New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – January 15 2025

Next week is the 3rd new comic book day of 2025! This post covers DC Comics January 15 2025 new releases. Missed this week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics January 8 2025 new releases.

This week in DC Comics: Finest Supergirl, Millar’s Swamp Thing, Ridey’s Superstar Action, Grønbekk’s perfectly terse Catwoman, V & Cagle stun on New Gods, hunting The Question, and more!

The Krisis Pick of the Week: THIS IS AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK. Seriously, at least five issues out from DC this week could be my pick of the whole month, as you will see based on my comments below. But, under extreme self-imposed duress, I’ll go with The New Gods (2024) #2. I’m trying not to overhype myself for where Ram V is taking the plot, but it’s impossible to hype myself up too much for more of Evan Cagle’s art colored by Francesco Segala.

This post includes every comic out from DC DC Comics January 15 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 January 15 2025 new releases!

DC Comics January 15 2025 Collected Editions

Blue Beetle Vol. 2: Forever Blue
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1779528599 / digital)
This collects Blue Beetle (2023) #7-11 to wrap up the series.

I went into this book with a lot of good will for a character who was new to me, but the storytelling never really cohered with the art. It was clear the book was a continuation of a prior run, with characters and plot and it assumed you’d already be familiar with them. But, you ought to be able to jump into any comic at a midway point and with this one I just never could get the hang of it.

If you want to read Blue Beetle, you should skip backwards to Blue Beetle: Graduation Day (2022) as a starting place.

DC Finest: Supergirl – The Girl of Steel (Supergirl Vol. 1)
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1779529909)
Supergirl makes her debut in the new DC Finest line of thick paperbacks that are roughly equivalent to Marvel Epic Collections (but a bit longer). This is the debut of Supergirl, starting from her 1959 Silver Age debut and collecting past the end of her first black-and-white Showcase collection (and a wider range of material than her Silver Age Omnibus, though that stretched a bit further into Action).

It includes Supergirl stories from Action Comics (1938) #252-288, Adventure Comics (1938) #278, Superman (1939) #139-140 & 144, Superboy (1949) #80, Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #14 & 20, and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen (1954) #40, 46, 51, & 57.

Kneel Before Zod
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1779528605 / digital)
Collects all eight issues of the vicious and often downbeat limited series focused on Zod in exile from Joe Casey spinning out of a backup story in Action Comics (1938 / 2016) #1060, which is also collected here.

I think if you really want to lean into the stark reality of what it means for an entire super-family to be fueled by nothing by hatred this could work for you, but it was far too dour and violent for me.

Swamp Thing by Mark Millar and Phil Hester Omnibus
(2025 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1779528070)
See Guide to Swamp Thing. This omnibus is a big deal for Swamp Thing fans, because it collects the entire end-run of his 1982 series in oversize hardcover, picking up from where the existing Nancy Collins omnibus leaves off. That means we only need issues #65-109 collected to reach total coverage of this series in omnibus – which could easily be knocked out in one more volume!

Read on for a summary of all of the DC Comics January 15 2025 single issue releases!

DC Comics January 15 2025 Physical Comic Releases

Action Comics (1938) #1082 (digital) – See Guide to Action Comics (Post-Crisis, 1987 – Present). This was originally scheduled for this last week, but apparently it’s out this week! Oops (but I’m not sure if it’s my oops or DC’s oops)! 

John Ridley kicks off a new arc of the “Superstars” theme of big writers joining Action to pen three-issue mini-arcs. That makes this a great place to climb aboard after an outstanding 12-issue weekly arc from Mark Waid with backups by Mariko Tamaki.

If you’re looking for a meaty catch-up read for this weekend, you should binge that run from Action Comics (2016) #1070-1081! I highly recommend it. However, this new run has no connection to that and stands completely alone.

Batman / Superman: World’s Finest (2022) #35 (digital) – I am a confirmed hater of this Mark Waid feel-good retcon series.

I don’t want to feel good, Mark Waid, and you can’t make me!

Ultimately all of these retcon tales ring hollow to me, even when Waid bends them around to make them relevant to the present in books like Absolute Power (2024) and his recent outstanding weekly run of Action Comics (1938 / 2016) #1070-1081. But, the actual stories tend to tread a lot of water to fill them out to a full arc and they rely heavily on your nostalgia for a broad cast of guest characters (often from Pre-Crisis continuity).

However, every so often Waid scores a solid hit. I loved the one-shot Trinity tale in issue #30, as well as a two-parter in issue #18-19.

