The 25 best comics of 2024

2024-12-12

ComicsThe 25 best comics of 2024When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Future)

GamesRadar's Year in Review 2024 asset showing best comics logo

But comics isn’t just about Marvel and DC, of course. 2024 also saw the release of superb titles from the likes of BOOM!, Image, IDW, Dark Horse, and more. There’s been some truly innovative, exciting, and beautiful work released across many genres in the last 12 months, and we’re excited to talk about some of it here. Of course, this is just scratching the surface of what was released in a sensational year for the medium. We hope that, whatever your tastes, you find some of your faves in here and maybe something that you’ve not read before to catch up on over the coming holidays.

Note:The comics we’ve included here were released between January 1 and December 31, 2023 in the UK. We’ll have a separate piece on the top 10 manga of 2024 next week.

25. Universal Monsters: Frankenstein (Image Comics)

(Image credit: Image Comics)

Frankenstein’s monster on the cover of Universal Monsters: Frankenstein #1.

24. Poison Ivy (DC)

(Image credit: DC)

Poison Ivy smiles at the reader.

Three years ago, if someone had suggested that an ongoing Poison Ivy series would exist at all, you might have scratched your head and asked: “Why?” Sure, people love the Batman villain and, like her girlfriend Harley Quinn, she has become more of an anti-hero over the years, but she’s not necessarily a natural fit for the lead of a series. Yet since 2022 writer G. Willow Wilson, along with Marcio Takara and occasional fill-in artists, has been making the case that Ivy isn’t just a great lead, she’s one of the cornerstone characters of the DC Universe. In 2024 the series brought on a character redefining Poison Ivy: Year One style arc, a final battle with her former mentor and creator, the Floronic Man, and it’s just kept building from there. A recent crossover one-shot dug deeper into the book’s Swamp Thing influences without ignoring how Ivy is uniquely different than other characters steeped in The Green. Add in a fantastic supporting cast, including the perpetually horny Janet from HR, who keeps ending up stuck in Ivy’s deadly adventures, and you have a book that – pardon the pun – keeps growing in complexity month after month.Alex Zalben

23. Daredevil (Marvel Comics)

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

The two Daredevils.

22. Ain’t No Grave (Image Comics)

(Image credit: Image Comics)

Ryder stands in front of Death on the cover of Ain’t No Grave #1.

Skottie Young and Jorge Corona’s supernatural western has a simple but irresistible premise. Ryder is a reformed gunslinger and bandit who has traded in her life of robbery and violence for a beautiful family. When she’s diagnosed with a terminal illness, however, she picks up the pistols once more and sets out with a new target in mind: Death itself. Published over five issues (each themed around one of the stages of grief),Ain’t No Gravewas as exciting and funny as you’d expect from the creator of I Hate Fairyland, but it was also shot through with a palpable melancholy. The fourth issue, titled ‘Depression’, was a near-wordless trek through a barren landscape, while the final part brought Ryder to an emotional reckoning with both her immortal target and with the consequences of her often brutal life. Corona and colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu do striking work here, while Young’s script uses the fantastical premise to say something moving and truthful about the lasting impact of bloodshed and the important things in life.Will Salmon

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21. Batman & Robin: Year One (DC)

(Image credit: DC)

Batman and Robin in the spotlight.

20. Man’s Best (BOOM! Studios)

(Image credit: BOOM! Studios)

The animal heroes of Man’s Best look up at the stars.

A cat and two dogs take on an army of robot “Clankers” in this beautiful sci-fi series from writer/artist Pornsak Pichetshote.Man’s Bestfollows Porthos, Athos, and Lovey – a scientist’s cybernetically-altered emotional support animals on a deep space mission to find a new home for the survivors of humanity. When the ship crashes on an alien world, however, the pets are left to fend for themselves. The five-issue series unashamedly has echoes of classics like Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon’s Pride of Baghdad and Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s We3, but is very much it’s own strange beast. What starts off as a fairly conventional survival story turns into something far more psychedelic and thought-provoking as the series progresses. And what’snotconventional is Pichetshote stunning art, which balances the cartoony characters with a high-level of detail and a strong manga influence. One of the most visually sumptuous comics published it 2024 is also one of its most quietly effecting.Will Salmon

19. X-Factor (Marvel)

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

The X Factor team in action.

