Writer: Jeff Lemire, Artist: Andrea Sorrentino
IANN ROBINSON: This is a great story of a hero bouncing back. When DC first dropped Green Arrow in the swelling tide of the New 52, the rebooted hero quickly sank to the murky depths. Oliver Queen was younger and had lost the recognizable facial hair. The first story arc was clumsy, and did nothing to spark fans interest. Then Jeff Lemire took over and the entire identity turned around. 2013 found Queen stepping into a supernatural battle inspired by his father as well as finding new family and facing an old, but New 52-rebooted foe. The brilliant art from Andrea Sorrentino captured Lemire’s darker vision perfectly. From a dud to a stud, Green Arrow is now one of the most consistently solid series in the DCU.
Writer: Jonathan Hickman, Artist: Jim Cheung, Jerome Opeña, Dustin Weaver
ANDY HUNSAKER: Finally, an “event” book that actually feels like a story instead of a stunt. I’m lumping in Avengers and New Avengers under the Infinity net, because it’s all one giant tale and you need those books to really grok the depths of Hickman’s sprawling, high-minded cosmic saga. While it occasionally seemed mildly turgid, the story was nonetheless darkly compelling, and stakes always felt incredibly high – especially with the Illuminati and dealing with the incursions, the Wakanda/Atlantis war, the Black Bolt/Thanos square-off, and the wide-ranging repercussions that we’ll see now that the Avengers are actually revered as heroes throughout the galaxy. It’s a sea change away from a decade of bickering banter, and while we may occasionally miss some of that playfulness (which you can find in spades in Al Ewing’s great Mighty Avengers), these are books with big, challenging ideas, and that’s always welcome. I would seriously read an entire series focused solely on the Wakanda/Atlantis war.
