Next week is the 5th new comic book day of 2025! This post covers Image Comics January 29 2025 new releases. Missed this week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Image Comics January 22 2025 new releases.
This week in Image Comics: The collected Power Fantasy, an unflinching view of the Dust Bowl, Black Cloak wraps a second arc, Blood Squad Seven faces their signature foes, Violator chats with Lucifer, Twitch gets framed by a dead man, teen angels vs horny devils, and more!
These posts will give me a chance to re-orient myself to what’s going on with Image after a few years away from reading any of their books!
The Krisis Pick of the Week: I am trembling with anticipation for Dust to Dust (2024) #2 after reading the utterly perfect first issue of this historical fiction comic from J. G. Jones, Phil Bram, & Jackie Marzan. Every page was gorgeously-rendered and perfectly scripted. This is absolutely the kind of comic that explains why I try to read everything – even books that sound sound like they’re not for me. More on why I loved this so much below.
This post includes every comic out from Image Comics this week, plus collected editions. This isn’t the typical comic releases post you can find on other sites. Why? I explain each collection and comment on every series with a new issue out this week to help you figure out if they’re for you.
Plus, for some long-running series, I’ll point you to a personally-curated guide within the Crushing Comics Guide to Indie 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 Image Comics January 29 2025 new releases!
Image Comics January 29 2025 Collected Editions
Note: Image Comics collections hit the direct market 2-3 weeks prior to when they ship to the book market, so if you order these Image Comics January 29 2025 books today from a traditional bookseller they will still be pre-orders and will arrive in a few weeks.
The Department of Truth Vol. 5
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1534369498 / digital)
I fell off of this James Tynion IV & Martin Simmonds transgressive take on The X-Files for a modern post-truth society.
I found that I loved the conspiracy stuff at its core, but got a little weary of the Monster of the Week in each arc – which is the opposite of how I felt about X-Files! However, Tynion is by far my favorite mind in comics right now, so I think a re-binge is in order now that I’ve caught up on so much other reading.
The Power Fantasy Vol. 1: The Superpowers
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1534395565 / digital)
OMFG do I love this comic book from Kieron Gillen, Caspar Wijngaard, and Clayton Cowles. I’m still chasing down some stragglers in my 2024 comic reading, but at the moment it is my #2 comic of all of 2024.
The pitch for it is as plain as it is deep: this is Krakoa’s Quiet Council with all of the personalities, none of the super-battles, but even more global mass destruction. It’s a book about what life might be like if everyone knew a council of Omega Mutants with world-ending powers were deciding our fate.
We’ve got a morally grey Xavier convinced he is maintaining a balance of peace, a radicalized Magneto who keeps his family close on a floating sky-nation, an icy Emma Frost who must be kept appeased lest she destroy the world, and a cult-leading Sinister who wants to break the rules of the world as he sees fit. But, they never fight – just maneuver, back stab, and blow things up if they feel aggrieved.
The analogs aren’t truly 1:1 aside from the Xavier character, but if anything I just described to you sounds exciting in the least you will love this book. Wijngaard is delivering stunning art and colors that blow past anything he’s drawn before, and Gillen is going full Hickman with a massive century-long backstory and data pages that are explicit about what future issues will hold in store.
I could not recommend this Volume 1 any more highly – and, it’s just $9.99! This is the kind of series where I re-read every prior issue before diving into a new one.
Read on for summaries of Image Comics January 29 2025 single issue releases!
Image Comics January 29 2025 Physical Comic Releases
Black Cloak (2023) #11 (digital) – This issue wraps a second arc of this fantasy city detective book from Kelly Thompson & Meredith McClaren. I support Thompson on Substack, so it’s easy to keep up with this series without having to hunt down new issues.
I’m obsessed with Thompson’s world-building here, as always. There’s so much depth to her “last city on Earth” filled with magical races with interesting relationships to each other and to holding power in this cloistered society.
