Top Comics of 2022 (Part 2)
It’s January here at Do You Know What I Love The Most?, and that means it’s time to sum up the last 12 months with Year End Lists! I’ll be devoting the rest of this month to rounding up and discussing the various media released in 2022 that meant the most to me — just like every other website on the internet! Isn’t that special?
Today we’ll be diving into probably my favorite medium of all, comic books! These are the comics — be they monthly periodicals, graphic novels, manga, or webcomics — released in 2022 that touched me, thrilled me, and sucked me in like no others.
Due to size restrictions for these emails, we discussed the first half of this list in Tuesday’s Part 1.
Superman: Son of Kal-El (DC)
How do you make Superman stories compelling when he’s so powerful that he should be able to solve any problem, defeat any villain, effortlessly? If you’re Tom Taylor and John Timms, crafting the story of Superman’s son Jon Kent, you do so by making his vast power more of a problem than a solution. Jon has more than enough power to take down any threat he faces, but when and how can he best use that power? Jon takes lessons from Nightwing to learn how to fight with restraint, so as to not break his human opponents. He has to take a crash course in international politics, learning when it is and isn’t his place to intervene, how to liberate a country under the thumb of a supervillain without becoming a walking International incident causing more problems than he solves. Under the pens of Taylor and Timms Jon Kent has become an incredibly compelling character, full of perhaps even more compassion than his father, still forging his own identity as a Superman and discovering what kind of mark he wants to make on the world. The decision to have Jon come out as bisexual has also been a successful one, leading to perhaps my favorite single issue of the year, where Jon finally comes out to his father. It’s tender and devastating in the way it captures the fear that comes with coming out to family — even with a dad who’s literally a Superman. Bravo.
I Hate This Place (Image)
I Hate This Place is a bit of a departure for writer Kyle Starks, whose prior work has largely focused on absurd, profane humor, deconstructions of machismo and masculinity, and over-the-top violence that would feel at home in any number of 80’s action movies. Instead, I Hate This Place — the tale of a lesbian couple’s battle for survival when they inherit the world’s most haunted house — goes full-on horror; Starks and artist Artyom Topilin still pack plenty of violence into I Hate This Place, but it’s a more visceral, chilling violence, with blood and gore played for gut-churning shock rather than laughs or awe. At its core, though, this is a story about what it means to be a survivor: Trudy and Gabby can face every fucked up scenario this house throws at them because they’ve already survived incredibly fucked up, traumatic, homophobic childhoods, and they’ve done it together; their relationship is the secret weapon that keeps them safe even as the house makes quick work of everyone else who enters its orbit. Hey, maybe that’s the thread that ties this series to the rest of Starks’ oeuvre — like all his best protagonists, Trudy and Gabby are complicated and prickly characters who don’t always make the “right” decision, but they’re determined, resourceful, and incredibly easy to root for. I can’t wait to cheer them on when I Hate This Place returns for its second volume later this year.
Rogues (DC: Black Label)
Though it’s rarely acknowledged, The Flash has one of the absolute best rogues gallery in all of comics. Known simply as the Rogues, these downtrodden “Blue Collar Criminals” banded together out of necessity to survive their ultra-fast foe, but together have created a begrudging, fickle camaraderie and an almost admirable, if inconsistently applied, moral code. The Rogues are wild cards among the rest of DC’s villains, which has allowed them to be the stars of their own stories just as often as they’ve been the antagonist of the Flash’s. Rogues — the lush, over-sized DC: Black Label release from Joshua Williamson and Leomacs — aims to tell the tale of the Rogues’ final heist. It’s got all the expected heist trappings, digs into plenty of Rogues history, and visits some of the strangest locations in the DC Universe, but what it’s got more than anything is a grizzled, beating heart of real character. Williamson and Leomacs remember that for the Rogues, it was never really about the money: more than anything, what these crooks have always wanted was respect. Is that respect worth losing everything, worth dying for? It’s a question Rogues aims to answer in thrilling, brutal fashion.
