COMIC CRUSADERS HOT LIST: THE 10 HOTTEST COMICS FOR SEPTEMBER 2nd & 3rd, 2026

WEPAAAAAAA, CRUSADERS! September just kicked open the comic shop door, knocked over the spinner rack, and told your wallet, “Yo… we need to talk!” The first New Comic Book Day of September is loaded with #1s, relaunches, creator-owned heat, horror royalty, legacy franchises, serious cover programs, and a few books giving off that dangerous “people are gonna wish they grabbed this Wednesday” energy.

The current September 2 direct-market slate is packed across DC, Marvel, Image, BOOM! Studios, Oni Press, Bad Idea, Ignition Press and the independent field. The Comic Crusaders HOT List ain’t here to dump a release spreadsheet in your lap and call it a day. We’re measuring collectibility, fandom, reader chatter, creative pedigree, cover heat, franchise momentum, potential key-book ingredients and pure comic-shop buzz.

As always, speculation is speculation. A shiny ratio cover does not come with a retirement account stapled inside. Collect what you love, chase intelligently, support your LCS and never let Wednesday FOMO body-slam the grocery money.

#10: PRIMA APPARATA #1 – IGNITION PRESS

HOT METER: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Cover Pick: Rebekah Isaacs Cover A

Ignition Press | Olivia Dufault & Rebekah Isaacs | On Sale September 2, 2026

SLEEPER ALARM, MI GENTE.

Ignition Press comes creeping into the countdown with the kind of debut that can get overlooked when Superman, Archie and the Legion are yelling from the other side of the store. Prima Apparata takes a busted-apart future humanity, a celestial boarding school, genetically engineered young women, giant mechs and ballet. Yup. Mech ballerinas. Somebody hit the good-weird button and broke it.

Olivia Dufault and Rebekah Isaacs have a premise with actual shelf identity, which matters when you’re hunting indie #1s. The Conservatory trains elite performers whose machines aren’t built for conventional warfare but for a potentially deadly cosmic recital. That is visually marketable, conceptually clean and easy to pitch to somebody standing three feet away at an LCS.

Collector-wise, Isaacs’ Cover A is my play because it establishes the visual identity of the series without making you pay an incentive tax. Patrick Horvath’s incentive is the alternate hunter’s target, but don’t sleep on a clean first-print A-cover when a new property is entering the market.

#9: MARVEL ZOMBIES: WAR ZONE #1 – MARVEL COMICS

HOT METER: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Cover Pick: Tony Parker Cover A

Marvel Comics | Tom Waltz & Jaime Infante | On Sale September 2, 2026

Marvel Zombies refuses to stay buried, and apparently somebody forgot the double-tap. War Zone throws Manhattan into a full zombie outbreak, watches Earth’s heroes begin dropping to the infection, throws up a containment barrier and then drops Frank Castle inside the mess. That’s Marvel walking into the kitchen with Punisher, zombies and a blender.

The collectibility argument here isn’t that Marvel Zombies is some mysterious unknown quantity. It’s exactly the opposite. This brand has history. Horror collectors know it, Marvel collectors know it, casual readers recognize it, and Punisher gives this incarnation another fan base to recruit. Issue #1 status doesn’t hurt either.

Tony Parker’s Cover A gets my value-play recommendation because the image sells the entire concept immediately. There is also a Tony Parker virgin incentive edition for collectors willing to climb higher up the variant ladder, but a killer first-print regular cover at normal retail is plenty dangerous on its own.

#8: TEEN TITANS #1 – DC COMICS

HOT METER: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Cover Pick: Dan Mora Foil Variant

DC Comics | Kyle Higgins & Daniele Di Nicuolo | On Sale September 2, 2026

A brand-new Teen Titans #1 automatically gets eyeballs, but DC stacked the deck by handing the keys to Kyle Higgins and Daniele Di Nicuolo. If those names together make your Power Rangers/Massive-Verse sensor start blinking, congratulations, your comic-book radar still works.

Fairplay, Cheshire Cat, Proxy and Wildcard headline DC’s new generation, with Red Hood entering the mix when one of the young heroes disappears after attending an Ascend rally. New lineup, fresh jumping-on point, established franchise, creators who understand young-team dynamics and a DC initiative putting promotional muscle behind it. That’s a solid heat recipe.

