Next week is the 3rd new comic book day of 2025! This post covers Marvel Comics January 15 2025 new releases. Missed this week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics January 8 2025 new releases.
This week in Marvel Comics: Blade Epics hit the 90s, the Road to Onslaught re-collected, Aliens in Paradise, the Deadly Phil Coulson, an Asgardian jam, Rogue in the Savage Land, Storm vs. Doom, Ultimate Wolverine debuts, and more!
The Krisis Pick of the Week: Storm (2024) #4! With more issues, I think this series could have easily been my favorite comic of 2024. Murewa Ayodele is walking a tightrope of plot that could result in a major fall, but it feels like his balance just gets better with every issue. Having Lucas Werneck along for art helps! See below for more thoughts on this excellent solo run.
This post includes every comic out from Marvel 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 series with a new issue out this week. Plus, for every new release, I’ll point you to a personally-curated guide within the Crushing Comics Guide to Marvel 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 Marvel Comics January 15 2025 new releases!
Marvel Comics January 15 2025 Collected Editions
Blade Epic Collection Vol. 2: Nightstalkers
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1302956547 / digital)
See Guide to Blade. The Blade Epic Collection line starts with a bang by picking him up in the 90s, recollecting Tomb of Dracula (1991) #1-4 and pressing onward to Nightstalkers (1992) #1-6. Issues #2-5 are collected here in color for the first time!
That also hints that a first Epic Collection will wind up being a slimmed down version of the Blade: The Early Years omnibus that ends on Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #64, which makes sense since it collects a heck of a lot of Tomb of Dracula (1972).
Marvel Masterworks: Ka-Zar Vol. 4
(2025 hardcover, ISBN 978-1302955601 / digital)
Damnit, I really need a Ka-Zar guide! Marvel presses on with an unexpected fourth volume of this Masterworks line that collects Ka-Zar (1974) #10-20, [Uncanny] X-Men (1963) #115-116; and material from Rampaging Hulk (1977) #9 and Marvel Fanfare (1982) #56-59.
I was truly puzzled that this is leap-frogging Ka-Zar’s entire 1981 series to pick up the later Shanna The She-Devil story from the end of Marvel Fanfare until I realized that story is told in flashback and fits here – not only in continuity, but in when Steve Gerber originally wrote the script!
That makes this an incredibly rare Masterwork that skips ahead for later material, alongside Ms. Marvel Vol. 2 (which picks up Chris Claremont’s unfinished Ms. Marvel (1977) issues that were burned off as anthology stories over a decade later).
Marvel-Verse: Daredevil
(2025 digest-size paperback, ISBN 978-1302954529)
Weirdly, this book isn’t available in physical or digital on Amazon’s US site!
See Guide to Daredevil. This introductory book includes an odd hodgepodge of Daredevil stories from Uncanny Origins (1996) #13, Marvel Age: Spider-Man (2004) #15, Daredevil (1964) #235, Daredevil (2011) #30, and Daredevil (2016) Annual 1/2016 (1st story).
The idea of these Marvel-Verse collections is that they are easy for new readers to appreciate (and aren’t too adult), and I suppose all of these single issue stories fit the bill.
Venom: Separation Anxiety – The King in Purple
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1302958381 / digital)
See Guide to Venom. This collects a third in a series of David Michelinie flashback mini-series, this one revisiting the title and theme of the classic Separation Anxiety.
X-Men: Road to Onslaught Vol. 1
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302959500 / digital)
See Guide to Uncanny X-Men in the 90s or Guide to X-Men Vol. 2 (1991 – 2001). This release is a big deal, because it’s one of the remaining swaths of flagship X-Men to never be collected in oversize hardcover!
It also happens to be the run of comics that drove me (and Near Mint Condition’s Omar!) away from reading X-Men. And, it’s also where I am right now in my X-Men re-read with Kid Krisis – although it’s no longer a “re-read” for me since I’ve never read these issues before!
Looking back, my major complaint about this era was Joe Madureira’s increasingly cartoonish artwork starting to become the defacto style of Uncanny X-Men (1963), since it was mirrored perfectly by Roger Cruz. I had never been a fan of either of them, being more into Andy Kubert’s muscular art that felt more derived from Jim Lee.
