Series of the Decade: All-New Wolverine by Tom Taylor
This series is definitely one of my favorite series of all time. Laura Kinney has always been a great character and seeing her come into her own as Wolverine really adds to her character. Taylor pays so much homage to everything Wolverine and X-23 related. He ties a lot of loose ends from the previous series and wraps up old plot points. He also created Gabby Kinney and she’s one of the most precious characters ever created and I love her. This run is also very new reader-friendly, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to know about Laura Kinney.
Honorable Mentions: Batman by Scott Snyder, Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing, Daredevil by Chip Zdarsky, Storm by Greg Pak, Invincible by Robert Kirkman, Saga by Brian K. Vaughan
Best Writer: Jonathan Hickman
If Jonathan Hickman could win my praise for best writer of 2019 with just a few X-Men titles, taking those titles and adding them to the Fantastic Four, FF, and Avengers series (to name a few) really just adds to cement him as the best writer of the decade. His run on FF and Fantastic Four is what actually made me pick up a Fantastic Four comic, and I loved them. East of West is also a really great series, and if you haven’t read it, you should.
Honorable Mentions: Jeff Lemire, Scott Snyder, Kelly Thompson, Dennis Hopeless
Best Artist: Fiona Staples
My interest in her art came from me picking up the 2015 Archie relaunch. As soon as I saw the artwork, I knew that her art was something that I could vibe with. She’s an artist that captures facial expressions really well, and I feel that when I see characters she designed, their clothes actually look like clothes and not just something painted on. Her work on Saga is what pushed her a lot more in the public eye, as that is one of the best series to hit the decade, and all the praise she got for the art she absolutely deserves.
Honorable Mentions: Gary Frank, J.H. Williams III, Stjepan Šejić, Pepe Larraz
Best Issue: X-Factor #262
Peter David’s X-Factor Investigations is my favorite comic run of all time. And as such, I’m happy to include the final issue in the series as my favorite issue of the decade. This is the end of X-Factor, and it wrapped up beautifully. Not every comic gets to end on natural terms and those who do don’t always end on a happy note. X-Factor #262 let Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man, retire with his wife Layla Miller. For people who haven’t read the series, I’d fully suggest it.
Honorable Mentions: Batman Annual #4, Hawkeye (2012) #19, House of X #2, Batman Annual #2, The Wicked + The Divine #44
Best Publisher: Image Comics
The big two have been great this decade, but they haven’t been consistent. Marvel has made terrible decisions such as relaunching all their books (repeatedly) because they discovered that new issue 1s sell. Also due to the MCU along with not owning the movie rights to everything, they started pushing the X-Men aside to focus on the Inhumans (with events like Death of X and Inhumans vs X-Men to drive the point home). DC hasn’t done much better, the New 52 relaunch was divisive among fans with the general consensus that some books were really good, but a lot of the new backstories and redesigns were pretty terrible (like Lobo). But the biggest issue (no pun intended) that people had with the New 52 was the erasure of characters, relationships, and general positivity. They did fix this with Rebirth though.
Image really didn’t have any of these problems. They’ve been consistently putting out really great books in the last decade, and several of my favorite books have come from Image Comics. Saga, Invincible, Paper Girls, The Wicked + The Divine, these are all really solid books and shows how stories can be told with the creative teams having full control over their work.
Honorable Mentions: DC Comics, Marvel Comics, IDW, Valiant
Best Miniseries: Rogue and Gambit: Ring of Fire (2018)
Rogue and Gambit are one of my favorite comic book couples. And this miniseries understands why their relationship works. Kelly Thompson understands their relationship and she shows the strengths and the things they need to work on. Their communication sucks at points, and Thompson illustrates that beautifully. There are also a variety of callbacks to every era of Rogue and Gambit, and it just feels like a love letter to these two characters.
Honorable Mentions: Spider-Men (2012), DCeased (2019), Spider-Man: Life Story
Best Event: Forever Evil (2013)
I love villain team-ups. This entire event is one giant villain team-up where the villains are the heroes. After the Justice League gets trapped in the Firestorm Matrix, Lex Luthor assembles a team of villains (and Batman and Catwoman) to take down the evil Crime Syndicate. I love the dynamics here, between Batman and the villains he has to work with, between Sinestro and Black Adam, Captain Cold fighting Johnny Quick, the event was so much fun.
Honorable Mentions: Secret Empire, Convergence
