Next week is the 2nd new comic book day of 2025! This post covers Marvel Comics January 8 2025 new releases. Missed this week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Marvel Comics January 1 2025 new releases.
This week in Marvel Comics: Sam Wilson’s saga, Epic Guardians, a Venomous mystery, Elektra unleashes hell, X-Men are Magik again, New Champions, Ultimate Panther vs. Moon Knight, The End of Marvel, and more!
The Krisis Pick of the Week: Magik (2025) #1! Magik scores her first ongoing series and it’s by a relatively new comic writer, Ashley Allen. Can Allen make magic with Magik and turn her into the newest X-Men solo star? I can’t wait to find out!
This post includes every comic out from Marvel 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 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 8 2025 new releases!
Marvel Comics January 8 2025 Collected Editions
Captain America: The Saga of Sam Wilson
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1302956639 / digital)
See Guide to Sam Wilson – Falcon & Captain America. This isn’t a “best of” collection like some Saga trades, and isn’t even all material of Sam Wilson as Cap. But, it’s all pretty good!
This collects Sam’s debut as Cap, his initial 2015 single-arc series by Rick Remender from before Secret Wars, his 2016 return to being Falcon in Marvel Legacy (which I think got slept on), and the one-shot showing off his seemingly permanent return to being Cap alongside Steve as Cap from 2023.
Why collect that disparate group of material separated by two years of comics? It skips over a lot of other material of Sam as Cap, including his entire 2016 series from Nick Spencer. However, that’s all collected in Complete Collections, so it makes sense to collect around it with this book. The one thing that’s critically missing is All-New Captain America: Fear Him (2014), a digital series that was actually his first run with the stars and stripes.
Guardians of the Galaxy, Modern Era Epic Collection Vol. 2: War of Kings
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1302959968 / digital)
See Guide to Guardians of the Galaxy. While some Modern Era Epics are just reskinned Complete Collections, this one actually improves on the existing Guardians of the Galaxy by Abnett & Lanning: Complete Collection, Vol. 2 by collecting the back half of their series and adding in Thanos Imperative: Ignition (2010) #1, and Thanos Imperative (2010) #1-6. That’s really the climax of Abnett & Lanning’s original Guardians run, so it makes sense to include it here.
I’d really recommend starting with Volume 1, because the circumstances that form this team continue to play out through the remainder of the run.
I do think it’s odd that this isn’t also solicited to include Thanos Imperative: Devastation (2010) #1, unless it pops up in the indicia when the digital version releases next week. I suppose they could be saving it for a follow-up, since the conclusion of Thanos Imperative has a strong link to how Bendis’s run begins.
That means the speculated Volume 3 would likely be Devastation #1, Annihilators (2010) #1-4, Annihilators: Earthfall (2011) #1-4, and inito Bendis’s Guardians of the Galaxy #0.1 & 1-10. That would leave a solid Vol. 4 to take us through Secret Wars.
Marvel-Verse: Captain America – Sam Wilson
(2025 digest paperback, ISBN 978-1302954666)
See Guide to Sam Wilson – Falcon & Captain America. This is one of Marvel digest-sized “get to know the character” comics. It collects the first three issues of All-New All-Different Avengers (2015), the Cap/Sam Generations one-shot, and a Sam story from Marvel’s Voices: Legacy (2022) #1.
Weirdly, this item is withdrawn on Amazon’s US site, even though everyone else seems to think it is coming out next week.
Marvel: The End Omnibus
(2025 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-130295966 / digital)
I really need a Guide to the Marvel Multiverse, but I think I’ve got too much lasting trauma from the 30+ hours it took to build the Guide to DC Elseworlds seven years ago to kick off the the Crushing Comics Guide to DC Comics.
This omnibus doesn’t just collect the original “Marvel Universe: The End” mini-series, but many subsequent “The End” minis and one-shots addressing how specific characters or teams might meet their fates (but not other future-focused series like “Old Man,” “Life Story,” or “Twilight” branded books).
