The Marvel Rundown: The Top 10 Best Marvel Comics of 2023

Happy New Year…. maybe a few days early!

Taking inspiration from our friends over at the DC Round-Up, members of the Marvel Rundown crew – D. Morris, Zack Quaintance, Tim Rooney, and Cy Beltran – scoured our long boxes and pulled together our top picks from Marvel Comics’ line-up across 2023. Your favorite might not be on here, but we feel this is a pretty solid representation of what we loved this year from the House of Ideas. And who knows, maybe your new favorite will show up below!

Aside from our top pick at the beginning of the list, the rest of the titles fall below in alphabetical order. So sit back, relax, and enjoy our Top 10 Best Marvel Comics of 2023… we’ll see you in 2024!

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Top 10 Best Marvel Comics of 2023

Immortal Thor

Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Martin Cóccolo
Color: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino

Thor as a character is at their best when creative teams mix superheroics with the truly mythic. In the first five issues of Immortal Thor, Al Ewing and Martin Coccolo prove themselves adept at this. Ewing again explores his interest in the fabric of storytelling. Here he digs deep into mythology pitting Thor against the elder gods Toranos and Utgard-Loki. His version of Thor, now the Allfather, uses both his physical prowess and his new found wisdom in these struggles. It gives new dimension to the mightiest Avenger. At the same time, artist Martin Coccolo and colorist Matthew Wilson bring both beauty and strangeness to this book. Coccolo perfectly conveys both the Thor that fights problems and the Thor that thinks through them. Wilson’s colors also fit Coccolo’s ability to move through the strata of storytelling. His colors bring terror to Coccolo’s depictions of Toranos and Utgard-Loki but they also convey the beauty of alien worlds and space. This is a Thor book clearly is on its way to being a heavy hitter. —D. Morris

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Children of the Vault

Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Luca Maresca
Colorist: Carlos Lopez
Letterer: Cory Petit

After the phenomenal 20th Century Men, Deniz Camp brought his anti-colonial, character-driven storytelling to the Fall of X, and delivered a wallop of a series in the process. Through four issues, Camp displays the rise and fall of the Children of the Vault, the post-human foes of mutantkind who infect the world with their literal ‘woke mind virus.’ It’s a biting commentary on our world and what we’re doing to push ourselves into the future. For someone who’s ever particularly enjoyed the Children, this is a solid vehicle for them, and one that shows the truly insidious nature of their plans for the Earth. Luca Maresca draws the hell out of this book, which doubles as an action-packed showcase for the unlikely team-up between Cable and Bishop. Not only does Maresca capture the absurd 90s excess that comes with the pair, but his ability to depict these characters as straight-laced makes him perfectly suited for this title. Along with gorgeous colors by Carlos Lopez and solid lettering by Cory Petit, this is an exceptional book, destined to become a necessary read from across the entire back catalog of X-Men stories. – Cy Beltran

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Doctor Strange

Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Pasqual Ferry
Colorists: Matt Hollingsworth/Heather Moore
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

Putting Pasqual Ferry on a Doctor Strange book seems like such a no brainer. The Spanish artist has long excelled at depicting the fantastic, having drawn books like Thor and the recent Namor: Conquered Shore. Unsurprisingly, the artist, thanks to Matt Hollingsworth and Heather Moore’s psychedelic color palette, shines on this Doctor Strange story where the Sorcerer Supreme must figure out who is killing magical figures. Ferry also gets to have fun showing the playful relationship between Strange and his wife Clea. Writer Jed MacKay gives the two sorcerers a Nick and Nora Charles dynamic. It’s so much fun seeing the straightlaced Strange play off his much more aggressive wife. McKay has had a banner year depicting the death of Moon Knight and writing  a fantastic Avengers book. It’s on Doctor Strange though that he really shines and shows off his considerable imagination. Really this was a Marvel book to be excited about each month. —DM

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Fantastic Four

Writer: Ryan North
Artists: Iban Coello, Ivan Fiorelli, and Leandro Fernández
Colorists: Jesus Aburtov and Brian Reber
Letterer: Joe Caramagna

This is just so much fun. With madcap ideas and a penchant for heartwarming character work, Ryan North’s run on Fantastic Four is a joy to read from issue to issue. A Dinosaur Doctor Doom? Check. Long forgotten villains? Check. Johnny Storm with a handlebar mustache? You bet. There’s a real human focus in this series that can sometimes get lost in the monthly grind of superhero comics, and I think it’s worth taking a step back and enjoying the ride while you’re able to, which is exactly what this book does (and something that North has always excelled at). Iban Coello and Ivan Fiorelli (along with a one-off from Leandro Fernández) tap into this spirit with each issue, with some of the wackiest panels around month to month. Here’s hoping this book just keeps going and going, cause it doesn’t look like they’re taking their feet off the gas just yet. —CB

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Incredible Hulk

Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Nic Klein/Travel Foreman
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

One of the best swings in the last decade is turning The Hulk into a horror book, thanks to Al Ewing and Joe Bennett’s Immortal Hulk run. Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Nic Klein continue that turn towards horror with their run. Johnson seems to be a student of 80’s Swamp Thing mixing fictional horrors with real ones. He has The Hulk explore the dark fringe of America. Both the Hulk and Banner may want to avoid being in the open but those unknown areas hold their own dangers. Klein gets to draw all manner of horror. The artist seems to relish depicting the Hulk’s monstrous foes and making Bruce Banner’s transformation into the Hulk pure body horror. Who knows where the Hulk will wander next, but you can bet it will be horrifying. —DM

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Marvel Unleashed

Writer: Kyle Starks
Artists: Jesus Hervás and Juan Gedeon
Colorist: Yen Nitro
Letterer: Joe Caramagna

