The Best Comics of 2025, Part 1: Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring, Weapon X-Men and Krypto - The Last Dog of Krypton
Oh, no! We're back, and it's part of a numbered series that promises even more numbered instalments where I talk about my favourite (i.e. The Best) comics of 2025. Let's get to it!
Oh, no! I said I wouldn’t post anything else over the Christmas break, but the muse struck, and now I have no choice!
Listen, I’ve been thinking about doing “the best of 2025” for various things… music, film, comics. I haven’t read nearly enough (or anything) prose to be able to pull together something literary, but if there’s one thing I’m good for, it’s comics. I looked back at my spreadsheet for all the debuting books I picked up that started in 2025, and began to think about which ones were actually good.
I’ve read a lot of comics. Too many, you might say. Should I have spent the time reading comics reading books? Probably. But I didn’t. So now I have enough fuel for a very particular fire.
I’m going to talk about around 20 books I enjoyed this year, that debuted this year. Continuing books don’t count. If it started in 2024, it’s not on my list. Anything else is fair game. No particular order. But these were my best, my favourite, and I can’t wait to read more. Or to read them again. Let’s DO this.
Before we get started, would you mind subscribing? It’s free, and I won’t pester! I promise. Maybe 2 newsletter a week if I’m feeling productive? Normally 1. Normally less than 1. I’m very erratic. Uh-oh.
The original run of Patrick Horvath’s Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees was a revelation. The follow-up, Rite of Spring, is no different. The first book’s premise was simple— Samantha Strong, a serial killer, evades suspicion by insinuating herself in the small-town community of Woodbrook, and only preying on victims in the big city. But what happens when an unknown killer starts targeting the citizens of their town? Can both these killers co-exist, and what lengths will Samantha go to protect her secret?
Also, Samantha Strong is a brown bear, and the world is populated by anthropomorphic animals.
Described as “Dexter meets Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy Town”, this book made such an impact on the medium that Samantha Strong has been announced as one of the “guest stars” of DC Comic’s K.O. event, where she’ll be fighting DC’s stars along with the likes of Homelander, Vampirella, Sub Zero, and more.
Rite of Spring takes place 8 years after the 1986 set original, and it’s getting harder to be a serial killer in an increasingly connected world. Monica, the sister of one of Samantha’s victims from the first mini, hasn’t stopped searching for her brother, and she’s soon drawn into Strong’s web after the latter discovers her efforts via the internet. Samantha lures Monica to Woodbrook on the pretence that she’s uncovered evidence of where her brother’s body might be— having framed the killer from the first mini for her own kills— and away we go.
I don’t want to get into it much deeper. It’s great. Seeing Monica’s growing trust in Samantha, the things she’s pushed to do to gain closure for her brother’s disappearance, is excruciating, but all the while Horvath’s painterly art is fantastic, so I’m along for the ride, no matter what. It reminds me of Mr Brooks (2007), the Kevin Costner and Demi Moore-starring serial killer film that flew under the radar, but with animals.
That’s high praise indeed.
Joe Casey has been one of my sleeper favourite writers since I became a fan of comics. These things creep up on you, but if you look back on your reading patterns, you begin to realise these things. I’ve spoken about how inspirational and intriguing I found his pacifist take on the Man of Steel during his 2001-2004 Adventures of Superman run, and how it informed my writing of Majestic in the Aleph world.
Oh, he also wrote Mr Majestic (1999-2000) for Wildstorm. Wildcats 3.0 (2002–2004) is as important to me as The Authority, as Batman, as Grant Morrison’s JLA. Gødland (2005–2013) with Tom Scioli, is as close to modern day Jack Kirby comics as we’re ever going to get.
Somehow, without realising, I found his stuff is foundational.
So, when it was announced he was going to be writing an X-book again, having previously written the brilliant Uncanny X-Men #394-409 between 2001-2002, and having written Cable #51-70 between 1998-1999, I was very excited.
