Top Comics of 2024 (Part 2)

Jan 20, 2025

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 2024 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 2024 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 on Wednesday.

One For Sorrow (DSTLRY)

Jamie McKelvie is my favorite comic artist, but in the five years since the end of The Wicked + The Divine, new work from him has been scarce. Thankfully, One For Sorrow is a triumphant return to ongoing comics from McKelvie. Sorrow’s tale of a masked serial killer preying upon Edwardian-era London — and the aftershocks of his murders connecting a crafty young barmaid, a retired detective, and a mysterious medium and her assistant — plays perfectly to McKelvie’s strengths, his penchant for gorgeous, sexy characters, exquisite fashion, and putting together striking, intricately paced and structured action sequences. McKelvie also writes (and colors!) Sorrow, and I was blown away by how much he’s grown as a writer since the days of Suburban Glamour. This is a well plotted and executed story full of mystery, intrigue, and savvy manipulation; the end of the the first issue blew me away, and I can’t wait to see where it goes next.

One For Sorrow is also my first experience with new publisher DSTLRY, and I’m impressed by their model. Each issue of Sorrow — and most DSTLRY titles — is 48 pages, no ads, oversized, and bound like a trade paperback so that it can be slotted right onto your bookshelf. For $8.99 an issue, that’s an incredible bargain, and it allows McKelvie to fit a remarkable amount of story into each issue, especially with the oversized pages also allowing him to cram more panels and detail onto each page. This model means that, while Sorrow only released one issue in 2024, that issue essentially contained the content of two and a half issues of a standard comic, giving it all the space it needed to prove itself and earn its place on this list.

Wonder Woman (DC)

Wonder Woman is a character who is — rather unfairly, and often deliberately — misunderstood by certain readers, who find her cold or off-putting, hard to understand, or simply don’t like her because she’s a woman. Tom King plays with this idea as writer of Wonder Woman. The narrator of his grand story is also the villain of the piece — the Secret King of America, looking to free “his” country of the Amazons once and for all — who views Diana through the same lens as these readers, his narration constantly and consistently underestimating, misinterpreting, and demeaning her, not valuing her because of her gender. However, the story that King and artist Daniel Sampere present on the page couldn’t be further from this interpretation — together, they craft a bright, heroic, iconic Wonder Woman, beautiful and caring and powerful and unyielding, whose every action on the page proves the King’s narration untrue, and further proves who this character is to everyone who reads the book. It’s a smart narrative trick, and one of those devices that can really only be done in comic books. King’s time on Wonder Woman has also graced readers with the character of Trinity — Wonder Woman’s daughter — who stars in a humorous series of back-up stories (often featuring Damian Wayne and Jon Kent) that serve as a palate cleanser to the far more serious and emotionally draining main stories. King and Sampere don’t just have a lot of interesting things to say about Wonder Woman; they also have a lot of interesting ways to say them, and that makes their Wonder Woman worth checking out.

FML (Dark Horse)

While Kelly Sue DeConnick is credited as writer of FML, the story is really a collaboration between DeConnick and her teenage son, Henry Leo, and their lives and relationship bleed through into the finished product in delightful ways. FML is an anarchic, frantic story about a mother (Patty) and son (Riley) both going through difficult moments in their lives, seamlessly shifting perspective between the two characters. While there are actual ongoing plots for both its leads seeded throughout the series, FML is more interested in exploring the minutiae of their lives, the moments of joy and frustration, potential and defeat, the love and annoyance they feel for each other — and how difficult is can be to be both a teenager and an adult. Artist David López is an inspired choice for this series, with his cartoony, elastic style capable of rendering every change of tone, perspective, subject, and location — the grim anxieties of adulthood, the potential of young adulthood, magical realism (and literal magic!), metal shows, true crime conventions — with equal panache, of depicting Patty and Riley’s very different worlds in their own unique styles without ever losing the series’ singular visual identity. It’s quite potentially career-defining work for López. FML’s back-matter is also chock-full of essays, activities, and makeshift zines, continuing to add to the series’ unique identity. It’s actually quite a dense series, but at the same time, a fast and propulsive read — truly the best of both worlds, which feels appropriate given its dual leads and perspectives. It’s clear that FML is dear and incredibly personal for the DeConnicks and López, and that makes it quite the special book indeed.

Fantastic Four (Marvel)

This is the third year in a row I’ve included Ryan North’s run on the Fantastic Four on the list, but hey, I can’t help that it’s consistently the very best book Marvel is putting out. North — primarily joined this year by artist Ivan Fiorelli — is just a flawless fit for the first family of comics, crafting one or two issue stories that are smart, funny, exciting, and full of heart, perfect for readers of any and all ages, new fans and die-hard FF-aficionados alike. Throughout 2024 North and Fiorelli explored countless new ideas and unique pairings amongst the team — Reed and Sue solving their own murder; Johnny and Ben getting “real” jobs; Alicia Masters as a hard-boiled noir detective; Reed and Alicia protecting a building full of innocents from a hoard of vampires; Johnny and Reed trying to contain the cursed skull that eternally vomits blood they found buried beneath their home (issue of the year? Issue of the year) — and every one of them worked like gangbusters, even — or perhaps especially — the event tie-in! It’s miraculous work and miraculous consistency from a creative team that can seemingly do it all. Don’t be shocked if this one shows up again on next year’s list too.

