A good day is a day when you look at a list of solicitations and you do a double-take, because there's just so many exciting things on the list. Today, friends, is one of those good days.The Headliners
* Legion Lost
Probably among my top ten most wished for trade paperbacks is the excellent, excellent twelve-part miniseries Legion Lost by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. Bridging the end of the post-Zero Hour Legion of Super-Heroes and the beginning of the short-lived Legion series, this is a decidedly darker take on a select group of Legionnaires lost outside the normal galaxy. Twists and turns abound, and the smaller group gives the writers plenty of room to focus on the characters themselves. I have not always been a Legion fan, and this series had my attention beginning to end.
* Infinity Inc.: The Generations Saga Vol. 1
Maybe second on my ten most wished for trade paperbacks would be a collection of the Roy Thomas/Dann Thomas/Jerry Ordway series Infinity Inc. The extent to which this series about young Justice Society-ers still affects the modern DC Universe can't be overstated -- Jade and Obsidian, Nuklon (later Atom Smasher), the current Hourman, Fury and Silver Scarab Hector Hall (later Dr. Fate) with their Sandman Morpheus connection, the DEO's Mr. Bones, and more. The book is listed as volume one, and the book's first storyline was ten issues -- here's hoping we end up with all fifty-three issues collected.
* Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps
Scheduled to arrive in stores in June is the Tales of the Corps paperback. The other Blackest Night paperbacks aren't solicited yet, but I imagine they're not far behind.
* Green Lantern Corps: Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns
* Green Lantern: Brightest Day HC
That there's a new Green Lantern Corps collection coming, in hardcover, is mixed news: I'm glad for the new collection, but I'm sorry this series has transferred to hardcover halfway through. However, note that this book is written by both Tony Bedard and Sterling Gates, whereas the post-Blackest Night Corps stories are only written by Bedard. Looks to me like we'll finally get the missing Green Lantern Corps #21-22 by Gates in a collection -- hooray!
See also the first Green Lantern collection post-Blackest Night, a hardcover also branded as Brighest Day.
* Birds of Prey Vol. 1: Endrun
Birds of Prey gets its first and much-deserved hardcover with this initial collection of the second series. Inasmuch as I'm trying to lessen the amount of DC hardcovers I purchase, I'm just so proud of how long Birds of Prey has lasted that I'll have to pick this up.
* Batman: Under the Red Hood
This is a paperback, by Judd Winick, at an estimated 384 pages, with art by Doug Mahnke and others. I'm going to guess and say this is a combined collection of Winick's two "Under the Hood" volumes, and that it doesn't also contain Red Hood: Lost Days (though one collection of all three would be pretty cool). A nice way to reprint that story nonetheless.
* Justice League International Vol. 6
I'm astounded and pleased that the Justice League International books have made it all the way to six volumes, but it still rankles me that volume five, and now this volume, have gone from hardcover to paperback. As thick as the books are, and as nice as they look in the bookstore, it's too bad the entire set can't look the same. Possibly this includes the "Teasdale Imperative" crossover between Justice League America and Justice League Europe.
* DC Universe: Legacies
I'm not thrilled with how this series seems to be somewhat bypassing DC continuity instead of explaining it (see Comic Box Commentary on how the Silver Age Supergirl shows up in a recent background image) -- whether this series turns out to actually explain some things or not will influence whether I purchase the hardcover or wait a bit.
The Best of the Rest
* JSA All-Stars: Glory Days
The second collection of the Matt Sturges/Freddie Williams series.
* Deadman Vol. 1
There has already been a sizable Deadman hardcover collection with art by Neal Adams; I suspect this is a breakdown of the hardcover into a couple of paperbacks.
* First Wave HC
Collecting the Brian Azzarello/Rags Morales miniseries that launched DC's noir universe with Doc Savage, The Spirit, and more.
* Tales of the Batman - Gene Colan Vol. 1
I see Gene Colan drew Batman from 1982-1986 with horror-inspired art; I'd love for a Collected Editions reader to jump in and give us more details on any notable Batman stories that Colan drew.