Weapon X-Men seemed designed to tick a lot of mainstream boxes. Wolverine? Check. Deadpool? Check. Cable? Check. Accessible to new readers? Check. Fantastic art? ChrisCross, motherfuckers. Deep cut continuity without alienating readers? Check. It was billed as a tie-in to One World Under Doom, this year’s massive Marvel event, it had covers by legend Alex Ross, and you’d think that was a recipe for success.
It lasted five issues. Truncated from an ongoing to a mini to barely anything at all. Flash in the pan, but my gosh, that flash.
X-Men Group Editor Tom Brevoort said the reason was:
Sometimes a book is slated to be an ongoing, but the support in the marketplace simply isn’t there to allow for that. That was the case with WEAPON X-MEN
Casey goes into detail about what happened, from his perspective, over on his Substack, which is worth it’s own read:
ChrisCross is one of those great, unsung heroes of comics. I think his work on Captain Marvel (1999-2002 and relaunched 2002-2004) with Peter David was where I first experienced his kinetic, bendy style. It was eye-catching for sure, but that book was doomed thanks to Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief trying his best to crash and burn it. Then he jumped onto the new Firestorm (2004) book circa Identity Crisis with Dan Jolley. Great stuff. Dramatic, horrifying, absolutely staggering, a book launched with a great hook and firing on all cylinders. My golden age.
He also did the art on my favourite single issue of the Justice League, JLA #90 (2004). What a great year for this guy, honestly. Look at that output!
Weapon X-Men isn’t perfect, but it’s perfect for me. Great writing. Sharp dialogue. Fantastic art. One team, one story, one run. It concludes with the team forming… and we’ll probably never see them again.
Casey gets Marvel characters. He did his time in the Marvel trenches, and he shows off his love for the continuity, the characters, everything. It’s brilliant. Cross is as game as Casey, and hits every panel out of the park. By the end of it, we have a new team of loosely connected heroes, a brand new status quo for a villain, numerous nods and outright theft to and from early comics. Casey loves his 70s Avengers runs, and we get plenty of evidence of that in the page. It’s great.
Behind the scenes, the launch was messy. The ending even messier. But for five issues, we had fun, and isn’t that the whole point?
I just want comics to be nice sometimes. I’m tired of things being grim and gritty all the time. Why can’t things be nice? Someone got that message, and Krypto - The Last Dog of Krypton was commissioned, and for 5 issues, this miniseries was wonderful. Ryan North had One World Under Doom coming out at Marvel for the majority of the year, but he also had this book over at DC, and I’d be hard-pressed to say the former is better than the latter.
Following Krypto from the last days of Krypton to his arrival on Earth, this book, beautifully illustrated by Mike Norton— who I have never known to miss— is so delightful.
Dialogue ebbs and floes as Krypto— a dog— catches snippets here and there, but it’s the art that does the heavy lifting, and it’s one moving scene after another, a series that hammers home just how much of a good dog Krypto is.
Some choices confused me, for example, having Jae Lee on covers, but he is a wonderful artist, so it makes sense. But if you’re having a very film-synergetic comic book come out, starring one of the main characters of said film, then surely you’d have someone a bit more conventional, a little less off-putting, doing your covers? I mean, check this out:
I enjoy Jae Lee’s work— when it’s on the right project. Inhumans (2000) with Paul Jenkins, The Sentry (2000) with Paul Jenkins, uh, something else he probably did with Paul Jenkins— no, I’m kidding, he also consistently delivers some of the best covers in the industry:
I’m also a big fan of Fantastic Four: 1234, his 2002 collaboration with Grant Morrison, but that’s not my point— my point is, his art isn’t especially kid-friendly, and I think this should have been the most accessible, wonderful, share-with-your-kid book possible. Why are we so concerned with things looking cool, or adult, or edgy? Why didn’t Mike Norton do the covers?
But I don’t want to talk about the sole “negative” of the series. This is great book. The story is a classic, a retelling of Krypto’s “origin” (his arrival on Earth), told from a contemporary perspective. Krypto accidentally gets lost in space during one of Jor-El’s experiments, lands on Earth years later, and after various mishaps and adventures… finds his human. It’s Homeward Bound (1993) with a cape. It’s everything I needed, and more.
It’s one of the best comics of 2025.