The Homies 2024
Snow is falling all around me, children playing, having fun. ‘Tis the season for end-of-year best-of lists – it’s the Homies, everyone!
As always, we want to hear from you about what you dug this year. As with last year, rather than give you a long list of categories, we’re concentrating on the comics we read that really did it for us. We simply want you to tell us:
What was the best comic you read all year, and why?
It could be a new release, it could be a relaunch, it could be another great year for a reliable ongoing. It could be a majestic miniseries or a great graphic novel, an incredible indie or a brilliant Big Two book. We’ll be reading them out on the show, so let us know what you dug and what about it made it so special for you.
This worked really well last year so we’re massively looking forward to finding out what you’ve enjoyed this year. Lay it on us!
I didn’t read a lot of first run comics this year, but I was surprised to enjoy Blood Hunt as much as I did. The crossover on its own was only slightly above average and the Red Band stuff was silly, but as a payoff for what MacKay had been doing in Vengeance of Moon Knight and a finale for his Doctor Strange? Excellent. The Moon Knight moment in Blood Hunt #4 is cool, but it really hits after spending half a year in Vengeance of Moon Knight with Moon Knight’s supporting cast processing their feelings about him.
I’ll give an honorable mention to the Avengers Academy comic on Marvel Unlimited. Oliveira’s style is a little too earnest and heartfelt for me, but I still really appreciate what he’s doing in terms of deep cut continuity and timely, socially aware stories. And it uses the infinity comic format well.
The Power Fantasy is just alarmingly good. Smart as anything, made with remarkable care, rewards multiple re-readings. And DARK. And FUNNY!
If forced to choose the best comic I read this year (out of the three that immediately come to mind), I would have to pick Minor Arcana by Jeff Lemire. It seems as if my favourite comics of the year are always starting as the year ends.
The two runners-up would be Into the Unbeing and John Constantine: Hellblazer-Death in America, which both actually ran through the year.
Minor Arcana is another genius work by Lemire about a depressed person returning to the decaying hometown they thought they had left behind. No one does it better than Lemire by this point, but he always does it so exceptionally.
Sadness, loneliness, loss, regret…if this is what you are looking for in a comic book series, I can guarantee there was no greater paragon in the comic world this year.
Into the Unbeing was a captivating mix of Lovecraftian-style cosmic horror meets eco-horror. It seems that Thompson will be returning to this book sometime in the future, as the mini-series leaves off incomplete.
Spurrier continued his masterful work on John Constantine. I didn’t enjoy this as much as his first run on Hellblazer which ended far too soon, but I’ve been kept waiting to see if DC would let Spurrier finish telling his story, so I am very pleased to see Spurrier end this version of JC.
I stand by my feeling that this was the strongest run on John Constantine since Jamie Delano.
I know I’ll be only one of many people talking about THE POWER FANTASY, but it has become an immediate highlight book over the last few months. The basic premise of “the Cold War but with superheroes” doesn’t do justice to the complexity and craft of the first five issues.
Kieron Gillen, already responsible for some of the best X-book output of the last few years, is doing terrific work with the premise of superhumans who are so world-shatteringly powerful that they and the rest of the world are locked in a perpetual dance of moves and countermoves to maintain a fragile status quo. Gillen has been planting seeds and placing guns on mantelpieces throughout the early issues, and some of them will have familiar echoes to fans of THE WICKED + THE DIVINE or IMMORTAL X-MEN. But his gift as a writer has always been the ability to transcend cliche and find the humanity of his characters, no matter how ludicrous the scenario they find themselves in.
I also have to shout out Caspar Wejngaard, whose art has been terrific. I wasn’t familiar with his work before buying the book, but it’s great stuff — distinctive, striking designs and panel layouts that are exceptionally good at evoking particular moods (usually, though not always, ominous tension). At times he reminds me of a less cartoony and more readable Humberto Ramos — he’s got the same manic energy and creativity in his work, but the storytelling is significantly easier to follow.
