There is a veritable flood of new comics every week: new issues, variant covers, new #1s, and fresh-faced miniseries. Fewer – but still bountiful – are the dozens of bookshelf editions landing in your local comic shops (and attainable by your local indie bookshops, as well!). From fresh original graphic novels, long-awaited archive editions, and collections of recent comics for all you trade-waiters, there are plenty of trade paperbacks and hardcovers to fill your shelves.
After reviewing hundreds of these sorts of books for AIPT over the years, I’ve come to appreciate what makes a collection truly special. Here at Tradewatch, I pick five books releasing in the coming week that seem the most exciting to me. Here are my picks for the week of December 17th, 2025.
Batman and Robin: Year One
DC Comics, TPB – $29.99 (Buy Now)
Join fan-favorite creative duo Mark Waid and Chris Samnee as they explore the first year of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson’s partnership, both as a newly minted father and son in the eyes of the public and as the crime-fighting Batman and Robin to the criminal underworld of Gotham City!
Waid and Samnee’s take on Gotham City and its bizarre inhabitants feels near-perfect, with Samnee’s art establishing this book as truly iconic. These are the characters at their most refined, perfect snapshots of who they are at the beginning of their partnership. The book’s villains are complex, nuanced, and this is the best Clayface this side of Batman: The Animated Series (after which he is clearly modeled). The Year One concept is so clean and smart, and this races to the top of the list in terms of best executed.
Bunny Mask Cave Collection
Aftershock Comics, HC – $39.99
Sealed in a cave before the dawn of man, released by a crazed madman, Bunny Mask walks our world once more. But for what dark purpose does she use her unnatural powers? And what’s her connection to Bee Foster, a young girl murdered by her father fourteen years ago? In order to save his life – and his sanity – one man will have to discover the truth of what waits behind the mask.
I was surprised by Bunny Mask when it first hit shelves back in 2021, and a large part of that surprise was at how incredibly lovely artist Andrea Mutti’s work was, even at its most grotesque. The central concept of the book (a bunny-mask-wearing murder girl) seems pretty light and breezy, but there’s a larger mystery at play that kept me at least intrigued enough to finish the first miniseries. This book collects the whole affair, which amounts to two miniseries and a Free Comic Book Day offering, and if you’re a fan of quirky horror, it might just be worth your time.
Human Target Deluxe Edition
DC Comics, HC – $49.99 (Buy Now)
With only 12 days to live, Chance decides he will not go quietly into the night. He’s going to find out who wants Luthor dead so badly by following every lead and questioning every suspect, whether they’re an arrogant space cop or an elemental femme fatale.
There have been few comics in recent years that felt as effortlessly cool as Human Target, which perfectly blends neo noir, Justice League International, and impeccable artwork into something that feels like it deserves a Criterion Collection release. This Deluxe Edition is the closest thing to that cinematic honor that a comic book can get, collecting the 12 issues into one luxury hardcover. Greg Smallwood’s work on this book is a career achievement for an artist who consistently hits the top of the game, and there is a subtle fan-service element for anyone who came up reading a certain era of DC Comics. It’s a masterpiece.
The Moon is Following Us Vol 2
Image Comics, TPB – $16.99 (Buy Now)
All Sam and Duncan want to do is save their daughter Penny from a never ending sleep. But the awful forces causing Penny’s sickness have just won a major battle, putting Sam and Duncan on a knife’s edge. But lucky for them, help may just come in the most unlikeliest of places.
The conclusion to the wild, absurd, and moving saga, The Moon is Following Us is a showcase of two incredible artists leaning as far into the realms of impossible as they can while still pulling the reader’s heartstrings. I inhaled the first trade paperback like a drowning man desperate for beautiful air, and I can’t begin to imagine the weird and wonderful places the story goes.
Uncanny X-Men by Gail Simone Vol. 3: Murder Me, Mutina
Marvel Comics, TPB – $15.99 (Buy Now)
When a brilliant but exploitative Hollywood director makes a surprise-hit horror film featuring a serial-killing mutant girl, there are protests at theaters around the country — and a rise in anti-mutant violence in those same communities. But is it “just a movie,” or is something much more insidious going on?
Gail Simone’s Uncanny X-Men is the cream of the current X-Men crop, playing lovingly with the classic characters and really delivering heartfelt explorations of the new teen team they oversee. The plots are consistently strange, focusing less on standard superheroics and developing unique new avenues of mythology. This volume features a serial killer who is also the face of a mutant-based slasher flick, if that’s any indication of the direction Simone is going with the franchise.
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