Next week is the 19th new comic book day of 2025! This post covers DC Comics May 7 2025 new releases. Missed this week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics April 30 2025 new releases.
This week in DC Comics: Things get explosive for Birds of Prey, Absolute Braniac, New 52 omnis for Suicide Squad & Nightwing, Atom Project & Black Canary deliver their finales, Zdarsky’s final Batman collection, compact Kingdom Come, and more!
The Krisis Pick of the Week: Despite my heart beating faster just from thinking of reading Absolute Superman (2024) #7, this week I have to go with Birds of Prey (2023) #21 from Kelly Thompson, Sami Basri, Adriano Lucas, and Clayton Cowles! The script for issue #20 was nearly as good as the instant-classic script for #1, and the cliffhanger has had me wanting a follow-up all month long!
This post includes every comic out from DC Comics May 7 2025, plus collected editions in omnibus, hardcover, paperback, and digest-sized formats.
A word of warning – despite overall loving DC’s output right now, this is probably my least-favorite release week slate from DC in each month. Buckle up for some ruthless reviews.
This isn’t the typical comic releases post you can find on other sites. Why? I explain each collection and review every in-continuity series with a new issue out this week. Plus, for most new releases, I’ll point you to a personally-curated guide within the Crushing Comics Guide to DC 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 DC Comics May 7 2025 new releases!
DC Comics May 7 2025 Collected Editions
DC collected editions tend to hit the book market on the same day as the Direct Market (or one day prior), so all of these DC Comics May 7 2025 collected editions should also be available from your local bookseller next week!
Superman: Action Comics – Superstars Vol. 1
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1799501282 / digital)
See Guide to Action Comics (1986 – Present). Despite just being called Vol. 1, this collects Jason Aaron’s initial “Superstars” arc on Action Comics (1938) as well as the next arc with stories by both Gail Simone and Rainbow Rowell, ending prior to Mark Waid’s takeover of the title with “Phantoms.”
All of these comics were pretty bad. Aaron’s Joker story started strong and descended into a scope problem that was hard to believe happened in continuity. Simone’s arc was completely unreadable for me. Waid stepping in was a major relief for me.
Batman Vol. 5: The Dying City
(2025 hardcover, ISBN 978-1799501695 / 2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1799501725 / digital)
See Guide to Batman (1987 – Present). This final act of Chip Zdarsky’s Batman brought things to a conclusion that felt somewhat abrupt. Zdarsky had just one arc in the wake of Absolute Power (2024) to wrap up over two years of plot threads, and he did it with a different artist on nearly every issue and a pretty massive twist using Jim Gordon that might not work for you.
However, in terms of wrapping up all of his threads and themes, it does a good job at concluding a run that often divided fans.
DC Finest: Events – Zero Hour: Crisis in Time, Part Two
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1799501305)
See Guide to DC Universe Events – Zero Hour. DC completes their fairly comprehensive coverage of Zero Hour in a pair of DC Finest trades that match the mapping of their 2024 omnibus.
When I saw this second trade solicited I knew that the DC Finest line had some legs – because it’s pretty bold to remap an omnibus you just released into TWO paperbacks to kick off the DC Finest Events books.
I unabashedly love this mid-90s Crisis, which was a Crisis that came with its own easy-to-understand drama even if you didn’t fully realize all of the advanced timey-wimey implications that came along with it. I think it remains readable to this day. And, I’m fascinated by DC’s willingness to break up the main event series across two books so that their reading order would make sense… something Marvel might want to consider for its biggest events.
DC’s Misfits of Magic
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1799501268 / digital)
See Guide to DC Elseworlds & Infinite Earths. An all-ages OGN by Matthew Dow Smith that reimagines characters like Zatanna and Blue Devil as teenagers in a plainly sketched high school. This is definitely one aimed squarely at kids without as strong as an allure for adult readers.
Kingdom Come: DC Compact Comics Edition
(2025 digest-size “Compact” paperback, ISBN 978-1799501299)
See Guide to DC Elseworlds & Infinite Earths. DC’s signature Elseworlds tale of an aged group of their signature heroes hits their mega-hit miniature format. I’m always amused to see books with stellar artwork or dense text shrunk down to this compact format, but the sales figures don’t lie – readers of all ages love these cheap, easy-to-carry books! And, getting this landmark story for under $10 practically feels like piracy.
