Star Wars Young Jedi Adventures Free Comic Book Day 2025

This is a 2025 FCBD book that I picked up at Most Excellent Comics and Gaming in Enfield CT USA at Free Comic Book Day 2026.

Title: Star Wars Young Jedi Adventures Free Comic Book Day 2025
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Date: May, 2025
Writer: Dave Scheidt, Brandon Hoang
Artist: Andy Duggan, Bellbessa
Colorist: Dan Jackson, C. E. Chant
Letterer: Comicraft's Tyler Smith and Jim Betancourt
Cover: Andy Duggan

Jedi younglings Lys, Kai, and Nubs are on a training mission, dropped into a swampy wilderness by Master Yoda and tasked with a scavenger hunt. The younglings encounter a series of ever-more-fantastical monsters and come up with creative (and nonviolent) solutions to each encounter. This was a reasonable introduction to this all-ages series, although much like Marvel's old Ewoks series, the creatures felt more like generic fantasy monsters than something with the flavor of Star Wars. Still, this was fun and easy to get into and follow.

The backup story is an Avatar: The Last Airbender story featuring some interesting variations on existing characters. Their battle against Fire Nation soldiers in a ramen shop is fun, but the ending is (intentionally) a bit of a cop-out.

Rating: 5.5

Some Of My Favorite 'Nyms

From the 2026 Flywheel Zine Fest in Holyoke MA USA.

Title: Some Of My Favorite 'Nyms
Date: February 2025
Writer: Bee (Mossybee.com)

Fun and informative zine covering quirks of the English language. In particular, this zine covers a bunch of terms ending with -nym, including demonyms, pseudonyms, acronyms, and more. This had some fun facts, and some amusing examples, and references to Franz Kafka, Monty Haul, and Chuck Tingle. I love a good quirky zine on a really specific topic, and this one delivered.

Rating: 8/10

Updated All Time Top Rated Comics 2025

Here is my updated list of all of the comics I've rated a 9 or above. Only one new book (Seven Ways Through the Woods) was added in 2025.


9/10

All In The Family Part Two: Angel
Amulet Book Two: The Stonekeeper's Curse
Amulet Book Seven: Firelight
Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You
Boxers
Dog Man And Cat Kid
Dog Man: Grime and Punishment
The Flutter Collection
Ghosts
Guts
Heartstopper Volume 1
Life With Archie #16
Lumberjanes Volume 3: A Terrible Plan
Lumberjanes Volume 4: Out of Time
Lumberjanes Volume 5: Band Together
Machiavelli
Rival Angels Season 3 Volume 2
Saga Compendium 1
Seven Ways Through the Woods
Small Town Type #1
The Treasure of the Black Swan
Understanding Comics
Warriors: Graystripe's Adventure
We Won't Be Erased
White Bird
With the Light Volume 2

9.5/10

Amelia Rules: When the Past is a Present
The Arrival
Castle Waiting Volume 1
I Kill Giants
A Monster Calls
The Prince and the Dressmaker
Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey

10/10

Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic In One Volume

Looking forward to reading more great books in 2026!

2025 Recap

I read and reviewed 56 comics in 2025, up from 35 in 2024, and slightly above weekly, still a long way from daily.

There weren't a lot of highlights in 2025. I only rated one book above an 8. There were also a fair amount of below-5 ratings.

Highs and Lows of 2025:

Highest-Rated Comics of 2025

Seven Ways Through the Woods (9/10)
Choose Your Own Adventure: Tobacco Hornworm (8/10)
Heartstopper Volume 3 (8/10)
Midwest Books To Prisoners Community Zine 2023 (8/10)
Monsters in Sweaters (8/10)
The Question #8 (8/10)
You Know You're A Rural Queer When... (8/10)

Lowest-Rated Comics of 2025

Bio-Booster Armor Guyver Volume 3: Dark Masters (4.5/10)
Godzilla: The New Heroes (4.5/10)
Marvel Comics Presents #29 (4.5/10)
Pathfinder: Wake the Dead #1 (4.5/10)
Ranma 1/2 Volume 4 (4.5/10)
Sugarholic Volume 2 (4.5/10)
Superman's Good Guy Gang 2025 FCBD Special Edition (4.5/10)
Harley Quinn: Lootcrate Exclusive #1 (4/10)
Silver Surfer #2 (4/10)

Top 5 Books Read in 2025

 This is my top 5 books (all genres, not just comics) read in 2025:

5. My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
4. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
3. Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff
2. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
1. John Adams by David McCullough

Seven Ways Through the Woods

Title: Seven Ways Through the Woods
Date: 2025
Publisher: Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins)
Writer: Jenn Reese
Artist: Devin Elle Kurtz

Not a comic. This is a children's picture book.

Jenn Reese presents a series of adventurous kids looking for a way through the dark and mysterious woods. They each find their own way to cross, complete with Devin Elle Kurtz's absolutely gorgeous illustrations and a bit of helpful advice for each method of crossing. Don't try the crystal serpents if unless you enjoy their singing! The story ends with a bit of insight on the nature of the obstacles in our paths, and a very different seventh approach.

