Mar has a secret. Sometimes, without warning, he falls out of the world. This would be an inconvenience if his life wasn’t already such a drag. When he’s gone, he finds himself in an extraordinary city. A city which is also a machine, endlessly crossing a shoreless ocean. A city of two halves: the bright, bustling spires above the waves, and the beast-haunted twilight halls below. And between, clowning along the rusting beach, a troupe of anarchic magpies with all the answers but none of the questions. A Mischief Of Magpies #1 kicks off a magical story that evokes the feeling of the classics of the 80s.
There’s those films from when you few up that stick with you well into adulthood. Jim Henson, Steven Spielberg, Don Bluth, and so many more were able to deliver these types of movies and experiences like Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, ET, The Secret of NIMH, Time Bandits, The Never Ending Story… the list is long. All of those magical movies hit you in an emotional way, delivering awe and beauty in their visuals but also getting viewers to laugh, cry, fear, feel tension, and some of those at the same time. A Mischief Of Magpies #1 is a comic that evokes that experience with a story full of heartbreak, adventure, mystery, and excitement.
Written by Simpn Spurrier, A Mischief Of Magpies #1 is an intriguing debut, part comic, part picture book, part journal, telling the story of Mar whose home life is full of chaos but he’s able to escape into a magical world. Is it real? Is it his way to cope with the trauma he’s experiencing?
The comic is broken out into three distinct narrative experiences. Towards the beginning, Mar acts as our guide, introducing the reader to his life and family, teasing that there might be something more. But, Mar’s life spirals with family crisis and we get his thoughts as penned through a journal where he shares his thoughts and experiences. Finally, there’s the magical world of the Wandering City where things shift to a more traditional comic. It’s an interesting reading experience that is engaging and stands out from everything else being released.
What helps it stand out is the art of Matías Bergara who handles colors along Kike J. Díaz and lettering by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. The comic is gorgeous. Spurrier and Bergara have previously worked together on Coda, and while that was a fantasy series, the two projects are worlds apart. Bergara’s art emphasizes not just the dreamlike nature of Mar’s experience but also the tragedy and sadness of his home life. The story shifts from a “graphic journal” to more traditional comic seamlessly creating a flow that’s almost poetic. The worlds go from grounded reality to magical with floating cities, talking birds, rusted technology, and beings whose clothing and body language is otherworldly. Each page and panel begs readers to linger to catch every detail even if it’s just the flow of the narrative.
A Mischief Of Magpies #1 is perfection. The story feels like a childhood classic while the art is hauntingly beautiful. It’s a comic that sticks with you and you immediately want to read again while also wanting to find out what happens next. We’re halfway through the year and this debut sticks out as one of the best so far.
Final Order Cutoff: 5/25/26 Out in shops: July 15, 2026.
DC has announced that Absolute Catwoman #1 will be getting a second printing which will arrive in comic shops on July 15. The first printing of DC’s Absolute Catwoman #1 hits shelves on Wednesday, June 10.
The second printing of Absolute Catwoman #1, written by Che Grayson and Scott Snyder with art by Bengal, colors by Giovanna Niro, and letters by Lucas Gattoni, will feature a main cover by Bengal with a recolored logo, along with open-to-order variant covers by Guillem March and Kaare Andrews (foil).
In Absolute Catwoman, Selina Kyle has carved out a good life for herself. Through ingenuity and unmatched skill, she has become the greatest thief the world has ever known. With high-tech gear and weaponry, no vault is too secure and no score is out of reach. But when someone from her past comes knocking, everything she’s built begins to collapse. To survive, Selina must unravel a mystery that takes her across the globe and deep into the shadows of the Absolute Universe.
Catwoman’s reimagined role as the world’s greatest thief, and as one of the most unpredictable players in DC’s Absolute Universe, is earning Selina her Absolute motto: With all the wealth…with all the gear…with all the skills, she is the Absolute Apex Predator!
Retailers can place orders for Absolute Catwoman #1’s second printing beginning Tuesday, June 9. The second printing arrives in comics shops on July 15, a week after Absolute Catwoman #2. Absolute Catwoman#1’s first printing will be available wherever comic books are sold, while supplies last, beginning Wednesday, June 10.
And with momentum building around Selina’s Absolute debut, DC is also expanding the world around her…
SPINNING OUT FROM ABSOLUTE CATWOMAN COMES ABSOLUTE CASSANDRA CAIN!
DC has also announced a new one-shot spinning out of Absolute Catwoman that will publish between issues #3 and #4 of this six-issue mini-series. Absolute Cassandra Cain: The Shadow’s Hand #1, written by Che Grayson with art and variant cover by Matias Bergara and a main cover by Bengal, will publish on September 9, 2026. Absolute Catwoman will then resume publishing with #4 in October.
