Best and worse DC Comics covers of 2010

I have compiled my favourite and least favourite comic book covers of the year from DC. The rule I followed was that I couldn't feature the same artist of book more than once per category.  Vertigo and Wildstorm were not eligible.

TOP 10 BEST DC COVERS OF 2010

1. Phil Noto's Superboy #2

Phil Noto draws a very pretty Superboy. Add to that a nice restricted colour scheme, a stylish composition, and a little bit of bondage sexiness with Poison Ivy's vines, and you've got a clear winner. This is my favourite cover of the year.

2. Gary Frank's Atom Special

I love covers that depict the characters in action or in peril. This cover is full of movement and danger and it's visually striking.

3. Stanley Lau's Superman/Batman Annual #4

It was really hard to decide which of Stanley Lau's covers to pick for this list. His Batgirl covers are all stunningly beautiful and so is his double-cover for the Detective Comics and Batman annuals. But in the end I had to go with this one, because it features probably the best-looking Batman Beyond I've ever seen.

4. Amy Reeder Hadley's Supergirl #56

Amy Reeder did four or five Supergirl covers this year and they're all really nice, but this one was the most striking, making great use of the mirror imagery of the Bizarro world. Using the capes to emphasize the yin-yang motif was also a great idea.

5. Frazer Irving's Batman and Robin #13

It was a tough decision to leave out all of Frank Quitely's covers for Batman and Robin in favour of this variant by Frazer Irving, but ultimately this one wins hands down.

6. Cliff Chiang's Birds of Prey #3

The cover was so much better than this short fantasy scene was in the book. Cliff Chiang also did some really nice covers for Justice League: Generation Lost.

7. J.H. Williams III's Detective Comics #862

Wow. I don't really have to say anything else about this one.

8. Dustin Nguyen's Batman: Streets of Gotham #11

Picking only one Dustin Nguyen cover was torture. All of his covers for Streets of Gotham are amazing. He also did great cover for Detective Comics #866 and the first issue of his run on Batgirl.


9. Jesus Saiz's The Brave and the Bold #33

Although a lot of people had issues with the actual story in this issue, the cover is undeniably great in my opinion. It hinted at a lot of ass-kicking from these three great female characters, which unfortunately wasn't quite what we got.

10. José O. Ladrönn's The Spirit #1

And finally this one. Ladrönn's covers for The Spirit are all absolutely amazing. They're stylish, beautifully rendered and exciting. Unfortunately, the interior art by Moritat can't even compare. I got the first three issues of this new series before dropping it from my pull list and they were some of the worse comics I read all year. Which is proof that you should never judge a book by its cover.

BOTTOM 5 WORST DC COVERS OF 2010

1. Rodolfo Migliari's Green Lantern: Emerald Warrior #5

It was very easy to pick the worst cover of the year from DC. God, how much I hate this! Not only is it fucking disgusting and totally inappropriate to have a character puking blood and bleeding from his eyeballs on the cover of a DC book, but this is also terribly ugly art in my opinion. I hate absolutely everything about this.

2. Felipe Massafera's Superman: Last Family of Krypton #2

No. This is just wrong. First of all, Felipe Massafera is an obvious Alex Ross wannabe. I'm not even a fan of Alex Ross, much less some second-rate imitation. Second, flying babies are creepy. This cover is almost as repulsive as Guy Guardner puking blood, which is a remarkable feat in itself.

3. Billy Tucci's Red Hood: Lost Days #5

What the hell is this? I don't know whose arms these are, but they are surely not Jason Todd's. Billy Tucci is very hit and miss. Some of his other covers for this mini-series are actually quite nice, but this pumped-up-on-steroids version of the Red Hood is just gross.

4. Doug Mahnke's Green Lantern #57

The less said about this one, the better.

5. John Cassaday's Superman #706

And finally, a cover from what I consider the single biggest failure of the year from DC - the disastrously boring, delayed, critically despised, and ultimately abandoned "Grounded" storyline from superstar writer J. Michael Straczynski. On this ridiculous cover, I'm assuming that Superman is doing his best Dracula impression. It's an awful cover for an awful comic book. (At least it's not misleading, like some of those covers in my top-10 list.)