Helen of Wyndhorn (Dark Horse)

C.K. Cole, writer of countless pulp fantasy novels, has killed himself; his troubled, traumatized teenage daughter Helen has been handed into the custody of her grandfather Barnabus, C.K.’s estranged father, at his expansive estate. In this strange place, Helen will discover a whole new world of monsters and magic; she’ll learn that everything her father wrote in his books was true. In Helen of Wyndhorn, Tom King and Bilquis Evely have created a lush, awe-inspiring fantasy full of classic sword-and-sorcery adventure, that also serves as a backdrop for gutting Cole family drama. Wyndhorn, though, is also a story about stories; Helen learns the truths of her father’s stories and the role she plays in the story of the Wyndhorn family; Helen’s story is recounted to an interviewer by her Governess, Lilith, years after the fact, serving as the framing device for the series; Lilith’s interviews are then handed down from person to person in various forms over the years, spreading Helen’s story far and wide. Evely’s art is full of rich, intricate detail — not just the fantasy world, but Wyndhorn Mansion as well — turning every single page into a work of art that one could lose themselves in for hours as they explore the nuances of Evely’s lines. Helen of Wyndhorn is a rousing adventure, a powerful, affecting story of Helen finding her place in a family and legacy she never knew she had, and page after page of the kind of ornate art that belongs on the margins of an ancient manuscript, framed at a museum. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience that shouldn’t be missed.

The Flash (DC)

I wasn’t sold when I first heard that writer Si Spurrier was taking over The Flash. Part of my hesitance, of course, stemmed from the fact that Spurrier was succeeding Jeremy Adams, whose gone-too-soon tenure on the title was probably my favorite Flash run of the past twenty years. But I’ve also been hit-or-miss on Spurrier’s work in the past, and wasn’t convinced that his style and vision for the Flash would suit the character. Boy, was I ever wrong. The Flash’s world may have expanded under Spurrier’s pen to include unfathomable forces of cosmic horror, but it was grounded more than ever in the ideas that have always defined Wally West: fun, family, and most of all, love. In fact, like many a classic Wally tale before it, Spurrier’s first arc was ultimately a story about how Wally is only the man he is today because of the connections he’s made, and about how the power of love can quite literally fix the universe. That’s what I’m looking for in The Flash. Spurrier’s major artistic partners on the title were also the perfect choices to tell the story: nobody can give heady, physics-defying concepts the gravity they deserve on the page like Mike Deodato, and as the story became more personal and character driven, Ramon Pérez’s nimble cartooning gave every member of Wally’s expansive family the unique spark they deserved. This year of The Flash was able to return to the roots of Wally West while also bringing bizarre new concepts into the Flash’s mythos, all without it ever feeling disjointed or incongruent. I’m so glad that the Flash — all the Flashes — are in such great hands.

The Power Fantasy (Image)

The Power Fantasy is the kind of superhero book that only Kieron Gillen could write: one where its protagonists can never actually fight. It’s a superhero Cold War, where six beings with power on par with a country’s nuclear arsenal — all with their own conflicting agendas — must try to avoid coming into conflict, because even one punch thrown could quite literally end the world. It’s the kind of clever, cerebral thriller we’ve come to expect from Gillen, full of richly drawn, morally complex characters (such as the telepath Etienne Lux, whose devotion to ethics leads him to commit horrific acts in the name of the greater good), a deep and fascinating forty-plus-years alternate history for its world, and more deception, drama, and subterfuge than you can shake a stick at. Artist Caspar Wijngaard brings this world to life with vibrant colors, distinct designs for each lead, and a style that seamlessly shifts along with the story as it jumps back and forth throughout this decades-long conflict. The Power Fantasy captures that kind of pop thrill that’s at the heart of all the best superhero stories, while also being a far more complex and mature entry into the genre, exploring the ways the very existence of these beings warps society and the world around them. It’s the kind of story that benefits from rereads — nay, that demands rereads — and one I’ve enjoyed more every time I’ve returned to it. Since the day it was first announced, The Power Fantasy was the new comic I was most looking forward to in 2024, and it did not disappoint. I have a feeling it’s going to end up right alongside The Wicked + The Divine as one of the defining works of Gillen’s career.

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 you can follow him online on your social media of choice. If you like this newsletter, please subscribe and share with your friends!

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