Best of 2020
Top 10 New Series
ALFRED scores 0% to 100%, average of 50%
Updated January 1, 2021
Our comic scoring system ALFRED aggregates critic reviews and scores them 0% to 100%.
Key Creators
Sean Lewis
Caitlin Yarsky
Analysis
Heavy on mythology and character, Lewis and Yarsky drove yet another Image critical darling when comics returned in Summer 2020.
Official Description
The team behind hit comic COYOTES returns for an all-new, two-arc maxi-series. There’s a drug called Bliss wiping away memories in Feral City. A good-hearted young man, overwhelmed by a deathly sick child and distraught wife, makes a deal to become the personal hitman to three gods, killing those in their way and sending memories down the river of Oblivion in exchange for his family’s well-being. Breaking Bad meets Neil Gaiman’s Sandman in an urban fantasy unlike any you’ve ever seen.
Adventure
More Best of 2020
Top 10 Series
Top 10 Issues
Top 10 New Series
Top 10 Graphic Novels
Key Creators
Tom Taylor
Trevor Hairsine
Analysis
Yes, DCeased was a smash hit – but when the spinoff and sequel series were announced, who knew they would be as well-reviewed as the original? Any fan of the original series needs to pick up Dead Planet, Unkillables, and Hope at World’s End.
Official Description
After a corrupted Anti-Life Equation turned billions into monsters-including Earth’s Greatest Heroes-our planet was as good as dead. Years later, a distress call brings Damian Wayne, Jon Kent, and Cassie Sandsmark-the Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman of Earth 2-back to a dead planet…but what will this new Justice League find waiting for them? If life still exists on Earth, who-or what-is lying in wait for these heroes?
Superhero – Horror
Key Creators
Jeff Lemire
Tat Brombal
Gabriel Hernandez Walta
Jordie Bellaire
Aditya Bidikar
Analysis
More Black Hammer. More Lemire. More Hernandez Walta. If you enjoyed Black Hammer, then getting more background on Barbalien is a must. One of two Black Hammer universe series in the Top 10.
Official Description
A groundbreaking new sci-fi action series in the world of the Eisner Award-winning Black Hammer universe, about prejudice, honor, and identity. Mark Markz has found his place on Earth as both a decorated police officer and as the beloved superhero, Barbalien. But in the midst of the AIDS crisis, hatred from all sides makes balancing these identities seem impossible–especially when a Martian enemy from the past hunts him down to take him back, dead or alive. Origin Story for Barbalien.
Superhero – Adventure
Key Creators
G. Willow Wilson
Nick Robles
Mat Lopes
Analysis
Wilson excitedly took the reigns in the Sandman Universe and did not disappoint, with critics loving her fresh take on this fantasy world, as well as Robles’ creative layouts.
Official Description
One of Dream’s heaviest responsibilities is the creation of nightmares-the beings that haunt our sleep and turn our thoughts toward darkness. In the form of Ruin, the nightmare of catastrophic failure, Dream was certain he’d built his next masterpiece…but Ruin can’t help but live up to his name, sending every situation into a spiral of unexpected consequences. Unfortunately, Shakespearean scholar (and exhausted new mother) Lindy has dreamed of Ruin…and in the process, she’s delivered him unto the waking world!
Superhero – Fantasy
Key Creators
Scott Snyder
Rafael Albuquerque
Dave McCaig
Analysis
Snyder and Albuquerque’s final chapter in the AV universe instantly impressed reviewers and proved that seeing Skinner Sweet back in action was well worth the wait.
Official Description
America is broken. Trust between the government and the American public has crumbled. Paranoia reigns supreme. It’s 1976, and this is the concluding chapter of the Eisner Award-winning American Vampire! Skinner Sweet has exhausted all efforts to regain his lost immortality. With his powers and purpose gone, he is now determined to go out with a bang. At a seedy motorcycle rally in the desert where he’s closer than ever to his death wish, Pearl Jones and a shocking partner tracks him down for one last, desperate mission: The force known as the Gray Trader and its minions are tunneling through the bowels of the world to unleash hell on Earth-just in time for America’s bicentennial. With catastrophe looming, it’s up to Skinner and Pearl to reconcile and change the course of history-or die trying.
Horror
More New Series
#25 Crossover 2020 – 73%
#24 Adventureman 2020 – 73%
#23 Batman: Three Jokers 2020 – 73%
#22 Dark Nights: Death Metal 2020 – 74%
#21 Hawkeye: Freefall 2020 – 75%
#20 DCeased: The Unkillables 2020 – 75%
#19 Frankenstein Undone 2020 – 75%
#18 Thor 2020 – 76%
#17 Mercy 2020 – 76%
#16 Sweet Tooth: The Return 2020 – 77%
#15 Tartarus 2020 – 77%
#14 Strange Adventures 2020 – 77%
#13 Billionaire Island 2020 – 77%
#12 Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn 2020 – 77%
#11 Lost Soldiers 2020 – 78%
Key Creators
James Tynion IV
Martin Simmonds
Aditya Bidikar
Analysis
The *only* wholly original concept in the Top 9! One of the most memorable Image #1s in recent memory also garnered some of the best marks of the year. Tynion IV’s work outside of the Big Two continues to be among the best in the industry.
Official Description
Cole Turner has studied conspiracy theories all his life, but he isn’t prepared for what happens when he discovers that all of them are true, from the JFK assassination to flat Earth theory and reptilian shapeshifters. One organization has been covering them up for gene
Crime
Key Creators
Kelly Thompson
Elena Casagrande
Jordie Bellaire
Analysis
Though it seems the series was meant to timed with the Black Widow film, readers and critics were treated to a new take on Natasha from Kelly Thompson.
Official Description
Natasha Romanoff has been a spy almost as long as she’s been alive. And she’s never stopped running, whether she was working for the good guys…or the bad. But Natasha’s world is about to be upended. Beyond San Francisco’s Golden Gate lies a mystery that only the Marvel Universe’s greatest spy can solve.
Superhero – Crime
Key Creators
Joe Hill
Gabriel Rodriguez
Jay Fotos
Analysis
In 2020 fans were treated to both a Locke & Key television series as well as a new comic arc that qualified as a Must-Read!
Official Description
The impossible, reality-bending keys of Keyhouse have always been weapons of war. In the spring of 1915, Chamberlin Locke’s oldest son, John, is desperate to be a part of the greatest war of all… and never mind that he’s too young to enlist. He means to use the power of the keys to turn the tide, and will tell any lie, and try any manipulation, to have his way. Prepare to open a door onto one of the grimmest battlefields of the 20th century, whose darkness might even strike fear into an army of supernatural shadows.
Horror
Key Creators
Jeff Lemire
Tyler Crook
Analysis
The highest-scoring Black Hammer spin-off series to-date explores Randall Weird’s background.
Official Description
From the world of the Eisner Award-winning Black Hammer series comes a bizarre sci-fi adventure origin story! Wacky space adventurer Colonel Randall Weird leaves Black Hammer farm and embarks on a strange journey through space and time for something that he’s long forgotten with his sanity and life at stake
Superhero – Adventure
Key Creators
Marjorie Liu
Sana Takeda
Analysis
Before Monstress returns in January 2021, we were treated to this delightful short series that charmed critics and gave fans a much-needed ramp-up for Monstress to return.
Official Description
MONSTRESS returns with TALK-STORIES, a two-part limited series that invites you to eat dumplings beside the fire and listen as Kippa recounts a defining moment from her childhood.
Fantasy