As a title,X-Factorhas been ripe for reinvention since its earliest years when it shifted focus from a team made up of the original five X-Men to a new group of government recruits. And across its many eras and new directions in the time since, few have felt as immediately vital as writer Mark Russell, artist Bob Quinn, colorist Jesus Aburtov, and letterer Joe Caramagna’s recent X-Factor relaunch. X-Factor picks up on a throughline that’s been going in the X-Men universe for decades now, with a team of sponsored mutant recruits whose main mission is to maintain popularity with an audience that may or may not be watching simply to see them fail. And fail they do, with an ever-evolving, often revolving cast of mutant heroes who are simply being fed into an almost literal social media meat grinder. It’s a tragically satirical take on the fleeting nature of celebrity, the antagonism that can exist between artist and audience, and the power of bigotry over the bottom line, all wrapped up in an ongoing subplot about the mutants who dare to resist the fickle whims of those who feed off of terminally online clout-chasing.George Marston

18. The One Hand/The Six Fingers (Image Comics)

(Image credit: Image Comics)

Cover art from the trade collection of The One Hand and The Six Fingers.

17. 2000 AD (Rebellion)

(Image credit: Rebellion)

Judge Dredd and Maitland in ‘A Better World’

16. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest (DC)

(Image credit: DC)

Batman and Superman in peril.

15. Ultimate X-Men (Marvel)

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

The young cast of Ultimate X-Men.

14. Paranoid Gardens (Dark Horse Comics)

(Image credit: Dark Horse Comics)

Loo looks out at the reader while clutching her head in her hands.

Gerard Way, Shaun Simon, and Chris Weston have – not surprisingly, given their pedigree – created one of the most vital comic books of 2024, at least when it comes to depicting the intersection of art and commerce. Set at the strange convalescence center of the title, our main character, Loo, purports to be a nurse at the facility… But she might be the most broken one of all. And –spoilers here– over the course of the book, it becomes clear that she’s a key figure in the forces outside of the Gardens who want to take over its unfettered creativity to conform it to the corporation that seeks to absorb and then destroy it. Filled with bizarre creatures and an array of characters ranging from superheroes to freakish monsters,Paranoid Gardenshas the same quirks fans of Umbrella Academy have grown to love. But if it sticks the landing (the final issue hits stores on December 18), it may leave an even more powerful statement about how big companies and the tech bros that run them (the money monkeys attacking the Gardens are a not-so-subtle reference to the Bored Ape cult) are dismantling our artistic freedom through the chokehold of IP, AI, and other insidious abbreviations.Alex Zalben

13. Transformers (Skybound/Image)

(Image credit: Skybound/Image)

Spike sits on the arm of one of the Autobots.

Daniel Warren Johnson’s fresh take on the Robots in Disguise continues to be one of the safest bets in comics if you’re looking for thrilling action and strong characterisation. While Johnson stepped back from drawing the comic himself this year (he still scripts it), artists Jorge Corona and Jason Howard proved to be very capable replacements: this is still a great looking book. The war between the Autobots and the Decepticons is raging across Earth with devastating consequences – witness the levelling of Tacoma, Washington in the most recent issue – but Johnson’s script has found nuance in his portrayal of individual Transformers. The internal power dynamics between the scheming Decepticons, for example, has revealed a range of different viewpoints not all of which are entirely evil. And while Optimus Prime remains a noble warrior and leader, his sacrifice earlier in the run has left him more vulnerable than ever before. As the wider Energon Universe continues to expand with the recent launch of the G.I. Joe ongoing series,Transformersremains a pure hit of fun and excitement.Will Salmon

12. NYX (Marvel)

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Wolverine peers through some shutters at the reader.

