Romulo Fajardo Jr

Steve Orlando, Fernando Blanco and Romulo Fajardo Jr's Midnighter and Apollo straddles a sweet spot between being one of the most brutal and visceral superhero comics on the stands, and also one of the most tender and heartfelt romance stories. That intersection is exactly where my musical taste lies, so this playlist reflects these two beating hearts of the series.

In Blue Beetle #3, by Keith Giffen and Scott Kolins, Jaime Reyes is one young man facing 150 alien bugs. Fortunately for him, he's a bit of an alien bug himself, thanks to his extraterrestrial Blue Beetle armor. But he's still outmanned, or "outbugged" as the cover puts it, and he's missing the support of his mentor, Ted Kord. It also doesn't help that these vaguely human-shaped space bugs, known as Horde (no article), share a hive mind, which means the attack as one. Despite their number of bodies, this might make them more coordinated than Blue Beetle, considering Jaime and his armor don't always agree on what to do.

Lettering is an art form that doesn’t get enough recognition in comics, and when it’s done well you’ll often not notice it. However, Wonder Woman by Greg Rucka, Nicola Scott, Romulo Fajardo Jr, and Jodi Wynne incorporates the lettering in a few unique ways that add extra layers to the storytelling, and is emblematic of how a new approach to lettering is improving DC Comics on the whole.

If the stated goal of DC's line-wide Rebirth was to restore the connections and the sense of history that have been building between those heroes for 75 years, then at this point, I think we can call it a success. For the first time in a long time, the DC Universe feels like a universe again, and that foundation of interconnected characters and relationships, all those bits and pieces that can unify all these disparate stories, have led to some truly great comics. The unity of the Batman books, the bizarre excesses of Superman and Son battling against an island of dinosaurs, the breath of fresh air that's giving the Green Lanterns a whole new appeal, and all the way down the line. For a reader like me, who has a love of that universe that's built on those connections and tied up into those relationships, there's so much out there that's genuinely great. And nothing on the stands has done it better than the first issue of Midnighter and Apollo.

Barnaby Bagenda, Romulo Fajardo Jr, and Tom King's The Omega Men from DC Comics has become a critics' favorite since its debut in June, though it unfortunately never found the audience it deserved. The book is filled with twists, turns, questions of morality, questions of politics --- and some absolutely gorgeous art and colors. Omega Men has helped elevate the profile of penciller and inker Barnaby Bagenda, making him one of the artists to watch out for in 2016. ComicsAlliance sat down with Bagenda to hear about his inspirations and his thoughts on structure.