Image Advance Arrivals: October 2025
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Invincible Universe: Battle Beast vol. 1
Mark Grayson’s story may be done and over with, but the universe of “Invincible” has plenty of other colorful characters ready to have their backstories explored. Particularly in the wake of the massively successful animated series it inspired. You could argue that writer Robert Kirkman and artist Ryan Ottley are just cashing in on that, but Kirkman has been shown to be especially paranoid about exploiting his comics in that fashion. You’ll recall that the only “The Walking Dead” comic published since the series’ end was the “Negan Lives” one-shot that he and Charlie Adlard did to benefit comic shops in the early days of COVID. So if he’s doing a “Battle Beast” story, you have to imagine that he has a good idea for it. With Kirkman writing this, I’d be here for whoever he got to draw it, but he got longtime “Invincible” artist Ottley to do it, and that just means this is going to be great!
Spawn: The Dark Ages #1 (of 6): I still don’t care about “Spawn.” Nor do I care about a Spawn who fights off invaders in Britain during the titular era. What I do care about is that it looks like creator Liam McCormack-Sharp is going back to his detailed pencil and ink style for this project rather than continuing to work in his digital paint format. His work in that style was murky and hard to follow, dragging down projects like “Green Lantern” and “Batman: Reptilian.” Hopefully this change is for good and I’ll be able to enjoy future projects featuring his art, after he’s done with this one.
Transformers #25: As I mentioned last month, it’s a whole new era for the Robots in Disguise as Robert Kirkman takes over as writer and Dan Mora becomes the new artist, even as the solicitation indicates that previous artist Jorge Corona will be contributing here in an unspecified capacity. I’m all for this new creative team, which is good since the solicitation text doesn’t give us much to go on here besides stating that the Autobots must work with their unexpected allies to protect Earth. It really feels like they’re dancing around something big that happens in the previous issue, which is to be expected. Start placing your bets now on whether this is the start of an ongoing “Transformers/G.I. Joe” team-up, if a certain number of Decepticons have joined up, or if the Dinobots have entered the fray. While we’re on the subject of some Real American Heroes…
G.I. Joe: Cold Slither (One-Shot): Haven’t you heard? 2025 is the year of “Cold Slither,” the greatest rock band that ever was! Not only are we getting new “Cold Slither” figures, but this one-shot from writer Tim Seely and artist Juann Cabal too. We’ll finally learn the true story behind what was once the biggest band in the world from their very own perspective, which was DEFINITELY NOT that of the Dreadnoks on an undercover mission. Should be fun, particularly with Cabal illustrating it, and I’ll look forward to seeing it collected in a future volume of “G.I. Joe” at some point. While we’re on the subject of comics I’d like to see collected at some point…
Good Devils: Don’t Play Fair With Evil (One-Shot): This anthology of stories comes to us from “Comics Alliance” contributor and comics editor turned comics writer David Brothers and artist Nick Dragotta, who’s currently tearing it up on “Absolute Batman” right now. Who knows where he found the time to illustrate this 64-page one-shot, but I’m sure the stories here will benefit from it. They involve a post-apocalyptic power struggle, a boxer struggling to live up to his legend, and what it takes to survive in America today. I’m expecting a socially-conscious good time, particularly with Dragotta’s involvement, and here’s hoping Brothers & Dragotta, or Brothers working with another equally talented artist, deliver another one of these for a collected edition at some point in the future.
Rook: Exodus #7: Geoff Johns’ most toyetic series returns for its second arc. With Ursa dealt with, Rook and company now turn their attention to finding Dire Wolf’s father. The fate of Exodus lies in tracking him down, regardless of whether he’s lost his mind since his disappearance. It’s my hope that with Rook’s confidence issues having been sorted out at the end of vol. 1, we’ll get a more interesting story direction to follow this time around. One that won’t have to be propped up by Johns’ efficient writing, or Jason Fabok’s fantastically detailed art. Also returning for its next arc is…
The Sacrificers #16: It’s an extra-length issue where we’re told that Pigeon’s war against the gods reaches its final crescendo. Which certainly seemed to be the case after vol. 3 ended with our protagonist and his new partner-in-rebellion bringing the fight to Sun God Rokos. Whether or not this is the final arc for the series hasn’t been announced yet; though, it’s worth noting that a few Rick Remender-written series have wrapped up between 16-20 issues. I’ve only read one of them, “Seven to Eternity,” to completion so far, however.
Bug Wars vol. 1: Lost in the Yard: Coming to you from the Marvel “Conan” team of writer Jason Aaron and artist Mahmud Asrar is a series which promises to continue the vibe of those comics, with some “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” thrown in for good measure. Slade Slaymaker and his older brother Sydney have different feelings about their late dad, an entomologist who was reportedly devoured by the bugs he was studying. Sydney wants to crush all the creepy crawlies, while Slade wants to understand them. The younger brother gets his wish when he winds up shrunk down in the yard of the old family house and finds himself smack in the middle of a… well, you know. I was all set to give this a shot based on their “Conan” work, but the brother-vs.-brother angle was something that I missed seeing in the solicitations. That actually makes the setup sound more interesting to me now.
Hyde Street vol. 1: Johns again, this time trying out the horror anthology genre with frequent DC collaborator Ivan Reis, along with Francis Portela. While picking up the writer’s other series for his Ghost Machine imprint wasn’t that hard since they didn’t stray too far from the sci-fi/superhero action he served up for years at DC on titles like “Green Lantern,” “Aquaman,” and “Justice League,” this seems a more dicey proposition. Mainly because horror has always been a difficult genre to pull off successfully for me in comics, and I don’t think that Johns or Reis have the subtlety needed to do so. Then there’s the fact that one character in this series is called “Pranky, The World’s Most Dangerous Scout” and that just sounds too silly to work… Which means I guess I have to read it now to see if that’s actually the case.
Knights vs. Samurai: Does what it says on the tin, I would imagine. Writer David Dastmalchian and artist Fede Mele show us what happens when the two groups of warriors team up in order to fight off a supernatural threat. While the promise of “Todd McFarlane’s direction” does nothing for me, Dastmalchian has shown that he’s a solid comics writer with his work on “Count Crowley” (whose fourth volume is certain to be announced any day now…). I imagine I’ll be more or less excited for this once I pick up the volume of “Creature Commandos” he wrote for DC so keep watching this space for my thoughts on that, eventually.
The Department of Truth vol. 6: Twilight’s Last Gleaming: We got something of a reprieve from seeing the bad guys continuing to win in the previous volume after we learned about Director Oswald’s history with the Bureau. Now it looks like things are about to properly get worse as the Director’s fear that control of the situation is slipping through his fingers certainly won’t make it easier for Black Hat to advance its nefarious agenda. Let’s not kid ourselves, it totally will. All this and creepypasta too in vol. 6.