New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Image Comics – April 9 2025

Next week is the 15th new comic book day of 2025! This post covers Image Comics April 9 2025 new releases. Missed this week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering Image Comics April 2 2025 new releases.

This week in Image Comics: A silent Jinx from Watters & Dani, two Spawn classics collected, a major explainer in Transformers, old-lady revenge, Geiger vs. The Glowing Woman, collected Lore Remastered, and more!

The Krisis Pick of the Week: This is a strong week of Image where I’m interested in every single book on the list, but there can be only choice for me – Dan Watters & Dani taking on my favorite Joe in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero – Jinx (2025) #1! Jinx has only popped up occasionally in Larry Hama’s relaunched A Real American Hero universe so far, so I’m looking forward to seeing her in this classic-style silent adventure.

This post includes every comic out from Image Comics this week on April 9 2025, 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 and Image Comics imprints, 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 April 9 2025 new releases!

Image Comics April 9 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 April 9 2025 books today from a traditional bookseller they will still be pre-orders and will arrive in a few weeks.

Lady Mechanika Vol. 6
(2025 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1534344907)
Both OmniDog and I love Lady Mechanika, a steampunk heroine with major 90s Image vibes. This HC collects a pair of mini-series – Lady Mechanika: The Monster of the Ministry of Hell (2021) #1-4 and Lady Mechanika: The Devil in the Lake (2024) #1-3. That hasn’t always been the case, as some past hardcovers have just recollected single mini-series from the initial-release paperbacks (which is what I’ve been collecting).

Lore Remastered
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1534385979 / digital)
This remaster is of a two-decades-old mini-series – Lore (2003) from T.P. Louise and Ashley Wood, as recolored and relettered in Lore Revisited (2024) #1-3. This edition has an additional 40 pages from the last time this series was collected in 2008.

Spawn: Godslayer
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1534367692 / digital)
See Guide to Spawn Universe. 2025 seems to be the year of Todd McFarlane getting every one of his historical Spawn supporting series back into print, and I am all about it!

From what I know, Godslayer isn’t an in-continuity Medieval Spawn, but an alternate universe Spawn written by Brian Holguin and drawn by Philip Tan in a fantasy world filled with magic and monsters. Basically, even more my kind of bullshit than typical Spawn bullshit!

Violator
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1534347595 / digital)
See Guide to Spawn Universe. This was delayed from last month… is it finally here? Because, this is a VERY BIG DEAL! It is the first reprinting of the classic Violator mini-series written by Alan Moore with art from Bart Sears (and colors by Steve Oliff)!

This was two years into Image Comics, so it certainly already had a lot of heat, but having Moore drop in for this mini (and Claremont on WildCATs) gave Image a lot of additional legitimacy in the eyes of skeptical fans.

Read on for summaries of Image Comics April 9 2025 single issue releases!

Image Comics April 9 2025 Physical Comic Releases

Want to see each one of these Image Comics April 9 2025 single issues reviewed in one minute or less? Check out my weekly live stream “The Pull List” on YouTube!

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero – Jinx (2025) #1 (digital) – See Guide to GI Joe – A Real American Hero (eventually… not years from now, but not days either). A silent issue focused all on my favorite Joe!!! I used to have back-ups on back-ups of the original Jinx figure in case any of them got lost or broken, including one pinned onto my wall mint-on-card with a sticky note that read “in case of emergency, break plastic.”

I initially thought these one-shots were going to be in continuity with the Energon Universe, but in a way it’s even cooler to see Skybound investing in getting major creators to expand on Larry Hama’s classic universe! This one is steered by Dan Watters on the no-dialog script with his frequent collaborate Dani on art.

That team would be an instant appointment for me on any GI Joe book, but on Jinx? It’s a dream come true, just as much as it was to see Kelly Thompson introduce her in the pages of the Energon Universe. I guess I’m not alone in Jinx being my favorite Joe, and I love that I have that in common with some of the coolest creators in comics!

Geiger (2024) #13 (digital) – See Guide to Ghost Machine (eventually… and, this one you can start counting the days!). Will this be the week I catch up with Geiger, just in time for it to launch its second year of storytelling? (Or, is it the third year, if we count the original mini-series?)

This issue has Geiger facing off against The Glowing Woman, and I love her stupid-simple name and how she looks incredibly cool on the cover.

Golden Rage: Mother Knows Best (2025) #1 (of 5) (digital) – I’m very intrigued by writer Chrissy Williams and her pitch for this book.

Williams was the editor of Gillen & McKelvie’s Wicked + Divine and Gillen & Hans’ DIE. I think editors turned writers can have some of the most structurally-tight comics. Plus, I love the concept of a badass main character who is an older woman in a world that doesn’t value women over a certain age – because that’s very much our world.

I don’t think this one will be very big based on it being from a new writer and having a woman-focused plot, but I’m keen!

The Moon Is Following Us (2024) #8 (of 10) (digital) – I devoured last issue last issue of this Daniel Warren Johnson, Riley Rossmo, Mike Spicer, & Shawn Lee jam. I wanted to rush through the action at the same time I wanted to linger on the outstanding artwork, colors, and lettering. It was a candy-colored spectacular.

After feeling like the last few issues of the first arc of this book were stuck in a bit of rut, now I think it is crackling with imagination and tension. The parents realize they can use their own unique connections with their daughter to manifest weapons that she’d find dangerous – rather than relying on realistic ideas of swords or guns that have no meaning in her dreamworld.

