DC Comics announced their official list of trade paperbacks, collected editions, and graphic novels for May, June, July, and August 2010 this week, as reported by our friends at ComicList.
We've already talked over a bunch of these solicitations on the Collected Editions blog, so I won't look at them all in detail, but here's some highlights with my comments in bold.
OUTSIDERS: THE HUNT TP
Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Artists: Fernando Pasarin and Jay Leisten
Collects: OUTSIDERS #23-27
$12.99 US, 144 pg
Not sure the issues listed above can be believed, since the previous trade, Outsiders: The Deep, ended with issue #20. Collecting to issue #27 would take this trade into the new Dan DiDio/Superman title territory; my guess is that it's five issues starting with #21, which includes the Blackest Night crossover.
SUPERGIRL: FRIENDS AND FUGITIVES
Writers: Greg Rucka and Sterling Gates
Artists: Jamal Igle, Julian Lopez, Fernando Dagnino and others
Collects: SUPERGIRL #43, 45-47, ACTION COMICS #881-882 and SUPERMAN SECRET FILES 2009 #1
Takes place before and after the Superman: Codename: Patriot crossover, which is mildly confusing; then collects the "Hunt for Reactron" storyline. We still don't know how the closing "New Krypton" issues of Action Comics and Superman will be collected; maybe in Nightwing and Flamebird and Mon-El volumes two respectively.
TITANS: FRACTURED TP
Writers: Various
Artists: Various
Collects: TITANS #14 and 16-22
$17.99 US, 192 pg
Brings Titans right up to the new team and to events in Justice League. Skips issue #15, a Blackest Night tie-in that I hope we'll see elsewhere.
WONDER WOMAN: WARKILLER TP
Writer: Gail Simone
Artists: Aaron Lopresti and Bernard Chang
Collects: WONDER WOMAN #34-39
$14.99 US, 144 pg
Apparently the verdict in the great Wonder Woman hardcover/paperback experiment was paperback. Gail Simone's run now goes to trade-only.
BATWOMAN: ELEGY DELUXE EDITION HC
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: J.H. Williams III
Collects: DETECTIVE COMICS #854-860
I thought we already knew that the Batwoman stories in Detective would be collected in the oversized deluxe format that I love, but a commentor pointed it out to me recently, so I mention again.
DOOM PATROL: WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE TP
Writer: Keith Giffen
Artists: Matthew Clark and Justiniano
Collects: DOOM PATROL #1-6
$14.99 US, 144 pg
Includes the Doom Patrol/Blackest Night crossover
GOTHAM CENTRAL BOOK 3: ON THE FREAK BEAT HC
Writers: Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker
Artists: Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano and others
Collects: GOTHAM CENTRAL #23-31
$29.99 US, 224 pg
I love that they're collecting Gotham Central in order, instead of splitting the collections between Rucka and Brubaker volumes. This brings together stories elsewhere found in volumes three and four of the Gotham Central paperbacks. The next volume will mostly adhere to the fifth Gotham Central paperback, but here's hoping for some extras.
GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY: BIG GAME TP
Writer: Andrew Kreisberg
Artist: Mike Norton
Collects: GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #21-26
$19.99 US, 192 pg
Not quite up to the Blackest Night crossover yet. Should be next trade.
ICON: MOTHERSHIP CONNECTION TP
Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Artists: Mark D. Bright, Mike Gustovich and others
Collects: ICON #13, 17, 19-22, 24-26 and 30
$19.99 US, 256 pg
At least some of the jumping around in this trade is to avoid the Worlds Collide crossover with the Superman titles, which I think DC should go ahead and collect for its historical value.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE HC
Writer: James Robinson
Artist: Mauro Cascioli
Collects: JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE #1-7
$24.99 US, 232 pg
Does not, disappointingly, collect the Faces of Evil: Prometheus lead-in. To the back issue bins!
SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY BOOK 1 HC
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artists: J.H. Williams III, Cameron Stewart, Frazer Irving, Simone Bianchi, Ryan Sook and Mick Gray
Collects: SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY #0, SEVEN SOLDIERS: GUARDIAN #1-4, SEVEN SOLDIERS: ZATANNA #1-3, SEVEN SOLDIERS: SHINING KNIGHT #1-4 and SEVEN SOLDIERS: KLARION #1-3
$39.99 US, 400 pg
Collects exactly the first two Seven Soldiers paperback volumes
SHOWCASE PRESENTS: SUICIDE SQUAD VOL. 1 TP
Writer: John Ostrander
Artists: Luke McDonnell and others
Collects: SUICIDE SQUAD #1-19, DOOM PATROL/SUICIDE SQUAD SPECIAL #1 and JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #13
$17.99 US, 552 pg
They said we'd never see it, but here it is! What may end up being my very first Showcase Presents purchase. Makes one wish it was in color, though ...
WORLD'S FINEST TP
Writers: Sterling Gates, Geoff Johns and Gerry Conway
Artists: Julian Lopez, Fernando Dagnino, Jamal Igle, Phil Noto, Jesus Merino, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and others
Collects: WORLD'S FINEST #1-4, DC COMICS PRESENTS #31 and ACTION COMICS #865
$14.99 US, 144 pg
In keeping with the Super- and Bat-family themes of the Sterling Gates miniseries, this also collects DC Comics Presents #31, a Superman/Robin team-up, and Action Comics #865, Geoff Johns' recent revamp of the Toyman who appears here.
BLACKEST NIGHT HC
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artists: Ivan Reis, Oclair Albert and others
Collects: BLACKEST NIGHT #0-8
$29.99 US, 304 pg
BLACKEST NIGHT: GREEN LANTERN HC
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artists: Doug Mahnke, Ed Benes and others
Collects: GREEN LANTERN #43-51
$24.99 US, 256 pg
BLACKEST NIGHT: GREEN LANTERN CORPS HC
Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Artists: Patrick Gleason, Rebecca Buchman and others
Collects: GREEN LANTERN CORPS #39-46
$24.99 US, 224 pg
BLACKEST NIGHT: BLACK LANTERN CORPS VOL. 1 HC
Writers: James Robinson, Peter J. Tomasi and J.T. Krull
Artists: Eddy Barrow, Ardian Syaf, Ed Benes and others
Collects: BLACKEST NIGHT: BATMAN #1-3, BLACKEST NIGHT: SUPERMAN #1-3 and BLACKEST NIGHT: TITANS #1-3
$24.99 US, 240 pg
BLACKEST NIGHT: BLACK LANTERN CORPS VOL. 2 HC
Writers: Geoff Johns, James Robinson and Greg Rucka
Artists: Scott Kolins, Nicola Scott, Eddy Barrows and others
Collects: BLACKEST NIGHT: JSA #1-3, BLACKEST NIGHT: THE FLASH #1-3 and BLACKEST NIGHT: WONDER WOMAN #1-3
$24.99 US, 240 pg
BLACKEST NIGHT: RISE OF THE BLACK LANTERNS HC
Writers: Geoff Johns, James Robinson, Peter J. Tomasi, Eric Wallace, James Robinson, Gail Simone, John Ostrander, Dan DiDio and Fabian Nicieza
Artists: Ryan Sook, Julian Lopez, Ardian Syaf, Don Kramer, Denys Cowan, Bill Sienkiewicz, Fernando Dagnino, Renato Arlem, J. Calafiore and others
Collects: THE ATOM & HAWKMAN #46, CATWOMAN #83, THE PHANTOM STRANGER #43, STARMAN #81, THE POWER OF SHAZAM #48, THE QUESTION #37, WEIRD WESTERN TALES #71 and SUICIDE SQUAD #67
$24.99 US, 208 pg
BLACKEST NIGHT: TALES OF THE CORPS HC
Writers: Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi and Sterling Gates
Artists: Jerry Ordway, Chris Samnee, Rags Moraels, Mike Mayhew, Ivan Reis, Dave Gibbons, Rodney Ramos, Eddy Barrows, Gene Ha, Tom Mandrake, Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, Joe Prado and Rafael Albuquerque
Collects: BLACKEST NIGHT: TALES OF THE CORPS #1-3, GREEN LANTERN #18-21 and 43, GREEN LANTERN: SINESTRO CORPS SECRET FILES 2007 and BLACKEST NIGHT #0
$24.99 US, 176 pg
I ventured to hope that Green Lantern #18-21 was the missing "Alpha Lanterns" story, but that's Green Lantern Corps that's uncollected, not the main series. Hopefully the overlap between this trade and Tales of the Sinestro Corps collection is minimal
I, for one, am feeling very impatient for this summer when the Blackest Night trades hit. What are you most excited for?
