October Comics Look Aheads

October Comics Look Aheads

Hey there comics fans! October is almost here and with every new month comes new comics! We've combed through the catalogs and found a few books out of the onslaught of new stuff to highlight. Cause we think they're neat and fun! What did we highlight this month? Only one way to find out!

Upcoming Comic Publisher Catalogs

Before we get into our reviews and recommendations for September, here's a one-stop shop for all of the digital catalogs for most of the comics publishers we carry. If you're looking to get a head start on finding your own new favorites, or hey maybe you just want to stay well ahead of the deadlines, we've got you. We'll post links to the current plus upcoming months here in our look aheads every month.

October Release Comics

IDW | Boom | DC | DSTLRY |  Image | Marvel | Dark Horse | Titan | Next Phase  | PRH Panels

November Release Comics

IDW | Boom | DC | DSTLRY | Image | Marvel | Dark Horse | Titan | Next Phase | PRH Panels

Don't want to look through all these PDFs? If you're an active subscriber you can always visit our subscription page and search the upcoming comic catalogs that way! (And bonus, if you see something you want, you can preorder or subscribe to it RIGHT THERE!).

Reviews and Recommendations

WHOOPS! Okay folks, I gotta start out with a bit of an apology - I messed up! The first couple of these reviews are actually reprints of the reviews from our September highlights blog this month. I was looking at the wrong catalog and got my dates mixed up. Both DC KO and Absolute Evil are out in October, not September. Beyond that - this month’s biggest review is dedicated to the new X-Line - the Age of Revelation, that kicks off in October.

DC KO #1

DC Comics

By Scott Snyder (writer) and Javi Fernandez (artist)

Scott Snyder is back to do one of the things he’s very good at (no, not writing Batman, that’s Matt Fraction’s job now) - headlining a big gigantic cosmic DC crossover event that’s somehow also metal AF. Last time we got Dark Knights Metaland Death Metal. This time it’s a mother@#$%ing wrestling tournament to save Earth and the rest of the universe. I don’t know what else to tell you to sell you on this book, other than to say if you like reading comics that elicit the sensation of attending a rock concert (or in this case a WWE match) without risking ear damage or splash damage from when one of the wrestlers maybe accidentally leaps out of the stands and onto your seat, then maybe this comic is for you.

More seriously - this is going to be one of the big crossovers of the latter half of 2025 and into 2026. If you like getting a sense for the general continuity of DC’s comic universe, definitely look into getting on the list. Same for if you’re on any of the myriad of titles that are likely to get crossover issues and want to know what the heck is going on. I fully trust Scott and Javi to make this book a fantastic read from start to finish. I mean this guy gave us Wonder Woman with an invisible chainsaw. What’s not to love?

-Nick

Absolute Evil #1

DC Comics

By Al Ewing (writer) and Giuseppe CamuncoliI and Stefano Nesi (artists)

Oh heck. Nick is back on their Al Ewing all the time forever soapbox. JK I’m not but you should read this book anyways.

Hear me out please - this is not a new absolute series. But it is the kickoff for what could be the first crossover of the absolute line. So if you’re reading one or more of Absolute Batman / Superman / Wonder Woman / Flash / Martian Manhunter / Green Lantern books  or others, you’re most certainly going to want to grab a copy of this book and see where it leads. Just based on the ad copy and a little internet sleuthing it doesn’t look like there’s anything directly related (there’s no list of “these six issues are the crossover issues” or anything). And this book is very likely to provide a decent chunk of introductory villain context for those of you who need that. 

-Nick

X-Men Age of Revelation

Attention all you X-Fans - if you missed out on the big Age of Revelation announcement book (and I wouldn’t blame you cause it surprised even us here at Phoenix), here’s the skinny. Age of Revelation (AoR) is set 10 years into a  hypothetical Marvel universe in which Doug Ramsey (aka Cypher, now aka Revelation) has shown up as the new heir to Apocalypse. Doug’s language powers have been amped up, and he can now do a lot more than read and comprehend language.  

Those of you familiar with the X-Men franchise are probably used to being shoved in media res into situations like this (see also: Age of Apocalypse, the crossover this crossover is homaging in honor of it’s 30th anniversary…weird thing to celebrate, Marvel, but cool flex?). For those of you not up on your x-lore or who may be a bit confused, here’s how this works.