That includes: Incredible Hulk: The End (2002) #1, Marvel Universe: The End (2003) #1-6, Wolverine: The End (2003) #1-6, X-Men: The End Book One (2004) #1-6, X-Men: The End Book Two (2005) #1-6, X-Men: The End Book Three (2006) #1-6, Fantastic Four: The End (2006) #1-6, Iron Man: The End (2008) #1, Captain America: The End (2020) #1, Captain Marvel: The End (2020) #1, Deadpool: The End (2020) #1, Doctor Strange: The End (2020) #1, Miles Morales: The End (2020) #1, Venom: The End (2020) #1.
If you dig these sorts of “end of the world” books, this one is the motherload – with tons of Claremont writing one potential end to his vision of the X-Men.
New Avengers Omnibus Vol. 1
(2025 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302959142 / digital)
See Guide to New Avengers. Does this reprint of the first three years of Bendis Avengers hint that we could finally see a second volume of this long-abandoned Volume 1 omnibus? Or, are we getting it just because The Sentry is tipped to appear in the MCU this year and this collection has a lot of his story?
If you’ve never read this, it is an epic sprint from Avengers Disassembled through the formation of the New Avengers to House of M and through Civil War, taking us right to the brink of Secret Invasion. You don’t need a single issue of preparation to jump into this. It’s Bendis at his superheroic best. But, it’s also out in a series of recent Epic Collections, so you don’t have to grab it in omnibus if you don’t want to.
Star Wars Legends: The Empire Omnibus Vol. 3
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302959791 / digital)
See Guide to Star Wars Legends (Old Expanded Universe). We are approaching full Marvel Omnibus coverage of the old Dark Horse comics Star Wars continuity. This volume resolves “The Empire” stories that stretch from just after Revenge of the Sith to just prior to A New Hope.
These books are a continuity nerd’s dream, because they put stories from two decades of comics into perfect chronological story order. This volume starts just five year before A New Hope – around the time Andor happens in the current Expanded Universe. It combines a number of Jabba The Hutt one-shots from 1995, a Bobba Fett mini-series released alongside the Prequels, Force Unleashed game tie-ins, an a number of 2011-2012 mini-series.
Symbiote Spider-Man 2099
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302949969 / digital)
See Guide to Spider-Man 2099. This is not part of Steve Orlando’s ongoing relaunch of the 2099 universe! Instead, it’s a Peter David retcon series set directly after Spider-Man 2099 (1992) #43 that features the original 2099 continuity and not the version that has been tinkered with several times in the past decade.
I found this an enjoyable read, but it’s very heavily predicated on how much of the original PAD Spider-Man 2099 series you recall. He basically gives himself the gift of an extra arc to resolve dangling plot threads here, since that 1992 series wrapped up with issue #46.
Wolverine: Madripoor Knights
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302952242 / digital)
See Guide to Wolverine – Logan. Speaking of retcon series, here’s one of Chris Claremont’s ongoing string of mini-series inserting hinted-at stories into his run on Uncanny X-Men.
This one gives us more present-day adventures of Logan, Psylocke, Jubilee, Captain America, and Black Widow that followed Uncanny X-Men (1963) #268 prior to the X-Tinction Agenda crossover. If you are absolutely obsessed with that iconic flashback issue and wished there was more story to follow, this is the mini-series for you.
If you don’t immediately picture the Jim Lee cover of UXM #268 in your head whenever you see the number “268” you can skip this.
X-Men: Decimation Omnibus HC
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302960247 / digital)
See Guide to Marvel Universe Events – House of M & Decimation. This is not a general X-Men omnibus to pick up for any X-Fan, but it is two very specific things at once: An in-continuity epilogue showing the aftermath of House of M and a kick-off of the period of mutant misery and scarcity the era that eventually leads to Messiah Complex.
This is a series of disconnected mini-series showing how the X-Mansion has been turned into a makeshift concentration camp in the wake of Wanda’s proclamation of “No More Mutants.” We also get glimpses of horror as many beloved characters lose their powers.
If that sounds exciting to you, you may be an incorrigible X-Fan.
