Next week is the 4th new comic book day of 2025! This post covers Marvel Comics January 22 2025 new releases. Missed this week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics January 15 2025 new releases.
This week in Marvel Comics: Ultimate Spider-Man Year Two, Battle of Jakku ends, Wanda vs Not The Bore Worms, Akihiro rides again, Books of Doom are back, a Strange Masterworks milestone, Ultraman x Avengers wraps, Phoenix vs Thanos, Herald Rogue, and more!
The Krisis Pick of the Week: Phoenix (2024) #7! I think this series has been getting better with every issues, and the past two have delivered exactly what I want from a cosmic Jean Grey series. With Phoenix on a collision course with Thanos, this is developing into one of the biggest Jean stories of all time and I am here for it.
This post includes every comic out from Marvel Comics January 22 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 22 2025 new releases!
Marvel Comics January 22 2025 Collected Editions
Alien: Black, White & Blood Treasury Edition
(2025 oversize “treasury edition” paperback, ISBN 978-1302957032 / digital)
See Guide to Aliens Comics. I found this bloody anthology series to be really engaging. Every Aliens story is going to result in some gore after all the suspense. Boiling that down to a series of 10-20 page black-and-white stories with a pop of blood is the perfect pace to set up and cut down a series of disposable humans.
Doctor Doom: Books of Doom
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1302964733 / digital)
See Guide to Fantastic Four. We had hints of Doctor Doom’s origins for decades by the time Ed Brubaker penned this 2005 series, so it’s not like his beginnings were as obscure as Wolverine’s. However, Brubaker managed to weave all of those hints of tragedy and pathos into a coherent narrative that progresses Doom into the character we know today.
The original printings of this slim volume has been attracting absurd aftermarket prices for nearly 20 years now – I paid a lot for my copy over a decade ago! With Doom’s profile higher than ever before this year, it’s nice to see Marvel going back for a reprint in Books of Doom.
As long as you go into this as a Doom fan knowing it’s not a superhero book, I think you’ll enjoy it. And, there’s stills some magic and action in here!
Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev Omnibus Vol. 2
(2025 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302957636 / digital)
See Guide to Daredevil. The new Daredevil show has prompted a reprint of the second half of Bendis & Maleev’s early-00s run on Daredevil (1998), which remains a modern Marvel classic. This is an incredibly binge-able run as Bendis spins the story of a very grounded Daredevil who briefly experiences joy but then descends into tragedy.
Personally, I find this to be such a quick read that I like owning it in paperback – both for the form factor and because I was reading it on bus rides and lunch breaks when I binged it! However, if you’re a big Daredevil fan (or Maleev fan) who anticipates reading this repeatedly in your home, you should definitely pick up this long-awaited reprint.
Also, remember, this run doesn’t have a finale so much as it has a climax that just rolls right into the two omnibuses by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark!
Iron Man Epic Collection: Stark Wars
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1302960476 / digital)
See Guide to Iron Man – Tony Stark. After a decade Marvel goes back to print on this early Epic Volume covering the classic Armor Wars storyline in full! I suspect Marvel wanted to get this out ahead of the Ironheart show as well as because an Armor Wars film has been teased (but not paired with a directory or scheduled).
Marvel Masterworks: Doctor Strange Vol. 11
(2025 hardcover, ISBN 978-1302955625 / digital)
See Guide to Doctor Strange. This Masterworks volume is kind of a big deal.
Why? This completes coverage Doctor Strange’s 1974 series in Masterworks and pushes into Strange Tales (1987), which has already been collected in color. We also already had this final run of issues collected in color, as they are part of the popular “Don’t Pay the Ferryman” storyline. However, this also includes Marvel Graphic Novel (1982) #23 AKA “Into Shamballa” – reprinted here for the first time since it’s original release!
That means we now have ALL of Doctor Strange collected in at least one format. EVERYTHING!!! It’s always a special day when we hit complete collection status for any Marvel character or title, and it’s been a long road to get there on Doctor Strange.
Savage Avengers by Gerry Duggan Vol. 2
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1302958480 / digital)
See Guide to Conan (which I just massively updated)! I was a little soft on this Conan-centered modern day Avengers team to start, but the run really caught fire in the back half collected in this volume with some truly spectacular art and an incredible finale! If you love the idea of Conan teaming up with Doctor Strange with appearances from femme fatales like Elektra and Magik, you’ll love this.
Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider Vol. 1: Haunted
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1302958862 / digital)
See Guide to Spider-Gwen – Ghost Spider. I was very satisfied with this first arc of Spider-Gwen. It places her back into Earth-616 with instructions to lie low and both Peter and Silk looking after her, but she just can’t help but get sucked back in to spider-drama.
