2026 is here, and comic book fans have a whole year’s worth of exciting new stories to look forward to. Marvel will be ushering in a new era for the X-Men line and building to what looks to be one of its most consequential crossover events in years, Armageddon. DC will move forward from the DC K.O. crossover with a new wave of titles, even as they expand the fan-favorite Absolute Universe. And elsewhere in the industry, we’ve got our eyes on everything from Skybound’s Energon Universe to the new Archie Comics reboot.
Scroll down to see our most anticipated comics of 2025, and be sure to let us know in the comments what you have on your to-read list this year.
IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
IDW’s TMNT publishing line has been in top form in 2025, and we see no reason why that would change in the new year. If you’ve ever considered diving into this universe, now really is the time.
The flagship TMNT comic recently underwent a major evolution, as the new creative team of Gene Luen Yang and Freddie E. Williams II just took over the series and introduced a major new villain called Ujigami. Issue #13 delivered quite the twist on that front, and we’re excited to see where the series goes from here. Plus, there are all the worthwhile spinoffs like TMNT: Casey Jones and TMNT: Shredder.
We’re also hoping that 2026 will bring more news on the future of the Last Ronin saga. We know that writers Tom Waltz and Kevin Eastman are working on a third act of the Last Ronin trilogy. Could it see release in 2026? Here’s hoping.
X-Men: Shadows of Tomorrow
The X-Men franchise is rounding out 2025 with the conclusion of a line-wide crossover event called Age of Revelation. Even though that crossover is set a decade in the future, its ramifications will extend back into the present day as the X-Men struggle to move forward. That’s where the new status quo, Shadows of Tomorrow, comes into play.
Expect plenty of new titles and fresh starting points for continuing books like Wolverine, X-Men, and Uncanny X-Men. We’re especially intrigued by Eve L. Ewing and Tiago Palman’s X-Men United, which seemingly deals with Emma Frost creating a psychic haven for mutantkind to replace the real one they lost with Krakoa. Also on our radar is Alex Paknadel and Roge Antonio’s Cyclops series, as the indomitable mutant leader breaks out on his own.
DC: Next Level
DC gave fans an easy gateway into the DC Universe with 2024’s DC All In initiative. Once DC K.O. wraps up, they’ll be unleashing phase 2 of that ambitious undertaking. Part of that includes a promotion called DC Next Level, featuring a new wave of promising titles.
The first batch of DC Next Level books includes Lobo, from Skottie Young and Jorge Corona, Batwoman, from Greg Rucka and DaNi, and Deathstroke: The Terminator, from Tony Fleecs and Carmine Di Giandomenico. The goal with each series is to match the energy and inventiveness of books like Absolute Batman, but do it within the traditional DCU. We’re definitely sold on that idea.
The Archie Comics Reboot
Things have been fairly quiet on the Archie Comics front in recent years, with the New Riverdale line quietly fading away and horror books like Afterlife With Archie coming out very infrequently. But all that changes in a big way in 2026. Archie is teaming up with Oni Press to completely reboot their comic line with a postmodern flair.
It’s really the creative teams that have us sold on this one, as Oni is drawing from some of the most interesting and innovative names in the industry for the new Archie line. That includes W. Maxwell Prince and Nick Cagnetti’s Archie, Corinna Bechko and Kano’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Patrick Horvath and Tyler Crook’s Archie in Hell. The stated goal is to give readers the Archie franchise’s answer to All-Star Superman, and we couldn’t be more thrilled at that prospect.
Armageddon
Marvel just wrapped up the One World Under Doom crossover, with the world still recovering from being temporarily under Doom’s tyrannical rule. That uneasy status quo will feed directly into Marvel’s big crossover event for 2026, Armageddon.
We don’t know a great deal about Armageddon just yet, other than that it’s being spearheaded by Captain America writer Chip Zdarsky and that it’s said to shake up the Avengers franchise in a way we haven’t seen since 2004’s Avengers Disassembled. Zdarsky will lay the foundation of the storyline in February’s Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon miniseries before getting to the main event this summer.
