12 Days of Best SFF Characters of 2013: Day #11

For this new seasonal list of the best SFF characters I’ve read this year, my eleventh and penultimate pick is Archie and the Riverdale gang from Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Francesco Francavilla’s Afterlife With Archie, a new mini-series in the world of Archie that deals with the zombie apocalypse, and in a really good way too. The series started off in the Halloween month and it continued pretty damn strongly in November. With the third issue due imminently, I’m very excited about the continuing madcap adventures of the Riverdale gang as they all deal with the outbreak of the zombie magic-virus.

Hit the break to see why I picked these characters.

Superman Unchained #5 (Comics Review)

With its latest issue, Scott Snyder and Jim Lee’s Superman Unchained is moving into its climax for the first story arc. After a bit of a rough start, the creators are all in the saddle good and proper, and the recent issues have been really good. Its kind of significant I think that I find this new series to be miles better than what’s been happening in the main Superman series, with its revolving door of creators, none of whom stick around for long or if they do, then the fare is pretty mediocre. A good story and good art can go a long way.

We’ve had some pretty major revelations in the series so far. Some really startling revelations at that, and Scott kicked things off like this from the very first pages of the debut issue. Since then there are a lot of things that have happened that have pretty much redefined Superman for me, especially in the New 52. And I’m loving it all because Scott and Jim have really upped their game. The new issue is more of the same and there are quite a few jaw-dropping moments in it.

The Flash #26 (Comics Review)

As with December’s Aquaman #26, The Flash also sees a switch-up in its creative team. The team of Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato had an incredible run, especially this year with their recent arc involving the Reverse-Flash, one of the classic Flash villains in the character’s lore. The recent issues really got me reading the series and I’m going to be going through all the back issues very soon to catch up with everything that Francis and Brian have done with Barry Allen.

With the latest issue, writer Christos Gage and artist Neil Googe step up to the plate to guide this particular adventure of the scarlet speedster. It is a fully stand-alone issue that does not require any knowledge of what’s gone on in the series prior to this, and its a great approach to bring in new readers and to offer the older readers something new to break up the run of long arcs that the title has seen. Neil Googe’s artwork isn’t as impressive or crisp as that from Manapul-Buccellato duo, but it gets the job done quite well.

12 Days of Best SFF Characters of 2013: Day #10

For this new seasonal list of the best SFF characters I’ve read this year, my tenth pick is Erevis Cale, from Paul S. Kemp’s Erevis Cale series, which got a new installment this year in the form of the seventh book of the series, The Godborn. The novel also happens to be the second novel in Wizard of the Coast’s current mega-event for the Forgotten Realms, The Sundering. Erevis was practically my first Forgotten Realms character that I read about, and I’ve followed most of his journey so far, and its been incredible.

Hit the break to see why I picked this character.