Years ago, The Joker trained with the League of Assassins, and when he learned all he could, he slaughtered everyone. Out of the wreckage rose Lady Shiva and her daughter, Cassandra Cain. Absolute Cassandra Cain: The Shadow’s Hand #1 reveals the origin of the Absolute Universe’s most formidable assassin, and how her story is one that is intertwined with the world’s greatest thief, Selina Kyle!
DC has teased there’s more to come for the Absolute Universe in 2026. DC will push its heroes into moments of absolute terror with more stories born from the darkest corners of the DC cosmos, including an event miniseries launching in Q4 2026.
Mar has a secret. Sometimes, without warning, he falls out of the world. This would be an inconvenience if his life wasn’t already such a drag. When he’s gone, he finds himself in an extraordinary city. A city which is also a machine, endlessly crossing a shoreless ocean. A city of two halves: the bright, bustling spires above the waves, and the beast-haunted twilight halls below. And between, clowning along the rusting beach, a troupe of anarchic magpies with all the answers but none of the questions. A Mischief Of Magpies #1 kicks off a magical story that evokes the feeling of the classics of the 80s.
There’s those films from when you few up that stick with you well into adulthood. Jim Henson, Steven Spielberg, Don Bluth, and so many more were able to deliver these types of movies and experiences like Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, ET, The Secret of NIMH, Time Bandits, The Never Ending Story… the list is long. All of those magical movies hit you in an emotional way, delivering awe and beauty in their visuals but also getting viewers to laugh, cry, fear, feel tension, and some of those at the same time. A Mischief Of Magpies #1 is a comic that evokes that experience with a story full of heartbreak, adventure, mystery, and excitement.
Written by Simpn Spurrier, A Mischief Of Magpies #1 is an intriguing debut, part comic, part picture book, part journal, telling the story of Mar whose home life is full of chaos but he’s able to escape into a magical world. Is it real? Is it his way to cope with the trauma he’s experiencing?
The comic is broken out into three distinct narrative experiences. Towards the beginning, Mar acts as our guide, introducing the reader to his life and family, teasing that there might be something more. But, Mar’s life spirals with family crisis and we get his thoughts as penned through a journal where he shares his thoughts and experiences. Finally, there’s the magical world of the Wandering City where things shift to a more traditional comic. It’s an interesting reading experience that is engaging and stands out from everything else being released.
What helps it stand out is the art of Matías Bergara who handles colors along Kike J. Díaz and lettering by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. The comic is gorgeous. Spurrier and Bergara have previously worked together on Coda, and while that was a fantasy series, the two projects are worlds apart. Bergara’s art emphasizes not just the dreamlike nature of Mar’s experience but also the tragedy and sadness of his home life. The story shifts from a “graphic journal” to more traditional comic seamlessly creating a flow that’s almost poetic. The worlds go from grounded reality to magical with floating cities, talking birds, rusted technology, and beings whose clothing and body language is otherworldly. Each page and panel begs readers to linger to catch every detail even if it’s just the flow of the narrative.
A Mischief Of Magpies #1 is perfection. The story feels like a childhood classic while the art is hauntingly beautiful. It’s a comic that sticks with you and you immediately want to read again while also wanting to find out what happens next. We’re halfway through the year and this debut sticks out as one of the best so far.
Final Order Cutoff: 5/25/26 Out in shops: July 15, 2026.
Dark Horse Books and Wizards of the Coast present Dungeons & Dragons: Total Party Killers,a new four-issue comic series gathering five iconic D&D monsters into their own adventuring party. The miniseries is written by Christopher Hastings, illustrated by Denis Medri, colored by Dan Jackson, and lettered by Lucas Gattoni. Dungeons & Dragons: Total Party Killers #1 will feature cover art by Elizabeth Beals, Matías Bergara (1:20 incentive variant), Michael Walsh, and Lukas Ketner, as well as one blank character sheet cover.
The wizard Custos has died, and his lair lies ripe for the taking! As adventurers raid the lair for treasure, the monsters enthralled by Custos in life must protect his domain even after his death. That is, unless the creatures can trick someone into releasing them! Thus, a lycanthrope, gelatinous cube, mind flayer, death knight, and baby beholder form their own adventuring party to win their freedom in a hostile world!
The monster party kicks off on July 22, 2026, when Dungeons & Dragons: Total Party Killers #1 (of 4) arrives in comic shops.
2025 was a hellscape of a year so in my comics reading habits, I fell hard into the “escapism” genre, including a lot of DC Comics. I don’t know if it was residual goodwill from James Gunn’s Superman, or the fact that they hired some of my favorite writers and artists, but I enjoyed so many books from the company formerly known as National Comics this past year. I also fully embraced the one-shot format this year, and honestly, the majority of this favorite comics list could have been made up of one-shots. I’ve always been a pop single girlie (And even purchased CD singles once upon a time) so it’s natural that I would enjoy this kind of thing in comics whether it’s Archie meeting my favorite stoners from the View Askewniverse, a glorious intercompany crossover between Thor and Shazam, or the singular book that topped this list.
