10 Best Comic Books Of 2020

3. Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen
DC Comics

In a year as rotten as 2020, comics like Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen are so important.

Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber's hilarious deep dive into the Big Blue Boy Scout's old friend was WhatCulture Comics' number one series of 2019, and while the series suffered delays at the start of 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic, it was more than worth the wait.

Jimmy Olsen provides an angle of the DC Universe we don't see nearly enough of. Through Jimmy's eyes, Fraction and Lieber takes the reader on an amazing journey with a sinister conspiracy right at the centre. There's a wonderful detour to Gotham City, a fun exploration of the feud between the Olsen and Luthor families dating back to Metropolis' founding, and some great commentary on contemporary "content creation", YouTube, and the decline of old media in the age of clickbait and controversy.

Fraction is tremendous as ever, but Lieber must be singled out for particular praise. He captures DC's world in a way that's charming, warming and emotive, and that final panel - with Supes and his old pal sat atop the Daily Planet - might just be the best of all.

Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.