Image Advance Arrivals: December 2025
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Lazarus vol. 8
Whenever a series goes on hiatus, it’s usually done with the expectation that it’ll return. Of course, saying something is on “hiatus” is also sometimes the polite way of saying that it’s never coming back and you shouldn’t get your hopes up. The longer something remains on hiatus, the chances of it coming off of it get progressively lower each year. Still, the comics industry loves its unexpected comebacks, which is why it’s good to see that writer Greg Rucka and artist Michael Lark’s dystopian future series “Lazarus” has risen again for the first half of its final arc. I don’t know what circumstances allowed for this to happen, but it’s great to see that this series, which originally debuted in July 2013, will finally see a conclusion. As for what to expect in this volume, the solicitation text sums it up succinctly: “Finally free of her father’s control, Forever is going to burn it all down.”
Giant-Size Criminal #1: Did you hear that there’s a live-action “Criminal” series set to premiere soon on Amazon Prime? Creators Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillps have all of their bases covered with respect to promoting their work in relation to that. Not only are all of the current volumes of the series in print, but they’ve also put out a new graphic novel “Criminal: The Knives” (review forthcoming), and they’ve also got this one-shot coming for anyone looking for more after having seen the show. It features Ricky Lawless going solo on his latest heist, which as anyone familiar with the series can tell you is a recipe for disaster. For him, at least – it’ll likely turn out to be a good read for the rest of us.
As is the case with all of Brubaker and Phillips’ work in single issue form, this will contain additional backmatter for those who pick it up. While the guide to the “Criminal” world and its characters and behind-the-scenes look at the streaming series sound fine, the real draw here is the RPG module written by Kieron Gillen. So if you want to find a way for Ricky’s latest heist to go completely right for once, you can actually do that!
Adventureman vol. 2: Writer Matt Fraction and artist Terry Dodson’s series about a single mother with a big family who runs a bookstore becoming the new avatar of adventure gets a second volume in paperback. It’ll be worth the wait, too. In addition to containing the second arc of the series, issues #6-9, we’re also getting the two-part “Ghost Lights” miniseries as well. See, good things come to those who wait.
The Darkness #1: This relaunch of the series originally written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Marc Silvestri features the return of the latter. Before you get excited about Silvestri’s involvement, be aware that he’s not illustrating this. He’s writing it. While I’ll say that “Batman & Joker: The Deadly Duo” wasn’t a badly-written series, I sure didn’t buy it because of Silvestri’s writing talent. This relaunch is being illustrated by Ed Benes who, in all fairness, is a pretty solid artist who’s done quality work on “Gen 13,” “Birds of Prey,” and “Justice League of America.”
That said, can we talk for a second how weird it is to have a major Image superhero co-created by Garth Ennis? I remember when the series launched in the 90’s following “Preacher’s” rise to fame and it seemed like a natural thing for a creator with a popular and weird Vertigo book to leverage some mainstream success out of it. That was before I was familiar with Ennis’ utter contempt for the superhero genre, and the fact that he only made one return after illustrating the initial arc doesn’t surprise me now. Still, I’ve never read that initial run. I may just have to pick it up at some point for completist’s sake.
Wrestle Heist #1 (of 5): A wrestler who’s just been screwed over by a shady promoter enlists other wrestlers who have suffered the same fate to rob him blind at the biggest event of the year. That sounds like a good setup regardless of who it’s coming from. Given that this is going to be written and illustrated by Kyle Starks makes it sound like a pitch-perfect marriage of talent to material. This can’t be collected soon enough!
Fine Print vol. 3: Can the help of Hell’s foremost incubus and succubus help Lauren Thomas to finally be lucky in love? According to the solicitation text, the answer is a firm “No.” Which is actually refreshing to see given how these kinds of setups are designed to be resolved when the book they’re describing actually comes out. That said, I can’t say that the promise of Things Getting Worse for the main character is a real draw for me here. Particularly when vol. 2 was already throwing so much at the reader that it didn’t feel like things were progressing all that well in the first place. At least creator Stjepan Sejic is the kind of creator who can elevate anything with his art.
Ghost Pepper vol. 1: Flavors of Ash: Humanity may have survived a monstrous threat, but it hasn’t quite recovered yet. Which is why Loloi goes out into the world every day to serve her delicious cooking to as many people as she can. This all changes when she meets a mysterious warrior named Ash who has secrets that may save the world, and superhuman strength that could destroy it as well. A while back I read a manga called “Crazy Food Truck” which had a vaguely similar presence, but didn’t actually do much in the way of exploring it, showing us interesting characters, or giving us an interesting story around it. What I’m saying is that I’m interested in this setup, and creator Ludo Lullabi has a low bar to clear in terms of having this series compare favorably to its competition.
I Was a Fashion School Serial Killer: Another one for the “Does What It Says On The Tin” category. No points for guessing what its protagonist is using as the material for her clothes. This comes to us from writer Doug Wagner and artist Daniel Hillyard who know a thing or two about serial killers and their compulsions after “Plastic,” “Vinyl,” and “Plush.” The hope here is that this is closer in quality to the first (the first volume) and the last in that list.
The Moon is Following Us vol. 2: Collecting the second half of the miniseries written by Daniel Warren Johnson and illustrated by Johnson and Riley Rossmo. It’s about parents dealing with their daughter’s sickness by going into her dreams, and the first volume ended with them being double-crossed by the person who originally offered to help them out. Vol. 1 was a great visual showcase – for Rossmo, who did all of the dreamscape segments and beautifully realized all of the craziness that Johnson threw at him. Story-wise, it was fine, but it’s hardly a good sign when I feel that the writer was delivering more engaging storytelling with his take on the saga of the Autobots vs. the Decepticons.
The Private Eye: Writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Marcos Martin’s story about people having to maintain secret identities in public finally gets a paperback edition. Ten years after it was originally published in hardcover, but for half the price now. It was worth buying hardcover form back then and I can’t imagine its story has become any less relevant now. If you’re curious as to what I thought about it when it hit print the first time, here you go.