Right on the heels of news that DC Comics will release a massive 1,216 page collection of all their September #1 issues in December, and confirmation that DC will release the hardcover collection of the Flashpoint event in October, comes word that DC will release (at least) five hardcovers collecting the Flashpoint tie-in series ... next March.
This means that whereas Flashpoint concludes at the end of August, DC's relaunch begins in September, and fans can read the Flashpoint collection essentially one month later in October, it will be essentially six months later (when DC's new #1s reach #7) that trade fans can read the tie-in issues.
Despite that some of the Flashpoint tie-in books introduce concepts that will continue into the new DC Universe, I think DC's waiting too long to release these. These books tended toward irrelevance anyway in the shadow of the DC relaunch, and delaying them this long only worsens that; also, to release the the main Flashpoint collection and then to release its tie-ins six months later must affect reader enjoyment of the story as a whole (imagine if they'd done the same for Blackest Night!).
On to the books, however -- here's a list of what's been solicited so far:
* Flashpoint
* Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Batman
Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso
Chances are this contains more than just Azzarello and Risso's Flashpoint: Batman Knight of Vengeance miniseries. I'd venture we'll see JT Krul's Flashpoint: Deadman and the Flying Graysons here, too.
* Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Green Lantern
Pornsak Pichetshote and Mark Castiello
Interestingly, the Flashpoint: Green Lantern collection lists as its author Pornsak Pichetshote, the writer of the Flashpoint: Green Arrow Industries one-shot. I think it's a safe bet we'll see Adam Schlagman's Flashpoint: Abin Sur - The Green Lantern and Flashpoint: Hal Jordan here.
* Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring The Flash
Sean Ryan and Ig Guara
Again, early notes have this as written by Sean Ryan, who's only contributing the Flashpoint: Grodd of War one-shot. There's a lot that could also be in this one -- Sterling Gates's Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost, or Scott Kolins' Flashpoint: Reverse-Flash one-shot or Flashpoint: Citizen Cold miniseries.
* Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Wonder Woman
Tony Bedard and Ardian Syaf
Tony Bedard writes Flashpoint: Emperor Aquaman #1–3, while Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning write Flashpoint: Wonder Woman and the Furies. Unless we see a Flashpoint: Aquaman collection come down the pike, probably this is where we'll find both miniseries.
* Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Superman
Mike Carlin and Rags Morales
Carlin is only the writer of the Flashpoint: The Canterbury Cricket one-shot, so possibly that's collected here along with Scott Synder's Flashpoint: Project: Superman and Abnett and Lanning's Flashpoint: Lois Lane and the Resistance, or another of the more Superman-centric Flashpoint miniseries.
On the horizon ...
That still leaves a number of Flashpoint miniseries potentially unaccounted for, including most notably villain books like Flashpoint: Legion of Doom and Flashpoint: Frankenstein & the Creatures of the Unknown. You heard it here first -- keep watching Collected Editions, and we'll update as soon as there's new information.
UPDATE 11/14/11 - DC Comics solicitations reveal these books will contain all the Flashpoint miniseries plus issues of Booster Gold, arriving in stores in March 2012 along with the Flashpoint paperback.
Which books will you be buying? How would you like to see Flashpoint and its tie-ins collected? Still considering that giant $150 paperweight?
Messy. Very messy.
ReplyDeleteNot as messy as flipping back and forth between two or three volumes of Blackest Night though, is it? Or is there essential reading in the Flashpoint tie-ins (no spoilers!) that's going to make the main Flashpoint collection useless for six months?
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that the tie-ins are more about providing back-story and side-stories. I could see the "Featuring The Flash" collection providing some important exposition about what's going on (Gates and Kollins are two of Johns' frequent collaborators), but a lot of them seem focused less on the Barry/Batman/Zoom story that's central to the main Flashpoint series (from my limited understanding).
ReplyDeleteI'm going to get Flashpoint in October - I'll wait until you review it to tell me if I need to pick up the main Flash series first - but the odds of me picking up any of the FP-related collections in HC is pretty slim if they aren't coming out in a timely manner. If I have to wait an extra 6 months, anyway, I'll wait a year or more and get what looks fun in TPB.
This is questionable...at least with the blackest night collections, they all came out in the space of a month or so. But 6 months after the main flashpoint book? I think i would prefer these flashpoint tie ins to come out in december rather than this huge 52 book. It's all very inconsistent at the moment.
ReplyDeleteTo an extent I thought the issue was that the Flashpoint collection itself is coming out super-fast, such that it makes the tie-in collections seem slow when they're essentially "normal speed." However, if I remember correctly, we had Blackest Night collections just two months after Blackest Night shuttered; six months for Flashpoint tie-in collections really seems like a long time.
ReplyDeleteAs opposed to Blackest Night, this shouldn't be a problem.
ReplyDeleteThe tie-in's haven't been important for understanding the main Flashpoint. book They've focused on fleshing out the backstory of this altered world.
Well, sure, but don't you think six months is a long time to then go back and get the backstory of the characters you read about in a book six months previous?
ReplyDeleteSo 'The Flash: The Road to Flashpoint' will be released AFTER 'Flashpoint' itself?
ReplyDeleteAnd then these tie-ins will be released six-months later? I'm glad I'm not interested in any of it.
Any news on any other trades post-flashpoint?
Flash: Road to Flashpoint will be released a week later. A head-scratcher, yes, but my greater concern is for the tie-in collections.
ReplyDeleteOther trade news? Yes. Tune in tomorrow. Post-Flashpoint trades? Not ... yet.
Main story in Oct and the tie ins 6 months later is just baffling to me.. where is the business sense in that? Even though some of the tie ins are not that great, some of them are and like with blackest night SHOULD BE READ AT THE SAME TIME AS THE MAIN STORY!! I am reading the whole thing in single issues right now and can safely say you need the flash tie ins e.g kid flash and reverese flash one shots, emperor aquaman and wonder woman are also great and deathstrokes tie ins are also very good (and and Grodd one shot was brilliant). But the rest (superman, green lantern stuff) doesnt seem to add anything to the series.
ReplyDeleteI had hoped that DC would be revamping their trade/HC process long with the relaucnh but this news doesnt suggest anything of the like
I'll buy all the Flashpoint books as soon as they come out in hardcover. I hope everything Flashpointy gets collected.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason for delaying the tie-in collected editions seems to be that the tie-ins won't be in HC at all, but all of them will be TPBs. Interesting choice from DCs editorial department, but at least we won't have to pay as much for them :)
ReplyDeleteIndeed, paperbacks. None too happy about that -- after the volumes upon volumes of Blackest Night and Final Crisis hardcovers, to release these in paperback does seem an admission by DC that these'll be old hat by the time they're out. Far as I'm concerned, if they're old hat, they might as well not have been published in the first place.
ReplyDelete