Comicon’s Best Comic Book TV Shows Of 2023

As an adjunct to our Best of the Year Awards, Comicon would like to also recognize the best in TV shows based on comic books in the past year. Choosing just five programs to spotlight has become a more difficult task in the last few years with comic book inspired shows appearing on every streaming service. Nevertheless, quality shows still find their way to screens, giving us a diverse and meaningful selection.

The following are Comicon’s Best Comic Book Television Shows of 2023.

5. Doctor Who: “The Star Beast,” executive produced by Russell T. Davies; starring David Tennant, Catherine Tate, and Yasmin Finney; available on Disney+.

2023 was a such a weird year that a Doctor Who special qualifies as one of the great comic book TV shows of the year. Based on “The Star Beast” by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons — a comic strip that originally appeared across several issues of Doctor Who Magazine (then Doctor Who Weekly) in 1980 — Davies takes the essentials of the tale, a cutesy alien that is more than it seems being hounded by scary monsters, and bolts them into a grand return of former series stars Tennant and Tate. The result is one of the bounciest and most joyful Doctor Who episodes in the last six years. It also lays the groundwork for Donna (Tate) getting a happier ending than where the show left her nearly 15 years ago. And as an adaptation, it uses all the key plot details in a smart way and even gives Fudge a little cameo. If you’ve never read the story, the digital edition of December 2023’s DWM includes the story in its entirety — a now-alternate take in which Tom Baker‘s Fourth Doctor also gets a new companion.

4. Gen V, executive produced by Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters; starring Jaz Sinclair, Chance Perdomo, and Lizze Broadway; available on Prime Video.

The Boys is an amazing show. It’s a deconstruction of the hero motif with gruesome violence, dark humor, and plenty of action. But superheroes aren’t for everyone. It’s hard to buy into that fantasy for non-superhero fans. Gen V manages to capture the same kind of magic while shifting the universe’s setting from a corporate superhero team to a super-powered university. This gives the show a feeling more akin to Harry Potter or The Magicians, which may appeal to an audience not as fond of superheroes as others. Plus, with plenty of cameos and mythology from The Boys to dig through, the first season of Gen V just may have topped its predecessor to become one of the best shows of the year.

— Frank Martin

3. Loki, executive produced by Kevin Wright; starring Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Sophia Di Martino; available on Disney+.

While the rest of Marvel’s Multiverse Saga can feel scattered and unfulfilling, Loki‘s second season ended in such a profound way that it could easily double as the conclusion of that story — which really hasn’t even began over on the film side. Sure, the program could also feel scattered as Loki (Hiddleston) and Mobius (Wilson) searched time and possibility for a solution to the Multiversal unraveling, but all of it was in service of getting Loki to see he could not trick his way out of this predicament and that he would have to make a hard choice. Ironically, that decision gave him all the things he said he wanted back in the original Thor, but for reasons he would have been incapable of understanding then. It is both a sacrifice and a victory. The cleverness of that resolution, in addition to stellar acting and trippy visuals, vaults Loki passed anything else Marvel Studios released in 2023. And it’s no wonder the studio now refers to the character as “the God of Stories” (although Marvel Comics got there first). Devotion to him will be essential in the years ahead.

2. Invincible, executive produced by Robert Kirkman, David Alpert, and Simon Racioppa; starring Steven Yeun, Sandra Oh, and Gillian Jacobs; available on Prime Video.

This series is a magic trick, just like its comic book counterpart. The violence should be off-putting. The occasional “extreme” storytelling should be tiring. The presence of Seth Rogen as a creative force and a voice actor should be problematic. And yet, Invincible cooks in ways you would never expect. From the high quality “Atom Eve” special in July to the four episodes released in the Fall, the program continues to push boundaries and positively iterate on Kirkman’s comic book tale. And best of all: the wait between episodes will not be nearly as long as the pause between Seasons 1 and 2; the latter half of the second season is expected in early 2024!

1. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, executive produced by BenDavid Grabinski & Bryan Lee O’Malley; starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and the cast of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World; available on Netflix.

An anime adaptation of O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series seemed like a worthy enough idea. His completed sextet of novels contained far more story than a film could cover — and that movie started development when the author was still on book 2! Then came word the cast of the film, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, would reprise their roles. And as the first episode streamed, it seemed as though this would be worthy thanks to high quality animation and the cast benefiting from 12 additional years of experience. Then the twist came. Scott (Cera) did indeed take off, leaving Ramona Flowers (Winstead) in the driver’s seat and answering my biggest criticism of the film: in that production, she’s not a character, just a very pretty face and prize for Scott to win. Here, Ramona is expanded even beyond what we saw in O’Malley’s completed tale. The additional depth uncovered as she is forced to confront her exes is a masterstroke of storytelling. A new generation gets to see her as a fresh, compelling character while fans of the film and/or the graphic novels get to appreciate her in a new way. The same can be said for just about every other character, too, as they are expanded, rounded more fully, and given time to become people as opposed to props Scott must trample. Combined with that superb animation, a killer opening credit sequence, great music, and the voice cast reaffirming their love for the Pilgrim world, and you get the best television comic book adaptation of the year.