New in Paperback
* Gotham Central Book 2: Jokers and Madmen
* Superman: New Krypton Vol. 4
Arriving in June, a good year after the "New Krypton" storyline ended.
* Batwoman: Elegy
* Arkham Asylum: Madness
* Superboy: The Boy of Steel
PREVIOUS
Oh yes, Legion Lost. Oh yes, Infinity Inc. Oh yes, the first inklings of the Blackest Night paperbacks -- plus more!
The Colan Batman collection, while welcome, is an odd choice, if only because so many of Colan's issues were published when Batman and Detective had interlocking stories but different artists. IOW if you just did the Colan issues, you'd only get part 2 of each story.
ReplyDeleteBased on the listed page count, my guess is this would be Batman # 340, 344-345, 348-351 & Detective # 510, 512 & 517. The best-known of those stories is the Vampiri arc featuring Dala and The Monk.
Yeah; the Colan collection is not for me for just that reason. Some readers -- quite understandably -- follow artists, but I'm not one for the art without the story. It's nice that DC gives Colan the recognition, though.
ReplyDeleteNice to see some more JLI; but bummers that they are paperback. I have the first 4 volumes in HC.
ReplyDeleteLegion Lost looks interesting. I got into LoSH with Waid's threeboot and Johns's AC run. Looking forward to more stories with them, especially for the Nov. release of Darkness Saga.
I think I'm done with GL and GLC. I've followed them from Rebirth and Recharge and it's been fun but I think BN was a nice cutoff point for me. I have been buying a lot of books lately and I need to cutback. Plus, I want to try and read more non superhero books. I'll still following certain titles and possibly switch over to Marvel for a few titles. We'll see.
On a different note, I finally got both of Dini's hard to find Batman trades: Detective and Death and the City. Detective I found at a comic shop, last copy. And DatC I ordered from Hillcity comics in Canada, which took almost three months to arrive. I ordered it in the middle of June and I just got it last Fri.
Happy trade waiting and reading!
Very excited to see Infinity Inc. As a JSA and Roy Thomas fan, I can't wait to read more classic DC.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing (and hoping) that the Gene Colan book is like the Neal Adams or George Perez hardcovers volumes.
Like the Neal Adams or George Perez hardcover volumes, Chris, are the stories at all sequential (do they have all parts of a multi-part story), or is it scattered? Can this be read, so to speak, "as a book?"
ReplyDeleteLike abu george, I also feel some inertia with the Green Lantern books now. I always like Green Lantern Corps more than I expect, though, so I might give in and get that one. I'm a little put off by the Green Lantern HC in that it looks like one might need the Brightest Day HC to understand it.
The "Tales of the Batman" label makes me think it's more like the Tim Sale volume they put out in 2007.
ReplyDeleteWhich itself was, if I understand correctly, the one and only "Tales of the Multiverse" book that DC published. Pity; I was hoping some key Elseworlds might be re-branded in this way.
ReplyDeleteYou're thinking of the Batman Vampire book by Moench & Jones. The Tim Sale book was an artist-themed collection of Sale's otherwise-uncollected Batman work - included his Shadow of the Bat issues, "Blades" from LotDK, and more.
ReplyDeleteQuite right; "Tales" threw me. Yours is "Tales of the Batman -- Tim Sale" and mine is "Tales of the Multiverse -- Batman." Still, sadly, no others in that series; could've been Tales of the Multiverse Superman and JLA collections, at least.
ReplyDeleteI wish they'd do a "Tales" thing for certain writers as well; as many years as it's been since trade collections began rising in prominence, I find it ridiculous that there still isn't a comprehensive collection of Denny O'Neils Batman work, or at the very least a comprehensive collection of his collabs with Neal Adams.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy for:
ReplyDeleteLEGION LOST
INFINITY INC. VOL 1
BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD
DEADMAN VOL 1
I have a few issues of Inf inc near Crisis on infinite earths,but they never seem to make sense, so I'd love this series, as well as the similar team book ALL STAR SQUADRON, sharing only the writer tho.