Also? The close of last issue saw DWJ prove you CAN write sexual assault as an underlying theme in your comic in a way that is disturbing while still being presented tastefully and without using it as a cheap tactic by male creators solely to make their women characters feel threatened.

Phantom Road (2023) #11 (digital) – This is a book from Jeff Lemire, Gabriel Hernández Walta, & Jordie Bellaire that’s back after a one year hiatus, which explains why I’ve never heard of it after my past few months of furious reading!

While I generally don’t vibe with Lemire’s writing, my favorite of book by him was with Walta: Sentient from TKO. I might check out Volume 1 for free with my GlobalComix subscription to see if this new collaboration clicks for me.

Spawn (1992) #363 (digital) – See Guide to Spawn Universe. Now that the Dead Zones have been re-opened by Nyx, Spawn has his powers back – but so does every rank and file demon, all of whom are hot to take a shot at Al Simmons.

Let’s start with the positives, shall we? The art last issue by Brett Booth colored by Robert Nugent was stunningly detailed. The action was easy to track through the fight, which can be a challenge with Spawn’s chains and cape and any number of demons with distended bodies.

And, the issue ended on a massive cliffhanger! Like…whoooo boy, that was a shocker.

But… much of the dialog and captions made no sense. They sounded like they had been translated badly from another language. It wasn’t just wrong verb tenses or weird comma placements.

The one caption in particular that drove me crazy was this, explaining the image of Spawn with his cap flung out wide behind him:

“The symbiote’s crimson flesh flares like a dragon with a dozen wings, effectively blotting out any light thus creating its own massive shadowed base.”

There’s an issue with the “like” prepositional phrase. The cape wasn’t “like” a whole dragon, which is an awkward image to conjure. It was like the dozens of wings of a dragon. Although, what dragon has a dozen wings? How does that even work? Is that a biblically accurate dragon?

Next, there’s the redundant “effectively… thus” formulation. If the cape is “effectively” doing its job, then we don’t need a “thus” to emphasize that their were consequences of the action. The consequences are already confirmed by it having “effectively” blotted out all light. Alternately, it could leave out “effectively,” which would make “thus” more useful in the sentence.

Then, there’s the weird “massive shadowed base” ending. How do you create a “shadowed base”? When you use “base” as a noun in this way, it’s about the bottom, support, or ground around something standing. A single person standing on ground doesn’t really have a “base,” nor would we say that there were shadows “at his base.” We’d just say “at his feet” or “surrounding him.” Also, based on the artwork, it doesn’t “create” shadows at the base so much as it blocks out the rising sun, which is actually a lot more dramatic!

Finally, there’s the roll of the caption as a whole. I am pro captions in comics. Modern artwork has become more detailed and doesn’t need as much explaining as it did in the past, but it can still be useful and stylistically engaging to narrate action to the reader. But, captions should be more than simply descriptive. They are meant to be a unique advantage in a comic writer’s toolkit to make up for the fact that these pictures don’t move. They should add something to our understanding of the artwork and the action it implies.

Spawn’s cape is flaring out behind him to create shadows at his feet, which will allow him to teleport. Simply describing that doesn’t really help the reader. What the reader needs is a reminder that Spawn’s cape is a part of a living suit without fixed dimensions, which the art alone cannot communicate. Also, it could be helpful to point out that shadows now surround Spawn and to articulate why this move gives Spawn a particular tactical advantage.

What if instead the caption read like this:

“Spawn’s cape is an extension of his symbiotic suit – crimson flesh that is alive yet unliving. It flares out behind him like the wings of a dragon, expanding until it completely blocks the rays of the rising sun. Suddenly, the battlefield is cloaked in shadows. And, Spawn is even more dangerous in the shadows.”

Sure, mine is longer. And it’s not perfectly elegant. But, it communicates the same ideas while explaining things the art alone cannot communicate – the powers of Spawn’s suit, how much of the battlefield is suddenly shadowed, and the threat that poses to Spawn’s enemies. But, we could be even brisker, and simply say:

“The cape of Spawn’s symbiotic suit  flares out behind him like the wings of a dragon, expanding until it completely blocks the rays of the rising sun. Suddenly, the ground around him was cloaked in shadow.”

This has less flair and adds less to the story, but it confirms for the reader what they ought to be noticing in the art.

I’m not saying that I’m a brilliant comic writer because I somewhat clumsily rephrased one Todd McFarlane caption. I’m just saying… this is what editors are for. They don’t just keep track of character continuity and fix spelling mistakes. It’s part of their job to make sure that comics are easy to read and understand, and that they are worth owning both as stories and as artifacts.

For met at the moment, Spawn isn’t meting that mark. And, that pains me, because all of the elements are there. McFarlane is a brilliant plotter. He just needs to set aside a few days of production time and a few hundred dollars of profit to have an experienced editor take a pass on his scripts.

Anyhow, that was one panel in the course of Spawn kicking a bunch of demonic ass. Pick up Spawn #363 to see the fallout from the big reveal at the end of the issue.

Transformers (2023) #19 (digital) – See the new Guide to Energon Universe! This is a big one! It’s been a year-and-a-half of building up to finally revealing the whereabouts of some of the biggest characters who have been conspicuously absent from this new Transformers continuity.

Last issue dropped major bombshell about one character known to all Transformers readers – yes, even non-fans like me! Now, Daniel Warren Johnson unwinds the story behind that reveal.

I’ve been catching up on this book via GlobalComix by reading one arc for every new issue, so I can’t wait to be caught up to present day for this one.

That’s it for Image Comics April 9 2025 new releases! What were you already pulling? And, did I convince you to check out anything new? Sound off in the comments below.