This Week's Picks: Absolute Batman #25 Hits Its Biggest Moment, Plus Darkseid Takes On the Multiverse

Three of this week's biggest books end something. Absolute Batman reaches its largest issue yet. Batman: Bad Seeds closes with a dawn deadline. DC's All In Saga sends Darkseid across the multiverse as a bridge to Absolute Crisis. Add a Superman milestone and a Justice League special written and drawn by Dan Mora, and the shelf rewards readers who follow DC's long game.

Absolute Batman #25

Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta have spent two years proving that a Batman stripped of money and infrastructure can carry a flagship. Issue #25 is the payoff. The tagline promises all the villains, all the heroes, and all the stakes, then asks what is left of Absolute Batman. The solicitation puts him face to face with this world's version of his greatest foe. Dragotta's gatefold triptych cover signals the scale, and colorist Frank Martin and letterer Tom Napolitano give the oversized chapter room to breathe. This series brought a new generation of readers into comic shops, and this issue shows why. Snyder writes escalation as character work, and Dragotta draws every confrontation like it costs something. Read it as the culmination of everything the Absolute line has built.

DC All In Saga: Darkseid vs. The World #1

Scott Snyder and Joshua Williamson share writing duties on this 48-page prestige one-shot, with Sanford Greene and Yasmine Putri on art. It works as an epilogue to DC K.O. and a bridge to Absolute Crisis in 2027. The story traces the hidden past of the being once known as Uxas, from his first descent into tyranny to his crusade across the multiverse to gather his cosmic essence and become Darkseid Prime. It also checks in on Orion and the New Gods, and on Superman's whereabouts after DC K.O. Greene's thick, graphic line gives the Fourth World the mythic weight Jack Kirby's creations demand. Origin stories for villains often flatten them. Putting two architects of DC's current event era on this one suggests the book will do the opposite and sharpen the threat.

Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunrise #1

G. Willow Wilson and Matt Fraction close out Bad Seeds with an oversize special. Giuseppe Camuncoli pencils, Cliff Rathburn inks, and Tomeu Morey colors. The premise is simple and ticking. At sunset, Poison Ivy turns Gotham into a prehistoric nightmare. If nobody stops her by first light, the city and everyone in it is lost. Batman and his allies have one night. Camuncoli draws crowded, kinetic action cleanly, and Rathburn's inks add the grit that an overgrown Gotham needs. Two writers with very different voices give a crossover finale a chance to land emotionally as well as mechanically. This is the earth-shattering conclusion DC is promising, and a good moment for readers who followed the event from the start.

Absolute Wonder Woman #25

Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman reach a milestone in the Heretic arc. Diana's search for Barbara Minerva ends in a bloody confrontation, and the oversized issue also debuts Absolute Cheetah, who is described as not quite what anyone expected. That framing fits. The long search for Barbara Minerva gives the confrontation more than spectacle to carry. Sherman's jagged, expressive art makes the violence feel mythic instead of gratuitous, and the gatefold triptych cover gives the issue its own sense of occasion. This series has become the Absolute line's most confident outlier, and #25 is where it makes its biggest swing. Collected readers should also note Volume 3, Season of the Witch, ships this week.

Superman: The Wedding Album 30th Anniversary Special #1

The original Wedding Album celebrated Clark and Lois by gathering a roster of creators. This anniversary special does the same. Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway, who drew the main wraparound cover, join Louise Simonson, Rainbow Rowell, Karl Kesel, and others. The story marks the couple's 30th anniversary. Jon Kent plans a party for his parents, Mister Mxyzptlk offers unwanted help, and a parade of wedding crashers shows up for a couple that has survived Doomsday and a revealed secret. Anthologies like this live on tone, and warmth is the right register for a pair who have anchored DC's central romance for decades. It is a fan-service book in the best sense, built for readers who grew up with the Man of Steel and his reporter.

