New Releases: DC Comics January 8 2025

Next week is the 2nd new comic book day of 2025! This post covers DC Comics January 8 2025 new releases. Missed this week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics January 1 2025 new releases.

This week in DC Comics: A shocking Aquaman collection, a hunk of Ellis Stormwatch, a new superstar run on Action Comics, creepy Dark Patterns for Batman, a Fractured Spectrum of Lanterns, and more!

The Krisis Pick of the Week: Batman: Dark Patterns (2024) #2! I cannot get the first issue of this Dan Watters & Hayden Sherman comic out of my head. Sherman’s page layouts were mind-blowing, as was the final page twist in both art and story. More about why I’m so excited below.

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 8 2025 new releases!

DC Comics January 8 2025 Collected Editions

The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries Vol. 5
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1779528582 / digital)
Collects The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries (2024) #1-6. These stories are more or less standalone, so you don’t have to worry about picking up Volumes 1-4.

Birds of Prey Vol. 2: Worlds Without End
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1779528575 / digital)
See Guides to Birds of Prey. This is very much the epic conclusion to the set-up in Volume 1, so I would not recommend starting here! This is easily one of the most-binge-able books of the past year full of action, humor, and tremendous colors from Jordie Bellaire. You can read more of my thoughts on the run in last week’s DC New Releases post.

DC Finest – Aquaman: King of Atlantis (DC Finest, Silver Age Vol. 1)
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1779529893 / digital TBA)
See Guide to Aquaman. This is the most interesting DC Finest volume yet! Not only does it collect material in color for the first time, but it does something I don’t think anyone would have predicted!

Generally, DC has always treated Adventure Comics (1938) #260 from May 1959 as the beginning of Silver Age stories for Aquaman and their collections have reflected that. An old Showcase collection starts there. Issue #260 is collected with “origins” collections and Aquaman’s anniversary collections.

Yet, this book reaches back to begin with Adventure Comics (1938) #229-259, which began in October 1956 – the same month Barry Allen debuted as Flash in Showcase (1956) #4.

Generally, the beginning of the Silver Age at DC Comics isn’t treated as something that happened all at once. Flash got things started in an obvious way because he was a brand new character (as was Hal Jordan as Green Lantern), but the start of the Silver Age for the Trinity and Aquaman tends to have more to do with when their origins were redefined to their definitive Earth-1 pre-Crisis versions.

As DC Silver Age collections go, this is a pretty wild development! All of the other various breakpoints between Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Post-Crisis ages are well-defined down to the issue. I had to change elements of my guide to reflect this new break point.

I am SO EXCITED to own and read this material in color!!! This is one of the books that nudged me over the line to start picking up DC Finest Collections despite having a relatively slim collection of physical DC Comics outside of Wonder Woman.

Stormwatch: The Road to the Authority Compendium
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1779528063)
See Guide to StormWatch. You know that I am absolutely wild for all things Wildstorm and I especially love pre-Authority Stormwatch. This collection of Warren Ellis’s entire Stormwatch run beginning with Stormwatch (1993) #37 is like catnip to me.

Despite starting in the middle of the series, obviously this is a run you can easily pick up and read on its own without knowing what came before. Ellis radically changes the team and the tone of the book when he first joins and then again when he relaunches to Stormwatch (1997) on his way to creating The Authority in 1999.

Teen Titans Go! On TV!
(2025 digest-size paperback, ISBN 978-1799503750 / digital)
I am NOT an expert on Teen Titans GO, but to the best of my ability to discern this is an original graphic novel, not a collection!

Read on for a summary of all of the DC Comics January 8 2025 single issue releases!

DC Comics January 8 2025 Physical Comic Releases

Absolute Batman (2024) #4 (digital) – See Guide to DC Absolute Universe. Last issue, Batman made a surprising deal (at Alfred’s suggestion) with the mysterious foe flooding Gotham with criminals.

This issue doesn’t primarily pick up that plot – it’s tipped to be an origin story. This issue has fill-in art from Gabriel Hernández Walta, which is a pretty high caliber of artist for a fill-in!

Personally, this book isn’t for me, but I have very rarely vibed with Scott Snyder’s scripting over the course of the past 15 years 🤷‍♀️

Action Comics (1938) #1082 (digital) – See Guide to Action Comics (Post-Crisis, 1987 – Present). This was delayed to next week.

Aquaman (2025) #1 (digital) – See Guide to Aquaman. New Aquaman ongoing, baby! Writer Jeremy Adams leans in to the powers-go-round of the conclusion of Absolute Power (2024) to slightly remix what Arthur can do.

Adam has shown a workmanlike quality when it comes to juggling the big casts on books like Flash and Green Lantern over the past few years. Aquaman has a smaller cast to deal with than either of those heroes, but he’s also a less-defined personality after the past few years than Barry or Hal. I’m interested to see how Jeremy positions him here, especially since an “Ocean Kaiju” plot isn’t exactly revolutionary.

Batman and Robin (2023) #17 (digital) – See Guide to Robin(s). This is the fourth issue in the DC All In soft relaunch of this series by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, who is also writing Incredible Hulk (2023) at Marvel right now.

PKJ took this book from being more light-hearted and Robin-focused under Joshua Williamson to feeling much more like Detective Comics, with a grim copycat case mimicking something Bruce saw in his years abroad from Gotham.

I really love this story. It smart, the action is terse, and it’s keeping me hooked with issues that take some time to read and digest. Colorist Marcel Maiolo is doing a marvelous job at uniting different artists, both within the same issue as Carmine Di Giandomenico handles flashbacks and with Miguel Mendonca filling in for Javier Fernández last issue.

I think Damian is a lot more fun when he’s used as a disruptor in a serious Batman plot than when a comic is catered to him, but if this comic has one weak spot it’s an inconsistent voice for Damian. I think it’s fair game to regress him slightly t0 make him a bit more petulant after the resolve Williamson reached after a multi-book run on the character. But, some of his words and actions just don’t feel entirely like Damian to me.

That’s a minor quibble in a good story with great art. This went from a begrudging, “I’ll catch up on it whenever” book for me to the top of my DC pull (along with the next comic).

Batman: Dark Patterns (2024) #2 (digital) – Holy shit, Batman. This “Year Three” story from Dan Watters and Hayden Sherman (who is somehow ALSO drawing Absolute Wonder Woman (2024)) is effortlessly stylish and creepy. The first issue is a masterwork of building detective story tension and fascinating page layouts that never overcomplicate the narrative.

You don’t need to do any pre-reading to appreciate Dark Patterns. The noir-tinged first issue gives you all the information you need and there’s no reason for me to spoil any of it.

Black Lightning (2024) #3 (digital) – his was delayed to next week.

DC vs. Vampires: World War V (2024) #6 (digital) – See Guide to DC Elseworlds. Matthew Rosenberg & Joey Esposito continue penning their Vampire Elseworld, which pauses after this issue but is back in March with a second arc (after a February one-shot, DC vs. Vampires: World War V – Darkness and Light (2025) #1 focusing on Wonder Woman and Alfred).

If you want to get in on the ground floor of this Elseworld, it begins in DC vs. Vampires (2022) and continues to DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War (2022) with a few one-shots along the way.

Green Lantern: Fractured Spectrum (2025) #1 (digital) – See Guide to Green Lantern – Hal Jordan. This was delayed to next week.