As we close out the year that was, the staff at Xavier Files wanted to take a moment to highlight our favorite comics from throughout the year. There were so many great books that we couldn’t list them all, but we wanted to give our team the chance to highlight an issue, an arc, a series or a collection that really spoke to them this year. Hopefully, this helps you find something to love that you might have missed. These are Xavier Files’ best comics of 2020
No One’s Rose
Writer: Zac Thompson, Emily Horn Artist: Alberto Jimenez-Alburquerque Colorist: Raúl Angulo Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou Publisher: Vault Comics
Zachary Jenkins: It’s been a hard year. You’ve heard it from your friends and neighbors, your employers, and your fast casual dining chains whose email’s you keep forgetting to unsubscribe to. Even leading up to it, hopelessness has been ever present as cynicism rotted at our roots. What No One’s Rose gave this year was a hint, a glimmer of optimism in these unprecedented times. Thompson and Horn nurtured a fully realized world, with conflicts and connects that ran deeper than their 5 issues could hold. Jimenez-Alburquerque and Angulo similarly, put on a masterclass in world building and character design. This is a story about a hopeless situation, about the price of our decadence, but it’s also about finding solutions and overcoming adversity. 2020 has been a hard year, but No One’s Rose reminded us that the future is not set in stone.
King of Nowhere
Writer: W. Maxwell Prince Artist: Tyler Jenkins Colorist: Hilary Jenkins Letterer: AndWorld Design Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Forrest Hollingsworth: Delivered through a layer of beautiful narrative and visual abstraction and absurdism, King of Nowhere tells one of the most intimate, human stories of the year. It’s a succinct but demanding meditation on loneliness, outsiders, and the razor thin line between humanity creativity and destructive tendencies – down to the frank discussion of nuclear power and weapons and alcoholism. Prince’s story of a self-effacing burnout finding himself not through individuality but rather through becoming a member of a community is more relevant than ever in a year where everyone has found new needs for reliance and affirmation and the beautifully rendered giant lizards, tree men, and borders between nature and concrete human structuralism Jenkins strikes certainly don’t hurt.
Hedra
Cartoonist: Jesse Lonergan Publisher: Image Comics
Andrea Ayres: Hedra is a melody. The visual language of Hedra continues to astound me months later. It’s quiet. It doesn’t shout and doesn’t need to. It’s a beautiful one-shot about connecting, listening, and seeing. Within the pages of Hedra exists the possibility of time. There’s hopefulness and melancholy at play, but you never feel overwhelmed. Like all comics, Hedra demands the reader give a little of themselves to the page. Of course what you receive in return is much greater than what you are asked to give. I guess what I’m saying is, you’ll get out what you put in.
Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen
Writer: Matt Fraction Artist: Steve Lieber Colorist: Nathan Fairbairn Letterer: Clayton Cowles Publisher: DC Comics
Cori McCreery: There is no comic that I loved more over the last year and a half than Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. Especially in the hellscape that was 2020, a book that provided continuous laughs each and every issue was absolutely needed to prevent me from spiraling into a depression hole. There is not a single issue of this book that I did not love unabashedly, and every single one of them made me laugh at least once. Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber were a perfect team for such a comedic masterpiece, and I’m grateful that we all got to experience it.
The Magic Fish
Cartoonist: Trung Le Nguyen Publisher: Random House Graphic
Liz Large: The Magic Fish is the most beautiful story I read this year. It weaves together coming of age and coming out, family history, and the stories of three princesses (Allerleirauh, Tãm Cám, and the Little Mermaid). The relationship between these stories is perfect, and the shifting POV—Tién, his mother, her aunt, the worlds of the fairytales—makes the storytelling have even more emotional impact. Nguyen’s artwork is gorgeous. The limited use of colors to show different viewpoints lets the detailed line work shine through—something that works equally well for a 90’s school scene as it does for a fairytale princess in a gown.
I can’t recommend it enough to anyone who likes intricate magical art, emotional storytelling, and/or crying.
