Week Type: Variant-heavy, ratio-heavy slate
683 SKUs across 334 unique books, and the volume lead sits outside Marvel this week. DC runs 102 titles to Marvel's 72, while Image lands 96 and Dynamite pushes 91 to round out a crowded top tier. The incentive structure is where this week concentrates: 68 ratios across the docket, with Dynamite carrying 27 of them and Image another 24. Buffy The Vampire Slayer #2 anchors the variant story out of Dynamite, and DC's slate carries the launch weight with a new Batman event opening the docket.
FOC DROP AUGUST 3, 2026
Featured Publishers: DC Comics (102), Image Comics (96), Dynamite Entertainment (91), Marvel Comics (72), Viz Media (37), Dark Horse Comics (26)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #2 (Dynamite Entertainment) carries the week's highest variant count at 19 covers. Kelly Thompson writes and Stephen Byrne draws, with the issue also sitting in the week's steepest ratio tier at 1:100.
The 1:100 tier is a shared one this week: Buffy The Vampire Slayer #2 and Image's Final Boss #9 both sit at 1:100, the steepest incentive on the docket. Across the full slate, 68 ratios sit against 334 unique books, and Dynamite's 27 incentive covers lead all publishers.
MARVEL THIS WEEK
72 titles | 9 new #1s | 12 variants | 1 reprint | 0 ratios | FOC: August 3 | On Sale: September 2-16 (some titles ship later)
Marvel's slate this week spreads across ongoing line chapters and event conclusions rather than a single unifying push, with nine new #1s across the 72 titles and the incentive weight riding on virgin and foil covers rather than coded ratios. The Marvel Knights celebration reaches its final issue, a new X-Men crossover opens, and the Venom line brings back a piece of symbiote history. The docket runs on established ongoings alongside the launches, and Marvel's incentive story is cover-driven this week: nine virgin covers and two foils, led by the Alien Vs. X-Men foil and virgin pair.
Alien Vs. X-Men #1 (Marvel). This is one of Marvel's nine new #1s, a crossover pitting the X-Men against Xenomorphs after they return to Earth from a hunt for a Phoenix egg. The issue also opens a Chris Claremont story featuring Kitty Pryde, the Brood, and the Xenomorphs, and carries 7 covers.
Marvel Knights: The World To Come #6 (Marvel). The miniseries closes here as T'Challa and Ketema go head-to-head with Wakanda and the world in the balance. The issue caps the Marvel Knights celebration and carries 3 covers.
Venom #261 (Marvel). The issue brings back a piece of symbiote history: the alien costume Reed Richards once blasted off a friend of his and imprisoned for study is now needed to save the world, and Venom holds the grudge. It carries 4 covers.
DC THIS WEEK
102 titles | 5 new #1s | 9 variants | 31 reprints | 1 ratio | FOC: August 3 | On Sale: August 26 - September 16 (some titles ship later)
DC leads the week on volume with 102 titles, and the Bad Seeds event opens the docket with a new Batman storyline from Matt Fraction and G. Willow Wilson. The reprint count sits at 31 books, the bulk of DC's difference from the other big publishers on the count. Five new #1s land across the slate, and the single DC ratio this week attaches to the Deadshot one-shot tying into the Next Level line. Kingdom of Zod continues in the Superman ongoing alongside the event material.
Batman Bad Seeds Sunset #1 (DC Comics, $5.99, Matt Fraction & G. Willow Wilson/Giuseppe Camuncoli & Cliff Rathburn). This kicks off the Batman: Bad Seeds event, a Gotham-spanning storyline set across one long night. New mayor Pamela Isley makes a last-ditch power play while Police Commissioner Vandal Savage floods the streets with a paramilitarized police army, and the issue carries 6 covers.
Next Level One Shot #1 (DC Comics, $5.99, Gerry Duggan/Fernando Blanco). This carries DC's only ratio this week at 1:25, with Gerry Duggan telling a Deadshot story that ties the whole Next Level cast together. The issue frames a job gone sideways, a father and daughter, and a conspiracy pointing toward the line's future, and carries 6 covers.
Superman #41 (DC Comics, $5.99, Joshua Williamson/Eddy Barrows). Kingdom of Zod: Part Four brings Superman against Zod across the Kryptonite Kingdom, with Superboy-Prime joining the fight. The issue carries 5 covers.
DC's only ratio this week: 1:25 Next Level One Shot #1.
IMAGE THIS WEEK
96 titles | 2 new #1s | 20 variants | 0 reprints | 24 ratios | FOC: August 3 | On Sale: August 26 - September 9
Image's 96-title slate runs on incentive structure this week, with 24 ratios across the docket and only two new #1s. Three books share the top of Image's ratio ladder at 1:100. The line leans on arc-closing issues and ongoings rather than launches, with Fireborn wrapping its first arc and the Extreme-universe books continuing through Badrock and Final Boss. Twenty variant covers sit alongside the ratio depth.
Fireborn #4 (Image Comics, $4.99, Curt Pires & Franklin Jonas/Patrick Mulholland). This closes the first arc with the final showdown between Fireborn and CU in the heart of New York. The description notes an unexpected guest arriving to help, and the issue carries 4 covers.
Final Boss #9 (Image Comics, $3.99, Tyler Kirkham/Tyler Kirkham, David Miller & Ifan Noor). This sits in the week's steepest ratio tier at 1:100 alongside Buffy #2. Generational links surface between Tommy and his grandfather's discoveries as Dragod and the Cold-Bloods close in, and the issue carries 6 covers.
Badrock #2 (Image Comics, $3.99, Rob Liefeld/Seth Damoose). Badrock's attempt to save his mother unleashes a new monster threat. The issue carries 4 covers.
Image's three highest ratios this week: 1:100 Final Boss #9, 1:100 Hammerfist #1, 1:100 Terminal #2.
BEYOND THE BIG 3
Top 3 by volume:
Dynamite Entertainment — 91 titles. Led by Buffy The Vampire Slayer #2 (Kelly Thompson/Stephen Byrne), which carries the week's highest variant count at 19 covers and sits in the docket's steepest ratio tier at 1:100. Dynamite also leads all publishers with 27 incentive covers this week.
Viz Media — 37 titles. Notable for Amazing Digital Circus #1 ($11.99, Glitch Productions/Sakura), the official print adaptation of the animated series, following cartoony characters who want to escape their lives.
Dark Horse Comics — 26 titles. Anchored by Six Of Us #1, a Hollywood noir from Tom King, Gabriel Hernández Walta, and Jordie Bellaire. A beloved cast member of a hit ensemble sitcom dies under mysterious circumstances, and the surviving actors confront old rivalries and hidden truths. The issue carries 7 covers.
Wildcard:
Abrams — 1 release, Human Nature #2 ($29.99, Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel & Jeff Welch/Martín Morazzo). The graphic novel series continues as Duke and his companions perform for the alien Keepers to keep the skibbles flowing. The solicit describes this as the second book of a razor-sharp social satire about ambition, power, and the quest for immortality.
68 ratios across 334 unique books puts incentive coverage near a fifth of the week's series, with Dynamite's 27 covers and Image's 24 accounting for the bulk of them.
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