I guess brevity is the soul of Waid’s wit for me.

Anyway, this issue begins an arc teaming up with Aquaman. All of the arcs of this book operate independently, so you can jump on here (or, to any arc-starter) with no problem.

Batman and Robin: Year One (2024) #4 (digital) – See Guide to Robin(s). I haven’t been reading this Waid/Samnee early years series for reasons that will be obvious if you read that last write-up. Year One stories don’t hold much appeal for me in general.

Black Lightning (2024) #3 (digital) – This was originally scheduled for this last week, but apparently it’s out this week! Oops (but I’m not sure if it’s my oops or DC’s oops)! Here’s my write-up from last week:

I’m a moderately big fan of Black Lightning after reading The Other History of the DC Universe (2020) and Black Lighting: Cold Dead Hands (2018). Actually, Cold Dead Hands is my second highest-rated superhero book since I started keeping track of my reading back in 2017!

Also, I’ve dug author Brandon Thomas in the past in the Lion Forge Catalyst Universe, on his own Excellence (2019), but he has struck me as an idea guy who doesn’t always close strong.

That was really evident to me in the first two issues of this new series. It’s very much predicated on the finale of Absolute Power (2024)and the new status quo in DC All In Special (2024). Black Lightning is essentially the Professor X of the Justice League, seeking out new meta-humans as their powers emerge and getting them to treatment and education rather than incarceration.

That plays to the strengths of Jefferson Pierce as a character, but Thomas is using that as an excuse not to do anything else with him. The entirety of the character work here is that Pierce has trauma from being unable to prevent Amanda Waller coming for his daughters at the top of Absolute Power. That’s the same character work his two headstrong daughters Thunder and Lightning get.

The result is a book that feels like a mild version of New Mutants with no real lead character. We’ve seen three or four anonymous characters get saved by Pierce and one of his daughters (I lost track because two were very similar), but the story doesn’t follow them just as it shies away from letting us get close to Black Lightning himself.

This is an outstanding concept to make Black Lightning click with the current status quo at DC, but so far the plotting isn’t worthy of the concept. With most books, I’d say it just needs a few more issues to settle in. With Brandon Thomas at the helm, I’m not sure more issues are going to help too much – but, I love the character enough to keep my hope alive.

Catwoman (2018) #72 (digital) – See Guide to Catwoman. Torunn Grønbekk took over this title with DC All In at issue #69. I think it’s her first DC ongoing after several years at Marvel.

For me, Grønbekk’s voice for Selina Kyle is perfection. I noticed it by the third page of her debut on issue #69. The cadence. The terse, casual observations. I always wonder why writers seem have so much trouble with Catwoman because it is incredibly obvious to me that this is how she should be written.

Apparently it’s also obvious to Grønbekk.

This story is a chilly slow-burn that starts off with Selina finding out she was murdered. Except, clearly she wasn’t – so that’s a deliberate message sent to her. Kyle slowly unwinds the spool of mystery like a cat playing with yarn as Grønbekk navigates her from the familiar confines of Gotham to the wider world.

I think if you love a superheroic Catwoman this won’t hit for you, but if you dug her mid-00s comic that had a more indie feel this will be exactly what you’ve been waiting to get back to.

Challengers of the Unknown (2024) #2 (of 6) (digital) – Would you believe I have a nearly-completed guide to Challengers of the Unknown, courtesy of CK contributor AdjectiveNoun? If this series makes it past an arc I might have to publish it!

I had to call in an assist from AdjectiveNoun because I don’t know much about The Challengers of the Unknown. They strike me as DC’s plainclothes, non-hero version of the Fantastic Four. Is that accurate? I have no idea!

Here’s what I got from the #1 issue penned by the often slippery scripter Christopher Cantwell: this is a team of humans who are intertwined with DC’s heroic community but remain in awe of them, which makes their new role as the special science team of the League’s new Watchtower both a thrill and a daunting task.

That’s ostensibly why the team is broken up and partnered 1:1 with major Leaguers… but, it also connects to events in The Question: All Along the Watchtower (2024) #1-2. There’s a reason it might be best not to have this team exploring space all together (or even hanging out on the Watchtower together) and why it might be a good idea to have the likes of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman keeping an eye on them.

Issue #1 was really good. Maybe just a hair short of amazing. The artwork from Sean Izaakse is spectacular, the colors from Romulo Fajardo Jr. are dialed in, and the letters from Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou are eminently readable.

