The Best Artist of 2025: HAYDEN SHERMAN "BATMAN: DARK PATTERNS" "ABSOLUTE WONDER-WOMAN"

 

DC's Absolute line was the hottest thing in comics this year, but it wouldn't have worked if the artwork in the books was lousy. While I wasn't the biggest fan of Absolute Wonder Woman, the artwork by Hayden Sherman was fantastic and fit the mythic world perfectly. Sherman also finished drawing the twelve issue Batman: Dark Patterns, a book that was much better thanks to great artwork. Sherman's art is cartoony in a sense but vibrant. It jumps off the page. He plays with panel sizes and different viewpoints which always makes reading the books he works on unique and intriguing. I had no idea who this artist was a year ago, and now he's a fucking star. 

The Best Writer of 2025: MATTHEW ROSENBERG "WHAT'S THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE?" "WE'RE TAKING EVERYONE DOWN WITH US"

 

    I've been a fan of writer Matthew Rosenberg since he wrote the comic book We Can Never Go Home. His mini-series 4 Kids Walk into a Bank was a hell of a lot of fun and What's the Furthest Place From Here? has been one of my favorite comic books since it premiered in 2021. The only reason I never named him the best writer of the year before was because he always ended up writing forgettable, pretty much by-the-numbers books for Marvel and DC that never interested me. How can such a great writer keep knocking it out of the park for Image and Black Mask but write average stuff for the Big Two? I guess he's just better when he gets to do what he wants, and in 2025 he definitely got to do what he was best at. He wrote two issues of What's the Furthest Place From Here? that were just as entertaining, weird, and engrossing as all of the others. His six issue mini-series, We're Taking Everyone Down With Us, was 2025's book of the year. It was hilarious and wild and a so much fun. Both of these books are so creative and so absorbing. The dialogue, the action, the characters, and the worlds brought to life are such a breath of fresh air. I do hope someday he can finally do what he's been doing on the indies and finally get free reign to make a Spider-Man or Superman book his own and, you know, actually make it awesome.

The Best Comic Book of 2025: WE'RE TAKING EVERYONE DOWN WITH US

 

    It's not a surprise that the best comic book of 2025 was written by Matthew Rosenberg. His book What's the Furthest Place From Here? was the best comic book of 2024 and 2022. His book 4 Kids Walk into a Bank was the best comic book of 2017. I guess I can say I'm a big fan. We're Taking Everyone Down With Us was a six issue mini-series that's a bit hard to describe. It's sci-fi, yes, but also about spies, about a family, specifically a father/daughter relationship, and it's both violent and hilarious. It's basically similar to The Island of Dr. Moreau in that a brilliant and villainous doctor has an island with a bunch of weird creations. His island mostly has robots, though, and he ends up uploading his consciousness into a robot when a group of evil spies attacks the compound. He escapes as a robot along with his daughter, who has been scientifically modified to become superior. It's a lot. All of the spy stuff feels like it's from the classic James Bond era. And there's also the daughter's mother, who is akin to a Dr. Doom like villain that controls a country. The book is fucking nuts but also totally compelling and super entertaining. It's also a total blast. I always know when a comic is great when I can't wait for the next issue to come out and I eagerly read it right away. This was one of those. The artwork, by Stefano Landini, fit the 1960's type of sci-fi & James Bond era perfectly. This was wild, funny, bonkers, thrilling, visceral, and totally alive. I loved it.