The Kid's Year in Review: Best of 2008!

There were a lot of great comic books this year. These are my picks for the best ones of the year.


Funniest Comic: Deadpool
Deadpool is written by Daniel Way and Illustrated by Paco Medina and is published by Marvel Comics



Tiny Titans is pretty funny and Spider-Man and Hulk always have some funny things in them, too. And the Batman/Superman story with the little heroes was really funny but their books usually aren’t too funny. Definitely the funniest comic book is Deadpool. He is doing something really stupid or crazy in every issue. I like how he talks to himself or gets people mad at him when he pretends to not understand things. I like how he tricked all the Skrulls into killing each other and how he was tricked into drinking poison because he thought it was water. He’s always acting really dumb and usually I’m laughing at a lot of different parts in every one of his comics.


Craziest Moment: Batman becomes Zur En Arrh
Written by Grant Morrison and Illustrated by Tony Daniel and is published by DC Comics



Batman is always one of the toughest characters. He can pretty much beat anyone because he trains really hard and has a lot of different moves. But in the story where he goes crazy he gets even stronger. He stops being Bruce Wayne and thinks he’s another kind of Batman and makes himself a new costume with red and yellow colors. Then he goes out and starts beating on all the criminals he’s after. He’s pulling his own teeth out with a knife because he thinks bad guys are tracking him and whenever he goes on the attack he starts using pipes and bats to beat them. I couldn’t believe it but it was so cool to see Batman go nuts.


Favorite Fight: Thor vs Wasp in Secret Invasion #8
Written by Brian Michael Bendis and Illustrated by Leinil Francis Yu and published by Marvel Comics



There were some awesome fights and most of them were in Secret Invasion. I had a hard time picking between two parts. One was when the old Hawkeye picks up his bow and arrows and kills a bunch of Skrulls at once and shoots his last arrow into the face of the Skrull Spider-Woman. That was so cool and I like how all of it was drawn. My favorite fight though was when Wasp grew huge and was killing all of the heroes and Thor was the one to stop her. Thor is a cool character and when he started spinning his hammer and making her disappear it was very exciting to read. I like how the art was done in that scene, too and how she started to fall apart when she died.


Favorite Action: Atomic Robo vs Enemy Soldiers in World War II
Written by Brian Clevinger and illustrated by Scott Wegener and published by Red 5 Comics



Atomic Robo is a really interesting comic about a robot who is used by the USA and the army to fight enemy soldiers in World War II. Because he’s a robot he’s already really strong and is tough to beat but he also uses machine guns and drives trucks and tanks and things like that. The bad armies create different super robots to try and stop Robo and those fights are always really good but I like the fights where it’s just Robo against the human soldiers. I like how he uses parts of cars as shields and breaks their weapons and things like that. It’s a really interesting idea to have a robot on your side in the army and I like how this book does it. I never heard of the book until I saw one of the covers in the store and now it’s one of my favorites.


Favorite Comic Book Moment: ‘Knock Knock’ in Deadpool #3
Written by Daniel Way and illustrated by Paco Medina and published by Marvel Comics



There were a lot of funny comics and a lot of funny parts in those comics. Little Batman and Superman were really funny. Tiny Titans made me laugh a bunch of times. Spider-Man did some funny stuff almost all the time in his books. Deadpool has been the funniest comic so far and in every issue he does so many things that are just stupid that it makes me laugh. The best part was when he was captured by Skrulls but said that he was training them and had them do all this dumb stuff. One of the things he taught them to do was point guns at each other and say knock knock and when they said it they shot each other in the head. It was just so funny when they showed that’s what was happening and then in another issue they were doing it again. I laughed the most at that part than any other comic book this year.


Favorite Movie or Series Based on a Comic: Spectacular Spider-Man



At first I wasn’t going to watch this show because I thought it looked kind of stupid. The bad guys looked different from what they’re supposed to be like and the way everyone in the show was drawn was kind of weird. I watched a couple of the first episodes and really liked it. I started liking the way everyone was drawn, too. It’s different but it still doesn’t look bad. Spider-Man in the black suit was really cool and I liked the Green Goblin story a lot. Most of the episodes were really good and then I got some of the toys, too. I can’t wait for new episodes to start.


