Judging by the Cover – 03/05/25 new releases

There is a veritable cornucopia of new comics hitting stands each week. While readers often know exactly what it is they’re most interested in (those in the know have got their pull-list sitting in their comic shop’s ever-reliable hands), there is something to be said about going against that old truism and Judging a Book by Its Cover.

Some truly astounding cover art hits each and every week, and these are the ones that caught Colin’s eye the week of March 5th, 2025.

Batgirl #5

Cover by David Talaski

What a vivid, striking image. Talaski makes both the blue poppies and the character pop in this field of darkness; he also makes Cassandra’s costume feel positively alien, accentuating that the Bat Family is meant to be a little bit frightening, even though we readers are the ‘cowardly lot’ of criminals they’re meant to terrify. We know them too well to find them creepy (unless you’re of the opinion that Bruce’s controlling nature is creepy, in which case: yikes, my guy, leave them kids alone).

Birds of Prey # 19 and Poison Ivy #31

Variants by Jenny Frisson

More Jenny Frisson love this week (and these aren’t the only Frisson covers this week — she’s also got a great Vampirella cover coming out!). It feels like she won’t be done until she captures every heroine of the DC Universe in her absolutely iconic style. These illustrations are so lush, and she captures each character in such a way that their powers and tones are captured with little effort. You know who these women are even if you’ve never picked up a comic book.

Fantastic Four #1

Facsimile variant by Alex Ross

It’s a classic cover reimagined by Alex Ross. This is an obvious choice for a ‘best covers of the week’ column. On AIPT’s Discord, we were jokingly trying to figure out how many covers Alex Ross churns out in a given year, and our unresearched answer came out to be ‘innumerable’.

That’s just fine with us: Ross is a legend, and each of these covers feels like a masterpiece.

Mothra: Queen of Monsters #1

Cover by Matt Frank

This is an awfully artsty introduction to a comic about a big old moth, and that strikes me as both goofy and fitting. Despite knowing only the basics about the character and her films, Mothra is one of the most iconic kaiju to me (helped, almost certainly, by her prominent role as a player character in the 1988 NES game Godzilla: King of Monsters).

Matt Frank is also doing the interior artwork for this series, and I’m excited to see this aesthetic — whether he skews painterly or not — working for the story inside.

Shazam #21

Variant by Javier Pulido

This Pulido cover feels very much like the artwork of classic artist CC Beck, who worked on the character’s debute in Whiz Comics in 1940 (and was prolific with the character for decades following). It captures a sort of cartoon simplicity that has always been at the heart of the character — which isn’t to say that the character is simple, so much that there’s a purity of heart there.