funnybook of the month: January 2011

In an attempt to nail down the year's best funnybook, I will whittle down the contenders by month. Why? Because the year is ending and a year-end list is what people do.

The Winner: Avengers Academy #8

What I said then: Gage really puts you into moral gray area that those kids live in with this issue, and McKone's emotionally spent Tigra pages come across as magnificent gut punch after magnificent gut punch.



Why it's still awesome now: No one was a fan of what happened to Tigra for the purposes of making the Hood look like a big tough guy. To take one of the most reviled plot points in recent comics history and use it to develop these new characters and give us their version of doing the right thing really is a special feat and part of what made Avengers Academy such an amazing title for so long.

Was it close? Detective Comics #873, which did a lot to truly establish Scott Snyder's version of Dick Grayson as Batman almost got the nod. But only almost.