10 Best Comic Books Of 2017 (So Far)

6. Black Panther And The Crew

Ta-Nehisi Coates' Black Panther launched to the perfect critical and commercial reception last year, and, a little over a year since its release, the writer's run on the character is regarded as a strong contender to Christopher Priest's own.

The success Coates' experienced on the series led to a spin-off, Black Panther and the Crew, getting the green light, and it - much like its predecessor - released to massive critical acclaim. Renowned poet Yona Harvey was also involved with the book, which saw Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage and Misty Knight head to Harlem to investigate the murder of a civil rights activist, with the NYPD themselves implicated in a conspiracy to suppress the murder.

The book, needless to say, was an extremely important one. Coates took the ethos that had spawned many of Marvel's original successes and used it to shine a light on police brutality and the institutionalised racism that so often pervades American law enforcement, as well as its effects on people of colour in the United States. Its significance (and quality) was clearly lost in Marvel's offices however, as the book was cancelled after its first two issues, meaning a six-issue story-arc was all we got to see from Coates' Crew revival.

Marvel cited poor sales as the reason for the book's cancellation, but the timing couldn't have been any worse. In a year that saw the company turn Steve Rogers into a Nazi and lay the blame for falling sales on a diversified roster of characters, the cancellation of the Crew all too sadly typified Marvel's error-laden approach to 2017.

Still, that doesn't detract from the quality of Coates and Harvey's series by any means. Black Panther and the Crew may have only seen a limited run, but it's easily among the year's very greatest releases.