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The Best Swamp Thing Comics of All Time!

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Since debuting in 1971’s House of Secrets #92, Swamp Thing, a DC Comics mainstay, has challenged and changed the comics world in a way few others have. Intentionally or unintentionally — there’s a lot of existentialism to be had here — unassuming scientist Alec Holland (and numerous other hosts and avatars) serves as the vessel for something larger than himself: The Swamp Thing, a shambling mound of life and earth that serves as a reminder that the world exists beyond us…and that it has needs and desires beyond our comprehension.

From straightforward horror storytelling to environmental radicalism to psychedelic explorations of the boundary between man and nature, Swamp Thing is consistently inconsistent, but that’s also to his benefit! An enigmatic character that draws renewed creativity out of storied creators like Alan Moore, Scott Snyder, Brian K. Vaughan, and more, Swamp Thing has historically been a title that commands respect and reverie for good reason. At the very least, it’s all but guaranteed there’s nothing else like a good Swamp Thing comic, and these are among his very best. [Read more…] about The Best Swamp Thing Comics of All Time!

The Best 5 Modern Blade Comics!

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Blade is one of the most disgustingly slept-on vigilantes in all comics. The dhampiric Marvel character made his debut in the 70s Tomb of Dracula, and has bounced around quite a bit since then. His books don’t fly off the shelves like those of the X-Men, he isn’t everyone’s favorite hero like Spider-Man, and his supernatural tales are often outdone by the likes of Dr. Strange and Ghost Rider. Blade’s books have always been long ignored and soon forgotten as series after series is canceled and, eventually, reborn. Under the hit-or-miss pen of Jason Aaron on Avengers and the Heroes Reborn event, his latest appearance has left much to be desired.

With Mahershala Ali cast as the titular hero in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe reboot/interpretation of everyone’s favorite daywalker, it’s only a matter of time before we get the inevitable new Blade comic series. Jason Aaron and Javier Garron’s recent run on Avengers has been a decent showing of his prowess, and the Heroes Reborn series has been interesting, to say the least. But not enough to sell a new comic readerthat this edgy vampire dude is, in fact, an undeniable bad-ass. [Read more…] about The Best 5 Modern Blade Comics!

The Best Carnage Comics of All Time!

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Since his brooding debut in writer David Michelinie and artist Erik Larsen’s The Amazing Spider-Man #344 (1991), serial killer Cletus Kasady has become a familiar, fan-favorite fixture in Peter Parker’s rogues’ gallery as the most common host of the bloodred Carnage Symbiote.

Unlike the more amenable Spider-Frenemy Venom, Carnage has been defined by his unwavering tenacity, his murderous intent, and his ruthlessness. He doesn’t just hate Spider-Man, he hates everyone and everything. Sometimes hilarious but always hyper-violent, he’s a force of nature unlike many others in the Marvel universe, and his long and sometimes complicated history reflects it in both its lowest moments and its surprisingly dense and tense highs. Even Woody Harrelson has taken note.

That’s right, Cletus Cortland Kasady: serial killer… and serial storyteller! It’s more likely than you might think in our list of the best Carnage comics below! [Read more…] about The Best Carnage Comics of All Time!

Best 10 Thor Comics Of All Time!

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Mighty Thor Vol 2 #700, cover by Russell Dauterman and Matthew Wilson, 2017The least earthbound of Earth’s Mightiest, the God of Thunder has for most of his Marvel comics history been very difficult to write. After all, how do you make an ageless god interesting? Give him a hammer and a big burly target? That’s proven at least an acceptable baseline for fans across the decades. But if I really wanted to convince a modern reader on the fence to love Thor, I’d have to look to those stories where the hammer blows and lightning strikes are balanced by something like character development. [Read more…] about Best 10 Thor Comics Of All Time!

10 Best Captain America Comics of All Time!

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[Captain America vol.8 #2 by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Sunny Gho, Joe Caramagna]
Captain America is as much a legacy and an ideal as an individual. Having such a split identity inherently creates problem—the stuff of dramatic tension; Cap’s not wholly unlike Spider-Man in that way. Add to that, however, the inextricably political and societal dimensions of Cap as a national treasure. Writers on the title have, since 1972 at least, dealt directly with America’s social and political ills, some more successfully than others, but none had ever explicitly addressed the deep-rootedness of our society’s systemic flaws until Mark Waid’s brief 1998/99 run. Yet it would take over another decade before they’d really be looked at again but without the naivete mainstream society could still afford in the 1990s.

Unlike the take-it-for-granted introduction of Cap to moviegoing audiences in 2011, the comics creators working on the monthly book over the decades knew that the concept of Captain America had increasingly become a hard sell. A superhero wearing a national flag screams nationalism, and yet Cap’s enemies—including his worst pretenders—are nationalists and ethno-fascists. He fights for “the American Dream,” and yet the last great run to seriously tout that idea without explicitly critiquing its foundations was Mark Waid’s in the late ’90s (although he does criticize how inaccessible it was becoming, leaving out a more honest look at American history until his superb Man Out of Time mini over a decade later).

In the 21st century, both concepts must struggle mightily for relevance. [Read more…] about 10 Best Captain America Comics of All Time!