11. Alan Scott: The Green Lantern (DC)

(Image credit: DC)

Alan Scott: The Green Lantern.

When Alan Scott, the original Golden Age Green Lantern, was officially retconned into being a gay man back in 2011, the response was certainly mixed. It only took 13 years, but DC has finally paid off that decision throughAlan Scott: The Green Lantern, the character’s recent solo limited series which proved to be not just a beautifully rendered flashback to the Golden Age of superheroes, but also a delicate, tragic, and heartfelt rumination on the nature of what it means to have a secret identity, and what happens when even that isn’t enough to provide the freedom of living as one’s truest, most authentic self. Writer Tim Sheridan, artist Cian Tormey, colorist Matt Herms, and letterer Lucas Gattoni turn in one of the year’s most surprisingly affecting stories in Alan Scott: The Green Lantern, reminding us that the medium of superhero comics can still be reflective of the human experience in deeper, more literary ways, even in an era when bubblegum and popcorn comics are filling the stands. And of course, it doesn’t skimp on action, also digging into the strange sci-fi side of the Green Lantern mythos with a new, retroactively introduced Red Lantern as his foe, making for a one-two punch of great superhero storytelling.George Marston

10. Ice Cream Man (Image)

(Image credit: Image Comics)

A lorry crashes on the cover of Ice Cream Man #40.

Nearly 50 issues in W. Maxwell Prince and Martín Morazzo’sIce Cream Manis essentially a quarterly comic book. While at one point it held a monthly(ish) schedule, the past few years haven’t gone beyond six issues, with only five in 2024. Luckily, then, the team released what might be their masterwork over the course of two stand-out issues this year. Ice Cream Man #39 and #40, titled ‘Decompression in a Wreck,’ told two sides of a car crash in slow motion over the course of 40 or so pages. While the cheeky conceit is exploring the idea of comic book decompression to the extreme – rather than Spider-Man getting his costume and powers over the course of six issues, this stretches mere seconds over graphic novella length – it’s also a chance for Prince and Morazzo to present a thesis statement on the meaning, or possibly meaninglessness, of life. And just in case you thought that wasn’t metatextual enough, the final issue released this year featured Prince as a character, responding to readers who label the book as horror. And he asks both the reader and himself how and why we care about reading horror comics when the world outside our window has enough real horror to last a lifetime. There’s really nothing else like Ice Cream Man on the stands, and likely never will be.Alex Zalben

9. Absolute Batman (DC)

(Image credit: DC)

The Absolute Batman strikes.

8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW)

(Image credit: IDW)

The TMNT leap into action on the cover of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1.

Are Jason Aaron and his rotating cadre of artists delivering the best run on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles since Eastman and Laird introduced the characters decades ago? It’s probably too early to make that call, but based on the issues released in 2024, this might turn out to be an all-timer. Part of that is because of the innovative, slow-build structure inherent in the run so far, with each issue focusing on one of the Turtles, who have all been scattered around the globe after a falling out in their past. Each of the first four issues serves as a character piece, therefore, and IDW has perfectly matched top-tier artists to their favorite Turtle characters. Joëlle Jones took on Raphael in prison, Rafael Albuquerque tackled Michelangelo as a TV star in Tokyo, Cliff Chiang delivered a depressed Leonardo meeting some regular-aged non-mutant normal turtles in China, and Chris Burnham took away Donatello’s machines and threw him in a hunting zoo. And in each case, those artists are delivering the work of their careers. December 18’s #5 is set to bring Darick Robertson into the fold for an issue about Casey Jones, beforeJuan Ferreyra takes over as the series' first ongoing artistin 2025. Superb art, great character building, thrilling action sequences… It’s enough to make you cheer “cowabunga” in your local comic book shop.Alex Zalben

7. Space Ghost (Dynamite)

(Image credit: Dynamite)

Space Ghost snarls out at the reader.

6. Somna (DSTLRY)

(Image credit: DSTLRY)

Some of Tula Lotay’s evocative art from Somna.

