You didn’t think I’d leave out DC, did you? Next week is the 1st new comic book day of the new year, and that means I’m back to cover DC’s new releases! This post covers DC Comics January 1 2025 releases.
This week in DC Comics: The Amalgam Age in Omnibus, Ram V’s Gotham Intermezzo, Aaron’s Absolute Krypton origin, DC’s Atomic trio makes a comeback, Ivy takes Seattle, Shazam family fun, and more!
The Krisis Pick of the Week: Absolute Superman (2024) #3! This book is so good I am giddy every time I see one of its pages. Check out my write-up below on why I am so overwhelmingly positive on a Jason Aaron comic (not a common occurence in these parts).
This post includes every comic out from DC this week, plus collected editions in omnibus, hardcover, paperback, and digest-sized formats. This isn’t the typical comic releases post you can find on other sites. Why? I explain each collection and review every in-continuity series with a new issue out this week. Plus, for most new releases, I’ll point you to a personally-curated guide within the Crushing Comics Guide to DC Comics to find out how to collect that title in full! There’s no other website on the internet that can claim that.
And now, onto DC Comics January 1 2025 new releases!
DC Comics January 1 2025 Collected Editions
52 Book 2 [2024 Edition]
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1779527622 / digital)
See Guide to DC Universe Events – Trinity, 52, & One Year Later. This collects the back half of DC’s weekly anthology title launched in the wake of Infinite Crisis. This features a lot of stories from many creators and different characters in several different plot threads. Note that it does not collect the “World War III” mini-event that ran alongside the end of this series.
DC Versus Marvel: The Amalgam Age Omnibus
(2025 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1779523266)
See Guide to DC Elseworlds – The Amalgam Age of Comics. We never thought we’d see these comics collected again, let alone in a single deluxe edition! This tome collects the entire Amalgam Age in one place – every single issue of this 1996-1997 inter-company mash-up crossover. This isn’t a book that will often (or ever) be reprinted, so you should get it now if you’re interested!
Detective Comics [by Ram V] Vol. 4: Gotham Nocturne Intermezzo – Batman, Outlaw
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1779528568 / 2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779529459 / digital)
See Guide to Detective Comics (Post-Crisis). I was struggling slightly with Ram V’s run on Detective Comics as he closed out Act II. It didn’t feel like it was going anywhere. But, this tight act-break arc cured that!
Catwoman and Gordon engineering a breakout is the kind of great Bat-Family stuff that we should be getting in ‘Tec. It’s just nice to see some of the Bat-Family doing something kinetic, even if it flattens some of the business from the first two acts into a more generic “let’s save Gotham” plot. Orgham business into a typical “save Gotham” plot.
Actually, it felt like by getting Batman out of Gotham and widening the focus to his supporting cast, this run finally became what it has always meant to be. Also, based on the credits this includes the back-up stories by Dan Watters, which were outstanding!
Read on for a summary of all of the DC Comics January 1 2025 single issue releases!
DC Comics January 1 2025 Physical Comic Releases
Absolute Superman (2024) #3 – See Guide to DC Absolute Universe. I know you are going to find this hard to believe, but… this might be my favorite comic book right now.
Like, not favorite DC comic book. Not favorite Big Two comic book or superhero comic book. Just… FAVORITE COMIC BOOK.
You might find that hard to believe because I am not historically a big Superman fan, I am an avowed non-fan of elseworlds outside of main DC continuity, and most-importantly I have a very low hit-rate when it comes to enjoying comic books from Jason Aaron (and I’ve read hundreds… possible over a thousand at this point!).
Why do I love it so much? It’s not just because of Rafa Sandoval’s art, who can get me to read just about anything. He is colored gloriously here by Ulises Arreola with really terrific lettering from Becca Carey.
No, it’s also because Jason Aaron digs in hard to immediately connect the heart and hope of Superman with a dystopian world that feels exactly like our own present day. This isn’t a world that has benefited from decades of super-powered protection. The Absolute Universe is a world where hope feels like it is increasingly trickling away.
To see Superman injected into that world – a world very much like our world – is deeply moving. And, Aaron does not waste a single word to establish it, both with Clark in the present day and with memories of a slightly different Krypton than we’ve seen in main continuity. This book also features a very different Lois who still manages to feel completely true to her character.
This book is at the top, top, tippity top of my pull list not only for the week but of the entire month. The first two issues were perfect comic books. 5 out of 5. No notes. It’s almost certainly going to be my first #1 Power Ranked comic of 2025, faster than a speeding bullet.