DEADMAN I'd always wanted to see & I'm glad if this book is by ADAMS, as 52's interlude with Rama Kushna & Nanda Parbat made me too enthu for more Deadman & I scoped out the Deadman Omnibus only to discover it's out of print.
UNDER THE RED HOOD,I'm hoping collects both volumes of UNDER THE HOOD as the 1st is available while the 2nd is out of print.
I'm not too enthu about GENE COLAN unless this series opens the doors for more comic creators, say KELLEY JONES,JIM APARO,GRAHAM NOLAN,TOM MANDRAKE,NORM BREYFOGLE
TALES OF THE MULTIVERSE would have been a nice way to see the other ELSEWORLDS stories which are not in print,rather as they were concieved as one shots,or prestige formats,or annuals,quite a few come to mind....
1994 ANNUALS
SUPERMAN: LAST SON OF EARTH/LAST STAND ON KRYPTON, DISTANT FIRES, KAL, UNDER A YELLOW SUN, WHOM GODS DESTROY
BATMAN: IN DARKEST KNIGHT , THE DEVIL'S WORKSHOP, THRILLKILLER, The Blue, the Grey, and the Bat, The Book of the Dead, Brotherhood of the Bat, CASTLE OF THE BAT, DARK ALLEGIANCES, GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT, MASQUE, NEVERMORE, THE BATMAN OF ARKHAM, REIGN OF TERROR, MASQUE, GOTHA NOIR, SCAR OF THE BAT
I could go on and on and on.....
Infact I think there is a relative scarcity of ELSEWORLDS stories currently in print. I think there's only RED SON, HAUNTED GOTHAM, BATMAN VAMPIRE, THE GOLDEN AGE, GENERATIONS 2,THE NAIL/ANOTHER NAIL, KINGDOM COME/THE KINGDOM....if you don't count the not-officially-ELSEWORLDS-but-non-canon JUSTICE, DARK KNIGHT RETURNS/STRIKES AGAIN/ALL STAR BATMAN & ROBIN, ALL STAR SUPERMAN, BATMAN YEAR 100...that gives you something if not the obscure ones which I'd really love to see, even STAN LEE'S JUST IMAGINE for that matter....
Your links to LEGION LOST and INFINITY, INC. are not bringing up a solicit for these collected editions.
ReplyDeleteWhere are the solicits or is this just a partial wish list?
They seem to have pulled the links from Amazon.
ReplyDeleteThe Legion lost trade is most welcome.. i was thinking about this series the other day itself (hoping to do a post on it actually).. i am glad its finally getting collected..very glad..
ReplyDeleteNow only if they start collecting Young justice and Impulse.. Hardcovers would be nice !.. <not the way they are collecting young justice now- with " DC presents specials"..
.
ReplyDeleteAnd the problems with YJ in those specials is what exactly?
Superman: Under the Yellow Sun isn't Elseworlds, Aalok —- nice list, but that one's a favorite of mine, so I thought I'd point it out. Involves Clark Kent chasing a mystery while at the same time writing a mystery novel, with (comic book) sequences from the novel interspersed with the main action.
ReplyDeleteI get why some readers like the DC Comics Presents Young Justice and other specials -- hard to find comics, cheap price point -- and that's fine for them. Personally, I enjoy reading my comics in long-form collections, so the DC Comics Presents specials reflect certain things that I want -- reprints of Young Justice comics, "lost" issues like the Gail Simone Teen Titans two-parter that was never collected, some great Jeph Loeb Superman stories -- but not in the format that I want to read them, so that disappoints me.
In as glad as I am that DC is giving these stories recognition, my personal belief is that trade paperbacks (carrying an ISBN and available from retail store catalogs) carry more permanence than single issues, and indeed these DC Comics Presents books tend more toward the "single issue" format. If DC Comics Presents is a stepping stone for DC to go "whole hog" on a collection of Chase or Young Justice, then I'm glad for that; but, if we could have had a collection and instead the DC Comics Presents issues just come and go, I'd feel like that's a wasted opportunity.
