Eagle-eyed Collected Editions blog reader Chris Hilker just pointed out a bunch more Blackest Night hardcover trade collections now solicited. To wit:- Blackest Night: Rise of the Black Lanterns, by Geoff Johns, etc.
- Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps Vol. 1, by James Robinson, etc.
- Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps Vol. 2
- Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps Vol. 1
Granted, the authors listed for these books may just be placeholders, but here's my speculation, branching off our earlier conversation as to how you would collect Blackest Night:
- James Robinson, as you know, writes both Blackest Night: Superman and Blackest Night: JSA. My bet is that between the two volumes, Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps collect the six main spin-off miniseries (that is, also Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman, and Titans). Pure speculation, based on Robinson's name being there.
- Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps is, at least, the three-part Tales story that came out in July. That's not enough for a hardcover, though, and the solicitation says volume one (of an expected two volumes). Could this be, perhaps, where we'll see the relevant Green Lantern Corps issues collected?
- Rise of the Black Lanterns, by Geoff Johns, almost sounds like a lead-in volume, not unlike the volume of collected stories that relate to Johns' current run, Green Lantern: In Brightest Day. "Rise" could also refer to the various "cancelled issues" coming out in January, collected here in one volume (or it could be, strangely enough, a collection of the issues where the various Black Lanterns *died*).
Very interesting ...
Some other notables:
* Adventures of Superboy Book One
This book collects very early Superboy stories by Don Cameron, Joe Shuster, and Stan Kaye. Part of DC's recent Superboy lawsuit has to do with Superboy stories that Don Cameron wrote for DC while Joe Shuster served in the army; obviously things are rosier if DC now sees fit to release this collection.
* Justice League: Cry for Justice
Love it or hate it, James Robinson's Justice League miniseries certainly has people talking. I'll likely pick up this hardcover and hope I don't regret it.
* World's Finest
Just as the first issue hits the stand, here's word of the collection of the Sterling Gates/Phil Noto Super-Family/Bat-Family crossover.
* Supergirl: Friends and Fugitives
The next collection of Sterling Gates' Supergirl run. Who is Superwoman? ends with issue #42; this will either pick up with #43, or if #43-46 are in the Codename: Patriot collection, maybe #47.
Let the Blackest Night speculation continue!
Curious when we will see a Vigilante collection, especially since issues 5 and 6 are collected in the Titans: Deathtrap crossover TPB.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I noticed that the Kobra: Resurrection TPB includes the Faces Of Evil: Kobra one-shot as well as the missing Checkmate 23-25 issues.
In terms of other Faces of Evil issues, the Solomon Grundy one-shot should be included with the Solomon Grundy mini-series in that TPB and the Prometheus one-shot should be included with the JLA: Cry For Justice TPB since they were advertised as lead-ins to those stories. Guessing that the Deathstroke one will be in a future Teen Titans or Titans TPB.
Does anyone have a guess why the JLA Faces of Evil issue for Starbreaker was left out of the recent TPB - was it all old reprint material?
I think you're on to something regarding the contents of the Blackest Night collections. My take:
ReplyDeleteRise of the Black Lanterns - The Johns/Mahnke Green Lantern tie-in issues, beginning with their pre-Blackest Night Black Hand origin.
Black Lantern Corps Vol. 1 & 2 - The 3-issue minis, probably with Superman and Batman in one, JSA and Wonder Woman in the other. Plus the others - Teen Titans, Starman, etc.
Tales of the Corps Vol. 1 - The short stories by Johns, in conjunction with the Green Lantern Corps tie-ins, hence the requirement for a Vol. 2.
Ugh. It looks like they are going to pull the "separate Blackest Night and Green Lantern in trades" crap I'd feared after all. This really just kind of killed my enthusiasm. I honestly don't know what to do in regards to this now.
ReplyDeleteGod dammit DC.
I'm kind of excited for that Superboy collection. Too bad it's scheduled to come out so long from now.
ReplyDeleteGreen Lantern in one separate volume, Green Lantern Corps in another separate volume, and Blackest Night in a third?
ReplyDeleteIt does sound like where we're headed, though I think it'll be unpopular with a lot of people, vs. a multi-volume linear set like Sinestro Corps War.
All of this a result of having a crossover that's really, really large, issue-wise. Maybe too large?
Doubt we'll see a Vigilante trade, ComicReaderDude -- the series, not well-received, is already canceled, and I doubt DC sees an audience for a collection.
ReplyDeleteDitto how you think the other Faces of Evil one-shots should be collected; I'd especially hate to see the Deathstroke and Prometheus issues fall by the wayside.
Near as I can tell, JLA #29 was something of a filler issue, relating the history of Starbreaker. Weird that DC would leave part three of four out of a collection, but I believe it was written by Len Wein in the midst of a couple of Dwayne McDuffie issues, so maybe that's why.
This is a tough one for the Blackest Night. I am just thrilled that they are collecting all the minis and related stories. But for the ton of us who want to read all of it, there will be a bunch of others who will be afraid to pick it up if it is a bunch of collections to get "the whole story" which they will see as the main 8-issue series.
