My Year in Review 2025: Part 1
I had so much to write about, I had to split this into two parts!
You read that right, folks. The article I wrote was so long, I felt I had to split it into two parts; or, more accurately, I split off half of question one and all the bonus, members-only sections. I'm known for a good 10,000 word essay or two (or ten) but lists? Lists need some more breathing room. This is also why the article is coming out so late into January. I guess I gotta do what Dave at Comic Book Herald does and compile throughout the year instead of doing it all at the end.
But where's the fun in that?
If you're just reading this on the site, consider subscribing! It's free and you'll be able to access any of the regular member's only content. And if you want to support me even more, paid subscribers get early access.
Speaking of subscriber buttons...
A few weeks back, I asked a host of creators to answer five questions about this year (and the next) in comics. I had a blast compiling the list and got quite a few recs of my own from it. Hopefully, you’ve been reading them too. Of course, I couldn’t in good conscience ask them and then not give my own answers so, to ring in 2026 in a more positive way, here they are! And don't forget to come back next week for part 2.
1) What were some of the comics - print, digital, web, etc. - you loved in 2025?
Because of the volume of comics I read for fun (and to write about,) and because I’m a windbag that needs to explain each choice, winnowing my list down to something short is always a struggle. That this is my column and not for someone else means I can indulge a bit more. So expect quite a few picks and a bunch of text talking about why rather than a straightforward recommendation list, but this is by no means all the comics I read and liked in the year. I tried to keep it to two to three books per company (unless I’m talking about a specific line.) You’ll see.
2025 was the year I rebuilt my comics reading habits. I spent the first half of the year buying and not reading anything because I was waiting for the god damned trades of the issues I’d missed to release. A mix of libraries being woefully behind on getting current titles (RIP Baker & Taylor) and publishers taking forever to put out a trade after the final issue of the collection was originally published meant I missed out on a bunch of series that I really did want to read: “Sleep,” “News from the Fallout,” “Assorted Crisis Events,” most of Tynion’s oeuvre, “All-New Venom.”
Interestingly, Image comics suffered this the most from this, as DCI Ultra kept me up to date with DC Comics and Marvel’s line was anemic enough that I could stay up to date with the two or three non-Ultimate titles I really needed to (sans Venom.) BOOM, too, since I used to read mostly on Hoopla and Penguin Random House has decided fuck you is their new business model and pulled all their new books (and a lot of the old ones) from both it and Comics Plus. In addition, they still don’t believe in DRM-free downloads.
Shortbox Digital Comics Fair was also a highlight…or would have been if I had read any of the comics I bought for it. Look! I was trying to nose-to-the-grindstone my way through my SPX books and also read up on all the manga series I fell behind on so I could actually be informed while writing Mangaversity. Did it work? …Don’t worry about it.
Alright, enough crowing. You want recs. I’ve got recs.
The new Ultimate Universe
I still stand by my assessment that every book coming out of this line is some of the most interesting shit I’ve seen in years. The “real time” countdown aspect was a large part of the appeal and an excellent motivator for staying up to date. This is the kind of experimentation I love to see, even if 2025 was a weaker year for the Ultimate Universe.
Part of that is the looming spectre of it, well, ending after only two years. It’s really sad! I hope one day I can chat with some of the creatives and get the full story on why it’s wrapping up now. I believe that this was primarily a creative decision…but I also know something happened to precipitate the end.
As it stands, “Ultimates” was easily the most experimental and thought inducing, quickly becoming the flagship, standard bearer for where the Marvel Universe should go next. “Spider-Man” was king shit of fuck mountain, telling the best Spider-man story I’ve read in a decade, maybe more, and it’s a travesty that both of these titles won’t get to go on.
“Black Panther” was a solid reinvention of the character that was a little long in the tooth at times but could, I’m sure, have sustained at least another year of stories, unburdened from the baggage the main line character has, that I would have happily read month to month. “Wolverine” is going to be a tight sixteen issues that I’ve only read six of. Whoops!
“X-Men” may be the weakest but it had the most unique style and far afield story of the bunch. It rounded out the line and kudos to Peach for cartooning for 24 straight issues. She deserves a break and better treatment (read: payment, royalties, etc.) than Marvel has likely given her.
Cover by series artists, respectively (Dragotta, Robles, Lindsay, Rodriguez, Sandoval, and Sherman.)
