Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what’s coming to your local comic shop this week. Winter has arrived in comic shops, bringing with it a sleigh-full of holiday specials ranging from heartwarming to horrifying.
I’ve pulled out some of the highlights for this week below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:
- Penguin Random House (Marvel + IDW + Dark Horse + more)
- Lunar Distribution (DC + Image + Mad Cave + more)
- ComicList (Pretty much all of the above)
- Amazon/Kindle new releases (digital comics)
As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So check with your retailer to see what’s arriving at their shop this week.
Startling Tales of Santa Claus 2025 Annual (Image Comics, $9.99): Benito Cereno teams with Seakae, Evan “Doc” Shaner, Emmett Graham and Anthony Clark for six seasonal fantasy-adventure stories to drive the cold winter away. This week brings an abundance of holiday titles to comic shops, and this 80-page, ad-free anthology kicks things off with Saint Nicholas matching wits with a devil, Mrs. Claus taking on the Wild Huntsman and more.
Dread the Halls 2025 (Image Comics, $6.99): The holiday horror anthology returns to haunt another Christmas season. Jordan Hart and Luana Vecchio deliver a seasonal blend of one part Hallmark movie, one part brutal revenge flick. Chris Ryall and Keithan Jones, meanwhile, turn Mars red when “The Martians Conquer Santa Claus,” plus additional stories from Walter Pax, Fábio Veras, Lee Ferguson and more.
Archie Christmas Spectacular (Archie Comics, $4.99): Dan Parent delivers the ultimate Christmas bash at the North Pole, packed with more than 30 pages of classic content and a brand-new story. Santa’s helpers Sugarplum and Jingles are competing to be the best dancers on the ice, but when they bring Archie, Betty and Veronica in to hype up the game, their hasty mashups could put the entire party in peril.
Terminator: Santa Claus Is Coming to Town #1 (Dynamite, $5.99): Paulina Ganucheau and Kendall Goode deliver holiday mayhem in Skynet’s apocalyptic future. It’s Christmas Eve and the atmosphere is far from festive, but the surviving elders of the Resistance have fond memories of the holiday. Get ready to deck the halls with phased plasma rifles in this holiday one-shot.
Limited Collectors Edition #43: Christmas with the Super-Heroes Facsimile Edition (DC, $12.99): DC reprints this classic Christmas special from 1975 featuring stories by Jerry Siegel, Mike Friedrich, Len Wein, E. Nelson Bridwell, William Moulton Marston, Jack Burnley, Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson, Harry G. Peter and Jack Kirby. Join Superman as he helps Santa save Christmas, spend a silent night with the Dark Knight and watch Wonder Woman rescue a troubled family from Nazis with the help of a very special Christmas tree. The oversized treasury edition was a hallmark of DC’s offerings in the 1970s, and this facsimile brings back the magic of those giant-sized specials.
Hulk: Smash Everything #1 (Marvel, $4.99): Ryan North and Vincenzo Carratu ask the question: Is Hulk really the strongest there is? Sure, he’s stronger than most people, but is he really stronger than dinosaurs? Planets? Gravity? Cosmic forces? Find out here.
Briar: Night’s Terror #1 (BOOM! Studios, $4.99): Christopher Cantwell and Alex Lins begin the epic conclusion to the journey of Briar Rose, which they began back in 2022. Briar Rose and Spider finally share a moment of romantic bliss in the village of High Scrape, but the final challenge still awaits, as the gang must navigate the perilous Fallswitch Traps, the last barrier to reach Grendid’s lair.
DC K.O.: Superman vs Captain Atom #1 (DC, $4.99): Joshua Williamson and Sean Izaakse deliver round one of eight for DC K.O. All Fight Month. Superman takes on Captain Atom in this one-shot that continues the tournament for the Heart of Apokolips.
Giant Size Criminal #1 (Image Comics, $5.99): Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips deliver the first new Criminal single issue in more than five years, arriving just in time for the TV series premiere. This oversized, annual-style issue is packed with a novella-length story starring fan-favorite character Ricky Lawless as he goes solo on his latest heist. It also includes a Criminal tabletop RPG module written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Sean Phillips, behind-the-scenes insights into the TV series and a fully illustrated guide to the world of Criminal and its key characters.