Department of Truth
Writer: James Tynion IV Artist: Martin Simmonds Letterer: Aditya Bidikar Publisher: Image Comics
Vishal Gullapalli: I’m a sucker for horror comics, and I’m especially a sucker for highly stylized art that evokes feelings more than it does clear images. Department of Truth isn’t the scariest book out there, but it’s so masterful with how it makes the reader feel about everything that it’s just gotta be my favorite. A simple description of it being about conspiracy theories doesn’t do it justice – this book is about the fictions of the 21st century and how they affect our reality. Tynion, Simmonds, and Bidikar are putting out some of the strongest work in comics right now.
Daredevil
Writer: Chip Zdarsky Artists: Marco Checcetto, Jorge Fornes, Francesco Mobili, Mike Hawthorne Color Art: Nolan Woodard, Marcio Manyz, Mattia Iacono Letters: Clayton Cowles Publisher: Marvel Comics
Tony Thornley: There’s a principle I heard of once called an embarrassment of riches. It’s when you get so much of a good thing that you begin to take it for granted. In regards to comics, I actually heard it first referring to Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s Daredevil, and I think it applies just as much to Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checcetto’s run. After a rough year in the real world, reading about perhaps the worst year in Matt Murdock’s life should be a drag. However, as it continues, it’s more than just a story of a fall and rise of a superhero. It’s not a tale of redemption. This is an evolution of Matt Murdock’s story with Daredevil owning up to his actions and accepting the reality of the dark side of superheroics. And best of all, it’s a hell of a read.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Writer: Al Ewing Artists: Juan Cabal, Marcio Takara Color Art: Frederico Blee Letters: Cory Petit Publisher: Marvel Comics
Zoe Tunnell: Finally breaking out of both the MCU and Annihilation‘s shadows, Guardians of the Galaxy under Ewing and Cabal is the jolt the team has needed for a decade. An extremely queer-heavy team, inventive plots and career-defining work from Juan Cabal gives the title a sense of place and energy that few superhero books could hope to muster. Easily one of Marvel’s best titles of the year and a must-read for just about anyone.
Once & Future
Writer: Kieron Gillen Artist: Dan Mora Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain Letterer: Ed Dukeshire Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cat Purcell: When you combine a bad-ass, gun toting grandma with a cute but nerdy ginger boy and an Arthurian legend, I’m gonna say sign me right up! I’m of the opinion that tales about King Arthur’s coming are few and far between and we’re overwhelmed with retellings of his past. This comic does a great job of combining and entwining those two stories in a way that actually had me biting my nails in my car on a lunch break. Gillen spins a good yarn and I’m anxiously awaiting part 2. Mora does a wonderful job at consistently capturing each character’s expressions and Bonvillian’s colors look like something out of a dream, or a stunning nightmare. The pacing Dukeshire uses for his letters down to the bubble tails individually tailored to characters stopped me in my tracks when I realized what he was doing. Even if you’re not a King Arthur nerd, you’d enjoy this comic!
Chainsaw Man Ch. 75
Writer / Artist: Tatsuki Fujimoto Publisher: Shueisha
Ian Gregory: Fujimoto’s distinctly unrelenting narrative style culminates in just 19 beautiful pages. This chapter ends with four back-to-back double page spreads, depicting the Gun Devil’s massacre, with each page listing the names of his hundreds of victims. It’s hard to describe the visual impact of this chapter – it must be seen to be believed, but it’s the perfect combination of artistry and narrative significance. Reading chapter 75 of Chainsaw Man makes you feel in your bones that something big is coming. And something big was coming: chapter 75 began a 20-something-week run in which every chapter of Chainsaw Man was the best in Jump (and maybe in all of manga, and even comics) that week.
Read Chainsaw Man.
X-Men #11
Writer: Jonathan Hickman Artist: Leinil Francis Yu Colorist: Rain Beredo Letterer: Clayton Cowles Publisher: Marvel Comics
Jude Jones: “Only when lions have historians will hunters cease being heroes.” (African Proverb)
X-Men #11 is the Myth of Magneto: an awe inspiring recollection of his works, told by a former acolyte to future ones, further reorienting the context of Magneto’s purported villainy into that of a revolutionary savior. Here the tenuous and yet oft repeated Malcolm X analogy meets it’s overdue end: where Malcolm simply advocated self defense; Magneto seeks the decimation and humiliation of his plant based foes.
