Next week is the 6th new comic book day of 2025! This post covers DC Comics February 5 2025 new releases. Missed this week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics January 29 2025 new releases.
This week in DC Comics: Absolute Power collected, DC’s Finest Teen Titans, Atoms gone wild, a Grace-full Shazam one-shot, Poison Ivy flips out, Two-Face’s trials, a new Birds of Prey arc, and more!
The Krisis Pick of the Week: I hate to repeat myself, but I’ve got to stick with Absolute Superman (2024) #4. I think this Absolute Universe book from Jason Aaron, Rafa Sandoval, Ulises Arreola, and Becca Carey is the pinnacle of superhero comics right now. it would be at the top of my stack for the entire month, so of course it’s my top pull of the week!
This post includes every comic out from DC Comics February 5 2025, 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 February 5 2025 new releases!
DC Comics February 5 2025 Collected Editions
Absolute Power
(2025 hardcover, ISBN 978-1799500209 / digital)
See Guide to DC Universe Events – Absolute Power. Any linewide event series is a highwire act with many potential pitfalls, but especially a four issue event series that is truly trying to include every hero.
Ultimately, all you can do is kick things off, have two middle conflicts, and than wrap things up in a bow, and that’s what this Mark Waid & Dan Mora series did. I think you get a lot more from it if you pause to read some of the tie-in middle chapters of this – especially the ones in Superman (2023), Green Arrow (2023), and Green Lantern (2023).
Yet, even if you’ve read those and the supporting books there’s just not a ton of nuance to this. Most of the nuance comes from its setup, which ran through a whole year of several titles that Waid braided together into one huge plot masterminded by Amanda Waller.
Ultimately this is a big, colorful beat-em-up with the heroes’ backs up against the wall. If you love that sort of thing, you’ll dig it.
Absolute Power: Origins
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1799500216/ digital)
See Guide to DC Universe Events – Absolute Power. This tidy three-issue mini-series explores the origins of Amanda Waller prior to Suicide Squad, and how they inspired her ruthless approach to DC’s heroes.
Many of these plot beats have been hinted at before, but issue #1 especially lets us into Waller’s psyche in a way that’s extremely effective. And, issue #2 shows a prototype version of the Suicide Squad where Waller didn’t have the level of control over the team she’d eventually exercise. However, the third issue fell flat for me – as if writer John Ridley was out of additional revelations to retcon into Waller’s past but had an issue left to script.
This has very little bearing on the rest of the event – I’d say it’s for Waller superfans only.
Absolute Power: Task Force VII
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1799500223 / digital)
See Guide to DC Universe Events – Absolute Power. This was an abysmal seven-issue series exploring what the Amazo robots of Absolute Power got up to between issues.
The problems with this series were many. First, most of these stories felt inconsequential. Only the third issue, an Alan Scott story by Green Lantern (2023) writer Jeremy Adams, felt like it had any significant plot development – and that could have happened in Green Lantern (2023)!
A Shazam story by Leah Williams in issue #1 picks up from the opening salvo of the event in Wonder Woman (2023) but doesn’t go anywhere, which is the kindest thing I can so for the rest of the series – much of which is written by DC’s bottom-of-the-barrel writers who can’t sustain their own ongoings.
Batman ’89
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1799503866 / digital)
See Guide to DC Elseworlds. This series from writer Sam Hamm with Joe Quinones art extends the world of the original Tim Burton Batman flicks to what might have been a third film.
Batman and Robin by Tomasi and Gleason Book Two
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1799500247 / digital)
See Guide to Robin(s). This collects the second third of Batman and Robin (2011) from the New 52, which is actually very light on Robin content due to the happenings in a totally other title. Tomasi & Gleason are always reliable fun, but at the time I thought that robbed something from the pace of this run.
