Below you’ll find our reading selections for the year of 2003, and once we’re finished reading, I’ll post the winners for hero, villain, issue, artist, and writer.
Feel free to discuss the comics and any related thoughts below in the comments!
2003 Comic Reading List
(Check Patreon for Full List & Bonus Round!)
2003 | Comic Book Title | Issues |
1 | Captain Marvel | #1 to #14 |
2 | Fantastic Four | #65 to #70, #500 to #508 |
3 | Exiles | #20 to #37 |
4 | X-Statix | #6 to #18 |
5 | New X-Men | #134 to #150 |
6 | Daredevil | #41 to #55 |
7 | Amazing Spider-Man / Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure | #47 to #58, #500 to #502 / #1 to #5 |
8 | Mystique | #1 to #10 |
9 | Runaways | #1 to #7 |
10 | Marvel Universe: The End / Thanos | #1 to #6 / #1 to #6 |
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Claude says
Hmm…seem to have missed the voting. I thought we had until the end of the month.
Dave says
Votes always good through the end of the month! I just updated early since I had a window.
2004 list out soon… substantially less intimidating bonus round!
Claude says
Overall 2003 is a great year. There was alot to read, so I did a little bit of selective editing in terms of what I prioritized.
In the main titles FF, Daredevil and ASM continued to be excellent. I’ve read the FF and ASM at least a couple of times before. This period in ASM is perhaps my favorite. I should have chosen #500 as issue of the year, but I voted for FF #500 as it was fresher in my mind. Straczynski gets my vote for writer. He is really the best this year. The thing that sticks out for me is his ability to make each person sound individual. All the characters have their own voices and you can judge who is talking simply by reading the dialogue. Obviously a professional scripter.
Exiles is good. I still feel as if the whole thing is too disjointed for my taste, but it is good.
Captain Marvel was a big letdown for me. I do not know where David is going with this, so will have to see in 2004. I have like pretty much everything David has ever written, and I’ve read about 90% of his work. But this series is not to my liking.
Mystique, Exposure and Runaways were decent, but I can see that this is early Vaughan work. Especially Runaways, it really reads as though it were written by a teenager.
I skipped a few of the main stories to read things I had not read before in the bonus round.
The Incredible Hulk books were not as good as last year. Though Gray is very good. The Avengers was a real pleasant surprise. I had heard that the Geoff Johns story was good, but I hadn’t expected it to be this good. Namor, Agent X and Human Torch were pretty much a waste of time. As was Tangled Web. Truth: Red, White and Black was a good, if disturbing, read.
Now, the Ultimate stuff is still where it’s at in 2003. Spidey is still number one with a bullet. And Ultimate Six was a good read. The Ultimates was a great read. Not quite as good as last year, and series 2 coming up is the bomb, but this year is still worth your time. Not so much with War. Daredevil and Elektra is good, but not important. The Ultimate X-Men is really the best X-book around in 2003.
Michael says
Well, this was just a staggering amount of comics to read. I was barely, barely able to get through all of them before the end of the month. There are way too many to cover individually, so I I’ll just point out highlights:
– Runaways is far and away my favorite of the year. Believe it or not, I had never actually read these and had never even known the concept, so the “twist” was wild to me and is such a brilliant idea. Looking forward to finishing up the run next month.
– Speaking of twists, the infamous New X-Men twist was excellent and I can see why it generated such controversy at the time. I still don’t like New X-Men that much, but it’s certainly bold.
– I love Bendis and Maleev’s Daredevil take, especially the artwork.
– I wasn’t as big a fan of Negative Exposure as Dave seems to be, but it’s solid.
– There’s no one who writes Thanos better than Starlin, and The End did not disappoint. Bizarre and over the top, but as I’ve said before, I highly enjoy Starlin and Marvel Cosmic stuff, so this was a fun read.
From the Bonus Round
– There was so much here, and I’m sure I’m forgetting some good ones (like I remember enjoying Punisher while I was reading it, but I barely remember it now). An interesting trend from this year was to do origin stories, and I found that I loved a number of them. Namor was great and very unexpected, Emma Frost was a lot more emotional and deeper than I was expecting (and as has been said here, has the absolute worst cover art compared to the content of an issue), and Kingpin was not my favorite but again was unexpected.
