As we look forward to a new year of possibilities, we can’t help taking a moment to glance over our shoulder at the year’s journey we just completed. In the spirit of DC Comics declaring Robin, the Boy Wonder “The Sensational Character Find of 1940,” over the past few years we’ve started looking over the new characters that were introduced to determine who the standouts were. These are the characters we think may show the most promise and staying power in our hall of heroes and villains. Here are our Sensational Character Finds from 2025, where you might just catch a rising star.
 

Logo

First Appearance: Marvel/DC: Deadpool/Batman #1

One of the things 2025 may be remembered for could be as the year historic rivals DC and Marvel started to break down the Source Walls and start collaborating again. Right in the spirit of that hatchet-burying is a character in the Marvel/DC: Deadpool/Batman crossover who embodies one of the most contentious moments in DC vs. Marvel, a ’90s crossover that offered a rare reprinting this year: the Lobo and Wolverine fight. Rather than reiterating who the Main Man in that battle really should have been, our new crop of crossovers this year came with a brief return to the historic Amalgam Era, and a brand-new mashup character bringing together both companies’ ultimate symbols of masculine machismo: not quite Czarnian, not quite Canadian, but a fraggin’ third thing. In synthesis, we have so many new delightful abominations to show you.
 

Kandy the Super-Rabbit

First Appearance: Supergirl #1

This year in Sophie Campbell’s Supergirl, the Superman Family’s Legion of Super-Pets got a little more Unlimited. The reintroduction and steady reformation of Supergirl’s Silver Age rival, young Kandorian super scientist Lesla-Lar, also came with a bonus pet in tow. If the last dog of Krypton is named Krypto, then what do you call the last experimental rabbit of Kandor? Why, Kandy, of course. With a sidekick of her own in a newly miniaturized Titano the Super-Ape (call him Tinytano, for the time being), Kandy is out in Midvale and ready to prove to any cats, dogs and super horses who happen to be around that a super rabbit can get the job done. Catch her first adventure with Krypto, Streaky and the rest in the All-Super Pets Supergirl #5.
 

The New Kid Eternity

First Appearance: JSA #3

There’s not a whole lot we know about the new Kid Eternity, one of the latest recruits to the Justice Society of America. She’s got a really great look, for one. She’s also got a heavy case of amnesia, so her own guess about her past is, at this point, as good as ours. But the reason we’re putting her on the list this year is because her power set is simply too cool: a step up from Kid Eternities past, this 2025 model has the ability to draw on the powers of any dead superhero. Think about that for a minute. From now on, every time a hero dies or returns to life, we’re going to have to amend the boundaries of what the new Kid Eternity is capable of. For now, at the very least, there are a lot of dead Doctor Fates. Powerscalers take note.
 

Yohualli Coatl, The Aztec Batman

First Appearance: Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires

Of course, Batman is somehow going to find a way to make the “Best New Characters” list. But 2025’s new Batman isn’t like any we’ve ever seen before. Aztec noble Yohualli Coatl may come from a relative place of privilege like his Gotham City counterpart, but it isn’t an act of street crime he loses his parents to—it’s the invading Spanish conquistadors. In Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires, we have a Batman whose mission isn’t a war on crime, but a war on colonization. A Batman who fights for a new kind of justice in the face of a seemingly impossible enemy with a thousand faces. A Batman who stands for native Mesoamerican culture and civilization in the wake of Imperial invaders seeking to pave over their leaders and take their resources as their own is one that feels almost prescient now and certainly more important than ever.
 

Die

First Appearance: Two-Face #2

Why shouldn’t Two-Face have a Number Two? In one of this year’s best sleeper series, the solo Two-Face presents us with a Harvey Dent at war with himself, having locked his villainous persona away inside his mental prison. But Two-Face has resources of his own on the outside—including a die-rolling sidekick with three times the options to his own two-headed coin, determined to take Harvey down and release the “Scarvey” inside. Styling herself as “Two-Face’s Daughter,” their relationship appears to be a spiritual one as opposed to literal. But when it comes to Two-Face, there are always two sides to every story.
 

