A quick disclaimer before I begin: this list it is by no means comprehensive, simply because I don’t have as much time to read comics as I once did. I’ve certainly been BUYING a lot of comics this year but haven’t gotten around to reading that many of them. For instance, while I have heard amazing things about the Image series The Power Fantasy from my comic shop retailer Fleet (at the Wizard’s Wagon on Delmar) and also from my editor here at The Arts STL Jason, I cannot personally attest to its quality… despite having owned every single issue of the series since close to the start of its run. In the end, this list features the comics I enjoyed most of all of the comics that I actually got around to reading this year. It is obviously based on my own biases and preferences, which I will readily acknowledge. There are no graphic novels on this list, merely monthly titles, because when it comes to my “binging” habits, I would always rather read a stack of “floppies” than crack the spine of a collection of similar length. Readers will also note an abundance of DC and Image monthly comics on the list but a complete lack of Marvel titles. I’ve always been a DC guy, and Marvel’s just not doing much that interests me at present.
Those caveats aside, here is my list of Top Ten Favorite Comics of 2025, presented in alphabetical order:
Assorted Crisis Events
This anthology series from Image comics by Deniz Camp and Eric Zawadzki is part Twilight Zone and part Astro City. Each issue is a short story set in a would where time is broken and reality is constantly shifting as a result. Your parents might cease to exist; your job of ten years might suddenly have no employment records for you. So the book then uses its sci-fi trappings to explore how human beings must try to live their lives in a world that doesn’t make sense, when actions have ripples beyond anyone’s control and the universe has stacked the deck against them. Each issue has very clear real-world parallels, and practically every story breaks your heart.
Batman: Dark Patterns
By Dan Watters and Hayden Sherman, this twelve issue maxi-series from DC is centered on the Dark Knight Detective solving a series of smaller cases during his first few years in Gotham, much in the vein of the Legends of The Dark Knight series of yesteryear. It consisted of three short arcs of three issues a piece, each one a gritty crime story, with one final three-issue arc in which the creative team pulled it all together to a tight conclusion. The art on the series is very solid, portraying a realism that fits the darker tone of the mysteries, which themselves are intriguing and very well-told. All twelve issues of the series are available currently, with a trade paperback of the entire run due in March.
(Also, I’ll give an honorable mention to another Batman maxi-series that was released this year, Batman and Robin Year One, by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee. Similarly set in Batman’s early days, this series has more superhero trappings to it than mystery, and it particularly involves Batman’s growing relationship with Robin, demonstrating how the Caped Crusader first became a mentor to a younger crimefighter and displaying the growing pains their partnership took as it evolved into the Dynamic Duo we came to know and love.)
Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rites of Spring
The first Beneath the Trees miniseries from Patrick Horvath was often pitched as “Richard Scarry meets Dexter,” as the IDW book centered upon a serial killer operating in a world populated by anthropomorphic animals. This second miniseries builds on the world of the first book with such panache that it is actually topping the original. Samantha has more of a Tom Ripley vibe in this series, scheming behind the scenes while another character takes center stage, the sibling of one of Samantha’s victims who has been driven to obsession in her desire to find her missing brother. Samantha starts “helping” her in her search for the truth, so we readers then watch as the woman cozies up to someone who she is completely oblivious is a dangerous and twisted individual. It makes for a very gripping psychological thriller.
(Another honorable mention is due to a single-issue comic that Patrick Horvath did for Oni/IDW this year entitled Free For All. It’s a standalone comic about a near-future world where billionaires must either agree to sign over half of their net worth to a global fund to provide for the working classes who have been increasingly driven out of their jobs by automation… or they can agree to enter into a tournament where they fight to the death in order to keep their earnings. It’s a reverse of dystopian works like The Hunger Games, and it’s very, very satisfying to see the greed of the 1% turned against them with such bloody consequences.)
Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League
A six-issue miniseries by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott, this book from DC is very aptly titled, as it is essentially Ocean’s 11 in the DC Universe, with the two titular villains working to put together a crew in order to pull off the score of a lifetime. The book has the perfect background for a heist scenario, a highly valuable McGuffin that no villain could resist which is hidden away in an impenetrable fortress that could never ever be broken into. Apart from its continuity trappings, this series has great characterization in the motivations of every member of the crew, clever plotting with ample twists that keep readers guessing throughout, and very strong art that portrays the human side of the characters alongside the awesome action sequences.
Everything Dead and Dying
This five-issue miniseries from Image by Tate Brombal and Jacob Phillips is a tale of an ordinary man living through a zombie apocalypse, trying to survive in the only way he knows how – by hitting the first stage of grief, DENIAL, and camping out there. Every day he feeds his dead husband and daughter, as well as all the other residents of their small town, so they continue to go through the motions of their lives before they became undead and he can pretend that nothing has changed. Of course things quickly go awry when a group of survivors come to town with their own agenda which puts them at odds with our deluded protagonist. It’s an action-packed story that has at its heart a very human exploration of how we cope with loss, and it’s highly recommended.