He is brash and bombastic. He leads confidently, unquestioned. He is controlled and calculated in what and how he destroys. The art is immersive. The coloring, subdued. The dialogue is equal parts comedic and prophetic. In retrospect, it’s not clear if we’re meant to take all we see as unbiased truth or as the gospel as told by Exodus. It doesn’t matter: we leave the comic believers of his legend, just as the mutant children do.
All hail the Mutant Messiah. May his reign last eternal.
Undone by Blood, or the Shadow of a Wanted Man
Writers: Zac Thompson, Lonnie Nadler Artist: Sami Kivela Colorist: Jason Wordie Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou Publisher: AfterShock
Dan Grote: A gang of angel dust-peddling assholes killed Ethel Grady Lane’s family. Several years later, armed with the paperback adventures of cowboy Solomon Eaton as a guide, she returns to Sweetheart, Arizona, seeking hot, sweaty, nasty revenge.
Ethel is not a competent revenge-getter. She makes mistakes. She gets hurt. She eschews help from the local constabulary. She gets high at a party and hallucinates. But she is never, for a second, distracted from her ultimate goal of doing great violence to those who wronged her. There’s nothing sexual about this story, but it’s still some of the hottest shit you’ll read all year.
Dragon Hoops
Cartoonist: Gene Luen Yang Publisher: First Second
Robert Secundus: Though I like the sport just fine, I’m not a fan of watching basketball. I also tend not to love cartoonist memoir, and yet this book, also a work of sports-journalism, history, and cultural criticism, was by far my book of the year, and not just because it’s a great example of the syncretic impulse that defines so much of Yang’s work. The simple, earnest, passionate development of one motif will stick with me: I will always remember that small, simple, ever-repeating and all-important step.
Pulp
Writer: Ed Brubaker Artist and Letterer: Sean Phillips Colorist: Jacob Phillips Publisher: Image Comics
Matt Lazorwitz: Max Winter writes pulp stories based not-too-loosely on his own past as an outlaw in the west. When an old adversary shows up with a proposition, Max teams up with his former foe for one last score to provide for his wife before he dies. As the scheme goes off he learns that things aren’t what they seem, and that there’s still a monster in him. Part pulp noir, part Western, taut and tragic, “Pulp” is a worthy addition to the Brubaker/Phillips canon. Plus a bunch of Nazis get shot, and that’s something we can all get behind.
X of Swords: Destruction
Writers: Jonathan Hickman & Tini Howard Artist: Pepe Larraz Colorist: Marte Gracia Letterer: Clayton Cowles Publisher: Marvel Comics
Adam Reck: X of Swords as a whole was a roller-coaster of mood and pacing that ranged from solo adventures to downright silly hijinx, but the finale, a 40-page barrage of Endgame-style reveals, was absolutely bombastic. Hats off to Hickman & Howard for pulling all the threads together, but the real credit must go to art superstars Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia who took the unenviable task of depicting what feels like 300 characters on each page and sell every moment, proving they are hands down the best pair working in comics today. Jean Grey leading an army of mutants into battle shouting “To Me My X-Men!” made me jump out of my seat and cheer.
Excalibur
Writer: Tini Howard Artists: Marcus To, Wilton Santos, R.B. Silva, Phil Noto, Mahmud Asar Colorist: Erick Arcinega, Oren Junior, Nolan Woodard, Sunny Gho Letterer: Cory Petit, Ariana Maher Publisher: Marvel Comics
“For This World,
For All Worlds.
When the Citadel Calls,
Captain Britain Must Answer.
Whatever the Cost.”
Justin Partridge: You don’t need me to tell you that things have been bleak. You also don’t need me to tell you how good the Dawn of X line has been. You are already here. But…at least for a few weeks out of this insane, immensely crushing year, Excalibur made me believe for at least 22-24 pages that things were okay.
