Week Type: Variant-heavy, indie-heavy slate
Dynamite Entertainment sets the shape of this week's list with 115 titles, more than Marvel's 7 and DC's 43 combined. The editorial primacy still runs Marvel, DC, Dynamite, but the volume lead sits firmly with Dynamite on the strength of a Buffyverse relaunch push. The week carries 101 variants across 538 SKUs and 83 ratio covers, with 40 of those incentives landing in Dynamite's slate alone. The 36 launches against 269 unique books keep this from being a #1-heavy week; the story here is variant concentration and indie volume, not new series count.
FOC DROP SEPTEMBER 7, 2026
Featured Publishers: Dynamite Entertainment (115), Image Comics (44), DC Comics (43), IDW Publishing (33), Penguin Random House (28), Mad Cave Studios (27)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #1 (Dynamite Entertainment) carries the week's highest variant count at 22 covers, tied at the top of the list with Firefly #1. Kelly Thompson writes and Stephen Byrne draws the Buffy relaunch that opens Dynamite's Buffyverse initiative.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #1 also sits in the week's steepest incentive tier at 1:250, a tier shared with Bad Idea's It Demands Sacrifice #1. Two books carry that top ratio this week, and Dynamite leads all publishers on incentive count with 40 ratio covers of the 83 across the full list.
MARVEL THIS WEEK
7 titles | 0 new #1s | 0 variants | 0 reprints | 0 ratios | FOC: September 7 | On Sale: November 17 (some titles ship later)
Marvel's slate is one of the smallest on this week's list at 7 titles, with no variants, no ratios, and no new launches in the count. The volume sits in collected editions and forward-solicited books rather than single-issue line chapters. With no incentive structure and no #1s, the Marvel entries this week read as catalog anchors ahead of a mid-November on-sale window.
X-Men Of Apocalypse (Marvel Comics). This collection carries the X-line corner of Marvel's thin slate, revisiting the Age of Apocalypse reality. Jeph Loeb writes and Simone Di Meo draws the story picking up from the direct aftermath of the original crossover's finale, following that reality's X-Men into conflict with the main Marvel Universe.
DC THIS WEEK
43 titles | 5 new #1s | 2 variants | 4 reprints | 0 ratios | FOC: September 7 | On Sale: September 30 - October 7 (some titles ship later)
DC's slate skews Gotham-heavy this week, with the Bat-line driving both the launches and the marquee callouts. Five new #1s land in the count against 43 titles, and the week carries no ratio incentives on the DC side. The slate splits between new Gotham chapters and a set of Golden Age collections rounding out the volume.
Batman Bad Seeds Gotham General #1 (DC Comics, $5.99, Greg Rucka/Rosa Ekedal). This launch anchors DC's Gotham push this week, opening a book set inside Gotham City's tier one trauma center. Greg Rucka writes and Rosa Ekedal draws Dr. Ava Dastur and the General staff working a citywide disaster with the power out and patients split between respiratory complications and hallucinogenic episodes.
Poison Ivy #48 (DC Comics, $4.99, G. Willow Wilson/Marcio Takara). The Ivy ongoing continues DC's Gotham thread with Gotham City under Poison Ivy's control and her powers at a high point. G. Willow Wilson writes and Marcio Takara draws the issue, with Batman's forces and Ivy's former allies ground down and few opponents left standing.
Adventures Of Superman Book Of El #12 (DC Comics, $3.99, Phillip Kennedy Johnson/Scott Godlewski). This issue closes out the Book of El on the Superman side of DC's slate. Phillip Kennedy Johnson writes the final chapter, with Starchild and Red Son reunited with the surviving heads of the House of El against Kryl-Ux, a man driven to godhood by grief.
DYNAMITE THIS WEEK
115 titles | 8 new #1s | 74 variants | 1 reprint | 40 ratios | FOC: September 7 | On Sale: September 30 - October 14 (some titles ship later)
Dynamite's Buffyverse relaunch drives the week's largest slate, with the Buffy and Angel titles anchoring 115 titles and 74 variants. The push concentrates variant volume at the top: Buffy The Vampire Slayer #1 and Firefly #1 each carry 22 covers, with Angel #2 close behind at 19. Dynamite also leads all publishers on incentives with 40 ratio covers, including both the week's 1:250 and 1:100 tiers on Buffy #1. The rest of the slate rounds out through the Altered States crossover line and the publisher's licensed catalog.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #1 (Dynamite Entertainment, $4.99, Kelly Thompson/Stephen Byrne). This launch is the center of Dynamite's Buffyverse relaunch and carries the week's top variant count at 22 covers. Kelly Thompson writes and Stephen Byrne draws a Buffy story built around the love and devotion she inspired, featuring the comics debut of a Buffy fan-favorite character.
Firefly #1 (Dynamite Entertainment, $4.99, Mark Russell/Lorenzo Re). A second licensed launch this week, Firefly #1 ties the 22-cover variant top with Buffy #1. Mark Russell writes and Lorenzo Re draws Mal Reynolds hunting for cash to keep Serenity flying while Simon and Kaylee pose as a married couple for a heist, with the issue carrying a premium mystery blind bag of three randomly selected variants.
Angel #2 (Dynamite Entertainment, $4.99, Kelly Thompson/Giulia Giacomino). The companion Buffyverse title continues alongside the Buffy launch, carrying 19 covers. Kelly Thompson writes and Giulia Giacomino draws Angel setting his away team into motion, with the issue also carrying a premium mystery blind bag of three exclusive variants.
Dynamite's three highest ratios this week: 1:250 Buffy The Vampire Slayer #1, 1:100 Buffy The Vampire Slayer #1, 1:100 Angel #2.
BEYOND THE BIG 3
Top 3 by volume:
Image Comics: 44 titles. Led by Final Boss #10 (Tyler Kirkham), where Tommy narrowly escapes his face-off with the Venomous Dragod only to find trainer Rabak missing, then sets out with Midnight Lily to find him.
IDW Publishing: 33 titles. Anchored by Star Trek: Zero Point #1, the tie-in launch to Star Trek (2026) from writer Charlie Jane Anders and artist Isaac Sánchez González, in which Raffi Musiker takes command of the U.S.S. Endeavour and a classified directive to follow an untested predictive A.I. built from recovered Epsilon Corridor technology.
Penguin Random House: 28 titles. Anchored by Almost There: A Twisted Tale (Penguin Random House, $13.99, Farrah Rochon). 1 variant. Solicitation details not yet available.
Wildcard:
Black Mask Studios: the week's most distinctive indie launch outside the volume top-3 is Leaded Gasoline #1 (Patrick Kindlon/Lorenzo Re). Set in 1980s South Los Angeles as a killer stalks the streets, the book follows a community college professor and single father who believes there is more to the case than a single madman.
101 variants across 538 titles this week, with Dynamite carrying 74 of them and Buffy The Vampire Slayer #1 and Firefly #1 tied at the top with 22 covers each.
GET THE FULL LIST
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