The Most Anticipated Comic Books of 2015

The most anticipated comic books of 2015 from Marve, DC, Image and more.

Jan 02, 2015
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From creator-owned upstarts to inspired choices from the Big Two, 2014 was a hell of a year for comic books. A year ago, nobody could have predicted a female Muslim superhero from Jersey City would be Marvel's biggest success, and yet we have Ms. Marvel; who would have known a comic book about time-stopping orgasms would be the year's best comic, but Sex Criminals turned out to be just that. Even more exciting news, though? It's looking like 2015 could be just as good—or better—than years past. 

Check out the slate of comics from publishers like Valiant or Image for the first half of 2015 and you'll see what I mean: books of all genres from the industry's best creators are debuting seemingly each new week. And then there's DC's Multiversity and Marvel's upcoming Secret Wars reboot, both of which are changing their respective universes in ways that are legitimately exciting for once—a statement I couldn't be more surprised (or pleased) to type. The following ten comics are just a small fraction of what will be available in the next few months. Stay reading in the new year.

Nathan Reese is a News Editor at Complex. He tweets here. 

Tokyo Ghost

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Publisher: Image

Release date: Summer

Writer: Rick Remender

Artist: Sean Murphy 

Rick Remender has been absolutely killing it at Image with Black Science, Low, and my personal favorite, Deadly Class. Now he's adding a fourth title to his lineup with Tokyo Ghost, a collaboration with artist Sean Murphy (The Wake). "Sean and I really wanted to exponentially increase that technological addiction, and dig in to what the ramifications of that might be with a population that is so removed from the physical waking world, so immersed in this artificial bullshit," Remender told me when I talked to him last year. As a writer who works largely on the Internet, I can't wait to see what they have to say. 

 

Casanova: Acedia

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Publisher: Image

Release date: January 7

Writer: Matt Fraction, Michael Chabon

Artist: Gabriel Bá, Fabio Moon 

Casanova is nearly impossible to describe. Part noir, part period piece, part sci-fi mind-bender, Matt Fraction has created something truly weird and wonderful. In his latest installment, Fraction will collaborate with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon (Wonder Boys, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) to continue the story. Fraction promises this'll be a great place to jump in for newcomers (amnesia is a great plot device for clearing a slate, he says); it will also be the continuation of a story that's fast developed a cult audience. 

 

The Multiversity #2

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Publisher: DC

Release date: TBD 

Writer: Grant Morrison

Artist: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado

Grant Morrison's The Multiversity is ambitious in the same way that a Russian novel or German board game is ambitious: There are so many moving parts, you have to admire that it fits together at all. While we have yet to see how all the disparate worlds and plot lines are going to come together, The Multiversity #2—the final issue in Morrison's series of one-shot issues—should close all the gaps and answer the questions that have evolved across the various related titles. If Morrison can tie everything up (and I think he can), The Multiversity will go down as one of the great runs in recent DC comics history. 

The Dying and the Dead

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Publisher: Image

Release date: January 28

Writer: Jonathan Hickman

Artist: Ryan Bodenheim

Jonathan Hickman has had such fantastic success over the last few years in both his creator-owned work (The Manhattan Projects, East of West) and at Marvel (FF, Fantastic Four), it's a wonder he has time to sleep. While he has even more amazing new things on the docket at Marvel (more on that later), he's also adding a brand new Image book to his 2015 late in the form of The Dying and the Dead, with artist Ryan Bodenheim. Set to be an ambitious, multivalent epic, it could be his best book yet. Hell, maybe it's time-spanning narrative will give us a hint into how the guy gets all his work done. 

Divinity

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Publisher: Valiant

Release date: February 11

Writer: Matt Kindt

Artist: Trevor Hairsine 

Matt Kindt's Mind MGMT has been one of my favorite books in recent years, in part due to Kindt's unique pencil and watercolor art. For Divinity, however, his newest foray into Valiant's revamped universe, he's teamed up with Trevor Harsine, whose own chiaroscuro-heavy penmanship is as skilled as it is different from Kindt's. The book will tell the story of a Soviet astronaut who returns from space as a godlike being. Valiant's recent comics have been great and Kindt has been integral to much of the publisher's new direction (Rai is a must-read) . To expect Divinity to be anything less than, well, divine would be a mistake.  

Descender

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Publisher: Image

Release date: TBD 

Writer: Jeff Lemire

Artist: Dustin Nguyen 

Jeff Lemire's Trillium was one of my favorite books of 2014. Though he won't be doing the art for his upcoming Image book, Descender, the sci-fi premise should please fans of that book or any previous Lemire outings. The story follows a young robot navigating a universe where his kind has become illegal. And though Lemire isn't doing the art, Dustin Nguyen's pencil and watercolor approach should match the material perfectly. 

Secret Wars

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Publisher: Marvel

Release date: May

Writer: Jonathan Hickman

Artist: Esad Ribić 

What, exactly, Marvel is planning with Secret Wars has been a topic of debate for nearly a year. With promo art teasing past arcs ranging from Age of Apocalypse to the '90s X-Men animated series, we know it's going to involve the convergence of different Marvel realities in an epic landscape-changing event. Like DC's Multiversity, Marvel is going huge with this one—whatever happens, it'll change the face of Marvel forever. And if there are truly as many balls in the air as it looks like, there's nobody better to navigate the confluence of characters than Hickman and his knack for creating inhumanly complex plots with ease. 

Frankenstein Underground

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Publisher: Dark Horse

Release date: TBD

Writer/Artist: Mike Mignola

​The creator of Hellboy, Mike Mignola, takes on Frankenstein's Monster. If that pitch doesn't grab you with a (literally) rock-hard grip, then I don't know what to say. Mignola is one of contemporary comics great and this will be a must read for any fan of the medium. 

 

 

Stray Bullets: Sunshine and Roses

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Publisher: Image

Release date: January 21

Writer/Artist: David Lapham

David Lapham's Stray Bullets was one of the greatest crime comics ever written, so the news that he was going to write new stories for Image was met with cheers last year. If you haven't read Lapham before, catch up with his collected Uber Alles edition and then dive back into his world of murder and mayhem when it returns in a few weeks. 

 

Chrononauts

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Publisher: Image

Release date: March 

Writer: Mark Millar

Artist: Sean Murphy 

Mark Millar is likely best known for Kick-Ass at this point, but the Scottish comic book maestro has a massive amount of quality work under his belt, ranging from Marvel's Civil War to Superman: Red Son. Chrononauts sees Millar teaming up with Eisner-award-winning artist Sean Murphy for a twisted time-traveling adventure tale. This is two industry greats working together on a sci-fi adventure story put out by one of the industry's most exciting publishers. So, yeah, this should be on your pull list. 

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