Sure, some of the other DOX titles had the prestige (yes, that one, she’s in X-Factor) and the consistently shocking (oddly hilarious) violence of their namesake’s reputations, but Excalibur just always seemed…brighter. More connecting. Gleaming, somehow. Striving to not only tell weirder, more operatic stories amid the backdrop of The Island That Is A Man, but providing the beating heart of X of Swords and branching the long-untended Braddock family tree into something brand new for a whole new generation of X-people and Braddock obsessed Anglophiles alike. Is that a little hokey? Absolutely. Maybe even a touch over-emotional because I love Betsy and Brian so much? Probably. But that doesn’t make it any less real. We needed heroes this year. We called. Tini Howard, Marcus To, Erick Arcinega, and Captain Britain answered and we were the better for it.
Redfork
Writer: Alex Paknadel Artist: Nil Vendrell Colorist: Giulia Brusco Letterer: Ryan Ferrier Publisher: TKO Studios
Will Nevin: I first read Redfork in the way you might consume a dank underground mixtape or a snuff film: in a late night bleary haze and in one dreadful swallow. So I can’t be altogether sure that what I read was real — combining Needful Things, some earnest residue of Hillbilly Elegy and a sprinkling of body horror with ecological doomsaying on the side certainly doesn’t feel like it could possibly be real, and yet I’m 78 percent certain that’s what I read that night. Paknadel and Vendrell’s work is imaginative, bold and, above all, impossibly unique.
Immortal Hulk
Writer: Al Ewing Artist: Joe Bennett, Javier Rodriguez, Nick Pitarra, Butch Guice, Mike Hawthorne, Ruy Jose, Belardino Brabo, Cam Smith, Tom Palmer, Mark Morles Colorist: Paul Mounts, Michael Garland, Matt Milla Letterer: Cory Petit Publisher: Marvel
Zach Rabiroff: In the end, the fear was never the point. Immortal Hulk first attracted attention for its warped, devilish imagery and surreal probings into the body and mind of Marvel’s deathless gamma monster. But then, in 2020, a strange thing began to happen: as the story wound on, and Bruce Banner emerged from the lower levels of Hell into the light above, it became not so much a tale about pain and trauma as about its cure. What started as an exploration of an Inferno became Dantean in the truest sense: a halting, difficult, unsteady passage toward human redemption. And in a year of mounting horrors, this horror comic gave us the most unexpected thing: a brief, fleeting glimpse of hope.
Ant-Man
Writer: Zeb Wells Artist: Dylan Burnett Colorist: Mike Spicer Letterer: Corey Petit Publisher: Marvel
Karen Charm: Ant-Man is a comic I covet as much as read. It’s so rich and beautiful that I pore over every detail, trying to absorb the talent into myself. I’d love it if every Marvel comic looked this bright, expressive, and sumptuous. Burnett, Spicer, and Petit are in perfect balance with each other and Wells’ script, nailing the comedic tone of the story without sacrificing dramatic stakes. Wells makes you care so much about those bugs! Lacking X-genes, Ant-Man and Stinger aren’t characters I had much of a connection with but this comic is too well made for me not to love.
Finger Guns
Writer: Justin Richards Artist: Val Halvorson Colorist: Rebecca Nalty Letterer: Taylor Esposito Publisher: Vault
Ari Bard: Some day, I’m going to write about the visual portrayal of empathy in comics. It’s incredibly difficult to do, and there are some very bad attempts out there, but Finger Guns is able to brilliantly use a simple, and even somewhat silly, concept to effectively transfer emotion to the reader. The basic premise of, “What if pointing finger guns at people could affect their emotions?” quickly becomes a nuanced look at the relationships between action, emotion and consequences. Richards and Halvorson make a hell of a debut here, and in terms of comics in 2020 that’ll make you feel things, you can’t do much better than this one.
Blue In Green
Writer: Ram V Artist: Anand RK Colorist: John J. Pearson Letterer: Aditya Bidikar Publisher: Image Comics
Ritesh Babu: Look, you’re thinking ‘Oh, of course he picked that!’ and you know what? Fair. But also, as ‘easy’ and obvious’ a pick as this is, it’s one that had to be here. To quote the legendary picto-sequential critic of his time, the great Socrates: This comic whips. It’s a hell of a formal flex by everyone involved, building effectively off all of their past collaborations, to deliver a really potent story about art and artists. It’s a team that’s done consistently great work finally taking the center stage and being recognized. More than though, it’s a comic that genuinely scared me and haunted me for days on end. I’m still thinking about it.