Favorite Book Aimed at Kids: Tiny Titans
Written by Art Baltazar and Franco and illustrated by Art Baltazar and published by DC Comics



A lot of people are always trying to get me to read kid comic books because they say I’ll like them more. I’ve tried the kid comics of Spider-Man and Hulk and Avengers and Batman and Shazam and things like that but most of them are pretty boring. I like reading about the real characters that are in the regular comics. A lot more happens in those comics. I tried Tiny Titans because it’s one of the books that everyone was saying I should get so I did try a couple of the issues and they were actually very good. I like how there are a bunch of different stories in each issue and that the words are drawn bigger so it’s very easy to read. There is some funny stuff in each issue usually and I like the stories. For once there was a really good book that’s supposed to be for kids that’s fun and not boring.


Favorite Science Fiction Book: Nova
Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and illustrated by Wellinton Alves and Geraldo Burges and published by Marvel Comics



I never heard of Nova before. But one of the first times I went looking for books to review I saw a cool looking cover of Nova fighting a Super Skrull and bought it. I thought it was fun how Nova was on a planet helping these cat like children and they turned out to be Super Skrulls and Nova had to fight them all and then get to Earth to warn about the invasion but he was too late. I picked up some old and new Nova comics after that so I could read more stories. I like that a lot of his adventures take place in outer space on different planets and things. It’s different from a lot of the other comics that take place on Earth. He fights some cool bad guys and I like the newer comics where there is a whole army of Novas. He has a very cool suit. I especially like the helmet. I like this comic because it’s a different type of superhero comic and he does a lot of his own things instead of just being around the same types of heroes all the time. It’s a lot of fun.


Favorite Character: Deadpool
Written by Daniel Way and Illustrated by Paco Medina and is published by Marvel Comics



I had the Deadpool action figure for awhile and saw him in a couple comics before but I didn’t know that much about him. I finally started reading the new comics when they came out and thought they were really, really good. They were really funny and there was a lot of action and Deadpool is always acting stupid. In every issue he is doing something funny and I laugh at something that he says or does. His costume is really cool, too. It looks kind of like Spider-Man’s, but it’s easier to draw. I like how he uses a lot of different weapons and can fight really well, too. There are a lot of good comics and cool comic characters but my favorite right now has to be Deadpool. I hope that his comic keeps staying as good as it is now.


Favorite Artist: Chris Bachalo



I liked a lot of the artists on the comics. I like the art on Batman and Hulk a lot. I think it’s pretty hard to draw Spider-Man, especially with all of the webs. And there were a lot of different artists who were drawing Spider-Man this year. I liked the art in the book with Lady Kraven and the ones with Menace. I like how Venom and Anti Venom were drawn in their story, too. But I think my favorite artist was Chris Bachalo on Spider-Man in the Hammerhead story. He draws Spider-Man a lot different from the other artists I’ve seen. He draws a lot of the characters really different but he also puts a lot of detail into his pictures. When Spider-Man and Hammerhead fight he draws all of the glass and all of the people in the backgrounds and stuff. Whenever there is a big picture in the book he has a lot of stuff going on in other parts so you spend a lot of time looking at the pictures and picking out different things you can find.


Favorite Writer: Jeph Loeb





Jeph Loeb writes the awesome Hulk book and he does Ultimate Avengers, too. The Hulk is a really cool character and I think it’s a great idea to have an even stronger Red Hulk in the book that can’t be beaten by anyone. I like how he writes the battles in Hulk and Ultimates. There are always good battles in his books. I also think it’s really cool that he wrote me a letter to tell me how much he liked my reviews and mentioned my reviews during his interviews. I like his comics and he likes the reviews I do so that’s cool. And since he writes my favorite comic I have to say that he is my favorite writer right now.


