episodes), but also a throwaway line confirms it that Suletta and Miorine did indeed marry – which the executives did NOT manage to bury post-factum, ha! This is a VERY big thing to include in such a mainstream series.
Favourite characters:
-hands down my favourite 2023 newcomers are Lacie (from Marvel Pride) and Xanthe Zhou (Spirit World), alongside their supporting casts. I also really liked to see Galaxy again (in Hawkgirl), I deeply enjoyed seeing her grown six years after her original comic.
-again, not 100% about comics, but I have a type, and those are strange, energetic, determined and very kind and loving girls with hidden depths. In 2023, I enjoyed seeing them in many anime series aired that year, in very different flavours.
Favourite non-comic stuff:
-In Polish book market, I enjoyed Our First Year by Marcel Moss, The Prince of China* by Nika Hoffmann, and Summer in a Pioneer’s Tie by Yelena Malosova and Katierina Silvanova. These are all gay bisldungsromans, first two Polish original, the third translated from Russian.
-Nimona the movie finally escaping the development hell!!!
-In tv, I absolutely adore French crime series Astrid and Raphaelle. It has different sensibilities than American most police procedurals, and Astrid is probably the most realistic and deep explicitly autistic character I’ve seen in popculture.
I also find recently debuted Netflix miniseries 1670 to be very funny and enjoyable, but most of the humour is deeply routed in Polish history, culture, and current political climate, so it’s easy for foreigners to find the series boring or confusing. (You can always watch for a conflicted catholic lesbian ;)
*as in, porcelaine