A comiXologist Recommends (their favorite comics of 2015)
Mike R’s picks
Favorite Issues:
Constantine: The Hellblazer #6
I was incredibly hesitant about this series from the get go, but issue one sold me and #6 ended up being one of the best comics I read all year. This issue in specific was a perfect combination of comedy, internal strife, monsters from within the shadows, and a wonderful bearded man—which is something very hard to come by in most comics, as far as I’m concerned. Constantine: The Hellblazer #6 is wonderful in art and writing and a perfect topper to the first arc of this series and one of the best comics of 2015.
Heathen #1
This book hit me like a ton of bricks. The cover, alone, was something to drool over, and reading the first few pages, it only gets better. A story about a Norse warrior cast out from her family who looks to redeem herself by saving a princess trapped on a mountain is a story I can get behind any day, and this book delivers a great end that hooks you immediately. This is one of those books I will buy until the day I die—and I hope it is published for that long. Natasha Alterici is a one-person-machine of brilliance, and this book is proof of her fantastic work.
Favorite Series that ended:
Iron Fist: The Living Weapon
There isn’t much to say here other than: This book was epic.
Zero
This book had a very satisfying end and I have to credit the MANY creators (specifically artists) who worked on this series for developing an incredible story over 18 issues. Special high-fives go out to Jordie Bellaire who colored the whole series.
Favorite Mini-series:
Godzilla in Hell
Godzilla goes to Hell and fights everything. What more do you need to know?
Favorite New Series:
Archie
Have you ever needed a breath of fresh air? Try the new Archie series. It’s happy and fun and angsty, but mostly fun and happy.
Paybacks
The question of, “Where do super heroes/villains get their money from?” is the basis of this new Dark Horse series, and boy does it deliver. Who lends the money? We don’t know. Who collects the money? Well, the Paybacks, of course—a mix bag of heroes and villains who owe a debt. A perfect mix of action and comedy (with a dash of mystery, because that’s cool too) drives this series and, well, it’s just plain fun. (editor’s note- this series is colored by Lauren Affe, a former comiXologist, so you know it’s good)
Favorite Covers:
Mike Rapin is a web developer at comiXology living in Queens with his girlfriend and two (sadistic and needy) cats—Twix and KitKat. He is also the host of the I Read Comic Books podcast—a weekly podcast about, you guessed it, comic books.
A comiXologist recommends
The Paybacks
Superhero work is a tough and thankless endeavor. This isn’t new in the genre. In fact, that’s one of its more relatable qualities, and writers have gone to greater and greater lengths to make their particular demigod look and feel like a real person. Writers Donny Cates and Eliot Rahal decided to give them financial woes and it really works. What if the Batmobile wasn’t paid off on time? What if Iron Man drank his money away and couldn’t afford his suit? Well then The Paybacks are coming to collect.
I understand it’s probably best to review a title from its opening issue, but this series snuck by me in the first round so I’m making up for it in issue #2.
The Paybacks operate in the universe of Cates’s first book, Buzzkill, and the humor reflects that. Names of heroes are puns, clever jabs (specifically at 90s comics), and blatant references to friends of the creators. Issue #2 opens with our…heroes(?) accepting their new assignment from a Satan-shaped silhouette, Mr. Pierce. Mr. Pierce is the wallet. Mr. Pierce is the bank. For those of you who don’t understand loan-sharking, you’re already on the internet, and have numerous sites to look up definitions for all sorts of things at your fingertips. Come back after you’ve looked up loan-sharking. When you get back, just understand that The Paybacks are Mr. Pierce’s Repo-Men.
Mr. Pierce’s order for this issue seems to be the Justice League, or the Cates/Rahal equivalent of the Justice League. It is time to collect on the Hall of Justice, with hilarious and grisly results! Now understand that I have to stop there. I can’t go into much more detail beyond that. At least not without spoiling a joke or a detail of this inaugural story arc of what is shaping up to be one heck of an Ongoing series. Nobody wants me to do that. I want you to read it. You want to read it. So read it.
Cates and Rahal make some of the most relatable super-powered characters I’ve read in a good while without the means of familial loss, shame, or whatever clichéd pathos that’s been done to death. It is done with financial strains, addiction, and just general lethargy grown into from being around the block. After that they’ve strapped bombs to their team and said “Collect or boom.”
With art by the proven talent Geoff Shaw (A Town Called Dragon) and colors by the inimitable Lauren Affe the fights are dirty in the best way, and the characters’ acting between the action scenes doesn’t feel like a dull lull or poorly paced. And this so often can be the case with slice-of-life superhero books. I give this one a full pass, and my full recommendation.