Image Comics has announced a 27-day window for comic shops. Marvel’s X-Men will get a new status quo post-Age of Revelation. DC has announced two additional Compact Comics, both focused on Batman.
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Episode Transcript:
Image Comics gives comic shops an exclusive window.
X-Men teases new status quo.
Two new Batman Compact Comics coming.
This is Comic Book Club News for September 25, 2025.
Image Comics Gives Comic Book Shops 27-Day Exclusive Window:
Here’s a potential game-changer: Image Comics has told comic book retailers they will have a 27-day exclusive window to sell collected editions and graphic novels, before they hit book stores.
Per The Beat, the news was announced to Direct Market retailers via a letter from the publisher, and will begin with titles on sale starting December 24, 2025. And the new policy, the way Image frames it, seems to be taking lemons and making lemonade. Specifically, “in response to new logistical supply-chain requirements that have called for a longer receiving window on book shipments in the Book Market.”
To pre-answer one question here, while this will impact buying books in stores like Barnes & Noble and online at Amazon, it will not impact monthly floppies — only the trade collections and graphic novels, something that Image seems to be pushing more and more, if their frequent press releases are any indication. So there you go! Good news for comic book retailers. For traditional book stores? TBD.
X-Men Line Gets New Status Quo Post-Age of Revelation:
As repeatedly teased over the past few months, Cyclops will be getting his own solo title in the wake of the X-Men’s upcoming Age of Revelation event. And there are a bunch of other, er, revelations about the X-Men line in 2026, which is being labeled “Shadows of Tomorrow.”
While more info will be offered up at Marvel’s X-Men panel at New York Comic Con next month, we do have five different blurry teaser images provided by the publisher to whet our appetites. We know the Age of Revelation event, which is set 10 years in the future of the Marvel Universe, will end in December. Afterwards, while some currently running titles won’t continue, we do know of three that will, all in January: Wolverine, X-Men, and The Uncanny X-Men. They’ll pick up on their numbering where they left off in September, pre-Age of Revelation.
But as far as “new” titles, we’ve got two coming up in February: Wade Wilson: Deadpool, and Cyclops. For the latter, based on the tagline “find someone else to laugh at,” it seems likely we’ve got a more serious Deadpool than usual. As for Cyclops, “follow the leader” isn’t too explanatory, though could refer to Cyclops leading the X-Men, or that he’s literally trying to track down Hulk villain The Leader. Or both!
We also don’t know any creative teams, though it seems likely that the continuing titles will retain their lead writers: Saladin Ahmed on Wolverine, Jed MacKay on X-Men, and Gail Simone on The Uncanny X-Men. We’ll have more on this as it develops.
DC Announces Two New Batman Compact Comics:
DC’s Compact Comics might be small, but the line keeps expanding — now with two new Batman books coming in 2026
Per ICv2, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight by writer Brian Augustyn and artist Mike Mignola will hit stores on January 20, 2026. Running 120 pages, the 1989-releasing book was the impetus for the creation of DC’s Elseworlds line.
That will be followed on February 20, 2026, by Batman: White Knight, by Sean Murphy and Matt Hollingsworth. Collecting the original eight-issue series that found the Joker being “cured,” the mini has been a perennial best-seller and spawned a whole White Knight universe of books. It will run 216 pages, and both volumes will cost $9.99.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And here’s an exclusive window for you: my bedroom window. You can’t have it, it’s mine.
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