The first arc, which just wrapped up, is structured unusually. The big action climax happens in the first issue, and the rest of the arc sees characters reacting and repositioning themselves to deal with the fallout. We’re coming in at what may be the end of a 50-year long storyline, so the creators are constantly cutting away from the present day action into flashbacks. But all of the characters and plot teases are so compelling that it never ends up feeling frustrating — every issue is dense and rich with juicy character moments and intriguing hints, to the point that every time I’ve reached the end of an issue, I’ve immediately gone back to read it again.
It’s a rare treat to realize while reading something that it’s going to be one of your all-time faves, but THE POWER FANTASY has hit that bar in just five issues so far. Gillen has said that the first act of the series will be sixteen issues, and it could either end there or keep going into a new status quo. Based on the enthusiastic reception so far, I’d bet on the latter, and that’s excellent news for comic readers next year. Try the first arc — you won’t be sorry.
(Honorable mentions to Ryan North’s consistently excellent FANTASTIC FOUR, Al Ewing’s imaginative and well executed IMMORTAL THOR, Cody Ziglar’s fresh and fun MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN, and Jed Mackay’s prolific and consistently solid Marvel output.)
For me, it’s a tie between Ryan North on FF and Al Ewing on Immortal Thor. North is doing career best work. Not his career- Reed’s. This may well be the best FF run ever. Yes, better than Byrne, Waid, Hickman. Ewing, on the other hand, is just excelling in the usual Ewing way. Can’t wait to see what he does with Metamorpho.
My favourite thing I read this year was FML #1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick and David Lopez. It’s kind of “Stranger Things” but set right now, but in an exaggerated present that’s widely satirical. It’s primarily focused on its disenfranchised teens, but there’s also a fair bit of the lead kid’s mother, a former rocker turned Mom. The who story has an air of people reluctantly having to march into several apocalypses of other people’s making that feels very of the moment, but it’s still distorted enough to not be too heavy. Lopez is doing some style clashing that’s a lot of fun too. My opinion may change when I finally read issue #2, but if it’s not my favorite of the year, it’s at least my favorite debut of the year.
I’ll put in a vote for Ryan North and Fantastic Four. He’s managed to isolate the core essence of the title in a way I’ve never seen. It’s a family going on science adventures every month. And it has real science, a lot of which I don’t understand, but it’s presented in a way that makes it accessible.
I’ll also second the honorary mention for the Avengers Academy Infinity comic. Especially due to the art, which has actually been several different artists over time, but they share a style that takes good advantage of the format.
It is a bit of a tuba on the face meme for LGBT visibility, which is fine, that’s the reason it exists. But it also has a lot of heart. It actually got me caring for Normie Osborn. He’s third generation Goblin nonsense *and* has a symbiote, but Olivieri still makes him likeable.
Re-reading Giant Days in the hardcovers that finished coming out at the beginning of the year. That series is so good.
And Spy x Family has consistently great art and fun stories.
I’ve really enjoyed Simon Spurrier’s Flash, which started out completely opaque but intriguingly so, and then managed to stick the landing, which most comics that start like that don’t.
My absolute favorite, can’t-wait-for-the-next-issue pick for this year is The Power Fantasy for all the reasons Douglas and Ben mention above. I love starting in the middle of a story and working out in both directions, and Gillen is pulling us forward and backward in time in intriguing and surprising ways. “A+” work.
And since no one else has mentioned it so far, James Tynion IV and Álvaro Martínez Bueno are doing similarly complex and beautiful work on The Nice House by the Sea. A follow-up to their excellent The Nice House on the Lake, the sequel crazily expands the cast and further complicates the motivations of the central characters. It’s started answering some questions while setting up more mysteries to be solved. Also: body horror! My only quibble is that some of the original cast have been demoted to background characters, which is too bad. I was hoping to learn more about them. Otherwise, a solid “A”.
My top pick is “Fantastic Four” by Ryan North. I don’t think there’s been a duff issue yet, and when I see a new issue on Marvel Unlimited it’s the first one I read from that week’s comics.
The BBC’s mission statement is “inform, educate, entertain” and I think that applies to this comic. It’s obvious that North knows a lot about real-world science, and he puts that into his comics without being patronising. (I’d say the same thing about his “Power Pack” mini-series from a couple of years ago.)