What this does not include is much actual X-Men – and what there is will eventually be in other omnibuses: X-Men (1991) #177-179 (which would be in an eventual Peter Milligan omnibus), New X-Men (2004) #20-24 (the kickoff of “Childhood’s End”), and the opening arc of X-Factor (2005) #1-4 (already in X-Factor by PAD Vol. 2).
Read on for a summary of all of the Marvel Comics January 8 2025 single issue releases!
Marvel Comics January 8 2025 Physical Comic Releases
All-New Venom (2024) #2 – See Guide to Venom. Al Ewing continues his multi-year run on Venom into a much smaller and more street-level comic. I enjoyed the heck out of issue #1 last month, in no small part to bold artwork from Carlos Gomez and colors by Frank D’Armata (continuing to maintain a unifying color story from Venom (2021)).
Plus? It feels like Al Ewing is having fun again without that fun feeling as grindingly mandatory as it did in Venom War.
You don’t have to read a single issue of Ewing’s Venom to pick up this series. All you need to know is that Dylan Brock is Eddie’s son, and he wants to find the Venom symbiote… which seems to be inhabited by someone other than Eddie right now. Issue #1 gives us a few suspects (and has Dylan in the custody of Mary Jane, which is a fun little twist).
I’m curious to see if Ewing continues to expand the suspect pool even as some of them are eliminated. I think that would be a fun twist, especially because I’m not really in love with any of the four options we started with.
Daredevil: Unleash Hell – Red Band (2025) #1 – See Guide to Elektra, because this is an Elektra-as-Daredevil series. I am seriously annoyed by Marvel continuing this tend of physical-only Red Band comics, which locks out digital readers (like me) from following some of our favorite characters.
It’s especially a bummer for me because Erica Schultz really seems to have a handle on Elektra’s voice based on her Gang War mini from last year. I was excited for more, but… I guess none for me.
Magik (2025) #1 – See Guide to X-Men – From the Ashes. Magik is back with her first ongoing series! Woot!
Writer Ashley Allen doesn’t have much of a bibliography to date. She’s a graduate of DC’s Milestone Initiative development program for diverse writers, and she’s been on a number of anthology one-shots in the past year but this will be her first time writing more than one consecutive issue of anything! She has already written Magik last year in her Blood Hunt one-shot. Illyana was voiced decently there, but it was mostly one big fight scene.
Allen is accompanied by veteran Germán Peralta with colorist Arthur Hesli and letter Ariana Maher, and I have to say previews of the interiors of this book look pretty awesome! Certainly much better than their clickbait-y J. Scott Campbell covers.
I like Marvel taking a chance on newer talent after giving Allen an audition on the Blood Hunt issue. I definitely want to see more new writers in the X-Office, especially since right now the newest comic writer in the line (Murewa Ayodele) is writing circles around all of the other writers in the line.
At the same time I wish Magik’s first ongoing series was being helmed by someone with an established track record. I suppose with her surging popularity in Marvel Rivals she has her own draw regardless of who is writing her, but I fear if this doesn’t click it will be another decade before we see her as a headliner again.
Fingers crossed that this is awesome.
Marvel & Disney: What If…? Mickey & Friends Became The Fantastic Four (2025) #1 (of 1) – There’s another vote in favor of that Marvel Multiverse Guide! I think it’s cute this exists for the intersection of Marvel zombies and Disney die-hards.
Namor (2024) #6 (of 8) – See Guide to Namor the Sub-Mariner. I have been on a journey with this Jason Aaron Namor series of double-sized issues that started with piss play (I wish I was kidding about this) and just got more miserable from there (I also wish I was kidding about this).
This is Aaron in full-on pessimist mode, showing us how Namor’s privileged youth was really a series of catastrophes and his present day finds him unable to halt a world war of the seas. I tend to tune out when Aaron gets stuck into a doom-and-gloom groove like this one (the total opposite of his vibe on Absolute Superman), but his total bummer flashbacks of a young Namor are actually really intriguing.
Issue #5 was terrific – Aaron’s past and present plots really clicked into focus for me there, and Neeraj Menon’s colors popped. After struggling through the first few issues, I’m really hooked to see how this resolves and where it will leave Namor’s status quo in the Marvel Universe.
