January Comics Look Aheads

January Comics Look Aheads

Hey folks! It’s time for a new round of comics reviews and recommendations. Start the year off right with some brand new comics, one shots, and graphic novels. All hand selected by your friends on Team Phoenix. 

Reviews and Recommendations

January starts off in a bit of a lull in terms of volume, but not in quality! We've got a few new books, a couple of fun one-shots, and a BIG list of trades, all recommendations by Sloane and Nick! If you see something you like, don’t forget to head over to our subscription update form and put yourself down for any new series, one shot or graphic novel that caught your eye.

Lucky Devils

Image Comics

By Charles Soule (writer) and Ryan Browne (artist)

About a year and a half ago, Charles Soule and Ryan Browne launched a book together called Eight Billion Genies that was such a surprise smash hit that the first issue went to fifth printing, which is generally super rare, but especially for an indie comic that wasn’t big on people’s radar. It was a high concept book that followed the weird idea of “what if every person on earth had a genie that granted them one wish” to its satisfying and logical conclusion. It was funny, it was emotional, it was wildly creative, and it was just good. It was one of the few books to release that had the store’s entire staff reading along as each issue came out, which if you know how different our tastes can be is a super impressive feat.

All that said, when I say that the dream team is back for another high concept book that features magical creatures being assigned to every person on earth, you should be so excited. The shop was sent an advance copy of the first issue, and it’s exactly as good as their last series – in addition to Soule’s well thought out execution of the concept, Browne’s art is packed with fun details that make the pages a joy to read. This is going to be a super fun book to watch unfold over the months as stuff set up as early as this first issue plays out.

- Sloane

Ultimate Wolverine

Marvel

By Chris Condon (writer) and Alessandro Capuccio (artist)

Marvel is adding a new one to the Ultimate universe line-up this January and it’s everyone’s favorite short-guy with claws and a metal skeleton. Ultimate Wolverine makes his debut right out of the pages of the Ultimate Universe: One Year In one-shot (so a heads up to any of you who maybe wanna go pick that up now). Now, I dunno if you’ve been reading any of the other Ultimate universe books, but so far every single one has put together a uniquely different take on some fan favorite characters. Hawkeye as a native american. She-Hulk as a pacific islander. Reed Richards as a traumatized and tragic Doctor Doom. You get the picture. 

Now I don’t know how this version of Wolvie’s gonna be different than the rest, but the only way to know is gonna be to try out issue one. We do know that his initial appearance is going to be as the Maker’s (that’s the evil Reed, not the tragic traumatized Reed) personal secret weapon / Winter Soldier. I’ll be curious to see how he’s different than his 616 counterpart, and what he does to make the jump from assassin to hero.

- Nick

New Champions

Marvel

By Steve Foxe (writer) and Ivan Fiorelli (artist)

Y’know, as team books go, I could go for something non-standard to start off the new year with. And as a team book New Champions feels like it could fit that bill. New heroes based off of older legacy characters and a fresh easy jumping on point have all the makings of a fun series. The last iteration of the Champions was truly excellent, with heroes like Miles Morales, Mrs Marvel, Viv Vision and more taking a more proactive and progressive approach to super-heroics. It was fresh and hopeful, and I think I need something like that going into 2025.

 I’m a big fan of Steve Foxe’s writing (looooved the Dark X-Men run he did this year), so I’m definitely gonna give this book at least a few issues worth of trial. I hope it makes its way into my every-month reading list.

- Nick

Doctor Doom & Rocket Raccoon

Marvel

By J Michael Straczynski (writer) and Will Robinson (artist)

I know I’m on a bit of a Marvel kick this month, but hear me out. Doctor Doom. Rocket Raccoon. Hijinks! Shenanigans! Tomfoolery with large amounts of explosives and/or heavy weapons. That’s what I’m expecting here from J Michael Straczynski. I’ve had the pleasure to read a couple of his earlier Spider-Man runs, and specifically an issue or two with Doom, and he writes an absolutely hilarious metal monarch of Latveria. I mean, one of them has a time machine, an army of robot versions of himself and a mastery of magic. And the other one…is a raccoon with (a lot of) guns. What else should would I expect?

Quick note: according to the Marvel ad-copy this is the first one-shot like this in a small series of two-character pair-up one-shots, so if you like it, stay tuned for more like this in the months to come.

- Nick

What if Galactus Transformed….

Marvel

By multiple writers and artists

Okay this one isn’t so much an endorsement as a heads up. Marvel’s putting out a series of What-If one-shots over the course of January into February and showing off five fan favorite characters as heralds of the big purple planet eater. Each issue should be a fun one-shot by itself, but knowing Marvel there’s certainly an overarching thread through all five issues. 

  • Hulk
  • Rogue
  • Gambit
  • Spider-Gwen
  • Moon Knight

If you’re a fan of the cosmic Marvel settings, maybe give these a look! Could be a lot of fun!

- Nick

Now in Trade Lightning Round

 

Okay you trade-waiters. If you’ve been holding off on any of these series, now’s the time to put in an order for one of them! The latter part of 2024 was a fantastic year for new series, and a bunch of them are hitting the shelves early in the new year. Here’s a quick list and one-sentence recap of these new series:

  • Minor Arcana - Jeff Lemire’s story of the daughter of a psychic finds out that she’s inherited her mother’s powers. 
  • Animal Pound - Have you ever wanted to read the Animal Farm, but in comic form? Thanks to the writing of Tom King, now you can. 
  • Hello Darkness - A bunch of your favorite horror writers (™) do a comics horror anthology.
  • Uncanny Valley - But what if you found out you were a Toon and a Toon terminator was hunting you? (By Tony Fleecs of Stray Dogs / Feral fame)
  • Fishflies - Even more Jeff Lemire for those of you who can’t get enough of his Lemir-y-ness!
  • Power Fantasy - Kieron Gillen’s newest masterpiece about super heroes who are too powerful to get into a fight. Also OMG why would you wait on this?!?!
  • Witchblade (2024) - Marguerite Bennett reboots the popular 90’s era comics series.
  • Zatanna Bring Down the House - Mariko Tamaki and Javier Rodriguez team up to do a Zatanna series that should have been Vertigo / Black label but somehow wasn’t?!
  • X-Men (From the Ashes) - Jump into the post-krakoa era with a new team and new line-up for X-Men courtesy of Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman.
  • NYX (From the Ashes) - If you’re already feeling nostalgic for Krakoa, this is absolutely the new X-Title to read, by Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzig.

And that's it for our January look aheads! Next month's look aheads should be up around the end of the month for our February Look Aheads. Thanks for reading, and if you saw something you wanted to add to your pull (or want to start a subscription for the book), use our handy little subscription update form and submit that request! We'll get right on that.