This was charming and delightful.

Rating: 9/10

Superman's Good Guy Gang 2025 FCBD Special Edition

From Most Excellent Comics and Gaming in Enfield CT USA for Free Comic Book Day 2025.

Title: Superman's Good Guy Gang 2025 FCBD Special Edition
Issue: 1
Date: 2025
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Rob Justus, Ben Clanton
Artist: Rob Justus, Cassandra Federman
Letterer: Lucas Gattoni

This Free Comic Book Day giveaway previews two upcoming DC graphic novels for young readers. 

The title story, clearly influenced by the current Superman film, has Superman and Green Lantern (Guy Gardner) meeting Hawkgirl for the first time. Hawkgirl is wielding a sort of studded soccer ball instead of her usual morningstar here. We get the standard sequence of misunderstanding, fight, and team-up, but the team-up part gets cut to a cliffhanger just as the giant-robot villain shows up.

The second story is the more surreal Aquamanatee, who makes several sea cow puns while failing to address the issue that all manatees are, by definition "aqua" (though not the color aqua, but then, Aquaman isn't the color aqua either). The jokes were okay, as cow puns go, but it was hard to see where this was going. Is there a story, or do Aquamanatee and his fish sidekick just tell jokes?

I understand the need to market, but this book might have been better off devoting its full page count to previewing one of these books.

Rating: 4.5/10

Speed Racer #0

From Free Comic Book Day 2025 at Most Excellent Comics and Gaming in Enfield CT USA.

Title: Speed Racer
Issue: 0
Date: 2025
Publisher: Mad Cave
Writer:David Pepose, Mark Russell
Artist: Davide Tinto, Chris Batista, Sabrina Cintron
Colorist: Rex Lokus, Carlos Lopez
Letterer: Buddy Beaudoin
Editor: Chas Pangburn

An updated reboot of the classic anime with two stories, one for Speed himself and one for Racer X. The setting is the fictional Palm City and the vibe is very definitely borrowing from the Fast and Furious films. Speed is a street racer, driving his heavily modified Mach 5 through the streets of a city obsessed with the anything-goes sport of "Formula X" racing. Spritle, updated as a youtuber, provides most of the dialogue here as Speed is more of the silent type, and is busy evading the police for most of the scene. A veteran cop clueing in a rookie on life on the streets of Palm City provides a bit of extra story perspective as well as giving some setting background. 

Speed as the outlaw street racer makes sense, although it makes so much sense that it feels like to most obvious possible direction that this reboot could have been taken in. The action was fun, though. Car chase scenes don't always translate well into comic panels, but the artists here did about as good a job as was possible to convey the pacing and movement of the action. The end of the story teased some of the other familiar characters who will have roles moving forward.

The second story has Racer X beating up some gangsters and keeping Speed from getting shot by a sniper. Pretty standard comic-vigilante jobber squash, but it kept the feeling of Racer X watching over Speed that was such a part of the show.

This was a good start to this new vision of Speed Racer, and it had enough action and plot development to be more than just a teaser.

Rating: 7/10

The Warden #2

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Title: The Warden
Issue: 2
Date: 2025
Publisher: Ironclad Comics
Writer: David Timm Jr., Cody Karamol
Penciller: Mathieu Pereira
Inker: Mathieu Pereira
Colorist: Roman Stevens
Letterer: Jimmy Greenhalgh
Cover: Jonny Wise

Somewhat surprisingly, the kidnapping plotline from the first issue gets resolved off-screen. This is one of those things that shouldn't work, but it does, as we go straight to the reactions of the various cast members as it becomes apparent that a (possibly superhuman) vigilante is fighting crime in Detroit. There's also another flashback sequence as the origin of our vigilante begins to take shape.

Emma Summers is back with her newspaper as she senses that the vigilante story might be just the thing she's been looking for. Henry Hunt confesses his sins, and Detective Cabello is in full uptight-cop mode.

The final action sequence is really good, and a nice look at what we can expect as we see more of the Detroit vigilante in future stories. 

All the storytelling here was nice and tight, without too much new being introduced. Instead, we got a bit more time to get to know the main characters, which was nice. The story is developing nicely, but still needs to find what distinguishes it from similar tales of masked vigilantes that have been a standard of comics since the 1930s (and the pulps before that). The story also is now seeking a new villain, as the vigilante can't just stick to beating up random robbers forever. That being said, this  issue laid some very necessary groundwork delivered a bit of a plot twist up front, and kept the pacing while still developing characters.

Rating: 6.5/10

Fantastic Four/Giant-Sized X-Men Free Comic Book Day 2025 #1

Picked this up at Most Excellent Comics and Games in Enfield CT USA on Free Comic Book Day 2025.

