funnybook of the year: 2011

DC didn't have very long to compete. The lead-up to relaunch was mostly creative teams scrambling to tie up their loose ends, which produced few stand-out issues and nothing that felt like the best one of the year. So then came the DCnU relaunch, which pushed out some new quality titles. Even among those, though, only two issues of Action Comics, #1 with the introduction of Social Justice Superman and #3 with the debut of Clark Kent: Angry Journlaist felt close. They just felt that way, though.

It was a rough year for non-Big Two books on my pull list this year. Some old favorites faltered and were dropped from the list, some new ones disappointed, and few were able to overcome my admitted capes n' tights bias. Terry Moore launched a brilliant new series in Rachel Rising and The Walking Dead continued to find new ways to play with what should by all rights be a limited theme. Still, though, nothing that hinted towards being transcendent. There are projects I'm looking forward to in 2012, but 2011 is not the year an indie book breaks through.

Really, the whole thing came down to three incredible offerings from Marvel. Ultimate Spider-Man #160, featuring the heartbreaking death of Peter Parker following an intense battle that jerked emotions around and gave us character-defining moments by the boatload was one of them.

Uncanny X-Force #18 was another. It gave us the heartbreaking loss of Warren Worthington following intense battles and character-defining moments for Psylocke and Fantomex.

Both of those offerings were brutally real, zeroing in on emotion and loss in a way that hasn't been achieved since last year's ultimate winner, Secret Six #22. However, in the end, my true winner gave me something different from heartache. It gave me character defining moments, a huge and intense battle, but replaced the heartache with a sense of triumph that put a spring in my step for days after reading it...and then for days after re-reading it.



The Amazing Spider-Man #672 is everything a comic book should be. Wonderfully kinetic artwork, a tight story driven by characters, something unthinkably fantastical, and pure escapism for the reader. You can see from the previous annual winners that I certainly have a soft spot for darker stories, but this one was so far to the opposite of that, so unbelievably uplifting and wonderful as an issue, that I remembered why I started reading superhero books to begin with.

We have an issue that tied a bow on an epic story, tied a bow on the first act of what seems to be a very long Spider-Man plan, and yet seemlessly catapulted Peter Parker into the next phase all at once. It's Peter Parker saving New York with a big, dorky grin on his face as he does it. It's Kaine showing the difference between Peter Parker and every other comic book character ever. It's the relationships in Peter's life pushing him to be better.

This book is why Spider-Man is my favorite character. How can it not be the funnybook of the year? So let me thank the creative team for delivering such a wonderful issue in the face of what could have been an awful premise.

Writer: Dan Slott
Pencils: Humberto Ramos
Inkers: Karl Kesel & Victor Olazaba
Colorist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: Joe Caramanga
Editors: Axel Alonso, Tom Brevoort, Ellie Pyle, & Stephen Wacker