I’d also give an honourable mention to “Avengers Academy” (2010) by Christos Gage. Earlier this year, I was reading all the Bendis-era Avengers comics on Marvel Unlimited, which were of … variable quality. However, “Avengers Academy” was a hidden gem, and I’d recommend it to anyone who read the original “New Warriors” series in the 1990s.
Reading the letters pages in that series, some readers complained about particular themes (e.g. a character being gay) and the writer stuck to his guns. The most interesting discussion was when a character had previously said he didn’t want to have sex before marriage, then wound up having sex with his girlfriend. A reader objected to that because it had been such a rare attitude to see in comics. The writer said that he didn’t see anything wrong with characters doing that, or with changing their mind about a topic (after decades of real-world publication), but he apologised for removing the representation and said that he’d try to make amends later (i.e. by giving those views to another character).
The best comics I read all year was the complete Giant Days, which I got in a Humble Bundle at some point. The characterization and humor were top-notch, and the art appealingly cartoony. I could have read another dozen volumes.
As far as monthly comics, FF has been one of my two or three favorite books every month for the reasons listed by comment its above.
I don’t know what new books I’ve read from this year off the top of my head except Batman/Scoohy Doo.
I’m really forward to the Ewing/Lieber metamorpho bookmwhich I think comes out Xmas week.
I really enjoyed the Zatanna: Bring Down the House miniseries, written by Mariko Tamaki and art by Javier Rodriguez.
A really fresh and interesting origin tale with an art style that just really works for Zatanna. It was a fun introduction/entrance point for a character I wasn’t too familiar with, but now want to learn more about!
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I have been enjoying Hickman’s Ultimate Spider-Man, which as a dialogue heavy solo book doesn’t seem like his wheelhouse but which has delivered pretty much every time for me.
It has done well, in terms of both subverting expectations and not getting too overly cute in doing so. The most recent issue manages to be a Christmas downtime issue that always feels like it has stakes, while staying almost entirely domestic. The supporting cast Hickman has built feels like a great extension of the married MJ/Peter duo we lost in One More Day, while also exploring a quintessentially adult Peter.
A quick shout out also to the Jason Aaron TMNT reboot, which has managed to hit the ground running and ably keep a lot of balls in the air that were handed him from the last run, while being mostly comprehensible to me, a new reader.
One more vote for THE POWER FANTASY, which is so good that I am considering buying the collections as well as the individual issues. (I haven’t done that with a book since KURT BUSIEK’S ASTRO CITY.)
A lot of really good picks in here already. Instead of repeating what others have said, let me highlight the current Spider-Boy series, which has been an unexpected delight. It took a long time, but it feels like Dan Slott has got his humour comic mojo back.
In terms of older comics: for reasons that don’t need exploring at this juncture, during the summer I decided to read every solo Cable comic. The Joe Casey run was good! And the ’00s-era Cable/Soldier-X stories were, uh, memorable.
The X-books sure are conspicuous by their absence in these comments, after the past few years, huh? I will say that I thought Rise of the Powers of X #5 was a gorgeous comic, I think that’s the single issue I went back to the most. Luciano Vecchio did fantastic work this year.
Ryan North and Carlos Gomez have quietly built THE FANTASTIC FOUR into the strongest, most reliably entertaining and affecting comic the Big Two are currently releasing. The highlight of the run (to this point) has to be issue #25, which combines a brilliant sci-fi plot with deeply felt emotional stakes for the whole team, but particularly Johnny… who doesn’t often get the chance to have such mature romantic stories. (I also really loved the “Alica Masters Noir Detective” two-parter.)
This run is already destined to be spoken of in the same breath as Kirby/Lee, Byrne, Waid/’Ringo, and Hickman, and I’m so thrilled to see where it goes next.
The very best thing I’ve read all year is too difficult to identify, but here are some of the best comics I’ve read this year…
Detective Comics – Ram V gets to do what no-one has done since probably James Tynion on Detective, which is to stick the landing on a long Batman run. No premature ejections of the writer, or massive swerves in quality. This is going to stand up as one of the great modern Batman runs.
The One Hand & The Six Fingers – Talking of Ram V (and occasional Detective co-writer Dan Watters), these interlinked miniseries from Image were a real highlight of the year. The same murder case from the perspective of the detective and perpetrator respectively, with wildly different journeys and endings. Superb stuff.
