Category: Comic Books

Spider-Gwen heads into space for a ‘dark and very personal’ story next year

Stephanie Phillips and Paolo Villanelli send Ghost Spider and Loki to the stars in March.

Stephanie Phillips brought Spider-Gwen to the 616 Earth under mysterious circumstances earlier this year, and now she and Paolo Villanelli will send the Ghost-Spider off-world in a new story arc that also features Loki.

The intergalactic storyline kicks off in Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #11, which comes out in March.

“I envisioned a Gwen and Loki storyline from the beginning of my work on Gwen, so this arc feels like the culmination of everything we’ve been building toward,” Phillips said. “Taking Gwen to space has allowed us to explore some unexpected elements of her character, especially as her optimism and hope clashes with King Loki’s nihilism. Paolo and I have worked hard to make this a unique sci-fi adventure—one that’s dark and very personal to Gwen.”

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The Thing takes on everybody in a miniseries next year

When a hit goes out Aunt Petunia’s favorite nephew, a cadre of classic villains head to Yancy Street to collect.

With the new Fantastic Four film arriving next year, Marvel is focusing heavily on their first family in the comics as well — which includes a new miniseries starring The Thing by Tony Fleecs and Leonard Kirk.

The solo miniseries finds Ben Grimm back on Yancy Street, where his attempts to stop a criminal conspiracy put him in the crosshairs of a mysterious villain who puts a contract out on him — drawing the attention of everyone from Bullseye to the Juggernaut.

“What I love about Ben Grimm is that he’s just a regular hardworking guy—who happens to have super powers,” said Fleecs, co-creator of Image’s Local Man. “He’s Jack Kirby. He’s not easily impressed by all of the outlandish, cosmic stuff constantly going on around him.”

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Shobo + Shof Coker team with Alexandre Tefenkgi to steal back history in ‘Bronze Faces’

The heist begins in February at BOOM! Studios.

Shobo and Shof Coker (New Master) will team with artist Alexandre Tefenkgi (Once Upon a Time at the End of the World) for Bronze Faces, a heist story set at the British Museum with the real-life Benin Bronzes at its center.

BOOM! Studios will publish the miniseries beginning in February, which is about three Nigerian friends who reunite in London when the artwork by one of their fathers is debuting at the British Museum. They decide to steal it back, and as they plan their heist, their scope grows to include the famous Benin Bronzes statues.

“Bronze Faces is our bold answer to the question, ‘What if we took our heritage back by any means necessary?’ We’ve crafted a story that’s part heist, part homecoming, and part myth. I can’t wait for readers to dive into the action with us,” said Shobo.

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B. Clay Moore + Mack Chater catch the ‘Last Flight Out of Wichita’

The crime series will debut from DSTLRY in February.

B. Clay Moore (Hawaiian Dick) and Mack Chater (Sword Daughter) will enter a world of “bad decisions and brutal consequences” in Last Flight Out of Wichita, coming from DSTLRY next year.

Set in the 1970s, the crime series will feature two down-on-their-luck Vietnam veterans who become wrapped up in Kansas City’s underworld.

“Last Flight Out of Wichita examines the different ways people try to reach for an American Dream that isn’t available to them through conventional methods,” Moore said. “The series takes place in 1977, at the tail end of a recession and the main protagonists—Vietnam veterans—have already had their lives forever altered by systems beyond their control. In desperation, they decide to step outside of the conventional system and take matters into their own hands, only to realize that there are always other, more powerful, people also existing beyond the system’s control. And when those people are crossed, there’s nowhere to turn for help.”

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Almost 50 titles announced for Free Comic Book Day 2025

Diamond reveals the silver sponsor titles, which include Godzilla, The Phantom, Black Mirror, Herobear and the Kid, and more.

Diamond has revealed the remaining Free Comic Book Day titles for 2025, which, along with the Gold Sponsor titles announced earlier this week, brings the number of titles that will be available to retailers and fans on May 3 to 46 — and that’s before DC reveals what they might be doing, as they aren’t included in this batch.

