2025 Free Comic Book Day

The press releases for FCBD 2025 have begun.

MARVEL REVEALS ITS 2025 FREE COMIC BOOK DAY TITLES INCLUDING NEW STORIES STARRING THE FANTASTIC FOUR, X-MEN AND MORE

See what Marvel has in store for Free Comic Day 2025!

New York, NY— November 18, 2024 — Free Comic Book Day is on May 3 this year, and once again, Marvel Comics celebrates this exciting day for the industry with something for every fan! Readers can look forward to the entry points for all-new eras of Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man, a prelude to an upcoming X-Men saga, and a glimpse at the very first event set in the new Ultimate Universe!

For the second year in a row, Marvel also proudly presents a Star Wars Free Comic Book Day title which explores the what’s to come in the galaxy far, far away. Plus, see creators and characters from different cultures, communities, and identities spotlighted in a special Free Comic Book edition of Marvel’s Voices. And last but not least, you’ll find the perfect first comic book for the young ones in your life with an all-new Free Comic Book Day: Spidey & His Amazing Friends.

Read on to learn more!

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025: FANTASTIC FOUR/GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1

Written by Ryan North, Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing & Chip Zdarsky

Art by Humberto Ramos, Edgar Delgado, Chip Zdarsky & Iban Coello

In advance of Marvel’s First Family arriving on the big screen this summer, Ryan North and Humberto Ramos craft an unusual story in which the FANTASTIC FOUR respond to a most unusual interdimensional summons! And on the eve of the birth of the ALL-NEW, ALL-DIFFERENT X-MEN, there is one extra mutant in attendance. WHO is it? Only Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing can tell you! Plus, ANOTHER surprise from Chip Zdarsky! We’re simply too good to you!

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN/ULTIMATE UNIVERSE #1

Written by Joe Kelly, Deniz Camp & Cody Ziglar

Art by John Romita Jr. & Jonas Scharf

Joe Kelly and John Romita Jr. remind us who Peter Parker and SPIDER-MAN are! Plus, an exclusive prologue to this summer’s blockbuster ULTIMATE event from Deniz Camp, Cody Ziglar & Jonas Scharf!

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025: STAR WARS #1

Written by Alex Segura, Charles Soule & Marc Guggenheim

Art by Phil Noto, Luke Ross, Stefano Raffaele & Madibek Musabekov

CELEBRATING THE NEW ERA OF STAR WARS COMICS!

LUKE SKYWALKER finds himself in a wretched hive of scum and villainy facing off against pirates! JEDI KNIGHTS QUI-GON JINN & TENSU RUN are on the hunt for the villainous CORLIS RATH! Who is the mysterious VANEE and what is his connection to DARTH VADER & KYLO REN?

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025: IRONHEART/MARVEL’S VOICES #1

Written by Justina Ireland & More

Art by Julian Shaw & More

CELEBRATING A YEAR OF MARVEL’S VOICES WITH A BRAND-NEW STORY STARRING IRONHEART!

Bestselling writer Justina Ireland blasts Ironheart into Chicago’s past for a story of Black innovation through the ages! And explore the past year of Voices anthologies with selections from Mystique and Destiny’s star-studded wedding issue, Patriot’s explosive return to super-heroing, the introduction of a brand-new Ghost Rider and more!

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025: IRON MAN & HIS AWESOME FRIENDS/SPIDEY & HIS AMAZING FRIENDS #1

SWING INTO THIS YEAR’S FREE COMIC BOOK DAY SPECIAL WITH

NEW AND FAVORITE CHARACTERS FROM TWO DISNEY JR. SHOWS!

FIRST, ARMOR UP with Iron Man and his Awesome Friends, Iron Heart and Iron Hulk, in this not-to-be-missed all-new comic featuring characters from the forthcoming Disney Jr. show! Then the web-slinging fun continues with everyone’s favorite heroes from Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends! There’s no shortage of baddies creating mischief in New York and Spidey, Ghost-Spider, and Spin need help keeping the city safe through thrilling activity pages and easy-to-read stories.

Check out the covers and stay tuned for more news about FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025 in the months ahead.

