Year in Review: 2024

Year in Review 2024
Life is full of a lot of demands, 2024 was full of getting my life back together. Long and short my focus has returned, bit by bit, I’m making time to read and exercise, though the Internet has a pull that’s so charming I feel that magic twisting around my throat once more. Then I look into a mirror and realize, no, these are my choices. And like every good choice I’ve decided to talk about five great selections that I’ve read in 2024.


TOP FIVE YEAR IN REVIEW 2024
Table of Contents
    On-Going Series: Santos Sisters by Greg & Fake

    Graphic Novel: Secret Wars II by Jim Shooter & Al Milgrom

    Should’ve Been a Novel: X-Men: The Hellfire Club by Ben Raab & Charlie Adlard

    Single Issue: The City Beneath Her Feet by James Tynion IV & Elsa Charretier

    Honorable Mentions: Flavor Girls, Eye Lie Popeye, The Moon Is Following Us, My Bad, Galaxy of Madness

On-Going Series: Santos Sisters
At first glance this is an Archie parody, but it’s far from that, it’s completely it’s own thing, but using imagery that’s iconic, bridging your perspective and softening your thoughts on whether this is a good purchase. Let me ease your mind and congratulate you on your comic adventure through this wild experience into these vignettes of life. Each issue is filled with short stories about the two titular heroines as they save the day through different means each time, though a larger than required weapon is usually shaken about in the face of the cover’s featured danger. Most of the misadventures remind me a lot of those Comix of the ‘90s, things that you found printed in black and white from a defunct publishing house, usually within the 20 blocks from that comic shop. It was a long time ago that Zines ran the market and helped a lot of careers for modern legendary artists, though that’s kind of the selling point of this series. It’s not your modern superhero book, it’s something that’s very tongue-in-cheek, the appeal may not be for everyone, but it’s worth a read. If you don’t want to hunt down the single issues they have a collected edition available for purchase that will knock your socks off.

Graphic Novel: Secret Wars II
Maybe one of the best self-help books I’ve ever read. This isn’t a part two to Secret Wars, (don’t let the title fool you) I know rip-off, but it’s a little better than that. In the first series it was a means of advertising the toyline, and respectively it worked for the most part, though the story veered into a different direction the last portion of the series, that to me is how this volume came to be and why it’s not a direct sequel to the previous work. This is an intimate story about what it means to be human. That’s it, that’s the pitch, and that’s what successfully was produced into a twelve issue series. As the story opens we see the Beyonder has no true form and it’s not till issue three that he takes on his more iconic mien. I will say this till the last breath erupts from my corporeal form “I hate Origin Stories”, though this is how you do it. Introduce the setting not the protagonist, the supporting cast, and everything else that needs to be setup for them before you have the pleasure of meeting this character. This is all done nice and neat, then we get into heavy introspective talks, conversations of topics not many books get into at this time. Also the first appearance of teenage Mutant runaway Tabitha Smith [Boom-Boom {or any nickname for herself that she thinks is good}] makes her debut and stays for a few issues, tackling ideas and emotions from a point of view of a youthful Earthling. Remember this is 1985 and independent comics have just hit mainstream and are going to flood the ‘90s market. Though books, especially superhero marketed books, don’t touch on the subject matter of life (or the meaning of living). The ending like the first book had to have its superhero mandated end, but everything leading up to the point was a spectacular conversation between humans and a being beyond conventional understanding. This is not a traditional crossover comic, this is about one entity trying to comprehend existence through our eyes first hand. If you’re looking for something that’s all about heroes butting heads with other heroes and villains and everyone else that’s on the street, this is not the book for you. Though if you are apart of those few that want to enjoy a unconventional way to express the meaning of life and humanity and the emotional pinball machine that is existence, then you’ve got the right book in your hands.

