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 31st, 2025.
Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale: Captain America
Marvel Comics, TPB – $19.99 (Buy Now)
For Steve Rogers, the hardest thing about being a man out of time is being a man without a best friend. As Captain America comes to terms with his loss, he longs for the black-and-white moral simplicity of World War II: Bucky Barnes charging fearlessly into battle at his side. The Howling Commandos right behind. Odds against them, lives on the line, taking the fight to the greatest evil of all. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s incredible creative partnership on the Color series starring Marvel icons sees them revisit the glory days of Captain America and Bucky in a classic tale of a friendship forged in war!
The newest of the Loeb/Sale Marvel books, Captain America: White came out in 2015, over ten years after their Daredevil: Yellow; it concludes the pair’s four ‘color’ books, which saw Daredevil, Hulk, Spidey, and Cap all get their own dedicated stories. Being Loeb/Sale, these books have a feeling of being iconic, classics, almost definitive takes on the characters. These aren’t quite Batman: The Long Halloween, but they’ve got some of that same energy. We can be very thankful for recent reprints of all four of these books, some of which are over a quarter-century old and long out of print.
Misfit City Complete Collection
BOOM! Studios, TPB – $19.99 – (Buy Now)
When friends Wilder, Macy, Karma, Dot, and Ed end up with the map of the recently-departed Captain Denby, that may lead to real treasure from real pirate Black Mary, they’re thrust into an adventure worthy of an irresistible pop theme! But they’re not the only ones who want the treasure. Can they solve the mysteries of their formerly-dreary town and grab the booty before the baddies?
I haven’t yet read Misfit City, but I have flipped through it, and Naomi Franquiz’s art should be enough to bring readers into this complete edition. An all-ages mystery with a sort of indie-chic styling, the book might not present the most harrowing of mysteries, but it looks like it could be a cozy-ish addition to the TBR pile.
Nexus: Deluxe Omnibus Vol. 1
BIG Studios, HC – $125 – (Kickstarter)
Created by the dynamic duo of writer Mike Baron and artist Steve Rude in 1981, this groundbreaking sci-fi superhero saga follows Horatio Hellpop, a reluctant executioner of mass murderers, as he navigates a complex universe 500 years in the future.
A creator-owned dystopian sci-fi superhero, Nexus is one of those characters whose publication history was consistent if beleaguered by company switches and inconsistent readership. It’s a testament to the creators that such a wild, untested character could become so recognizable in the flooded indie swamp of the 1980s and early 1990s, and it’s nice to see such a definitive collection make its way to the public, even by way of Kickstarter.
The Traveler: Complete Collection
BOOM! Studios, TPB – $19.99 (Buy Now)
When quantum scientist Ronald Lessik’s experiment went wrong, he was transformed into the time-manipulating superhero, the Traveler! Now, he seeks to find his true love, herself lost in time and space, and defend the world from threats like the Split-Second Men, temporal ghosts, the time-lost planet Anachronopolis, and even comes face-to-face with fellow hero Soldier Zero!
Stan Lee’s late-in-life creations are all bizarre and memorable, even if very few of them were long for this world. I couldn’t tell you anything about The Traveler, but the fact that Lee had co-creator Mark Waid on board might suggest that the book features some of that writer’s bold love for the superhero genre. It’s definitely worth a look, even just to sate your curiosity.
Wolverine & Kitty Pryde
Marvel Comics, TPB – $17.99 (Buy Now)
When Kitty Pryde nearly lost her soul to Ogun during her journey to Japan, Logan was there to keep the youngest X-Man on the path to good. But as a mysterious force threatens their lives while staying with Mariko Yashida, it’s going to take all their combined mutant, ninja and fighting skills to protect those they love! Wolverine and Shadowcat are always up for the fight, but they can’t be prepared for the ghostly Snow-Samurai and the startling changes it presages!
Claremont’s decade-and-a-half run on Uncanny X-Men and related projects is one of the most influential runs in comics, and his vast array of characters and relationships still inform the comics we’re reading today. Kitty was the first of Wolverine’s teen girl BFFs (a role that has since cycled through the likes of Jubilee and Logan‘s X-23), and having Claremont return to expand on it feels like a blessing. I haven’t been particularly fond of the modern rash of Marvel books where classic creators muddle in their glory days past, but I think I can make the acception here.
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