Then Dan Mora showed up and said, “Yo, anybody order a foil?” Mora is one of those artists whose covers have become their own miniature collecting lane, and the foil edition is still accessible enough that you don’t need to refinance the Batcave to chase it.

#7: HELLRAISER: RESURRECTIONS – NEW WOUNDS #1 – BOOM! STUDIOS

HOT METER: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Cover Pick: Martin Simpson Cover A

BOOM! Studios | Mike Costa & Paco Camallonga | On Sale September 2, 2026

THE BOX IS BACK. DO NOT OPEN IT.
Which, naturally, means comic collectors are absolutely opening it.

BOOM! brings Clive Barker’s Hellraiser mythology back to comics through a run of Resurrections one-shots feeding into a new ongoing era. That collector detail matters because New Wounds isn’t simply a random licensed horror special. It’s the front door to the next publishing chapter of the franchise.

Mike Costa and Paco Camallonga begin with a Puzzle Box investigation gone very, very sideways, while BOOM! surrounds the launch with a healthy cover program. Christian Ward has an incentive collectors should inspect, but Martin Simpson’s Cover A is my pick. It’s grotesque, elegant, unmistakably Hellraiser and, importantly, the standard first-print face of this new era.

#6: TALES OF WONDER #1 – IMAGE COMICS

HOT METER: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Cover Pick: Steve Skroce & Ian Herring Cover A

Image Comics | Steve Skroce & Ian Herring | On Sale September 2, 2026

Steve Skroce making a new creator-owned comic about comic creators whose fictional superheroes and monsters become real already sounds like somebody dumped gasoline on the Wednesday shelf.

Stu and Jake built Wonder Comics after WWII, watched their creations turn into a global phenomenon, had their friendship implode under the weight of the comic industry and are now reunited just as their fictional universe decides fiction is optional. There’s superhero spectacle here, but the creator-credit rivalry gives the premise some teeth. Industry history wrapped inside a giant action comic? That’s tasty.

Variant hunters have Yasmine Putri, Jorge Fornés and a much steeper incentive ladder to consider, but my recommendation remains Skroce and Herring’s Cover A. Creator-drawn first-issue covers have a purity to them, particularly if the property becomes something larger later.

#5: SUPERMAN: THE STRANGER #1 – DC COMICS

HOT METER: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Cover Pick: Wes Craig Cover A

DC Black Label | Wes Craig, Jason Wordie & Tom Napolitano | On Sale September 2, 2026

Wes Craig gets Superman essentially to himself in a six-issue Black Label series reimagining the earliest Man of Steel adventures through an Art Deco 1938 Metropolis, drawing inspiration from Golden Age Superman and the Fleischer cartoons.

The collecting appeal comes from several directions. Superman is evergreen. Black Label separates the project from the monthly line. Craig has a strong creator following. The cover program is controlled compared with books that require a spreadsheet and emotional-support long box. Most importantly for the shelf, this has a visual identity you can recognize from across the room.

Wes Craig’s Cover A is the move. Writer, artist, series visionary and cover artist all on the same first issue? Give me that version for the long box.

#4: CROWBOUND #1 – IMAGE COMICS

HOT METER: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Cover Pick: Dustin Nguyen Cover A

Image Comics | Jeff Lemire & Dustin Nguyen | On Sale September 2, 2026

Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen back together. Aight, you already had me.

The Descender/Ascender collaborators reunite for Crowbound, a creator-owned series mixing post-apocalyptic neo-Western, southern gothic and dark fantasy around a mother leaving the protection of an enormous factory to find her missing daughter.

Reader response to the reunion is exactly the kind of chatter I like seeing before a creator-owned #1 hits shelves: people aren’t merely reacting to a logo. They’re following the creative team. That kind of trust gives a new IP a fighting chance beyond launch-week curiosity.

Peach Momoko and Martin Simmonds give variant hunters some toys, but Nguyen’s haunting Cover A is my recommendation. No adaptation rumor required. No manufactured “KEY ALERT!” siren. Two acclaimed creators, a fresh IP and genuine audience anticipation are enough.