Some of the highlights include:

  • BOOM! will celebrate their 20th anniversary with a special issue that I’m guessing will be an anthology.
  • Fantagraphics has a Lost Marvels title featuring Dominic Fortune on the cover that’s promoting a collection of “never-collected Marvel comics”
  • IDW will have two FCBD titles, one featuring Godzilla: The New Heroes and one collecting stories from their new IDW Dark line.
  • Mad Cave and their all-ages imprint Papercutz are going all in on FCBD, with Speed Racer and Phineas and Ferb in the gold tier, and The Phantom, an all-ages Flash Gordon and Herobear and the Kid in the silver.
  • Graphic novel previews that will land on FCBD include Vault’s Def Leppard, Skybound’s all-ages Transformers book and Scholastic/Marvel’s Hulk Teach.
  • The list includes a couple of licensed comics I wasn’t aware of, including a Black Mirror comic from Twisted Comics and Diablo from Titan.

Check them all out below:

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Marvel is finally publishing their ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ adaptation

Delayed since the early days of the COVID pandemic, the five-issue series by Jody Houser and Will Sliney will feature scenes that weren’t in the film.

Marvel’s long-delayed adaptation of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will finally see print almost five years after the film originally debuted.

The miniseries by Jody Houser and Will Sliney was originally intended for release in June of 2020, a year marked by the COVID pandemic and related shutdowns. It was a tragic and tumultuous year for everyone, and the comic industry was no exception. The Rise of Skywalker was one of several comics Marvel delayed or cancelled when Diamond went into shutdown mode as a result of COVID, and I never expected for it to see the light of day.

But now that Marvel is shifting their Star Wars timeline from the post-Empire Strikes Back period to a post Return of the Jedi period, set before the most recent trilogy, maybe it felt like a good time to dust this one off. It’ll also have scenes that weren’t in the film’s final release.

“There’s a resurgence of interest in these characters, especially Kylo Ren, Darth Vader’s blood heir,” Editor Mark Paniccia said. “Jody’s script captures the impact of these iconic moments between the film’s heroes and villains, while the art by Will Sliney and dazzling colors by Guru-eFX give a visually unique experience of this epic finale.”

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Stan Sakai will pay tribute to his late brother in the next ‘Usagi Yojimbo’ miniseries

The five-issue ‘Usagi Yojimbo: The Thousand Plums’ will debut in March.

Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo will return in a new miniseries next March, featuring two different stories — “Ten Thousand Plums” and “Tabo.” That second story, in particular, has significant meaning for Sakai, as it pays tribute to his deceased brother.

“‘Tabo’ is very personal to me,” Sakai said. “It was written as a tribute to my younger brother, Kenneth, a month after he passed away and was inspired by his struggles during his last days. I cherish the time growing up with him in Hawaii. When she saw how deeply I felt about this story, Emi (Fujii) volunteered to color it as she knew Kenneth and his gentle spirit.”

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Solomon Kane will return to comics next year

Patrick Zircher will write and draw a new series coming from Titan Comics in 2025.

Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures, who own the Robert E. Howard stable of characters, will team up for a new Solomon Kane title coming next year.

Solomon Kane joins the myriad of Conan titles that Titan is currently producing, and the character appeared in the recent Conan-centered crossover series Battle of the Black Stone. Patrick Zircher will write, draw and color the series, he confirmed on BlueSky.

Mike Mignola did the first issue’s cover:

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Your 2025 FCBD line-up includes Spider-Man, Speed Racer, VR Troopers + more

Free comics from Marvel, Archie, Dark Horse, Mad Cave, BOOM! and more will be available next year on May 3.

Diamond has revealed the “Gold Sponsor” comic publishers and titles for Free Comic Book Day 2025, which includes Marvel, Mad Cave, BOOM!, Dark Horse and more. Thirteen comics from the gold sponsors will be available during next year’s event, which is scheduled for May 3.