@CE: Trust me, you don't want to read those two "lost" Teen Titans issues. They're terrible; even Gail Simone herself has referred to them as a screw-up on her part. I don't get why they're collecting them in anything at all.
ReplyDeleteExactly ,CE. Staying in India means I don't get anything from the local online services unless it doesn't have an ISBN
ReplyDeleteNoted,CE. Being against piracy in general & staying in a country where the monthlies & Prestige formats do not usually reach open market,I got a bit confused. The blurb for UNDER A YELLOW SUN seemed too much like an ELSEWORLDS story....so I thought it'd be somewhere in the middle.
Rather would love to see the books in a rather better format than get the reprint 'comics' imported to India,spending as much,eventually as much I'd if I find the issues from a back issue bin in the US.
The Legion Lost TPB is great news indeed, but I wish DC would collect the first two arcs by Abnett, Lanning and Coipel (Legion of the Damned and Widening Rifts) first. Let's hope Legion Worlds and their run on the ongoing Legion series finally get collected, too.
ReplyDeleteAnd now that the solicits have reappeared, don't the prices seem a bit....excessive?
ReplyDeleteEven taking the page count into consideration?
Amazon preorders always start out at cover price when items are first available to order. As more orders are placed and they're better able to gauge demand, prices drop. For example, I ordered The Unwritten vol 2 at $12.99 when Amazon first listed it, but by the time it shipped, they only charged me $8.76.
ReplyDeleteBut $30 for a Green Lantern Corps hardcover does seem unusually high even by those standards.
My point was that even a few 192 pg HCs were 40$ a pop, LEGION LOST & BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD are 30 $ for PB.....I wasn't on the Amazon prices.....it's these prices that seemed excessive...I've seen RETURN OF SUPERMAN as a massive PB for 20$, same with OUR WORLDS AT WAR @ 25$
ReplyDelete@Aalok: I think those are just placeholder prices. The War of the Supermen hardcover was something like thirty five or forty dollars when it first popped up on the radar. As I recall a more reasonable price appeared when we got closer to when it was scheduled.
ReplyDeleteIn comparison to Wonder Woman: Warkiller, Warkiller contained six issues for $14.99; roughly $2.50 per issue. Legion Lost will have twelve issues at $30, so it's also the same, $2.50 per issue. Under the Red Hood should be fourteen issues for $30, which is only $2.14 per issue.
ReplyDeleteEntirely I recognize at the outset how the price looks steep, but I think those two in particular are larger trades where one is getting more for their money. No doubt the unit cost doesn't compare to Our Worlds at War, which is some years older and probably on a lesser paper stock; but compared to something recent, it seems about right.
Or, as dl316bh says, they might just be placeholder prices.
Ah well, I happen to prefer newsstock, I know I'm weird....that's why I love the VERTIGO series whenever they do newsstock....Marvel never does newsstock except ESSENTIALS.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the paper might be shoddy in comparision to the traditional sleek paper but I just treasure PREACHER (I've got the new edition for maybe the 1st 2 or 3 trades or maybe they were supposed to be on shiny paper? who knows? I love the rest), FABLES, Y THE LAST MAN, the older Batman trades like KNIGHTFALL, CONTAGION,CATACLYSM,NO MAN'S LAND.....