I think if this book has a detraction, it’s that divorced from Earth-65 Gwen loses a lot of her punk rock energy and starts to feel like just another Spider-Person. A lot of these plot beats feel like they would work just as well for Silk as they would for Gwen. But, those beats do make for a solid, enjoyable plot, and after an early switch-up the art is pretty strong.
I’d recommend this to existing Gwen fans, but I don’t know if it’s going to turn a new reader on to the character.
Read on for a summary of all of the Marvel Comics January 22 2025 single issue releases!
Marvel Comics January 22 2025 Physical Comic Releases
Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #66 (digital) – See Guide to Spider-Man – Peter Parker (2018 – 1963). After last week’s pit-stop in a Coulson-focused decimal issue, we’re back to the main event of Spider-Man’s many deaths with Justina Ireland tagging in on writing.
You’ll want to pick this story up from the start at issue #61-62.
Blade [Red Band] (2024) #4 – See Guide to Blade. Alas, since this Bryan Hill series is a physical-only Red Band book, I cannot report on its progress to you!
Doctor Doom & Rocket Raccoon (2025) #1 (digital) – See Guide to Rocket Raccoon. What an odd little one-shot this is. Marvel seems to have handed the “do whatever you want” keys to J. Michael Straczynski in the wake of his crash-and-burn on Captain America, and his pitch is a series of double-sized one shots with absolutely random character pairings like this one with artist Will Robson.
Fantastic Four (2022) #28 (digital) – See Guide to Fantastic Four. I unabashedly love this Ryan North run on Marvel’s first family, but I’m hoping him being the architect of “One World Under Doom” means we’ll get some bigger stories. This is the first official prologue story for that major event.
The calling card of this entire run has been that every story is a one-shot or two-shot that tends to be heavily focused on just one or two characters, even if the whole team is present. Everyone has got their moment to shine, from the main four, to Alicia Masters, to the cast of four kids.
However, that calling cards means there hasn’t really been any building storyline in the title once it resolved the mystery of the disappearing Baxter Building from the first issue about a year into the run. That makes some of the milder one-shot stories feel like they are treading water, and the past two issues have been very mild – especially issue #27, which focused on the kids.
The upside is that this is truly a run you can pick up and read anywhere. Plus, no story wears out its welcome! You can simply grab this issue next week, but I strongly recommend reading the brilliant run of slightly meatier one-shot stories from #23-25 to get a sense of what North is really capable of on this book.
Hellverine (2024B) #2 (digital) – See Guide to Daken – Akihiro (eventually… maybe in the not too distant future…) for this comic that’s more Ghost Rider than mutant.
As one of the world’s biggest Akihiro fans, that’s actually fine with me. I want to see him adventuring solo, but I think in a post-Krakoa world it would be disappointing for him to going back to being a bisexual serial killer like he was in his original solo series back in 2010.
To my eternal surprise, Issue #1 was… great? Ben Percy struck the right balance of a character who is struggling to come to terms with even being alive (in the wake of “Sabretooth War”), let alone bonded with a spirit of vengeance.
It helped to have Raffaele Ienco Ienco straight off of Darth Vader, but also Percy has a better voice for a post-contrition Daken than he ever did for Wolverine. It’s not the Akihiro we’ve known and loved in the past, but it’s an intriguing hook for a Ghost Rider comic. Also, I really enjoyed Percy & Ienco’s run down tired version of Doctor Strange… perhaps a Percy Strange book is incoming?
I don’t think you have to go back for the prior Hellverine (2024) series as a prelude to this one, which I found joyless. Just pick up the #1, which was a terrific recap on its own.
Iron Man (2024) #4 (digital) – See Guide to Iron Man. In concept, this new Iron Man run is great: it sees Tony flush with cash but low on corporate power as he is stuck watching Roxxon and AIM trying to take control of a version of Stark Unlimited that was back to making some very serious weapons during Fall of the House of X.
However, I’m finding this run punishingly flat. Spencer Ackerman has set up an interesting boardroom tug-of-war dotted with some familiar Marvel characters as both allies and antagonists, but it reads like a Wikipedia entry. It’s not so much that the voices are off, but that everything feels like it is being reported on rather than unfurling in a thrilling fashion. I really struggled to finish issue #.
Also, this new run started with the dullest possible scene in issue #1 and I’m still holding that against it!
Julius Ohta is designing the hell out of every suit thrown his way like this is the last comic he’ll ever get to draw, so I try to take refuge in how awesome the artwork has been.
