THIS WEEK: The DC Round-Up crew reflects on the year that was for DC with a look at their 10 best comics of 2024.
DC Comics had a lot going on this year. From storytelling initiatives like the Absolute Power event, DC All In, and the launch of the much-hyped Absolute DC Universe, to new collected edition formats like the smaller, book market-friendly DC Compact Comics and the long-awaited answer to Marvel’s Epic Collections in the comprehensive DC Finest line, there was something for every type of reader in the publisher’s 2024 offerings.
On the monthly comics front, there were a lot of great books from DC this past year. Long-running storylines in books like Batman and The Flash reached their conclusions, and DC All In saw a number of long-tenured creative runs end and new creators take on old favorite characters. With 2025 kicking off this week, here, in alphabetical order, are the DC Round-Up team’s picks for the 10 best DC Comics of 2024.
Absolute DC
Writers: Scott Snyder, Kelly Thompson, Jason Aaron
Artists: Nick Dragotta, Hayden Sherman, Rafa Sandoval
Colorists: Frank Martin, Jordie Bellaire, Ulises Arreola
Letterers: Clayton Cowles, Becca Carey
Yes, we copped out and lumped the entirety of DC’s Absolute line together for the purposes of this list, but we did it for good reason. The Absolute line, as a whole, was the most hyped-up and exciting launch in superhero comics this year. Absolute Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman promised to go big and deliver fresh, compelling takes on DC’s premier characters. With readers’ expectations set so high, it seemed entirely possible the Absolute books would not meet them.
Instead, all three Absolute series not only met expectations, but exceeded them. Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, and co.’s Absolute Batman is a glorious, over-the-top thrill ride, featuring a young Dark Knight fighting the system. Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, and co.’s Absolute Wonder Woman is a beautiful, heartfelt action story that stays true to Diana’s core while changing almost everything around her. And Jason Aaron, Rafa Sandoval, and co.’s Absolute Superman uses the Absolute Man of Steel’s otherness to great effect, allowing him to comment on and act against modern society’s greatest threats.
While your favorite Absolute series and mine might not be the same, we can all agree the line accomplished its mission – and that it lived up to the hype. Hopefully, the current Absolute series will remain stellar in 2025, and the soon-to-debut Absolute Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Flash will match their predecessors’ quality. —Matt Ledger
Batman / Dylan Dog
Writer: Roberto Recchioni
Artists: Gigi Cavenago and Werther Dell’Edera
Colorists: Gigi Cavenago and Giovanna Niro
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
When we discussed Batman/Dylan Dog as a group after the first issue hit in March, our consensus was that it was very much a classic sort of Batman crossover. The heroes met, they brought elements from their respective worlds, they clashed a bit, and then they set about teaming up to face a threat that affected them both but neither could handle on their own. Lo and behold, the duration of the series played out that way…and looked amazing doing it. Yes, there was such impressive storytelling and joy in this comic that took the classic Italian horror comics character, Dylan Dog, and lived in the common ground he shares with Batman. All while doing so with wonderful European comics-style artwork. —Zack Quaintance
Batman & Robin: Year One
Co-Plotters: Mark Waid & Chris Samnee
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Chris Samnee
Colorist: Matheus Lopes
Letterers: Clayton Cowles with Chris Samnee
The acclaimed Daredevil and Black Widow creative team of Mark Waid and Chris Samnee make their DC collaborative debut with Batman & Robin: Year One, a series that highlights the strengths of both of their skillsets. Batman grapples with the ramifications of his decision to bring a child into his world, while Robin adjusts to life in a different spotlight with higher stakes than ever before. Waid’s character interactions illuminate the differences between Batman and Robin while also bringing forward their inherent similarities. Samnee’s artwork is top-notch as ever, with characters who are emotive and energetic moving across dynamic page layouts. This is the book Samnee was born to draw, and it’s an easy entry in any list of the best DC books of the year. —Joe Grunenwald
The Boy Wonder
Writer/Artist: Juni Ba
Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Look, I’m biased here: The Robins are my favorite DC characters. So any story in which current Robin Damian Wayne teams up with his brothers is going to do something for me. But Juni Ba, Chris O’Halloran, and Aditya Bidikar produced a standout version of that story this year in The Boy Wonder.