You’d be forgiven for looking at the general pitch for Marvel Unleashed, a miniseries featuring an assemblage of animal sidekicks in a “Pet Avengers” style teamup, and writing it off as a gag book. But with writer Kyle Starks, nothing is ever so simple. This story has plenty of Starks’ trademark wit and humor but it is woven through the touching and emotional story of D-Dog, a stray who wants nothing more than to be a hero and protect others. Her earnestness and the interplay between the different animals provide plenty of funny moments but it is the heroism and selflessness that will suckerpunch you. Maybe being a dog owner and a dad makes me an easy mark for the touching moments here but this is one of the few comics to ever make me cry. It’s a stirring celebration of what animals bring to our lives in their short time with us, and a shockingly effective twist on the “everyman” style of superheroics Marvel Comics is known for. The realistic art from Jesus Hervás defies expectations for a Pet Avengers story, eschewing funny animal cartooning for a realistic look that makes the whole thing feel more grounded and sells the most emotional moments. —Tim Rooney

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Miracleman: The Silver Age

Writer: Neil Gaiman
Artist: Mark Buckingham
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Todd Klein

For whatever reason, the newest volume of Miracleman has felt under-discussed. Maybe it’s the way it continues years upon years of storytelling, making the barrier of entrance a bit higher for new readers. Or maybe it’s that it doesn’t fit neatly with any of the other superhero fare from Marvel Comics, and certainly doesn’t have any implications for wider continuity. But it has absolutely been of the best Marvel Comics of the year (if a bit quietly). This series reunites the creative team — Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham — from Miracleman: Golden Age, 30-some years later (also bringing aboard Jordie Bellaire and featuring more fantastic letters by Todd Klein). And it’s just such a perfect continuation of the work in that series, filling in blanks that have been present within this mythos for years, and doing it with just the utmost command of storytelling and comics craft. So yes, the barrier of entry may be high…but it’s also worth it. If you haven’t, I highly recommend seeking out all the past Miracleman comics and jumping into one of the best Marvel books in many years. —Zack Quaintance

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Sins of Sinister

Writers: Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, Si Spurrier
Artists: Lucas Werneck, Paco Medina, Andrea Di Vito, Alessandro Vitti, Lorenzo Tammeta, Phillip Sevy, Geoffrey Shaw, Marco Checchetto, Juan José Ryp, David Baldeón, Travel Foreman, Carlos Gómez, Federico Vicentini, David Lopez, Joshua Cassara, and Stefano Caselli
Inkers: Walden Wong and Victor Olazaba
Color Artists: Bryan Valenza, Jay David Ramos, Jay Charalampidis, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Rain Beredo
Letterers: Clayton Cowles and Ariana Maher

In the waning months of 2022, Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, and Si Spurrier each focused on the mystery of Nathaniel Essex, and the reveal of four unique clones focused on Essex’s master goal: defeating the Dominion introduced way back in Jonathan Hickman’s House of X/Powers of X. What followed was Sins of Sinister, an Age of Apocalypse style event by way of 2000AD, focused on the weird and downright disturbing future that comes from a universe overrun by Mister Sinister and his fellow clones. The inventiveness on display from the writing trio, as well as the onslaught of talent on the artistic end lead to some truly bonkers comics. Where else could you see the Juggernaut used as a bullet or Storm utilizing magic to whammy celestial beings? There’s definitely a bit of inside baseball needed for some of the more obscure references in this (and it would have been nice to see some of these moments expanded upon), but so much of the story is carried by the embrace of the experimental approach taken by this team, that it ultimately works as a bizarre one-off story for those looking for some incredibly strange mutant mayhem. Not to mention the devastating consequences for the Krakoan era that came from this… —CB

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Wolverine

Writer: Ben Percy
Artists: Juan José Ryp, Ibrahim Moustafa, and Geoff Shaw
Colorist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Cory Petit

This year has seen Ben Percy bring together many of the various plot threads of his long-running Wolverine solo book, while at the same time folding in elements of his other X-title, X-Force. The result has been an incredible, action-packed payoff that provides rich catharsis. Juan José Ryp provided most of the art this year and his work is more precise and clean than the chaotic and inky work from Adam Kubert that provided the visual blueprint for this volume of Wolverine, but that attentive detail has allowed the visuals to truly foreground the ugly and beastly with which Logan has had to wrestle. Leinil Yu’s killer covers shouldn’t go unmentioned, either. This last year of Wolverine is a stunning display of the kind of longform storytelling we just don’t get much of in Big Two superhero books anymore. Percy was given uninterrupted roadway to do his own thing for years, and in so doing has crafted one of the definitive takes on Wolverine, proving why the character has remained such a perennial favorite. —TR

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X-Terminators

Writer: Leah Williams
Artists: Carlos Gomez 
Colorist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Travis Lanham

Yes, the majority of this series came out in 2022, but I’m sneaking this in since the trade came out this year and was criminally underrated. For my money, Leah Williams and Carlos Gomez put together the hottest Marvel Comic in recent memory, with a balls-to-the-wall, grindhouse (of x) masterpiece, complete with wacky vampire hijinks in an over the top bloodbath. When Dazzler, Jubilee, and Boom Boom come together to help Dazzler get over an ex, they find themselves running into Wolverine and squaring off against a horde of monsters, both physical and emotional. Gomez nails the excessive violence needed for this book, while hitting a level of cheesecake-iness that narrowly avoids becoming a very different kind of comic. Williams’ dialogue is spot on, and her data pages are some of the funniest across this entire era. While the story doesn’t necessarily have any bearing whatsoever on continuity, the sheer exuberance that permeates this book makes it one of the most exciting comics of the past year. —CB

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Next Week from Marvel Comics: Not one… not two… but SIX new number ones!