ComicsAlliance’s Best Of 2016: Best New Series Of 2016

A chief quality of theatre is its ability to transport people to worlds not their own. In The Backstagers, that's very literal, as an errant, Escherian staircase may take adventurers to dimensions where giant birds have Victorian-style tea parties. But the most outstanding part of James Tynion IV and Rian Sygh’s story is not its magic, but its characters. The boys at St. Genesius high school don't replicate tired male portrayals found, well, everywhere; they’re sensitive, kind, anxious, affectionate, and queer. Boys will be boys, in all their multitudes. [Jon Erik Christianson]

The fact that there are so many reasons that Future Quest shouldn’t work is possibly the greatest testament to just how incredible the book is. Just about everything is working against it being as truly wonderful as it has proven to be. It's an all-ages book in a comic world that seems to hate those. It's not only a licensed property, but a majority of the Hanna Barbera characters that have been licensed are almost completely unknown to all but classic animation enthusiasts. Add to that the fact that it's trying to put this menagerie of cartoon characters together into a story that is not only serious, but also, somehow, makes sense. It just shouldn’t work. But it does. Beautifully.[Chris Haley]

It’s hard to talk about how good The Unbelievable Gwenpool is without addressing how unappealing it can sound as a concept, but to pretty much everyone’s surprise Christopher Hastings and Gurihiru managed to pull it off. Not only is every issue full of some of the best superhero action you'll find anywhere, but it's got a fun unique hook of commenting on comics tropes in a way that even Deadpool himself doesn't get to tackle. While it's often overlooked, The Unbelievable Gwenpool was absolutely one of the breakout comics of the year. [Kieran Shiach]

Voracious' high concept of "Jurassic World meets Top Chef" makes certain promises. Markisan Naso and Jason Muhr's comic about an indigenous chef who recovers from tragedy by opening a restaurant back home --- and just how he manages to use dinosaur meat --- surpasses expectations, bringing emotion and humour to the spectacle. And just when things look okay, the cliffhanger ending to Volume 1 throws everything up in the air. [James Leask]

As a lifelong Avengers fan, I've known Bobbi Morse since the '80s. But with Mockingbird I think I finally understood her as a person. Furthermore, the plotting of the first arc is spectacular: the first issue is spread over a month, and the subsequent issues fill in the gaps, with Bobbi's outfits tying it together. People like to throw around the word "intricate" to describe a certain brand of epic masculine writing, but Chelsea Cain and Kate Niemczyk's far more human story has an intricacy that puts them all to shame. [Elle Collins]

The flagship of Gerard Way and DC's exciting new Young Animals imprint, Doom Patrol has, from its first issue, been one of the most exciting new comics around. Rebooting one of the most revered, trippiest and unmatched comics in DC history for a modern audience, while managing to be both respectful to the original but not beholden to it, was an almost Sisyphean task, but the team of Nick Derington, Gerard Way, Tamra Bonvillain, Shelly Bond, and Todd Klein have managed to pull it off with aplomb. [Tara Marie]