2013 - what a year. And what a year in comics. We witnessed some new comics and some continuations of comics, some world and universe changing events, some new characters, some old characters getting re-imagined and some truly emotive occurrences that made us laugh, cry and everything in between. As we arrive at the end of the first month of 2014, it's an ideal opportunity to take a look back at last year's comic book scene. There have literally been thousands of memorable moments that could've found their way in to this top twenty - and to whittle it down to such a small amount has been very thought-provoking and difficult - but each and every one of these deserves their place. But, of course, so do many others and your input is always welcome as opinions differ from reader to reader. This list will take into account things like emotional impact, humour, impact on a large readership (so, while there were some great moments in smaller and independent comics, this list tends to focus on the big companies), shock value and even outright ludicrousness (because this IS the world of comic books and "best" can translate to "whackiest" or even "stupidest", depending on your viewpoint). However, we hope that there is enough of a balance between the absurd and the brilliant to give everyone some satisfaction. Here are the twenty best comic book moments in 2013...
Honourable Mention: The Daredevil #26 Cover
Although this wasn't really a comic book "moment", as such, it's certainly worthy of a mention thanks to artist Chris Samnee's creative effort. As Daredevil leaps through the city on this cover, he passes a line of clothes hanging out to dry. The eagle-eyed will notice that the clothes cleverly spell out the titular hero's name. Samnee's covers have always been great and 2013 was a superb year even for him, but this was particularly special.
Second Honourable Mention: All Of Saga (Image Comics)
Saga began in 2012 and is still ongoing now in 2014 so, by putting it in as a whole (all of it), it fails the criteria for this list. However, it simply cannot be stressed enough just how freaking awesome this comic is and it had to get a mention, due to the fact that it was also ongoing in 2013, to bring it to your attention if you haven't already witnessed its brilliance. Published by Image Comics, Saga has been described as "Star Wars meets Game of Thrones" and as being evocative of both science fiction and fantasy epics such as The Lord of the Rings and classic works like Romeo and Juliet. It contains brilliant writing from Brian K. Vaughan, superb art by Fiona Staples, fantastic, weird and wonderful characters, some very intense emotion and some truly hilarious, weird and wonderful moments. Don't take its exclusion from the main body of this list as a bad thing, take its special placing and unique entire inclusion as it being in a class of its own. Get out and read it immediately. And now on to the actual list...