5 Great Recent Sci-Fi Comics Nobody Talks About

Superhero comics are great, but when it comes to some of the best stories being told in the medium, those belong to sci-fi. With tales of other worlds, realities, questions of technology, existence, alternate realities, and so very much more, sci-fi comics offer readers adventure as well as contemplation on the human experience, even if framed with aliens and otherworldly things.

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There are some truly amazing sci-fi comics out there, especially in the past decade, but even among a wealth of great stories, there are some that seem to have flown under the radar. From stories with shorter runs to those you might not expect to be sci-fi at all, and even some that are just getting started, here are five great recent sci-fi comics that people just aren’t talking enough about — and we should change that.

5) The Seeds

Part ecological disaster horror and part romance, The Seeds is a truly astounding work and it’s truly surprising that it’s a book not talked about more. From Ann Nocenti and David Aja and released by Dark Horse, The Seeds is set in a near future dystopia where ecological disasters are pretty much standard and the world is entirely dependent on technology. However, some do try to break away from technology and while investigating a group who has fled to create their own, tech-free society, journalist Astra stumbles onto the story of a lifetime — but reporting on it might destroy the world.

The Seeds is full of twists and turns that you wouldn’t expect, and that includes the romance element of what is otherwise an, at times, too-close-to-home nightmare of a story. The book likely slipped under the radar for many when it was first released, with the first two issues coming out in 2018 and then going on a long hiatus until the full story came out in trade in 2021, but this is a story meant to be read all at once, both for its well-crafted story and it’s incredibly beautiful and atmospheric art.

4) Far Sector

Far Sector might be a Green Lantern story, but this book from N.K. Jemison and Jamal Campbell from DC Comics is a rare book that functions both within its overall canon and is also a fantastic, nearly standalone sci-fi comic in its own right. The story follows Sojourner “Jo” Mullein, a new Green Lantern who has been protecting the City Enduring for six months but after centuries of peace (because the citizens have been stripped of their ability to feel), something has changed and it’s up to Jo to deal with it.

Far Sector is unlike anything else in the entire scope of Green Lantern comics, so much so that it’s a book even non-Green Lantern or superhero fans could read and easily be immersed in. The story is so good and the art matches it in quality, making it possibly one of the best Green Lantern stories ever told and an incredible gem that deserves to be seen as a sci-fi masterpiece.

3) Invisible Kingdom

While Invisible Kingdom is absolutely a comic — Christian Ward’s art is too good to not appreciate — it’s a book that reads more like an exquisite novel, transcending the medium in unexpected ways. Written by G. Willow Wilson, Invisible Kingdom is set in a far-flung galaxy and follows two women, one a religious acolyte and the other a freighter pilot, who discover a conspiracy between the leaders of the world’s dominant religion and the mega-corporation that controls everything. It’s a story about discovering the truth, how far one will go to bring that truth to light, and what happens when you pull back the veil on an entire ideology.

Beautifully paced, beautifully drawn, and sharply written, Invisible Kingdom does what the best of sci-fi does in that it holds up a mirror to our own world and explores concepts and questions we face through the lens of an alien world and it does it in a way that never feels preachy. Instead, this is a book that will leave the reader with a lot to think about for a long time to come.

2) Free Planet

Free Planet is probably the most current comic on this list, having just completed its first arc and with more to come, but it’s also an incredible sci-fi comic that people just aren’t talking about. From Aubrey Sitterson and Jed Dougherty and published by Image Comics, Free Planet asks a huge question — what does total freedom actually look like and, once it’s obtained, how do you keep and enforce it? Set on Lutheria, the first entirely free planet in human history, it turns out that the idea of total freedom is harder and more complicated to uphold than one might expect. A group of revolutionary heroes have to defend Lutheria and its total freedom from intergalactic powers — including a mega corporation at the center of just about everything in the galaxy and a major religion as well.

Outside of the book’s story, which takes the approach of telling not the story of how the freedom was won but what happens after, the book is also incredibly innovative with its storytelling and how it uses the printed page. It’s a fully immersive experience that shouldn’t be missed.

1) We Only Find Them When They’re Dead

One of the central themes of sci-fi stories, if you will, is the bigger question of existence. While many stories take this question on in grand scale, they often leave out the more intimate, personal elements but that is not the case with We Only Find Them When They’re Dead from Al Ewing and Simone Di Meo. Published by BOOM! Studios, We Only Find Them When They’re Dead follows Captain Malik and the crew of the Vihaan II in search of important resources that are harvested from the giant corpses of gods at the edge of human space. However, Malik seeks to be the first person to find a living god and things get complicated from there. It’s a book with big questions about where the gods come from and what they really are as well as much more intimate, personal dynamics as well.

We Only Find Them When They’re Dead is a comic that at times feels cinematic, both grand in scale and how it looks. It is a fully engaging comic that readers can take in a lot of different ways. You can read it as an adventure comic, a bit of a horror comic at times, and as something very thought-provoking and deeply uncomfortable in the best way possible. It’s a stunning book and one well worth reading.