Still disappointed that they're collecting Blackest Night and Green Lantern separately.
ReplyDeleteA little disappointed to shell out $25 for my Batman action on this one...
ReplyDeleteI looked at the covers for Green Lantern #18-21 and they mention "Also Included: Tales of the Sinestro Corps". I'm assuming then that the BN: Tales of the Corps book is collecting those backup stories, since the main stories in those issues have already been collected in previous GL trades.
ReplyDeleteAnd the "Tales of the Sinestro Corps" stories included in Green Lantern #18-21 were already collected in the "Tales of the Sinestro Corps" trade. So, repeated pages for the wait-for-trades readers of Green Lantern.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the Blackest Night stuff from Adventure Comics #4-5 and #7 will be collected somewhere, along with Titans #15 and Teen Titans #77-78. I thought there would be room for those stories in one of the many Blackest Night hardcovers.
ReplyDeleteNice to see Action Comics #865 in the World's Finest TPB. Now #864 will be the only issue of Johns' Action Comics run that has yet to be collected. It should have been included in the Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes hardcover, since it's an epilogue to that arc, but it got skipped just because Gary Frank didn't draw it.
It really doesn't make sense to me that they would not collect the Faces of Evil Prometheus issue, since they included the Grundy one in his trade and the Kobra one in his trade.
ReplyDeleteAlso, why recollect the Green Lantern #18-21 (already collected in Tales of Sinestro Corps and Green Lantern collections) and 43 (likely the Origins & Omens, already collected), Green Lantern: SINESTRO CORPS SECRET FILES 2007 (already collected in Tales of Sinestro Corps)and BLACKEST NIGHT #0 (already will be collected in Blackest Night collection), while not collecting the other Blackest Night crossover issues, unless they release another TPB of the "Companion" vein as they did with Sinestro Corps, Infinte Crisis, Final Crisis, and Battle for the Cowl. Don't get me wrong, I am glad they put out those Companions, and hope they at least do something like that to get the remaining Blackest Night crossover issues, if that's what it takes. My only guess is that they want the other material from past collections that is critical to Blackest Night if BN is read alone to be part of this BN HC set for those who just get this set alone.
I think BLACKEST NIGHT: GREEN LANTERN HC will be #43-52 instead of #43-51 of GL
ReplyDeleteJohn, I think you're correct, as dccomics.com has #52 previewed as "BLACKEST NIGHT'S penultimate chapter" with a big TOP SECRET for the cover.
ReplyDeleteI wish DC would have made another 2-3 volumes of Blackest Night composed of the tie-ins with Adventure Comics, Booster Gold, Doom Patrol, JLA, Outsiders, REBELS, Superman/Batman, Teen Titans, and Secret Six (which should be bundled with Suicide Squad).
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the issues in question will just be collected as normal with their respective series, but I won't buy them when I'm only interested in 2 of the 6 issues contained within.
Reprinting already-reprinted Green Lantern back-up stories displeases me; I hate the idea of spending money to buy something I've already bought in trade once before, just to read some new stuff. There's so much uncollected material out there that padding trades like this is just unconscionable.
ReplyDeleteIndeed it seems there's two issues here: a Blackest Night hardcover collection that contains material already collected just a year or so ago (and still well in print); and second, a handful of Blackest Night crossover issues without homes. It seems the Superman/Batman, Doom Patrol, R.E.B.E.L.S., and Teen Titans Blackest Night crossover issues will all appear in their individual trades, but as noted, we're missing the Adventure Comics and Titans issues so far, and there's still Green Arrow and some other issues to speak for. I'm ambivalent as to where I want to see those issues collected -- likely I'll buy them either in one trade or in many -- but the one thing I *don't* want is for them not to be collected at all, especially given the trades being padded with old material.
Still pissed Blackest Night is being collected separate volumes deal with the relevant Green Lantern issues. I hope they do a more comprehensive collection down the road; as it is this kind of reeks of the crap Marvel's pulled with it's trades in the past.
