Sunday Best: Catholic Skywalker Awards - Best in Comics 2025

  With 2025 coming to a close, it is time for us to choose what the best entertainment of the year was.  And just as the Academy Awards have their "Oscars, " so too the Catholic Skywalker Awards have their "Kal-El's"

Now, if you are new to this blog you may be wondering why a blog called Catholic Skywalker would choose a Superman statue as it's award, and not something from Star Wars.   The reasons are 3-fold:

1.  The Catholic Skywalker Awards will cover movies, television, and comic books.  Superman is an icon for all three.

2.  The pose he has here, revealing his inner hero, is symbolic of the revelation of truth and beauty that we should find in all good art.

3.  It's a statue I actually own, so I can use this photo on my blog.

Catholic Skywalker: Best in Comics:

Best Series

Flash Gordon

For the second year in a row, the Flash Gordon comic continues to be the best comic being printed today.  As I wrote last year: 

One of the things that sets Adams apart as a writer is his clear sense of love for the characters.  He loves Flash Gordon and he is not trying to do an ironic, post-modern deconstruction of the character.  He is trying to show the audience what makes Flash so awesome.  

One of the great things about the story is that it takes so many unexpected twists and turns, but it never feels like it is a betrayal of who the characters are at their core.  Adams even introduces a kind of "Mirror Universe" to this series, but it works so well because there is a kind of catharsis in seeing the doppelgangers of our characters behave in such a contrary fashion.

The art is also top notch.  Comics are, of course, a visual medium, and these alien worlds are fantastic to behold. 

If you have been waiting to pick up a 

RUNNERS UP
Green Lantern

Rook: Exodus

Fantastic Four

Redcoat

Best Mini-Series

Los Monstruos

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One World Under Doom

Best One-Shot or Graphic Novel

Marvel All-On-One #1

I had a lot of fun reading this book.  It feels like a throwback to the big, bold 1990's, where every page is a splash page.  The plot is straightforward enough: Ben Grimm is suddenly attacked by all of the heroes in the Marvel Universe.  The plot unfolds as the story goes, but in the meantime, you get incredibly fun action set pieces while Ryan North unfolds his signature sci-fi aesthetic that draws you into the story, while remember that the name of the game is... fun.

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BZRKR: The Bleeding Tide

Deadpool and Batman

Best Single Issue

Absolute Batman  #10

One of the best things about Batman is also one of the worst things: he always wins.  Don't get me wrong, I don't want Batman to lose.  But because of this, stories tend to feel less significant.  They don't have stakes.

But with the new Absolute line in DC, it feels like the safety guides are removed.  And in this issue, you feel an actual sense of danger for Batman.  In this issue, Batman has been captured by the people who changed Bane.  They are experimenting on Bruce and torturing him both physically and mentally.  Bruce tries to escape, but he is constantly put down by Bane.

This story makes Batman feel so week and Bane feel so overwhelming.  Not since reading Court of Owls have I read Batman feeling so helpless.  For that reason, the story gripped me.  Not only that, but it gave writer Scott Snyder a wonderful writing challenge: how do you get Batman to do the impossible?  Every attempt at escape was filled with hope and that hope was shattered with each defeat.  But instead of filling me with despair, it made me desperately hope even more for escape.  

Nick Dragotta's pencil's and inks fill the story with its character and atmosphere in a powerful way.  The story is a nightmare from which the reader frantically wants to wake from.  And all of that emotion is clearly used to its fullest effect.

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Best Artist

Jason Fabok (Rook: Exodus)

Rook: Exodus is one of the best books out there.  This highly-imaginative world is brought to life by Jason Fabok's fantastic art.  The world feels modern, but savage.  It is such an interesting confluence of high and low technology.  All of this draws you in because of Fabok's fabulous art.  Just like with his amazing work in The Three Jokers, you can feel the weight in all of his art, as if was in three dimensions and tactile to the touch.  He is able to make that which is dingy and bleak look beautiful in its own way.

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Gary Frank: Geiger

Bryan Hitch: Redcoat

Best Writer

Jeremy Adams (Green Lantern, Flash Gordon)

I wrote last year that Jeremy Adams is currently one of my favorite writers working in comics.

That is still true today.

I already wrote about how wonderful Flash Gordon is, but his Green Lantern is probably the best it has been since Geoff Johns was on the book.  Adams knows how to write Hal in a way that feels authentic to what has come before while taking him in new directions.  And like Johns, he is expanding the lore and the universe.

One of the things that I like about how Adams writes is that he finds the human core in all of us, both the good and the bad.  When Carol Ferris' fiancee takes a turn towards the villainous, not only do you feel his heartbreak but you can also understand why he feels that life has cheated him.  

Adams is able to play things at a cosmic scale while not losing sight of the human drama that keeps us hooked.  

On a personal note, I got to meet him this summer at convention and he is the nicest guy in the world.  It is wonderful to know that talent and kindness are not mutually exclusive.  

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Tom Taylor: Nightwing, Titans, Detective Comics
Mark Waid: World's Finest: Batman/Superman, Absolute Power
Geoff Johns: Geiger, Redcoat, Rook: Exodus, Justice Society of America, Hyde Street