Comicon’s Best Comic Book TV Shows Of 2024

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. While it might seem odd to look at a list dominated by Big Two comic book characters as evidence of “nature is healing”, the return of DC Comics characters is, indeed, a welcome one with programs demonstrating just how diverse in terms of tone and character the DC Universe can be. Marvel, meanwhile, brought home a handful of great shows this year. Also worth noting: animation dominates in this space, proving it is a natural medium for the superheroes.

The following are Comicon’s Best Comic Book Television Shows of 2024.

5. Batman: Caped Crusader, executive produced by Bruce Timm, Matt Reeves, J.J. Abrams, James Tucker, Sam Register, Rachel Rusch Rich, and Ed Brubaker; starring the voices of Hamish Linklater, Jason Watkins , and others; available on Prime Video

Mix together the wallet-opening powers of Abrams, Register, and Reeves with the creative vision of Timm, Tucker, and Brubaker, and you get one of the best Batman animated series ever devised. Partially a redux of Batman: The Animated Series for the streaming era, Caped Crusader gets closer to the 1940s Bob Kane-led Batman aesthetic while also pushing things forward with its reinvention of the Penguin (Minnie Driver), great appearances by other members of the Bat’s rogues gallery, and some fantastic moments for supporting characters like Jim Gordon (Eric Morgan Stuart) and Harvey Bullock (John DiMaggio). Then there’s the art direction and animation, which live up to Timm’s previous DC efforts while also finding something new in an era when 2D animation is considered quaint at best and obsolete at worst. Sure, some of it is realized using the computer, but the techniques devised over a century ago still work here and I’d argue they’re required to properly depict a character also swinging his way toward the 90-year mark.

4. Creature Commandos, executive produced by James Gunn, Peter Safran, Sam Register, and Dean Lorey; starring the voices of Indira Varma, Alan Tudyk, Frank Grillo, Sean Gunn, Zoë Chao and David Harbour; available on Max

As a life-long DC Comics fan, I can tell you that Rick Flag Sr. has never been a compelling character. I’d argue the same for his son. But Gunn, as Creature Commandos‘ sole writer, found a way to make Flag the elder an interesting lead. It shouldn’t be a surprise as the writer/director/studio co-CEO excels at making quirky and ignored comic book characters interesting and beloved. He did it for the Guardians team he inherited from previous screenwriter Nicole Perlman and the comics written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. He did it for DC’s Bloodsport (Idris Elba) and Peacemaker (John Cena) in The Suicide Squad. And he does it again here with the most curious sextet ever assembled. The Bride (Varma), Dr. Phosphorus (Tudyk), Flag Sr. (Grillo), G.I. Robot (Sean Gunn), Weasel (Sean Gunn again), and Nina Mazursky (Chao) are in no way marquee. But the lack of baggage with d-list characters means Gunn gets to reshape them into another band of lovable misfits. Just this time, they wear their damage on their faces instead of their backs or in their hearts. Sure, that trauma is there as well — as each episode focuses on the backstory of one Task Force M member — but for the freaks to look this freakish is something reserved for animation. The visual oddity also opens the door for the characters to become richer, deeper, and potentially beloved. The show has already been renewed for a second season and with rumors that Grillo will appear in Superman as Flag, it seems Gunn’s DC Cinematic Universe is off to a good start. It’s a nice chance of pace.

3. X-Men ‘97, executive produced by Beau DeMayo, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, and Brad Winderbaum; starring the voices of George Buza, Cal Dodd, Lenore Zann, Ray Chase, Jennifer Hale, Matthew Waterson, Alison Sealy-Smith, JP Karliak, Gui Agustini, and Ross Marquand; available on Disney+

