Big Book News - January 2025

Hello there,

and welcome to another instalment of the newsletter that WILL judge books by their cover (and by their spines, too)! That's right, it's me, Jelle, and I'm here to tell you that I understand. With books this big, who can afford to get them all?! Options have to be weighed, and boy will there be some difficult choices ahead in 2025. What do you say we try to make a few right now?

Me everytime Omar reveals another variant cover

BIG BOOK DEAL: THE ISLAND THAT LIVED

Jonathan Hickman and Pepe Larraz established a new status quo for the X-Men when they kicked off the Krakoa saga in 2019. Its opening act, House of X/Powers of X, was a book that didn’t just breathe new life into many of the mutants thought lost, it also reignited my personal love for comic books, especially of the physical, oversized variety. That gorgeously drawn, mind bending trip through timelines must be the book I’ve re-read the most times since getting it, and I remained hooked on the rest of the saga as it developed, ups and downs included. (In my house we la-la-la any mentions of Fal-la-la-len Angels away!)

While Hickman moved on to other projects, multiple writers embraced the concept he laid out with great fervor, gleefully expanding on Krakoa’s bark-solid foundation. But even the best journeys end, and at the dawn of 2024 a select few of them were tasked with wrapping up five years of high stakes island politics, serving up Fall Of The House Of X/Rise Of The Powers Of X as the grand finale. Circling back to Krakoa's kick-off, it’s another epic side-by-side series that shifts between viewpoints and timelines, with art you’ll just want to hold in your hands, trust me. 

Each of the three covers can now be pre-ordered on our store as BIG BOOK DEALS (which is just Krakoan for “insanity level low prices until F.O.C.”)! My pick? Weird orientation on the promotion image aside, Pepe Larraz tugs on my heart strings with that massive group shot. I love all those people and I want them on my shelf!

Big Book Deals

HERE IN A FLASH

His first name is also "Agent"

Venom fans, take heed! Taking even Near Mint Condition's Omar by surprise, Marvel snuck the Agent Venom Omnibus onto the release calendar, and with an F.O.C. date this close we had to retroactively add it to the January pre-orders. If you faithfully check those once a month, you may have missed out, so hopefully this newsletter reaches you in time instead!

Flash Thompson's stint with the symbiote starts as a seemingly more heroic take on Venom than ever before, but the power of the living black suit always come at a price. If you read last week's graphic novel newsletter, you know you can't go wrong with Rick Remender, and he penned most of this masterpiece of a run that explores a war veteran trying to do the right thing while wrestling his demons, all the way into space!

Pick your favourite suit to fight crime with here. My pick? The one in space, because everything looks cooler in space, and, hello, his arm is a sword?

SPIDEY PUNCHES FASCISTS

And fascist cars

Joe Kelly recently took over the reins on the on-going The Amazing Spider-Man (soon launching a new #1 to web you back in), and with this great announcement came great excitement on my behalf. You see, it’s far from the first time he penned some Peter Parker prose, and he already won me over when he did!

Soon hitting shelves is the Spider-Man By Joe Kelly Omnibus, which will take you through every challenge he’s made the webslinger overcome so far, including my personal favourite Kelly classic, Non-Stop Spider-Man. That’s the highest octane Spidey comic you’ll ever read, with art by Chris Bachalo that's so dynamic it near-literally bursts from the page, and it’s here that Kelly writes Peter at his absolute funniest. Definitely check it out if you enjoy seeing fascists (and cars) get crushed in the highest of fidelities.

Attachment options… Symbiote cuddles vs the cables behind your gaming setup

The book should be ready to ship by the end of January and we still have copies of both covers to claim, so make a non-stop trip here! My pick? I doubted and doubted, but eventually caved to the cozy Venom hug. Just look at them, they're made for each other! ❤️

WHOOPS - did I just spend half this newsletter geeking out about Marvel?

I didn't meant to, honestly! I guess it comes more naturally to me than most right now. But don't worry, we've got some incredible books coming in from the other houses as well!

For starters, you can pre-order Daniel Warren Johnson's Transformers in two absolutely gorgeous hardcovers. Trust me, your favorite story deserves this epic treatment.

Next up: The Chrononauts Library Edition by Mark Millar! Think astronauts, but they explore TIME instead of space. How cool is that concept?

Third: We're getting a Supergirl Omnibus! 

Fourth: I Hate Fairyland's Deluxe HC Vol. 3 is coming! Though wait a minute... didn't Gert finally escape Fairyland? 

And fifth: Dark Knights of Steel Deluxe Edition is actually happening! With a DM Cover. Better late than never, am I right?

Preos

And what about books you can get right now - like, RIGHT now, you ask?

Like Manifest Destiny Deluxe HC Book 1, which isn't a bestseller these past few months by accident. Plus we've got tons of amazing restocks waiting for you! Restocks

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING

With both volumes now soundly on my shelf, I couldn’t help but re-read all of Zdarsky’s Daredevil once more… buuuut I raved about that story last month already. (Still, seriously, read it! And then watch the trailer for the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again TV series revival.) Right now I’m making my way through Al Ewing’s The Immortal Hulk, and boy does it live up to the hype so far!

Hulk with an improved airflow to better keep his cool

I’m currently 20 issues in and every chapter has given me a new appreciation for Bruce Banner and his compatriots' predicaments, not in the least because of the increasingly gruesome body transformations of pretty much anyone with a gamma-related affliction. Al Ewing and Joe Bennett were clearly inspired by classical monster horror, with strikingly unsettling art that refuses to leave anything to the imagination, written in layers of freaky psychological dread.

 But what keeps me thoroughly invested is the intoxicatingly toxic personality of the new Hulk on the block. Refreshingly unapologetic and relentlessly unforgiving, not to mention keenly self-aware, my eyes are glued to any page he's on. The story gets heavy, outright creepy at times, but finds its moments of levity in cruel comedy. The pacing seems just right, with each chapter neatly building upon, and upstaging everything that came before with new surprises. With 31 issues left to go, I can only hope it keeps this momentum all the way to the end.

 With a whopping 1616 pages it’s the hulkiest of Hulk books out there, and while it’s been out of print for a while now, you can actually still get a copy at WCS here! Alas, no variant covers left to choose from, but the story's also still available across various Trade Paperback volumes.

THAT’S ALL FOR NOW, EXCEPT…

We live in 2025 now, aka THE DISTANT FUTURE, and that has its perks. Do we have flying cars? No, nothing in sight. Teleportation? Still impossible. Lightsabers? We have them, but they’re just hard plastic with speakers and motion sensors. World peace? Not the right timeline. But oversized hardcover collections of full comic book runs? YES! We have those! We call them OMNI'S, and…

OMNIS ARE FOREVER