As revealed on the DC Comics Source blog and in DC's October solicitations, October sees not just the Flashpoint collected hardcover, but also a massive 1,216 page, $150 hardcover collecting all fifty-two of DC's new number ones in one volume, called DC Comics: The New 52.
It is, frankly, a rather staggering prospect.
As originally reported in Bleeding Cool, DC also solicited a hardcover of the five-issue Flashpoint miniseries, due in stores October 19. Due in stores just a month and a half after the Flashpoint series folds, this is an unusually quick turnaround to collection for DC -- spurred on no doubt by publicity and fan interest in the September relaunch, and not a sign of other quick turnarounds to come.
But let's talk about the 1,216 page (!), $150 (!) hardcover some more, shall we?
I am right now on the fence about buying it. On one hand, the hardcover is a wonderful (if pricey) memento of this significant moment in DC Comics history. Comics are transitory, and twenty years down the road I'm not sure a hardcover of DC's fifty-two new number ones will be so meaningful when they release fifty-two number ones all over again. But in the moment, caught up in all the excitement, this book would be a cool thing to have.
On the other hand, this collection is a memento only. From what I understand, the fifty-two issues will be self-contained and not feed in to one another; there won't be much issue-to-issue enjoyment reading this book front to back. Further, as it's just the first issue of each series, readers like me will be returning to the well not long after to buy each individual series' collection -- so this is a keepsake and not a viable replacement for some other way of reading these books.
(I would add this would be a lot easier sell for me if it had commentary, designs, something to make it not just a collection of the fifty-two issues, but indeed more of a collectable book about the relaunch endeavor overall.)
Still, I admire DC Comics's ambition with this. This is the first shot across the bow for what I expect to be big collected comics releases for DC's "new fifty-two," and I'm glad to be along for the ride.
Here's the original solicitations. Will you be lugging the New 52 collection around your home?
FLASHPOINT HC
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by ANDY KUBERT and SANDRA HOPE
Cover by ANDY KUBERT
On sale OCTOBER 19 • 176 pg, FC, $22.99 US
The red-hot, sold-out five-issue miniseries from Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert is back in a new hardcover!
This is Flash Fact: When Barry Allen wakes at his desk, he discovers the world has changed. Family is alive, loved ones are strangers, and close friends are different, gone or worse. It’s a world on the brink of a cataclysmic war – but where are Earth’s Greatest Heroes to stop it?
It’s a place where America’s last hope is Cyborg, who hopes to gather the forces of The Outsider, The Secret 7, S!H!A!Z!A!M!, Citizen Cold and other new and familiar-yet-altered faces! It’s a world that could be running out of time, if The Flash can’t find the villain who altered the time line!
DC COMICS: THE NEW 52 HC
Written by VARIOUS
Art by VARIOUS
Cover by JIM LEE
On sale DECEMBER 7 • 1,216 pg, FC, $150.00 US
In September, DC Comic will launch 52 new #1 issues starring the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes! In December, to commemorate this incredible event, DC is collecting every one of these debut issues in a once-in-a-lifetime massive hardcover that includes:
• JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee
• ACTION COMICS #1 by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales
• BATMAN #1 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo
• GREEN LANTERN #1 by Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke
• SWAMP THING #1 by Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette
• STORMWATCH #1 by Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda
• TEEN TITANS #1 by Scott Lobdell and Brett Booth
• And 45 more!
Has anyone seen anything about the other Flashpoint HC releases? Just wondering how they'll be collected (presumably like BN: BLC, with 2-4 minis per collection) and whether they'll come out around the same time as the main Flashpoint HC. I would assume they can't get solicited for any earlier than November at this point, but it'd be a bit odd if they didn't come out until December or 2012.
ReplyDeleteGood question. As long as DC is releasing the Flashpoint hardcover, they might as well release the tie-ins, too (maybe to be solicited for November). Though ultimately Flashpoint seems relevant to the new DC Universe, it has a tendency to appear irrelevant, and if DC delays a collection of the tie-ins too long, I think they run the risk of having fans "wait for the trade and forget it," as Brian Hibbs has been describing elsewhere on the site.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your appraisal of the New 52 HC. It's not suited to the already-conditioned trade waiter as the main incentive for most of us is larger chunks of stories.
ReplyDeleteMind you if it came out day 1 I'd be sorely tempted.
Another interesting thing I just noticed in the October solicitations is the confirmation that the new No Man's Land TPBs will collect the entire storyline this time around. The first volume will even include 5 Azrael issues. I guess we can also expect the Harley Quinn one-shot, the Robin, Nightwing and Catwoman tie-in arcs and maybe even JLA #32 in the next volumes.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Batgirl: The Lesson TPB solicitation copy says it will only collect issues #15-22, but since it will be a 224-page book, I guess we can assume it will also include issues #23-24, the last ones before the relaunch.
I almost want this, but I can't explain why.
ReplyDeleteI won't be lugging it home, nor will I be lugging ANY of the 52 floppy monthlies home. I have absolutely no interest in this crap.
ReplyDeleteThat new 52 hardcover is just the worst. Why would I pay $150 for 1,216 pages when maybe 150 of those pages will be good? Why would I buy it when the reviews will already be out telling me which series are probably worth my money? Why wouldn't I just wait and buy the regular tpbs of those series that interest me?
ReplyDeleteI just don't know who the target audience of this book is. People who love gigantic coffee table books and have way too much disposable income?
I see no point to this, other than this being a similar book in the vein of America's Best Comics Primer, Vertigo's First Taste/Offenses/Cut but they were 4.99$ each, that's a difference - I can't see anyone wanting to pay 150$ for this book, and then buy the individual collections, albeit a few.