Nightwing: The Prince of Gotham Omnibus
(2025 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1799501312)
See Guide to Nightwing. On the spectrum of Nightwing runs, this reprinted omnibus of the New 52 launch run by Kyle Higgins & Eddy Barrows falls towards the middle. It’s not an explosive, boundary-pushing fan fave like the follow-up Grayson (2014) or the recently-concluded Taylor, Redondo, & Lucas run, but there’s nothing wrong with it, either.
If anything, it feels like a shorthand distillation of the prior 15 years of Nightwing, which is par for the course for most of the stronger New 52 character reboots. Alas, since there’s no Nightwing from prior to Flashpoint available in omnibus, this is the oldest material you can buy!
Outsiders Vol. 2: Never the End
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1799501244 / digital)
See Guide to Outsiders. Writers Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly really crashed and burned an awesome concept in the back half of this series that was a Planetary revival in everything but name. Things spun out of their control and the end just didn’t make much sense… but, few DC multiverse stories do, and if you are a fan of Planetary or Batwoman there are some fun moments along the way to a disappointing finish.
Suicide Squad: The New 52 Omnibus
(2025 hardcover, ISBN 978-1799501237)
See Guide to Suicide Squad. New 52 Suicide Squad was the inception of Harley Quinn as the headliner of the team. It took a while for her manic energy to click, as she herself was in the midst of a modern reinvention into an even more manic and dadaist version of her prior self (as influenced by the popularity of Deadpool).
This was originally written by Adam Glass as part of the New 52 “The Edge” line of slightly… well, edgier books. Later, the insurgent Ales Kot and indie darling Matt Kindt both took over for brief, delightfully twisted arcs. But, this team was destined for mass appeal with its film on the way, so it got much blander and tighter in the 2014 volume that followed.
Superman: Final Crisis – Legion of Three Worlds Deluxe Edition
(2025 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1799501329 / digital)
See Guide to DC Universe Events – Final Crisis or Guide to Legion of Super-Heroes.
Trinity: Generation S
(2025 paperback, ISBN 978-1799506294 / digital)
See Guide to Wonder Woman. This execrable collection includes the unreadable garbage flash-forward stories of Wonder Woman’s pointless and annoying daughter with the dead Steve Trevor that we will be forever burdened by thanks to the witless writing of the talentless Tom King.
I feel like I could use stronger language.
Of course Tom King had to “mom” the most famous heroine in all of comics to chain her permanently to the lead weight of plot that is Steve Trevor. That’s the only thing he can think to do with a powerful women. Either that or have them get drunk.
Nevermind that Wonder Woman is already synonymous with love, protection, and other maternal qualities. Nevermind that there was a perfect opportunity for her to adopt a child from another Amazon during King’s run. No. She had to travel to the afterlife so she could make a baby with Steve Trevor, because he’s just so special and being a parent with him is the only way to memorialize their love.
Honestly, I feel physically sick just typing that. It’s completely at odds with everything I love about Wonder Woman and her independence.
So, check it out!
Read on for a summary of all of the DC Comics May 7 2025 single issue releases!
DC Comics May 7 2025 Physical Comic Releases
Want to see each one of these DC Comics May 7 2025 single issues reviewed in one minute or less? Check out my weekly live stream “The Pull List” on YouTube!
Absolute Green Lantern (2025) #2 (digital) – See Guide to DC Absolute Universe. It’s time to redefine the sixth hero in the DC Absolute Universe. And, this time it’s not just a hero, but an entire mythology of the Green Lantern Corps and their ring.
Over the years I’ve found that Lantern books work the best for me when they are indistinguishable from Jedi Knights, so I knew Al Ewing would be fighting an uphill battle with starting this book on Earth. But, before I could even react to the Earthbound setting, I found I was reacting to Jahnoy Lindsay’s artwork.
It’s… fine. Good, even. But, held up against the “best in the business” artwork of every other DC Absolute title, it’s just not in the same (justice?) league.
I think Ewing’s first issue had a few intriguing ideas. One, that all of the familiar Earth Lanterns would be friends in a single dusty town. And, another, that the coming of Abin Sur would be an alien first contact situation with deadly result.
But, these are relatively small delights, and nothing like the twisted concepts of the other Absolute #1s. This book felt smaller despite having the most interagalactic motivation.