There’s something rewarding about struggling with a comic early on, but eventually embracing and having it become one of your favorites. That describes my relationship with Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijingaard‘s The Power Fantasy to a tee. I always enjoyed Wijingaard’s approach to fashion, layout, and color palette, but the book’s narrative started to draw me in during year two as he and Gillen toppled dominoes and showed just how frightening a world with godlike heroes could be. This concept has been explored in more juvenile ways in the past (I won’t name any names). However, Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijingaard take more of a premium cable anti-hero approach in The Power Fantasy that is quite riveting and prioritize ethics and relationships over punching although this book had its fair share of pyrotechnics in 2025.
Writer Aaron Reese sadly passed away in January 2025, but they left us with a lasting legacy of Bytchcraft, a magical and fiercely queer series about a coven of witches in New York battling the apocalypse. Reese and artist Lema Carril crafted a world with a fascinating cosmology and magic system that definitely had Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, or Supernatural vibes, but its cast didn’t resemble the contents of a Duke’s Mayo bottle. Also, Carril’s eye for fashion made the characters some of the best-dressed in comics to go with a flashy color palette from Bex Glendining. Above all, Bytchcraft is a call to be queer and do magick, and I will clutch to it in the coming years.
A tense smash and grab job under the nose of a kaiju attack is one of the coolest concepts I’ve heard in a while, and Van Jensen and Kelsey Ramsay pull it off in their Godzilla : Heist miniseries with style, grace, and social commentary. Genre blends are tough to do, but Ramsay’s line art and Heather Breckel’s colors know when to go for gritty urban crime mode or pull it back for the big monster reveal. Plotwise, there’s plenty of cool gadgets, double crosses, and general mayhem, but it’s all grounded by protagonist Jai, who wants to get back at the British government for being imperialist losers and screwing over his mother. And the King of Monsters ends up being the perfect partner for this vengeance quest.
In its second and unfortunately final year, Deniz Camp, Juan Frigeri, and Phil Noto’s The Ultimatescontinues to be revolutionary pop art. Camp and Frigeri turn corporate mascots into avatars of resistance infusing them with leftist, anti-capitalist, and anti-imperialist ideologies while simultaneously making us care about them larger-than-life human beings. The Ultimates also gives each single issues its own unique identity whether that’s a commentary on the school-to-prison pipeline courtesy of Luke Cage, an epic poem set in Asgard, a kung-fu epic, or the wonderful Noto-drawnissues with Doom aka Earth-6160 Reed Richards trying to recreate the Fantastic Four that can be read in five different ways. It’s one of the best Marvel runs in recent memory, and I bittersweetly look forward to seeing how it all wraps and then going back and following the threads Deniz Camp seeded in early issues.
The combination of Hayden Sherman being a layout deity, Jordie Bellaire unleashing a color palette that is part Gothic nightmare and part ancient Greek pottery-inspired, and Kelly Thompson giving Diana a proper heroic-in-the-face-of-darkness character arc made Absolute Wonder Woman one of my favorite reads of 2025. Even the fill-in arcs drawn by Mattia De Iulis and Matias Bergara reveal important information about the cost of Wonder Woman using her abilities and her literally hellish past. But the real highlight is we got an honest to Hera Minotaur/labyrinth plotline featuring the return of some favorites from Greg Rucka’s Wonder Woman run as well as Sherman nailing the claustrophobic feel with their visuals. Also, Absolute Zatanna and the end-of-year crossover with Absolute Batman cemented this book as a proper blockbuster title.
Ryan North, Mike Norton, and Ian Herring’sKrypto : The Last Dog of Kryptonwas the one comic in 2025 that made ugly cry. Structured by seasons, Krypto explored tough topics like death and pet abuse in an honest, yet empathetic way and was also filled with a multitude of wholesome moments establishing its protagonist as the ultimate good boy. (Who can sometimes be naughty.) North and Norton drop the Silver Age concept of Krypto being able to talk and instead rely on body language and gestures to move the story forward. He also provides a listening ear and insight into characters like Lex Luthor and Superboy as well as the ordinary folks who cross his paths. Krypto : The Last Dog of Krypton isn’t just *the* definitive Krypto comic, but an evergreen for DC in general.