– Other issues I enjoyed/were notable: Sentinel was neat but I think clearly ended before it was supposed to (maybe from lack of sales). 1602 was great, and I somehow didn’t see the character twist at the end coming, but it did feel very pretentious at times, as Gaiman can be. Both Hawkeye and Wolverine: The End were crazy and stood out to me, even if I didn’t love them. The Crew was unexpected, as was the powerful and somewhat related Truth. Nyx was absurdly dark and mature and I’m surprised it wasn’t given to the adult line that Jessica Jones was in.
From the Ultimate Universe
– It’s crazy how much stuff the movies took from the Ultimate Universe. Both the Chitauri and the memorable plastic cage for Magneto from the first film come from various comics here, and really the whole plot of the first Avengers movie (minus Loki) is from The Ultimates. I enjoyed everything here, though Ultimate War was kind of a letdown and a bit muddled. Ultimate Spider-Man continues to be excellent, and again, Ultimate X-Men is my favorite version of the X-Men in this era. Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra were also both great, with Reed getting a nice origin story and Elektra being given a considerably more down to earth background.
Overall, I think the quality this year was exceptionally high given how much we read. Sure, there was some not great stuff, but I think all of it was readable and engaging. A very impressive year. Onto 2004 and the era of events!
Carson says
Big year! Many comics!
X-Statix and Morrison’s New X-Men I read last year while following the X-Men reading order .. both thoroughly excellent, no doubt about it. Mystique too, which was pretty enjoyable, a good solid tale.
From this month’s reading, the high points were..
This run of Fantastic Four has, though. Damn, the F4 have been out of favour lately and cruelled by being associated with the wrong movie studio, but this is a massive reminder of why they are so important to the Marvel Universe. “Unthinkable” was absolutely epic, and issue #500 a worthy renumbering and landmark. I rated #67, the Unthinkable prologue, issue of the year.
Exiles continues to be on point. Such a great idea, serving up tasty “What If?” stories but with the constant cast of characters written with real heart. The prospect of Chuck Austen taking over the writing after this terrifies me, though.
Bendis & Maleev’s Daredevil, as you say, continues to impress. Really great work, and then the diversion for David Mack’s Echo storyline was fantastic in a whole different way. I rated David Mack as artist of the year, hard not to with him doing the painted artwork on that arc.
Runaways is something I’d had recommended to me before, I think I might have read the first TPB years ago, but couldn’t really remember it. Loved it this time, though. It got a similar reaction out of me to Exiles, the characters are written with such heart that you immediately become gripped, and really care about what happens to them. Definitely looking forward to more! Rated Brian K. Vaughan writer of the year on the strength of this, with Mystique and Negative Exposure a bonus.
Geoff Johns did some wonderful work on Avengers, I was curious due to him being so much more associated with DC, but he nailed this. Really has the dynamics of a team book working well, and the revelation of the villain behind the Red Zone sucker-punched me in a great way. I rated that villain as villain of the year.
Truth: Red, White & Black was certainly different and certainly a hard-hitting read. So plausible, too. As if the army WOULDN’T have started off testing Super Soldier Serum that way? I note that Robert Morales wrote a stretch on Captain America in 2004, I’ll be reading that next month even if it’s not on the My Marvelous Year list.
Claude says
Saw this today:
http://www.vulture.com/2017/04/on-the-uncomfortable-brilliance-of-marvels-the-ultimates.html
Echoes what I had said previously about the Ultimates
No name says
The Crew was an excellent unknown gem.
After being amazed at the drop of quality in exiles when Austen did a short run, I found this summary of his work on the x-men at the same time Morrison was doing his amazing run on new x-men.
https://comicdomwrecks.wordpress.com/special-features/chuck-austens-x-men/
It’s a fun read and probably better than the real thing. And I thought Claremont’s also concurrent x-treme x-men was a horrible mess…
Carson says
Just got up to Amazing Spider-Man and was wondering if there was a typo, is that meant to be “#57 to #58, #500 to #502” rather than “#47 to #48, #500 to #502”?
#58 is the last issue before it renumbers back to #500 .. and #57, #58, #500 are the three parts of the “Happy Birthday” story arc. #500 really doesn’t make any sense unless you just read #57 and #58.
Dave says
Believe it or not, I think I actually meant #47 to #58 – so the full year’s worth. I’ve (finally) updated accordingly!
Carson says
That works, this JMS run is pretty sweet!