The Absolute Line
I went back and forth on whether to single any of the titles out or just talk about them as a group. It should come as no surprise I chose to talk about the whole line because, come on. The absolute success of Absolute is the story of 2025. This side of DC kicked all kinds of ass and is showing no signs of slowing down. That they’ve kept it fairly contained to six titles shows the trust in the teams and an ethos of quality over quantity that Marvel could learn a thing or two from.
Hickman tried to show them with Krakoa and they piddled all over it.
Alright, I’ll stop being salty. Let’s talk Absolute. Here’s the power ranking of the books. And before anyone gets mad, the distances between these are razor thin and shift literally day to day. Someone had to be the bottom and someone had to be the top.
- Martian Manhunter
- My #1 with a bullet. This book is my jam through and through with gorgeously trippy art by Javier Rodriguez and weird and wacky writing by Deniz Camp. A match made in heaven.
- Wonder Woman
- Fuck, man. Hayden Sherman just keeps flooring me with their art and Jordie Bellaire and Becca Carey are crushing it on colors and letters. I love how they draw Wondie. I love Zee’s absolute look. I love how Kelly has reinterpreted Diana’s mission of love in a world so broken, making it feel like the hardest and most worthwhile battle to fight.
- Batman
- Maybe the most consistently bonkers title that’s pushing the line forward on how much Batman we can Batman. The grimiest of the books for sure (thank you Dragotta,) Snyder is finally getting to officially let the Joker be an eldritch being, my favorite take on the character. It’s a shonen battle series pretending to be an American superhero story and getting away with it. Keep it coming!
- Superman
- Issue #14 nearly dethroned WW and Batman alone. That’s how good that shit was. I was weeping at the end. Big, gasping sobs. Aaron hasn’t hit this hard since the Death of the Mighty Thor. Why #4 then? These three series regularly swap positions depending on my mood; I just couldn’t shake the feeling that WW and Batman had a better overall year.
- Green Lantern
- I think the headiness of “GL” is both its strength and its weakness. The more I think about the book, the more I’m into it. It’s all the metaphysical nonsense Ewing loves to pick at. I like it too! But it’s being very cagey about answers and the answers we do get are dense and require time to sink in. I need to sit with this one more. I’m also, sorry to say, not a big fan of Jahnoy’s art. An excellent fit! Just…don’t love the way he does people. It’s also the newest title so it may just need some more time to cook.
- The Flash
- No shade to Lemire and Robles, both of whose work I adore and adore here. This is a solid Flash book and I am loving the paranoia angle (plus sidekick Grodd?!) It’s just not quite as electrifying as the others? Clearly I have more of an affinity for the weirder shit. I actually had it above “GL” for most of the year but the “oh no my ex is crashing on my couch and now we’re gonna have drama” issue pushed “GL” up. “Flash” feels like the most decompressed of the books so it’s been hard to get a real grasp on my feelings for it relative to the rest of the line. I dunno. It’s still top-tier DC comicing.
Fantastic Four (2022) and Fantastic Four (2025)
Whoever makes the marketing decisions as Marvel has rocks in their heads. They think rebooting a series that had the best reputation around for being new reader friendly and giving it a new number one with the same freaking writer was a good move? Sure, it’s got a new lead artist in Humberto Ramos, but the tone and approach has not changed much, if at all, AND it happened in the middle of “One World Under Doom,” the big event that North was writing. The middle!
Despite all this bullshit, the book is great and continues to be one of the few Marvel books I’m actually keeping up with. It’s fun, it’s got heart, and North has gotten me to fall in love with every one of the four, even Reed. That’s talent. He also has a serious supporting cast! I miss supporting casts.
Also, I will hear no Johnny Storm mustache slander here. It is a glorious bit of character work that’s earnestly goofy and brings a great big smile to my face.
The Mortal Thor
OK Marvel. I’ll bite. You want to talk about a meaningful reboot? Here’s a good example from your own damn company. “The Immortal Thor” was a good series that lost me a little by the end. In its final pages, Thor turned out to not be so immortal and died. Then he was reborn.
But not really.
Meet Sigurd Jarlson. Some dude that might have a piece of Thor’s soul, might be his reincarnation, might be straight up Thor without memories. Doesn’t matter and all the characters in story will insist upon the same.