New Champions (2025) #1 – See Guide to Champions. Steve Foxe and Ivan Fiorelli are charged with the potentially thankless task of relaunching Marvel’s Champions team with a cast of all-new heroes.
If teen team books are a hard sell in today’s market, teen team books without a single known character to anchor them are a brutal sell. This isn’t a market where a book like the original Runaways could catch fire. Over the course of the past decade we’ve seen this sort of concept done well and be largely ignored (New Warriors (2014), Adam Glass’s run on Teen Titans (2016), Teen Titans Academy (2021)) and done badly and eviscerated (Children of the Atom (2021) and the pre-cancelled New Warriors (2020)).
Even Brian Bendis’s Young Justice (2019) couldn’t limp past the 20-issue market with a cast packed with beloved characters making a return to continuity (though Rainbow Rowell doubled his issue count on her remarkable Runaways (2017) run). Really, Mark Waid & Humberto Ramos relaunching Champions as a youth-focused team in 2016 is one of the few big wins when it comes to teen teams in the past decade.
Is Steve Foxe a secret weapon that can make this book work? He came from writing YA graphic novels before graduating to Marvel-616, so he’s well-equipped for the tone of this book. But, I don’t know if that will sell many copies – and the more-recognizable cast of Waid’s Champions don’t show up until issue #3.
NYX (2024) #7 – See Guide to X-Men – From the Ashes. When it comes to Jackson & Lanzing’s NYX, I’m not angry – just disappointed.
The first three issues of this series were pure fire. I was convinced it was going to be my favorite comic of 2024! Each issue followed a different young mutant as they tried to find their footing in New York City, with varying success It was the one book in the “From the Ashes” line that fully acknowledged the tragic loss of Krakoa while still finding a way to move forward.
Then, things crashed and burned. Some of that was outside of Jackson & Lanzing’s control – like a fill-in in issue #4 just as they were gaining momentum heading into the final of their first arc. But, they also turned in a weak, horribly-paced resolution to that arc #5 and an insubstantial one-shot in issue #6.
Suddenly we’re half a year deep into a series that seems to be experiencing a real problem with follow-through. I’d be a little less worried if this wasn’t a theme on some of J&L’s recent superhero books (see also: Outsiders (2023)).
Last issue brought back a deep cut mutant tied closely to the concept of the book and this issue promises the return of Synch, who is one of those characters that hardcore X-Fans love (and which made us love Krakoa).
Synch is an interesting character to use, because he was off-the-board for nearly 20 years of comics, so he only has connections with characters from the original Generation X (1994) and with folks he intersected with while being a major player on Krakoa… and this book is anchored by a pair of them in Wolverine and Ms. Marvel.
I want to love this book again, so I’m hoping Synch can help this snap back into the rhythm established by the first three issues.
Sentinels (2024) #4 (of 5) – See Guide to X-Men – From the Ashes. I don’t love this book, but social media does!
There are a lot of X-Fans who think this book focused on human/sentinel hybrids is the best of the line.
I see a bunch of interchangeable and forgettable characters, rough indie-caliber art, and dismal colors boring me to tears in a title that could be focused on mutants instead.
Which side are you on?
Star Wars: The Battle of Jakku – Last Stand (2024) #2 (of 4) – See Guide to Star Wars Expanded Universe (2015 – Present). I finally started catching up on this series of Jakku mini-series this week. Despite being released under three different titles, they’re effectively a single 12-issue event released almost weekly.
The event directly follows the end of Return of the Jedi. Like ,Star Wars: Battle of Jakku – Insurgency Rising (2024) begins minutes after the finale.
There’s a certain electric thrill to seeing the Expanded Universe finally begin to explore this territory in the comics after dancing farther away from the Skywalker Saga in the novels. But, it also marks the end of an era of the Star Wars line centering on two or more books filling in the continuity between installments in the original trilogy.