The only reason they look SO inviting is that I don't own UNDER THE HOOD V2 & LEGION LOST as a concept seems intriguing...what's more,it gives me hope that if these are being collected,and same for the QUESTION DENNY O'NEIL, many of my random batman loves might be too, maybe someday like HAUNTED GOTHAM was collected....I'm talking about YEAR 3, TEN NIGHTS OF THE BEAST, SWORD OF AZRAEL, random BANE underpinnings like VENGEANCE OF BANE, BANE OF THE DEMON, BATMAN: BANE...how about a BANE TALES in the vein of BATMAN VS TWO FACE,SCARECROW TALES, TWO FACE & THE RIDDLER...collect all the non KNIGHTFALL BANE stories,in addition to the ones mentioned above,I think there are just a few issues of BATMAN & a tale from BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS called VERITAS LIBERAT....maybe in the tradition of DOOMSDAY OMNIBUS.....OK I'll stop now
Please let them be placeholder prices...I really want LEGION LOST,INFINITY INC,DEADMAN & UNDER THE RED HOOD.....I'll even give up & buy LEGACIES,BOP & TALES: GENE COLAN
I second a Batman vs. Bane trade that collects the various uncollected Bane miniseries and one-shots. What a great idea!
ReplyDeleteif they do that, there are a few trades I'd like to see in that vein....classic villains are an underappreciated lot....I'd appreciate in the tradition of BATMAN VS TWO FACE/JOKER/SCARECROW/RA'S AL GHUL & SUPERMAN VS LEX LUTHOR/BRAINIAC/DOOMSDAY,the following villains
ReplyDeleteBATMAN
-BANE
-THE RIDDLER
-CLAYFACE
-CATWOMAN
-PENGUIN
(though CATWOMAN & PENGUIN were featured in BATMAN: THE GREATEST STORIES EVER TOLD VOL 2,old edition,warner books)
-NOCTURNA(or maybe the GENE COLAN collection will remedy that)
SUPERMAN
-CYBORG/HANK HENSHAW
-MONGUL
-MXYZPTLK
-TOYMAN (when he stopped being a joke & became a psycho is not clear)
I'm agree with shagamu: I'm pretty glad seeing "Legion Lost" collected at least, but... without collecting the previous issues before? "Legion of the Damned" + "Widening Rifts" would have been a perfect volume 1 for "The Complete Abnnet & Lanning Legion Collection".
ReplyDeleteThe fact that they hadn´t do that, makes me think DC isn´t going to publish "Legion Worlds" or the following issues written by Abnett & Lanning.
I'd buy that Bane book in a heartbeat.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I think it's too late for me and Legion Lost. I would have bought it 5 years ago, but now my DC trade priorities have moved on.
My wish list of collections -
Atlantis Chronicles
The Demon by Ennis/McCrea
Young Heroes in Love
The Death of Green Arrow
Catwoman (from the start of Will Pfieffer's run till OYL)
Atlantis Chronicles was great.....when AQUAMAN: TIME & TIDE was published followed by the series by writer PETER DAVID the debate was whether there could be a collection that large & by their calculations would be 25$...and the issue was finding a number of readers who'd pay that amount...I think there was an address where you could write if you wanted to see a collection...maybe MICHAEL EURY or someone else...(god how things have changed)
ReplyDeleteI don't think DEATH OF GREEN ARROW was as long so as to allow a trade, even lead in issues would make the trade seem padded. Somehow, I feel better with writers' collections...like in Marvel they have a SPIDER-MAN VISIONARIES line....like JOHN ROMITA, KURT BUSIEK, ROGER STERN....it would be better had they collected the whole GREEN ARROW by MIKE GRELL....they have already collected THE LONGBOW HUNTERS....
While I'd have jumped at INFINITY INC for a lesser price, I'd also love a set of ALL STAR SQUADRON & THE YOUNG ALL STARS,THE LAST DAYS OF THE JUSTICE SOCIETY....ya know the whole Thomas paraphernalia....it seemed then that Thomas isn't going to ever come into the modern day stories at DC...he worked on Marvel's modern day stuff, but at DC to the best of my knowledge he always was in the shadows....either the 1940 based titles, or ARAK.All I say is, I'll take the plunge if I have any sorta guarantee DC will continue to publish these and complete at least the INFINITY INC set in the SAME FORMAT. I was damn pissed off at the midway format change in BOOSTER GOLD, JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL, JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA, WONDER WOMAN, THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD & THE SPIRIT