MS MARVEL
Diversity is often represented in comic books and media, but it mostly feels like tokenism. Breaking the pattern is Marvel Comics, which has introduced Kamala Khan, a 16-year-old Pakistani- American girl who suddenly finds herself with super powers, and assumes the name of Ms Marvel (paying homage to the previous Ms Marvel, Carol Danvers). What’s exciting about this series is that writer G Wilson manages to incorporate all kinds of identities and create this allage, all-gender, all-religion, all everything comic.
SAGA
Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples have created a masterpiece with Saga. While a lot of its promotional copy leads people to believe it’s a Star Wars inspired work, it’s not. It tells the story of star-crossed lovers from two warring intergalactic factions who suddenly find themselves on the run--- with a new-born baby in tow. From unforgettable characters to the most gorgeous artwork by the phenomenal Fona Staples, not to speak of a mashup of almost every kind of genre possible, the Hugo award-winning series will blow your mind.
MILES MORALES
Brian Michael Bendis is all over the Marvel universe, busy creating various storylines for Avengers, X-Men, Daredevil and more. But his most exciting work from last year was definitely his Ultimate Spider- Man work, with Miles Morales, the teenage Hispanic spider man taking centre-stage. In Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider- Man Volume 1, it’s the anniversary of Peter Parker’s death but as the world mourns the original Spiderman, a gathering of his friends and foes reveals shocking truths about him. We can’t wait to see where he takes the story next.
FINDER LIBRARY
Finder is a long-running science fiction drama. Self-published by Carla Speed McNeil for over a decade, it is now published by Dark Horse Comics, republishing eight of the selfpublished graphic novels as two lovely Libraries, each of which can be read alone. They follow various main characters, including a young girl whose first love is a book, a college girl majoring in The Art, which, when capitalised, makes her more like a geisha than Banksy, and a wandering pathfinder with one foot in another world.
THE WICKED AND THE DIVINE
Every 90 years, 12 men and women are chosen as gods. They get divine powers and become instant celebrities, but the cost is that they die in two short years. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie examine both religion and celebrity--- especially noting the many intrinsic similarities between the two---but seeing these reincarnated deities define themselves against each other, with their schemes, ideals, and fatalism, makes for a hell of a compelling saga in itself. The next issue couldn’t come sooner.