There have been a lot of changes in comics the last two years. DC’s line-wide reboot saw the rise of Scott Snyder as DC’s biggest writer with Batman, Swamp Thing, and American Vampire, as well as the end of the Hellblazer as we know him. Marvel’s very own revamp saw Avengers in all shapes and sizes and an X-Men more divided than ever. Outside of the big two, Image Comics added another notch to its recent successes by adding new titles such as Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga and Jonathan Hickman’s The Manhattan Projects. But out of all the reboots, revamps and everything else, one writer managed to break out and deliver some of most outrageous, clever and heartfelt comics in a long, long time. From turning Loki into the most beloved character of the year, to giving us the closest thing to a BBC take on the X-Men, to an all-new, all-cool Iron Man, Kieron Gillen has written this year’s best comics. Let the excessive praising begin!
’Journey into mystery‘
When Marvel announced that Loki would be leaving the main Thor series and star in his own, Journey Into Mystery, we were a bit apprehensive. We were loving Loki in Thor and the idea that he could carry his own title seemed too good to be true. Kieron Gillen proved us wrong in all the right ways. His take on Loki in Journey Into Mystery was the perfect mix of Harry Potter and Neil Gaiman’s beloved Sandman. Every page was full of brilliant characterization, clever plotting, and the promise of not knowing what lies ahead. The comic was a tour across the often forgotten and darkest corners of the Marvel Universe and that’s where Loki and Gillen shined brightest. He made Loki into one of the most complex characters, often playing the role of the smartest man in the room and innocent child the next. He even introduced instantly lovable characters like Leah, who was the girl next door if your house was right next to Hell. Gillen put out all the stops making Loki brave the god of fear, battling the lord of nightmares, and even giving him a demon puppy (yes, a demon puppy). He made us fall in love with Loki in a new way and gave us a comic as perfect as it was mysterious.
‘Uncanny X-Men’
Since the rise of the Avengers and its movie adaptation, the X-Men haven’t been as uncanny as their comic suggests. There were a couple of runs by some of comic’s best writers but they didn’t grab us with the attention the comic deserved. Kieron Gillen decided to change all that. He knew the success those stupid Avengers were getting and decided to create an X-Men team more powerful than Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. He assembled the Extinction Team headed by Cyclops with Magneto, Emma Frost, Namor, Colossus, and Storm behind him. In his short time as the writer of Uncanny X-Men, he made Cyclops smart enough, strong enough, and worthy enough to be the face of the impending mutant revolution. Everyone and their lolas were loving Wolverine, Iron Man, and all those big name superheroes, and Gillen made sure Cyclops become a bad-ass he once was. He put the Extinction Team up against god-like Celestials, a reenergized and a multiplied Mr. Sinister, not to mention the entire Marvel Universe. Any team that can survive all that deserves to be uncanny but it was Gillen who made the comic unforgettable.
‘Iron Man’
Kieron Gillen has a knack for inheriting titles from writers who did lengthy runs (see above) and making those comics even better. He’s doing just that in the newly relaunched Iron Man. Taking the reins from the acclaimed Matt Fraction, Gillen set out to forge his own path in the land of Stark. The true test of a comic book writer is being able to make an enjoyable comic despite awful art, and nothing says awful art quite like his Iron Man artist, Greg Land. Despite that setback, Gillen has brought Iron Man to unexpected heights and has utilized Tony Stark’s extensive and incredible armory. He’s only written four issues so far but each issue reads like a brilliant stand-alone adventure offering a variety of problems for the Marvel Universe’s smartest man alive (Sorry, Reed Richards). Gillen has said that unlike Journey Into Mystery, he doesn’t know the end game for Iron Man, and as fans of Gillen, we’d like to think he meant that he’s taking the armored one to infinity and beyond.