DC Finest: Teen Titans – The Judas Contract
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1799500254)
See Guide to Titans, Teen Titans, & Young Justice. If there’s one title where DC can get away with a greatest hit as their first DC Finest Collection, it’s Teen Titans – because much of this title has been comprehensively collected (though not all of it). “The Judas Contract” really is the definitive classic Titans story, so it’s nice to have it (and a huge hunk of issues surrounding it) collected in what could be a new evergreen paperback format.
This kicks off with The New Teen Titans (1980) #33, so I think we’d be looking at two volumes prior to this one to collect from the start of the Wolfman/Perez series to here.
The Flash by Mark Waid Omnibus Vol. 2
(2025 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1779528414)
See Guide to Flash. This collects the second of three big hunks of Mark Waid’s run on The Flash (1987), which we’ve seen collected before but not in omnibus. Note that Waid takes a year away from the title after this before completing his run, which is filled in in oversize format by Flash by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar: The Deluxe Edition (2025 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1799500421)
Icon vs. Hardware
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1799500162 / digital)
This paperback (which may have been cancelled?) collects the five-issue 2023 mini-series from Leon Chills & Reginald Hudlin that continues into the current Milestone Universe: The Shadow Cabinet (2024).
Nubia: Too Real
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1799500179)
See Guide to Wonder Woman. An all-ages, non-continuity graphic novel from L. L. McKinney and Robyn Smith, a sequel to their Nubia: Real One.
Read on for a summary of all of the DC Comics February 5 2025 single issue releases!
DC Comics February 5 2025 Physical Comic Releases
Absolute Superman (2024) #4 (digital) – See Guide to DC Absolute Universe. This is top tier comics-making. Right now, no one on the market is doing superhero comics better than this creative team.
I’ve been describing it as “Jason Aaron does hopecore,” which doesn’t even begin to describe the showstoppingly gorgeous the art from Rafa Sandoval colored by Ulises Arreola, plus letters from my favorite letterer of 2025 so far – Becca Carey.
Last issue paused the present day action on Earth to flash back to the impending doom of Krypton as seen by an older-than-usual Kal-El. Aaron’s story was brimming with heart and the paneling by Sandoval was extraordinary.
Maybe that had just a hair less thrill and nuance than the first two issues because we all know this Superman origin like the back of our hands, but I found myself completely hypnotized by this version in no small part due to the book’s unbelievable level of craft. Aaron got to lean into his typical pessimism, but it works because the El family is nothing but hope.
Batgirl (2024) #4 (digital) – See Guide to Batgirl (eventually). This Tate Brombal Cass Cain title is moving too damn slow for me, and Kelly Thompson is writing a circle around him in the same release week with his own character using far fewer pages.
That said, it’s a thrill to see Takeshi Miyazawa playing in DC’s sandbox with Mike Spicer’s finely-grained colors. Also, I’ve really enjoyed Tom Napolitano lettering on this book – great choices that make it easy to read.
Then we come to the plot of the book. Or… the lack thereof. Issue #3 was a big nothing – truly just one brief conversation held between Cass and Shiva as they walked through a train stretched to full-issue length.
It didn’t need that amount of page space. I know it’s a delicate balance, because Brombal is trying to give us Cass’s reactions as she reads human behavior, but you also have to respect the reader, their time, and their money. For a book that’s already relying on a tired “league of secret assassins plot” and whose main character is being used elsewhere, it just doesn’t have the luxury of this intense level of decompression.
Batman (2016) #157 (digital) – See Guide to Batman (1987 – Present). It’s the grand finale of Chip Zdarsky’s multi-year run on Batman, although really this single arc after Absolute Power (2024) feels more like a brief epilogue.
I don’t know anyone who has loved this Zdarsky run as much as me other than Melanie from Near Mint Condition! Unfortunately, I think a lot of the power of what has been a pretty snappy plot has been leeched away from an artist change-up on every issue, and this climax is no different – with art duties split by Tony Daniel & Jorge Jiménez.