I don’t think my annoyance here will translate to everyone. It feels like writers are really trying to put a unique stamp on Tony in the wake off Dan Slott’s very safe run through 2020, and both Christopher Cantwell and Gerry Duggan succeeded in that mission. I think Ackerman has the right idea and it’s not bad, so I’m hoping once he gets past the first arc things improve.
Kid Venom (2024) #4 (of 4) (digital) – See Guide to Venom. This continues the tale of an alternate-Earth Venom of 977 Japan from writer/artist Taigami. I haven’t been reading this since it’s non-continuity (duh), but fans seemed to really loathe the last issue!
My suspicion is that this is something that will be a fun distraction to read as a single graphic novel rather than as individual issues.
Marvel Rivals Infinity Comic (2024) #6 – I’m enjoying this low-stakes, high-fun take on the world of Marvel Rivals! It’s mostly a frothy fight comic, but it pulls in just enough continuity and combo moves from the video game to feel like it’s draping a semblance of storyline around it.
Mystique (2024) #4 (of 5) (digital) – See Guide to X-Men – From the Ashes (2024 – Present). I haven’t been too impressed with this slow-burning spy thriller from writer/artist Declan Shalvey. It feels more like a post-SHIELD Nick Fury comic co-starring Mystique than an essential Mystique story.
However, you could easily argue that a spy thriller where Mystique lingers at the edges of the plot is more of a Mystique story than one that’s squarely focused on her playing the role of herself.
I suspect this will hit well for many readers, but after Mystique and Destiny had such an outsized role to play throughout Krakoa it’s feeling like a bit of a letdown for me. I’d love to see Mystique unchained from the X-Men for a bit and let loose into the wider Marvel Universe, so perhaps this can accomplish that goal.
Phoenix (2024) #7 (digital) – See Guide to X-Men – From the Ashes (2024 – Present). I think this Stephanie Phillips cosmic Jean Grey series has gotten stronger and stronger with every issue but fans are still sleeping on it. (Except for the Jean Grey super-fans, they are insane.)
I feel like a lot of folks who are down on this book are reacting to a slow, somewhat sloppy build in the first few issues, which kept us at a distance from Jean by having someone else as the narrator. However, issues #5-6 were superb, with Phoenix waltzing with Eternity while making life-or-death errors in judgment because she is still just a mortal.
Those issues also ramped up Thanos as Jean’s major foe in this run. Maybe this makes me a borderline-deranged Jean stan, but the idea of her going 1:1 against the signature villain of the MCU is a titillating prospect for me. I want an endless amount of Jean as an intergalactic force of nature whose errors come from second-guessing the power of the Phoenix Force due to her human heart.
Despite the slow start in issues #1-3, I do think it helps to have read this series from the start because of one of the antagonists whose development started there. However, if you’re feeling impatient, just jump in with issue #5 – if you don’t like that one, this series probably isn’t for you.
Scarlet Witch (2024) #8 (digital) – See Guide to Scarlet Witch. This is another in a string of easily-accessible one-shot stories starring a new character introduced in issue #5, so it’s a perfect issue to jump into this title.
Part of the strength of the first series of this Steve Orlando Wanda vehicle was its storytelling insurgency. It got in and out for quick hit tales in the opening issues to set up a brief but satisfying longer arc in the back half. However, Orlando started this series with a full arc, and that really weighed it down. I just don’t believe we need a string of 4- and 5-issue Wanda stories. The original series was great specifically because it shied away from that.
Thankfully, the past few issues have gotten back to those one-shot stories. And, we’re also back to art from Lorenzo Tammetta & Frank William, who thrilled me on Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver (2024).
I don’t think the past issues are quite as vital and novel as the prior series, but they’re very well constructed dense reads with tons of action for Wanda. I suspect this issue will keep up the trend.
Star Wars: Battle of Jakku – Last Stand (2024) #4 (of 4) (digital) – See Guide to Star Wars Expanded Universe Comics. I am ready for this miserable 12-part pile of nothing to be over so we can move forward with other Star Wars comics.
Last month we finally arrived at the titular battle, and the introduction to it was laughably bad. It’s like nothing that happened in the past ten weeks of comics was even necessary to get to this point.
Actually, it’s not like that… it is that. And, nothing happened again in last week’s easy. We get a tiny morsel of one minor character connection as Luke continues to be dragged from scene to scene with no agency and that’s it.
This comic makes me so angry. This should have been a jewel in the crown of Marvel’s expanded universe – the first time the current continuity of comics has explored the stories directly following Return of the Jedi. Instead, it’s mere crumbs of ideas without much characterization or plot movement.
TVA (2024) #2 (of 5) (digital) – See Guide to Spider-Gwen – Ghost Spider. This is a peculiar little series, which in the first issue felt as if it was a second Spider-Gwen solo title that also was fully in-continuity with the Time Variance Authority we saw in Deadpool vs. Wolverine (complete with several familiar faces).
