DC Trade Solicits for January 2012: Batman Deluxe, DC Presents: New 52, and more

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After a day of teasing out all of their January 2012 solicitations group by group on their blog (which I find a lot more fun than having to wait till 5 for everything), DC Comics has released their first 2012 offerings -- plus their collected editions. Here's what caught my eye:

* Batman vs. The Black Glove

You heard about this one first on Collected Editions, and now we know this joint collection of Batman and Son and Black Glove will be in stores March 28. All of you who speculated that this would be a deluxe edition, you were right -- my guess is DC will just skip over Batman: Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, and we'll simply have a deluxe Batman and Son/Black Glove to put on our shelves next to Batman RIP (which will look thin, unfortunately, in comparison). Pity DC seems to have dropped the "and Son" from this boo's title -- I thought it paid good homage to both books inside.

* Batman Versus Bane

Unfortunately, this book doesn't collect everything I'd hoped. Looks like we just have the stories surrounding Batman: Legacy -- the Bane of the Demon miniseries preceding that crossover, and the Batman/Bane special following it -- and not the two great Vengeance of Bane specials nor any of Bane's other appearances in Batman.

* Batman: Gates of Gotham

Gates of Gotham has been Scott Snyder and Kyle Higgens's show, so it's surprising but certainly welcome that DC also includes the two part story from Batman Annual #28 and Detective Comics Annual #12 by David Hine. The solicitation here states outright what many of us already understood, that the barrier between pre- and post-Flashpoint Batman stories is largely permiable: "This miniseries spins out of recent events in the Batman titles and sets the stage for several exciting storylines in 2011," indeed.

* DC Comics Presents: The New 52 #1

Down among the trade collections is this solicitation for a DC Comics Presents issue that could've been called "New 52: The Dark, given that it includes Animal Man #1, Justice League Dark #1, I, Vampire #1 and Swamp Thing #1. So here we are in January, five issues into all of these series, and DC is releasing a mini-collection of issues four months old? I guess this would be a useful tool for new readers, but by January I imagine you're already hooked or you're not, and you can always get these digital -- I'd as soon see the first hardcovers of these titles arrive sooner than DC Comics Presents issues throughout the New 52 genres (see my Tumblr rant on DC Comics Presents issues).

* Hawk and Dove: Ghosts and Demons

I guess the original collection of the Karl Kesel/Rob Liefeld Hawk and Dove miniseries is well out of print, so that justifies simply re-issuing it, but I wish DC had gone bigger with this and included some material from the series itself, too, even if it no longer had Liefeld pencilling it.

* Justice Society of America: Monument Point
* Power Girl: Old Friends
* Titans: Broken Promises
* Xombi

All of these, thankfully, collect the final issues of their respective series before the DC Relaunch. Given we lost both the final Doom Patrol and JSA All-Stars collections (and the final Booster Gold collection is nowhere to be found), it's good to see these lower-tier titles with collections promised. Now, this doesn't ensure DC won't cancel them down the road, like the others I mentioned ... (The Titans solicitation, by the way, names issue #39, when the series ended with #38).

Meanwhile, John Rozum may have left the Static Shock title, but news of a collection of his most recent Xombi series should assuage some rumors of difficulties between he and DC. I'd be surprised to find DC was collecting this without plans to bring Xombi back in some form coming up.

* Flash Omnibus by Geoff Johns Vol. 2

As covered over at Speed Force, the second volume of the Flash by Geoff Johns omnibus will collect the Rogues, Crossfire, and Blitz trades (closing out artist Scott Kolins) plus a DC First special. This is one trade more than the first volume collected and more than we originally speculated when you heard about this series first on Collected Editions. DC's been doing a lot of this lately, pumping up the contents of books like the New Teen Titans Omnibus while leaving the price intact -- in this case, the second Flash volume has almost 200 pages more than the first, for the same price. More for your money is always better, of course, and I'm thrilled with a trend toward DC releasing collections with greater amounts of material.

That's my take -- what's on your pull list?

Comments ( 14 )

  1. Great to see the deluxe format for the Morrison Batman book. Is the upcoming Batman Inc hc going to be deluxe? Also, are the 700-702 issues of Batman going to get the oversized treatment?

    You guys do a great job on the site.

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  2. The Batman, Inc. hardcover was deluxe last I heard, but I think DC put that collection on hold with the delays over the last issues.

    Batman #700-702, as you may know, are in the Time and the Batman collection (one of my favorites from Morrison's Batman material), which indeed also wasn't originally deluxe. I'm skeptical that DC would release that volume deluxe since it's got other stories in it -- my guess is they'll do nothing, though it would be kind of cool to see those issues maybe collected with some of Morrison's Legends of the Dark Night stuff.

    Thanks for the compliment -- stop by again soon!

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  3. Were either of the Vengeance of Bane specials ever collected?

    I find that Bane collection much less interesting than I had hoped. It's one of the few disappointments I've had with the recent DC collections program.

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  4. I'm surprised by how thick the second Flash Omnibus by Geoff Johns will be. I assume the third one will collect his last 25 issues (The Flash v2 #201-225), plus Wonder Woman #214. Maybe there could be a fourth omnibus with Rogues' Revenge #1-3, Rebirth #1-6, The Flash v3 #1-12 and Flashpoint #1-5 later on.

    And it seems there's still hope that Vengeance of Bane will get collected, since DC will release a thicker Knightfall TPB in May 2012:

    http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Knightfall-Vol-1-Various/dp/1401233791/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318952645&sr=1-5

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  5. Vengeance of Bane is not collected anywhere, Bob, which is a shame because both specials are probably the best of the bunch (love that Graham Nolan art). Guest writer Paul Hick's piece on Vengeance of Bane is worth a read. Good call by shagmu that it would be fun to find this in the new Knightfall collection, though I think chances are low -- but having both the Vengeance of Bane special and Sword of Azrael miniseries in this would be a kick, or even some of the early stories of Jean Paul Valley training under Batman.