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN/ULTIMATE UNIVERSE #1

Written by JOE KELLY, DENIZ CAMP & CODY ZIGLAR

Art by JOHN ROMITA JR. & JONAS SCHARF

Cover by PAT GLEASON

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025: FANTASTIC FOUR/GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1

Written by RYAN NORTH, COLLIN KELLY, JACKSON LANZING, CHIP ZDARSKY & MORE

Art by HUMBERTO RAMOS, EDGAR DELGADO, CHIP ZDARSKY & MORE

Cover by HUMBERTO RAMOS

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025: STAR WARS #1

Written by ALEX SEGURA, CHARLES SOULE & MARC GUGGENHEIM

Art by PHIL NOTO, LUKE ROSS, STEFANO RAFFAELE & MADIBEK MUSABEKOV

Cover by PHIL NOTO

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025: IRONHEART/MARVEL’S VOICES #1

Written by JUSTINA IRELAND & MORE

Art by JULIAN SHAW & MORE
Cover by EDWIN GALMON

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025: IRON MAN & HIS AWESOME FRIENDS/SPIDEY & HIS AMAZING FRIENDS #1

SPEED RACER

Jeff of Earth-J mentioned this, so I moved it to the top of the pile.

It’s not a complicated book. The art is manga-influenced, but not overly so — there isn’t the speed-line overkill of many manga, and this is a book where they’d certainly belong. It’s just clean, clear artwork that I could follow even with my ancient eyes.

The protagonist is an “influencer” who is posting videos of street racing in Palm City, especially the unknown driver named Speed Racer. He has a trick car, but everybody in Palm City has one — his is just the trickiest and he always wins. Even when he is outrunning the cops, who want to arrest him for said street racing.

It turns out the protagonist is the younger brother of Speed Racer, and they both live with their father, who doesn’t know about their nocturnal activities. The police don’t know either, which seems unlikely, since you’d need an elaborate garage and expert mechanics for that car, but what the heck. Just as his younger brother worships him, Speed worships his older brother, who is no longer around (and the implication is that he’s dead). But later we meet the scarred Racer X, and guess who he is?

I probably would have enjoyed this more if I was a Speed Racer fan, but as it is, I didn’t regret the time it took me to read it (which is not true of a lot of FCBD books).

GODZILLA: THE NEW HEROES

I was vaguely excited when IDW announced a Godzilla universe that was going to replace its existing Godzilla titles with three new ones. I like a lot of what IDW has done with Godzilla, so I thought maybe this new universe was going to be what they do well now taken to the next level.

I was pretty disappointed, though, as it seems a regression. This is a sampler of all three new titles, and I don’t want to read any of them.

POST MALONE’S BIG RIG

I’d run across the name Post Malone before, so I knew he was famous-ish, but didn’t know why. So I Googled him, and it appears he’s a singer or rapper and maybe a part-time actor or something?

Here’s he’s a creator and co-writer, but he’s not the star to me. That would be artist Arthur Gooden, whose work here is terrific — like ‘70s Warren updated for the 21st century. It’s in black and white, and good Lord, I haven’t seen this much Zip-A-Tone in decades! (I don’t suppose it’s called that any more.) I sucked this art up like a starving man at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

The story opens with medieval villagers running from demons, and being turned away from the church, because the paster wants to save himself. Only one man stands up to the demon horde, a mysterious man whose face glows white with strange symbols (or maybe it’s tattoos — hard to tell so far). Earth is being overrun by Hell, and this is happening all over. Scary!

But then the people’s prayers are answered by … a really big tractor-trailer, which arrives by magic. Shades of U.S. 1! Nobody knows what it is -- this is a medieval setting -- but the tattooed guy gets in the cab and instantly knows how to drive the truck when he puts on the baseball/trucker cap, because magic, I guess, and this is now the biggest weapon against the demons. Instead of something more useful, like a tank. Or an APC. Or the 101st Airborne. What’s to stop the demons from climbing into the cab? (Nothing at first, but later our trucker teams up with some pagan witches.)

Apparently Post Malone (or somebody) really likes big trucks, which is … really dumb. So this book went from really cool to really stupid really quick. Too bad. That artwork is really awesome.

BOOM STUDIOS 20th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

This book provides short snippets of various BOOM series, most of which are pretty darn good.