Meet Sigurd Jarlson. A dude with a hammer and vague memories of who he is, fighting white supremacists and union busters on the streets of New York. It is a much more crunchy, harsh book than “Immortal” while still having the fantastical elements we’ve come to expect. There’s even Donald Blake (maybe. sorta. Don’t worry about it.) A recipe for success and a phenomenal reinvention mid-run.
Meet Sigurd Jarlson. Your new best friend.
Death of the Silver Surfer
What a great book this was. I think there’s something about the surfer that brings out the best in creators. Slott & Allred, Straczynski & Ribic, and now Pak & Kumar (alongside D'armata and Sabino, of course.) Not much more to say than: I want more Kumar, I hope the new surfer sticks around in a meaningful way, and I could read years worth of minis by this team. Give them a little corner of Marvel space and I would be happy.
The New Gods (2024)
I picked one Ram V book for the list and it’s this one. I’m holding my breath that the promised follow up will come because Ram and Evan Cagle, Francesco Segala, and Tom Napolitano, plus a murders row of cohorts on the art team (Lonergan, Federici, Hester & Parks, Cowan & Fowler Jr., Parr, Collar, Morian, Moore, Andrade, MacLean, Chang, Fornes) knocked this shit out of the park.
Even though it is working from a far stronger Kirby creation, “The New Gods” did for the Fourth World that Gillen & Ribic’s “Eternals” did for, well, the Eternals. I get it now and I get the characters. The opera is galactic and the players, larger than life. Orion is interesting again and Metron makes sense, no longer a walking (floating) piece of exposition and frippery. Plus, you saw the artists above. The book looks like nothing else out there and uses each unique look to their fullest.
That it is also integral to the ongoing meta-plot of the DCU without being bogged down by the rest or bogging them down is a feat. DC hasn’t been this good in years and books like this drive home why it’s working so well.
Batman: Dark Patterns
I know I’m putting a lot of superhero titles on this list (and also not letting the list be short) but I promise I’m just that excited about these books. “Dark Patterns” is maybe the contender for the “most disappointing 12 issue series because I thought it was an ongoing and desperately wanted it to continue” award. This series is what I want “Detective Comics” to be. This series was a return to the kind of storytelling from my favorite era - ‘New Gotham’ - combined with the taught, short-arc structure of “Legends of the Dark Knight.”
Experimental, engrossing, and jaw-droppingly gorgeous, Watters and Sherman (and Farrell and Cvetkovic) have crafted a Bat book for the ages. That “Nightwing” promises to be more like this in 2026 is a good sign you may see some of Blϋdhaven’s ass on this list next year.
Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum
W. Maxwell Prince is a more accessible Grant Morrison. The two seem to share a very specific, quasi-mystical and philosophical approach to comics that you really have to be attuned to in order to vibe with. They both clearly love the genre’s goofier aspects and ascribe deep meanings to it without taking everything too seriously.
Reading “Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum” felt like reading “All-Star Superman” way back in the day. A creative team firing on all cylinders (in this case “Ice Cream Man’s” Prince, Morazzo, O’Halloran, and Good Old Neon) and an “out of canon” Superman story that’s pulling the Silver Age into the modern day - as opposed to, say, “Metamorpho,” which is a straight up homage to the grooviest era of them all. I awaited each issue with baited breath, needing to pick it up day and date.
Not since “Superman’s Pal: Jimmy Olsen” (2019) have I been this engaged and excited by a “traditional” Superman story…and I like a decent amount of mainline stuff. We get Kal-Elf and his amazing chin. There are five new kryptonites!
2) Which creators caught your attention in 2025?
Patrick Horvath, obviously, but also Hayden Sherman. I interviewed Hayden many years ago at NYCC. At the time, I liked their art for its scratchy, off-kilter look, though it could be hard to follow depending on the book (“Cold War” from Aftershock was one.) It wasn’t until this year though that I saw just how far they had come both in terms of drafting and paneling. They are a confident artist whose every book is pushing at the page, ornate with a depth that I hope spurs other artists to follow suit.
I also really dug Tango’s covers for White Ash and Space Between Entertainment and am looking forward to more of their work. Maybe some more interiors??
3) What older comics did you read in 2025?
There were a few 2024 comics I didn’t read until 2025 whose 2025 issues I also didn’t read. One was the always wonderful “Resident Alien.” If you’ve only ever watched the show, the comic is much more of a calm family drama with a sci-fi twist than a comedy of errors. I love both very much but the comic’s tone is where my heart lies. I’m sad to see it going but I’m glad we got another three volumes from where I thought the series was going to end.