ReplyDeleteBatwoman: Elegy seems to collect up to the end of "Go!". I wonder how the "Cutter" arc is going to be collected then. I don't know offhand how many issues it's supposed to be.
Just playing Devil's Advocate here, as I haven't read Blackest Night (yet); is it possible to read just the Blackest Night mini-series on its own, without reading the GL issues as well? If so, then I can understand them collecting the books this way, because in a bookstore a person who's just browsing is more likely to pick up a self-contained book than "Volume 1 of 8". However, if BL doesn't make sense without also reading GL, then the entire story (or at least those two series) should have been collected into proper reading order in multiple volumes.
ReplyDeleteTwo points to add here:
ReplyDeleteFirst is that this is not the first time that DC has skipped around in collecting its series. Just look at Supergirl and Green Lantern and you'll see what I mean. My guess is that the Superboy-Prime issues of Adventure will be in the next collection or another upcoming BN collection, which leads to my next point.
Second, I noticed that originally Amazon listed BN: Tales of the Corps as Vol.1 and then relisted it without the volume 1 tag, but now it is back, so maybe there will be a Vol 2 that will collect some of these other issues that didn't appear in their own series collections. We'll see, I guess.
Yeah, you can read Blackest Night without Green Lantern, from what I understand. But many of the Green Lantern issues are practically designed to slip between Blackest Night issues and routinely deal with things the main series doesn't really manage to get around to. Unlike with Sinestro Corps War, it's not so much a side story as added material to enhance the experience.
ReplyDeleteCollected seperately, I can't help feeling that there's no way in hell the Green Lantern issues are going to read well. So Blackest Night would read fine without Green Lantern, but Green Lantern cannot be read without Blackest Night. So what's the point in seperating them at all?
That's a good point, but consider this:
ReplyDelete1) There will be people (more "casual" readers, if you will) who buy just the Blackest Night book, because they heard about the event and want to read it, but don't want to have to buy the 7 tie-in books. Just like people bought just Infinite Crisis, or just Final Crisis, but none of the lead-in or tie-in stories (I know a few people who have done this, unlike me who tries to follow it all).
2) Since BN was focused around Green Lantern, a GL fan who's buying the GL: Blackest Night book will be much more likely to buy the main Blackest Night book, than a casual BN buyer would be to get the GL: Blackest Night book.
So, while I think it sucks to collect them separately (since I'll be buying them all, and will thus be switching back-and-forth between the books to try to read the story "in order"), from DC's point of view, they're making it easier for casual readers to be able to pick up the big event Blackest Night book without being forced to also buy the tie-in issues that the casual reader may not be interested in.
@dl316bh - I'm glad about the Detective Comics collection, because the 854-860, because its the 4 part elegy, and the 3 part 'origin/flashback' part 'Go!'.
ReplyDelete'Cutter' is a three-part series, and then after that it seems that 864/865 follows up on Arkham Reborn / and BftC:Arkham storylines. We'll see how it collects, but I'd bet 864/865 with Arkham Reborn, and then 'Cutter' with whatever ends up after that, before Bruce's return.
http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/comics/?cm=14489
@D. Mark Simms: I thought about that, actually. And I do understand the point. I don't think I'd have much of a problem if there were some kind of choice in the matter. Like the seperate volumes and then a two or three volume "Complete Blackest Night" or some other name that collects Blackest Night and the most relevant Green Lantern issues. Kind of like the "Regular Edition" and then the "Directors Cut", if you don't mind my using a DVD analogy.
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned before in the comments here, I don't like juggling multiple books to read the most important stuff in order.
@ToastedBagel: I'm actually happy Elegy is collecting up through Go! as well. I actually stopped halfway through the Elegy arc - partly waiting for the trade - so it's nice that the whole collaboration with JH Williams III is in it's own volume.
I suppose there's no way to know how the trade situation with "Cutter" is going to play out right now. We don't exactly know what's going to happen after that two-parter with the Arkham plot. It might just be a bit of fill in work so there's someplace to put it without another mini and then going back to Batwoman until Bruce returns. No telling at the moment, I guess.
At least her fans have a solo ongoing for her to look forward to. Though they don't seem to really be looking forward to it. There's been a lot of bitching lately about her leaving Detective Comics and getting her own solo, which I don't understand. Spinning off into your own solo from another series is classic comic launching.
People baffle me.