Without a doubt, DC Comics May 2010 solicitations spell out an expensive month for collected comics fans.In terms of new material, with the exception of Doom Patrol, Green Arrow/Black Canary, and the World's Finest miniseries collection, DC devotes most of its output to the whopping seven Blackest Night hardcovers solicited.
Fittingly, two major paperback reprints this month are Final Crisis and Batman RIP, crossover precursors to Blackest Night; if you were waiting for paperback on Final Crisis but buying hardcover Blackest Night, won't your wallet be sore! Also don't overlook one long awaited gem, the Showcase Presents: Suicide Squad black and white collection (Chris, believe it yet?).
With the Brightest Day initiative beginning in May, I might have liked to see the Blackest Night hardcovers also in May, but I imagine that would require DC to have announced the collections officially well before Blackest Night endeded, and I wonder if that was the sticking point.
The biggest news from these solicitations is that, contrary to DC Comics' own press release, Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps won't (or won't just) reprint stories from Tales of the Sinestro Corps, but rather includes stories from Green Lantern #49 and Adventure Comics #4-5, which we had noted here were otherwise missing.
Also, the Blackest Night: Rise of the Black Lanterns hardcover contains not only the "resurrected" cancelled DC titles, but also "Black Lantern" Green Arrow #30 and Adventure Comics #7, which means just about every Blackest Night crossover issue is collected ...
... except Titans #15.
Given the fanfare with which DC announced Titans #15 just before Blackest Night began, it seems a shame not to include it somewhere. Hey DC, couldn't we get this slipped in?
So now my question to you is, the seven Blackest Night hardcovers look like about $180 worth of comics before discounts. How are you planning to afford it? Anyone been on a comics diet to make room in their budget? Or is $180 on comics no big deal, especially for Blackest Night?
I'll be waiting for the softcovers. :-)
ReplyDeleteYou're a considerably more patient (or masochistic) person than I am. Have you been reading the monthly book, too, or are you really going for the long stretch?
ReplyDeleteI'm still unbelievably upset that Blackest Night and Green Lantern aren't going to be collected in the same book as two volumes.
ReplyDeleteI'll still buy it anyways.
I'll pick up the main stories (Blackest Night and Green Lantern) as hardcovers, but I think I'll wait for the rest at softcovers. Tomasi's run on GLC simply hasn't wowed me enough to convince me to spend hardcover money on it, I don't care how "essential" it is.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think the gap between the singles and the softcovers on DC's "big" books (Batman, Superman, Green Lanterns, etc.) is ridiculous. Batman R.I.P. ended in Nov. '08 and Final Crisis in Mar. '09. We're talking well over a year here. At least Marvel usually has the HC and TP within a year.
ReplyDeleteBut then come to think of it, I haven't actually jumped into the DCU proper as far as buying the trades go. I've been using your incredibly useful timeline to keep note of what to buy when I eventually do decide to drop in. At least I'll have plenty to read once the Blackest Night-related TPs come out in 2012 or so. :P
It's disappointing, but not getting Titans #15 collected isn't a humungous loss. It wasn't anything essential. More of a catch-up on Garth and where he'd been since we last saw him, which really wasn't necessary unless you're a major continuity enthusiast.
ReplyDelete@MisterSmith: I'm not a fan of the large gap between the singles and the softcover either, primarily being a Softcover buyer, but I understand why it works out that way. With the big books, softcovers are something of an afterthought; while folks like us wait for them, the companies tend to milk the pricier hardcovers for as long as they can before switching over to a softcover version. Batman RIP and Final Crisis were big things, so I'm personally not surprised they took this long to hit softcover.
Marvel is guilty of this too and they even have a few of their own quirks that piss me off as well. Chief among them being that everything and everything seems to get a goddamn premier hardcover. They could have a mini about Forbush Man and it would probably get the hardcover treatment. Usually I can look forward more to getting the lower tier books in a bit more timely manner - since they go right to softcover, that skips the nearly six month wait after a Hardcover to hit softcover - but with Marvel this is a bit harder. You have to wait for pretty much everything, even if we're talking collections of really old stories that would normally get a paperback. I mean, I was pleasantly shocked to see Iron Man: Armor Wars II was going to see print - as I've wanted to read the story - and it wasn't hitting in premier hardcover. Even the Infinity Gauntlet lead-in Thanos stories are getting a hardcover (I'm not even sure if Infinity itself saw hardcover); surely with the movie I expected every Iron Man trade to be hardcover for a while, no matter how minor it may have seemed.
@Kenny L: I'm similarly upset. I've actually stopped my Green Lantern trade purchases at Sinestro Corps War for the time being because of it. Going to wait and see if there's going to be a more comprehensive collection in the future before going any further; I'd rather wait and not experience the stories in case than get myself ramped up for Blackest Night and end up getting a format I don't really want.
I'm pretty sure I'll just buy the main book. If I somehow end up LOVING the idea of Zombie Aquaman and Stripper Wonder Woman,maybe I'll pick up some of the tie-ins,but I'll probably just move on to the next big event that "changes everything!"
ReplyDelete