Week Type: Oversized slate, ratio-heavy
848 SKUs across 359 unique books, with 128 ratio covers running through the list. Image Comics leads weekly volume at 138 titles, ahead of Marvel's 116 and DC's 70, and Dynamite Entertainment's 88 also clears DC's count. The editorial primacy order stays Marvel, DC, Image, but the raw volume this week runs Image first. Marvel drives the launch conversation with its Midnight line, a horror-tinged reimagining that anchors three of Marvel's seven new #1s this week. Dynamite carries the deepest incentive structure of the week at 33 ratio covers, with Angel #1 topping the variant count.
FOC DROP AUGUST 31, 2026
Featured Publishers: Image Comics (138), Marvel Comics (116), Dynamite Entertainment (88), DC Comics (70), Massive Publishing (54), IDW Publishing (37)
Dynamite's Angel #1 carries the week's highest variant count at 22 covers, the top single-title cover count of any release this week. On the incentive side, three books share the week's steepest tier at 1:250: Angel #1 (Dynamite Entertainment), Lancer #1 (Bad Idea), and Sabrina the Teenage Witch #1 (Oni Press). Dynamite also leads all publishers on incentive volume at 33 ratio covers, ahead of Image's 29 and Marvel's 26.
Angel #1 (Dynamite Entertainment, $4.99, Kelly Thompson/Giulia Giacomino) carries the week's highest variant count at 22 covers, more than any other single title this week. The extra-sized 48-page premiere follows Dynamite's July Buffy the Vampire Slayer debut and introduces Angel and Buffy's new adversary, Leviathan, as Angel works a supernatural detective beat in Los Angeles.
MARVEL THIS WEEK
116 titles | 7 new #1s | 18 variants | 1 reprint | 26 ratios | FOC: August 31 | On Sale: September 30 - October 14 (some titles ship later)
Marvel's Midnight line drives the launch slate this week, a horror-reframed corner of the Marvel Universe spanning multiple new #1s. The line concentrates its incentive volume at the 1:100 tier, with Midnight Fantastic Four #1, Midnight Spider-Man #1, and Midnight X-Men #1 each carrying a 1:100 cover. Marvel's seven new #1s split across the Midnight launches and separate one-shots, with 26 ratio covers supporting the slate. The editorial posture is a self-contained dark-tone relaunch, with Jonathan Hickman returning to the X-Men to headline the effort.
Midnight X-Men #1 (Marvel Comics). The anchor of Marvel's Midnight launch, carrying 10 covers and incentives up to 1:100. Jonathan Hickman writes a New York where vampires and the mutant empyres circle a fragile peace, with an outright war brewing between the two species.
Midnight Fantastic Four #1 (Marvel Comics). A second Midnight-line launch, carrying 10 covers and one of the line's three 1:100 tiers. Benjamin Percy and Kev Walker frame an obsessive scientist whose plunge into unknown dimensions leaves himself and three others warped in horrifying ways.
Doom All-On-One #1 (Marvel Comics). A standalone launch outside the Midnight line, carrying 8 covers. Doctor Doom battles the entire Marvel Universe across fifty landscape-oriented splash pages in a fight for his mother's soul against Mephisto.
Marvel's three highest ratios this week: 1:100 Midnight Fantastic Four #1, 1:100 Midnight Spider-Man #1, 1:100 Midnight X-Men #1.
DC THIS WEEK
70 titles | 1 new #1 | 9 variants | 5 reprints | 1 ratio | FOC: August 31 | On Sale: September 23 - October 14 (some titles ship later)
DC's slate runs on continuing ongoings and facsimile reprints this week, with a single new #1 and just one ratio cover across the 70 titles. The Superman line carries the Kingdom of Zod arc forward, and the reprint count of five books folds classic Superman and Wonder Woman material into the week's list. The slate's structure is thin on launches and incentives, with the volume sitting in mid-run monthly chapters.
