To be honest, the intro to my 2012 comic-books-in-review entry could be swapped into this space and require next to no editing. Though I’ve now been reading and collecting comics for 35 years, the field and I continue to drift apart. The majority of what’s being offered at local shops nowadays too often falls into two categories that aren’t for me: titles susceptible to company-wide crossovers; and adults-only creator-owned works interested in pushing boundaries beyond the limits of what I can leave lying around the house without feeling guilty. The more these categories expand, the more my finicky preferences are marginalized.

That’s not to say my pull list is restricted to Scooby-Doo and Highlights Magazine. Several titles found their way onto my weekly reading stack in 2013, many of them proudly so. I put off spotlighting them here on MCC for a few reasons:

1. Entries about comics consistently draw the least traffic of all subjects.
2. My recurring frustrations with the medium nowadays leave a bitter taste that’s not fun to dwell on.
3. So many other subjects keep snaring and holding my attention first.
4. I reread last year’s summary and depressed myself with how little had changed.

Now that C2E2 is coming up this weekend, what better time to cross this off my to-do list, traffic or no traffic? The following, then, were my favorite comic book series throughout 2013, in no particular order:

* Hawkguy — Its real name is Hawkeye but no one calls it that. You had to be there. Despite scheduling issues and its increasingly thickening air of hopelessness, the two best archers in the Marvel Universe stayed the course through a combination of commitment to experimentation and refocusing on Kate Bishop’s move to Cali instead of on that dreary, pity-spiraling Clint. I can’t wait to start caring about him again someday. Also helping: #11’s spotlight on the Hawkeyes’ dog Lucky, a.k.a. Pizza Dog, written about here previously. This issue alone helped Hawkguy cling onto this list.

* Daredevil — Mark Waid and Chris Samnee wrapped up their run, the Sons of the Serpent storyline, and Matt Murdock’s last days in New York with the panache and optimism that have made ol’ Hornhead more joyful than he’s been since that one time Karl Kesel wrote it for a few minutes back in the ’90s. Looking forward to his gratuitous relaunch, his big move to San Francisco, and the Waid/Samnee team’s upcoming C2E2 appearance.

* Alex + Ada — In a near-future where the tech has updated but most people haven’t, single guy Alex has his lonesome routine interrupted when his grandma buys him a mail-order android companion named Ada, programmed to follow his orders and agree with everything he says. Alex refuses to consider this advantageous and embarks on an illegal back-channel journey to jailbreak her OS and upgrade her to free-willed status. This Image series from Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn is low-key and measured in its pace, and yet the emotional beats keep a steady rhythm so each issue still feels like a satisfying chapter that’s going places.

* Sandman: Overture — When someone convinces Neil Gaiman to write more comics, it’s a rare cause for rallying. When JH Williams illustrations are involved, presumably this will add up to one of the greatest miniseries of all time. Unfortunately the interminable wait between issues (note the four-month gap between #1 and #2) means I’ll probably have to stockpile this until it wraps up around 2015, when I can read it in one theoretically mind-blowing sitting.

* Batman ’66 — Normal Batman comics have nifty modern artists, but they also have crossovers. Batman ’66 has Jeff Parker’s incredible TV simulation, a differently talented artist lineup, and a premise that’s guaranteed crossover-proof. I loved the show when I was a kid, hated it was a teen, and tried not to think about it as a young adult. Now that I’m older and have been fed oodles of grim-‘n’-gritty Dark Knight in my time, the sight of a stately Batman teaching manners to an impetuous Robin seems refreshingly radical.

* Lazarus — In a future where world ownership and governance is carved up between a select few invincible one-percenter families, your heroine is Forever Carlyle, one of many genetically engineered commanders who mind the soldiers, keep the peace, and enforce the tenuous relationships between the haves, the have-nots, and the total nothings. The old-time Gotham Central team of Greg Rucka and Michael Lark once again provide a dark, unpredictable must-read, loaded with liner notes, world-building extras, and a lengthy letter column in every issue. Worth its price in content density alone; the thought-provocation and utter lack of female objectification feel almost like value-added bonuses.

* Angel & Faith — Months after I’d walked away from Buffy Season 9, Christos Gage and Rebekah Isaacs saw Our Heroes’ quest to resurrect Giles through to a startling conclusion, while big-bad Whistler proves years after the fact that there was a point to his whole “balance” fixation and to his character in general. Add the intro of Giles’ two flighty but capable sisters, and a variety of fixes meant to salvage the severe disappointment that was Buffy Season 8, and the total package was, I’m pretty sure, now my all-time favorite Buffyverse comics arc. Looking forward to seeing them taking the helm of Buffy Season 10.

* Trillium — Writer/artist Jeff Lemire’s time-jumping, centuries-spanning, post-apocalyptic, head-scratching, page-turning, story-splitting, book-flipping, comic-rotating, continuum-switching, boy-meets-girl intergalactic romantic adventure fable is assuredly unlike anything else ever drawn and printed. He’s an explorer from the 1920s; she’s among the last survivors in our distant future. Can this couple who’ve barely met and don’t speak the same language figure out how to use a magical flower to save humanity at all points between now and forever, and maybe have their first date? I’m tempted to try reading it backwards and in a mirror just to make sure I didn’t miss any more narrative levels.

* Bloodshot & H.A.R.D. Corps — The amnesiac mercenary with the nanobot-fueled healing power already had a pretty exciting first year on his own; after an eminently readable crossover with Harbinger (which worked out perfectly for me because I was already collecting both) his world changed with the addition of a backup team of last-chance unlikely heroes — one a homeless pothead, another born with Down’s syndrome but artificially accelerated, and still another representing what may be the first comics character with cystic fibrosis, particularly meaningful to me in the wake of an event previously recounted here. Props to co-writers Joshua Dysart (Harbinger) and Christos Gage (that Angel & Faith guy again) for unique casting and for keeping the Project Rising Spirit crazy train rambunctious and rollin’.

Honorable mentions — i.e., other series I was content to keep following: Astro City; Harbinger; Indestructible Hulk; Locke & Key: Omega; The Manhattan Projects; Swamp Thing; The Unwritten

New projects that have already brightened my 2014 so far: Manifest Destiny, Moon Knight; Ms. Marvel; Rocky and Bullwinkle; The Royals: Masters of War; She-Hulk; Silver Surfer

* * * * *

On the flip side, please allow this moment of silence for all those series that were tried but kicked off my shopping list in 2013, grouped according to the manner of their failure:

Canceled/ended: Batman Inc.; Dial H; Glory; Journey into Mystery; Young Avengers

Disappointing change in creative team: Ten Grand; Venom

Apathy onset: The Activity; Deadpool; Great Pacific; Green Hornet; The Green Team (I bailed out one issue before the end, unable to take any more)

Plot developments I couldn’t get behind: Iron Man (can NOT take any more Mandarin); Suicide Risk (having learned nothing from Hancock)

Covers I couldn’t leave lying around the house: Revival

Four bucks an issue for a three minute-read: Wolverine

See you next year! Possibly closer to on-time!