The best new comics of January 2022: Inferno, Saga, Monstress and more

EW's monthly comic column is back with our first look at books published in the year 2022. It was certainly a busy month for the medium, with landmark Image books Saga and Monstress both returning after a hiatus (six months in Monstress' case, much longer for Saga) and Marvel publishing the last X-Men issue written by Jonathan Hickman for the foreseeable future.

There's a lot to discuss, so let's get into it!

Best ending

January comics — 'Inferno' #4, by Jonathan Hickman and Valerio Schiti. Marvel Comics

Inferno #4 (Marvel)
Jonathan Hickman (writer), Valerio Schiti (artist), Stefano Caselli (artist)

The fourth issue of Inferno marked an end not just to this epic X-Men miniseries, but also to Jonathan Hickman's time overseeing Marvel's mutants. Ever since establishing the new mutant nation-state of Krakoa in his game-changing 2019 reboot House of X/Powers of X with artists Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva, Hickman has been at the head of the mutants' new golden age — writing the flagship X-Men comic and coordinating larger plot machinations like the X of Swords crossover.

Given his talent as a writer, it's sad to see Hickman leave Krakoa, but as he told EW, he's sticking around at Marvel (in addition to working on his intriguing Substack comic project, 3 Worlds / 3 Moons) and he's leaving the mutant island in good hands. One of the most fun things about the Krakoa era is the way form has matched content as story elements resonate with the real-life creative process. As they recounted to EW last year, all the writers on current X-Men comics are selflessly collaborating and exchanging ideas as they write about the mutant characters embarking on their own democratic experiment and learning to live with each other. So it's fitting that Inferno ends with Professor X and Magneto relinquishing their stranglehold on mutant government on the page at the same time that in the real world Hickman abdicates his position as figurehead of the X-Men's creative renaissance.

On top of giving us the cathartic action of Magneto ripping apart the super Sentinel Nimrod over and over again (which suffices in the absence of an actual final confrontation with the Orchis organization), Inferno #4 also manages to redress some wrongs from X-Men history. The main one is securing the resurrection of the precognitive mutant Destiny. As written by her creator Chris Claremont in the '80s, Destiny was clearly in a loving relationship with the shapeshifter Mystique, but the bigotry of the time meant that Claremont could never describe their love directly on the page — and then Destiny was killed in the early '90s. It was Hickman who, in the pages of 2020's X-Men #6, finally wrote Mystique calling Destiny her wife. But with Destiny still dead, some fans were understandably unsatisfied with that direct bit of representation. Thankfully, Inferno saw Mystique defy Xavier and Magneto in order to bring her wife back to life and outwit her enemy Moira X.

Though her mutant power of resurrection was the engine of House of X/Powers of X, Moira X also lingered as a millstone around Krakoa's neck, since her ability meant that her death could reset time and undo all the accomplishments of the mutant nation-state. Mystique and Destiny have solved that problem and decentralized the Krakoan government. Little wonder that once the current X Lives of Wolverine/X Deaths of Wolverine event wraps up, the next era of X-Men comics is titled Destiny of X. Long forced to the margins, Destiny and Mystique are now at the center of the X-franchise. It's very exciting!

Cypher is another X-Men character who has suffered a lot in the past but is given catharsis in Inferno #4. Doug Ramsey's mutant power of understanding languages was seen as a joke in the steroidal superhero zeitgeist of the late '80s and '90s (and even survived as a punchline into the 21st century thanks to Archer) and he was brutally killed off in New Mutants #60. His final issues were filled with humiliation, as both his comrades and Doug himself constantly complained that his power wasn't fit for combat. Hickman clearly had a different reading. Now that the X-Men have transitioned from a butt-kicking superhero team to the revolutionary vanguard trying to build a new society, communication is actually really important to their work. As the only being who can actually talk to the island Krakoa, Cypher was placed in a powerful position right from the start of House of X. Inferno furthered that importance by revealing that Doug, Krakoa, Doug's old techno-organic friend Warlock, and his new wife, Bei the Blood Moon, have taken it upon themselves to be an additional check on the Krakoan government. After all, how can you keep secrets from a living island and a man who can understand every word of every language? Doug stopped Mystique and Moira from coming to deadly blows and helped usher in a more transparent phase of Krakoan government.

These are the real rewards of a reinvention: not just making things different for the sake of newness, but actually engaging with a franchise's complicated history in a way that adds new meaning and finds better uses for neglected characters. Hickman may be gone for now, but he's set a great X-ample for his collaborators to follow.

Best returns

Monstress #36 (Image)
Marjorie Liu (writer), Sana Takeda (artist)

It's been a while since we've checked in with Monstress. For a minute there it seemed like the epic fantasy saga by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda was spinning its wheels a bit plot-wise, but now it feels like the pieces are on the board for a march to an epic endgame. Last year's Monstress #35 did a lot to move things along, finally taking Maika Halfwolf's tortured relationship with her lover/enemy Tuya, a.k.a. the Baroness of the Last Dusk, past the point of reconciliation and positioning the various factions (the Dusk and Dawn Courts, the witchy demons who rule the Federation and the human admirals who oppose them, Maika's father and his mysterious Blood Court) in place for an eventual explosive confrontation.