Ultimate Universe: Two Years In #1 (Marvel, $5.99): Deniz Camp, Alex Paknadel, Phil Noto and Francesco Manna prepare for the Maker’s return in Ultimate Endgame, which kicks off later this month, by revisiting the Ultimate Guardians. They’ve been traveling across time and space, recruiting members like Ultimate Daredevil and getting ready for the Ultimate Universe’s big finale.
Dark Souls: Mother of Mourning #1 (Titan Comics, $4.99): George Mann and Maan House return with a new four-issue series that follows their work on Dark Souls: The Willow King and is based on the popular (and hard AF) video game. Hope is a fleeting feeling for the Knights of Mourning, but the knightly order are willing to bet everything on their last chance of salvation. In search of a hero to rekindle the flame, these knights turn to the Mother of Lilies, a soulless mummified saint whose legends state she has the ability to restore balance to the world.
Doctor Strange #1 (Marvel, $4.99): Derek Landy and Ivan Fiorelli catch up with Stephen Strange, who finds himself stranded in Asgard after events in the current Thor title. With no way home and few allies remaining in Asgard, Strange travels to Alfheim to investigate an emerging crisis. But in an unfamiliar land, can Strange prevent elves and angels from going to war over a mysterious coffin?
Cyberarchy #1 (Mad Cave Studios, $4.99): Matt Hardy and Clark Bint launch a science fiction thriller about a newly “born” robotic life-form called Ash, created as the newest denizen of a space liner run solely by mechanical life. The ships robot staff and AI decided they no longer served the human crew, and in its place arose a Cyberarchy, a more efficient mechanical society. But Ash soon realizes that all is not well, as this Cyberarchy is a fractured society with a secret hidden at the heart of it all that will one day pit all organic life against robots like himself.
Wiccan: Witches’ Road #1 (Marvel, $4.99): Wyatt Kennedy and Andy Pereira head down the Witches’ Road in a new series that will reshape Wiccan and the magical fabric of the Marvel Universe. Wiccan and Hulkling arrive back on Earth after the events of Imperial, with Hulkling grievously wounded and Wiccan going to whatever extreme he has to in order to save his husband.
Inferno Girl Red Book Two #1 (Image Comics, $4.99): Mat Groom and Erica D’Urso return to the Massive-verse and Inferno Girl Red, which debuted as a crowdfunded graphic novel a few years back. Cássia Costa has established herself as Apex City’s protector, but now, still reeling from a heartbreaking loss, the consequences of her past victories have come back to haunt her.
Birds of Prey #28 (DC, $3.99): Kelly Thompson and Sami Basri deliver the final mission — and final issue — of the current Birds of Prey line-up. The Unreality is collapsing and threatening all of Gotham as it spills out into the real world in dangerous and unexpected ways, and as the Birds struggle to survive inside the game, the final showdown will test everything the team has built.
Dog Man HC Vol 14: Big Jim Believes (Graphix, $15.99): Dav Pilkey’s phenomenon continues as the mischievous Space Cuties From Space return, and Dog Man, Commander Cupcake Sprinkles, Mecha Molly and more discover that the city has changed and nothing is how it should be. Can Big Jim’s positivity and innocence help our heroes? Will this be the best-selling graphic novel of the year? Probably so on both counts …
Bone Broth SC (SelfMadeHero, $22.99): Alex Taylor delivers a coming-of-age thriller featuring Ash, a transmasculine queer youth who starts his first job as a sous-chef making bone broth for a ramen-noodle restaurant. But just as he is learning the ropes, Ash finds himself tying himself in knots to cover up an untimely death. As the financial landscape shifts under Ash’s feet, and after months of bonding with challenging coworkers, everything suddenly stops dead at a drunken staff party when Ash’s bullying boss turns up dead and everyone’s been taking selfies with the corpse.
Pigeons!: A Fable For Our Times HC (Street Noise Books, $TBD): Marc Chalvin delivers a contemporary political allegory to remind us of the dangers of following a dictator and surrendering your freedom. Life is simple for the pigeons, who have no desire to contemplate their future or take control of it. Free from responsibility, they are all too willing to submit to a strong authority. This is precisely what a cruel and power-hungry crow was waiting for: the perfect opportunity to wield his natural talents as a tyrant.