Super Powered Comics (and more): Kyle Steele’s Year in Review

Another year is almost over and I thought I would take a moment to reflect on some of the things that I felt were very good in the world comics.

DC: With the big 52 I’ve found myself reading more comics from them now, from Wonder Woman (which I’ve spoken about before), Action Comics, and Flash. While not everything was perfect, it did create a good start for the New DC to build on, and can’t wait to see the new couple of waves of new books that’s going to come out through their doors.

Marvel: This year many of the flagship titles didn’t peak my interest like years past, but the secondary titles (or ones that seem to be left on their own) like Daredevil, Venom, and Thunderbolts have been very stellar. Sadly a lot of other great books got cancelled though this should lead to Marvel refocusing and creating some new more interesting books for this next year.

Indie books: No I’m not talking about Indiana Jones (I know, cheap joke); I’m talking about the smaller publisher books that have done very well and that I’ve enjoyed this year. Invincible from Image has been in a bit of a rebuilding mode from their last big event, yet should see big things from it in the upcoming monthes as the last issue shows it going to be exciting.

Another book that was amazing this year was IDW’s Rocketeer Adventures, an anthology book that was so great with works by a wide range of creators: Darwyn Cooke, Mark Waid, Gene Ha, and a list of greats that I could go on all day. Even though we have lost the late Dave Stevens it was nice to see his greatest creation treated so well by IDW and all the creators involved. I hope that they will do another run someday, but for now you can pick up the trade and be very happy.

Film: I was very impressed with Marvel’s film line-up this year especially X-Men: First Class and Captain America: The First Avenger. After Captain America it was hard not to be more hopeful for the upcoming Avengers movie (man to think they are making an Avengers movie is so weird from what they were ten years ago). With Batman as well coming next year it should be an entertaining summer.

Video Games: While we have to wait a year for Batman’s next theatrical adventure, this year saw his return to video game consoles, and man was it worth the wait. Batman Arkham City was more than just a great superhero video game, but was one of the best video games this year period. Every aspect of it was everything that this character should be, and expanded upon Arkham Asylum in everyway.  The only thing that I think could match it in the upcoming year is if we see Amazing Spider-man return to the greatness that we haven’t seen since Ultimate Spider-man in 2005.

Television- sadly we lost one comic based tv show with the loss of Human Target, which I found to be pretty entertaining, but Walking Dead is showing that a comic based show could be done well. This next year hopefully we’ll see Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Oeming’s Powers premiere on FX as well as see some progress on a Jessica Jones and Hulk shows through Marvel.

Now don’t read too much into this list, just because something wasn’t mentioned doesn’t mean that I didn’t like it, I just didn’t write it down. Now everyone has opinions so write some down in the comment section and tell us at super powered fiction what you enjoyed this year. May your Holiday season be comic filled and fun.

Kyle Steele is an aspiring comic writer/artist who is currently started working on a new creator owned book that will see publication through some medium in the upcoming year. You can follow him at twitter.com/kylesteele43 and talk about your favorite comic moments from this past year.