I mentioned the OG “G.I. Joe” already, which I thoroughly enjoyed for about 100 issues. The first 12 or so were shaky and the final 50 were a bit of a slog, with full 90s on display, but for a good while there, it was living up to the ol’ Larry Hama guarantee. They truly don’t make ‘em like these anymore.
“The Pedestrian” was a sleeper hit I had on my list for a while and finally got a chance to dig into this year. Silly and serious, I need more issues stat!
“Tongues” is a wild one that I don’t think I’ve finished processing yet. I read the first issue of this years ago after picking it up on a whim while on a date with my (not yet then) wife. I was left baffled and confused and assumed this was either an experimental one-shot or a fourth or fifth issue that was poorly marked. It was neither. Reading the first half of this series as a unit really helped put that mysterious issue into context and thank goodness for that.
Finally read “Death of Superman.” Not what I was expecting at all! No surprise that it’s great. What is shocking is how damn effective the gatefold is for the death scene. Powerful stuff.
“The Worst Journey in the World: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1: Making Our Easting Down” is a hell of a title for a hell of a book. Another footnote laden tome whose comic is actually a very breezy, fun depiction of the first leg of the ill-fated journey of the Terra Nova Expedition, led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott. Based primarily on the memoir of Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Sarah Airriess applies her animator’s talent to rendering these early parts with aplomb. I love how expressive the characters are and also how much it looks like stills from a Don Bluth film. I eagerly await the second volume in, checks watch, three years time.
“Poison Ivy” is hands down DC’s best ongoing and it’s not even close. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it. This is the platonic ideal of an ongoing and I need to desperately catch up outside of the trades.
OK. Two more new ones and a re-read. “Kaya” and “The Walking Dead” were both series I had started prior to 2025. “Kaya” just didn’t wow me with its teasers in the Image anniversary anthology while “The Walking Dead” got me about halfway through before something else shiny caught my attention. I’m happy I returned to both because “Kaya” is one of the best sword and sorcery (and sci-fan) books out right now. Very happy to be almost up to date on that one. “The Walking Dead” I already wrote 3000 words about.
As for the re-read, I busted out my digital “Rising Stars” compendium and went back in time to the early 2000s edgy-indie superhero boom and was reminded just how good J. Michael Straczynski is at writing comics. There’s plenty to critique with “Rising Stars” but reading it, all that just melted away and I was in it. The characters are compelling, the mystery is propulsive, and it’s not just another grimdark superhero story, even if it is very late 90s, early 2000s.
Like, very of that era. It literally straddles 9/11 and you can kind of feel it in the back half.
4) What comics are you looking forward to in 2026?
Echoing a few responses from creators, I’m absolutely jazzed to see “Billy Bat” make its way to the states as well as the long-awaited re-release of “Wandering Son.” I’ve been bugging Fantagraphics about this book for years. They let volume 2 go out of print so fast.
Of course, “Absolute Martian Manhunter” and the rest of that line are going to continue to be must reads. The real stand out though? The triumphant return of Vertigo! Nearly every one of those books looks like it’ll be amazing. Nearly. Looking at you “100 Bullets.” No thank you.
I’m also looking forward to more issues of “Minor Arcana” and “The Power Fantasy.” I didn’t feel like I had anything to say about them in 2025 but I’m still reading and still enjoying. Oh, and more “Criminal!” Brubaker and Phillips are evergreen.
5) Weirdest Comic Fact You Know
As the person who asked this, I should have a weird comic fact. I don’t! All of mine are pretty staid stories that most people already know. I guess the weirdest fact I can think of right now is comics have changed shape multiple times throughout the ages. The standard “American comic shape” is fairly new! Seems like it changed in the 1990s. What are these sizes? I’m glad you asked.
- Golden Age: 7 ¾ x 10 ½ inches
- Silver Age: 7 ⅛ x 10 ½ inches
- Regular (post-1965 to mid-1980s:) 7 ¼ x 10 ½ inches
- Current: 6 ⅞ x 10 ½ inches
Why the change? Beats me! Maybe a printer screwed up a few times and the industry was never the same. But it means that when I try to bag and board an older comic in my new bags, it never fits.
See you in a week for the second half!
Elias Rosner
Comments ()