Tom King’s 5 Best DC Comics Ranked (And Number 1 Will Surprise You)

Tom King is one of DC Comics‘ most controversial writers. King is a former CIA operative, which is a big reason why he’s so controversial with fans, and many of his stories revolve around depression and trauma. King has gotten to write all of DC’s greatest characters, and has also shown that he’s quite skilled at writing the B and C-list characters of the DC Multiverse. King is best known for his miniseries, giving his fans amazing stories with a beginning, middle, and end. King definitely isn’t for everyone, but for people who are willing to take a different look at superheroes, King’s books are the best of the best.

King has written some brilliant stories over his career at DC. However, there are definitely some Tom King books that rise above the rest. The best Tom King books have taken readers on journeys that changed the way they looked at superheroes forever and gave the world’s greatest superheroes amazing stories. These five King stories are the best and the best one will definitely surprise you.

5) Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

Supergirl has been a popular character in pop culture, but for a long time she didn’t have that killer comic that everyone could point to. Tom King, working with artist Bilquis Evely, finally gave Supergirl that with Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow takes the Maid of Might out of her comfort zone and gives her the kind of adventure that would define her in the modern era. The story is simple: on a primitive planet, a young girl named Ruthye decides to take revenge on the man who killed her father. Supergirl comes to her world — it’s her twenty-first birthday and this planet has a red sun, so she can get drunk there — and is asked by Ruthye to help her hunt down her father’s killer, who steal Supergirl’s ship and goes to the stars.

The book is basically a travelogue of Supergirl and Ruthye traveling to entirely new planets and facing whatever they encounter. The book does an amazing job of showing Supergirl’s harder side, as she’s forced to deal with things she never had to when she worked with Superman, but also shows that she never gives up the core of goodness that makes her Supergirl. King does his psychological thing — with one issue telling the terrible story of Supergirl’s time on Kandor after it was ejected from the destruction of Krypton, the very ground toxic to the people there, and how hard she fought to try to save her people — and gives readers an amazing sci-fi superhero story. On top of all of that, Evely’s art is gorgeous. She was the perfect choice to bring King’s scripts to life, bringing the exact right design sensibility to the book. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is the basis for the DCU Supergirl, which should tell you every thing you need to know about how good it is.

4) Human Target

The Human Target was always one of the more interesting DC concepts. Christopher Chance was a soldier/spy who was a master of disguise. He would stand in for people who were targeted by others and fight back to save them. In Human Target, by King and Greg Smallwood, Chance is hired by Lex Luthor to stop an assassination attempt. He’s able to, but then is poisoned in a second attempt meant for Luthor. Chance learns he has twelve days left to live and sets out to figure out who killed him, which leads him right into the arms of former Justice League International member Ice. Chance’s new relationship leads him into the morass of the JLI, where he learns more about the ostensibly “funny” Justice League team. When he finally finds his killer, it’s the last person he ever expected.

Tom King writing Christopher Chance is something that readers didn’t know they needed until Human Target came out. The book is something of a throwback in a lot of ways; it’s a Hitchcockian thriller/mystery with superheroes that feels like the 1960s, thanks to Greg Smallwood’s amazing, has to be seen to be believed art, focusing on a superhero team from the 1980s. Human Target is a page turner with a core of love and hopelessness that makes it even better. Many readers want Human Target to get adapted by the DCU, and that would be amazing. Human Target is a story with a little bit of everything and shows that King is about more than just depressing psychological stories — he can also tell depressing tragic romances.

3) Rorschach

Rorshach, by Tom King and Jorge Fornes, is a comic that had a lot more working against it than just the fact that King was writing it. Watchmen spin-offs are one of the things that everyone has an opinion on, with a vocal faction saying that there should never be any Watchmen other than Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ classic. Another problem was that a lot of Watchmen spin-offs, prequels, and sequels were all various degrees of disappointing. Plenty of fans didn’t even want to give the book a chance at all. However, for the readers who gave it a chance, Rorschach was a brilliant murder mystery story, one that used the trappings of Watchmen to tell its own story about radicalization.

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When Rorschach, long thought dead, and a woman dressed as circus gunfighter assassinate a presidential candidate, a nameless investigator is brought in to investigate. What he finds is an old pirate comic writer/artist, based on Steve Ditko, and an abused young woman at the center of conspiracies and domestic terrorism, one that leads into the world of comic creators like Frank Miller and beyond. Rorschach is a polemic on how people can be indoctrinated and transformed and its constantly brilliant. It’s a wonderful slow burn, with Fornes’ heavily lined art perfectly complimenting King’s dark and brooding story.

2) Mister Miracle

Tom King had proved that he was great at twelve-issue miniseries by 2017, impressing readers with Omega Men. However, that year would see him and frequent collaborator Mitch Gerads team up for a series about a classic DC character. Mister Miracle starred the titular character, created as part of the New Gods by comics legend Jack Kirby, and his wife Big Barda. The book begins with Mister Miracle attempting suicide and goes from there. As he battles the malaise his life has become, a new war between the New Gods and Apokolips starts, with Miracle and Barda pulled into the conflict. What follows is the best of time and the worst times, changing their lives forever.

It’s hard to know what to say about Mister Miracle. It’s a heavy book for most who read it, all of us finding a little bit of ourselves in Scott Free. It’s an often emotionally agonizing book, but it also finds a way to be beautiful as well. On top of King’s usual look into a hero’s psyche, this is also just an excellent New Gods story. Gerads’ art definitely deserves a lot of credit for the book’s success; it uses a nine-panel grid for most of its pages and Gerads does a great job of pacing the story. His action scenes are brilliant, as well, capturing the kinetic nature of Mister Miracle. Finally, his character acting really captures the raw emotion of King’s story, bringing it all perfectly to life. Mister Miracle is often considered to be the best Tom King story, and an argument can definitely be made for that. It’s casually brilliant and changes everyone who reads it.

1) Superman: Up in the Sky

Tom King and Superman didn’t really feel like they’d mix well. King’s work can be dark and ponderous, two things which don’t really fit in a good Superman story. However, readers got to see King write Superman in a story in Action Comics #1000 and it was really, really good. So, King would get another chance to write Superman. DC made a deal with Wal-Mart to put out exclusive comics in their stores, and Tom King and Andy Kubert were teamed up for Superman: Up in the Sky, a story that would become one of the best modern Superman stories.

Superman: Up in the Sky sees Superman leave the Earth to go after a girl that is kidnapped in an alien attack. He travels the universe, facing every thing in his way only to rescue one little girl, all the whole worrying about Lois and the Earth. It’s a perfect Superman plot line, and Tom King nails it. King still digs into who Superman is, but unlike other writers, he doesn’t try to make the character “darker” or more “complex”. Instead, King shows why Superman is the greatest superhero of all time with a story that truly captures the character. Kubert is a legend and his art is gorgeous, every page with some kind of amazing image on it. Superman: Up in the Sky is peak Superman, but it’s also peak King. It showed readers that King is more than a one-trick pony and is his best work.

What is your favorite Tom King comic for DC? Let us know your thoughts in our comment section!