Exquisite Corpses
James Tynion and Michael Walsh created this series for Image, and then they handed it over to a rotating crew of creators so that it could truly live up to its name. The overarching premise of the series is that the secret cabals that actually run the US have a murder competition every five years in a small town. Each family sends in a killer to see who can rack up the highest body count and also take out the other families’ representatives. The last person standing wins the competition for their family, who then controls the US for the next five years. Despite the fact that the creative team is constantly changing, it’s a very consistent book, and it makes for a fun slasher film in the vein of ‘80s dystopian films like The Running Man and Escape from New York.
Feral
Another book from Image, and another zombie apocalypse story following in the footsteps of The Walking Dead. But the twist that Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner put on the tale is that the zombie virus is actually a strain of rabies/toxoplasmosis and the survivors we are following… are cats. The current arc of the series involves our ragtag group of survivors finding what is essentially a Petco and setting up shop there in a storyline which mirrors the prison arc of The Walking Dead in some ways. It’s amazing how much characterization Fleecs and Forstner get into these cats, who are all essentially selfish little jerks (like most cats) but who you also can’t help but root for anyway.
Absolute Martian Manhunter
Inventive and trippy, this book from Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez is absolutely brilliant, definitely the strongest book DC is putting out as part of its Absolute initiative and maybe the best book they’re publishing bar none. The hero at the center of the story consistently gives his all to fight the unrelenting darkness at the heart of the Absolute universe (which of course clearly acts as a metaphor for the darkness in our own world at present). Through great personal sacrifice our protagonist is able to push back the dark in the first storyline and score a temporary victory, but that success is short-lived as we then watch everyone quickly fall back into their old routines. Nothing really changes, but our hero keeps fighting anyway, and that characterization sets a tone for the book that truly makes it a beacon of hope when contrasted with the grim brutality of other Absolute books like Absolute Batman. The only problem with recommending this book though is that it’s so unique that it is almost indescribable and really needs to be experienced for itself. Its use of color and shadow in Rodriguez’s art is phenomenal, demonstrating a technical prowess for storytelling methods that only comics are capable of.
Sleep
This book by Zander Cannon from Image Comics focuses on a man who wakes up each day to discover that his small town has been under attack by some kind of creature each night while he slept, but he quickly comes to the realization that HE is in fact the cause of the chaos. It’s a character-driven tale that reads like an existential take on werewolf stories or the Banner/Hulk dynamic, told from Banner’s point of view. Explorations of humanity’s dark side, rendered symbolically, have been a part of literature for ages, of course, going all the way back to Jekyll and Hyde. What Cannon brings to the table here with this book is a focus on the human side of such tales. The protagonist feels great guilt over the horrible things that he has done, but it is also coupled with a great fear of getting caught. He takes extreme measures to prevent himself from doing more harm to people, and he is deeply distraught when those measures turn out to all be for naught. The story is beautifully rendered in black and white by Cannon, with excellent use of spot reds and blues to enhance the suspense. The plot is an intriguing mystery that pulls readers in, while the character development keeps readers riveted.
Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum
By W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Marazzo, this five-issue miniseries showcases the Man of Steel as he discovers several new forms of Kryptonite and enlists Batman’s help in testing them on himself. It’s a great Superman Elseworlds tale, essentially, set in a modern world but with a Silver Age sensibility and tone. It’s very out there and weird, gets deeply metafictional at times, but is also just really fun. Readers who dig the weirdness of Morrison and Quitely’s All-Star Superman as well as the heart of James Gunn’s film will find this book to be the perfect mix of the two and thus a really rewarding read.
(One more honorable mention I’ll throw out there for Superman fans is the five-issue miniseries DC put out this year focused on Superman’s dog, Krypto. Subtitled Last Dog of Krypton, the book is basically an origin story of the Dog of Steel by Ryan North and Mike Norton, and it’s got a ton of heart. Fair word of warning, though: dog lovers should be prepared to shed a few tears…)
(And fine, if you want to force me to recommend a Marvel book, I’d give an honorable mention to Fantastic Four: Fanfare, a four-issue anthology series that Marvel put out in order to cash in on the film’s release this summer. Each issue has three short stories about the FF, and like any anthology book, some of those stories are stronger than others. But in each issue, there is at least one story by a creative team that truly seems to get the characters while also understanding the best way to highlight what makes them special in a small number of pages, so all in all the series is definitely worth a read.) | Steve Higgins