Re-reading this with modern eyes doesn’t help me appreciate the art any more, but I what I do appreciate is how tightly coordinated the flagship titles were by writers Scott Lobdell & Fabian Nicieza. That meant appearances and character arcs made perfect sense between the two books, which had separate narrative thrusts but several shared cast members.
This is a volume that was initially solicited to be just one book, but feedback from online fans (and especially from NearMint) convinced Marvel that it is actually a pair of volumes. Your wallet might wince at spending double the money, but we got a ton more material into the books as a result to make them the most-complete mapping of this era we’ve seen to date.
Read on for a summary of all of the Marvel Comics January 15 2025 single issue releases!
Marvel Comics January 15 2025 Physical Comic Releases
Alien: Paradiso (2024) #2 (of 5) (digital) – See Guide to Aliens. This new Aliens series from Steve Foxe follows the xenomorph onto a remote resort planet that doubles as a location for making deals between intergalactic organized crime syndicates. The first issue set up all of the characters and conflicts and introduced our first chest burster, so now we’re in for four issues of carnage.
I tend to prefer my Aliens stories either nearer to the central mythos or harder sci-fi, so this is a bit on the dull side for me. Like… if all these characters die… cool? I think Aliens is at its best when we’re rooting for someone to escape. But, I realize a lot of readers are in this just for the carnage, and from that standpoint it is sure to satisfy.
Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #65.DEATHS (digital) – See Guide to Spider-Man – Peter Parker (2018 – Present). This is an extra bonus issue of the “8 Deaths” storyline focused all on Phil Coulson as Marvel’s current harbinger of the afterlife.
Since I’ve been putting off reading the “Infinity Watch” annuals crossover for nearly half a year now, Coulson’s new status quo was a surprise to me when I first encountered him in this arc! I suppose if you’re a major Coulson fan who wants to see him in a comic every now and then (even if he’s not quite alive), this is the issue for you.
Otherwise, I think you can safely skip it and move on to issue #66 if you wanted to – but, be sure to start reading this clever arc from Joe Kelly & Justina Ireland with issue #61.
Avengers Assemble (2024) #5 (of 5) (digital) – See Guide to Avengers (2010 – Present). This is the finale of the Steve Orlando mini-series of one-shot Avengers missions from Cap’s jacket-wearing away team.
Honestly, I wish it would continue. With Jed MacKay writing an Authority-style Avengers on the main book with an “icons only” cast, I really think we need an ongoing second title with a broader cast of characters on lower stakes missions. While not every issue has hummed along as well as the first one, I truly appreciate this oddball assemblage of classic members like Captain America, Wasp, Hawkeye, Hercules, and Photon, along with newer picks like Julie Power & Night Thrasher.
Since this is the final issue, it’s bringing together some subplots that Orlando has teased along the way with the Serpent Society, so I’d say you should start with #1 to get in on the ground floor (and because it was great).
Exceptional X-Men (2024) #5 (digital) – See Guide to X-Men – From the Ashes (2024 – Present). This book is doing everything right, from character voices from Dr. Eve Ewing to sumptuous artwork from Carmen Carnero colored by Nolan Woodard. It’s just moving a bit slowly as Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost joust over the training of three new mutants in Chicago (with Iceman checking in on them).
Last issue was very entertaining. Kitty, Emma, & Bobby are a trio of characters with tons of history between them, which yields plenty of juicy dialog. But, this is very much a “kids finding their powers” initial arc without much(/any?) external conflict.
Personally, I really go for X-books of this nature – that are all about life without the need for every issue to have a villain. Many Claremont issues of Uncanny X-Men (1963), New Mutants (1983), and Excalibur (1988) were just people hanging out at home trying to understand their powers.
In that way, this could be the most Claremontian book in the entire line – and perhaps the best looking, although it has stiff competition from another X-book out this week.
Immortal Thor (2023) #19 (digital) – See Guide to Thor – Odinson. Al Ewing is deep into his story about stories about stories, which is dissecting the Thor myth in a similar fashion to how he dissected the Hulk’s psyche in Immortal Hulk (2018).
