DIRTY D’s F.O.C. PICKS – 12/14/25

Getting this one out a little late. Later than my usual late. Which is very late.

Busy weekend of x-mas shopping, then shoveling snow, then packing up gifts to send to friends and family. Decorating the house in between all that.

So going to run through this quick so I can send in my pre-orders and get to bed.

 

Covers

 

You know…we all thought the workout, swimsuit, sweater weather and pumpkin spicy variants were silly too…and some of them hit…You gotta give DC some credit for trying different things. I mean, Spider-Punk is pretty popular, so why not?

At least they’re not putting random Disney mashup characters in homage covers that aren’t even from the same title…Expect more punk rock DC superstars in the coming months…(I think this should be the next event mini-series, like

Superman with a mohawk…how can you not buy that? Dirty D’s Cover of the Week!

 

 

Speaking of Sweater Weather…Meow!!! Not Lotay’s best work, but I like it.

 

 

Aaaaaand speaking of Sweater Weather…Nightwing issues in general seem to be the ones that increase in value (check out his Pumpkin Spicy…the variant, I mean…). So here’s another one that may just slip under the radar…Giving Stupid Sexy Flanders a run for his money…

 

 

I don’t think I’ve ever heard “Go To Hell” posed as a question…Is he asking her out on a date to the underworld…?

 

 

How many Annual #1’s of ASM are there now? Would prefer is they just listed the year instead of the number. Dell’Otto does draw a great Spider-Man though.

 

 

Fusion (Batman/Superman mashup) vs. Merger (Joker/Luther mashup). Yeah no real spec here, but it’s a fun cover

 

 

One shot/anthology of Supergirl looking for love…dating and Valentine’s Day stuff…highlighting this for the cover as it would pair nicely with Summer of Superman Special #1…and she doesn’t look quite as young here.

 

NOTABLE REPRINTS

 

Cover A is in the stratosphere. Most of the reprints have been pretty quite. The exception are the ones that are essentially re-using the first print Cover A art (i.e., 6th and 7th printings). So here we have the 10th printing…could it follow the same course? ABM is unpredictable, so don’t count it out.

 

 

I’d much prefer the Batmobile B&W in a foil. There are a few regular and foil variants.

 

 

You can get this book for cover or less in NM. But it is a great Ross cover…so I can see a foil of this looking pretty cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the Decepticon is Mixmaster…and I don’t know the Autobot other than he’s one of the Aerialbots…don’t have time to verify the names this week! I just like the Jason Howard covers of G1 characters!

 

GIMMICKS

 

Not sure what the cover looks like for this one. Comes with exclusive playing card (as have the previous 8 issues).

 

PICK OF THE WEEK

 

Sorry the link is to a sold out listing…and I don’t normally highlight incentive ratios, but if you can find this for ratio it is likely worth the $15 invested. Sonic’s incentive ratios typically command an aftermarket premium, but when they debut characters (and the character is on the cover) they tend to do very well.

The new character, Sage, isn’t new to the Sonic Universe, but this is her comics debut from what I can tell. She’s in “shadow on this cover, but featured on Cover A and Cover B (and the Cover C foil variant). So there are other options which have potential just because they’re better covers. And I don’t recall sonic every having a foil variant…but feel free to fact check me on that.

Anyway…all the above makes this book (and it’s open order variants) the Dirty D Pick-of-the-Week!

 

Parting Thoughts.

Don’t have none…already past midnight…so I probably should have called this the 12/15 FOC…have a great week!