DIRTY D’s F.O.C. PICKS – 11/23/25
Hello CHU!
So…This is going to be a short article. Shorter than recent short articles. Not going to sugar coat it…not much to get excited about this week!
FIRST MEETING
The first meeting of two Absolute heroes has arrived at last! The Mark of Hecate at a crime scene in Gotham draws Wonder Woman into Batman’s orbit in dramatic fashion. The world’s greatest detective and the world’s most famous witch must work together to solve a series of grisly and ambitious murders that threaten something much more dangerous coming for Gotham!
Batman & Wonder Woman meet.
NOTABLE REPRINTS
Batman: The Killing Joke #1 (Facsimile Edition – Foil Variant)
I don’t know…maybe it’ll look cool in foil, but I much prefer the prestige and hard cover formats this has showed up in.
And there are no adds, that I recall…so I’m not sure what makes this a facsimile…but I’m not sure other than the color of title on the cover that differentiates one printing from another (maybe the indica inside…).
POTENTIAL FIRSTS APPEARANCES
THE SECRETS OF SPACE REVEALED! Spider-Man takes on a challenge of single combat to save his new crew and finds himself between a rock and a GIANT ALIEN BEAST INTENT ON HIS DEATH! Not only does Spider-Man learn aspects of his quest that he didn’t expect, but his companions learn things about Spider-Man that THEY didn’t expect. Witness the first full appearance of a new major character!
So Marvel is distinguishing a cameo vs full now? Issue #18 doesn’t come out until 12/24…keep an eye out for that issue.
THE LEGEND RETURNS TO GOTHAM! The Immortal Legend Batman’s hunt returns him to Gotham…the sprawling, planetwide city he used to call home. While looking for the next shadow monster, hell have to reconcile with the civilian life he left behind. But to his surprise, its almost like Bruce Wayne has never left. Enlisting the help of Barbara Gordon, Batman will have to uncover if this is the work of the Shadows or if someone is just playing a sick…joke.
Hmm…is the “Immortal” Joker going to make an appearance…? I’m thinking he’s on the cover A as well (a Dan Mora cover, BTW).
DREK OF THE WEEK
Allocations May Occur.
Uh oh…Don’t FOMO warning…
Each festive blind bag will include one (1) RARE ratio variant guaranteed to be at least a 1:25, but could even be a 1:100 incentive ratio variant plucked from the archives at random to delight collectors this season. Some of the series whose incentive ratios may appear as a 2025 Image Comics Holiday Blind Bag include [redacted]:
I’m not even going to list out the books that could be in these blind bags. I think this blind bag is $20 retails. But this just feels like Image trying to dump extra stock ratio books…books that retailers would normally have gotten for pennies (if they met open order quantities). Now they’re hoping to take advantage of people caught up in the current blind bag craze and pay them $20 for their worthless books. Especially how they’re being advertised as “rare.”
It would be much better if they charged $4-$5, which is likely the cover. This just feels like a money grab. And I know that would upset some who paid ratio or higher for some of these books when they first came out, but the point is incentive ratios ar e not rare…the vast majority never retain value (if they ever had any to begin with).
Not a fan of these. That is why this gimmick is the Dirty D Drek of the Week…
Parting Words
Ugh…hope next week is more exciting. Laters.