Justice League: The Dark Realm Special #1

Dan Mora writes and draws this special, which marks his writing debut. Mora is one of DC's most celebrated artists, known for the dynamic, cinematic pages he brought to Batman/Superman: World's Finest, so a script in his own hand is a notable development. The story follows the newer Justice League Unlimited characters Cadejos, Boruka, and Rana Dorada as dimensions beyond understanding break into the DCU. Blue Beetle, Zatanna, and Shazam join them. The special reveals the untold origin of Cadejos, a fire-breathing, wolf-like powerhouse, on a journey of redemption, power, and vengeance. Artists who write often produce their most visual storytelling, and the book gives DC a chance to spotlight fresh characters through a creator who clearly loves them.

This Week's Full Release List

Everything else shipping to shelves this Wednesday, condensed:

The Beat's Top Picks

• Dispatched #4 (Ignition Press) — B. Clay Moore and Daniel Gete, with colors by Lee Loughridge. The Sons of Liberty reveal their demands in this modern Die Hard-style thriller.
• Hello Darkness #26 (BOOM! Studios) — A horror anthology featuring Mark Bouchard and Val Halvorson, Tini Howard and Savanna Mayer, and Liam Johnson and Keith Browning.
• Scream – Halloween Special 2026 #1 (Rebellion) — Scream! turns 40 with new episodes of The Dracula File and The Thirteenth Floor.
• Universal Monsters: Bride of Frankenstein Lives #1 (Image/Skybound) — Kelly Thompson and Mattia De Iulis. The Bride wakes with no memory and has to learn to survive.

Also Worth Your Time

• Archie #2
• Batman: Bad Seeds – Gotham Central #1
• The Dogsitter #4
• The Flash #38
• Fort Psycho #3
• Innards #5
• Superman #43
• Terminal #4
• That Texas Blood: Hell Comes to Allison Ranch #2

New #1s and One-Shots

• From the World of Minor Threats: Welcome to Twilight – Villains and Vignettes #1
• Godzilla: Revenge of the Deadzone #1
• Pathfinder / Vampirella: Blade of Darkness #1
• Satanic Panic #1
• Star Wars: Rogue One – Darth Vader #1 (one-shot)
• Witchblade Samhain Special #1 (one-shot)

Graphic Novels and Trade Collections

• 30 Days of Night Deluxe Edition Vol. 4 HC
• Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 3: Season of the Witch HC/TP
• Afterlife With Archie Deluxe Edition HC
• Aliens Epic Collection: Original Years Vol. 4
• And Out Comes the Wolf HC
• BRZRKR: Blood Oaths Vol. 1
• Captain America Modern Era Epic Collection Vol. 4: Reborn
• Carmen Red Claw: Belly of the Beast HC
• The Complete Assassin's Apprentice
• DC Finest: Teen Titans – Terra in the Night
• Dick Tracy 1961
• Fall of the House of Slaughter
• Fireborn Vol. 1
• Godfather of Hell
• Godzilla: Here There Be – Complete Collection
• Golden Age Classics: Minute Man Vol. 1 HC
• Hellboy and the BPRD: The Ghost Ships of Labrador and Other Stories
• I Saw Santa: A Spawn Universe Christmas Story
• In Your Skin
• Iron Man Vol. 1: A New Nightmare
• Jughead: New Riverdale (Oni Press Compact Comics Edition)
• Knull: Coming to the Light
• Marvel's Mightiest Monsters HC
• Moon Knight Epic Collection Vol. 8: The Resurrection War
• Naruto x Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Manga Edition)
• October Faction IDW Classic Collections
• October Girl Vol. 3
• The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery
• Phoo Action HC
• Rogue: Shadows of the Past
• Rogue Trooper: The Complete Collection Book 4
• Sh*t My President Says: The Illustrated Tweets of Donald J. Trump
• Shock Treatment and Other Stories HC
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ongoing Compendium Vol. 3
• Thistlebone: The Complete Collection
• Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 6 HC
• War Wolf Vol. 2
• White Sky Vol. 1
• The Witcher Vol. 11: Blood Stone

Start with Absolute Batman #25 if you only grab one book. Add Darkseid vs. The World for the road to Absolute Crisis, and Sunrise to see how Bad Seeds ends. Each of these books closes one chapter while it opens the next.

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