Can Aaron keep up the taut writing and the glimmer of hope from the first two issues to a third issue and beyond? I sure hope so! It feels like shifting his attention to DC and indie comics has awoken some thrilling new themes in his writing and I’m definitely into Aaron 2.0
Batgirl (2024) #3 – See Guide to Batgirl (eventually). A Batgirl guide is definitely high on my list for 2025, but if you had to choose between Batgirl and Supergirl, which would you want to see me do first?
This Cassandra Cain & Lady Shiva team-up series penned by Tate Brombal with art from Takeshi Miyazawa and colors by Mike Spicer opened incredibly well. Issues #1-2 had terrific action, and much tighter art from Miyazawa than I’m used to seeing (& loving) on his many Marvel series.
However, plot-wise this feels like just another “secret league of assassins is just now revealed” plot after several years laden with them. And, it feels like Kelly Thompson is creating something essential to Cass as one of her featured characters in Birds of Prey, reviewed just below!
I almost always enjoy Brombal’s scripting and I’m never going to turn down more of Cass as Batgirl! However, I’m hoping this series finds a more unique plot hook to hold up with its excellent creative pedigree.
Batman (2016) #156 (/#921) – See Guide to Batman (Post-Crisis). After a mega-arc that proved to be a massive setup for Absolute Power (2024), Chip Zdarsky launched this title into a new fresh start with issue #153 a few months ago.
I am loving it. In fact, I’d say issue #155 with art from Jorge Fornés was one of my favorite single issues of 2024! That wasn’t just because of the art. Zdarsky is building on years of recent Batman continuity, including referencing tons of James Tynion’s and Mariko Tamaki’s runs on both Batman and Detective Comics. It also develops a major supporting character in a surprising way (that hints at something all the way back in Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One)!
I know a lot of fandom have been soft on Zdarsky as a Batman author, but I love him. I think he’s right for Batman because he pulls from old continuity but adds new concepts, which is always what I want to see on a run of a flagship character from Marvel or DC. The only downside to this new arc is that this will now be our fourth different artist in four issues – and this isn’t really an arc that needs a Rashomon effect when it comes to art styles!
Batman: Full Moon (2024) #3 – Rodney Barnes, my horrific fav author of Killadelphia (2019) at Image Comics, pens this Black Label book of Batman vs. werewolves – with the aid of Zatanna and Constantine! While Black Label books can sometimes flirt with current continuity, they are not canonical stories.
Birds of Prey (2023) #17 – See Guide to Birds of Prey. This is the finale of “Bird Undercover,” the third arc of this book and the first after a mega-arc of the first year.
This second year of Kelly Thompson’s Birds of Prey has a very different vibe than the first one. That’s in large part down to the art – and, especially, the coloring. Jordie Bellaire really set the tone for the first year with a retro palette that used knocked back colors, texture, Ben-Day dots, and simulated off-register coloring to emulate classic comics.
That’s all out the window in this new run, with modern colors from one of my favorite colorists in all of comics, Adriano Lucas (who you may know from Birthright or Tom Taylor’s Nightwing). Lucas has a distinct color look that’s not overly bright or big on shiny reflections of a thousand light sources that is a bit flatter than the house styles at the Big Two. It tends to look less like a comic book and more like animation.
Lucas’s style is perfect on Sam Basri, who I really loved on Harley Quinn a few years ago and also love here. But, together they give this book a much more modern, animated look than the retro look of the first year.
Meanwhile, Thompson has leaned in hard on Big Barda and Cass as Batgirl as the breakout stars of this book, centering this arc on them while leaving her other characters as ciphers – especially Grace Choi and Onyx Adams, who are new to this run and who have barely been introduced as anything other than “strong ladies.”
With another Cass book on the stands (and out in the same week as this one), the shine of the first arc of this title is slightly dulled. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still top-level superhero comic-making with a snappy script, because that’s what Thompson delivers every day of the week (as do Basri/Lucas and letterer Clayton Cowles. But, it’s missing the special alchemy of Year One.
DC Horror Presents: Creature Commandos (2024) #4 (of 6) – I’ve only caught the first issue of this limited series from actor/director David Dastmalchian (who you might know as the silent, crazy-eyed, would-be assassin in The Dark Knight) that supports a DC Animation project of the same name.
It might be in DC continuity, as it features Brainiac and Zatanna as well as past Commandos like Vincent Velcro. But, it doesn’t carry an “All-In” tag on the cover, which makes me doubt its canonicity. Plus, it doesn’t exactly square with how we last left Braniac at the end of “House of Brainiac” in Superman.
I’ve enjoyed Dastmalchian’s comics before, especially his exceeding silly Count Crowley for Dark Horse. I’m on the fence on this one. Issue #1 had to do a lot of heavy lifting to introduce its horror characters, but despite all the panel time they all had very similar voices. There wasn’t a driving plot to carry into issue #2, so I haven’t picked up #2-3 yet.
