Marvel is the comic industry’s sales leader and again dominated the charts in 2022. The House of Ideas has been a pop culture juggernaut in the 21st century. While the comics are little more than fodder for Marvel Studios, the company still manages to put out the best books on the stands month in and month out. Marvel fans ate very well in 2022, with books from all over the line impressing readers.
Marvel puts out more comics than anyone else, from the most creatively fertile talents in the industry. The best Marvel books of the year featured character growth, epic battles, and major revelations for Wolverine, X-Men, Avengers, and more.
10/10 Wolverine Hasn’t Been This Good In Years
Marvel is known for violent heroes, with Wolverine being considered by many to be the king of them all. Wolverine, by Benjamin Percy, Adam Kubert, Federico Vicentini, and Juan José Ryp, has been making the character’s fans happy all year. From a team-up with Deadpool to settling old scores and going after the Progenitor to being double-crossed by an ally, the book has been hitting highs all year.
As the sole solo series of the X-Men line, Wolverine has to be impressive, and it managed this every month in 2022. Percy gets the character like no one since Larry Hama, and Kubert, Vicentini, and Ryp have given readers amazing visuals. Wolverine is the best there is at what he does and this year, it’s been headlining an entertaining comic.
9/10 Strange Highlighted Clea As The Sorcerer Supreme
The Sorcerer Supreme is dead, long live the Sorcerer Supreme. Strange, by Jed MacKay, Marcelo Ferreira, Lee Garbett, and Stefano Landini, followed “The Death of Doctor Strange”. When Stephen died, Clea Strange earns the title of Sorcerer Supreme and becomes the magical protector of the world.
Jed MacKay has been on fire at Marvel in 2022, and Strange is a big reason why. Clea is a character who hasn’t gotten a lot of love over the years, mostly acting as a sidekick. Giving her an ongoing has showed just how cool she can be. While Stephen is coming back in 2023, Strange has been great.
8/10 X Deaths Of Wolverine Set Moira MacTaggert On Her New Course
Jonathan Hickman’s departure from the X-Men books in 2021 left some hanging plot lines, which were cleaned up in X Deaths of Wolverine, by Benjamin Percy and Federico Vicentini. The book follows a now powerless Moira MacTaggert as she escapes Krakoa with Mystique hot on her tail. Meanwhile, a pod breaks through Krakoa’s soil, releasing the Omega Wolverine, a Phalanx possessed Logan.
X Deaths showed Moira’s descent to evil, as well as the Phalanx from her sixth life attacking through an ancient Wolverine. It closes out Hickman’s last hanging plots from House of X, Powers of X, and Inferno.
7/10 Defenders Beyond Is Cosmic Marvel Excellence
Cosmic Marvel has amazing stories and one day Defenders Beyond will join that pantheon. Written by Al Ewing with art by Javier Rodriguez, the book is a sequel to their Defenders series. A message from the dead Doctor Strange brings together Blue Marvel, Miss America, Tigra, Loki, and Taaia, the mother of Galactus to battle a threat like no other.
Ewing and Rodriguez are an amazing team, and this book is yet another example of why. With the Beyonder, the Phoenix Force, and more making an appearance, this is completely in Ewing’s wheelhouse. Rodriguez’s art style makes the whole thing sing. This book will take readers to places they’ve never been before.
6/10 Savage Avengers Is Marvel’s Best Non-X-Men Team Book
The Savage Avengers are a unique team, and their second volume has sent them into the stratosphere. Savage Avengers, by writer David Pepose and artist Carlos Magno, brought together a new team – Conan, Elektra as Daredevil, Black Knight, Dagger, Cloak, Weapon H, and Anti-Venom – when a Deathlok attacks Conan and pulls the group back in time.
The first story was Conan’s last Marvel story before the company lost the rights, and it knocks it out of the park. The next arc takes the team with a new member into the future, fighting the Machine Empire in 2099. Pepose and Magno are giving readers a brilliant team book, living up to its name.
5/10 Sabretooth Surprised Readers
Sabretooth has starred in some great stories, but few of them can hold a candle to Sabretooth, by writer Victor LaValle and artist Leonard Kirk. The book follows Sabretooth, consigned to the Pit since the beginning of the Krakoa Era. Given control of it by Doug Ramsey and Krakoa, Sabretooth creates a hellworld to torment his new Pit-mates as he plans his escape.
LaValle tells an amazing Sabretooth story, but what really makes the book sing is its metaphor. LaValle uses it as an indictment of the US justice system. It’s a smart, deep book that entertains on multiple levels. Kirk’s art is wonderful, really bringing it all to life. The five issue series is outstanding and its sequel, Sabretooth and The Exiles, is definitely following in its footsteps.
4/10 X-Men Red Digs Into The Sci-Fi Of The Krakoa Era
Marvel put out some must-read ongoings in 2022, with the X-Men titles definitely having more than their fair share. X-Men Red, by Al Ewing, Stefano Caselli and Madibek Musabekov, spins out of SWORD. Magneto has retired to Arakko, but Storm and Sunspot pull him into a new Brotherhood to protect the planet as SWORD Director Abigail Brand makes moves against the mutants for Orchis.
SWORD was bogged down by crossovers and never gained its footing. X-Men Red is its own book from the start and even the Judgment Day tie-ins work for the book’s overall story. It’s Ewing at his best, and is a brilliant X-Men book.
3/10 Immortal X-Men Became The Perfect Flagship Book
When Hickman left, X-Men’s quality fell drastically. Calling it the line’s flagship book was an insult to the other X-Men books, which is why it was so great that 2022 gave readers Immortal X-Men, by writer Kieron Gillen and artists Lucas Werneck and Michele Bandini. The book followed the Krakoan Quiet Council, each issue focusing on one member, as they dealt with threat to the nation and Judgment Day.
Immortal X-Men is consistently amazing. Gillen is an old hand with the X-Men, and he combines character work, action, and plot expertly. Werneck and Bandini are brilliant artists, bringing every issue to life. The Krakoa Era needed a shot in the arm, and Immortal X-Men gave it to them.
2/10 Miracleman: The Silver Age Is Phenomenal
Marvel’s best books are must-reads for any fan, and that goes doubly for Miracleman: The Silver Age, by writer Neil Gaiman and artist Mark Buckingham. Miracleman fans have waited decades for this book, and its impressed as much as anyone would have imagined. Gaiman and Buckingham finally finishing their Miracleman story is a wish come true.
The book takes place in the early 2000s, with Miracleman having run the world for almost twenty years. A new generation of superhumans has risen and Miracleman’s scientists are able to bring Young Miracleman to life. He awakens to a world unlike anything he imagined. It’s an amazing book, already shaping up to be a classic.
1/10 A.X.E. Judgment Day Is The Best Marvel Event In Years
A.X.E. Judgment Day changed the Marvel Universe, especially where the X-Men are concerned. Created by Kieron Gillen and Valerio Schiti, the book spun out of Gillen’s Eternals. When Druig discovers mutants have Deviant DNA, he decides to declare war on Krakoa to cement his power base. As that’s happening, rogue Eternals ask for the Avengers help, along with the kidnaped Mister Sinister, to create a new god for their people to stop the war.
Their creation, the Progenitor, ends the war, but then decides that as a god, it deserves to judge the Earth. What follows next is an epic that really needs to be experienced.