    Speed Force was also speculating on a fourth Flash by Geoff Johns Omnibus with Barry Allen material. I always thought these collections were meant to be Wally-centric, but maybe it'll happen. Would love to see Francis Manapul's art in deluxe format.

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  6. Yeah, I should have read the Speed Force article before posting, since Kelson made pretty much the same guesses I did, although he forgot about Wonder Woman #214 and Rogues' Revenge, while I forgot about Blackest Night: The Flash.

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  7. We all know how reliable page counts are in solicitations that are almost a year out, but there might be room for VoB in the first Knightfall collection (640 pages). In their original collections, Knightfall v1 was 288 pages and v2 was 296. There are countless other ancillary issues that could be included in this collection, of course. It's even possible that this new collection ends where the old v1 did, but gets up in page count because of VoB, Sword of Azrael, and some of the other Bane appearances in 'Tec and Batman pre-Knightfall.

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  8. It remains pretty weird that DC didn't include the other parts of "Three of a Kind" in that Flash: Emergency Stop trade. Hopefully they'll respect the storyline and include Rucka's Wonder Woman issue in the next volume -- it's kind of like the question of whether they'd include Adam Beechen issues in the Teen Titans by Geoff Johns Omnibus for completeness's sake, though that's on hold right now anyway ...

    I looked back at the first solicitation for the Flash by Geoff Johns Omnibus, which states: "The first in a series of hardcover volumes that collect all of the best-selling issues of THE FLASH written by comics superstar Geoff Johns." No clues there necessarily; "all of" could be Barry, too, though for some reason I thought these were "Wally-centric" collections.

    Guess the Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Omnibuses are going to have to wait until they figure out whatever the issue is with Teen Titans ...

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  9. I wonder what "other surprises" will contain the Batman: Year One Deluxe.

    That collection still shows as 144 pages, which is the same page count as the former editions.

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  10. I thought that was funny too. It's like the "grab-bag" approach to collecting -- buy this, there's a surprise inside, and we promise you'll like it! -- as if "surprise" wasn't code for "we're still working on it." At least DC's not shrink-wrapping their trades now for the most part, so you can spoil the surprise for yourself and see if you want it or not.

    Could've sworn Batman: Year One was already deluxe, but maybe not. That's bait for the movie, no doubt.

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  11. @Kelson: I think Wonder Woman #214 will end up being included in the third Flash by Geoff Johns Omnibus for the same reason The Power of Shazam #35-36 were collected in the fourth Starman Omnibus. These books are supposed to be comprehensive, and omitting parts of a crossover would make for a confusing, unsatisfying read.

    The hypothetical fourth Flash by Geoff Johns omnibus is looking to be thickest yet, but the three issues of Rogues' Revenge only had 30 story pages each, while Flashpoint #1 was 34 pages long. The fifth issue also had over 30 pages, but as long as they cut the sketchbook extras from issues #2-4, the mini shouldn't take up that much space overall.

    @CE: although Beechen scripted the last three parts of the Titans East arc, Johns was still credited as a co-plotter, so it wouldn't be wrong to collect them in his second Teen Titans omnibus. I'm also pretty sure it will include Winick's Outsiders #24-25, too, since they're part of the Insiders crossover.

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  12. I also saw that DC is re-releasing Batman: Year One in a deluxe edition. A few years ago I bought Year One as a deluxe treatment too but it was just an ordinary hardcover, with scripts and sketches. I'm excited if this deluxe will be the oversized deluxe.

    http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Year-One-Deluxe-New/dp/1401233422/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1318978655&sr=8-2

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  13. CE, have you picked up any of the "New 52", or are you waiting for the collections? Will you be sampling each of the series? I am buying all of the #1's (most of them digitally for $1.99; others like Justice League, Flash, and the Green Lantern books I bought on paper) to give each a chance to impress me. For instance, I wasn't expecting to like Batwing, but I actually preferred it to both Detective and Batman.

    I personally don't mind the DC Comics Presents; I recently tracked down the Metal Men book from a month or so ago because I read the Doom Patrol Blackest Night tie-in issues that had Metal Men as a (non-Blackest Night) backup, and it made me want to read all of the Metal Men stories without having to buy the Doom Patrol issues. Granted, I would have preferred a proper trade paperback over the DC Comics Presents format, but I can't complain about the $7.99 cover price.

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  14. I've resisted the temptation both to buy some of the individual #1 issues or to get them in digital, and I'm holding out for the collections. Have kept up with a lot of the scuttlebutt, though, and I'm very curious to see how certain books hold up in trade versus how their first issues have been received.

    I still believe I'll be sampling most series except All-Star Western. If we acknowledge that some of the New 52 are new series, and some are just renamed or slightly modified versions of ongoing series, then All-Star Western is basically Jonah Hex. I wasn't reading Hex before, and there's enough else I want to try before I start Hex now, so chances are I'll be sampling 51 of the 52.

    Agreed, the DC Comics Presents books have brought us some cool stuff, including the Metal Men and Captain Atom backup stories, and I'm always in favor of more collections and affordable ones, too. How much better would these be, however -- I have to wonder -- if they had more permanence, if local libraries could stock them and bookstores could order them, and so on? I'm sure the profit just isn't in it for DC, understandably, and it's a boon that you can get the Captain Atom co-feature for $7.99 instead of $20-worth of Action Comics issues, but it ultimately feels like humoring the trade crowd, not catering to them. * End rant! :) *

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