Looks like we made it. Another CBR Top 100 is in the books, and to celebrate, let’s take one last look back at our massive, staff-compiled list of CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2016 — here’s the full ranking of No. 1 to 100, plus links to our commentary on each pick.
The past year marked something of a new era at CBR — you may have noticed — and appropriately so, there were many first-time contributors to the CBR Top 100. There were also a lot of returnees, many going back from the first time CBR put a Top 100 together. One thing was clear — whether you were a rookie or a veteran, the CBR staff had plenty of intelligent things to say about their favorite comic books of 2016.
Three years into putting this list together, I always have some cognitive dissonance about the whole thing — asking the typical questions like, “is ranking art even constructive?” — any doubts quickly diminished by seeing the enthusiasm from the CBR staff in sharing why they love this medium so much. While even a Top 100 can’t recognize all the worthwhile comic books and graphic novels that come out in a year, it’s at the very least a good place to start, especially if you’re a lapsed fan or a reader with some holiday cash looking to expand your comics library.
This year was notable due to having the most clear-cut No. 1 that I’ve seen: Marvel’s “The Vision,” from Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta. More than half of list participants had it on their ballots, many in very high spots. The third volume of Top Shelf’s acclaimed “March” trilogy, the autobiographical account of Rep. John Lewis’ life, was a strong No. 2. Last year’s winner and a perennial countdown favorite, “Saga,” once again fared well at No. 5. While Image Comics (25 spots on the list, including two from Top Cow), Marvel (22 spots, including 1 from the creator-owned Icon imprint) and DC Comics (18, including Vertigo, Young Animal and Hanna-Barbera) all had a typically impressive impact on the countdown, there was healthy diversity among publishers, with BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse Comics, IDW Publishing, Black Mask Studios, Fantagraphics Books and Drawn & Quarterly all holding multiple spots.
If you’re wondering how the list is made, regular contributor from various areas of CBR’s coverage who elect to participate (all noted individually below, many thanks to them) — more than 40 this year, slightly up from last year — submits a personal list of favorite comics in 2016 — any genre, publisher or format is fair game, provided it’s new material released in English in 2016 — and each choice on an individual list gets a point value based on its placement. It’s all averaged together and through the undeniable power of math (bless you, Google Sheets), CBR’s Top 100 Comics is born.
Alright, enough blabbing — here’s the full list of CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2016, and we’re already looking forward to another great year of comic books. Happy reading!
1) The Vision
2) March: Book Three
3) Paper Girls
4) The Wicked + The Divine
5) Saga
6) The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
7) Dark Night: A True Batman Story
8) DC Universe: Rebirth
9) Monstress
10) Bitch Planet
11) Patience
12) The Mighty Thor
13) The Flintstones
14) Batman
15) Descender
16) Black Panther
17) Huck
18) Mockingbird
19) The Legend of Wonder Woman
20) Faith
21) Omega Men
22) The Fix
23) The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye
24) Spider-Woman
25) Rosalie Lightning
26) Black Widow
27) Future Quest
28) Sheriff of Babylon
29) Sunstone
30) Southern Bastards
31) Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash
32) Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!
33) The Walking Dead
34) Ms. Marvel
35) Power Man and Iron Fist
36) DC Comics: Bombshells
37) Superman
38) Howard the Duck
39) 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank
40) Black Hammer
41) Captain America: Steve Rogers / Captain America: Sam Wilson
42) Wonder Woman
43) Action Comics
44) Wonder Woman: Earth One
45) Southern Cross
46) Doctor Strange
47) Star Trek / Star Trek: Boldly Go
48) Paracuellos
49) I Hate Fairyland
50) Darth Vader
51) Star Wars
52) Archie
53) Goldie Vance
54) Doom Patrol
55) A City Inside
56) Animosity
57) Midnigher and Apollo
58) Nod Away
59) Equinoxes
60) Wonder Woman: The True Amazon
61) Daredevil
62) Angel City
63) Criminal: 10th Anniversary Special
64) Red Team: Double Tap, Center Mass
65) Chew
66) Giant Days
67) Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq
68) Tomboy
69) Moon Knight
70) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
71) Legend
72) Living Level 3: Iraq
73) Nailbiter
74) A.D.: After Death
75) The Goddamned
76) Lumberjanes
77) Secret Wars #9
78) Romulus
79) Han Solo
80) Snotgirl
81) Karnak
82) Big Kids
83) Copra
84) East of West
85) Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur
86) No Mercy
87) Plutona
88) Hellboy in Hell
89) Jonesy
90) Detective Comics
91) The Fade Out
92) Ghosts
93) Spell on Wheels
94) Lucifer
95) Paul Up North
96) Black
97) Tetris
98) The Ukranian and Russian Notebooks
99) Prophet: Earth War
100) Empress
Major thanks to the following insightful and passionate list-making, blurb-writing CBR editors, writers and contributors for being a part of CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2016: Tim Adams, Brigid Alverson, Erik Amaya, Tom Baker, Adam Barnhardt, Beth Bartlett, Tom Bondurant, Leia Calderon, Rob Cave, Jordan Commandeur, Sarah Cooke, Brian Cronin, Alex Dueben, Sean Fischer, Lauren Gallaway, Stephen Gerding, Jacob Hill, Charles Paul Hoffman, Scott Huver, Marykate Jasper, Jim Johnson, Heather Knight, Michael C Lorah, Shaun Manning, Renaldo Matadeen, John Mayo, Greg McElhatton, Brendan McGuirk, Kevin Melrose, Brian Patry, Steve Paugh, Kiel Phegley, Jeffrey Renaud, Dave Richards, Paul Semel, Allison Shoemaker, Joe Streckert, Jason Strykowski, Hannibal Tabu, Andrea Towers, George A. Tramountanas, Christos Tsirbas, Tim Webber, Brett White and Jason Wilkins.
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