Al Ewing, Steve Lieber, and Lee Loughridge’s beyond sadly cut short six issue Metamorpho, The Element Manseries (Right before its lead’s triumphant big screen debut.) was the funniest and most clever comic of 2025. On the surface, Metamorpho is a send-up of Silver Age comics with Ewing channeling the late Stan Lee in his omniscient, mock-Beat, fourth wall leaning narration. However, as the series progressed and revealed its Big Bad, Metamorpho revealed itself as a love letter to the weird and wacky side of superhero comics, which is something I feel like DC has over Marvel. (See the Brotherhood of Dada and Brother Power the Geek, for example.) To name a few things, we had a Mod-themed antagonist, a supervillainous skewering of generative AI, and an emotional arc for Simon Stagg’s Neanderthal servant, Java. Finally, this book wouldn’t have succeeded without Lieber’s period-perfect visuals and impeccable comedic timing, especially during the more espionage-tinged issues where he pulls off Jim Steranko-esque layouts without being a weird racist.
3. Flip (First Second)
Cartoonist Ngozi Ukazu puts an original spin on the body swap genre in her graphic novel, Flip. In the book, a Black working class nerdy girl named Chi-Chi swamps bodies with a wealthy white jock named Flip Henderson, who she has a crush on and accidentally asks to the school dance via Power Point in an engaging, embarrassing opening scene. Flip showcases Ukazu’s skills with character acting, and it’s rewarding to slow down and see how Flip and Chi-Chi move differently in each other’s bodies. The story also has poignant commentary on race, class, and mental health, but also fun K-Pop dances and fandom. Seriously, every time Chi-Chi, her friends, and eventually Flip chat about their favorite K-Pop group and their biases, the comic takes on a sparkling energy. In a world of full of division, Flip makes the bold call to empathize with folks, who have different experiences, in an entertaining way.
After a strong launch in 2024, Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta,Marcos Martin, Clay Mann, and Jock’sAbsolute Batman reached masterpiece status this year finishing especially strong with the conclusion of the horrific “Abomination” arc and even more horrifying stand-alone story that introduced Absolute Joker. Toxic, working class, and incredibly jacked Batman just works in our day and age, and Snyder and company aren’t afraid to take big swings and put truly original spins on iconic heroes, villains, and all the folks in-between. Reading this comic is like taking both a physical and psychological beating, and there is real power in the punches and moves Dragotta draws and in Martin’s flat colors. And the lobster to this juicy steak of a comic is the Absolute Batman Annual where skilled cartoonists like Daniel Warren Johnson, James Harren, and Meredith McClaren put their own stamp on this grimdark universe and also draw Batman breaking Nazis’ limbs and doing cool wrestling moves.
My favorite comic was Adventure Time : The Bubbline College Special aka the cutest sapphic romance ever between a STEM princess and a humanities vampire queen. This one-shot from one of the most hilarious cartoonists in the game, Caroline Cash, is a love letter to slow burn romances, fan fiction, unexpected LGBTQ+ representation in pop culture, and finding someone you connect with even if you start out on the wrong foot. Cash’s color palette revels in the trippy weirdness of the Adventure Time universe while still making room for tender glances and shoulder brushes. It hits the right balance between indie and mainstream, which is about perfect for my own personal comics-enjoying aesthetic.
Honorable mentions: Giant-Size Criminal (Image), Street Sharks (Oni Press), Exquisite Corpses (Image), DC x Sonic the Hedgehog (DC/IDW), Thor/Shazam (Marvel/DC)
To save the world from an all-new supernatural threat that Diana is uniquely unqualified to solve, she will have to reach back to the oldest and deepest of gods for their assistance. But they may not agree with her position. In the midst of this struggle, a new player makes their presence known, but are they friend or foe? Concluding a two-part guest arc from visionary artist Matías Bergara!
Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site
To save the world from an all-new supernatural threat that Diana is uniquely unqualified to solve, she will have to reach back to the oldest and deepest of gods for their assistance. But they may not agree with her position. In the midst of this struggle, a new player makes their presence known, but are they friend or foe? Concluding a two-part guest arc from visionary artist Matías Bergara!
To save the world from an all-new supernatural threat that Diana is uniquely unqualified to solve, she will have to reach back to the oldest and deepest of gods for their assistance. But they may not agree with her position. In the midst of this struggle, a new player makes their presence known, but are they friend or foe? Concluding a two-part guest arc from visionary artist Matías Bergara!
As Diana learns more of the “myth of the Amazons” from Barbara in Gateway City, a series of violent supernatural events begins occurring one after another, drawing Diana all over the globe to fight. Noticing a pattern, Diana enlists Etta to help her crack the mystery of why these events are happening in these places and how to stop them. The answer? Too personal to imagine.
Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site
As Diana learns more of the myth of the Amazons from Barbara in Gateway City, a series of violent supernatural events begins occurring one after another, drawing Diana all over the globe to fight. Noticing a pattern, Diana enlists Etta to help her crack the mystery of why these events are happening in these places and how to stop them. The answer? Too personal to imagine.