Fantastic Four – Hard to add to the many comments above.
The Power Fantasy – Also hard to add to the many comments above.
Absolute Superman and Wonder Woman – All of the Absolute launches so far have been terrific, but these two have really been something. Superman manages to find a completely new take on the character that really makes you think, as well as producing some of the best Clark(?)/Lois scenes seen in years. Wonder Woman was breathtaking in its reimagining, the life of Diana rasied by Circe in hell was enthralling and the moment she said the ‘forbidden word’ was one of the individual comics moments of the year.
For me the most consistently good comics this year have been Dan Abnett’s 2000AD work. 2000AD rotates comics (except for Dredd) but Abnett has four ongoings so there is usually at least one in any one prog.
Brink with INJ Culbard, a police procedural on space habitats spread over the solar system.
The Out with Mark Harrison, s space opera about a lone tourist from Earth stumbling through a wide variety of alien cultures (where no one has heard of Earth or Humans).
Azimuth with Azio Bettin, transhuman action in a city controlled by AI. It’s a continuation of Sinister Dexter.
Feral & Foe with Richard Elson, fantasy parody set in a grimdark world where pretty much everyone is a petty idiot.
And like many others I liked Power Fantasy. I read a fair amount of franchise super hero comics and it’s entertaining for the most part. But the requirement to preserve the status quo is always there and can feel suffocating. So it’s refreshing with something like Power Fantasy.
Re: X-books, I read on Marvel Unlimited, so I’m back at the start of all the launches. So far my reaction is similar to everyone else’s — decent but a big step down in ambition and execution from the past few years. Perhaps the line will hit its stride given time.
Re: Ram V, I just got the TPB of THE ONE HAND & THE SIX FINGERS a couple days ago — really looking forward to diving in. And I’m delighted to hear that his run on DETECTIVE is sticking the landing — that’s one I had down on my list to read when it wrapped up.
I feel like we just did last years’ Homies… So it’s my turn to say that there’s a lot that was published this year that I haven’t read yet, both in terms of Big Two and Image serials as well as OGNs. I haven’t read the latest Brubaker/Phillips, Gillen and Hans’ We Called Them Giants, or Charles Burn’s Final Cut, for instance, all of which I suspect I’ll like quite a bit.
BUT as for what I did read:
Probably the most important single issue I read this year is Joe Sacco’s War on Gaza. Unlike the approach he took with Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza, this 32 page single issue is doing something very different. There’s no reportage, no history lessons, no polemics, just outrage, condemnation, and grief. Aesthetically, it was nice to see Sacco being a bit more dreamy and impressionistic, but the appeal is the moral clarity.
Ram V and Filipe Andrade finished Rare Flavours this year, I believe only the first two issues had come out in 2023. As someone who travels and cooks quite a lot, I very much enjoyed every issue of this series. I haven’t read any of Ram V’s super hero books, which I understand are excellent, but I’ve loved his creator owned work, and what a treat to see him working with Andrade again after The Many Deaths of Laila Starr. I’d have to re-read that series, but I think I enjoyed Rare Flavours even more, since the fantastical, mythological aspects are mostly in the background, letting the food (and people who cook it) take center stage. Lovely.
And I have to echo the praise so many others have already given to The Power Fantasy. I enjoyed having Gillen back on the x-books these last few years, but by the second issue I was completely on board with this new series, which has so much of what made books like WicDev, Die, and Peter Cannon successful while feeling wholly original.
I’ll also shout out Zdarsky’s Public Domain and Domain, which has been great; BKV and Niko Henrichon’s Spectators, which ended its serialized run on Substack just this week, but maybe more about that next year when it’s out in trade and I have the chance to read it all in one sitting; and the third and final volume of Brubaker and Marcos Martin’s FRIDAY, which was great.
Happy to say metamorpho was as good as I had hoped it would be.
Arak: Son of Thunder by Roy Thomas 1981. A Native American raised by vikings, wandering throughout Europe with his Satyr buddy fighting witches,dinosaurs, and lizard people. They don’t make em like this anymore!
The Power Fantasy being good is news to nobody, but I’d like to add my voice to the chorus.