Most ongoing series are going to take a hiatus during this run. The creative teams on these books are going to hop over to an AoR book using a similar cast of characters set in this new dystopian future. Most of these are one to one mappings, but there are a few that buck that trend, and where there are notable returning creators I’ll try to call them out. Here’s the release schedule we’ve got courtesy of Marvel’s Previews

October Age of Revelation Releases (yup, just October)

  • Age of Revelation Overture (X-Men team)

  • Amazing X-Men (X-Men team)

  • Binary (Phoenix Team)

  • Laura Kinney: Sabretooth (Laura Kinney: Wolverine Team)

  • Longshots (Gerry Duggan / Jonathan Hickman)

  • World of Revelation (Ryan North)

  • Iron & Frost

  • Rogue Storm (Storm Team)

  • Sinister’s Six

  • Unbreakable X-Men (Uncanny X-Men team)

  • Omega Kids

  • Radioactive Spider-Man

  • The Last Wolverine

  • X-Men Book of Revelation (X-Men team)

  • Cloak or Dagger

  • Expatriate X-Men (Exceptional X-Men team)

  • Undeadpool

  • X-Vengers

Yeah you counted correctly - that’s 18 different new titles, most or all replacing the existing line-up for X-Men. Three of them (AoR Overture, World of AoR, and Book of Revelation) are definitely one shots, but as for the rest, they’ll likely be somewhere between 3 and 6 months (I’m guessing based on some internet sleuthing that most series will be 3 issue runs while the ones that the core writing teams are doing will be 6 issue arcs). 

Quick note for everyone: due to the size and change of setting, we are not porting anyone over from the non-AoR books without their say-so! If you want to be down for these series, please reach out to us to subscribe, or use our web-portal to get your subscription set up correctly!

One-Shots & Graphic Novels

October has a bunch of really lovely graphic novels in store for us. Sloane found a book that is entirely up here alley, the folks from Ice Cream Man have published a card game (?!), and Ben Passmore’s new book covers some very timely and relevant history. All this and a reminder about a new Something is Killing the Children one-shot below!

Bone Broth

Self-Made Hero

By AZBT (Alexander Taylor)

This graphic novel is something that the folks at the story would call a ‘Sloane Book’ – It ticks all of the boxes for something that I’m pre-primed to like. The main characters are all messy young people? Check. The art style is sketchy and fun, probably monochromatic, and has fun little breakaways when the characters are introduced? Double check. The protagonist is a tomboy, butch, non-binary, or otherwise trans-masc? Also check. It’s a little embarrassing going into mid-thirties still being so enamored by doodley comics about loveable young slackers, but there you go. There’s something comforting reading about young people whose brains aren’t fully developed yet learning to navigate the world, often by making the same kinds of mistakes I’ve only just recently grown out of.

Even if I wasn’t pre-primed to like this book though, I think it’d still be a winner. (It was actually, as the recipient of the English Arts Council’s First Graphic Novel Award.) 

- Sloane

Ice Cream Man Mortal Coil Shuffle Deck

Image Comics

By W. Maxwell Prince (writer), Martin Morazzo and Chris O’Hallaran (artists)

Potentially the weirdest thing I’ve ever written about - the Ice Cream Man crew has figured out a way to turn a comic book into a card game? Borrowing mechanics and terminology from certain Magical card games, the aim for this…book?...product? Is to turn a deck of cards into a variable but dark story. 

If you’re reading Ice Cream Man, be aware you should order this separately! While this takes the spot from the normal issue of Ice Cream Man this month, be aware that it isn’t part of the series itself. In fact the creative team is touting that it is “Limited to 1 Printing” and will never be collected in any sort of trade (cause really how would you do that?).

- Nick

Something is Killing the Children a Monster Hunter Walks into a Bar

Boom Studios

By James Tynion IV (writer) and Werther Dell’Edera (artist)

Attention all you SIKTC fans - There’s a new one-shot coming out this October and some (but not all) of you probably want it!  Originally serialized across the first six issues of Hello Darkness, this book hasn’t been printed as part of a trade or other collection as of yet. So if you’re reading Something is Killing the Children, and you aren’t reading Hello Darkness, consider picking up this book for a quick fix of some monster hunting goodness.

- Nick

Black Arms to Hold You Up

Pantheon

By Ben Passmore (writer and artist)

Eisner and Ignatz award winner Ben Passmore’s newest project is a chronicling of the history of Black militant resistance, and the struggles of those armed resistance groups against systems of oppression and racism. Aiming for a sort of dark humor, Ben joins the reader as a sort of time-traveling point-of-view character; never a part of the events he’s chronicling but always offering his character’s own viewpoint to narrate through them. The PRH Panels catalog has a couple of spreads from this book and I have to say, I’m into it. I think it’s an extremely good time to be educating yourself about the history of the US as it relates to racial and sexual minorities, and what better way than something that injects the tiniest bit of humor into this otherwise sobering ride in order to keep you interested.

- Nick

And that's it for this October's look aheads! If you saw something you wanted, please reach out to us and ask us about ordering it or setting it aside for you, or head over to our subscription page and add it to your pull! Otherwise, check back with us here later this month for a discussion of all fun things this November!