Title: Fantastic Four/Giant-Sized X-Men Free Comic Book Day 2025
Issue: 1 
Date: 2025
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Ryan North, Jason Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Chip Zdarksy
Artist: Humberto Ramos, Iban Coello
Colorist: Edgar Delgado, Brian Reber
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna, VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Martin Biro, Annalise Bissa, Tom Brevoort

Free Comic Book Day freebie just in time for the upcoming FF film. The Fantastic Four story is adorable, featuring alien children engaging in some very familiar spooky fun and accidentally "summoning" the Fantastig Four from Earth. Johnny has... a mustache, apparently? Anyway, this was adorable.

The second story was a reboot of the New X-Men, previewing a, well, reboot of Giant-Sized X-Men #1. This was just Cyclops beating everyone else up in the Danger Room, and is probably the kind of thing that will generate a lot of outrage on the internet because Scott makes everyone from Logan to Ororo to Thunderbird (remember him?) look like jobbers. Oh, and Ms. Marvel is in it, just to give it a bit more of an update, I guess. She's apparently already made the team, so is saved the indignity of getting beat up by Cyclops.

The last story is Wolverpool and Deadverine, and it's just trying so hard to be even more meta than meta. This story has never "meta" fourth wall it didn't want to break. Nice to see a two-panel appearance by Ox, though. 

Rating: 5.5/10

The Warden #1

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Title: The Warden
Issue: 1
Date: 2025
Publisher: Ironclad Comics
Writer: David Timm Jr., Cody Karamol
Penciller: Mathieu Pereira
Inker: Mathieu Pereira
Colorist: Roman Stevens
Letterer: Jimmy Greenhalgh
Cover: Nate Wells

This plays as an ensemble crime drama with some hints of moving into superhero territory. We begin with a flashback to 1978 Detroit, and the violent and chaotic birth scene involving a pregnant woman wounded by gunfire and rushed to the emergency room. We then jump ahead to the early 00's with a girl kidnapped off the streets, and then the introduction of three main characters.

Henry Hunt is a prison guard with possibly some kind of extraordinary abilities. Emma Summers is a crime reporter just beginning her investigation of the recent kidnapping spree. Her boyfriend, Matt, is a cop working the same case.

This had a good, gritty noir feel. The publisher is going for something of a throwback vibe and it generally works well. The dialogue was solid, especially the relationships between Emma and Matt, and between Emma and her editor at the newspaper where she works, as we see them on the edge of a possible transition in their lives. Henry Hunt is a bit more of a mystery, which is intentional, and the slower rollout of his introduction is effective.

The villain felt generic. The story made references to human trafficking, but this the kind of human trafficking you see in James Patterson novels or in those well-intentioned email forwards that warn people to beware of kidnappers in white vans. We did only get a few scenes with the villain, so there is room to make him a bit more compelling. And it's not a bad idea to keep the first storyline pretty straightforward, even if falling back on tropes a bit.

This had a lot of potential, with a good set of interesting characters set up, art that does a nice job of capturing the action and the mood, and lots of room for the plot to expand from here. I have the second issue, so I'm looking forward to checking out more of this series.

Rating: 7/10

Godzilla: The New Heroes

From Zombie Hideout, Springfield MA, on Free Comic Book Day, 2025.

Title: Godzilla: The New Heroes
Date: May, 2025
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Tim Seeley, Ethan S. Parker, Griffin Sheridan, Chris Gooch
Art: Nikola Cizmesija, Pablo Tunica, Oliver Ono
Colorist: Marissa Louise
Letterer: Brian Kolek
Editor: Jake Williams

IDW's Free Comic Book Day offering for 2025 soft-reboots their Godzilla universe, which is not the same universe as Legendary's Monsterverse, and actually ends up feeling an awful lot like Pacific Rim, with some elements of the Toho films.

There are three stories here, each previewing a new series. The flagship Godzilla title introduces G-Force USA, which immediately feels like more like a superhero team than a military/science operation, and only becomes more so with the addition of  "G-mutant" Jacen Braid. Also on the team is Jet Jaguar (from Godzilla Versus Megalon; I'm not sure if he's made previous comic appearances), who is inexplicably providing comic relief by (*checks notes*) speaking only in rhymes that are apparently set to the tune of its theme-song. Let's just say that I've met Etrigan, and you, sir, are no Etrigan.

Building on the mutation theme, the second story introduces the Dead Zone, an area of the Pacific Northwest that has been turned into a mutant-populated wasteland by kaiju attacks. We really just get a glimpse of the setting here, but if you just picture "mutant-populated wasteland" you've pretty much got it. A mysterious being called the Wanderer is shown battling a maybe T-Rex-sized kaiju, but we don't get too much beyond a basic peek.

The third feature is Starship Godzilla, but it really seems to be Starship Mechagodzilla, and it feels a bit like Guardians of the Galaxy with a heist in space and Mechagodzilla as the getaway vehicle.

I wanted to like this, but it all felt a bit off from what I think of as a Godzilla story, and while I commend IDW for trying some different directions, none of it felt all that original either. Everything felt too reliant on superhero-team tropes, space-opera tropes, and post-apocalyptic tropes. Just a lot of tropes here, and only five pages of actual Godzilla. I think there's potential for this to still come together, but this was not as strong a start as it could have been.

Rating: 4.5/10