By Sam Hurcom

With 2014 still lingering on our minds, and bodies feeling like they’re suffering from a hangover from Thanos’ New Year’s Eve bash or a concussion from an unavoidable bout with Batsy, it seemed fitting to look back and reflect on some of the year’s top comic highlights. Befitting that great tradition of condensing thousands of man hours and creative talent into a brief review of an entire Earth years’ worth of work, this is my 2014 top 5 comic countdown!

AT NUMBER 5… a bit of a soggy one.

The New 52 Aquaman (Vol. 1 The Trench)

Good start, a comic that wasn’t released in 2014 at all! The first volume of the latest Aquaman run was actually released early 2013, but I only got my hands on a copy this past summer (my teachers always told me I was a little slow!). Even though it wasn’t one of the brand new releases I read this year, I feel it deserves a mention for one basic reason… it took me quite by surprise. With a character so riddled with strange origins, dodgy love connections (yes, those rumours about dolphin love are true) and shite superpowers, I found myself wondering what the hell all the hype and fuss surrounding this collection was about. Simple really – it’s a comic not afraid to have a laugh at its own expense and is happy to admit that Aquaman is (and always will be) one of the strangest, most uncool superhero characters going. In doing so, it sort of makes Arthur Curry, well… kind of cool. Bizarre, with some quite lovely artwork.

By Emlyn Roberts-Harry


As a rule, Spider-Man stories which try go down the ever popular grim and gritty route just don't work. As much as tragedy is a core part of what makes the character so appealing, he's still a hero who benefits from a lightness to his stories. Which isn't to say that they need to be free of angst - Peter Parker is the ultimate everyman, and every life has angst in it. It's just that trying to put him in the sort of story where we'd expect to see, say, the Punisher, is usually doomed to fail. 

By Aaron Nash

Mystique has always been a fan favourite from the X-Men universe and rightfully so. Her mutant abilities allow her to shapeshift into another human shape while also changing her vocal tones. She’s like the T-1000’s cooler grandmother who just happens to moonlight as an expert assassin.  In the X-Men comics she’s generally seen as this morally grey character who, despite siding with Magneto more often than not, has her own agenda.   As she is such a fascinating character with so much potential it was only natural for her to spawn her own solo series, which was started by Brian K. Vaughan and later finished by Sean McKeever.

By Jacob H Baxter

As I sat there a few nights ago with my brother, wife, and friends, playing games and waiting for the New Year to arrive, I began to have some curious thoughts. What if superheroes played games? What would they play? I'm sure there are some very amusing and striking possibilities. That led me to compile this top ten list to give my suggestions.