Together, I think that makes this worth reading before our focus splinters between pre-Prequels (with Jedi Knights (2025), focused on the Jedi order before Phantom Menace) and the Sequel Trilogy (with Legacy of Vader (2025) focused on Kylo Ren)
The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #65 – See Guide to Spider-Man – Peter Parker (2018 – Present). This continues the eight-part “8 Death of Spider-Man” story following a series of mystical challenges for a Spectacular Sorcerer Spider-Man as he serve as Doom’s stand-in against the trials of Cyttorak.
The first two issues of this story in #61-62 were pure gold. Funny, dense, and so full of quips and thwips that Spidey actually talks about “quips and thwips” in the comic!
Then, the second two issues of this story in #63-64 were dull, git’er’done affairs.
The difference is the author. Issues #61-62 were written by Joe Kelly and issues #63-64 by Justina Ireland. Ireland is able when it comes to steering a Spidey comic forward, but she just doesn’t have the right voice for Spidey and it makes things drag.
Kelly writes this issue, but the two of them continue alternating until issue #70, followed by Joe Kelly relaunching this series into a new #1 for some reason. I don’t think the Ireland issues are bad enough to tank this super-cool story, but it’s a pity she’s not quite up to maintaining Kelly’s tone or pace.
Ultimate Black Panther (2024) #12 – See Guide to Marvel Ultimate Universe. I just re-read this series before writing this post, and here’s where I land: it’s a binge book!
What I mean is that the individual issues of Bryan Hill’s Ultimate book just aren’t satisfying. They are some of the quickest reads in the entire Marvel line, and they often start with seemingly random fights with no real sense of place or importance and then zoom through a decompressed middle to a cliffhanger ending
However, when read together, it’s easier to feel the rhythm of the series. The similar structure shows us the ebb and flow of T’Challa pushing against his enemies Khonshu and Ra only to lose ground because he doesn’t understand the fullness of their plot to rule the entirety of Africa.
Also, this looks really damn good. The alternating art between Stefano Caselli and Carlos Nieto is a perfect match while still being distinct to each artist’s established style, in large part thanks to David Curiel’s vivid, saturated color look.
And let’s be honest: a huge draw of this book is Hill’s version of a revolutionary Storm who never left Africa with Professor Xavier.
Uncanny X-Men (2024) #8 – See Guide to X-Men – From the Ashes. The conclusion of “Raid on Graymalkin,” a sort-of-crossover between the two main X-Men flagships where both series still read okay on their own.
I’ll save my extended commentary on this book until next month, but the main thing to know is that this isn’t really an X-Men flagship. It’s a New Mutants book, or maybe “Rogue & The X-Men” with her in the place of headmaster Wolverine.
I think if you go in with that idea it might be more palatable for you than it has been for me.
What If…? Galactus Transformed Gambit? (2025) #1 – See Guide to What If? Gambit as a Herald of Galactus? Whoo, he’s ’bout to make a name for himself here, thanks to creative team Josh Trujillo & Manuel Garcia.
Wolverine (2024) #5 – See Guide to Wolverine – Logan. I’m relieved to be able to close out this post by talking about a From The Ashes book I really like!
I think Saladin Ahmed is a rare writer who actually has a clear-eyed view of Logan’s inner life. When Ahmed’s Wolverine narrates his time in the Canadian wilderness, it’s not just a generic string of “I’m the best at what I do” and other well-worn tough guy cliches. Ahmed’s Logan thinks and acts like a dynamic character in a way we haven’t seen for a long while.
That said, this story feels both amorphously large and claustrophobically small. We’ve been promised a strange gold metal that wants to subsume Adamantium and everyone whose body is laced with it. But, in practice, a lot of this story is focused on Logan hiking through the woods and trying to keep an unlikely ally alive: a wayward Wendigo that hasn’t don’t anything wrong… yet.
I think it’s the Wendigo hook that makes this series really work for me. It allows Ahmed to access Wolverine’s animalistic nature as well as his paternalistic leanings. Maybe that plays a little too soft for folks looking for a “RED BAND” style Logan book, but combined with gorgeous artwork from Martin Coccolo and colorist Bryan Valenza this has thoroughly won me over.
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