Batman: Off-World (2023) #6 (digital) – Somehow Jason Aaron’s first big series for DC Comics has taken fourteen months to release just six issues, during which time Aaron stole his own thunder by being announced as the new ongoing writer of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I’ve actually enjoyed this story of Batman’s first early foray into deep space. That mostly comes down to how fun and pulpy the story has been. A set of super-saturated, vibrating neon colors from David Baron on Doug Mahnke’s art (inked by Jaime Mendoza) really amps up the fun factor.
Ultimately, this is a pretty disposable “Batman does revolution in space” story, especially since Aaron isn’t taking over a Batman title to pick up the thread in the present day (which many people anticipated he would when this debuted last year, since it was obvious we were nearing the end of both Zdarsky & Ram V’s runs on their respective bat-titles).
Birds of Prey (2023) #18 (digital) – See Guide to Birds of Prey. This issue kicks off a new arc, with Kelly Thompson joined by Juann Cabal colored by Adriano Lucas.
Cabal is a consistent favorite of mine at Marvel, but my love for him can be somewhat colorist-dependent… so I am very excited to see him colored by Lucas, who is one of my favs.
I would recommend simply picking this series up here rather than catching up on the brief previous arc that kicked off DC All In. Thompson went deliberately quick and quirky with a brief run with artist Sami Basri after her lengthy opening arc, but the plot never really clicked. It was just a good excuse for a punch-up between a bunch of beefy ladies.
This launches a new story and brings back Constantine as an antagonistic ally to this all-women team. If you haven’t read this book yet, prepare yourself for how Thompson’s Big Barda and Cassandra Cain tend to steal the show (which is delightfully referenced in Ram V’s The New Gods (2024) but so far unacknowledged in Brombal’s Batgirl (2024)).
JSA (2024) #4 (digital) – See Guide to Justice Society of America. I truly loathe this Jeff Lemire JSA series and I really don’t know if it can do anything to get me back on its side.
It’s hard to see past the things I think are going wrong with this book to understand if the typical JSA fan might enjoy it. While some of my problem comes from how bad Lemire has always been at juggling the cast of a team title, I’m also bothered by how little happens in each issue of this fight against the Injustice Society despite frantic intercutting between scenes.
Issue #3 wasn’t actually about anything. Two people hinted that they had feelings about each other. Demons monologued. Fate monologued. Alan Scott appeared out of nowhere. Someone was concerned about something in a lab, but I couldn’t quite understand what or why.
Even if you know these characters well, those were all insubstantial plot fragments without any context or forward motion. Because Lemire chose to kick this book off in medias res in the middle of an invasion of the team’s headquarters, it feels like we’ve never paused to established any stakes or emotionalist for the team.
Lemire has said he’s bad at team books, but that’s partly a lie – he was incredibly engaging on The Terrifics. But, that was a limited cast that doubled as a family. Lemire is good with teams who have a scope like Fantastic Four. This sprawling cast of a dozen plus characters are being written just like a hockey team in one of his indie books, and this lacks for the central framing device of hockey and being Canadian.
Justice League: The Atom Project (2025) #2 (of 6) (digital) – See Guide to The Atom (eventually) or Guide to Captain Atom (eventually), but for now I’m noting it in the Guide to Justice League because it’s so closely entwined with Waid’s main Justice League Unlimited (2023) that JLU #3 had a scene that felt like it was meant for this issue.
I wanted to love the first issue of a lot more than I did, but I still enjoyed it.
I love the concept of both Atoms as science buddies with Captain Atom as their science project slash captive. However, this DC All In plot beat of superheroes with mixed up meta genes and power activations feels like discount mutant Decimation from a company who never has thought too hard about introducing consistency into how its super-powered people actually work under the hood.
Even if the overarching plot isn’t grabbing me, I liked that this is a subtle comic that’s part detective story, part science bros hanging out in a lab. Part of that is Mike Perkins, who is an artist who slows you down and makes you linger. Those slower scenes were the best part of issue #1, rather than moments of super-powered bombast.
However, I have some qualms with the lettering. There are two competing lettering looks for the caption boxes of two different characters who narrate the story, and they are too damn similar. Clever lettering hints go a long way to making a narrative clearer, but when you botch them it makes everything that much more muddy to the reader.