It’s mostly about why Hal Jordan has one hand in his pocket, and while the black hole he’s hinding there might be more interesting than an Alanis Morissette song, there’s one of the two I’d replay and it’s not this comic book.
There’s just no hook here and the art feels like a decent BOOM studios title, not DC producing the most eye-popping comics in the business. If it wasn’t for Al Ewing’s name I wouldn’t be back for this second issue… and, even with his name I’m not sure if I care.
Absolute Superman (2024) #7 (digital) – See Guide to DC Absolute Universe. Last issue was an origin story by Carmine diGiandomenico that showed how the Kents factor in to Superman’s origin in this work, leading to a new plot in the present with a signature foe – Brainiac.
That’s exciting not only because Brainiac is definitely the most-heightened, “super” force of opposition so far in this book, but also because diGiandomenico absolutely crushed on art duties last issue and he’s back for more.
I have loved Carmine diGiandomenico ever since he drew my pansexual murder son Daken back in 2010. However, on a book that had largely sold itself on eye-popping art from a modern student of Jim Lee like Rafa Sandoval, I felt like diGiandomenico could not possibly be a worst matchup.
Well… I was wrong. He pushed his style so far that by the end of the issue I don’t think I could’ve identified these pages as his. And, spectacular colorist Ulises Arreola doesn’t give him a set of typical DC house colors. Arreola pushes everything to shift red and orange, aglow with the power of the yellow sun radiating from within Kal-El’s body.
We’ve seen the origin of the Kents so many damn times that it’s hard to appreciate a new take on it, but Aaron turned in a smart one. This farm is done in not by natural causes, but by Lazarus corporation drones controlling the weather. The Kents discover Clark not as a baby, but as a boy on the verge of manhood, his body trying to process the trauma of even setting foot inside our solar system.
This is a story many books would linger on for an arc, but Aaron has to wrap it in one issue, hitting the major origin beats we all expect in time to race to the present day to pull Lois Lane back into thing. It kept up the trend of smart issues packaged as their own complete tales that pull us along and leave us wanting more.
For all of the sadness and brutality present in this book, I still feel like Aaron is writing a comic about hope in a way we’ve seldom seen him do before.
Batgirl (2024) #7 (digital) – If I had one word for the first arc of Batgirl by Tate Brombal, it’s “overworked.”
It’s like a dough he spent too long kneading that has lost all its elasticity and grown tough and hard to chew. Cass and Shiva had the same conversation for six issue. At a point, all the dialog became a blur to me, because they don’t seem to mean anything or progress the plot.
It’s especially tough to chew this sparse meal of a decompressed arc-ender because we’re getting fed some Michelin Star Batgirl scripting by Kelly Thompson in the same release week as this book in Birds of Prey (2023).
I’m not sure what anyone could see in this other than a chance to enjoy Cass drawn by the modern legend Takeshi Miyazawa as colored by Mike Spicer, but if it’s good Cass panel time you want then you should be reading Birds of Prey – not this messy, chewey, and ultimately pointless comic that still hasn’t figured out what story it plans to tell at the end of six interminable issues that appealed almost solely on the combined strengths of Miyazawa and Spicer. And, with an artist switchup to Isaac Goodhart on this issue, I’m not sure there will be any reason to keep reading.
Birds of Prey (2023) #21 (digital) – See Guide to Birds of Prey. A new arc kicked off last issue in this Kelly Thompson ongoing, and it kicked off with a big bang!
The first thing I noticed was that colorist Adriano Lucas clearly went back to study Jordie Bellaire’s slightly off-registration colors from the opening mega-arc of this book. Suddenly, I fel like we’re back into the color identity that defined this rather than the slightly brighter, glossier, cleaner DC standard of the last few issues. But, in a nice touch of nuance, Lucas only plays the out-of-registration look in specific kinds of light! If there is motivated lighting with an obvious source on or near the panel, we get those weird, fuzzy-edged colors, but exterior night and day looks different.
I loved it.
To continue to heap praise on the art team, I feel that Sami Basri is BROADLY under-credited for how beautiful and clean his artwork is. I don’t think I’ve ever disliked an issue from him! I love how his characters feel like boldly lined action figures on the page yet he consistently draws soft, distinct likenesses in a way that maybe reminds me a bit of Terry Moore.
