2025 was a great years for DC Comics, but one character had a better year than all of the others: Superman. 2025 saw the Man of Steel fly into theaters in July and was a perfect start for James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU at the cinemas. Superman was a hit, with the character returning to the lofty place in pop culture that he once held. However, that’s not the only place where the world’s first superhero did well. DC was smart enough to stack the year with amazing Superman comics, from one-shots to Black Label minis to the character’s ongoing series’. Superman has been especially good, and it’s done a lot of heavy lifting for the DC Multiverse’s continuing story in 2025.
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Superman has been sensational in 2025 and it’s easily one of the best solo ongoing books of the year. It was able to deliver fans the best stories starring the Man of Steel and his friends and foes, all with brilliant writing and amazing art. These five factors helped make Superman the best solo book of last year for its fans.
5) Doomsday as the Time Trapper
2024 saw the return of the Time Trapper, who Superman used to fight as Superboy with the Legion of Superheroes. However, as is Time Trapper tradition, the reveal of this new version’s identity was a shock: Doomsday. Over the years, the monster who killed Superman evolved into a being with time manipulating powers, come back to warn Superman about a terrible future, asking the Man of Steel to kill him so he could become a god. 2025 saw us find out why he wanted to become a god (the situation with Darkseid presented in DC K.O.), with the Time Trapper acting as an ally of Superman and the Justice League. Superman writer Joshua Williamson has done a fabulous job with this new version of Doomsday and the character has been one of the year’s highlights in the book.
4) The Return of Superboy-Prime and the Legion of Superheroes
Superman in 2025 saw two major returns surrpise readers. The first was a huge shock to the system, as Superboy-Prime was revealed to be alive and well, with the Time Trapper taking the Man of Steel to ask for the help of Primem in order to find the survivors of the Legion of Superheroes, who were under attack by the evil Darkseid Legion. Prime and Superman would eventually learn that the Darkseid Legion was hunting down the multiversal versions of the team, with the two of them helping battle against Darkseid’s twisted Legion. Prime has been on an interesting trajectory, and getting to see a new, redeemed version of the character working with Kal-El was a treat for readers. The return of the Legion looks to play a major role in the DC Multiverse in 2026, with the publisher trying again to bring the future team back to prominence. It’s looking like we might get a Superboy-Prime Legion series, which would be awesome.
3) The DC K.O. Build-Up and Tie-In Issues
Superman plays a key role in DC K.O., with part of the event build taking place in Superman. We got “Legion of Darkseid”, a three issue story that saw Superman and Prime battle against the Darkseid Legion to save Booster Gold, leading into Justice League Unlimited and the introduction of the Quantum Quorum. This story was a blockbuster, laying the groundwork for DC K.O. Since October, Superman has also been putting out tie-in issues to the event, which has given readers some integral moments, from Superwoman and Prime teaming up to what Lex Luthor is doing in the contest. Since July, every issue has been fantastic, helping push the book to the top for fans.
2) The Art
Superman has had excellent art since it launched in 2023, but 2025 has seen the art taken to another level. In 2024, Dan Mora was put on the book, which was perfect. Mora is one of the hardest working artists in the industry, often penciling two issues a month at the highest quality imaginable. His art on Superman has been fantastic, his simple, detailed linework giving readers fantastic pages. Mora didn’t pencil every issue in 2025, with Eddy Barrows doing fill-in issues throughout the year, and the final issue of the year was penciled by Hayden Sherman, who has been having a banner year. There are a lot of great artists currently in the industry, and Superman has boasted three of the best artists working right now.
1) Williamson Understands Superman
Joshua Williamson made his name writing books like The Flash and 2023 would see him become writer of Superman. Since then, Williamson has dropped banger after banger on the Man of Steel and 2025 was especially good. The writer just gets Superman in a way that few writers do. He’s also amazing at writing Lex Luthor and Lois Lane, which is extremely important for anyone writing the Man of Steel. His plots and character moments have been phenomenal and have kept readers hooked the entire year. He’s hit another level this year and it’s helped make Superman into a near-perfect book.
What did you think of Superman in 2025? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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