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 November 17th, 2025.
Absolute Martian Manhunter Vol. 1: Martian Vision
DC Comics, TPB – $17.99 (Buy Now)
FBI Agent John Jones has a problem. His brain has been infected by an alien consciousness calling itself “the Martian,” and its perception of reality is utterly incomprehensible to the human psyche. Now he must navigate this new status quo, all while balancing the deeply grounded and important duties of his day job!
Both one of the most visually stunning books on the shelf and the most psychedelic, Absolute Martian Manhunter has been one of the stand-out books of the Absolute experiment. MM stands alone due to artist Javier Rodriguez’s absolute commitment to pushing the artistic medium of comics. Bright, vibrant, and trippy, the book feels somehow larger than its continuity. An experience to be had, whether you’re following its contemporaries or not.
The Ghost Compendium Vol. 1
Dark Horse Comics, TPB – $59.99 (Buy Now)
Elisa Cameron is dead — murdered in cold blood. One intrepid reporter will not stop until she finds the perpetrator, even if it means crawling through the depths of hell to do it. That reporter is Elisa Cameron herself, risen from the grave as the spectral avenger Ghost!
I’ve never gotten the chance to read Ghost, but a youth reading Wizard magazine instilled in me a respect for the book. It seemed like there was a window where this book was very talked about, even beyond Dark Horse’s short-lived Comics’ Greatest World series, which included books like X and Barb Wire. Ghost features a vengeful spirit, all in white, with guns. It’s a striking aesthetic, a sort of The Shadow meets The Spectre premise, and I’ve always wanted to know more. Now’s my (and your) chance.
House of X / Powers of X
Marvel Comics, HC – $75 (Buy Now)
“While you slept, the world changed.” With those words, Professor X announces to the people of Earth the new mutant nation of Krakoa. It is a safe haven for all Homo superior, with its own rules and its own language. In return for international recognition, he will offer humanity great scientific achievements, borne of Krakoa’s unique flora. But the time for coexistence is over. The old dream is dead — now it is time for a new one.
The Krakoan experiment might feel, so close to its stuttered ending, like a failed one. Fan reaction to the whole thing was wildly mixed, and as it rushed toward its conclusion, the quality slipped greatly. The beginning, collected here, felt to me to be one of the most promising and mind-blowing X-Men stories in decades, a return, finally, to celebrating one of the best comic book franchises after decades of semi-neglect. It’s a powerful story, beautifully executed, and chock full of promise that still feels very real and very dear to me.
Karmen
Image Comics, TPB – $16.99 (Buy Now)
. . . an edgy new volume about a highly unconventional angel named Karmen and the young woman she takes under her wing when a case of heartbreak strikes hard. Packed with surprises and metaphysics, this gorgeously drawn series deploys tenderness and humor as it dives deep into topics that matter.
Like The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, Karmen presents a playful incarnation of Death through the lens of a very particular cultural identity. Soaked in Mediterranean hues, the book doesn’t dread the end so much as celebrates life at its most minor and tedious. It’s an unflinching look at the brutality of despair, touched up with the joyful. Writer/Artist Guillem March’s artwork is stupendous, and this book is a true feat of soul-searching creativity. It’s a masterpiece, and it deserves to be read again and again and again.
We3: Compact Comics Edition
DC Comics, TPB – $9.99 (Buy Now)
Deep inside a top-secret U.S. research facility, a revolution in cybernetics is taking shape. Using ordinary domestic animals, the scientists of Project AWE have created a new class of cyborgs — flesh-and-metal creatures designed to rule the battlefields of tomorrow: prototypes code-named WE3.
Grant Morrison is, as ever, truly strange, and We3 is a perfect illustration of the sorts of work they were doing during their middle career, just outside the bounds of big superhero books. It’s a book about household pets turned into killer machines, but underneath its condemnation of the military industrial complex and its contemplation at the cruelty of man, it’s mostly a scifi riff on Homeward Bound. It’s a delight, even as it distresses the readers.
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