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What to Read This Month: The Best Comics of May 2025

Between Marvel Omnibus, DC Omnibus, the Epic Collection, DC Finest, Compact editions, and everything else publishers put out, there’s always way there’s always more to discover! Launched this past March, What to Read This Month highlights each month’s notable releases. Here’s our selection for May, featuring some great stories from the Suicide Squad, Mickey Mouse, and more. And if you missed last month’s picks, you can find them here.

May’s Comic Picks

All title summaries are taken and/or summarized from copy provided by the publisher.

Suicide Squad by John Ostrander Omnibus Vol. 1
By John Ostrander

In a post-Crisis world, comics legend John Ostrander redefined the Suicide Squad for the modern age in this brutal tale of war and redemption. Still the most celebrated Suicide Squad run ever published, it is now collected in Omnibus!

When new threats emerge deemed too dangerous for the United States military, Batman, and even Superman, who is called in to answer the call of duty? Seems like a job for Task Force X, also known as the Suicide Squad. Led by the no-nonsense federal agent Amanda Waller, this band of notorious super-criminals are faced with a dilemma: accept these highly dangerous missions and stare death in the face to earn their freedom or rot forever in prison.

Doctor Fate by JM DeMatteis
By JM DeMatteis, Shawn McManus and Keith Giffen

In the late 1980s, a brand new Doctor Fate was introduced to the DC Universe! Legendary writer JM DeMatteis pens a magical epic about chaos, order, and family in a miniseries illustrated by Keith Giffen and the ongoing series drawn by Shawn McManus, both never been collected until now!

Kent Nelson, the first Doctor Fate, has died, and not one but two people have stepped in to take his place! Chosen by the Lords of Order come Eric and Linda Strauss, who find themselves able to combine into a singular mystical force – the new Doctor Fate! Guided by the Lord of Order, Nabu, Eric and Linda face their own sets of complicated challenges, both mystical and otherwise, as they navigate the strange new circumstances in which they’ve found themselves in this series by legendary writer JM DeMatteis and Keith Giffen.

Hit: Complete Collection
By Bryce Carlson and Vanesa Del Rey 

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are not the only creative duo delivering some crime noir comics. Writer Bryce Carlson and artist Vanesa Del Rey take readers to the Los Angeles of 1950s telling stories inspired by the true history of LA, now collected in one volume.

Los Angeles is a place of contrast. It’s home to the bright lights and movie stars of Hollywood’s golden age… and a hotbed of organized crime muscling in on Mickey Cohen’s turf. But LAPD has a plan―Harvey Slater, a detective authorized off-the-books to take care of “untouchable” criminal problems. The criminals aren’t the only untouchable thing Slater’s going after, though. When his captain’s absent daughter returns, Slater quickly finds himself entangled in the trouble she brings with her… and her ties to his other cases!

Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse and the Amazing Lost Ocean
By Denis-Pierre Filippi and Silvio Camboni 

In 2016, Les Editions Glenat launched Disney by Glénat, a collection focused on original tales starring popular Disney characters written by Franco-Belgian authors. Released in 2018 in France, Mickey et L’océan perdu is a steampunk adventure that is now released by Fantagraphics in English!

In a dystopian future located in a parallel reality, scavengers rule the Earth: pals like Mickey and Goofy are salvaging rare fuel from the seafloor, and rogues like Peg Leg Pete are fighting to get it first! One day the realm is rocked by the arrival of a strange stone cube with untold powers. Brilliant Dr. Einmug wants it, but so does Pete’s genius cousin Portis. Can Mickey reach the cube before it makes the ocean itself fly to the sky… and takes control of our heroes’ world next?

Salt Green Death
By Katarina Thorsen

Joseph O’Dwyer was a young man who was institutionalized at one of Canada’s most notorious historic psychiatric institutions. For her debut graphic novel, researcher and artist Katarina Thorsen delves into 15 years of Joseph O’Dwyer’s life via patient files and other historical documents, her attempt at piecing together meaning and context in the experiences of the O’Dwyer family–a small slice of historical graphic medicine brought to life in coloured pencil and graphite.

On November 21, 1948, Joseph O’Dwyer’s suicide attempt was interrupted when a bystander pulled him out of the Kitsilano Pool in Vancouver. This set a series of events in motion that ends with O’Dwyer’s institutionalization at British Columbia’s first forensic psychiatric facility, Colquitz Hospital. Still reeling from the untimely wartime deaths of O’Dwyer’s siblings, O’Dwyer’s parents reach out to the institution repeatedly, requesting permission to bring him home. When they finally succeed in their request, the visit takes an unexpected turn. O’Dwyer is sent away once again, to an institution that used procedures that were considered unconscionable even then. But what circumstances brought O’Dwyer to the Kitsilano Pool in the first place? 

The New Printing of The Month

Every month is also filled with new printing, offering the possibility to complete our collection, buy this book we missed because we were broke (and still are, to be honest) or simply because we weren’t familiar with the story or the edition at the time. Each month, we highlight one book that finds its way back to the shelves!

Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol. 1
By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

The run that started it all! The debut and early adventures of the Fantastic Four, which laid the foundations for the Marvel Universe as we know it today! The first Omnibus of the Fantastic Four is reprinted for the third time, a few months before the Awesome Foursome hit the big screen with a new adaptation!

It collects the first three years of this landmark run are collected — including the FF’s thrilling first battles with the Mole Man, the Skrulls, the Sub-Mariner, the Puppet Master, the Molecule Man, the Hulk and their arch-nemesis, the tyrannical Doctor Doom!. This edition also includes all original letters pages and pinups, critical commentaries, a historical overview and other timeless extras!

Also Released in May

Wait… There’s more! From the start of the Energon Universe in Deluxe Edition to the complete collection of Rogue Trooper, the Years 1987–1988 of DC Finest: Batman, complete story of The Wicked + The Divine in one volume, here’s a non-exhaustive list of other May releases that caught our attention:

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