This is a “Tales of Asgard” jam issue stuffed with what looks like one artist per page, so it’s probably fine to read as a standalone,
However, this issue aside, every issue of this series heavily builds on what came before – not only in this book, but in past runs, other Al Ewing books, and even Strange Academy! As a result, I think it’d be best to start from the start on this one. But, if you must jump in mid-story, begin with the recent Thor/Hercules team-up against Zeus and Nyx that started in Immortal Thor (2023) #13 – a dense and satisfying issue.
Incredible Hulk (2023) #21 (digital) – See Guide to Hulk – Bruce Banner. This series continues to be a stunning, gory art book for Nic Klein & Danny Earls to alternate showing off with Matthew Wilson on colors, but the story from Phillip Kennedy Johnson is nothing but monstrous fluff.
If you want to pick this up, the current arc began last issue in #20 with the beginning of a throwdown between Werewolf by Night and Hulk’s underage companion Charlie.
I was really enjoying the evolution of this series as it pressed into its second year, but the last arc was a real turnoff for me. There’s no real story being told – just monsters on monsters on monsters until the plot is pure nonsense an unending amount of physical and emotional abuse for our young woman co-lead, which is exactly the kind of book PKJ always writes.
But: it’s a great art book! If you like scary, body horror Hulk but want something less brainy than Al Ewing’s take, this book will please you.
Laura Kinney: Wolverine (2024) #2 (digital) – See Guide to Wolverine – X-23. I think the first issue of this Erica Schultz series was absolute perfection for Laura’s character. It put her back in “saving people because she cares too much” mode that often worked for her in Tom Taylor’s All New Wolverine (2016) and did it in a one-and-done story with a fun nod to deep X-lore. Plus, I enjoyed Giada Belviso artwork.
Since issue #1 was a one-and-done, you can simply pick this one up and enjoy it! I’m mildly annoyed that we’re already doing guest-stars with Elektra as Daredevil on the cover, but I’ll give it a pass since Schultz writes both characters and has already had them interact in prior series.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2022) #29 (digital) – See Guide to Spider-Man – Miles Morales. Last month Miles’ adventures in Wakanda continued.
Black Panther and Shuri tried to take the same approach to curing Miles’ vampirism as T’Challa used during his Blood Hunt mini-series: appealing to Bast. Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite to plan, and now Miles finds hims in a fight not only to regain his humanity but potentially for his life!
If you want to jump onto this, I’d say issue #25 is the right place to begin – not too far back, but enough context to know why this arc is important.
I’m straight-up in love with Cody Ziglar’s scripts for the past year of Miles, but I’m equally as frustrated with Daniele Di Nicuolo’s art on this arc. Di Nicuolo draws in a super-cute way that reminds me of Derek Charm on Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. That works for plainclothes scenes of Ganke back in Brooklyn, but it’s entirely the wrong tone for Miles and T’Challa’s epic moments in the spirit world.
If you don’t zero in on art as much as I do, you’ll likely be into this with few reservations!
I wonder if choosing Di Nicuolo is a push to aim this book at younger readers with more of a taste for WebToons style art instead of the more angular work we’ve been seeing on this title recently. I’d agree that Miles should have a book that trends towards younger fans, but I can’t help but regret at how many cool scenes from this arc are just looking a bit silly.
Rogue: The Savage Land (2025) #1 (of 5) (digital) – See Guide to X-Men – From the Ashes (2024 – Present). This isn’t a present day From The Ashes series, but another retcon series to the late 80s and early 90s era of X-Men. Except, this one isn’t from Big Daddy Claremont, but from indie superstar Tim Seeley.
Seeley, co-creator of both Hack/Slash and Local Man (one of my current favs) is joined by Zulema Scotto Lavina, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Ariana Maher. I think Rogue’s time in the Savage Land circa Uncanny X-Men #269-275 is ripe for additional stories. We really spent comparatively little panel time there with her in a brief stretch of issues.
The potential downside is that this era is so thoroughly defined by Jim Lee’s art (as well as Tom Orzechowski’s letters!). Can any modern penciller hint at Lee’s boldness? The preview pages I’ve seen from Zulema Scotto Lavina look slick but lack Lee’s lithe muscularity for Rogue, but I’m interested to see what Seeley, Lavina, Rosenberg, & Maher have in store.
