Heading into the 2020s, DC Comics was in a precarious position. The late 2010s DC Rebirth initiative was closing in on 4 years, and had clearly lost its luster after launching to tremendous fanfare in 2016. Likewise, co-publishers Jim Lee and Dan Didio were closing in on a decade in the role, with a tenure that began with the controversial, shockwave-inducing New 52. Coupled with increasing pressure and meddling from the corporate overlords at Warners Bros, the future of DC Comics seemed murky at best.
Given that shaky foundation, the decade has gone about as well as you could have imagined. In early 2020, Marie Javins replaced Didio as DC’s Editor-in-Chief, and through a series of new initiatives (Infinite Frontier, Dawn of DC, All-In), the 2024 launch of the Absolute Universe, the continued prestige presence of DC Black Label, and the overwhelmingly beloved compact comics format launch, DC surpassed Marvel as the market share sales leader in comic shops by mid-decade.
As you’d expect, that doesn’t happen without creators empowered to deliver some very cool comic books, and I’ve narrowed down my favorites. This list includes any new DC comics or graphic novels that released primarily after the year 2020 (so some of them start prior to the turn of the decade, but keep going!). Things like the aforementioned compact comics reprints are not considered, otherwise Watchmen would just win again. Likewise, I’m (at least for now) keeping the list to entrants clearly fitting within the DC superhero universe, so don’t SHOUT AT ME about The Nice House on the Lake, I know!
Below you’ll find a guide to my 10 favorite DC comics and graphic novels of the decade (so far!), updated as new entrants challenge for a top 10 spot!
Related:
Best Graphic Novels of the 2020s
Honorable Mentions (AKA I Really Like DC Black Label!):
- Zatanna: Bring Down the House
- Plastic Man No More
- The Boy Wonder
- Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum
- Hellblazer: Dead in America
#10) Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow
Creators: Tom King, Bilquis Evely, Matheus Lopes, Clayton Cowles (letterer)
Publication Dates: June 2021 – February 2022 (#1–8)
Listen, if we’re being honest – and we’re among friends here, I think a little honesty is acceptable – I wouldn’t include “Woman of Tomorrow” among my personal favorite DC reads of the 2020s. I think Evely and Lopes delivered all time great work, but I find it to be one of Tom King’s most tedious works, with the uber-successful DC property-transformer getting a little too carried away with his rewatch of True Grit. So why is it on the list? Because it would be too weird to exclude it! If I put, let’s say, Kelly Thompson’s Birds of Prey here (a course of action I considered!), or my preferred Tom King work (that would be the JLI-noir Human Target with Greg Smallwood) you’d all run to the comments screaming “Where’s the Woman of Tomorrow!” And I’d say, “She’s upstairs installing a new dishwasher because she’s incredibly handy, that’s why I married her!” And you wouldn’t laugh. You wouldn’t even smile. What a sad turn of events!
So, to save us all that embarrassment, I present to you Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, one of the best looking DC stories of the 2000s, and likely the single greatest benefactor of the James Gunn “My DC Movies are based on – get this – Comic Books!” hype train. Evely and Lopes helped shape one of the most gorgeous cosmic visions across comics, in this undisputedly influential modernization of Kara Zor-El.
#9) Action Comics: Warworld
Creators: Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Riccardo Federici, Daniel Sampere, et al., Adriano Lucas (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)
Publication Dates: April 2021 – August 2022 (Action Comics #1030–1046)
The 2020s have been quite good for Superman, particularly following the smash success of James Gunn’s 2025 new DCU vision of the character on the big screen. Superman’s comics have seen similarly good times, starting with Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s turn writing the character in the pages of Action Comics.
Johnson sends Superman to Mongul’s brutal gladiatorial Warworld and turns the story into a full-throated liberation epic, one that puts Superman’s core belief in hope and justice under the real pressure of lived-in resistance. It’s a rare modern Superman story that feels both mythic and politically urgent without ever losing sight of a near 100 year legacy. Plus, Johnson finds suprising ways to bridge the gap between Grant Morrisons visions for Superman and the Authority and James Gunn’s.
#8) Swamp Thing
Creators: Ram V, Mike Perkins, Mike Spicer (colorist), Aditya Bidikar (letterer)
Publication Dates: March 2021 – August 2022 (The Swamp Thing #1–16)
Ram V hands the muck and mire over to a new Avatar of the Green, Levi Kamei, and crafts a slow-burn horror story steeped in dread, body horror, and ecological grief. Perkins’ painterly, textured art makes every page feel damp and alive, giving this Swamp Thing run an atmosphere worthy of the legacy of Moore, Totleben and Bissette.
#7) Poison Ivy
Creators: G. Willow Wilson, Marcio Takara, Arif Prianto (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer)
Publication Dates: June 2022 – Present
I now present to you the complete list of DC Comics that have remained ongoing since Poison Ivy launched in June of 2022.
- Action Comics
- Detective Comics
- Harley Quinn
- Catwoman
- Nightwing
- Batman/Superman: World’s Finest
And, now I present to you the complete list of DC Comics that have remained ongoing with the same core creative team since Poison Ivy launched in June of 2022:
- Batman/Superman: World’s Finest
That’s how rarely you find the sustained vision and success of Poison Ivy in the comics landscape of the 2020s. And whereas every other entrant on that list is doing it off the back of legacy and multimedia audiences, Poison Ivy is a first in the character’s history, and a true celebration of the right creative team properly fertilizing (heh) the potential of a supporting player in the DC Universe.
