Ultimates

Next week is the 1st new comic book day of the new year, and that means I’m back to cover Marvel’s new releases! This post covers Marvel Comics January 1 2025 releases.

This week in Marvel Comics: Ultimate Guardians of the Galaxy, Zdarsky & Checchetto’s dual Daredevils in Omnibus, Pak’s Darth Vader finale, Jed MacKay’s Moon Knight Vengeance, Black Cat vs. The Avengers, Sam Wilson vs. Red Hulk, debuts for Cable & Deadpool, and more!

I was so proud of keeping up with these posts for an entire half a year at the start of 2024. Unfortunately, life conspired to get in the way in June and July. After that, rather than leap right back to the weekly posts, I took five months to update every Marvel Comics guide on Crushing Comics. Every. Single. One.

Even small guides. Even Patrons-only guides. They’re all updated with comics and collections released through the end of 2024 and into 2025. This is the first time all of Marvel has been updated at the same time since 2024! Now that I’m feeling confident about how all of the guides look, it’s time to get back to tracking all of Marvel’s new releases.

The Krisis Pick of the Week: The Ultimates (2024) #8! Denis Camp has been on fire on this Ultimate Universe team book throughout 2024, and his choices of which 616 heroes to adapt keep getting more and more surprising.

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 1 2025 new releases!

Marvel Comics January 1 2025 Collected Editions

Daredevil by Chip Zdarsky [& Marco Checchetto] Omnibus Vol. 2
(2025 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302956264 / digital)
See Guide to Daredevil. This collects the back half of the outstanding Zdarsky/Checchetoo run co-starring Daredevil and Elektra. That includes final arc of Zdarsky & Checchetto’s Daredevil (2019) series, the main Devil’s Reign (2021) event series as well as the supporting Elektra series Daredevil: Woman Without Fear (2022) #1-3, and all of the subsequent Daredevil (2022).

I could not recommend this run any more highly. It is fantastically written and voiced with spectacular artwork. This is peak Daredevil, even among the many peaks the character has enjoyed across the past 25 years of publishing.

Two things to note: First, the solicit for this series has never included Elektra #100, which is an odd omission since it contains Zdarsky content that fits into this era’s story. We’ll see if it turns up in the actual book.

Second, for the full story of the post-Devil’s-Reign plot, you’ll also want to read Jason Aaron’s Punisher (2022) #1-12. It’s an amazing series, which is not something you’ll often hear me say about Aaron or Punisher! See my Guide to Punisher for collection details.

Get Fury
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302912543 / digital)
See Guide to Punisher. Yes, really! Because Get Fury (2024) #1-6 extend the story of the Punisher MAX universe with this Vietnam-era prequel as written by Garth Ennis. That means this book is NOT in Marvel-616 continuity.

Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Team-Up Vol. 8
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1302955571 / digital)
See Guide to Spider-Man – Peter Parker (1963-2018). Marvel Team-Up (1972) was almost entirely Spider-Man title, with Human Torch occasionally swapping in for a team-up. This volume is notable as much for what it contains (stories by Chris Claremont & Sal Buscema) as for what it doesn’t (it skips issue #79, a team-up with Red Sonja).

Micronauts: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 3
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1302957254 / digital)
Collects Micronauts (1979) #55-59 and Micronauts: The New Voyages (1984) #1-20.

Micronauts was a short-lived MEGO toy property whose continuity was vastly expanded by Marvel. The Marvel comics long outlived the toys and Marvel fully integrated the Micronauts in their 616 Universe just as they did with ROM (see Guide to ROM – Spaceknight for more on that!). Today the Micronauts are owned by Hasbro.

This omnibus completes Marvel’s recollection of the entirety of their two main ongoing Micronauts series. However, it controversially skips over the beloved The X-Men and the Micronauts (1984) mini-series by Chris Claremont, Bill Mantlo, & Butch Guice. Marvel gave no hints as to why they skipped that material while collecting similar material in their ROM omnibus line.

Will Marvel announce the mini as a standalone oversize hardcover to please both X-Men fans and Micronauts fans? It feels like a pipe-dream, but stranger things have happened with Marvel’s collections in 2024!

Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1302957537 / digital)
See Guide to Spider-Man – Peter Parker (2018 – Present), although this J.M. DeMatteis & Michael Sta. Maria retcon series actually fits within the first year of Amazing Spider-Man (1963) with a story of the Osborn family from shortly before Norman is the Green Goblin.

You may be surprised to learn that that was one of my favorite comic books of 2024! I’m a little surprised about it myself. J.M. DeMatteis’s writing for Spidey is as impeccable as it was over 30 years ago. Plus, this retcon story feels substantial and connects several disparate plot threads from decades of existing comics, rather than shoe-horning in something unnecessary and new. Highly recommended for fans of classic Spider-Man comics! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: Marvel Comics – January 1 2025