Single Issue: The City Beneath Her Feet; Issue One
One of the best “Hook Stories” you’ll ever read! Honestly, this is how you should teach the future creative teams on how a story needs to capture the reader and have them locked into the next twelve issue (even if there’s just four). In this first issue we meet our main characters, three Women who’s lives intertwine as the story progresses. Their names in this tale are Zara, Liz, and Jasper, who are different is ways that are large and small, but intriguing enough that I want to know every intimate detail between their relation with each other. The setting is New York City, present day, starting off with our narrator Zara to a series of Flashbacks of her budding relationship with Jasper as she and Liz just finished a job. We learn that Jasper enjoys the company of Zara and Zara is infatuated with Jasper, but Liz knows nothing good will come from them together. Long and short, this is a plot about contract killers, misguided desires, and the lonely hope that life isn’t all chaos and violence. If that’s not a good enough selling point the stylized illustrations accompanying this piece should be enough to capture your sight, and only way to regain your vision is by purchasing the Collected Edition. (the plot is different though subtly reminds me of “My Faith in Frankie” by Mike Carey, Sonny Liew, & Marc Hempel). Long and short, it’s only the first issue (of volume 1) and I’m ready to commit to queuing up a line for the second volume of the Trade Paperback, and these are my feeling on issue one respectfully.

Should’ve Been a Novel: X-Men: The Hellfire Club
Journalism is a competitive beast, though getting a book published isn’t a small feat either. This story is about Irene Merryweather a writer uncovering everything involved with Shaw from the Hellfire club for a publisher (book, news article, she really wasn’t consistent with where this would land ultimately). Sounds interesting, that would be a wonderful twelve part maxi-series comic or a TV movie- -no, it’s four issues of shallow pandering. Yeah, it’s really not that great of a story, though it’s plot sounds like an awesome series, even a wonderful novel on the different facets that the Shaw family (current and past) have placed themselves with the start of America positioning themselves into power and run the Marvel universe. Nope, just a run of the mill idea that had a lackluster flop of an ending. I feel the biggest problem is there wasn’t tangible danger in what Merryweather was uncovering, though the stories were interesting, but nothing that was direct (more unnerving) peril. Even Hallmark films have higher stakes than these four issues. Again this being adapted to film I could see it like an ‘Atomic Blonde’ (2017) kind of deal, lack luster comic [The Coldest City (2012)], though the premise was great, and that would be a good enough starting point that then sparked a better film, with astounding actors. This is one of those sleeper pieces of media that needs the right shaman to reanimate this corpse with the right souls to possess it. If I could have a period film about the social rise of this Mutant club in the financial sector, this would be my pick in an instant, since there’s so much a creative team can work with and the vignettes being within different generations, just the icing on the cake. Again, I thought this was going to be a story about uncovering the whole Hellfire Club, my first disappointment, then it felt like a reframing of an idea for a “Captain America through the Ages” tale, to ultimately focus on Sebastian Shaw, too late for it to have definition and the series was too short to explore anymore of his life nor anyone else’s to give refinement. If they ever make a book (or film), this will be a joy to consume, though for now I’ve got more novels in the queue.

Honorable Mentions: Mini-Top Five Suggestions
    -Flavor Girls
    -Galaxy of Madness
    -My Bad Volume 2
    -Eye Lie Popeye
    -The Moon Is Following Us

Honest suggestions, if you have similar tastes to myself, you wanna see a little violence with comedy, good story structure, and amazing illustrations, then these are my top five suggestions of 2024 in no partictular order. Though let me breakdown some of these amazing tales. Flavor Girls is a love letter to the Magical Girl genre, it’s a different perspective than their Shoujo counterpart, though it’s as serious as a bullet wound, I love the kinetic action and the story of the first part of this series, in 2025 there’s a sequel printed, I’m excited to read the second part next. My Bad Volume 2 was better than the first, though I feel the first really didn’t know what direction nor where it wanted to focus, this was focused and that depth in the stories that they spreads between the issues was perfection is humor. Galaxy of Madness is illustrated by Michael Avon Orming, there’s not much more needs to be expressed after that when you’re trying to visually create a stunning and mind bending thriller of galactic intrigue. Eye Lie Popeye is what you get when you combine an ultra violent 1929 sailor with the mind of someone that grew up with anime in their heart. The Moon Is Following Us is a combination of thoughts that make this stunning amalgam of ideas just right, for two parents trying to save their daughter’s mind and their sanity. This year’s Honorable Mentions have the theme of love letters to comics and these are beautifully penned by the creative teams that quilted them together.

I hope you enjoyed this list of stories that brought me through 2024 and if you agreed with this list, let’s talk, if you didn’t, tell me why, if you have new additions to your reading queue, you’re welcome. See you next year!