Missing on the list (thanks Yonatan) is Wonder Woman. I have to guess that this is an oversight or details on Wonder Woman are just forthcoming, and not that DC is not publishing a collection of this series. (Newsarama reports from DC that news of a Wonder Woman collection is coming.)
Here's some statistics on these to help get the conversation started:
Hardcovers: Action Comics, Aquaman, Batman & Robin, Batman, Batwoman, Batgirl, Detective Comics, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Justice League, Superman, Batman: The Dark Knight
Paperbacks: Animal Man, Batwing, Blue Beetle, Blackhawks, Birds of Prey, Captain Atom, Catwoman, DC Universe Presents, Deathstroke, Demon Knights, Firestorm, Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE, Green Arrow, Grifter, Hawk and Dove, Savage Hawkman, Justice League Dark, Justice League International, Legion of Super-Heroes, Legion Lost, Men of War, Nightwing, OMAC, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Red Lanterns, Resurrection Man, Supergirl, Suicide Squad, Static Shock, Stormwatch, Superboy, Swamp Thing, Teen Titans, Mr. Terrific, I, Vampire, Voodoo, All-Star Western
Eight-issue collections: Action Comics, DC Universe Presents, Deathstroke, Swamp Thing
Seven-issue collections: Batman, Blue Beetle, Blackhawks, Birds of Prey, Captain Atom, Demon Knights, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Hawk and Dove, Justice League Dark, Legion of Super-Heroes, Nightwing, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Red Lanterns, Resurrection Man, Supergirl, Suicide Squad, Stormwatch, Detective Comics, Teen Titans
Six-issue collections: All-Star Western, Animal Man, Aquaman, Batgirl, Batman & Robin, Batman: The Dark Knight, Batwing, Catwoman, Firestorm, Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE, Green Arrow, Green Lantern Corps, Grifter, I, Vampire, Justice League, Justice League International, Legion Lost, Men of War, Mr. Terrific, OMAC, Savage Hawkman, Static Shock, Superboy, Superman, Voodoo
Five-issue collections: Batwoman
$24.99 collections (with issue count): Action Comics (8), Batman (7), Detective Comics (7), Green Lantern (7), Justice League (6)
$22.99 collections: Aquaman (6), Batgirl (6), Batman & Robin (6), Batman: The Dark Knight (6), Batwoman (5), Blue Beetle (7), Flash (7), Green Lantern Corps (6), Green Lantern: New Guardians (7), Superman (6)
$16.99 collections: All-Star Western (6), DC Universe Presents (8), Deathstroke (8), Men of War (6), Swamp Thing (8)
$14.99 collections: Animal Man (6), Batwing (6), Birds of Prey (7), Blackhawks (7), Captain Atom (7), Catwoman (6), Demon Knights (7), Firestorm (6), Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE (6), Green Arrow (6), Grifter (6), Hawk and Dove (7), I, Vampire (6), Justice League Dark (7), Justice League International (6), Legion Lost (6), Legion of Super-Heroes (7), Mr. Terrific (6), Nightwing (7), OMAC (6), Red Hood and the Outlaws (7), Red Lanterns (7), Resurrection Man (7), Savage Hawkman (6), Static Shock (6), Stormwatch (7), Suicide Squad (7), Superboy (6), Supergirl (7), Teen Titans (7), Voodoo (6)
Conclusions:
* All the $24.99 books are hardcover. Most of the $22.99 books are hardcover, except Blue Beetle, where you'll pay $22.99 for seven issues of Blue Beetle in paperback but only $14.99 for seven issues of another "Young Justice" title, Teen Titans, also in paperback.
* The entire "Dark," "Edge," and "Young Justice" families are in paperback; the entire "Green Lantern" family is in hardcover except, surprisingly, Red Lanterns. In the "Justice League" family, only Justice League, Aquaman, and Flash are hardcover; in the "Superman" family, only Action Comics and Superman are hardcover. In the "Batman" family, the only hardcovers are the four main Batman titles plus Batgirl and Batwoman.
