2022 was another year of great Comics, from talents emerging and established. From the oil sands of Canada to the crags of Latveria, from a therapist’s office to Joseph Smith’s Utah, comics once again explored themes and journeys both personal and fantastic. The Beat staff has narrowed the list (Which could easily have been twice as long) to 30 books that defined the year and touched readers’ hearts and imagination. 

Without further ado, The Beat proudly presents our choices for best comics of 2022.

20th Century Men

Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: S. Morian
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Image Comics

Brutal and incisive, 20th Century Men is a work of counterfactual history that’s enormous in scope but human in its concern. Dealing with Cold War greed and fractured masculinities at every turn, the book loosely focuses on a Soviet Union super soldier in the Doctor Manhattan or Superman in Dark Knight Returns mold. Its co-lead is a journalist tasked with reporting on Comrade Platonov’s apparently heroic exploits. Needless to say, worldviews are shattered and nobody looks good on either side. And quite promisingly, at four issues in so far, in examining the human cost of US / Soviet folly, the creative team are also looking towards those bearing the intimate costs – the people of Vietnam and Afghanistan, for example. The creators have an exceptional harmony which allows Camp to put across the dense, pointed detail that builds out the book’s alternate timeline while still leaving plenty of room for Morian’s wildly expansive and wide-ranging artwork. Troubling, excellent comics, all in all. – Adam Karenina Sherif

A La Brava – A Latina Superhero Team

Writer: Kayden Phoenix
Penciller: Renata Garcia
Inker: Ari Navarette
Colorist: Aislin Gry
Letterer: Sandra Romero
Phoenix Studios, LLC

As the Prism Comics’ Features Editor, I’ve been a fan of Kayden Phoenix‘s work since Avery Kaplan bought me an early coloring book edition of one of her first graphic novels, Jalisco, and Phoenix is going places in the entertainment industry. I can’t wait to see her vision appear on the screen one day because the creator’s 100% correct when she says that the world NEEDS an all-Latina superhero team… and that team should be A La Brava. Even in my thirties, the all-Latina team made me feel more comfortable talking about my own background and identity. Although I am a Russian-Euro mutt, I was partially raised by my Mexican stepgrandmother. The culture was a huge part of my childhood, except I never learned to speak Spanish fluently, just like Loquita (and honestly, I thought I was a lone wolf in the community because the rest of my family learned Spanish). In addition to showcasing the Latina community’s diversity, Phoenix writes big badass, all of whom are rooted in the real world and pose legitimate threats to the well-being of a healthy community, with the A La Brava villain representing toxic masculinity and more (no spoilers here). – Rebecca Oliver Kaplan

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest

Writer: Mark Waid
Artists: Dan Mora & Travis Moore
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain 
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
DC Comics

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest, Mark Waid, Dan Mora, and Tamra Bonvillain’s new edition of the classic team-up comic, is a breath of fresh air for a longtime reader who, as much as I love reading every book and seeing how it all fits together, also just wants some standalone superheroics every now and then. Set in a nebulous past, Waid gets to tell relatively continuity-free stories starring the heroes of the DC Universe at their most iconic. Mora and Bonvillain are a dream team for the art on this book, at once capturing the classic feel of the characters while also utilizing hyper-modern storytelling techniques. This is superhero comics at their finest (no pun intended). – Joe Grunenwald

Captain America: Symbol of Truth

Writer: Tochi Onyebuchi
Artist: R. B. Silva, Julian Shaw, Ze Carlos, Ig Guara
Colorist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Vc Joe Caramagna
Marvel Comics

Sam Wilson’s second go-around as Captain America is an action-packed political thrill ride. Best-selling author Tochi Onyebuchi takes Cap on a world tour of the Marvel Universe on a mission to uncover the mysterious White Wolf’s plot of political brinkmanship. With locations like Latveria and guest stars like Deadpool, Nomad, and Misty Knight, Symbol of Truth is heavily entrenched in the MCU, but this fan service is just the jumping-off point for this nuanced book. Using that solid comic base, Onyebuchi laces the overall story arc with textured ideas and topics like international sovereignty and immigration, whether it’s South Americans making their way to America or Black Americans looking to move to Wakanda, something any true nerd would do in a heartbeat. – George Carmona 3rd

The Crimson Cage

Writer: John Lees
Artist: Alex Cormack
Colorist: Ashley Cormack
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
AWA Studios

