Takeshi Miyazawa

Two words could be used to describe comics in 2015: scandal and rebirth. The scandals happened off the pages at both companies large and small, and the rebirth happened in the comics themselves.

Ms. Marvel #1 is a delightful smorgasbord of superhero action, sweet romance, bright art, and has a strong, yet fantastical connection to real world issues. G. Willow Wilson, Takeshi Miyazwa, and Adrian Alphona craft a first issue that is both exciting and heart wrenching as Kamala Khan starts to take steps into being a more responsible and mature superhero and human being in both her actions and interpersonal relationships.

2015 has been quite the eclectic year for comics, and this fact is reflected in our top ten list. Image Comics continues to be the true house of ideas with books ranging from a feminist twist on exploitation films to a murder mystery set in 1940s Hollywood and even a LGBTQ-friendly parody of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Even though they are in the middle of big events (Convergence and Secret Wars), DC and Marvel respectively still have room for offbeat takes on their iconic or not so iconic characters and are represented on this list along with Valiant, which has attracted a veritable Murderer’s Row of creator to shape and develop their shared universe.

Since its release last year, Ms. Marvel has stood as one of the most subversive and earnest teenage superhero books coming out of either of the big two. It’s drawn in fans both old and new who never dreamed to see a teenage Pakistani-American girl don superhero tights and stand up against injustice in her own home city. The book has been charged with the fury of Millennials sick of being told they’re the social rot that marks the downfall of society. Even when conveying to traditional cynical comic book marketing like a Wolverine team-up, the title kept its identity and worked something that editorially mandated into a natural extend of Kamala Khan’s development. As Ms. Marvel has done its best to ignore typical female superhero tropes, this month risks all of that when Kamala realizes she’s developed a crush on a handsome new boy who’s come to town.

Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1 1-133, 150-160 (2000-2011) Vol. 2 1-15 (2009-2010) Written by Brian Michael Bendis Art by Mark Bagley, Stuart Immonen, David Lafuente, Takeshi Miyazawa, and  Sara Pichelli Published by Marvel Comics For eleven years, Brian Michael Bendis chronicled the life and death of Peter Parker in the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man. He updated Spider-Man for …