5 Reasons Absolute Martian Manhunter Was the Best DC Book of 2025

2025 was a great year for fans of DC Comics. To begin with, the DCU was a massive success, with Creature Commandos, Superman, and Peacemaker Season Two all finding a rabid audience. The comics have been sensational as well, building up to the event comic DC K.O., giving readers amazing stories every month. Finally, the Absolute line of books have been topping the sales charts every month, presenting readers with an all-new DC Universe of characters, this one created by the villainous Darkseid and very different from what we’ve used to. The Absolute books have been fantastic the entire year, with one praised vociferously by fans and critics alike: Absolute Martian Manhunter, by writer Deniz Camp and artist Javier Rodriguez.

Absolute Martian Manhunter put out seven issues in 2025, and they were some of the greatest comics of the year. While there are numerous brilliant comics every year, there’s just something about Absolute Martian Manhunter. The book is amazing, and these five reasons are why it’s the best DC book of the year.

5) John Jones and His Family Are Compelling Characters

Characters are an important part of the Absolute line’s success, taking heroes and villains we know and changing them. John Jones is completely different from J’onn J’onnz, and those differences are part of what makes the book so great. He’s a devoted federal agent, and his bond with the Green Martian has seen him take his work much more seriously, as he can see the terror and pain of those around him. Meanwhile, the effect that this bond has on his life with his family is one of the main sources of drama of the book. His wife and child, both of whom know something is different about him, are left wondering where the man who loved him went, each of them brought to life wonderfully by the book. These are extremely simple characters, but that simplicity has allowed Camp to take the family in tragic directions.

4) It’s Unique

Absolute Martian Manhunter is unlike anything out there, and that’s a big reason why fans love it so much. To being with, it looks completely different from any other book out there. We’ll talk more about Rodriguez’s art later, but it can’t be stressed how important his visual style is to making this book unique. The way the book uses color will grab you right away, and it shows powers we recognize from other comics, like telepathy, different from any other time we’ve seen them. While it can be visually inventive, there’s something extremely simple about the storytelling as well, as Camp and Rodriguez depend on each other’s skills to tell the story. Even people who have read a lot of superhero comics are going to find something new they aren’t seeing anywhere else in comics, giving Absolute Martian Manhunter a flavor that is completely different from anything on the stands.

3) Powerful, Emotional Storytelling

I think one thing that shocked me the most about Absolute Martian Manhunter is how emotional the story is. While the whole point of the comic is John and the Martian stopping the White Martian from destroying humanity, this book is more about the Jones family than anything else. The above page is from issue #4, when John realizes that constantly working has made his wife doubt that he loves her, which devastates him. It’s such a powerful moment in the story, and it’s one of many in the book’s seven issues. A lot of times, emotional storytelling in modern comics can be manipulative, but the emotional hooks of Absolute Martian Manhunter never feel that way. This book depends on you caring about the Jones family, and it does a fabulous job of connecting you to them emotionally.

2) Deniz Camp’s Writing Pulls You In

It kind of seems like a no-brainer to say something like, “The writing is important to a comic,” but it’s a statement that really makes sense when you think about this book. Deniz Camp has become one of the hottest writers in comics in 2024 and 2025, and Absolute Martian Manhunter is his best mainstream comic. He’s done a fantastic job with every single issue, building the characters and the book’s overall plot, taking moments that we’ve seen in other comics and tweaking them just enough to make them feel new. The book’s captions are amazing, and the way they work with the art on the page is perfect. Every issue has some beautiful or horrific moment that Camp sets up flawlessly. On top of that, the way Camp and Rodriguez are able to work together on the book shows how great his writing really is. They’ve reached a level of sympatico that most creative teams can only dream of having and this is their first major project together. That really says it all when it comes to Camp’s writing.

1) Javier Rodriguez’s Art Is Mind-Blowing

Absolute Martian Manhunter is fine art, and Javier Rodriguez’s art is why. Rodriguez is one of the most talented artists in the industry right now, and Asbolute Martian Manhunter is his greatest work by far. There’s so much going on in every panel on every page that the best way to read the comic is to investigate the page thoroughly after you read it. Color and shape are completely malleable in a way they aren’t in other comics, forming new images and getting across ideas in unique ways. Camp packs his scripts with emotion and Rodriguez is able to get that across in new ways on every page. I’ve been reading comics for 35 years this year, and I’ve never seen anything like Rodriguez’s art in this comic. This is what comics should be, and Rodriguez has reached another level with this book.

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