And then, of course, there is Kelly Thompson! She wisely kicks off this arc in medias res, with an investigation already ongoing that we don’t fully understand. We’ve got Cass conferring with Batman, Barda breaking down doors in UAE, and Black Canary boom-tubing to Tokyo.
While I sometimes don’t love a team book that splits up its players, last month I think Thompson used to perfect effect to get the team starting on their back foot and to keep us off-balance as readers.
I can’t wait to see what comes next.
Black Canary: Best of the Best (2024) #6 (of 6) (digital) – The finale of Tom King writing another female character, for some reason.
JSA (2024) #7 (digital) – See Guide to Justice Society of America. This Jeff Lemire book isn’t just bad – it’s a total failure.
After a drawn-out first arc that seemed to exist just to cruelly murder a central JSA character (since truly not a single other thing happened), now we mourn said character – still not having spent any meaningful time with other JSA characters, nor having resolved the inert conflict with the Injustice Society.
I might have to drop this one, despite my love of the JSA and Infinity Inc. characters. It just makes me too miserable.
Justice League: The Atom Project (2025) #5 (of 6) (digital) – See Guide to Justice League (for now). For me, last issue paid off the plot of this book in a major way – and now I can’t wait to see how it wraps up.
The present and past stories have now both his their climax point, but that doesn’t meant this merges down to just a single stream of story. Now we’re seeing the past story accelerate towards the present conflict even while the present conflict is quickly spiraling out of the control of Captain Atom and the two Atoms. And, now it’s about to intersect with the main plot of Justice League Unlimited (2024).
I think this is very well structured and it is going to read terrifically in trade paperback.
Poison Ivy (2022) #33 (digital) – See Guide to Harley Quinn (for now). Yawn.
It seems increasingly clear G. Willow Wilson ran out of plot for this title at issue #24 and is just stringing things along now until the sales decline enough to cancel it. Last issue we had uneven art from Brian Level and a fight with a marsh monster.
Wake me up when this book relocates its reason to exist.
Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma (2025) #2 (of 6) (digital) – Do you want a guide to Resurrection Man? I’m almost done a Guide to Resurrection Man! He is one of my favorite DC characters! However, my ardor cooled after what felt like a pretty inert first issue from Ram V.
The first issue of this flirting-with-continuity Black Label book was certainly well-made! It just… didn’t use Resurrection Man very well, in my opinion.
Ram V’s story puts aside all of the magic of seeing Resurrection Man do his thing, wandering from life to life and death to death. Instead, it gives him an origin story that grounds him in World War II that simply isn’t interesting and has him living a full life.
I do think Ram V has tapped one intriguing idea here: Resurrection Man’s new life and powers always hinges upon how he dies, so what happens if he successfully lives to old age and dies of natural causes? Would that unlock some secret, leveled-up version of his powers? Or, will it lead to some form of transformation – an ascension one step closer to Nirvana?
That’s a good enough question to hang a whole series on, but I’ve never once felt like Resurrection Man had a dull issue before this book’s debut. I still hold out a hope, because I love this character and I broadly dig Ram V, but it could be a Black Label approach to this character just won’t hit with me.
Secret Six (2025) #3 (digital) – I enjoyed the first issue of this new Nicole Maines vehicle for her TV character Dreamer (and Jon Kent!), but for me the second issue was a slog.
Everyone yelled and fought with each other, and then they paused to recap issue #1 and all of Absolute Power (2024). And, everyone continued to be angry at Dreamer like everyone is in every comic she is in.
I think I’ve read almost every Dreamer appearance at DC at this point. It’s really astounding how little any author does to explain her powers or explore her personality. Maybe because Maines is Dreamer she thinks she can simply write in her voice and the character will come alive. Unfortunately, that’s just not happening.
I think the larger issue is the flat way that every Dreamer plot turns into “she does the right thing in the end but she can see our dreams and she only looks out for herself so we don’t trust her.”
Add to that the repetitive fight and recap of this issue, and all of my excitement from issue #1 has trickled away. It doesn’t feel like there’s any story to tell with this new Secret Six. I’m rooting for it, because I like Dreamer and Maines, but this book needs to shift into a different gear – and fast!
Teen Titans Go! (2025) #3 (digital) – See Guide to DC Elseworlds & Infinite Earths; this is a series to tie-in to the new cartoon of the same name.
That’s for DC Comics May 7 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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