Without an obvious continuity hook, I’ll eventually catch up on this one, but it’s not high on my list.
JSA (2024) #3 – See Guide to Justice Society of America – JSA. All I can say about this JSA relaunch from Jeff Lemire & Diego Olortegui is “oof.”
Lemire commits an unending series of unforced errors and rookie mistakes across the first two issues that make them nigh-unreadable if you don’t already know every generation of JSA characters, and still utterly boring if you do. Diego Olortegui’s art is completely the wrong fit for the title, neither giving the high-gloss modern look of the Johns era nor a classy retro look to hint at the team’s prior incarnations.
The story has the Society’s enemies enacting a major plan to infiltrate and separate them. Except, there’s zero context of who they are, why they currently exist as a team, and what their relationships are to each other in the wake of the most-recent Geoff Johns series that wrapped up just as this one began.
I’m surprised Jeff Lemire took this on when he himself has said repeatedly that he’s not great at team books (especially after his inert Extraordinary X-Men for All-New All-Different Marvel). That really shows as he flops at juggling over a dozen characters here.
Justice League: The Atom Project (2025) #1 – This in-continuity All-In title focuses on several of DC’s atomic heroes – Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi, both as the Atom, and Captain Atom!
I’m obsessed with DC doing in-continuity stories for the B- and C-list Justice League stars of the 80s and 90s, so this could not be any more up my alley. Ryan Parrott & John Ridley write, with art from the reliably thrilling Mike Perkins colored by one of my favorite color artists (as established above!), Adriano Lucas.
I will be seated for this one next, week!
Poison Ivy (2022) #29 – See Guide to Harley Quinn (for now). G. Willow Wilson, Marcio Takara, Arif Prianto, & Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou are consistently turning in one of the very best ongoing superhero books in the entire comic industry.
After wrapping up a two year plot with issue #24, Wilson launched a new story in issue #26 with dual challenges for Ivy. First, a mysterious city rose out of the wetlands around Gotham (as teased at the end of the first arc and in issue #25). And, second, a burgeoning eco-terrorist movement has claimed her as their “Green Knight” even though she is eager to disavow them!
Last issue was a subtle “middle of the arc” issue to set the table with some of the challenges for Ivy to overcoming, both interior and exterior. The script didn’t thrill me as much as in #26-27, but that let me lean back and appreciate the gorgeous artwork and lettering. If there’s any Big Two comic where you might sit back and say, “Wow, this is really great lettering,” I think it’s this one.
This comic is one of my highest recommendations, but I’d say it’s worth starting from the first issue – it’s all great, and Wilson continues to build on the themes she introduced at the start of the series.
Shazam! (2023) #19 – See Guide to Shazam – DC’s Captain Marvel. Y’all, I love love love this book about Philadelphia’s premiere superhero family!
Josie Campbell has been killing it on scripting a book that reads well for all ages – from kids to adults. Her many Shazam’s have distinct personalities and voices, and their hopes and conflicts are all different from one another. The Shazam lore is interesting without being lugubrious, and he villains feel appropriately evil for a kid-focused comic.
This current arc began with Shazam! (2023) #16 and focused on Freddie’s new transformation into an adult hero who is slightly off the Shazam family brand. This leaves Billy feeling like he’s playing second fiddle in both their home life and their super life. That’s an interesting theme to play out, because even though Billy is the title character of this book there’s no in-story reason he need sto be the most-important child in his foster family – sucking up the most attention and resources.
It’s a tricky thing to center your lead character while telling a story about how they aren’t the center of the universe, and Campbell is threading the needle perfectly with some laughs and thrills along the way. I couldn’t recommend this any more highly to read with your whole family. It’s the first time that post-Flashpoint Shazam has felt as good as its 90s incarnation to me.
Two-Face (2024) #2 – This is a curious series, penned by psychedelic artist Christian Ward. It ties closely to Harvey Dent’s recent continuity in Ram V’s run on Detective Comics (2016), where the two sides of Two-Face’s personality were regularly waging battle for the upper hand inside of his head.
That yields an interesting and somewhat surprising imbalance of power for Two-Face in this series, even as he continues to live his villainous life. He’s embedded deep in the shadow justice system of Gotham, but is he trying to free members of Batman’s rogue’s gallery or turn them against themselves?
The first issue was somewhat subtle and lingered a bit overlong on a courtroom scene, but it also had a handful of nice twists to it that kept me engaged. I am generally in favor of in-continuity series following Batman’s villains as they tread the line between good and evil and would be fine if there was always one of them running each month!
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