Still

First Appearance: DC’s I Saw Ma Hunkel Kissing Santa Claus, “I’ll Be Home for Hanukkah”

One reason you’ve really got to let December play out before you make these year-end lists is that you never know who’s going to capture your heart at the last minute. This year’s eleventh-hour entry goes to Stella Scarborough, Galaxy’s incredibly messy college ex-girlfriend turned superpower-negating supervillain. The likes of Batman and Superman all have their share of disaster femme fatales blurring the line between arch-villainy and simply arch, it’s well past time for the Sapphics to get their turn. It’s toxic. It’s wrong. Please give us more immediately.
 

Superman Robot #4, “Gary”

First Appearance: Superman

Whether he’s Mr. Nobody in Doom Patrol, the Joker and Clayface in Harley Quinn or Dr. Phosphorus in Creature Commandos, you can always count on Alan Tudyk to rise above his assignment and steal the show. Such was the case this year when his improvised implorations as a robot longing for an actual human name captured our empathy in a movie that dedicates much of its runtime to finding the hearts inside of squirrels, kaijus, bad dogs and supervillains. In miniature, Superman’s Gary represents the film’s core idea that humanity has nothing to do with our origins, but how we feel. Maybe that’s reading into it too much. But really, isn’t over analysis what this kind of exercise is for?
 

Tenji Turner, The Jade Tiger

First Appearance: Batgirl #9

The tradition of the DC martial arts epic was reborn in 2024 for the 25th anniversary of Cassandra Cain, the one true heir to Batman (feel free to @ me on Bluesky about this, I’m right), as she embarked on a new adventure that seemed to pick up effortlessly from where her last ongoing series thematically left off. Along for the ride this time is a surprising ally, as the one-time “Orphan” finds her family has grown with the discovery of a hidden half-brother she never knew: son of Lady Shiva and Bronze Tiger, Tenji Turner. With a chip on his shoulder to match his father’s and an outsized sense of pride in the half-true legends of his parents, Tenji has a lot to learn as he ventures out with his sister to reckon with their lost mother’s legacy. (Oh yeah, Lady Shiva died this year, in case you missed that. She’ll probably be back.)
 

Langston Fleury

First Appearance: Peacemaker Season 2, “A Man Is Only as Good as His Bird”

It’s long been an axiom in the comedy world that there is no project you can’t make better by putting Tim Meadows in it. And sometimes, if you’re James Gunn, there’s someone you want to see play in the DC Universe so bad, but don’t really have a character you can map them onto. So what do you do? You make one up. Enter Langston Fleury, the socially intimidating, bird-blind Agent of A.R.G.U.S. sent on a mission from God to make John Economos’s life a nightmare. Watching Meadows play off Steve Agee was some of the best comedy we got out of any version of the DC Universe this year, so let’s hope we haven’t seen the last of him, especially now that he’s a core part of the DC Universe’s newly formed Checkmate.
 

Featherweight

First Appearance: Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #2

Pound for pound, if you’ll pardon the pun, our personal favorite character to debut this year has to be Alya Raatko, the slight, socially conscious granddaughter of Ra’s al Ghul, and daughter of Nyssa. Nyssa may be busy handling rival secret ninja clans over in Batgirl, but we met Featherweight making a name for herself with a strong debut as the secret heavy of Cheetah and Cheshire’s heist team in Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League. Demolishing the Watchtower vault door with a single blow, and overpowering Solomon Grundy one-handed, we’ve got a sneaking suspicion that this young lady may be one of the physically strongest powerhouses in the DC Universe. For now, we’re just lucky that she seems to be a pacifist. But with her winsome attitude and apparent gameness to stir up a little chaos, it’s no wonder that she seems to have captured Klarion’s heart. You all better watch out for Robin’s cousin.
 

Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly "Ask the Question" column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Bluesky at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Official Discord server as HubCityQuestion.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.