Favorite Short Story: Big Mouth
Written and illustrated by Phil Craven and featured in Flight: Explorer published by Villard



Flight Explorer had a lot of really good stories in it. Some were funny and some were good action stories but the best one was a funny story called Big Mouth. Big Mouth is this really weird looking monster with a big mouth who talks really loud and annoys everyone around him because he is so loud. There are a lot of funny parts in the book like when he sits on the bench or tries to play basketball. It’s funny when people get mad at him but I also like it because he makes a friend with someone who speaks too quietly at the end. It’s a short story but it’s one of my favorites.


Favorite Mini Series: Secret Invasion
Written by Brian Michael Bendis and Illustrated by Leinil Francis Yu and published by Marvel Comics



This was a great story. The Skrulls are awesome bad guys because they can copy anyone’s powers and impersonate people, too. The Skrulls attack the Earth and all the superheroes have to figure out a way to stop them. Because the Skrulls are impersonating other heroes and have all these different powers the superheroes aren’t able to beat them on their own and a lot of the bad guys who have powers have to help the heroes out. The art was really good in this book. I like how the Skrulls were drawn really creepy, especially when the butler turned into the Skrull when he was holding the baby. And he drew fight scenes really well. There are a lot of fights in all of the issues and they look really great. Some of my favorite parts were when Wolverine fought Skrull Spider-Woman and when the old Hawkeye used his bow and arrows on everyone and when Thor fought Wasp and when all of the real heroes were fighting all the Skrull heroes. I was surprised by how it ended and I think the heroes are going to be in a lot more trouble with Norman Osborn as their boss than they did fighting the Skrulls.


Favorite Independent Comic: Flight Explorer
Written and illustrated by Matthew Armstrong, Bannister, Phil Craven, Steve Hamaker, Ben Hatke, Kazu Kibuishi, Johane Matte, Jake Parker, Rad Sechrist and Kean Soo and published by Villard



Flight Explorer is one of the best books I have. It’s a big book that has about 12 different stories in it that are pretty short and easy to read. Most of the stories are really good and some of them are really funny. A few of them weren’t very interesting but I still like that there are so many different types of stories to pick from in the book. And each story is drawn by someone different so there is a lot of cool art in the book. I like when there is a comic that has a lot of stories in it because if there are a couple that aren’t that great there are probably a bunch that are really good. Pretty much all of Flight Explorer is really good.


Favorite Single Issue: Superman/Batman #51
Written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson and illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque and published by DC Comics





This was the funniest comic that I read all year. Deadpool is a funny comic and Tiny Titans and Spider-Man can be funny too, but I laughed at almost all the pages in this book and even my brother liked it a lot and thought it was funny, too. Batman and Superman meet a tiny Batman and Superman from another world and the little Batman is so angry and he is always being grumpy and doing things like trying to kick Batman in the legs. I like when all the tiny superhero girls were falling in love with Robin and then the last page was a great surprise when it was full of all these tiny bad guys. The second issue was pretty funny, too, but it wasn’t as good as the first one. This issue was just great fun on every page.


Favorite Comic Book Series: Hulk
Written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Ed McGuinness, Art Adams and Frank Cho and published by Marvel Comics



There are a lot of really good comics out there. I read a lot more comics now than I ever did. Deadpool is really good but it just started. Amazing Spider-Man is really good, too. I have to pick Hulk as my favorite book because every issue is really great. The Green Hulk was always a cool character but the Red Hulk is even better. He’s stronger and meaner than the regular Hulk. I like how most of the issues of this comic had a different character or team coming in to try and stop the Red Hulk but they all lost. Iron Man, Thor, A Bomb and Green Hulk all battled the Hulk and none of them could beat him. I like how now the book is telling different stories with both the Red Hulk and Green Hulk because I like seeing both of those characters in the book. And the art is really nice, too. I like the colors of all the characters and how huge the artist makes the Hulks and even the people they fight