There’s Mouse Guard, which I read for a while, but finally had to quit—the artwork is fantastic, but there’s only so much suspension of disbelief I can carry for medieval warrior mice. But I recommend everyone read a few issues to see how they like it.

There’s Hello Darkness, which I am currently reading, and is easily as good as the EC books at Oni Press, if not better.

There’s the Keanu Reeves-created BRZRKR, which is going to eventually become a Keanu Reeves-starring movie or TV show, and I plan to order at least one HC before that happens.

There’s Irredeemable, which came out years ago, and since it’s by Mark Waid I planned to read it, but never got around to it. Maybe now I will.

There’s The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, which sounded good when it came out, but I never saw a copy. Again, maybe I should check it out.

I was surprised that one of BOOM’s biggest hits, Something Is Killing the Children, wasn’t represented. That’s another book I’ve been meaning to check out.

Anyway, I’d have loved longer takes on these titles, but all of them were good.

I HATE FAIRYLAND

This book takes us on a review of what’s happened in this title so far, in comic book form, so it was sort of a shorthand graphic novel. I know some people love this book, and I can see why, but it feels a bit on the silly side to me. Maybe I need to read an actual I Hate Fairyland story, instead of what amounts to a summary.

ENERGON UNIVERSE

Reading/catching up on the various “Energon Universe” books — G.I. Joe, Transformers, Void Rivals, etc.— has been on my to-do list since they launched. But it’s always been more of a sense of obligation than interest. And this book just reinforces that—it’s just hyper-dramatic ‘80s-style Marvel comics starring characters that started out as toys. Despite all the gunplay we know nobody is going to die, and the eternal battle will continue eternally. It just feels generic.

Replies

Jeff of Earth-J May 23, 2025 at 3:59pm

BLOOD TYPE: Sadly, this is bait and switch. It is not a preview of Oni’s upcoming EC title...

The only other one I can tink of that I would have picked up is the Speed Racer one. It would have to be really good for me to buy the series, though. I've bought Speed Racer comics before (from NOW and other publishers), but I doubt I will ever read them again.

Whenever I'm in the mood to read Speed Racer, I go to the two-volume, HC, slipcase set of the original manga by Tatsuo Yoshida.

I'd've picked up the FCBD one, though (if I hadn't've been limited to three).
Captain Comics June 1, 2025 at 4:54pm

SPEED RACER

Jeff of Earth-J mentioned this, so I moved it to the top of the pile.

It’s not a complicated book. The art is manga-influenced, but not overly so — there isn’t the speed-line overkill of many manga, and this is a book where they’d certainly belong. It’s just clean, clear artwork that I could follow even with my ancient eyes.

The protagonist is an “influencer” who is posting videos of street racing in Palm City, especially the unknown driver named Speed Racer. He has a trick car, but everybody in Palm City has one — his is just the trickiest and he always wins. Even when he is outrunning the cops, who want to arrest him for said street racing.

It turns out the protagonist is the younger brother of Speed Racer, and they both live with their father, who doesn’t know about their nocturnal activities. The police don’t know either, which seems unlikely, since you’d need an elaborate garage and expert mechanics for that car, but what the heck. Just as his younger brother worships him, Speed worships his older brother, who is no longer around (and the implication is that he’s dead). But later we meet the scarred Racer X, and guess who he is?

I probably would have enjoyed this more if I was a Speed Racer fan, but as it is, I didn’t regret the time it took me to read it (which is not true of a lot of FCBD books).

GODZILLA: THE NEW HEROES

I was vaguely excited when IDW announced a Godzilla universe that was going to replace its existing Godzilla titles with three new ones. I like a lot of what IDW has done with Godzilla, so I thought maybe this new universe was going to be what they do well now taken to the next level.

I was pretty disappointed, though, as it seems a regression. This is a sampler of all three new titles, and I don’t want to read any of them.

POST MALONE’S BIG RIG

I’d run across the name Post Malone before, so I knew he was famous-ish, but didn’t know why. So I Googled him, and it appears he’s a singer or rapper and maybe a part-time actor or something?