Though it ended in the middle of the year, Rainbow Rowell’s She Hulk was an absolute highlight. It’s the super hero soap opera that Jen has needed for ages, with at least one, usually two belly laughs each issue. In a just world, this would be held up as a tremendous example of how to be funny without being goofy, how to be emotional without being sappy, and how to write superheroes as people first, powers second. Relaunching the series with a new number one halfway through did no favours to people coming on late, but I wholeheartedly recommend it.
The Ultimate relaunch has an energy about it not seen since…Hickman’s last relaunch (of Ultimates, or X-Men, take your pick). His Ultimate Spider-man is fun enough, but the Christmas issue was an incredible piece of waiting for the shoe to drop, and then it did, with a classic Hickman white page with some text on it. Deniz Camp’s Ultimates have done well to capture the anger of a future stolen from you, and the updated twists on established Marvel characters are interesting. It’s also lovely to see Fraction and Brubaker’s style of writing Iron Fist fight scenes is featured as the Immortal Weapons of Hulk have their nuclear themed fighting moves named in the panels. Big hopes for where Ultimates goes in 2025.
Just a whole lot of agreement on this side about Fantastic Four and also Spider-Boy. Definitely the two books I look forward to every month. A lot of heart, humour and fun.
The best thing that started this year was Kieron Gillen’s and Caspar Wijngaard’s The Power Fantasy, for all the reasons stated above and more. I am also one of those people who go back immediately for a second read-through of the entire issue after completing the first.
I only did that for one other title, and that is Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. Even though last year’s arc was not my favorite, I decided to go back and reread the last few arcs before the new one started, and then the new arc blew my mind, starting with a big time jump. Big steps forward, the mythology of cats and Kippa’s mystery fleshed out, the characters of Yuta and Arekanara’el, Zinn and Maika separated… all of it wowed me, deeply.
Honorable mentions go to Absolute Wonder Woman, Ram V’s Detective Comics, and Si Spurrier’s Flash and Hellblazer: Dead in America.
And somehow I totally missed what Ryan North is doing g on FF.; it sounds like what I always wanted in FF. I am excited to have something good to look up devour in the new year.
Not much to add to the chorus of praise, except the say that Power Fantasy has been and unexpectedly suspenseful delight month to month.
Greg Pak and Diego Galindo’s Lawful has been another fantastic read. It’s got a few issues yet to go, but it’s feels all too relevant right now – there’s no way to be an actual good citizen under fascism; there will always be some justification to put undesirable others outside of the protection of the law.
There have already been a lot of accolades tossed towards two of my favorite comics of the year already (The Power Fantasy & FF), so I’ll send a little love to Spectregraph, by James Tynion IV and Christian Ward. A tidy little haunted house story with some gorgeous ghosts and a fun premise. Dstlry is a bit of an odd duck publisher but there really is something grand about oversize single issues.
I haven’t read as much as I’d like to in 2024, so here’s hoping for more in 2025.
From what I read (and remember at the moment) – Ram V’s Detective Comics stuck the landing and is now my favourite Batman run. Weird, ambitious in its scope, yet simply kick-ass when it needed to be. But I already praised it last year.
The Power Fantasy started very well, but for some reason I always fall off Gillen’s creator-owned titles at most at their midpoint. Here’s hoping this one will be different. So far I’d say it will be.
Kelly Thompson’s Birds of Prey continues to be amazing. Deniz Camp’s Ultimates turned out to be amazing – funny, as this was the Ultimate title I was least interested in when announced.
Oh, and I’d like to add to the Rainbow Rowell She-Hulk recommendation. I very much hope Marvel retains her, both her Runaways and She-Hulk series were great.
I’m sure I’m forgetting something else. Oh well.
Frédéric Brémaud and Federico Bertolucci’s “Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: Vacation Parade”
This beautiful silent comic perfectly captures the mood and energy of a 1950s Disney short. It’s very funny and every joke is clearly set up and expertly paced in lushly detailed art.
If I can throw in a second, I’d say Mark Russell, Roberto Meli, Chiara Di Francia, and Mattia Gentili’s “Traveling to Mars.” It was touching and engaging story that hit a lot of Russell’s usual themes but in a new and satisfying way.