Marvel’s had a rough 2020s, as a waning MCU and the failing leadership of CB Cebulski’s tenure as editor-in-chief led to DC overtaking Marvel in local comic shop market share for the first time since the splash of 2011’s New 52 (and on a sustained basis for the first time this century!). It’s a notably down decade for the once and future House of Ideas, but as is always the case, even at historical low points, amazing creators make amazing Marvel Comics that shine through.
For Marvel, the decade’s most memorable moments include the X-Men’s Age of Krakoa, the Maker’s new Ultimate Universe, and Doctor Doom’s most notable world takeover since Emperor Doom. Below you’ll find my picks for the best Marvel Comics of the 2020s, limited to new releases this decade. Longer runs of comics could begin prior to the 2020s, but must release a substantial amount of the run after the year 2020. Otherwise, all that matters is that I had a great time reading and think you will too!
Related:
Best Graphic Novels of the 2020s
Honorable Mentions:
- Infernal Hulk
- She-Hulk / Sensational She-Hulk
- Immortal X-Men
- Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise
- Beta Ray Bill
- Defenders: Beyond
#10) Moon Knight / Vengeance of Moon Knight / Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu / Marc Spector: Moon Knight
Creators: Jed MacKay, Alessandro Cappuccio, Rachelle Rosenberg
Publication: July 2021 – Present
With the Midnight Mission, Moon Knight and company’s base for the traveler’s of the night, Jed MacKay and Alessandro Cappuccio completely reinvigorated Moon Knight. The creative team take Mister Knight’s modern hits (Ellis/Shalvey, Lemire/Smallwood) and merge them with the full history of the fist of Khonshu to give Marc Spector renewed relevance and purpose in the Marvel Universe. The run’s particularly Vampire-centric, in some surprising ways, effectively occupying a role that Blade runs have often struggled with. Plus, pound for pound, I’m not sure any Marvel run this decade matches a Cappuccio/Rosenberg splash and MacKay one-liner for sheer “OH HELL YEAH” effect.
#9) Marvel Ultimate Universe 2.0
Creators: Jonathan Hickman, Marco Checchetto, Deniz Camp, Juan Frigeri, Peach Momoko, Zack Davisson
Publication: June 2023 – June 2026
Marvel’s relaunched Ultimate Universe (forever the 2niverse of my heart) never quite lived up to the dream of its highest highs, but for stretches from 2023 to 2026 it offered some of the best Marvel Comics available. My favorite bounced back and forth between Hickman/Checchetto/Messina on Ultimate Spider-Man or Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri’s Ultimates, with Peach Momoko’s uncompromised Ultimate X-Men offering a deliciously idiosyncratic take on mutantdom that we’ve never seen before and will never see again!
The end result is a relatively concise sequence of 24 issue runs that allow you to gluttonously binge on a Marvel Universe as shaped by Hickman’s alt-Reed Richards, The Maker. Whether it’s an adult Peter Parker and Mary Jane raising a family, young Tony Stark and a Reed Richards/Doom helming an Ultimates unit branded terrorists, or an Ultimate X-Men starring none of your faves, but drawn by one of the premiere comics artists, the Ultimate 2niverse offers some wonderfully snackable reads.
#8) Hellions / Sabretooth
Creators: Zeb Wells, Carmen Carnero / Victor LaValle, Leonard Kirk
Publication: March 2020 – July 2022
Before everything fell into a horribly depressing anti-climax (that’s what all the girls called me in college!), the Krakoan Age of X-Men comics had some real excellent mutant ideas, often from wonderfully unexpected places. To wit, the Krakoa era’s nastiest, funniest book, Hellions takes mutantkind’s most irredeemable misfits (Havok, Nanny, Orphanmaker, Wild Child, Scalphunter – you know, super normal team!), and forces them into a rehabilitation program that’s really just an excuse for a Krakoan Suicide Squad under Mister Sinister’s thumb. Or, esteemed horror novelist Victor LaValle took on Sabretooth for a poignant prison drama, following up on what happened to Sabretooth after the Krakoan quiet council banished him to eternal solitary.
There are other Krakoan Age works that merit consideration (Vita Ayala and Rod Reis’s New Mutants run would absolutely like a word), which emphasizes just how thrilling a time it was to be an X-fan!
#7) Daredevil
Creators: Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto
Publication: February 2019 – August 2023
If there was any doubt that the Sex Criminals / Howard the Duck revivalist could become one of the signature superhero comics writers of the 2020s, Chip Zdarsky put it to bed with an over 40 issue run on Daredevil that includes the 2022 Marvel Event, Devil’s Reign. At the same time, this is the run that solidified future Ultimate Spider-Man artist Marco Checchetto as one of the biggest draws at Marvel. Where most post-Miller Daredevil runs can be summarized by their influences or reactions, Zdarsky and Checchetto’s Daredevil is uniquely open-armed, drawing as heavily and eagerly from the full legacy of Miller/Nocenti/Bendis/Brubaker/Waid as any creator conceivably could. Instead of imitation, the run becomes its own fully formed interpretation of Matt, Wilson Fisk and Elektra, forever entering the legacy as a contender in its own right.