Superman #42 (DC Comics, $5.99, Joshua Williamson/Eddy Barrows). Part eight of Kingdom of Zod carries the DC slate this week. Superman, Supergirl, and Lois Lane assemble the Super-Force for a play to restore order to the Kryptonite Kingdom, with Zod and Ursa standing in their way.
Bleeding Hearts #8 (DC Comics, $3.99, Deniz Camp/Stipan Morian). A continuing DC ongoing on the slate. Poke can't keep the secret of his beating heart forever, and the issue tracks who he can trust without bringing the whole Horde down on his head.
DC's only ratio this week: 1:25 Absolute Batman #24.
IMAGE THIS WEEK
138 titles | 5 new #1s | 14 variants | 0 reprints | 29 ratios | FOC: August 31 | On Sale: September 16 - October 14 (some titles ship later)
Image leads the week's volume at 138 titles, with the slate leaning on creator-owned ongoings and arc transitions rather than a single line initiative. Five new #1s land alongside 29 ratio covers, second only to Dynamite on incentive volume. The slate clusters around arc bookends this week: Radiant Black opens a new story arc on the road to issue #50, while Lost Fantasy closes out its current arc. The 1:100 tier on Terminal #3 tops Image's own incentive structure.
Radiant Black #44 (Image Comics, $3.99, Kyle Higgins & Joe Clark/Marcelo Costa). A new story arc opens here, framed as the road to Radiant Black #50. An urgent mission awaits as Chicago spirals into civil war and Marshall weighs where to turn his attention first.
Lost Fantasy #12 (Image Comics, $4.99, Curt Pires/Alex Diotto). The conclusion of the "Fall of the Hunters" arc. Help arrives as an unlikely ally, but the walls between worlds are already crumbling and something is breaking through.
Seasons #12 (Image Comics, $3.99, Rick Remender/Paul Azaceta). A continuing creator-owned ongoing on the slate. The four Seasons sisters reunite only to find themselves trapped in a world ruled by a malignant narcissist, forced to break lifelong patterns and work together.
Image's three highest ratios this week: 1:100 Terminal #3, 1:75 Universal Monsters Blood Of The Wolf Man #4, 1:50 Lost Fantasy #12.
BEYOND THE BIG 3
Top 3 by volume:
Dynamite Entertainment: 88 titles. Anchored by Angel #1 (Kelly Thompson/Giulia Giacomino), an extra-sized 48-page premiere that carries the week's highest variant count at 22 covers and introduces Angel and Buffy's new adversary, Leviathan. Dynamite also leads all publishers on incentive volume at 33 ratio covers.
Massive Publishing: 54 titles. Led by Penthouse Comics (2027) #1 ($12.99), a new volume opening with the Miss October serial-killer mystery as Lieutenant Clegg's investigation stalls, plus two new fantasy epics including Conquests and its Horde of the Living.
IDW Publishing: 37 titles. Notable for Star Trek: Holo-Ween II #1, a locked-station thriller on Deep Space 9 where a communications blackout and a murder accusation throw the station into chaos as senior leadership is called away and something goes wrong inside the holosuites.
Wildcard:
Fantagraphics Books: 1 release, but it's Roy #2 (Gilbert Hernandez & Natalia Hernandez/Gilbert Hernandez, $4.99), the most distinctive single-issue launch off the volume top-3. Roy, haunted by nightmares of the Froat, runs into Tom-Jim-Jack Clown battling a Froat for control of each other's life force.
128 ratio covers across 359 unique books makes this one of the heavier incentive weeks of the year, with Dynamite's 33, Image's 29, and Marvel's 26 accounting for the bulk of them.
GET THE FULL LIST
The complete FOC list for August 31, 2026 is live now at FOC Intelligence, free to access with registration, no subscription required. Spec summaries, first appearance tracking, creator intel, and early access are available through our Insider tier, details and tier comparison at the link.