If you know anything about Ba, it won’t surprise you that this five-issue series is slick, dynamic, and packed with animated action. O’Halloran and Bidikar expertly complement Ba’s illustrations, serving up bold colors and bombastic lettering that heighten The Boy Wonder‘s fable-like feel. But it’s Ba’s take on Damian Wayne, and his struggle to find his own path amidst others’ expectations of him, that pushes this story into Best Of 2024 territory. The Boy Wonder hit me in the feels every issue, because Ba and co. put so much care into showing how Damian’s relationship with his estranged parents affects not just him, but his entire family. So yes, The Boy Wonder is a delightful comic. But it’s also an impactful one, which will hit hard for anyone who’s struggled with finding their place in their family or the world. —Matt Ledger
Jenny Sparks
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Jeff Spokes
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
This year brought us a new Authority-related series during an interesting time for the team. There’s an Authority film adaptation brewing as part of James Gunn’s new cinematic DCU, and Gunn has been using his reach to promote the original comics. So, interest in The Authority is as high as it’s been perhaps since the book debuted in the early ‘00s, and amid this resurgence, DC is publishing a Black Label Jenny Sparks miniseries that’s doing an excellent job representing the property. With Jenny Sparks, Tom King and Jeff Spokes are delivering an understated contemplation of superheroes existing within real power structures and global affairs (the foundation of The Authority, generally), wrapped in a tense, hostage negotiation thriller. It’s been a strong book even if you take the recognizable heroes out, and just make it about a woman tasked with guiding the human century trying to stop an all-powerful being from running amok. The scripting is sharp, well-paced, and character-driven. And the art hits like a fist when it needs to. We got five issues this year with two still to come, and I’m very excited to see how it wraps up. —Zack Quaintance
John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America
Writers: Simon Spurrier, Aaron Campbell
Artists: Aaron Campbell, et al.
Colorists: Jordie Bellaire, et al.
Letterers: Aditya Bidikar, Steve Wands
The John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America team pulled off two magic tricks this year: they brought a series back from the dead, and they didn’t miss a beat while doing so. The follow-up to Simon Spurrier, Aaron Campbell, and co.’s critically-acclaimed 2019 Hellblazer series set Constantine and his companions on a quest across America, and served as a vehicle to examine morality, guilt, legacy, and the American Dream.
Spurrier and Campbell’s America is a bleak, hard place, making Constantine the perfect bastard to navigate and comment upon it. You might think Constantine, the master of the con, would fit right in across the pond. And he does, except he’s a sentimentalist. That sentimentality sets John at odds with America’s current atmosphere, but is ultimately what gives him the chance to save his own, his companions’, and America’s soul.
This series certainly isn’t for the faint of heart, and it’s not for anyone who’s unwilling to think critically about the state of American society. But, as Spurrier said when announcing Dead in America, those who understand the world doesn’t neatly divide into good and evil, who enjoy slithering through nuance and awkward truths, will love this book – just as we did. —Matt Ledger
Nightwing
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Bruno Redondo, et al.
Colorist: Adriano Lucas
Letterer: Wes Abbott
This year saw the end of Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo, Adriano Lucas, and Wes Abbott’s award-winning run on Nightwing, and the team went out with a pair of storylines that encapsulated what made their run so memorable. A two-part team-up between Nightwing and Batman, in which the pair must protect an orphan who witnesses the murder of his father, highlighted the father-adult son relationship between Dick and Bruce, a dynamic that has been important to the series since the team took over. The “Fallen Grayson” five-part finale brought all the disparate threads of the run – the threat of Heartless, Dick Grayson’s public persona, the return of Tony Zucco, and Nightwing’s place in the Bat-Family and the greater DCU – together for an epic adventure that still focused in on Dick and what makes him a hero. It was a fitting conclusion to a character-defining run. —Joe Grunenwald
Plastic Man No More!