This book could wind up in a great place, but I need Ryan Parrott & John Ridley to tighten up the script so Mike Perkins can really shine.
Little Batman: Month One (2024) #4 (digital) – It’s the incredibly-silly conclusion of this “Batman, son of Batman” sarcastic storybook that is curiously rated for teens.
Poison Ivy (2022) #30 (digital) – See Guide to Harley Quinn (for now). This book from the extraordinary team of G. Willow Wilson, Marcio Takara, Arif Prianto, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou continues to reign as one of my favorite ongoing series… even if the past few issues have been slightly mild.
A comic can be both slightly mild and very satisfying at the same time. Last issue, Ivy found out who is at the center of the sudden growth of a eco-political movement in her name. All of the voicing of Ivy’s inner narrative along the way was incredibly rooted in who she is at her core. I don’t think any other book from the Big Two is doing better internal monologuing for its hero right now.
In issue #29, Wilson got to the heart of why Ivy would reject a gaggle of willing acolytes, how she would respond to police brutality, and the very conflicted way she responds to her supposed Lieutenant in all things green (which pay off a beat from earlier in the run).
Wilson & Co have hyped this issue as a somewhat standalone flipbook that you can read front-to-back or back-to-front, so it should be a great place to jump into this title for a sample. Plus, I don’t think anything that happened in the past few issues is so complex that you can’t simply jump into this arc mid-stream.
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? (2010) #132 (digital) – Despite being dwarfed by Batman (2016)’s issue numbering, this is currently DC’s longest-running uninterrupted series – it just happens to ship bi-monthly. In this issue, Scooby and the gang investigate a haunted courtroom and wind up being put on trial by its spooky judges!
Shazam! (2023) #20 (digital) – See Guide to Shazam! This Josie Campbell Shazam Family title has become “the little book that could” for me. It has surpassed my expectations and made me smile for several months running since I picked it back up with issue #16 (a great place to start).
THAT SAID, this issue happens to be a one-shot insert story by a writer who never clicks with me – Sina Grace. So, I’m not too excited for that.
But, let’s get back to why I love this book when it’s not being interrupted by one of my least-favorite writers!
I’m so charmed by this book’s tone and storyline that I am immediately eager for another issue. As it turns out, charm will carry a book a long way with me – longer than sizzling art or complex plots. Campbell gets all of the voices very right (and pleasingly distinct) across the kids, the gods behind Shazam, and the slimy villains. Several things really HAPPENED last issue with no hint of decompression meant to slow that down.
We all know by now from my reviews of Steve Orland on Scarlet Witch that I’m a sucker for a well-executed second-person narration, and last issue paid that off delightfully. The bad guys revealed the plot behind the 2nd-person narration of this arc (which is still incredible clever), Also, Billy’s interpersonal drama reached an important cadence with some significant self-reflection.
Also, it’s hard to do teen romance without it being totally cringe-inducing, but I feel like this handles it with an amount of grounded realism that made it adorable rather than exasperating.
Two-Face (2024) #3 (digital) – I was initially unsure about this series penned by Christian Ward examining Two-Face’s double-crossing role in an underworld court run by criminals and for criminals, especially after a somewhat wobbly first issue.
However, issue #2 had style to waste and the story was incredibly clever. The war for supremacy inside of Two-Face’s mind could very easily turn into an entire issue of imaginary friends monologuing to each other, so Ward sets it against a case at the White Church to ground Harvey Dent’s internal cross-examinations in something more tangible.
Also, it had some extraordinary coloring and lettering, including a lip-reading sequence by letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou that I still can’t stop smiling about a whole month after the fact.
Ultimately, all of that is still just a wrapper on a series about Two-Face’s dual personalities in conflict with one another. Your mileage may vary depending on how compelling you find that concept. Me? I’m hooked.
That’s for DC Comics February 5 2025 new releases! What were you already pulling? And, did I convince you to check out anything new? Sound off in the comments below.
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