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 10th, 2025.
Doom Patrol by Keith Giffen and Matthew Clark Omnibus
DC Comics, HC – $100 (Buy Now)
Who are the Doom Patrol, when every story ever told about them is true but coexists in contradiction? From the wreckage of their multiple lives, the World’s Strangest Heroes must find purpose in a world of impermanence. From writer Keith Giffen and artists Matthew Clark and Ron Randall comes the story of misfit heroes trying to make sense of their existence before the next big reboot hits.
For as beloved a property as Doom Patrol is, it never seems to stick around for very long. Miniseries, brief flirtations with ongoing series, and quick guest-starring stints in other books, the Patrol gets only the smallest of chances to dazzle and delight their fans. This means that every chance needs to be celebrated; this New 52(ish)-era series, written by the late-great Keith Giffen, was just as brief as any modern attempt at the series, but looks to celebrate the whole of the team’s wonderful and weird history.
Falling In Love On the Path to Hell Vol. 2
Image Comics, TPB – $16.99 (Buy Now)
A samurai and a gunslinger meet in purgatory and begin their torrid romance. It’s not all love in an undead paradise, they are hounded by a cult of warriors who are one foot from hell, and the undead monsters that roam the giant island. Can Asami & MacRaith survive long enough to escape the island?
The core concept of Falling in Love on the Way to Hell is one hell of an elevator pitch, and the book’s gruesome, off-the-wall energy really lives up to that premise. I’m about twelve issues behind schedule on reading the series, but I’ve got the first trade dutifully waiting in my TBR pile. I’ll gladly line up the second right behind for a whirlwind read-through, and my excitement is palpable.
Fantastic Four by Waid & Wieringo: Authoritative Action
Marvel Comics, TPB – $34.99 (Buy Now)
When their actions lead to the death of one of their own, the First Family storms the gates of Heaven to save their teammate! Reunited and back in the Big Apple, the FF have a lot to answer for — but when you’re trying to regain the trust of cynical New Yorkers, is allying with a certain misunderstood wall-crawler a wise move?
Waid and Wieringo’s run on Fantastic Four is justly celebrated — it’s fun, emotional, and the late Wieringo’s pencils are stunning — and the recent collections proceed apace with this, the third in the series. It’s a delight to have them all collected so quickly (a fourth volume is slated for January), and it’s been incredible to revisit the stories some twenty years after their original publication; they capture the Fantastic Four just as perfectly as Ryan North and company’s current exursion on the book. They really get what the series should be about: weird science and family.
Lone Wolf and Cub Deluxe Edition Vol. 1
Dark Horse Comics, HC – $54.95 (Buy Now)
Ogami Itto, once the shogun’s executioner, has fallen from grace after false accusations by a rival clan. With his wife murdered and with his three-year-old son to protect, he chooses the path of the ronin, the masterless samurai. Together, the lone wolf and his cub wander feudal Japan, but all roads will lead them to a single destination—vengeance.
One of the most influential books in the early rush to import manga to the states, Lone Wolf and Cub was helped along by major supporter Frank Miller in a time when Japanese comics couldn’t get a toehold in the US market. These new editions from Dark Horse look like a lovely way to experience such a historic legacy and fall in love with the epic all over again.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Deluxe Edition Vol. 3
Kodansha, HC – $54.95 (Buy Now)
The storied Gundam franchise’s “First Season” that set new standards of verisimilitude for televised sci-fi animation returns in comics form at the hand of one of the initial creators! The definitive account expands on the classic narrative with the same sense of purpose that lit up the screen more than four decades ago.
When I recommended the first book of this series, back in August, I had not yet tripped into the yawning abyss of Gundam fandom, replete with its model kits and forty years of anime and manga. The months since have seen me changed, forged in the fires of subtitles, dubs, and 1/144 polystyrene robots; I’ve experienced the joys of this particular series of manga, and I can tell you that it is distinctly incredible. This volume veers away from retelling the original 1979 anime, to which the majority of the series is dedicated, and dives into new, flashback territory: it’s in this volume that we begin to see the origin of Gundam: The Origin. Relating the political and biographical events that led to the One Year War, this volume deeply illuminates the history behind the conflict of one of anime’s most important stories. The artwork is fantastic, the characters are greatly realized, and you’ll come to love a cat named Lucifer.
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