Here’s he’s a creator and co-writer, but he’s not the star to me. That would be artist Arthur Gooden, whose work here is terrific — like ‘70s Warren updated for the 21st century. It’s in black and white, and good Lord, I haven’t seen this much Zip-A-Tone in decades! (I don’t suppose it’s called that any more.) I sucked this art up like a starving man at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

The story opens with medieval villagers running from demons, and being turned away from the church, because the paster wants to save himself. Only one man stands up to the demon horde, a mysterious man whose face glows white with strange symbols (or maybe it’s tattoos — hard to tell so far). Earth is being overrun by Hell, and this is happening all over. Scary!

But then the people’s prayers are answered by … a really big tractor-trailer, which arrives by magic. Shades of U.S. 1! Nobody knows what it is -- this is a medieval setting -- but the tattooed guy gets in the cab and instantly knows how to drive the truck when he puts on the baseball/trucker cap, because magic, I guess, and this is now the biggest weapon against the demons. Instead of something more useful, like a tank. Or an APC. Or the 101st Airborne. What’s to stop the demons from climbing into the cab? (Nothing at first, but later our trucker teams up with some pagan witches.)

Apparently Post Malone (or somebody) really likes big trucks, which is … really dumb. So this book went from really cool to really stupid really quick. Too bad. That artwork is really awesome.

BOOM STUDIOS 20th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

This book provides short snippets of various BOOM series, most of which are pretty darn good.

There’s Mouse Guard, which I read for a while, but finally had to quit—the artwork is fantastic, but there’s only so much suspension of disbelief I can carry for medieval warrior mice. But I recommend everyone read a few issues to see how they like it.

There’s Hello Darkness, which I am currently reading, and is easily as good as the EC books at Oni Press, if not better.

There’s the Keanu Reeves-created BRZRKR, which is going to eventually become a Keanu Reeves-starring movie or TV show, and I plan to order at least one HC before that happens.

There’s Irredeemable, which came out years ago, and since it’s by Mark Waid I planned to read it, but never got around to it. Maybe now I will.

There’s The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, which sounded good when it came out, but I never saw a copy. Again, maybe I should check it out.

I was surprised that one of BOOM’s biggest hits, Something Is Killing the Children, wasn’t represented. That’s another book I’ve been meaning to check out.

Anyway, I’d have loved longer takes on these titles, but all of them were good.

I HATE FAIRYLAND

This book takes us on a review of what’s happened in this title so far, in comic book form, so it was sort of a shorthand graphic novel. I know some people love this book, and I can see why, but it feels a bit on the silly side to me. Maybe I need to read an actual I Hate Fairyland story, instead of what amounts to a summary.

ENERGON UNIVERSE

Reading/catching up on the various “Energon Universe” books — G.I. Joe, Transformers, Void Rivals, etc.— has been on my to-do list since they launched. But it’s always been more of a sense of obligation than interest. And this book just reinforces that—it’s just hyper-dramatic ‘80s-style Marvel comics starring characters that started out as toys. Despite all the gunplay we know nobody is going to die, and the eternal battle will continue eternally. It just feels generic.
- The Baron > Captain Comics June 1, 2025 at 7:59pm
  
  I know some people love this book, and I can see why, but it feels a bit on the silly side to me.
  
  ("Dead End Kid" Voice) "Dat's me!" "Silly" is kind of the point for me, not being such a serious-minded, strait-laced fellow as yourself.
Jeff of Earth-J June 1, 2025 at 5:09pm

Jeff of Earth-J mentioned this, so I moved it to the top of the pile.

I was hoping you'd do that. ;)

It turns out the protagonist is the younger brother of Speed Racer...

Spritle!?

What about Chim-Chim?

I’d run across the name Post Malone before, so I knew he was famous-ish, but didn’t know why.

Same here. I assumed he was a football player. Sounds like a football player. Either that or a country singer.

There’s Irredeemable, which came out years ago, and since it’s by Mark Waid I planned to read it

I read a few issues but it didn't click with me.
Richard Willis June 1, 2025 at 6:13pm

There’s Irredeemable, which came out years ago, and since it’s by Mark Waid I planned to read it, but never got around to it. Maybe now I will.

I read the entire Irredeemable and its spinoff Incorruptible in collection form several years back. I recommend both highly.

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