ReplyDeleteI think that if it is done right you need all the issues to get the full effect of any big DC tale, but just the main ones will give you something. For example, I thought that the Superman event Our Worlds At War was so overblown the first time I read it, but I enjoyed it when they collected just the issues and extras that were important to the story, and same thing with the original Crisis, however, Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis were extremely dependent on the issues that came before Infinite Crisis and after Identity Crisis to really get the full understanding of why these characters were doing what they were doing. I re-read all the material leading up to Inifinte Crisis in the correct order and really enjoyed it the second time, whereas I thought it was lacking something the first time around (alot of character motivations and behind the scene stuff that was really important).
Thanks on the Vigilante note, since I didn't realize it was cancelled. They are still showing solicitations for it out to at least issue 12 on DC's site.
By the way, if you are looking for the Origins & Omens stories, here is where they are (or where they would likely show up in the case of those not collected yet, but as you will see with JLA, it didn't wind up collected with that issue):
ReplyDeleteAdventure Comics #0 - (likely be in Superboy: the Redemption TPB)
Nightwing #153 - in Nightwing: The Great Leap
Secret Six #6 - in Secret Six: Unhinged
Action Comics #874 - (likely be in Superman: Mon-El)
Booster Gold #17 - in Booster Gold: Reality Lost
Green Arrow/Black Canary - (likely be in GA/BC: Enemies List)
Green Lantern Corps #33 - (likely be in GLC: Emerald Eclipse)
Titans #10 - in Titans: Lockdown
The Outsiders #15 - (likely be in Outsiders: The Deep)
Birds of Prey #127 - (likely be in Oracle: The Cure)
JLA #30 - (not reprinted - should have been in When Worlds Collide - #30 reprinted but not the O&O story)
Robin #183 - in Robin: The Search for a Hero
Supergirl #38 - (likely be in Supergirl: Who is Superwoman)
Vigilante #3 - (unknown if this will be collected)
Green Lantern #38 - (not reprinted - should have been in Rage of the Red Lanterns - #38 reprinted but not the O&O story)
JSA #24 - in JSA: Black Adam and Isis
Superman #685 - (likely be in Superman: Mon-El)
Teen Titans #68 - in TT: Changing of the Guard
Wonder Woman #29 - (likely be in Wonder Woman: Warkiller)
Some of the likelies are guesses based on what issues are where according to solicitations and DC's site on what issues are in what collection, but that doesn't guarantee that the O&O story will be in there as well.
I don't think that the event is too large. Especially for collecton in trade. I keep thinking Back to Knightfall, where the really relevant stuff was collected in some pretty thick trades. Which are, far as I know, still popular and in print to this day.
ReplyDeleteBut they never collected Knightquest, which happened between volumes 2 and 3. Which means there's a great disparity between the two. You can read Knightsend just fine, as you have all the relevant information, but it still feels like somethings missing. You don't know how or why Bruces back healed or what happened when he left.
It's kind of the same thing here. You can argue that it's not hard to figure out where Hal was post #3 while the main series was chillin with Barry; but those scenes with Ha, which are in Green Lantern, are arguably even MORE relevant than the scenes with Barry in the main book.
I really do not like where this is going. I honestly don't know what to really do about it either. I may have to stop collecting at Sinestro Corps and see if there are further plans for a comprehensive volumes before deciding on what to do.
Oh, on Cry for Justice, it will probably be best to just skip it and jump in with the eventual first trade of James Robinsons JLA run proper. Cry or Justice doesn't sound very good; which didn't surprise me, as he wrote it during that really clunky time when he first came back - see Atlas, for instance - and hadn't gotten back into a groove. He only seems to e getting his legs back now.
Jeez, I thought Sinestro Corps was a good example of how NOT to collect a crossover.
ReplyDeleteThe GLC chapters take place on a different battle front, and for the most part are unrelated to the main story. DC should have collected all the Geoff Johns-written issues in one volume; it's one linear story that way.
And then if you want to get a sense of what was happening on Oa during the war, you could read the GLC chapters, which tell their own story. But they're pretty unessential to the main story by Johns.
Similarly, I think they should include everything by Johns from BLACKEST NIGHT and GREEN LANTERN proper in one big book called Blackest Night. It seems to be the way Johns has structured it.
I didn't know that the Origins & Omens segment from Green Lantern #38 hadn't been collected. DC's website lists Ivan Reis as one of the artists of the Agent Orange hardcover, so there's still hope that those few pages will be a part of it.
ReplyDeleteThe O&O segment from JLA #30, on the other hand, would be best forgotten, since it shows a new lineup that didn't even materialize thanks to McDuffie's firing from the book.
As for JLA #29 (the Starbreaker origin issue by Len Wein), it wasn't numbered as a chapter of the "Welcome to Sundown Town" arc, which comprises the When Worlds Collide hardcover. It was just a fill-in that would have broken the flow of the reading experience, and DC did the right thing by not collecting it.