#3: WARBIRD #1 – BAD IDEA

HOT METER: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Cover Pick: Frank Quitely Cover B

Bad Idea | Derek Kolstad & Robert Venditti; Art by Alex Maleev & Esad Ribić; Colors by Dean White; Designs by Frank Quitely | On Sale September 2, 2026

BAD IDEA IS DOING BAD IDEA THINGS AGAIN,
and collector brains everywhere just heard the boss music start.

Warbird has an absurdly commercial setup: John Wick creator Derek Kolstad joining Robert Venditti on a globe-spanning action/spy thriller, with Alex Maleev and Esad Ribić bringing the visual artillery, Dean White on colors and Frank Quitely contributing designs. The premise sends elite repo man Cole after a roughly billion-dollar experimental fighter jet while the remaining prototypes need to disappear. Comics have occasionally been accused of overcomplicating their elevator pitches. This one basically says, “Steal the world’s nastiest airplane.” Boom. Sold.

Then Bad Idea went full Bad Idea with glow-in-the-dark editions, secret-decoder editions, ratios and premium gimmicks. Your inner completist may need adult supervision.

#2: ARCHIE #1 – ONI PRESS/ARCHIE COMICS

HOT METER: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Cover Pick: Stuart Immonen Cover A

Oni Press / Archie Comics | Ben H. Winters & Fábio Moon | On Sale September 2, 2026

YUP. ARCHIE. NUMBER TWO. PUT SOME RESPECT ON RIVERDALE.

This isn’t another routine numbering stunt. Oni Press and Archie Comics launch an all-new Archie #1 as the character rolls through his 85th-anniversary era, with Ben H. Winters writing and Fábio Moon handling art. The whole package is designed as a fresh entry point into Riverdale while carrying one of American comics’ longest-running brands on its back.

Oni came prepared for the collector crowd too: Stuart Immonen, Fábio Moon, Karl Kerschl, Khary Randolph, Kano, Dan Parent, Elsa Charretier and more, with foils and high-ratio editions joining the party. Somebody looked at the variant spreadsheet and said, “Nah, keep cooking.”

I’m planting my flag on Stuart Immonen’s Cover A. It is instantly recognizable, accessible and tied directly to the historic relaunch rather than depending on manufactured scarcity to make it interesting. Scarcity and desirability are cousins, not twins.

#1: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #1- DC COMICS

HOT METER: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Cover Pick: Dan Mora Michael J. Fox Cameo Variant

DC Comics | Joshua Williamson, Hayden Sherman & Tamra Bonvillain | On Sale September 2, 2026

WEPAAAAAAAAA! WE FOUND THE KING OF THE WEEK.

Legion of Super-Heroes #1 has almost every Hot List ingredient stacked in the same long box: major DC relaunch, #1 issue, beloved but underused franchise, Joshua Williamson, Hayden Sherman, a big Next Level push, veteran Legion fandom waking up, new-reader curiosity and an absolutely bonkers Dan Mora Michael J. Fox cameo cover.

One thousand years after Superman, superheroes are outlawed, the United Planets are fractured, R.J. Brande has been murdered and Brainiac 1 of 5 has to assemble a scattered group of gifted young rebels. DC isn’t gently dusting off the Legion. It’s rebuilding the launch point around mystery, rebellion and a new future.

The Hayden Sherman factor is serious, and early preview material has given readers plenty to talk about with its layout energy and visual personality. Then there’s that cover: Dan Mora, Superman, the Legion and Michael J. Fox. It looks like a comic-book fever dream wandered out of 1985 carrying a hoverboard.

Is a cameo cover guaranteed to become a grail? Of course not. But when a weird, memorable, officially produced pop-culture cover intersects with an anticipated #1 and Dan Freakin’ Mora, collectors notice. My #1 book for September 2 is LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #1. Long live the Legion.

So there it is, Crusaders. Ten books. No filler. No “honorable mention” loophole turning a Top 10 into seventeen books. We’ve got DC future shock, Riverdale history, Bad Idea insanity, creator-owned fire, Cenobites, zombies, indie sleepers and Michael J. Fox hanging with Superman because apparently September woke up and chose chaos.

Buy what you love. Speculate with your brain, not your FOMO. Support your LCS, inspect those copies before somebody’s thumb gives your future 9.8 an unsolicited spine tick, and never forget…

THE CRUSADE NEVER ENDS!