Fantastic Four (Marvel)
Only the first two issues of Ryan North and Iban Coello’s Fantastic Four released in 2022, but those two issues are among the very best, the upper echelon, comic books had to offer that year. North and Coello make the refreshingly novel choice to include a complete story in each issue, stories so-far bursting to the seams with humanity and compassion; they also focus more than ever on the Four’s role as explorers, eschewing typical superhero battles to instead show the Four freeing a town from a time loop, finding the humanity hidden in their oldest foe, and helping long-troubled souls finally find peace and release. There’s also a compelling over-arcing mystery brewing in the background, but to be honest, I’d be fine if it was never solved if it meant issues like these went on forever. This is the most excited I’ve been about my first favorite superhero team in a very long time.
The Human Target (DC: Black Label)
Over the past few years writer Tom King has been, somewhat under the radar, putting out the best work of his career under the DC: Black Label banner, using the format to tell daring, mature stories with DC’s wide cast of heroes that would be never allowed within their normal continuity. The Human Target may just be the best entry yet. Christopher Chance’s mission to solve his own murder indulges in all the best noir trappings, but instead of investigating crooks and mobsters, Chance has to grill his fellow superheroes; King makes the offbeat choice of featuring the members of Justice League International, a cast of characters often played for laughs, providing them with a sense of respect and intrigue that’s been lacking in recent years. Chance’s romance with Ice is positively electrifying, bringing outright sexy and seductive scenes to a medium that rarely even attempts them, much less pulls them off — and these two characters, just drawings on a page, have more chemistry than most actors in major movies! Artist Greg Smallwood is also a revelation here, putting out the best work of his career. His gorgeously rendered characters look like they walked right out of a 1950s movie, but it’s not just that — his color choice is sublime, eschewing the idea of noir entirely and bathing the pages in bright, retro inspired colors, and dotting the backgrounds with these evocative patches of color that don’t necessarily stay within the lines but nonetheless are incredible at setting a vibe for the story. The Human Target is a book that shouldn’t be missed.
Do A Power Bomb! (Image)
With Do A Power Bomb!, Daniel Warren Johnson has cemented himself as the best action artist in the business today — and perhaps the best action artist this side of Akira Toriyama. Power Bomb! is jam-packed with brutal, kinetic, ambitious, gorgeously rendered fight scenes and choreography that would make any director jealous. It’s a visual feast with a story to match, every moment of gonzo wrestling spectacle coming complete with a devastating emotional haymaker. Johnson’s tale of how wrestling tore a family apart, but how wrestling may also just be able to put them back together again — in ways both supernatural and interpersonal — is as emotionally effecting as any tear-jerker on the shelves. Johnson is just so damn good at what he does that it’s maddening. Every book he touches is a must-read, and Power Bomb! is at the top of that stack. My favorite book of the year, bar none — and I don’t even care about wrestling all that much. It’s just that good.
Do You Know What I Love the Most’s “Best Of 2022” series:
2022 In Review
2022: A Playlist
Top Comics of 2022 (Part 1)
Top Comics of 2022 (Part 2)
Top Television of 2022
Top Movies of 2022
Top Albums of 2022
And for more, check out last year‘s “Best of 2021” series!:
2021: A Playlist
Top 10 Newsletters of 2021
Top Television of 2021
Top Comics of 2021 (Part 1)
Top Comics of 2021 (Part 2)
Top Albums of 2021
As well as our “Best of 2020”!:
Top 10 Newsletters of 2020
Top Television, Podcasts, and Movies of 2020
Top Books and Comics of 2020
Let’s Talk About Substack
2020: A Playlist
Top Albums of 2020
ABOUT
“Do You Know What I Love the Most?” is a newsletter from Spencer Irwin about his relationship with the stories he loves. Spencer is an enthusiast and writer from Newark, Delaware, who likes punk rock, comic books, working out, breakfast, and most of all, stories. His previous work appeared on Retcon Punch, One Week One Band, and Crisis on Infinite Chords, and he can be found on Twitter at @ThatSpenceGuy. If you like this newsletter, please subscribe and share with your friends!