Monstress #36, the first issue of this year's new arc, keeps that momentum going. You can feel the energy from the very first page, where the adorable fox-child Kippa screams, "I'LL KILL YOU!" at Tuya. That's real, painful growth for the series' most optimistic character, but there's only so much that Kippa or anyone else can do for Maika at this point. The hero of Monstress is now in the position that so many legendary comics characters have found themselves in: She must change or die.

Trapped in a deep coma, Maika either has to fight her way back to consciousness (a feat that nearly every side character in this issue declares to be impossible) or become Tuya's mindless puppet. What really stands out about this issue is how Takeda depicts Maika adrift in her own mind. Now that we're at the 36th issue, readers have grown accustomed to Takeda's incredible character designs and jam-packed panels overflowing with both beauty and horror. But pages in this issue from Maika's perspective are mostly black as the void, progressively broken up by small bits of color that represent Maika clawing herself back to some level of subconscious awareness. This jarring stylistic change really underlines the seriousness of what the protagonist is going through; when she's on the other side of this, she'll definitely be changed. Monstress has clear stakes and a specific goal on the horizon again. We can't wait to see what Maika has in store for Tuya and the Dusk Court when she fully wakes up again.

Saga #55 (Image)
Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Fiona Staples (artist)

After a nearly four-year absence, EW's favorite comic of the last decade finally returned with a new issue — and the results did not disappoint. The same amount of years have passed for Saga's characters, and the resulting changes are refreshing. Four years older, Hazel is now ready to fully assume protagonist duties from her parents. Seeing things from Hazel's perspective as she runs through crowded streets like Aladdin feels like a great preview of how much more centered she will be in Saga's second half, after spending most of the previous 54 issues as an infant. Creators Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples do a great job of literalizing this coming of age in the text, as the stolen object that gets Hazel chased through the streets in the first place is none other than a musical recording — the ultimate symbol of youth taking culture into their own hands.

It's a nice touch that Staples gets primary billing in the credits of this issue. A big reason for the long hiatus was giving her time to recharge, because there was no way any guest artist could possibly fill in for her on even one issue. Staples' art is integral to Saga, and she proves she's as good as ever with a new character design (the large-figured Bombazine, featured on the cover, is a delightful new presence we can't wait to learn more about) and another stunning cliffhanger ending.

Other highlights

Action Comics #1039 (DC)
Philip Kennedy Johnson (writer), Riccardo Federici (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

We must give eternal praise to Greg Pak and Carlo Pagulayan for creating Planet Hulk way back when, because it turns out that "gladiator slave on an alien planet" is just a fantastic situation to put your favorite superhero in. Taika Waititi put the God of Thunder through it in Thor: Ragnarok, creating one of the best MCU movies in the process. Now, writer Philip Kennedy Johnson and his artistic collaborators are doing the same to Superman in this current Action Comics run.

Spinning out of Grant Morrison's impressive Superman and the Authority miniseries from last year, this current run of Action Comics sees the older Man of Steel fighting to liberate the slaves of Warworld while his young son Jon protects Earth. These divergent stories represent two different solutions to the modern problem of writing Superman, i.e., how to bring real stakes to the world's most powerful superhero. Jon has to reckon with inexperience, while Clark here has to deal with weakening powers and a brutal military planet that doesn't play by his Boy Scout rules. The results are paying off, because it's fun to see Superman clothed like a gladiator hitting a giant alien monster over the head with chains. It just is!

Miguel Mendonca illustrated the first couple issues of Action Comics' "Warworld Saga," but Riccardo Federici brings a welcome change of pace to this installment. His more painterly style brings some real pathos to the scene of a caged Superman watching the last member of one of Warworld's imprisoned alien races go extinct. This saga has been building for months, and has more story to tell. But the fact that we're learning to sympathize with oppressed aliens in addition to enjoying the gladiator battles is a good sign.

Joe Hill's Rain #1 (Image)
Joe Hill (story), David M. Booher (writer), Zoe Thorogood (artist), Chris O'Halloran (colorist)

Though he started off as a novelist and short-story writer, Joe Hill has proven to be well-suited for comic books. Following the success of his comic Locke & Key with Gabriel Rodriguez and his line of horror comics at DC, Hill has now overseen the adaptation of his novella Rain into comic form. So far, it feels like a perfect fit.

What's so special about rain, you might ask? Well in this case, it's not water falling from the sky — it's a bunch of super-sharp crystal nails. The pitch-perfect pacing of this first issue manages to introduce us to protagonist Honeysuckle Speck, establish her love story with Yolanda, and then, just when things seem fine, unleash that apocalyptic rain to devastating effect. You can't help but feel hooked by the end.

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