* Formatting seems to be entirely based on the prestige of the series; it seems to me DC has the known quantities in hardcover betting fans won't want to wait, and then the rest of the titles first in paperback to encourage fans to pick them up right away.
* If you buy all of these before tax and without any discounts, it will cost $904.49.
* It will take almost an entire year for DC to release the first collections of the New 52. These are being released at a rate of about 7 or 8 a month. When the first collections come out, the New 52 titles will be on their ninth issues; by the time the last collection comes out, all of the titles will be on their fifteenth issues.
If the next round of collections begin in December, that's seven months between the first and second Justice League trades, for instance, and only about three months between when the last issue of the collection is published (issue #12, presumably) and when the collection comes out. Seven months still seems a smidgen long to me, but if DC stays consistent with it, this seems to me a pretty good schedule at first glance.
I'm going to stop there -- there's more to say on this, but I'm going to think over these conclusions and come back to this topic again before too long. And now, to you -- What do you think of DC's New 52 collections? Did this change your buying plans at all? What's on your list?
wonder woman
ReplyDeleteThey're not all hardcovers. Many are listed as TPB releases.
ReplyDelete- matches
Corrected, matches, thanks. I'm a little disappointed by that, actually -- would've liked to see Swamp Thing or Animal Man in hardcover. And I *certainly* hope DC won't then change these to hardcover mid-stream, or re-release them in hardcover after the paperback is already out.
ReplyDeleteFantastic rundown, CEB! I wish I had thought of doing this. LOL.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunate that Justice League is 6 issues at $24.99. I think Swamp Thing is a bargain.
Chris
Would have liked to see the three-issue Flashpoint Frankenstein series included in the trade. Also, are they skipping the crossover issues between Frank & OMAC?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how much the Frankenstein/OMAC story is a crossover or two books that show the same events from different perspectives -- looks like each book will just carry their own side of it, like Captain Atom having the Flash appearance.
ReplyDeleteThat shoe is still to drop on the Flashpoint Frankenstein and other issues -- hopefully DC will be announcing some additional Flashpoint collections aside from the ones we already know about.
Nuts to that.
ReplyDeleteI only buy hardcovers, because they hold up better when I move them and the edges don't get frayed.
Had everything been in hardcover, my order would have looked like: Action Comics, Aquaman, Batman & Robin, Batman, Batwoman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Justice League, Animal Man, Batwing, Demon Knights, Firestorm, Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE, Grifter, Justice League Dark, Nightwing, Red Lanterns, Stormwatch, Swamp Thing, All-Star Western
That's 22/50. Now I'm looking at 10/50. Ah well, more money to spend on Marvel Omnibuses. And Absolute Final Crisis.
1) You didn't include states on page counts; for example, Justice League is only 6 issues, but each individual issue is longer (and priced at $3.99) vs the $2.99 series.
ReplyDelete2) That makes Action Comics, in the longer $3.99 format and 8 issues, a decent buy.
3) Does anyone find it odd that Batwoman is only 5 issues, yet is leaving out the #0 issue that came out by the same creative team pre-reboot? I haven't read it (yet), but surely Flashpoint didn't change things for Batwoman (which, as I recall, was intentionally delayed for the reboot) such that #0 doesn't fit with the rest of the series?
Any word on whether any of these going to be oversized? Also, pretty disappointed, not to mention fairly surprised, to see so few hardcovers. Was especially looking forward to Swamp Thing being in HC form.
ReplyDeleteAh well... might well wait to see if they get recollected in these formats later on down the line.
I find it odd the pre-reboot Rucka issues aren't included. And the fact that DC don't appear to be continuing the "deluxe" lines.
ReplyDeleteAh well.
I know I'm probably in the minority, but since I have a lot of titles I'd like to buy I always just go paperback. It makes sure that everything on the shelf is in the same format and it saves me a bit of money on each title so that I can buy more books. Sucks that I'll have to wait that extra time for the hardcovers to finally hit paperback, so we'll see what I decide to do when they're finally released.