#6) Wonder Woman Historia
Creators: Kelly Sue DeConnick, Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha, Nicola Scott, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Wesley Wong & Annette Kwok (colorists), Clayton Cowles (letterer)
Publication Dates: November 2021 – December 2022 (#1–3)
Holy everlovin’ Hecate, Phil Jimenez! It’s not like DC fans didn’t know Jimenez was talented, but Historia #1 is an Eisner-Winning level-up that absolutely knocks my hair back (must be why I keep finding less of it on my head with each passing year!). Combined with Kelly Sue Deconnick’s feminist-forward chronicling of the true history of Wonder Woman’s Amazons, Historia is the proof of concept for why a Black Label series of prestige comics is both warranted and necessary. Gene Ha and Nicola Scott follow that knockout launch admirably, with a mythic tale of the Greek Gods and how Paradise Island came to be.
#5) Ram V’s Detective Comics / Batman: Dark Patterns
Creators: Ram V, Rafael Albuquerque, Ivan Reis & Various (artists), Dave Stewart & Brad Anderson (colorists), Ariana Maher (letterer) / Dan Watters & Hayden Sherman
Publication Dates: July 2022 – September 2024 (Detective Comics #1062–1089) / December 2024 – November 2025 (Batman: Dark Patterns #1 to #12)
The two sides of what makes Batman so special are captured most effectively this decade via Ram V’s spiraling, gorgeous Gotham conspiracy epic, and Watters/Sherman’s more familiar emphasis on the Holmesian inspiration of the world’s greatest detective amidst Gotham’s supercharged crime. The operatic former might be the best longform ongoing superhero storytelling of the decade, while the latter is maxiseries perfection. Sliced any way – and Gotham’s victims certainly are! – these are compulsively readable stories of the Dark Knight.
#4) Absolute Batman / Absolute Wonder Woman / Absolute Martian Manhunter
Creators: Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin, Clayton Cowles (letterer) / Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, Jordie Bellaire (colorist), Becca Carey (letterer) / Deniz Camp, Javier Rodríguez, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer)
Publication Dates: October 2024 – Present
As entirely unfair as it is to lump the Absolute Universe into one entry, the highest highs of DC’s new universe have been such a revelation, that was there was no way I could reasonably keep this list to 10 if I counted them all separately. Who’s making me keep the list to 10, considering I have no editor, and frankly no much-needed oversight? Why, the List Lords, of course! Don’t make them angry!
Although I’ve smitten with Absolute Green Lantern, and think Absolute Superman gets better with each arc, my top three has consistently been Absolute Batman and Absolute Wonder Woman vying for the top spot, with Deniz Camp and Javier Rodríguez’s Absolute Martian Manhunter occupying a delightful role of Morrison-ion Vertigo book that didn’t get the memo the rest of the universe was playing it comparatively straight.
I’ll admit, I was a cynic at launch! Scott Snyder doing Batman again? DC chasing Marvel’s Ultimate Universe? A separate line of DC What Ifs in a universe created by Darkseid? How much juice could this possibly have?
As it turns out, all the juice! DC’s Absolute Universe is the rare smash sales success with the storytelling goods to back it up.
#3) Green Lantern: Far Sector
Creators: NK Jemesin, Jamal Campbell, Deron Bennett (letterer)
Publication Dates: November 2019 – June 2021 (#1–12)
It’s a shame comics and the literary community have such a strained, awkward historic relationship because it turns out inviting one of the greatest living fantasy/sci-fi writers to work alongside an emerging superstar artist is a bit of a coup. N.K Jemesin and Jamal Campbell combine to create Sojourner ‘Jo’ Mullein, an all-new Green Lantern caught up in an alien murder mystery with a classic side of political intrigue.
Recent years have been kind to outside-continuity Green Lantern riffs – Green Lantern: Earth One and Absolute Green Lantern are also quite good – but Far Sector stands alone at the top. The story of Jo Mullein instantly refreshed what Green Lantern could mean in the DCU, shaping much of the Absolute Universe interpretation to come.
#2) Wonder Woman: Dead Earth
Creators: Daniel Warren Johnson, Mike Spicer, Rus Wooton (letterer)
Publication Dates: December 2019 – August 2020 (#1–4)
Despite certain publications screaming from the rooftops about the virtues of Murder Falcon, the four issue Black Label Wonder Woman: Dead Earth was many readers introduction to the heartracing heavy metal cartooning of Chicago’s own Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer. It’s a perfect symbiosis of subject and artist, as Warren Johnson and Spicer deliver a post-apocalyptic Diana still striving for hope in a fallen world.
#1) Catwoman: Lonely City
Creators: Cliff Chiang
Publication Dates: October 2021 – October 2022 (#1–4)
My favorite DC Black Label graphic novel is Cliff Chiang’s vision of a future for Selina Kyle and Gotham City, inevitably seen as a response to Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns but with a flavor all its own (and there’s little use arguing that new flavor of Dark Knight Selina was needed!). Lonely City is beyond gorgeous, timely, and also doubles as the best use of Killer Croc in a surprisingly crowded field (Arkham Asylum (comics and video games) and this list’s very own Poison Ivy would all have words!). It’s not just that Lonely City is a good Catwoman story, it’s the way Chiang does literally everything involved in the comics making process to pour himself wholly into the best Gotham graphic novel in a decade full of good ones. Lonely City is for those of us crazy enough to dream that superhero comics can be both thrilling pop culture and purposeful art at the same time.
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