While DC’s animated offerings are a return to form, Marvel Animation reigns supreme here thanks to its unexpectedly great revival of Fox’s 1990s X-Men series. Picking up from that program’s conclusion — Scott Summers (Chase) taking a full leadership role as Charles Xavier (Marquand) is presumed dead — the show goes hard into the underlying metaphor. Despite Xavier’s seeming death inspiring more tolerance and cooperation between Mutants and regular humans, the distrust remains. And, naturally enough, ill-intended actors wait in the wings to use that fear to bankroll new Sentinels, sow violence, and push back the clock on Mutant-human relations. The season saw the destruction of Genosha, much of Madeline Pryor’s (Hale) arc, Rogue’s (Zann) past with Magento (Waterson), and even Asteroid M used to amazing effect in service of the overall tale. The voice actors, a mix of returning performers like Zann and Dodd with newcomers like Chase and Hale picking up for those who could not return, do an amazing job breathing life into the X-Men once more and going to heavier emotional states. It is a credit to DeMayo (dismissed by Marvel under still-mysterious circumstances just before the series debuted) and his collaborators for pushing the X-Men animated setting to its greatest sophistication yet. While we were left on the unshakable note that Magneto was right, it will be interesting to see if that will continue when he and Xavier are confronted with the possibility of educating a surprise addition to the ensemble in the first season’s final moments.

2. Agatha All Along, executive produced by Jac Schaeffer, Mary Livanos, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, and Brad Winderbaum; starring Kathryn Hahn, Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, Patti LuPone, Debra Jo Rupp, and Aubrey Plaza; available on Disney+

While both Marvel television programs released in the past year — this and Echo — proved there is still quality to be found in the television corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Agatha proved to be literal magic in the way it brought Hahn’s Agatha Harkness to life, made the secret of Locke’s Teen a genuinely satisfying reveal, and depicted the most fully realized queer relationship yet seen in a Marvel Studios project. Sure, all the characters did was fight, but their underlying attraction and devotion led to some of the hottest scenes super-powered people can engage in while still being fully clothed. Okay, that might be hyperbole as the romance was still quite reserved, even by Disney standards. Nevertheless, Schaeffer and her team did an admirable job weaving it into the fabric of established Marvel ideas while also expanding on Agatha’s nature, the concept of magic in a cosmos of Celestials, Asgardians, and other assorted quasi-supernatural phenomena, and adding a few new characters to the mix. Zamata’s Jennifer Kale proved to be a welcome surprise even as LuPone won all of our hearts. And throughout, the production values proved you can spend the money and get every cent of it on screen. I, for one, hope Marvel and Schaeffer continue to make television together as she is one of their most solid creative participants. But if not, Doctor Who‘s Russell T. Davies should give her a call because she’d be great charting the course of the TARDIS when he is ready to hand over the creative control console.

1. The Penguin, executive produced by Lauren LeFranc, Matt Reeves, Colin Farrell, Dylan Clark, Daniel Pipski, Bill Carraro, and Craig Zobel; starring Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, and Deirdre O’Connell; available on Max.

In its way, The Penguin was a genuine surprise. Sure, audiences knew Farrell could deliver under a complex make-up job that made him look more like character actor Richard Kind than himself. Potential viewers also knew Reeves would shepherd the series to greatly resemble the grounded Gotham he depicted in The Batman. But what no one expected: LeFranc would take that world and the title character to new depths as she also devised the greatest Sofia Falcone story ever told. Milioti, as the crime boss daughter with a ton of damage and sky high ambitions, steals every scene she’s in; regularly upstaging even Farrell. The flashback to her time at Arkham Asylum both establishes a tight bond between the character and the viewer while also offering a few more hints at the great corruption in Gotham the Riddler (Paul Dano) tried to expose. Was Bliss devised to treat the late Martha Wayne for her as-yet unspecified condition? Meanwhile, Feliz also earns high marks as a well-meaning kid who ends up refashioned into The Penguin approximation of a Robin. It also proves tragic when the full scope of his character stands revealed. But beyond all of that is the fact The Penguin gave Oz Cobb his name. Not his title or villain identity, mind. But that now, and forever, people will refer to him as Oz. It is a rare thing for a superhero comic character to earn their true name. Clark, Peter, Scott, Hal, Tim. That status away from the costumed or public persona is hard won and only occurs via decades of storytelling. Or one great, defining tale. The Penguin, despite its title, is Oz’s signature story even as it also serves as the Sofia Falcone (or is it Gigante now?) yarn. To get both for the time investment of one is a testament to the power and creativity of the program and its architects. While we know Oz will return in The Batman Part 2, we hope that letter Sofia received from her half-sister means she will also have the chance to menace the Batman (Robert Pattinson).