Best of the Decade: 2015 // Best of the Year

Welcome back to You Don’t Read Comics Best of the Decade! Our daily retrospective of the best comics this decade had to offer in celebration for the new year. Please refer to our post highlighting the criteria used to determine each year’s entry. We hope you enjoy today’s piece and encourage you to come back tomorrow. 

You Don’t Read Comics’ best comic of 2015 is Nimona.

Entirely written, drawn, colored, and lettered by Noelle Stevenson, Nimona began as a webcomic before being picked up by HarperCollins and published as a graphic novel in 2015. At first glance, it’s a typical story of villains— the titular Nimona and her boss Lord Ballister Blackheart — versus heroes Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and The Institute. But the story is much deeper examining what it truly means to be a “hero” or “villain,” as well as looking at topics like identity, ableism, and corrupt government organizations. And all of these topics are explored in a setting that combines fantasy and science fiction elements to create a unique experience. 

Nimona appears to be a typical teenager, but she actually has incredible shapeshifting powers. But her abilities end up getting her kidnapped and experimented on as a child. She was treated like a monster and so to save herself, she becomes a monster. A lot of the story deals with this idea of what it means to be a villain and how unfortunate circumstances can lead to people making bad choices. 

When they were younger, Blackheart and Goldenloin were both training to be heroes for The Institute; until a joust went wrong, and Blackheart lost his arm. Now that he’s disabled, The Institute suddenly has no use for him as a hero. This show of ableism is the first evidence that the Institute isn’t the perfect, heroic organization they appear.

This is another big theme of the book; the corruption of people in power. After the flashback to the joust where Blackheart’s injury occurs, there’s further evidence that The Institution is a corrupt organization and the true bad guy in the story. One very effective representation of this is a scene where a homeless person sleeping under a giant golden statue of Sir Goldenloin is forced by The Institute’s guards to move on. It’s evidence that The Institute is misusing funds that could be helping the kingdom, and that they care more for their heroic image than actual heroism. As the story moves on, The Institute begins to show their corruption more publicly, and when a fight breaks out at a jousting tournament, The Institute’s guards are told to use force against citizens, and they’re ready and willing to do so. 

Alongside these themes, there is potentially a romantic relationship between Blackheart and Goldenloin. While it’s never explicitly stated in the actual story, the way these characters interact makes it not much of a stretch to assume that Blackheart and Goldenloin had a romantic relationship at one time. In the end, they appear to rekindle their friendship with the potential of a romance in the future. 

With a compelling female lead, unique setting, meaningful story, and simple but effective art style, it’s not hard to see why Nimona was nominated for an Eisner Award and the National Book Awards in 2015. As well as being adapted for a movie by Blue Sky Studios, a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox Animation. Due to Disney’s acquisition of Fox, the release date of the Nimona film has unfortunately been pushed back multiple times with the current release date set as January 14th, 2022. It’s a long wait, but in the meantime, readers can enjoy re-reading Nimona as well as Stevenson’s other works, including comic series Lumberjanes and the cartoon She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. 

Nimona’s unique premise and profound examination of societal issues in combination with its colorful stylized art made it the best comic of 2015.

 Honorable Mentions for 2015:

Jem and the Holograms

Secret Wars

Batgirl

Ninjak