Unfortunately, I just don’t vibe with McClaren’s artwork for this book (despite loving her on an early Thompson OGN, Heart in a Box). Her style is very similar to Chris Bachalo at his most cartoonish, and I similarly had issues when he drew for Thompson on Deadpool (2020).
Thompson’s scripts are so dense with action and humor that I find it hard to follow them if someone draws vague characters without a lot of identifying characteristics.
McClaren’s art always seems fuzzy to me, as if I’m reading without wearing my glasses. Her habit of omitting facial features to present characters as indistinct blobs means I can often go half an issue without having any idea of who is talking or what they’re doing. Things briefly snapped into focus with issue #7, which I loved.
I checked out the preview of this one, and the art seems tighter than the past few issues, so hopefully things will come together for me in this finale.
I think if you love 2-out-of-3 of Kelly Thompson, modern Bachalo, and urban fantasy worldbuilding, you could absolutely adore this series and ought to pick up the double-sized #1 issue.
Blood Squad Seven (2024) #6 (digital) – Before I get into this Joe Casey series, lets pour one out for Tim Seeley & Tony Fleecs’ Local Man (2023), which shared its concept and world and seems to be over as of its “Images of Tomorrow” issue #25 in October. I just read it last night after I caught up on this book, and I’m utterly heartbroken.
Local Man was my favorite Image Comic. It was like “Fraction’s Hawkeye meets Youngblood” and I was obsessed with it.
That means Blood Squad Seven will be shouldering the weight of a lot of expectations from me going forward!
When it comes to shared universes, make mine Image. I love Marvel and DC, but I’ll always have affection for the original concept of a shared universe of creator-owned properties that Image launched back in 1992. The wheels came off of that in a matter of years, as some creators focused inwardly while others crashed, burned, resurrected and sold off their properties.
Like Local Man, Blood Squad Seven (2023) exists in the extended Image Universe, but it has a very specific goal: retroactively replacing Youngblood from the birth of Image to the end of Shattered Image.
From a publishing perspective, Youngblood has been excised from Image history due the rights being sold. Blood Squad is effectively “Youngblood 2020: The Next Generation,” with a similar concept and similar characters, who are the next generation of a team that had very similar adventures to the original Youngblood (including a rescue mission for Vice President Dan Quayle). The government has decided it’s the perfect time for them to make a comeback, but both the personalities and the bureaucracy behind that is turning it into a headache.
Clearly I’m primed to love this book. However, Casey has always been a slow burn author with a somewhat niche appeal, and that’s leading to a real failure-to-launch for this book as it rolls through a second arc.
The first arc was all about the downfall of a rogue member, and the Strikefile one-shot was all about the redemption of a rogue member, and this second arc is about the return of their signature 90s villains… but mostly it feels like all of it about arguing over which team members are field-ready for an impending PR launch. There are a lot of relationships here between the characters and to their history, but the backstory is going unexplored and it’s making it hard to appreciate how the modern day plot connects the dots.
I know that’s part of the style of a book like this one, which is playing with the idea of an implied history between the characters. But, this has the problem of being so intertwined with actual Image Comics history that it’s hard to follow what’s real and what’s being implied! Local Man recognized that conflict and used brief backup stories set in the 90s to fill in the connective tissue, often forcing you to look at the issue’s A-Story in a new light.
Without that, Casey’s leaning into the wrong historical Image trope – of a book with an ultra-cool cast that simply lumbers along without much excitement. That said, I think issue #5 was a crackling start of a second arc, so I hold out hope.
If a universally-acclaimed book like Local Man from a popular team like Seeley & Fleecs could barely survive into its second year, I’m uncertain that Blood Squad Seven (2023) will last much farther unless Casey really ratchets up the pace of the somewhat ponderous plot.
Blood Train (2025) #1 (digital) – This is a standalone 48-page horror one-shot from Adam Glass & Bernard Chang, who I absolutely adored on Titan Titans (2016). I’d be there regardless of the story, but the solicit describes it as “28 Days Later meets The Ruins” and I think that sounds nifty!