Maybe Superman’s voice was a bit off, but using this book as a League team-up title to explore the mystery of Darkseid fucking off to the Absolute Universe is smart comics making. Plus, it makes perfect sense that this team of non-super Challengers would feel a little odd about being co-opted for League business.

It’s just a question of if Cantwell can deliver on it, as he’s had some big wins the past few years but also some meandering disappointments.

Green Lantern: Fractured Spectrum (2025) #1 (digital) – See Guide to Green Lantern – Hal Jordan. This was originally scheduled for this last week, but apparently it’s out this week! Oops (but I’m not sure if it’s my oops or DC’s oops)! Here’s my write-up from last week:

I’m not yet caught up on Jeremy Adam’s run on Green Lantern, in part because I didn’t know this was a part of it until I started writing this post!

This issue is tipped to feature Hal pursuing the Fractal Lanterns in the wake of the “Civil Corps” story that wrapped up in Green Lantern (2023) #18 last month. That’ll set us onto a new status quo in issue #19 later this month.

Jenny Sparks (2024) #6 (of 7) (digital) – See Guide to Authority. This is the penultimate issue of the out-of-continuity Black Label series from Tom King, Jeffrey Spokes, and Clayton Cowles

Milestone Universe: The Shadow Cabinet (2024) #3 (of 4) (digital) – See Guide to Milestone Universe (eventually). This mini-series extending the 2021 Milestone relaunch has been so intriguing that it has made me pull out my Milestone Compendiums and contemplate starting a read despite having so many other comics to catch up on.

Since I’m not a Milestone expert, I cannot tell you if this extends that 90s Milestone Universe or if the 2021 one stands independently. I can just tell you I recognize a lot of these characters and it’s thrilling to see them all interacting.

It’s also a lot to take in. Much in the way Spawn (1992) read prior to the launch of Spawn’s Universe in 2022, it feels like Joseph Illidge is writing at least three titles worth of characters and plots into each of these double-length issues. There’s so many heroes and antagonists that at points certain conflicts are a complete wash to me to understand. But, that’s not Illidge’s fault – I’m sure if I had been reading along since 2021 it would all make perfect sense to me.

But, here’s the thing: Even though it doesn’t all make sense I am still digging it. It makes me want more. It makes me want to backtrack.

That’s the sign of a fun comic book. And, you know what? Sometimes I enjoy being thrown into the deep end of a plot and learning how to swim (especially when a book isn’t shy about repeating character names and recapping past plot points).

Nightwing (2016) #122 (digital) – See Guide to Nightwing. This new run from Dan Watters and Dexter Soy that begin in issue #119 is one of the few DC All In relaunches that is so far “just fine” for me.

Maybe it’s because Tom Taylor had such a intrinsic grasp on Dick’s character. Or, maybe I got too used to Bruce Redondo’s clean lines and how Adriano Lucas’s bold, saturated colors lingered on warm hues.

Maybe it is because Taylor and company build up such an interesting status quo in a revitalized Blüdhaven that any new author would doubtlessly need to tear it down.

Actually, it may also be because I expect a lot from Dan Watters and only a little from Dexter Soy. Ever since reading Watters’ run on the reimagined Lucifer (2018) for the relaunched Sandman Universe I look forward to him doing subversive things in his comics. And, Dexter Soy is a fine artist – enjoyable, even – but I feel like his style hasn’t changed very much in the past decade. Soy’s stylized, heavily-lined characters vibe with neither the clean and bold DC house style nor the more indie feel they sometimes get from artists like Mike Perkins or Jorge Fornes.

All of that is to say, it’s not that this book is BAD, it’s just… fine. There’s an arms dealer. The gangs turn against each other. Nightwing feels responsible when a young gang member dies. It’s a very standard, expected, “we’ve seen this before” set of plot beats to bring to a book that has been on fire for several years running.

The New Gods (2024) #2 (of 12) (digital) – See Guide to Mister Miracle for now, since Scott Free is one of the focus characters of the first issue of this book from Ram V, Evan Cagle, Francesco Segala, & Tom Napolitano.

This. Was. INCREDIBLE. I feel like Ram V has reached a hype level where sometimes people slightly overhype his scripts, but for me this wasn’t just “The Ram V Show.” Evan Cagle colored by Francesco Segala blew me away. The framing, the faces, the fish-eye effect of some of his panels… it was intensely engaging to me. Plus, a prologue by Jorge Fornes!

