Ultimate Spider-Man Ending, Something Is Killing The Children To Run At Least 100 Issues, Eisner Awards Announced | Comic Book Club News For July 29, 2025

Ultimate Spider-Man ending. Something is Killing the Children to run at least 100 issues. 2025 Eisner Awards winners announced.

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Episode Transcript:

Ultimate Spider-Man ending.

Something is Killing the Children to run 100 issues.

Eisner Awards announced.

This is Comic Book Club News for July 29, 2025.

Ultimate Spider-Man Ending:

It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, since the title has been counting down since the beginning. But given it’s one of the best-selling titles in comic books, it’s still sort of a shocker: Marvel has announced that Ultimate Spider-Man is ending with issue #24.

The news was officially announced at the Marvel Comics: Ultimate Universe Panel at San Diego Comic-Con, with writer Jonathan Hickman stressing that, to quote Spider-Man’s arch-enemy The Joker [editor’s note: check on that before publishing this, thanks], “it’s all part of the plan.”

Said Hickman for real, “This was everything that I pitched. Nothing has deviated. It’s been really nice to execute the plan well and everything culminates into this issue. Fans of the Ultimate Universe are going to love it. It’s been a real pleasure being the writer of ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN.”

Marvel promises that the “generational Spider-Man saga” will hit a “startling finale that will cement the run as one of the most beloved Spider-Man runs in recent history.” Written by Hickman with art by Marco Checchetto, it’s “packed with dramatic—and shocking—developments for the entire Parker family—Peter, Mary Jane, Richard, May and Uncle Ben—along with Harry Osborn, Gwen Stacy and more, the issue will also create promising roadmaps for future storytelling.”

The week following the release of Ultimate Spider-Man, the story will continue into the five-issue Ultimate Endgame by Deniz Camp and Jonas Scharf, where the evil Reed Richards, The Maker, finally escapes from his prison and comes to confront the entirety of the Ultimate Universe.

Ultimate Spider-Man #24 will hit stores on December 24, followed by Ultimate Endgame #1 the next week on December 31.

Something Is Killing The Children To Run At Least 100 Issues:

Something might be killing the children, but nothing is killing Something is Killing the Children — at least for a good long while. As revealed at San Diego Comic-Con, the BOOM! Studios title will run at least 100 issues.

The news comes via The Beat, which was reporting from the Slaughterverse panel at SDCC. There, writer James Tynion IV revealed that thanks to the acquisition of BOOM! by book publisher Random House, SIKTC is contracted to run at least 100 issues. While not much more info was shared about this particular business contract for the book by Tynion and artist Werther Dell’Edera, the panel did reportedly comment on how wild it was to get to 50 issues, let alone 100 — with Tynion noting the longest run he’s ever done on a series was 50 issues, on his Batman/Detective Comics runs for DC.

Also noteworthy? This announcement comes when SIKTC isn’t even up to issue #50 yet. Something is Killing the Children #42 was released in June, #43 is coming out in August, and #44 isn’t scheduled to hit until October. While there will be an additional one-shot collecting an anthology story from BOOM!’s Hello Darkness, also released in October, that means at that pace Tynion and Dell’Edera are contracted to work on the series until, at least, 2035. Wild!

So… Why the long contract? While I’m no big city lawyer, this is a pretty easy one to figure out. Something is Killing the Children doesn’t usually pop up in sales charts for individual issues, but it is a monster when it comes to bookstore sales. Pretty much any time a new volume hits shelves, previous volumes pick up sales, as well. And in fact, per the panel report, the editors of the book refer to arcs as “novels.” As Random House is a book publisher first, it’s a no-brainer to make sure there’s a huge library for Something is Killing the Children that can sit in bookstores for decades to come, in trade collections, compendiums, omnibuses, etc.

The big question is that with both Tynion and Dell’Edera very much in demand, how long will the next 56 issues actually take to potentially finish the series? That’s scarier than anything Erica Slaughter kills on a bi-monthly basis.

Note: The audio version of this podcast uses a clip from the panel posted by moderator Sami DeMonster.

2025 Eisner Awards Winners Announced:

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, also known as the Eisners, are the biggest awards in comics. And now we know who the biggest winners are, too, thanks to the announcements of the 2025 Eisner Awards winners at San Diego Comic-Con.

All in all, no one comic nor publisher truly dominated this year’s awards. Instead, the winners give a picture of the whole comic book industry, including some surprising wins in tough categories. That said, let’s break down a few of the repeat… Defenders? I don’t know how that works.

Gene Luen Yang was the big winner, with three awards to his name for Lunar New Year Love Story — one solo for Best Writer, winning over Tom King, James Tynion IV, Kelly Thompson, and Ram V. Two of those awards also went to the book in general by Yang and LeUyen Pham, published by First Second/Macmillan.

The oversized David Mazzucchelli’s Batman Year One Artist’s Edition snagged two awards, including Best Archival Collection/Project, and Best Publication Design.

Since Eisner Awards can often be shared/for more than one project, there was also a fair bit of overlap. Jordie Bellaire won for Best Coloring, meaning two awards for Absolute Wonder Woman by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman, which also won Best New Series. And Clayton Cowles won Best Lettering, which also means three awards for Helen of Wyndhorn, with Bilquis Evely winning Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team and Tula Lotay winning for Best Cover Artist.

Of publishers, DC took home the most Eisners this year with three awards, plus two shared (for the prolific Cowles and Bellaire). And though IDW put out the Batman Year One Artist’s Edition, you can add those two awards with an asterisk if you want, for a total of seven, though maybe you shouldn’t.

Including the three wins for Lunar New Year Love Story, First Second/Macmillan also snagged Best Publication for Kids for Plain Jane and the Mermaid by Vera Brosgol, bringing their total to four wins.

Fantagraphics also snagged four wins, for The War on Gaza by Joe Sacco, Suffrage Song: The Haunted History of Gender, Race, and Voting Rights in the U.S. by Caitlin Cass, Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund by Caitlin McGurk, and a shared award for Charles Burns, who won Best Writer/Artist.

And IDW also nabbed four, for the above-mentioned Batman Year One Artist Edition, as well as Godzilla’s 70th Anniversary, and once again a shared one thanks to your hero and mine, Jordie Bellaire.

Perhaps the biggest surprise winner, though, was Santos Sisters for Best Continuing Series, which beat out The Department of Truth, Fantastic Four, Detective Comics, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Wonder Woman. I guess those other books suck now!

You can check out the full list of winners at comicbookclublive.com.

For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And the Eisners don’t accept nominations for podcasts, so that’s why we weren’t in the mix. Yeah, that’s it.

Got tips or stories you’d like us to cover? Email us at comicbookclublive@gmail.com.

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