The answer to the question of what a wrestling promotion would be like if Shakespeare were one of its head writers finds an authoritative answer in John Lees and Alex Cormack’s The Crimson Cage, a horror/wrestling/crime hybrid that puts Macbeath in the squared circle and then showers it with piledrivers, chokeslams, and murder. The story follows a wrestler that wants to make it big, that wants to be an icon the likes of Hulk Hogan or Jerry Lawler in his Memphis days. He makes a deal with a strange being that helps him get on the path so long as he recognizes the journey has a steep cost of admission. Lees and Cormack submerge the story in darkness, framing the pursuit of fame and recognition as soul crushing and cruel but intoxicating when it yields reward. Fans of the Coen Brothers will find a lot to latch onto here, but it’s in how the story’s influences wrap themselves around the wide world of wrestling that the creative team truly find something special. In a time where wrestling comics are becoming more plentiful and more creative, The Crimson Cage stands tall. A titan amongst titans. –Ricardo Serrano

Dog Biscuits 

Cartoonist: Alex Graham
Fantagraphics

Originally published as a webcomic during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dog Biscuits by Alex Graham works magnificently as an absorbing graphic novel. This captivating portrait of the actions of a few individuals in Seattle, Washington during the summer of 2020 remains one of the few honest depictions of the experience of being alive during this truly bizarre moment in history. Graham’s rendition of the leads as various animals only makes the unexpected inclusion of Jennifer Love Hewitt as the mother of one of the main characters all the more unforgettable. Equal parts honesty about the fucked-up COVID situation and empathy towards its characters (racist meth-crazed cops aside), Dog Biscuits is the kind of book that’s going to provide dissertation material for generations to come. – Avery Kaplan

Read The Beat’s interview with Graham here.

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands

Cartoonist: Kate Beaton
Drawn and Quarterly

Beaton sets aside overt humor for a searing story about her time working in the camps of the Fort McMurray oil sands mining operation. Driven by the need to pay off her college loans, She arrives in her early 20s, one of the very few women in a world of heavy machinery, frozen skies and dangerous work that strips away the civility from the people she knew back home in Cape Breton, subjecting her to endless harassment and worse. While her trademark humor flashes in capturing the rough hewn characters surrounding her, it’s mostly a story of how economic hardship and exploitation reduce people to become less than themselves. Beaton survives – photocopied drawings eventually becoming the webcomics she became famous for – but pays a price. Her gift is showing the price that everyone pays for these systems of abuse. An unforgettable masterwork that’s probably the book of the year.  – Heidi MacDonald

Eight Billion Genies

Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Ryan Browne
Letterer: Chris Crank
Publisher: Image Comics

This book — which conceptually is about what would happen if every single person on earth was one instantaneously given a genie that would grant them one wish — has been an absolute blast. It’s the type of concept that’s exceptionally well-suited for monthly comics, serving up nice serialized storytelling, a few fun plot threads, and gigantic time jumps that enable the creators to really go wild with their ideas. I’ve been surprised with how well this one has stood up conceptually, and that’s really a credit to the creative team’s commitment to push past any surface narratives in order to find more interesting and nuanced answers to the central question of what would happen if every one of us got one list. Simply put, this is the type of book that makes me glad I still invest my time in reading comics when they come out monthly, rather than just waiting for the trades. –Zack Quaintance

Enter the Blue

Writer & Artist: Dave Chishom
Z2 Comics

Enter the Blue is a jazz/comics fan dream come true. Its melding of forms, tones, and colors allow it to look like no other comic on the shelves right now. And a huge reason for that is Dave Chisholm, who is one of the most exciting and underrated comic auteurs working today. He makes the extremely difficult task of conveying music through the silent medium of comics look easy. His pages are filled with movement, with notes gliding in and out of panels and into the reader’s psyche. Beyond the page construction, Chisholm’s coloring work is phenomenal. The palette choices are carefully thought-out, heightening the feelings of the characters and guiding the reader – sometimes subtly and sometimes bluntly – toward a certain emotive response. In a word, it’s stunning.  For readers who may not be jazz fans, or don’t know anything about the history of Blue Note Records, Enter the Blue is still an emotional triumph. What Chisholm accomplished in these pages is to provide a moving story that combines the best of jazz with the best of what comics have to offer. – AJ Frost

The Flash

Writer: Jeremy Adams
Artists: Fernando Pasarin & Various
Letterer: Rob Leigh
DC Comics

Much like Dick Grayson, the character of Wally West has been put through the wringer for the last few years. However, the former sidekick has finally returned to his proper glory thanks to the the skills of writer Jeremy Adams. Having written DC characters primarily for animation before breaking into comics, Adams’ time on this book will easily be remembered as one of the top runs for the character right up there with Mark Waid or Geoff Johns. It’s the perfect blend of action, humor and heart. While Adams has had various artistic collaborators over the the last two years, I think my personal favorite is Fernando Pasarin for his ability to render action and comedy best illustrated by issue #787, the multiversal wrestling story that introduces breakout character Omega-Bam-Man. You can bet they’re pulling out all the stops for the milestone 800th issue next year! –Taimur Dar