Gushing about art aside, the plot of the book is intensely interesting as well. This is very much a story happening in the wake of the B-Story in DC All In Special (2024) #1 that explains Darkseid’s sudden absense from the prime DC Universe. Darkseid is a universal force much like Galactus at Marvel, and his absense always leaves a void to be filled – whether it’s a power vacuum or an unexplored space.

That’s how issue #1 began, but it winds up on Earth for a fascinating reason that threatens to shake Scott Free out of his (exhausting) domestic bliss with Barda, who is wiped out from the combination of being a mother and being a member of Birds of Prey.

I am rabid to read more of this story and see more of the artwork, but I’m trying not to overhype myself with expectations of where Ram V could take. it. I’m trying to simply be satisfied with how good of a fit he is for the book.

The Nice House by the Sea (2024) #5 (digital) – I could not possibly be more obsessed with this comic from James Tynion IV, Álvaro Martínez Bueno, Jordie Bellaire, and AndWorld Design.

This is the sequel to The Nice House on the Lake (2021), a series which I found a little unfocused to start but became gradually more and more engaged in until I was completely enraptured by the final issue. This series began as if it was a completely separate story in the same continuity, but it quickly veered into merging into the story of the first book in a thrilling way. I would not suggest jumping into this mid-stream – you have to start at the start of Nice House to understand what’s going on.

This is now my favorite book by James Tynion, which is high praise considering I find most of his work to be GREAT or better!

If you’ve never read this series before, here’s my non-spoiler pitch: A group of friends has one central friend who always draws them together and keeps them connected, so when he invites them for a vacation at a beautiful lake house they’re all in! But, when news of a catastrophe on the outside world filters into their vacation, they realize their friend has ulterior motives that he’s always hinted at but they’ve never fully understood.

I think the thing I like the most about this Nice House world is that it’s absolutely a sci-fi book, but all of its sci-fi is approached and expressed via the relationships between a group of 10 friends with very messy relationships with each other. And, the new twist introduced in the first issue of by the Sea is mind-bending. I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you, but the hint I’ll give is that it feels very Hickman in the most delightful way.

The Question: All Along the Watchtower (2024) #3 (of 6) (digital) – Ooo, I’d love to do a guide to The Question this year (or, maybe it wouldn’t be so quick)! And, hopefully this series spawn another Question title in its wake that long enough for me to get to it because I absolutely love this concept!!!

Alex Segura’s sweet spot is detective stories (it’s only a matter of time before he writes ‘Tec!), so he’s the perfect writer for a comic book about Renee Montoya as the head of internal affairs on the rebuilt Justice League Watchtower! But, this isn’t just a solo book about Montoya. She’s in charge of the entire security crew of supporting Leaguers, which so far has included Ted Kord, Blue Beetle, Animal Man, Batwoman, Bulleteer, and several more!

Not only is this entertaining on its own, but it integrates tightly with Challengers of the Unknown (and, somewhat relates to last week’s The Atom Project … and, I think, a result of the recent “Phantoms” weekly story in Action Comics). But, you don’t need to be clued in to all of that to appreciate it – and you also don’t have to have read DC All In Special (2024) #1… but, it couldn’t hurt.

If you enjoy The Question – or even if you like a Justice League book with the vibe of Deep Space Nine or Babylon 5, definitely check this out.

Titans (2023) #19 (digital) – See Guide to Titans, Teen Titans, & Young Justice. I didn’t think I would love the tone of this series once Tom Taylor departed from his mega arc with issue #15 along with Lucas Meyer & Adriano Lucas. It was so big, bold, colorful, and quintessentially Titans. I love when a book feels specific to its own cast with a story that couldn’t work for anyone else.

However, I’m really digging this new John Layman & Pete Woods run that began with issue #16!

First, I think Layman is hugely underestimated in the “older writers how still write youths well” category. He’s consistently better at youthful characters than folks like Bendis or Waid who are known for it. While the Titans are kids anymore, they definitely should feel more like young adults than other members of the League, and Layman really sells that for me.

Also, I enjoy that Layman pivots into a new plot without just tossing out what Taylor did before him. Raven’s status quo is a continuing response to Taylor’s work; Nightwing steps back to let Donna Troy lead as a result of the way Taylor led the team to Absolute Power. And, Pete Woods is contributing terrific artwork – and is coloring himself!

I’d strongly suggest reading this series from the start because it was really good, but if you love the classic Titans line-up and want to catch up to present you can easily begin at issue #16 and understand everything that’s happening.