Hellions #4
Writer: Zeb Wells Artist: Stephen Segovia Colorist: David Curiel Letterer: Ariana Maher Publisher: Marvel Comics
Austin Gorton: The climax to Hellions’ inaugural story arc is Madelyne Pryor’s argument for her right to personhood. Sure, she’s not a good person (she’s plotting to send hordes of zombie Marauders to ravage Krakoa) but, she convincingly argues, she’s still a unique person (with some valid grievances). Ultimately, her plan is foiled & she dies, but then the Quiet Council, on a BS technicality, refuses to resurrect her, denying she is the very thing she was so desperate to prove. It’s a real gut-punch of an ending to an issue with everything that makes Hellions one of the best X-books: searing examinations of death & morality backed by expressive art, laced with body horror, macabre humor, and gothic melodrama, performed by a delightful assortment of X-characters no one ever imagined they’d end up rooting for so hard.
Marvel Snapshots: X-Men
Writer: Jay Edidin Artist: Tom Reilly Colorist: Chris O’Halloran Letterer: Tom Orzechowski Publisher: Marvel Comics
Kenneth Laster: After reading Marvels for the first time, I spent an ungodly amount of time recreating the Marvel Silver Age in order of publication date in the Sims 3, so to say that book had an impact on me may be an understatement.
For Marvel Snapshots: X-Men to capture the magic of Marvels through the eyes of a more recent favorite of mine, Scott Summers, makes this comic something incredibly special and just as impactful. Jay Edidin of Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is a deep fan of Cyclops and his love for the character leaps off the page. Edidin weaves a story of Scott Summers in the dawn of Marvel’s Silver Age that reads like poetry and crafts a monologue that evokes complicated and frustrating feelings of his isolation and helplessness. To accomplish diving effortlessly into the complicated continuity of Scott’s childhood and to come out with a resonant narrative about regaining control is incredible. Tom Reilly and Chris O’Halloran breathe life into Edidn’s script and with Reilly’s reserved body language for Scott and O’Halloran’s muted palette, save for that iconic deep red. Marvels Snapshots: X-Men quickly became a classic and unquestionably essential reading for fans of Cyclops, X-Men, and even Marvel’s Silver age.
Marauders #12
Writer: Gerry Duggan Artist: Matteo Lolli Colorist: Edgar Delgado Letterer: Cory Petit Publisher: Marvel Comics
Stephanie Burt: Every reader who sees herself in Kate had been waiting for this one, and it contained my favorite single page this year. No, not the page where Kate Pryde, after forty years of real time publishing and no one knows how many years in-universe, finally gets to kiss a girl on panel. Not the page where she reveals her tattoo: KILL SHAW. No, it’s the page where Illyana Rasputina greets her best friend’s resurrection with a mariachi band playing “De contrabando,” and then tackles her and ends up, laughing, with Kate underneath. You call it fan service box-checking: I call it a perfectly executed moment of compensatory bliss. Check out the joy on the faces, both Kate’s and Illyana’s. Can they compare notes about coming back from the dead?
Superman Smashes the Klan
Writer: Gene Luen Yang Artist: Gurihiru Letterer: Janice Chiang Publisher: DC Comics
Chris Eddleman: Superman is many things—a galactic sci-fi hero, the poster boy of the Justice League, the foil for many a villain. But, it’s hard to top the greatest version of Superman, the one from the Golden Age where he smacked around abusive husbands, terrified exploitative bosses, and helped out the little guy. In this period comic by fantastic writer Gene Luen Yang, we have a Superman doing what Superman does best, whooping the ever living heck out of racists and foiling their evil plans. This all-ages book approaches racism without dumbing down, and ultimately shows how insidious capitalism can be when intertwined with bigotry. We’re treated to a story of being an outsider from the perspective of Superman and our main character Roberta Lee, and how coexisting doesn’t have to mean assimilating. All drawn with care and a touch for fun by art team Gurihiru, this is the best Superman story in ages, and exactly what I want to see from the Man of Tomorrow.