There’s no way Gwen can support two of her own titles – she can barely keep one alive! – so I expect the focus to shift to other characters as we move forward. However, I really liked Katharyn Blair’s script in #1, including her voice for Gwen. And, this may be my favorite Pere Pérez pencils of all time as colored by Guru-eFX.
I think if you’re a little bored of Gwen being on Earth-616 in her solo series or you like Exiles-style multiverse teams, this book could really click for you. But, definitely step back to start with issue #1 – a lot of stuff happened there!
Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) #13 (digital) – See Guide to Marvel Ultimate Universe. Year Two of the smash hit, industry-leading title from Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto begins!
Last month’s Christmas issue was mostly downtime spent in the kitchen of the Parker’s condo, which reminded us that Hickman can do excellent slice-of-life scenes on par with Bendis’s when he feels like it. It pressed on a bit long for my tastes, especially a somewhat hollow argument between MJ and her semi-estranged sister.
However, the issue ended with a truly surprising pop of darkness that queued up this Sinister Six story!
Due to how each issue of this title is present as a snapshot from a month in Peter Parker’s life, you really can pick it up with any issue to see if you enjoy it. However, this issue in specific seems like it is going to pay off a lot of plot buildup, so I’d say you should start at least from issue #10 – if not just read the series from the start. It’s amazing!
Ultraman X The Avengers (2024) #4 (of 4) (digital) – See Guide to Avengers (2010 – Present). Kyle Higgins really has the market cornered on Ultraman-esque heroes with his indie Massive-verse, so it makes sense to see him writing this non-continuity Avengers book (though it may be in-continuity for the current run of Ultraman series at Marvel, since they’re also written by Higgins).
Uncanny X-Men (2024) #9 (digital) – See Guide t0 X-Men – From the Ashes (2024 – Present). Gail Simone’s Uncanny is back with another issue to follow “Raid on Graymalkin” after just two weeks.
The quality of the script in that prior issue really hit an all-time low (for more on that, see ComicsXF’s recap), with a total “WTF” approach to scripting Rogue as a main character. The only thing that sound right were the off-hand quips from background characters like Magik and Juggernaut, who aren’t even in the cast of this book!
That emphasizes for me that Simone simply has the wrong mix of characters in this title – both in terms of team dynamics and for her scripting talents. Rogue, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Jubilee, & Wolverine don’t have the right mix of powers and personalities to be a functional team, and they all have voices and histories far too specific to bend to Simone’s whims.
Adding in a slew of newly-created characters to the mix isn’t helping any, and this issue seems to be focused entirely on them based on the cover and the solicit.
I am never happy to see one of the X-Men flagships be so bad. I know some folks out there are enjoying this frothy approach to X-Men, but it seems like a lot of fans who have long-term relationships with these characters are really struggling with this title.
That said, if you want to sample it, this is as good a place as any! You haven’t missed all that much development of these new characters aside from them going to high school in issue #6, which didn’t really do much for their personalities.
What If…? Galactus Transformed Rogue? (2025) #1 (one-shot) (digital) – See Guide to What If? The next in our series of unconnected Galactus What If one-shots is written by Ann Nocenti, so you know it’s going to be a weird one, with Stephen Byrne on pencils.
I have to admit that I might be curious enough to pick this up despite my firm “no What Ifs!” policy as a dedicated continuity cop.
Wolverine: Revenge (2024) #4 (of 5) & Red Band Edition (2024) #4 (of 5) (digital) – See Guide to Wolverine – Logan. This is the penultimate issue of Jonathan Hickman & Greg Capullo’s slash’em-up revenge tale that so far appears to exist entirely outside of continuity.
While that makes it disposable for current X-Men readers, it’s a smart strategic move from Hickman – who is trying to seed some prestige non-continuity character-focused stories for Marvel that can be evergreen collected editions.
Note that you can buy this series in digital format and read it on Marvel Unlimited, since the “Red Band” version is a variant and not the only version of the issue available for sale.
X-Men: Xavier’s Secret (2025) #1 (one-shot) (digital) – See Guide to X-Men – From the Ashes (2024 – Present). This physical one-shot collects X-Men: From the Ashes Infinity Comic (2024) #1-6. That’s the first two stories from the digital series.
The first is a relatively disposable Jean & Scott story that acts as a prologue to the Phoenix series. However, the second is a major Xavier story that fundamentally alters the end of the Fall of the House of X! Some people aren’t wild about the retcon, but I think it is a clever plans-within-plans story for Xavier that’s told in an interesting way.
That’s for Marvel Comics January 22 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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