This week’s edition of Comics Disassembled is brought to you by Z-Pak and Robitussin DM, because unfortunately, my flu has turned into pneumonia. Wah wah wah wah! But the show must go on, so let’s get straight into the things I liked or didn’t like from the week of comics, led by the next step for a personal fave.

The New Gods, Back in Action (For a Second)

When Ram V and Evan Cagle’s The New Gods ended with its 12th issue in late 2025, it felt like it had to be the beginning of something more. The New Gods were on Earth! Mister Miracle was the new Highfather! Orion seemed like he might be going on the New God equivalent of an Eat, Pray, Love-style journey of self-discovery! There were a lot of things to build from, but since, we’ve gotten nothing, most likely because it’s Ram’s story and he was busy with Deicidium and other things of that sort.

But now, they’re back, and so is Ram, albeit for just a one-shot. It’s called DC All In Saga: The New Gods #1 — the former four words seem to be shorthand for DC when they want people to know that a story is architectural in nature — and it’s co-written by Ram V and his long-time pal Alex Paknadel, drawn by Joan Urgell, and it has an A cover by The New Gods series cover artist Nimit Malavia. Let’s take a second to applaud the latter, because Malavia delivered throughout that run, but this one-shot’s cover is exquisite in the way it evokes both superheroics and classical/Renaissance era religious paintings. That look of Mister Miracle with his back turned to a side-eyeing Big Barda is enough to sell me on the book alone.

Enough on the cover, though. What’s the actual issue about? It’s pretty much what you’d expect. As noted before, there’s a lot to build from in the wake of The New Gods, and this does that while tying it all into the superstory we’ve been getting in things like the DC All In Special and the upcoming DC All In Saga: Darkseid vs. the World. But I’m guessing this 48-page story will keep its eye primarily on The New Gods, even if folks like Ram and Alex are sharp enough to deliver all the necessary flavors at once. The point is, The New Gods are back and Ram’s coming with. Sure, there’s no Evan Cagle — it turns out he’s too busy drawing entire graphic novels with Deicidium, I guess! — but I’m still pumped for this release that’s going to hit on January 13th.

The Dungeon Crawler Carl Expansion Era, Continuing

There’s definitely been an air of “get what you can while the getting is good” to the whole Dungeon Crawler Carl boom, and that’s true across every aspect of the LitRPG sensation’s increasingly sprawling footprint. Writer Matt Dinniman and voice actor for the audiobooks Jeff Hays are hitting the con and press circuit to an uncanny degree, merch is being created faster than any human can possibly track, and its comics…well, its comics are doing things I’ve never seen before. Some of that I’ll get to later — in a piece that was supposed to run this week, but unfortunately, illness limited my ability to finish the piece in a timely manner — but this week brought news that underlined one of the specific things it’s innovating on.

Vault Comics has the license for Dungeon Crawler Carl, and its path as a comic has been deeply fascinating to me. It started as a Webtoon series from Dinniman, writer Tevagah, artist Laurel Pursuit Studios, but then it graduated into digest sized trade paperbacks collecting the Webtoon series that have proven to be very popular since they debuted on May 19th. Those releases were actually preceded on May 2nd by Dungeon Crawler Carl #0, a Free Comic Book Day collection of the first chapters of the Webtoon series (that also appear in the trade), which was later released as a decidedly not free one-shot called Dungeon Crawler Carl Special Edition #0 on July 15th. Apparently those single issues were too successful to ignore, because starting in January, the Webtoon series will now be collected as single issues, albeit with additional art from Kuzomari.

So, this series went from Webtoon to Free Comic Book Day preview to trade paperback to extra-sized, extra-cost single issue to regular single issue series, which is a route that I am certain has never been taken before in comics. That’s genuine innovation, my friends, and I’ll be curious to see if it works. While I’m sure someone is buying these comics to read them — or the trade paperbacks at the very least — my guess is the turn towards single issues is fueled by how sensational Dungeon Crawler Carl has proven to be in the collector market. It’s easy to believe that when the announcement had 12 cover artists named, with more to come.

I’m guessing this series will be heavily ordered, even though its story is available in at least four forms already (novel, graphic novel, audiobook, Webtoon), but I’m getting a real burn out vibe from the whole thing — and I don’t even read Dungeon Crawler Carl! It’s a very strange thing. But hey, it’s clear Vault is pulling the right levers with this, even if it’s a rather unconventional path. We’ll see if it works in January.