2010 is coming to a close and what a year it has been. So much has gone down in the world of comics that I was hard pressed to keep this list to 20. I didn’t even get into all the things happening with comic book movies, I tried to keep the list true to comic books. Wednesdays in 2010 brought a weekly reverence to top notch storytelling, dialogue and art and these are, to me, the 20 Biggest Comic Book Moments Of 2010.
20. NEW FLASH BOOK (DC Comics)
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After 25 years a new Flash book featuring Barry Allen? Yep, sign me right up. After the end of Wally West’s run in 2006 and the following so-so run of Bart Allen, the return of the Silver Age Flash to his own mantle kicked a whole lot of ass. What made it even better was the book itself didn’t falter under its own weight. This wasn’t a book that just praised or treated Flash with too much grace. Instead Flash gave readers a new slant to see Barry Allen through. Writer Geoff Johns and artist Francis Manapul created not just new and exciting challenges for The Flash, but kept the movement and flow necessary for such a title. I’ve been critical of the series recently, but only because I know how good it can be
19. X-MEN REBOOT (Marvel Comics)
I am not, by any means, an X-Men fan. I crawled out of that sinking ship right after Dark Phoenix and never looked back. Too man characters, too much melodrama, too many convoluted plot points, I’d had enough. After recent events stretching all the way back to House Of M, the mutant army has become more streamlined, the action crisper and the breadth of work better. Nowhere was that more evident than the X-Men reboot featuring writing from Victor Gischler and art from Paco Medina. While some scoffed at the vampire theme, I was, instead, taken back to another era, when the X-Men kicked ass and didn’t cry in their soup all the time. Cyclops is a badass and Wolverine is Wolverine again. Granted I don’t read Astonishing or Uncanny, but for those burned by the X-Men in the past, this is an awesome starting point.
18. RED HULK REVEAL/HULK FAMILY (Marvel Comics)
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When the Red Hulk first started I was on board, then I hated it, then I just didn’t care. After the big reveal that the crimson rage monger was none other than General Thunderbolt Ross, I became interested again. With Jeph Loeb mercifully moving on from his disastrous Hulk run, writer Greg Pak (Incredible Hulk) and Jeff Parker (Hulk) stepped in and mopped up the place with awesome. I never thought a “Hulk Family” with Hulk, Skaar, Red Hulk, and Betty Ross as Red She Hulk, She Hulk, and Rick Jones as the blue skinned A-Bomb would work, but both titles are filled with intrigue, action, great story arcs and character development. The Dark Son storyline in Incredible Hulk and the Hulk feature with him semi-joining the Avengers has allowed Pak and Parker to begin some really amazing things for the Hulk and his new brood.
17. HENRY & GLENN FOREVER (The Igloo Tornado)
Anybody who loves punk or hardcore must read this small press gem from The Igloo Tornado. This is a satirical, hysterical and really brutal piss-take on two of punks’ greatest and most overly serious icons. In the comic Henry Rollins (Black Flag, Rollins Band) and Glenn Danzig (Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig) are two gay lovers who live together next door to Satanists Daryl Hall and John Oates. The comic ranges from mini-stories to one page digs but it’s always a joy to read and does a great job of slapping out at a genre that can be strife with pretensions, affectations and general feelings of self-importance. I quote Rollins’ line about the comic “Has Glenn seen this? Trust me, he would not be impressed.”
16. DC UNIVERSE LEGACIES (DC Comics)
I know some people will bitch about my putting one stand-alone series amongst my best moments in comics but DC Universe Legacies is really something special. Writer Len Wein gives us a ten part look at the history of the DC Universe starting with the Mystery Men and taking us right up to modern day heroes. What makes this series so wonderful is how Wein manages to tell the story from the point of view of a normal mortal. It allows the reader to be more invested in the tale from issue to issue, as well as giving us a hero to root for. Wein reduces the entire DC saga into these issues without a feeling of things being left out. It’s an old school type story, written in a Golden Age comics style with breath taking art from a who’s-who of artists such as Joe Kubert, Andy Kubert, Jesus Saiz, Bill Sienkiewicz and others who make this series one of the best moments in comics for 2010.