We sang the praises of this eerie erotic folk horror in last year’s list on the basis of its stellar first issue. Well,Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay’s Somnaonly got better with its final issues – so much so that it deservedly took home this year’s Eisner for Best New Series. Set in the 17th century, the tale of Ingrid – wife to the local witchfinder who, thanks to some disturbingly sexy dreams about a blue-skinned demon, finds herself under suspicion from the local community – was equal parts enigmatic and alluring. Taking place in both the “real” world and in Ingrid’s dreams, with Cloonan and Lotay sharing the art duties and illustrating the series in two very different styles, it was one of the year’s most purely beautiful books, while the ambiguous nature of the supernatural elements and some strong characterisation added welcome layers of complexity to the tale. A dazzling piece of comics art that speaks to the amazing possibilities of both the medium and young publisher DSTLRY’s innovative approach.Will Salmon

5. The Power Fantasy (Image)

(Image credit: Image Comics)

The cast of The Power Fantasy.

4. Ultimate Spider-Man (Marvel)

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Spider-Man watches on.

It’s no secret that fans have practically been beggingMarvel Comicsto truly reunite Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson (and the publisher has comethis closeseveral times in recent years). And while the concept of the pair as a romantic couple remains confined to alternate universes, the new era ofUltimate Spider-Man, launched just about a year ago, has certainly delivered on the premise of the Parker-Watson family. But there’s so much more to writer Jonathan Hickman and lead artist Marco Checchetto’s ongoing Ultimate Spider-Man title, the flagship of the new Ultimate Universe, than the gimmick of Peter and MJ as married with kids. The title is a reinvention of Peter Parker’s origins, to be sure, but what really stands out is the way Ultimate Spider-Man totally redefines nearly every relationship in Peter Parker’s life, from Uncle Ben and Aunt May, to J. Jonah Jameson, and even Harry Osborn. Whereas the original Ultimate Spider-Man focused first and foremost on updating Peter’s various foundational relationships into a modern context, the new Ultimate Spider-Man is all about flipping them on their axes and discovering how the change in perspective reflects off Peter Parker as a character. It’s a remarkable take on Marvel’s most popular hero, and a title that remains engaging (and visually gorgeous) month in and month out.George Marston

3. Absolute Wonder Woman (DC)

(Image credit: DC)

Wonder Woman rides into action on Pegasus.

2. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees (IDW)

(Image credit: IDW)

Samantha the teddy bear drags a bleeding body bag behind her.

1. Fantastic Four (Marvel)

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

The Fantastic Four in action.

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GAME REVIEWSMOVIE REVIEWSTV REVIEWS

1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”

Nemesis board game models and tokens laid out on a board

1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”

Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”

2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”

Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”

3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”

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4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”

5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”

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1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”

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2Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”

Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”

3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”

Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”

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The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”

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1Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special review: “Ncuti Gatwa is as magnetic as ever in this delightful festive treat”

Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor and Nicola Coughlan as Joy in Doctor Who Christmas special Joy to the World

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2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”

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3Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”

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25. Universal Monsters: Frankenstein (Image Comics)

24. Poison Ivy (DC)

23. Daredevil (Marvel Comics)

22. Ain’t No Grave (Image Comics)

Comic deals, prizes and latest news

21. Batman & Robin: Year One (DC)

20. Man’s Best (BOOM! Studios)

19. X-Factor (Marvel)

18. The One Hand/The Six Fingers (Image Comics)

17. 2000 AD (Rebellion)

16. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest (DC)

15. Ultimate X-Men (Marvel)

14. Paranoid Gardens (Dark Horse Comics)

13. Transformers (Skybound/Image)

12. NYX (Marvel)

11. Alan Scott: The Green Lantern (DC)

10. Ice Cream Man (Image)

9. Absolute Batman (DC)

8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW)

7. Space Ghost (Dynamite)

6. Somna (DSTLRY)

5. The Power Fantasy (Image)

4. Ultimate Spider-Man (Marvel)

3. Absolute Wonder Woman (DC)

2. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees (IDW)

1. Fantastic Four (Marvel)

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