I enjoy how this is doubling down on Rogue’s status as an A-List X-Men in the wake of X-Men ’97 and Uncanny X-Men (2024). Where’s that X-Men Legacy omnibus, Marvel!?
Spirits of Vengeance (2024) #5 (of 6) (digital) – See Guide to Ghost Rider. We hit the penultimate issue of this Ghost Riders limited series from Sabir Pirzada with Paul Davidson, Andrew Dalhouse, and Travis Lanham that’s trying to focus on all of the Ghost Riders.
I’ve appreciated Pirzada’s ambition to connect key moments from the backstories of every major Ghost Rider into a single plot. I think the idea of a Spirits book – that’s plural spirits – has a lot of potential. Some elements of this story have really worked! The set-up of a disembodied spirit of vengeance as an old scarecrow in issue #1 was ingenious. And, Johnny Blaze breaking into an underwater Atlantean prison in issue #2 was one of my favorite Ghost Rider issues in years!
But, we’ve also been burdened with a lot of lengthy flashbacks from many different Riders and some hard-to-parse arguments between several vaguely drawn vengeance spirits. Andrew Dalhouse, typically one of my favorite colorists, hasn’t been helping with a lot of wan, washed out color looks on a book that ought to be bleeding off the page.
And, now that we’ve got at least four Riders in play, this issue promises to add Ghost Rider 2099 into the mix!
I appreciate that Pirzada has brought a lot of heart to his take on the Spirits of Vengeance, because I think these characters are a lot more than the grim, morbid take that Ben Percy has had for them over the past few years. Maybe this series just tried to do too much too quickly with too many Ghost Riders. Or, maybe a different art team (or just a different art style) could’ve given Pirzada’s tale a bit more punch.
I’m bummed that it’s not amazing and that fans seem to be sleeping on it. Maybe at 10 or 12 issues this concept could’ve really had legs, but as a six issue speed run it’s feeling a bit muddy.
Star Wars: Battle of Jakku – Last Stand (2024) #3 (of 4) (digital) – See Guide to Star Wars Expanded Universe. This is the third in a series of three four-issue mini-series released nearly-weekly covering the nine months immediately following Episode 6. Essentially, this is Episode 6.1.
That’s an area of storytelling I’ve been eager for the Expanded Universe to cover in the past decade, and while it has touched on parts of the crumbling Republic in some of its novels, I believe this is the first Skywalker-focused media for that period we’ve had so far.
(Compare that to the Star Wars Legends old expanded universe, which frequently lingered on “The New Republic” both in novels and comics.)
Unfortunately, this event written exclusively by Alex Segura has turned out to be a major dud. That’s disappointing not only from a reading perspective, but from knowing a boring story is now cemented into canon as what all of our favorite character did directly in the wake of the Original Trilogy.
Segura had a potentially-compelling set-up of some post-Palpatine villains emerging while the Rebellion was on shaky ground. But, the story has a “rubber-banding” problem like playing a video game with bad lag. We’ve been watching the same characters double-cross each other and be defeated only to unexpectedly rise over and over again for 10 issues now.
It feels like two steps forward, two steps back storytelling meant to drag out a small amount of material to a maximum amount of issues before we actually arrive at the titular “Battle of Jakku.”
Also, all of the characters are such ciphers that none of this feels like it matters, even when an Original Trilogy character is on panel. Segura has created at least three new characters with interesting potential, but only his main antagonist has any dimension. Luke wanders from setup to setup without any real purpose or interest. Lando spouts random rebellious aphorisms with no connection to the complex journey Charles Soule took him on over the past four years.
All of my problems with this series were really accentuated for me last issue. In the middle of a fight scene, Leia was stumbled into peril in a way that directly echoed Padme… only for Han to suddenly appear from off-panel (after having crossed several systems in a matter of pages) to zap her attacker in the back. There was no moment to linger on the significance for Leia, to compare her with her mother or contrast Han with Anakin. Han’s arrival is treated as a convenience of plot rather than a parallel, and they share a brief dry exchange before they kiss and we move on.
I’ll read the last two issues of this in the hopes that Segura can leave us with some developments that feel worthy of the Skywalker Saga, but after a decade of these characters being under incredibly steady stewardship it really feels like we’re lost in space.
