Couldn't be more disappointed than to see in DC Comics's Feburary 2009 solitictations that it seems the final Checkmate trade paperback, Chimera, won't collect Greg Rucka and Eric Trautmann's final three issues, #23-25.

Yes, it was probably expedient to expunge these issues and let the only writer on the final trade be Bruce Jones, but it's a difference of only three issues, and it rewards the readers who stuck with this series to have the entire thing collected. I think this was a poor decision on DC's part.

Here's hoping they might somehow collect these issues with Rucka and Trautmann's Final Crisis: Resist.

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The wait-for-trader in me is wondering if and how DC might collect these "Origins and Omens" backup stories appearing in all the titles post-Final Crisis.

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Any number of stories saddened me in this week's Lying in the Gutters, whether the rewrites on Final Crisis or the shifting writers on "Battle for the Cowl" (I like to believe a book's own writer or artist doesn't hate it while I'm enjoying it, thank you) -- but no rumor concerned me moreso than the suggestion that the Superman titles lost another writer with James Robinson walking off.

Fortunately, the Superman Homepage got confirmation this wasn't true, and it's now disappeared from the Lying in the Gutters column.