“We’re excited for another fantastic year of celebrating comic books and the shops that make them special,” said Ashton Greenwood, Free Comic Book Day spokesperson. “This year’s selection has something for every kind of fan. Whether you’re new to comics or a longtime reader, you’re sure to find a title that grabs your attention.”

An additional 33 titles in the “Silver Sponsor” tier will be revealed tomorrow, although Marvel has already revealed three more titles they’ll offer, in addition to their two gold titles. DC is not mentioned in the announcement, as their books are not distributed by Diamond, but I’m sure they’ll have something on FCBD as well.

Check out the list of titles below:

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Two Thunderbolts teams face off in ‘Thunderbolts: Doomstrike’

The ‘One World Under Doom’ tie-in series starts in February.

If you read the most recent Thunderbolts series you know that Bucky Barnes and company inadvertently did Doctor Doom a solid. That doesn’t sit well with Bucky, so he’s pulling the band back together — along with some new members — to face off with Doom and his own team of Thunderbolts.

The five-issue series is written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, with art by Tommaso Bianchi. In addition to characters like the Winter Soldier, Black Widow and Red Guardian, it’ll also feature the return of many of the original Thunderbolts, including Songbird, Moonstone, Atlas and Fixer.

“We can’t wait for folks to see what Ryan (North) and company have planned for One World Under Doom – a Marvel event with brains, heart and incredible scope,” Kelly and Lanzing said. “The Thunderbolts are a crucial part of the puzzle: this is the story of what happens when heroes openly oppose Doom… and how they’ll have to learn to fight differently if they’re ever to make a difference.”

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Thunderbolt Ross faces off with Doom in Benjamin Percy + Geoff Shaw’s ‘Red Hulk’

The One World Under Doom tie-in series begins in February.

The Sabretooth War team of Benjamin Percy and Geoff Shaw are moving to a new front, as they put the Red Hulk under the thumb of the new sorcerer supreme Doctor Doom … and as you can imagine, that doesn’t really work for Thunderbolt Ross.

Red Hulk #1 arrives in February, right around the time the character will make an appearance in the fourth Captain America movie. It’ll tie into Marvel’s bigger publishing initiative, One World Under Doom.

“When I learned about the One World Under Doom event, my mind immediately went to Thunderbolt Ross,” Percy said. “A global takeover would not be tolerated by a man who bleeds red, white and blue (but especially red). And his experience—as a soldier in the field, as a military strategist in the war room, as a walking weapon of mass destruction—would make him someone Doom would target well before he made his move.”

So Ross is Doom’s pick for his secretary of defense — I can think of worse choices. At least he’s qualified, right?

“I proposed a story in which Ross would be kidnapped by Doom and forced into a ‘Think Tank’ prison in which he would test out various war-time scenarios,” Percy said. “That’s where we begin: in a book that does not give you a second to breathe. It moves and moves and moves with constant action and tension.”

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Zatanna is ‘llA nI’ in a new series by Jamal Campbell

The six-issue miniseries will cast its spell next February.

DC will continue to roll out new series in February as part of their All In initiative, with Zatanna joining the line-up in a new miniseries written and drawn by Jamal Campbell.

Unlike the recent Black Label series, Zatanna: Bring Down the House, this one is set in DC’s current continuity and will feature several familiar faces like Blue Devil and Madame Xanadu. It’ll also introduce a new villain, The Lady White.

“Wonder, mystery, mischief, and fishnets make up the core of a quintessential Zatanna Zatara stage show, and it’s high time she returned to the spotlight,” said Campbell. “In her newest DC Comics series, Zatanna is dragged down a rabbit hole of cursed swords, hidden truths and multiple brushes with death. She’ll need all her wits and every spell she can muster in order to make it out the other side in one piece.”

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