Storm (2024) #4 (digital) – See Guide to X-Men – From the Ashes (2024 – Present). After a slightly bumpy #1 that had to establish a lot of plot motivation, issues #2-3 of this comic from Murewa Ayodele, Lucas Werneck, Alex Gomes, and Travis Lanham has felt like a beautiful fever dream. For me, this is currently the best of all of the X-Men: From the Ashes line.
I love how Ayodele doesn’t stay in a single rhythm, alternating between heavy dialog scenes, silent pages, and 3rd person narration to manipulate the pace of the book. Yes, he uses a lot of splash pages (wouldn’t you with Werneck drawing your script?!), but he also knows how to slow down for a meaningful conversation; it’s not a quick read.
I also love how each issue has played with one minor twist of plot that is sure to rile up some fans, from Storm’s mission in the first issue, to some unexpected discrimination in the second one, to a brief tryst in the third.
It’s that unexpected, off-balanced quality that makes this such an appealing title in the midst of a line that’s delivering a lot of remixed nostalgia and out-of-character choices. Also, I don’t think we’ve ever seen Lucas Werneck drawing at this level, even on his outstanding turn on Gillen’s Immortal X-Men (2022). Every image of Storm is more beautiful than the last. The likenesses and expressions of his characters have continued to get tighter and more unique to him, especially with an all-star cast last issue that included an amazing appearance from Doctor Voodoo.
(Sign me up for a Murewa Ayodele Doctor Voodoo series ASAP!)
This issue finds Storm headed to a meeting with Doctor Doom, which may determine her fate. That’s doubly-interesting now that he’s the Sorcerer Supreme about about to lead his own huge line-wide event!
I’m so intrigued where Ayodele will take this story, especially since he has teased on social media that he has a deep story bible that takes us far beyond just one or two arcs. I think it’s finally Storm’s time to shine as a solo hero in the Marvel Universe, and right now I’m pretty confident that she has found a creative team who understands her innately.
Ultimate Wolverine (2025) #1 (digital) – See Guide to Marvel Ultimate Universe. It’s our first new Ultimate title after the initial launch quartet, and we’re getting a solo Wolverine book from Christopher Condon with Alessandro Cappuccio, Bryan Valenza, and Cory Petit.
Condon turned in a pleasingly terse teaser story for this in Ultimate Universe: One Year In (2024) #1, plus I enjoyed him on the Venom War: Daredevil (2024) one-shot. I wasn’t a fan of his Image Comics debut That Texas Blood (2020) so it’s been fun to see him showing some range in Marvel’s universe. And, of course, Alessandro Cappuccio had a star-making turn on Jed MacKay’s Moon Knight over the past few years!
I think it’s interesting to see Marvel expanding the Ultimate Universe with an individual mutant, but looking at their cast of characters it makes an amount of sense. Many familiar characters are already tied up in either The Ultimates or Maker’s council of rulers. And, anyone else with a superpower was prevented from experiencing their inciting event – such that we’ve actually seen many of them as civilians in other books. But, The Maker couldn’t stop every mutant from developing their x-genes … though Logan is a pretty huge missed opportunity (as alluded to in One Year In)!
Also, this title gives X-Fans a more-traditional entry into the Ultimate Universe if they’re not down with the Peach Momoko’s Manga-influenced approach to Ultimate X-Men (2024), which has proven to be divisive.
You don’t have to read anything to be ready to pick this up, but not only does Ultimate Universe: One Year In (2024) #1 have that teaser story, it also has an A-story about Ultimate Nick Fury that explains the Ultimate Universe very well along the way.
What If…? Galactus Transformed Moon Knight? (2025) #1 (digital) – See Guide to What If? This week’s Galactus story is told by Alex Segura with Scot Eaton, Cam Smith, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Clayton Cowles. Moon Knight is an interesting pick for a Galactus’s Herald story. He used to be strictly a street-level character, but the past decade has made his connection with Khonshu much stronger and more cosmic.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (2024) #2 (of 5) (digital) – This comic is out-of-continuity with the Marvel Universe, but in-continuity with the new Disney+ Spider-Man show of the same name! Reliable Spider-writer Christos Gage teams with Eric Gapstur, Jim Campbell, and Joe Caramagna to spin this prequel to the cartoon.
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