Brandon Harbeke says
Winners for the year:
Fantastic Four: I am going to bat for this series for this year/run. Waid/Weiringo know how to write these characters so that they are recognizable but also achieve some level of growth from where they have been in the past. The family element of the series is firmly in place. What happens with Valeria and Doom is equal levels fascinating and heartbreaking. The Unthinkable arc should go down in comics history as one of the best ever.
Daredevil #44: Bendis’ run is pretty consistent, but this issue stood out to me in terms of quality.
Amazing Spider-Man #50, 500: I love the Happy Birthday story and the Doctor Doom story to pieces.
Mystique: Awesome spin on her character as a special agent of Xavier.
Runaways: The first issues of this series are great. I would be happier if they had just left it with one series, as I cannot think of a time past here that the characters have been used nearly as well (even Avengers Arena).
Decent reads:
Other Bendis Daredevil issues
Other Amazing Spider-Man issues
Starlin cosmic issues
New X-Men
Bonus thoughts:
Avengers: #57-61 are great, and the others are worth reading.
Sentinel: Read this if you like The Iron Giant or school-based stories. #6 is the best issue.
Human Torch: This is an okay story with some strange art by Skottie Young.
NYX: I read all seven issues, hoping it would get better. It never did. This may be Laura/X-23’s first appearance, but nothing is explained here. She gets a great introductory miniseries called X-23. Read that one instead. This NYX series is absolute garbage, filled with the worst that humanity has to offer.
Inhumans: This is a strong three-star series. It’s absolutely worth reading one time, especially if you are tired of the usual royal family characters. There are some good jokes and commentaries on human/American culture and customs. Writing and characterization are consistently good.
Hawkeye: Decent run of issues
Emma Frost: This is absolute gold right here! Do not be put off by the covers that make it look like a Penthouse magazine. The story of Emma Frost’s family, upbringing, and initial emergence of telepathic powers is delightful. You will probably have strong feelings about the characters, especially her father, after reading this. I am excited to read #7-18 in the 2004 session.
Spectacular Spider-Man: The first five issues are decent. I skipped the other five because I could only take so much Humberto Ramos art.
Wolverine: I tried the first issue, but that type of story is not to my liking at all, so I skipped the rest.
I have read enough to know that the other stories I skipped are either characters/concepts that do not appeal to me, or I do not like the writer assigned to the title. I will listen to the comments attentively, but there are lots of other comics on my to-read list.
Throwback read: Thunderbolts #1-22 (1997-1998), now all on MU, is a fascinating introduction. I hope this continues to get filled in by the good people at Marvel.
Other recommended reads not on Dave’s list (as if you needed more comic issues to read): Iron Man #73, Uncanny X-Men #416, Thunderbolts #75, Peter Parker: Spectacular Spider-Man #50
There was a lot to admire in 2003. Next year starts the big, interconnected events with Avengers Disassembled. It will be interesting to see the list for 2004.
Carson says
Agree 100% on Emma Frost, an excellent series with some of the most inappropriate cover art imaginable. Totally misses the tone of the book and I’m sure it would have cruelled a chance to really expand the audience.
The Claw says
Any recommendations on the Bonus Round? It looks like a bit of a giant dump of new series & limited series?
Claude says
For the bonus round I have read the Avengers, and it really should have been a main rounder. (Exiles and X-Static have grown tiresome)
I plan to read
Hulk: Grey (gain) as it was good when I read it years ago. I will also read the Hulk 47-59.
Truth: Red, White or Black has gotten good reviews and I have long had it on my “to read” list, so this month it will be.
1602, see above
And probably Namor because I like the guy. Apart from that the bonus round will take a back seat to Ultimate…
No name says
Wow, those Austen issues of Exiles were awful.
Brandon Harbeke says
I reviewed the Ultimate titles for this year, and here are my opinions on them.
Ultimate War, X-Men, and Six are all average, decent reads.
Ultimates is horrible garbage, and Ultimates #13 should be avoided like a cow pie.
Ultimate Spider-Man is decent for a lot of the year, but it has some very compelling stories with Venom and #50. I also highly recommend Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra.
Claude says
Wow, we really have our work cut out for us this month. I like that there are a number of stories I had always wanted to get to but never did, like Runaways, Mystique and The End. Always good to have a little push to get me started.
I do not think I will get to even half of the bonus round books…not with all those wonderful Ultimate stories waiting for me.
Tanks for the great list, Dave.
And congratulations again in the baby. Oddly enough, when my son was born I was between semesters, so had a ton of “free time”. That was the first time I tackled the Clone Saga.