DC Comics has been on a tear since 2024. It all started with DC All-In #1, which paved the way for the Absolute line of books. Absolute Batman, Absolute Superman, and Absolute Wonder Woman were unsurprising hits, but the surprising part came when they stayed at the top of the sales charts, dethroning Marvel for the first time in ages. Soon, books like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Justice League Unlimited started to make their way up the sales charts as well. Meanwhile, the expansion of the Absolute line has kept it on top, even handily beating the new Ultimate Universe. DC readers are, overall, extremely happy with what they’ve been getting in a way that Marvel fans just aren’t.
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Marvel still has more books in the top 50 than DC, but there’s a feeling of energy to DC that Marvel just doesn’t have right now. It honestly feels like the only reason Marvel still sells so well is because people buy the books out of rote. Meanwhile, DC is rebuilding characters that it left to rot over the years of pushing Batman books. DC has a secret weapon, and looking at the books they’re publishing now and what they’ll be publishing next year, DC is preparing to land the killing blow against Marvel’s sales dominance.
DC Has the Best B-List in Comics
2021 was a challenging time to be a DC fan. Dark Knights: Death Metal had just ended, and fans were excited for what was coming next. Unfortunately, what readers got was a whole bunch of Batman comics. The vast majority of DC’s publishing line was Batman and Batman-related books. Superman and his son Jon each had a book. Wonder Woman had one, and the Flash had one. Justice League and Titans Academy were the only DC team books. There were some miniseries, but it was basically all Batman, all the time. DC has many popular characters, but they decided to only use Batman and his related characters.
2023 changed all of this with “Dawn of DC”, where the publisher began releasing more ongoing series such as Green Lantern and miniseries for B-list characters like Hawkgirl, Steel, Jay Garrick, Alan Scott, the Sandman I, and more. “DC All-In” kicked off in 2024, and readers got books for the Justice Society, Metamorpho, the New Gods, a new Justice League book, the Green Lantern Corps, Aquaman, and more. Everyone loves Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, but DC has always had the best B-list characters in comics, and they’re finally giving them the chance to shine.
The thing that makes DC’s B-list work so well is variety. We have the vigilantes that work under Batman like Nightwing, Red Hood, Batwoman, the Robins, and the Batgirls. There’s the various Lantern Corps, the New Gods, the magic heroes, the Flash Family, and the Shazam family. The Justice Society is the most important superhero team ever, and is the leader of an amazing stable of Golden Age heroes and their legacies. There are numerous teen and young heroes. DC’s A-list is honestly pretty small compared to Marvel’s, but their lower-tier heroes are much more varied and interesting. Marvel heroes all feel the same (well, not exactly; the mutant heroes and non-mutant heroes are different, but that’s the main difference), but DC heroes depend heavily on the “families” they belong to, each one raised in a different “culture”.
There’s a reason why there’s so much energy in DC fan circles right now; the varied lot of DC B-list heroes means that the books we’re going to get aren’t just going to be run of the mill superhero books, like Marvel books. The Demon is coming back for the first time in decades, bringing superhero horror. Zatanna and Batwoman are two very different types of heroes that will take readers to very different places. Lobo and Deathstroke the Terminator both star anti-heroes, but they will be completely different from one another. Firestorm the Nuclear Man returning was a shock, and we’re finally getting the Legion of Superheroes for another try. All of those books are unique, all of them will take readers to new places, and that’s the key to defeating Marvel at the cash register.
Modern Marvel Can’t Compete With DC at Its Best
Let’s be honest — there’s not a lot to be excited about at Marvel right now or in the near future. Other than the end of the new Ultimate Universe, everything else is just more of the same Marvel shovelware that we’ve been getting since C.B. Cebulski started as EIC. They’re coasting on name recognition, and it shows. DC, on the other hand, is hungry and they’re been building their line with the express purpose of thrashing Marvel.
Modern Marvel can’t compete with DC right now. The X-Men books are flailing, the Spider-Man books haven’t excited fans in years, and no one cares about the Avengers. Captain America, Mortal Thor, and Fantastic Four are great. That’s pretty much it. DC, though, has been making huge moves, putting out consistently amazing books, and hiring the best writers and artists in comics (it helps that the company pays better, something various creators have talked about for years now). They’ve worked hard to get where they are right now, and they’re not done yet. 2025 has been a big year for DC, and 2026 has the potential to be the first time in decades that the comic industry sales paradigm may shift.
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