Dust to Dust (2024) #2 (digital) – I was absolutely blown away by the first issue of this Dust Bowl comic from J. G. Jones, Phil Bram, & Jackie Marzan for Rick Remender’s Giant Generator imprint.
J. G. Jones’s artwork is always marvelous, but I was also drawn in by the steady pace and instantly relatable characters in the story from Jones & Bram. There’s some minor mystery and conflict, but mostly this is an unflinching look at the beginning of the end of a dusty small town on the heart of the Great Depression as a WPA photographer stops by to document it.
I’m a massive fan of Aimée de Jongh’s Days of Sand, which has the same plot but puts more of a focus on the photog’s journey and less on the town’s identity. I think the veracity and detail of Jones’s linework really sells the town as a character here, and I’m curious about where Jones & Bram will take the plot from issue #1.
This could very easily become my favorite comic of 2025 depending on how this story unfolds.
Hornsby & Halo (2024) #3 (digital) – We all know I love Angels & Devils stuff, and I’ve always adored Peter Tomasi’s scripting at DC, so this new book for Geoff Johns’s Ghost Machine imprint was an easy pull for me.
I love Tomasi’s concept for the series, which is like the trade between Mister Miracle and Orion in DC Comics by way of Terry Prachett’s Good Omens. What if a goody-two-shoes family was raising a powerful devil, and a morally-grey couple had a teen angel on their hands?
Peter Snejbjerg’s clean, expressive artwork a real delight on domestic scenes, but I found that it struggles to convey the choreography of action from panel to panel. I’m not just talking about fighting, but really any kind of fast-paced movement.
I also thought Tomasi struggled to find the point of the book in the first two issues. Clearly the allure of this concept is exploring “nature vs nurture,” but it feels like Tomasi isn’t taking the time to explore who these two teens really are at heart before layering on a bunch of forgettable hijinks like grave-robbing and biker bar fights with a pack of devils.
I’ll give this another issue or two based on the strength of the creators, but this one needs to light a spark if I’m going to stick with it any longer. I love Devils & Angels, but there’s a real glut of stuff with similar themes in comics at the moment and some of it is amazing – like Caitlin Yarsky’s Living Hell (2024) and the promising The Lucky Devils (2025) from Charles Soule & Ryan Browne.
Ice Cream Man (2018) #43 (digital) – Ice Cream Man is a horror anthology with a loose unifying theme. This issue is entirely comprise of single page horror stories, so it makes a great sampler (but, perhaps not the best indication of the book’s ongoing style).
Knights vs Samurai (2024) #5 (digital) – This is actor / director / author David Dastmalchian’s take on “Shogun but with dragons” set in a more fantastic version of our own world as Europe made its first contacts with (and colonization attempts of) Japan.
I think this series might be an ongoing – or, at least, a maxi-series – because it seems to be going strong in the solicits as of issue #8.
Mirka Andolfo’s Sweet Paprika: Open for Business (2024) #3 (digital) – A queer-focused spin-off from Andolfo’s primary smutty book, Sweet Paprika.
Steve Orlando scripts this gay bad romance between a hunky angel and a mousy devil. This isn’t just some lightweight Yaoi that teases at a physical relationship – it’s mostly gay sex. While Emilio Pilliu’s artwork doesn’t show any full frontal (obscuring dicks with fruit, vegetables, and rocket ships), it still finds a way to depict every possible sex act with plenty of bulges and arched backs along the way.
I was surprised by how spritely Orlando’s script for this is compared to other indie work I’ve read from him. It really skips and hops along at a nice pace. I suppose it must be freeing to be writing a kinky book that can steer into a sex scene instead of a super-fight.
Redcoat (2024) #9 (digital) – This series from Geoff Johns and Bryan Hitch follows a particularly undedicated redcoat from the British Army as he absorbs a spell of eternal life meant for Ben Franklin during the American Revolution. That makes him a sort of drunken, carousing version of Wolverine, living through American history one foolish death at a time until he runs into a teenage Albert Einstein.