ReplyDeleteI'm also pretty angry about the "complete" No Man's Land, because Marvel treats their readers well enough to give them books WITHOUT making them buy the whole thing again - see X-MEN: AGE OF APOCALYPSE PRLUDE, PRELUDE TO ONSLAUGHT, INFERNO CROSSOVERS etc - though there have been things that make you buy it all too - like X-MEN: FALL OF THE MUTANTS HARDCOVER but that's one trade, while counting CATACLYSM, NO MAN'S LAND is 6. That's at least 84 US$ down the drain!
It seems so far, on here at least, the consensus is pretty negative. I for one am seriously considering buying it. How much it'll be in GBP£ remains to be seen, but its more than likely goin to be more expensive here. I wonder if they considered puttin them into smaller volumes. e.g: Justice league book, batman book, the edge/the dark book etc etc? Would people be more susceptible to that rather than a ridiculously huge HC?
ReplyDelete"I would add this would be a lot easier sell for me if it had commentary, designs, something to make it not just a collection of the fifty-two issues, but indeed more of a collectable book about the relaunch endeavor overall".
ReplyDeleteCOMPLETELY AGREE.
So... they're releasing JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS VOL. 1 TP with only 304 pages instead 396 as the original harcover was published.
ReplyDeleteWhat a S-T-U-P-I-D move. Since (apparently) the same content is announced I guess they chunked out a lot of extras.
If the number of pages is a typo, I insist, is BAD business for DC Comics.
I don't know -- don't you kind of expect less in a paperback than a hardcover? With the hardcover, you pay more and get more; with a paperback, the price is less and some of the extras fall away. I'm more annoyed -- a la JLA Vol 1. -- when the paperback contains *more* than the hardcover. But that's just my take on it.
ReplyDeleteDid the first Fourth World Omnibus feature that many extras? 92 pages are a huge difference, and yet the TPB is supposed to collect the same 16 issues as the hardcover. Either the page count or the content listing must be wrong.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Mark Evanier wrote a nice essay, but it was not 92 pages long.
ReplyDeleteI really wonder who at DC knocks the solits for the collected editions together.
ReplyDeleteIn the last months we had:
* Batman: Eye of the Beholder HC, collecting Batman #704-#710, crediting only Tony Daniel as the writer. But #708 and #709 were written by Hine and part of a 4-part crossover. Whereas #710 is part 1 of a 3-part story by Daniel. There is no way they are collecting it like this.
* Batman: The Black Mirror HC, collecting 'TEC #871-#877. But #877 is part 2 of the 3-part Hungry City. There is no way they are collecting it like this.
* War Of The Green Lanterns HC, collecting among other things GL #63-#66. But the WotGL-crossover concludes in GL #67, the series last issue. There is no way they are collecting it like this.
* Batman Incorporated, Vol. 1 HC, collecting issues #1-#7 of a 10-issue series. Really?
And this month we’ve got:
* Batman: No Man’s Land New Edition, Vol. 1 TP: Excluding No Man’s Land #1?
* Batgirl: The Lesson TP, collecting #15-#22, excluding #23 (the conclusion the “The Lesson”-storyline) & #24 (the conclusion of the series). Really?
* Gotham City Sirens: Songs of the Sirens TP, collecting issues #8-#14, one more issue than in the hardcover? Issue #14 is the first part of a two-parter, so that seems unlikely…
* JSA All-Stars: The Puzzle Men TP, collecting issues #14-#19 of a series that only has 18 issues.
* THUNDER Agents, Vol. 1 TP, crediting Porter, Melo, Livesay and Lee for the art which in truth is by Cafu and others.
Are this typos? Is it really that unorganized? Is there changing that much behind the scenes, that there have to be that kind of mistakes? It’s really annoying…
'Gotham City Sirens: Songs of the Sirens TP, collecting issues #8-#14, one more issue than in the hardcover?'
ReplyDeleteWhere did you see the trade of Songs of the Sirens had 1 more issue than the HC?
@anonymous: If I am not mistaken, the hardcover included #8-13 and Catwoman #83. See http://comicbookdb.com/issue.php?ID=215477
ReplyDeleteThe paperback is announced to include #8-14, so that would be one more issue of the GCS series compared to the hardcover.
BUT I just checked and realized, that the HC was also annouced to include #8-14, so it seems to be an subsequent error... but an error nontheless.
Regarding the DC: New 52 hardcover, I'll second what Steve said: "I almost want this, but I can't explain why."
ReplyDelete@Spooky -- This is why, even when we can generally expect most series to be collected, I think fan speculation is still alive and well. I go with my gut on a lot of this -- the chances of No Man's Land #1 being excluded from that collection, like you said, is pretty slim. A lot of this is instinct, the actual solicitation notwithstanding. As to why the solicitations are so slipshod? Doubt there's any good excuse, but the fact that story contents are changing even now leading up to the relaunch (see recent Bleeding Cool story on changes in Green Lantern family titles contents) probably doesn't help.
@Spooky -- Bryan Miller tweeted that The Lesson will collect Batgirl issues through the final issue, #24, so there's that (hat tip to batmansgirl for cluing me in with the RT).
ReplyDelete@collectededitions regarding Batgirl: That's good to hear. Hopefully other series will be treated like that also.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that Flashpoint HC is 174 pages only. If the tie-ins are so important DC should make a 1000 pages plus book with Flashpoint and the relevant tie-ins instead of a ridiculous #1's only book.
ReplyDelete