#6) Al Ewing’s Krakoa: SWORD/X-Men Red/Resurrection of Magneto
Creators: Al Ewing, Friends
Publication: December 2020 – April 2024
Following Jonathan Hickman’s exit from the X-Men’s Age of Krakoa – smack in the relatively early days of what looked like a years-long project – the era desperately needed saving. Fortunately for Krakoa fans, that possibility emerged in the presence of Kieron Gillen on Immortal X-Men, and Al Ewing across SWORD and X-Men Red. After the mutants claim Mars as their own, Ewing turns Arakko and the wider Krakoa political landscape into something genuinely cosmic in scope, with a lived-in mutant mars not found anywhere else. It’s dense, ambitious, world-building science fiction dressed up as a superhero comic, rewarding readers who want their X-Men stories to feel like they actually matter.
A master of continuity, Ewing honed in on Abigail Brand, Magneto, Storm and Sunspot, as well as the bursting potential of new Arakko mutants like Isca the Unbeaten, crafting moments that rank among the best for all involved.
#5) AvA: Aliens vs Avengers
Creators: Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic
Publication: August 2024 – June 2025
My instincts warned me that an Avengers/Alien licensed IP crossover was nothing more than a cash-grab, but in retrospect I should have remembered that when Hickmand Ribic make comics together (Ultimate Comics: Ultimates, 2015’s Secret Wars), they tend to do the best version of whatever thing they’re doing. AvA is no exception, as Hickman and Ribic merge the lore of Alien/Prometheus with the end of the Marvel Universe. Hickman pulls on every string he’s seeded over a decade-plus at Marvel, and with Ribic perfectly capturing the insanity, it’s an oddly fitting “conclusion” of sorts to Hickman’s grand tapestry.
#4) The Eternals
Creators: Kieron Gillen, Esad Ribic
Publication: January 2021 – May 2022
Listen, if nothing else good came of the MCU trying to make The Eternals happen, at least we got a Thanos-heavy modernization from Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribic. Heavily influenced by the stylized mechanical exposition of Jonathan Hickman’s House of X, Eternals easily ranks as my favorite rendition of the Jack Kirby creation in Marvel’s history. Gillen and Ribic don’t just put a new spin on things; they do so in a way that contextualizes and synthesizes all of the previous versions, creating a kind of grand unified theory of the Eternals. Along the way, they also tell a densely-plotted, gorgeously-illustrated, rip-roaring tale filled with moments of fist-pumping excitement and tragic heartbreak alike. The end result is the best possible entry point into the Eternals for a new reader.
#3) Doom
Creators: Sanford Greene, Jonathan Hickman
Publication: May 2024
Marvel Comics remains oddly – preposterously – reluctant to chase DC’s Black Label (a publishing imprint for “prestige” projects), which makes the over-sized Doom one-shot an anomalous miracle. Fresh off career-best work on Bitter Root, Sanford Greene takes on a cosmic rendition of a destroyed Marvel Universe, and Doctor Doom at the end of all things. Jonathan Hickman is on board to help structure Greene’s gorgeous vision, and ring some bells of his own brand of continuity (would Hickman even put his name on a Doom project without the strong presence of Valeria Richards? I doubt it!).
Greene’s unique style is completely unleashed in all the best ways, similar to Tradd Moore’s work on Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise, but in a much more compelling, compact narrative. In a decade where Marvel is focused on Doctor Doom more than over, Greene’s Doom stands out as the best entry point for new and lapsed fans.
#2) Fantastic Four by Ryan North / One World Under Doom
Creators: Ryan North, Friends
Publication: November 2022 – present
Ryan North is in complete command of the purpose and appeal of the Fantastic Four in the 2020s. North’s approach to the first family has been Planetary by way of the Magic School Bus, mashing heaping doses of imaginative science into one-off adventures that tap into the full gamut of genre. It’s a genuinely unique modern approach to superheroes – the one-and-done approach to ongoing superhero comics is rarely sustained for multiple issues in a row – and North and a rotating cast of artists are so good at it that the imaginauts are achieving the impossible: contention among the best Fantastic Four runs in Marvel’s history!
Just to make it clear we’re talking about the best FF comics of all time, North even pulls off the rare feat of a genuinely good Marvel Comics event, with 2025’s One World Under Doom, where the newly minted Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Doom, becomes emperor of the world. I’m perpetually blown away at North’s ability to pull this off, and although Fantastic Four lacks the magic symbiosis of North and Erica Henderson in lockstep on Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, it remains a lock that North will have one of Marvel’s best runs in back-to-back decades.
#1) Immortal Hulk
Creators: Al Ewing, Various
Publication: January 2020 – October 2021
Certain moments in Marvel history become near-instant lines in the sand demarking the state of a character before and after. There’s Daredevil before/after Miller and Janson, X-Men before/after Claremont and Cockrum, Hawkeye before/after Fraction and Aja. And now there’s Hulk before and after Al Ewing’s work on Immortal Hulk, 50 glorious issues transforming the previously considered possibilities for one of the most iconic characters in pop culture. Immortal Hulk brilliantly expanded the body-horror nightmare of Banner and Hulk’s shared consciousness, while also expanding the cosmology of all things Gamma in ways Marvel creators will be reconciling for years to come.
While it might feel odd to see Immortal Hulk topping Marvel’s best of the 2020s (the book launched as part of 2018’s Fresh Start initiative), the back half of the run (issues #29 to #50 plus tie-ins) actually released from 2020 to 2021. It’s going to take some serious excellence to unseat Immortal Hulk from a spot as Marvel’s best of the decade; I look forward to the comics that want to try!
Leave a Reply