Advanced Review: ‘Street Sharks Annual (2026)’ is Perfectly Executed Escapism
STREET SHARKS ANNUAL #1
TL;DR
Street Sharks Annual 2026 #1 collects two all-new stories featuring the mutant shark brothers of Fission City. The lead story reunites the Sharks with a beloved ally amid a dangerous new threat involving escaped villains and a prehistoric creature loose in the city. The backup is a comedic character piece spotlighting the team's tech support guy navigating a disastrous first date. Both stories are fun, fast, and look fantastic.
Release Date: April 29, 2026
Creative Team
"Old Friends, New Depths" (main story)
Writer: Stephanie Williams
Artist: Ariel Medel
Colorist: Valentina Pinto
Color Assistant: Jonathon Dobbs
Letterer: Sandy Tanaka
"Odds and Bends" (back-up)
Writer:Jordan Morris
Artist: Margeaux Pepoy
Colorist: Valentina Pinto (pgs 1-3, 5) and Heather Breckel (pgs 4, 6-8)
Color Assistant: Jonathon Dobbs (pgs 1-3, 5)
Letterer: Neil Uyetake
Full Review
There is a version of comics fandom that gets hung up on legacy, on canon, on whether a revival truly honors the source material. And then there's the version that just wants to have a good time. Street Sharks Annual 2026 from IDW is squarely, joyfully, unapologetically for the second kind of fan, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment.
The annual collects two stories. The stronger of the two is Stephanie Williams and Ariel Medel's main story, "Old Friends, New Depths," which brings back a fan-favorite ally, drops a prehistoric creature into the middle of Fission City, and pits the Sharks against a villain lineup that escalates in exactly the right direction. Williams writes these characters the way they should always be written, with big personalities, bigger hearts, and just enough snappy one-liners to keep the pace moving without tipping into parody. There are real stakes here, and Williams respects them without ever letting the book lose its sense of fun.
Medel's art is a genuine treat from start to finish. The opening harbor scene sets the tone immediately and the action sequences that follow are fluid without becoming chaotic. Every character reads clearly in the panel, even when the book is throwing multiple Sharks, multiple villains, and a very large ancient reptile at you simultaneously. The creature design work holds true to the source material. Valentina Pinto's colors are doing serious heavy lifting, pushing the palette from warm amber dockside evenings to cool, glowing aquarium blues to the dusty pinks and oranges of a coastal sunset. It's the kind of coloring that makes you slow down and actually look at the page rather than just moving through it.
Jordan Morris and Margeaux Pepoy's "Odds and Bends" is lighter fare that keeps the focus tight on one of the team's supporting players. The gag work is sharp and the character beats land, and Heather Breckel's colors on the latter pages give the story its own distinct visual identity within the book. It's a B-story, but a very good one that earns its place here.
What strikes me most about this annual is how confidently it leans into escapism. There's no attempt to make Street Sharks feel relevant in some strained, contemporary way. It's fish puns, villain monologues, and shark bros being shark bros. It's fun in a way that feels increasingly rare, and increasingly necessary. These are exactly the comics I need when the news cycle is doing what the news cycle always does.
IDW needs to give Stephanie Williams the keys to this franchise on a regular basis. This annual demonstrates that she understands what makes the Street Sharks tick at a character level, and more importantly, she knows how to construct a story with momentum and payoff inside a compressed format. More Williams on Street Sharks. More Street Sharks period.
Rating: 4.5/5
