It’s the week after New York Comic Con, so you’d think this would be an incredibly dense week of news. It is — thus why this edition is 12 items long — but much to my delight there’s a little more space in here for oddball curiosities than we’d typically find after a major convention. There were still some killer headliners, though, so let’s dig into 12 things I liked or didn’t like from the week of comics, led by the return of the king.

Vertigo Comics, Now Revealed

Vertigo is back!

But we knew that, and have known that, since NYCC 2024. What we didn’t know is what it might entail. And what it entails is a whole lot of comics, as the first ten — ten! — titles were revealed at NYCC 2025. DC Executive Editor Chris Conroy, who is also the head of Vertigo, led the panel where it was all announced at the con, and it really is quite the slate. Here’s an incredibly quick rundown of the titles and an idea of when they’re coming before we get back to talking about this news:

• The Nice House by the Sea by James Tynion IV, Álvaro Martínez Bueno, and Jordie Bellaire: February
• Bleeding Hearts by Deniz Camp, Stipan Morian, and Matt Hollingsworth: February
• End of Life by Kyle Starks, Steve Pugh, and Chris O’Halloran: February
• The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery by Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips: February
• 100 Bullets: The US of Anger by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso: July 2026
• Black Tower: The Raven Conspiracy by Ram V and Mike Perkins: 2026
• Necretaceous by Tom Taylor and Darick Robertson: 2026
• Fanatic by Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer: 2026
• The Crying Doll by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell: 2026
• A Walking Shadow by Simon Spurrier and Aaron Campbell: 2026

That’s quite the mix, with one continuing title in Nice House, a returning one in 100 Bullets, and eight brand new books from some seriously great creative teams. And that’s where the key point lies. These are all creative teams who have worked together doing so again, which is a real treat. We know they’ll be good, and we know they are used to delivering quality on time and on target. That’s huge. I have my favorites, of course. I’m ride or die with Kyle Starks and Steve Pugh after Peacemaker Tries Hard!, so End of Life is something I’m hot for. Necretaceous is so not Vertigo that it comes back to being Vertigo, which makes me intrigued, and we know Taylor and Robertson work well together based on Hellblazer: Rise and Fall. The one I’m here for the most is The Crying Doll, though, as Tamaki is incredible and Valero-O’Connell is a miracle artist.

That last one was the most surprising, but also the one that shows the potential of this era the most. That’s a book market team famous for Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me taking their talents to a serialized, ongoing comic book. That takes some vision to put together, and some guts from the creative team to make that transition. But they’re so good, I fully believe in their ability to deliver. That’s the case for the whole Vertigo team. There have been other resurrections of the line in the past, revitalizations designed to jazz it up after it languished a bit. They were solid, but maybe lacked the comprehensive and creative mindset to make it pop. I see that here. This is like 2000s era Vertigo but with a brilliant slate of creators and concepts that feel of the moment (and 100 Bullets, but I hear it’s going to do something different than what we expect).

So, as you might expect, I am in on Vertigo’s return. It looks incredible, from the sharply designed covers to the teams and concepts of its first ten titles. The first four that hit in February sound like fabulous proofs of concept, which is true even if “fabulous” might not jive well with the brutal nature of all four books. Of course, my optimism at least in part stems from a conversation I had with Conroy at NYCC, where he made me realize how much we speak the same language of what Vertigo could and should be today. But the point stillstands.

You might be wondering what we talked about. I have good news for you: You’ll find out soon. We recorded it, and that conversation will arrive as a slightly shorter than usual episode of Off Panel on Monday.

DC, Heat Checking

If anyone came out hot during New York Comic Con, it was DC. You might have gathered that from the first point, as Vertigo’s return is a huge part of that. You’ll figure out a bit more about that in the next one, as a surprise crossover appealed. But as I noted in my coverage of NYCC itself, DC’s dominance permeated throughout the con, and on each and every day of the event.

It started with its Publisher, President, and Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee’s speech during Wednesday’s Retailer Day. Heidi MacDonald at The Beat managed to get the whole script for it, but the part that stood out the most was Lee taking a stance against AI in front of the assembled retailers, publishers, and creators. Let me tell you, the majority of that room was either distracted, couldn’t hear him, or was simply not paying attention. It was a weird event. That’s why Lee’s moment was such a crucial one. When Lee came down on AI and said it would simply not be used at DC, there was cheering in the room. It was a striking moment, and one that stood out when compared to the sleepiness that dominated the rest of the event. It felt like a big deal, and the room read it as such.

It wasn’t just talk, though. There were exciting comic announcements too. A big one was the reveal of Next Level, the publishing initiative that will hit in March 2026 that finds creators being tasked with telling stories with the characters they’re most excited to work on. That has resulted in an intriguing motley crew of titles and an A-lister lineup of talent. We know the titles but we do not know which creators belong to which book, but the fact that Greg Rucka and Dani are tackling Batwoman, Skottie Young and Jorge Corona are taking over Lobo, and Joshua Williamson is writing Legion of Super-Heroes is a promising start. And with other names like Deniz Camp, James Harren, and Mariko Tamaki involved and other titles including The Demon, Firestorm: The Nuclear Man, and Deathstroke the Terminator, you know it’s going to get interesting in Next Level. I’m into it.

Speaking of getting interesting, DC’s most unexpected announcement was the reveal of who will be involved with a DC K.O. special that will bring in characters from other universes. It was called a “bonus level” issue, and it really underlines this event’s push to be pure, mad entertainment. Some of the characters make sense of course. Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat and Annabelle from The Conjuring? Sure. Those are owned by DC’s parent company. Vampirella and Red Sonja? Those characters are crossover crazy, so they’re easy pulls. But the final one was shocking. Samantha from Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, aka the murder bear lead of the book, will appear in it. That was unbelievable. When I saw the teaser image for the issue, my jaw genuinely dropped. It was wild.

There were other announcements, including a Gotham City Sirens book from Tini Howard and Babs Tarr that will hit DC’s Black Label imprint and Scott Snyder, Che Grayson, and Bengal tackling an Absolute Catwoman miniseries. But overall, it speaks to the significance of the publisher’s con that even notable, excellent sounding titles like those are relegated to also ran territory. DC’s so hot right now!