ReplyDeleteAll in all I'm okay with the way DC releases the collections. I think it was obvious that they couldn't release all 52 of them within a month or two, so it was clear we'd have to wait longer on some titles than others.
ReplyDeleteA few notes:
- My guess is, that Batwoman #0 will be included, because otherwise the page count would be strange. On the other hand I think it's plausible that the "Cutter" arc is not included, as Williams wasn't involved.
- The price of Blue Beetle could be an error, because it's so expensive!
- Very strange, that WW is missing. I hope it will be out before December 2012!
- Of the books I want to get, next May is the heaviest. I think I will get all of Mays collection.
My buying plans:
I will probably get all of the hardcovers, except Detective, Dark Knight, Batgirl and Superman. I will wait for those in paperback.
Of the paperbacks I will definetely get Swamp Thing, Animal Man, JLI, Catwoman, Batwing & Nightwing. The rest is split in 18 I will definetely not get and 16 I'm unsure about.
Gutted that Swamp thing is only in TPB.. just gutted. Simply dont understand DCs reasoning with some of these - ST is one of the best new 52 titles for goodness sake.
ReplyDeleteWill be enraged if hald way through the series they suddenly start with HCs.. i had hoped with the relaucnh they would also "relaunch" their collection strategy, seems they havent
I am disappointed that ANIMAL MAN, BIRDS OF PREY, CATWOMAN, GREEN ARROW, LEGION LOST, and SWAMP THING are not being published as hardcovers.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is DC chose which titles would get the hardcover treatment based on first-issue sales. It seems all 14 chosen titles sold over 100,000 if you count all printings, except for Batwoman, which I guess is getting a hardcover because Elegy sold very well in that format.
ReplyDeleteI think Wonder Woman could go either way, but I'm leaning towards hardcover. It's been outselling Batwoman so far, and it's one of the most critically acclaimed books in the entire line. I'm surprised Teen Titans will go straight to paperback, though. Its sales have been very strong, too.
It's unfortunate, for me, that some of the books I look forward to the most are going to be in hardcover first. Batman, Batman & Robin and Batwoman - all high on my "WANT NOW" list - were expected in that regard, as were Action Comics, Flash and the like. But it's still kind of tough to realize you're not going to read the exciting new stuff until 2013.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm left with the straight-to-paperbacks for now. Of that, I'm in for Animal Man, trying Batwing, Blue Beetle, Firestorm, Frankenstien, Justice League Dark, try Nightwing, Resurrection Man, Demon Knights, Supergirl, try Static Shock, Swamp Thing, I, Vampire and All-Star Western.
I'll have to wait for Action Comics, Aquaman, Batman, Batman & Robin, Batwoman, Flash and Justice League.
I'll be on board Wonder Woman - words I never thought I'd say - whenever they get around to that one.
Boo at the uncollected pre-reboot Batwoman issues. Such a shame.
ReplyDeleteJust took another look at the new 52 hardcovers post on the source. It's now listing the Batwoman trade as #0 - 5.
ReplyDeleteAll it does for me is keep me collecting the monthlies for a while longer.....I had dropped GL:N-Guardians when I saw that sales were fine and it was in no danger of being cancelled. Now that I've seen the schedule I wish I hadn't dropped it.
ReplyDeleteI will be on major Green Lantern withdrawal by the time the hardcover is released. I'll keep collecting The Flash monthly because I just can't bring myself to have to wait that long on such a great title (though I'll still pick up the hardcover). DC is just making more $$$ off of me!!
DC just announced the Wonder Woman hardcover on The Source blog. I will come out in May and collect issues #1-6, for US$ 22.99. I wonder why they didn't announce it last week.
ReplyDeleteWaiting to decide on hardcover or softcover based on the reaction? She's doing well in sales, but behind Batman, Superman, Flash and Green Lantern - so maybe they wanted to see if they should justify a hardcover? Or maybe it was a mistake, like $22.99 Blue Beetle or Scott Snyder's Stormwatch.
ReplyDeleteStill gutted over Swamp Thing and Animal Man. Maybe I'll buy an iPad.