1. Velvet
Cold war-era espionage, cool gadgets, conspiracies, secret agents. All those are cool things. And definitely things that Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting can do well. These two had the legendary run on Captain America, and they are at home with this kind of story. But now, telling their own spy epic, they are offering up an irresistible premise. What if Ms. Moneypenny was just as much of a badass as James Bond? Velvet serves as the office secretary at a spy organization. When the top spy gets murdered, she gets implicated. And as she goes on the run, people come to realize that she wasn't just the secretary. Thus far Velvet has offered up some of the best action sequences in comics last year. One of the fun things the creators do is they insert images that show us what Velvet is thinking while she is fighting. We're essentially watching her multitask, plan escape routes, anticipate enemy fighting techniques, as she fights or makes her escape. It's a thrilling thing, and if only for those few pages this book is worth picking up. As Velvet goes on the run and we learn more about her past and the conspiracy that's working to frame her, I imagine this series will only get better.