Writer: Christopher Cantwell
Artist: Alex Lins and Jacob Edgar
Colorist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Becca Carey
Right alongside The Boy Wonder, Plastic Man No More! was one of the DC Black Label comics of the year. This is one of my favorite types of superhero comic: the sort that takes a deep bench capes character, imbues them with deep empathy and humanity, and tells a complex character-driven story about their struggle. This in recent years has been done very well by books like The Vision, Mister Miracle, and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. Well, add Plastic Man No More! to that list. This series uses two artists with very different styles to depict the dichotomy of Plastic Man being comic relief for the Justice League…and a former villain with a messed up family life and dark backstory. It’s a tragicomic story in that way, one with a father-son relationship as its beating heart. Through four issues, everything in here just works so well, landing this in the upper-tier of Black Label comics to date. —Zack Quaintance
Poison Ivy
Writer: G. Willow Wilson
Artists: Haining, Marcio Takara, Luana Vecchio, et al.
Colorists: Arif Prianto, et al.
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
G. Willow Wilson began something extraordinary two years ago with her run on Poison Ivy, and to call it “her run” is an understatement—Wilson brought a whole new perspective to the character. She had Ivy confront her newfound depression as she navigated life with a severed connection to The Green and a profound sense of betrayal, setting the stage for an exploration of the character that Wilson and co. have delivered masterfully.
This year, Ivy confronted her humanity and trauma in her battle against the Floronic Man—her past abuser. Ivy’s rebirth through The Green paved the way for incredible stories, particularly the standout Poison Ivy/Swamp Thing: Feral Trees one-shot by Wilson, Mike Perkins, and Mike Spicer. This book was an absolute gem that transcended the typical superhero team-up, offering a deeply personal exploration of Ivy and Swamp Thing’s bond with nature and their complex relationship with humanity. In a pivotal moment, Ivy finally voiced that she doesn’t hate humanity. She admitted she can’t ignore what she’s seen and experienced—how human life, however small, is a part of The Green. The story delves into the humanity of both characters, highlighting their similarities and differences. It’s enriched with witty, fun dialogue, even as it revolves around a dark, thought-provoking topic.
The series has made its purpose clear: this isn’t just a redemption story—it’s a raw, emotional journey that has forced Ivy to confront her own destructive choices while discovering a newfound purpose. Perhaps that’s why a six-issue miniseries centered on a villain is defying market trends and quickly approaching its 30th issue, with roughly the same creative team behind it since the beginning. It’s phenomenal, and we can’t wait to see where it’s headed next year. —Diego Higuera
Zatanna: Bring Down The House
Writer: Mariko Tamaki
Artist & Colorist: Javier Rodríguez
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Where the excellent Plastic Man No More! explored the end of the title character’s heroic career, the DC Black Label series Zatanna: Bring Down the House delved into an expanded origin story for the Justice League’s resident magician. Mariko Tamaki and Javier Rodríguez more deeply explore Zatanna’s relationship to magic, and to her father, Zatara, in a way that greatly enhances the character. But it’s Rodríguez’s visuals, aided by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou’s letters, that are the star of the act here, gradually becoming more and more untethered by typical storytelling norms as the series progresses and Zatanna’s connection to her magic strengthens. It’s a feast for the eyes with a grounding in strong character work from Tamaki, and it’ll leave even the most magic-averse reader wanting more. —Joe Grunenwald
Agree with our picks? Did we leave your favorite series off? Sound off in the comments and let us know! And for more DC Round-Up coverage from the past year, check out our full archives.
