Another year is in the books, and we here at Hush Comics couldn’t pass at the chance to rank our favorites of this year’s releases in all types of mediums. Some of the winners will surprise you; heck, some of the results surprised us. The results are completely subjective, and therefore were chosen with infallible logic. We would love to hear your opinions on what we have chosen, or if you thought we missed anything. This should be a fun review before we gear up for 2015.
Best New Comic Book Series
- Image Comics – Deadly Class (Rick Remender & Wes Craig)
- Marvel Comics – Ms. Marvel (G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona)
- Marvel Comics – Moon Knight (Warren Ellis/Brian Wood & Declan Shalvey/Greg Smallwood)
- Image Comics – Nailbiter (Joshua Williamson & Mike Henderson)
- Image Comics – Shutter (Joe Keatinge & Leila del Duca)
WINNER – Nailbiter (Williamson/Henderson)
I love dark humor, and Nailbiter is chock full of it. Nailbiter tells the tale of a town in Oregon that is home to a few too many serial killers. People travel there to visit the murder store. That alone is hilarious. There are a slew of new murders occurring, and the police are involved. We are slowly getting to meet the different killers and townsfolk, but the main killer, Nailbiter, is by far the best character in the series. I look forward to this book every month, and am sure 2015 will bring out some very interesting things about the people of the small town. Congrats to Joshua Williamson and Mike Henderson for an amazing story. Job well done! – Adrian
Second Place – Shutter (Keatinge/del Duca)
“Superhero this, superhero that. I want something different. I want… I want a vast and mysterious world full of danger at every corner. I want a gang of lions fighting with actual ghost ninjas, and ruthless assassins riding triceratops into battle and and and… the main character has to have a cute, unassuming companion. A pet. But not just any pet; let’s make it a ridiculous Japanese-inspired alarm clock cat. Oh, and it has to have a kick-ass artist like, uh… who’s that girl from Denver? Leila del Duca? Yeah, definitely her. Wait, what’s that? There’s a book like that out already? Hell yeah I will pick that up” – you after reading this
Third Place – Moon Knight (Warren Ellis/Declan Shalvey)
He’s the one they always see coming. That’s the way he wants it. He wants them to know in the moments before he ends them that they never had a chance. This is the core of Marc Specter, Moon Knight. Marvel revived the Moon Knight title this year. I’d never heard of the hero before this year, but at the suggestion of a friend I picked it up. Best. Decision. Ever! For those unfamiliar, Moon Knight is a hero with very unique powers granted to him by the Egyptian deity Khonshu. If he’s not kicking butt in his blindingly white three-piece suit, he’s doing it in his ancient Egyptian heavy armor. In one word, Moon Knight is awesome. I tend to use that term often, but after reading Moon Knight this year my “awesome-bar” has been raised quite high. Thus I will be using it much more seldom in 2015. I’m glad to know that a main arc for this series has just begun. 2015 should be an eventful year for Marc as he fights the evil that lurks in the darkness. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to my search for my own suit of magical, ancient Egyptian armor. I don’t know if I can face 2015 without it. – Taylor
RUNNER UP – Deadly Class (Remender/Craig)
A boy has to have a dream, and if that dream is to kill President Ronald Reagan, who are you to judge? Deadly Class is another awesome Rick Remender book under the Image Comics imprint that follows Marcus Lopez, common street urchin that gets recruited to a school of assassins. It’s relatable because it’s high school, but also not at all because they are constantly murdering each other. The use of color is phenomenal here; Wes Craig likes using vibrant colors to denote violence and danger – which is a majority of the time. The story has gotten continually deeper, and as Remender fleshes out the background stories of the supporting characters, it has only gotten more captivating since the first issue. – Sherif
RUNNER UP – Ms. Marvel (Willow Wilson, )
I don’t need a comic book character that looks like me to be relatable. If I could relate my childhood struggles to anybody, it wouldn’t be Peter Parker; it would be Kamala Khan. The new Ms. Marvel book, written by Colorado native and Egyptian transplant G. Willow Wilson, follows a normal girl with a good family who is trying to find a way to stretch herself between two cultures. She doesn’t just do battle with baddies, but with all the everyday problems that plague a girl in her position. Aside from the funny Arab-American banter, there is a lot this new generation of comic book readers can learn from a girl like Kamala. – Sherif
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