Hitch is better than he’s been in years on this book, but the plot from Johns never hooked me and I dropped it early. It’s a fun concept, but in execution I found it quite dull. I wandered away from the computer to take care random tasks in my house five different times in a single issue.
However, that’s how I feel even about Johns on his most-beloved books, so if the concept sounds cool to you I’d recommend checking out the first two issues, which clearly lay out this character the hooks of his plot. I might go back and binge more of it later this year.
Sam and Twitch: Case Files (2024) #10 (digital) – See Guide to Spawn. The classic supporting character detectives from Spawn’s Universe are back in their own slightly-creepy police procedural book from Todd McFarlane.
Even after just a month of these posts from me, I’m sure you’ve caught on that I am wary of every McFarlane script. They’re not exactly known for their coherence, both narratively and grammatically.
That’s why I’m delighted to say this series has been a very fun read! McFarlane in terse police procedural mode with no caption boxes is a far cry from his normal style on Spawn. Add to that an unusual lettering style from veteran Tom Orzechowski that completely eschews balloons, and this is McFarlane at his tightest.
The first arc spanned issues #1-8, and detailed how Twitch broke off on his own and nearly met disaster with his by-the-book investigation without the wildcard of Sam by his side. I was really loving the first six issues (especially thanks to art from Szymon Krudanski, a fav of mine), but the case unravelled in an unsatisfying way at the end.
Issue #9 kicked off a new case that seems decidedly more supernatural, and the opening pitch was terrific. You can easily pick up there without having read the first arc. Since this case has a fantastical element, it might slightly dovetail with happenings in other Spawn Universe books, but this series absolutely stands on its own and doesn’t require any other reading.
The Seasons (2025) #1 (digital) – This is another new comic from Rick Remender, whose Giant Generator imprint has been releasing a flurry of titles recently! This one pairs him artist Paul Azaceta, colorist Mat Lopes, and letterer Rus Wooton. The book promises to focus on a quartet of sisters investigating their detective parents’ disappearances in what the solicit calls “whimsical” and “boundary-breaking” horror.
I’ve kept up with Remender’s #1s for many years now, and usually the only thing they break is my attention span. I just do not vibe with this guy’s plotting, scripting, and pacing one bit. But, I will continue to press on, hoping that eventually one of his books connects with me like the first 18 issues of Uncanny X-Force did fifteen years ago.
Violator: Origin (2024) #5 (digital TBA) – See Guide to Spawn. I don’t know quite what I was expecting when I began catching up on this series from writer Marc Andreyko, but it wasn’t this thoughtful, creepy, and often darkly funny series of one-shot stories.
I guess I assumed this would be a huge, overwritten heaven-and-hell drama spanning six issues with serpentine plots about people backstabbing each other. Because… well, it’s a Spawn Universe book and that’s what they do!
Instead, Andreyko delivers a single, succinct, standalone, double-sized story from a different period of Violator’s eternal life in each issue. So far, only issue #1 has lingered on internal heaven & hell drama, and the wickedly detailed art from Piotr Kowalski made every panel worth lingering on. From there, we’ve been in 700s England, 1300s France, and Romanov-era Russia. The England and France issues could perhaps be classified as disposable battle issues with lots of back-and-forth action, but they also reveal key moments in Violator’s history on Earth – especially the England story illustrated by Kyle Holtz.
At this point, I cannot wait to see what Andreyko has in store for the final pair of issues – especially with Kevin Maguire & Ben Templesmith on art for this issue. Maguire’s style is so much cleaner than the style on this series so far, so I’m curious to know what time period he’ll be tackling.
Honestly, can we get Andreyko on some Spawn Universe ongoings? I know he has written some in the past, and his style is really perfect for this line of books. You can check out this issue all on its own, but I strongly recommend #1-2 for a grounding in Violator’s beginnings.
That’s for Image Comics January 29 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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