Not a whole, whole lot to report from DC Comics's June 2013 trade paperback and collections solicitations, but let's look at them anyway; I'm also going to take this opportunity to sound off on some various and sundry items I've been thinking about this week.• I am not spoiling what's happening in the DC titles now, if there's anyone out there who doesn't know (is there anyone out there who doesn't know?), but I've been struck how DC didn't seem to try at all to keep this secret -- the spoilers were at the top of news articles and in copious places around DC's site. I guess on the business end of things, having lots of press about this event is better than having no press, but I was surprised the extent to which business trumped reading experience this time around.
• Not to sound like a grump, but I hate, hate, hate DC's new update to their company blogs. I especially hate this split between the "Fans" and "Press" blog. "Fan" blog has on it at the moment some praise for Earth 2 and a DC Collectables caption contest -- OK, that's interesting to me. "Press" has on it the first looks at some Bat-family titles and also a post about the Teen Titans Go! cartoon -- also interesting to me. Why would they link the latter wouldn't be interesting to "fans"? Why split things so readers have to go back and forth between the pages to get all the information?
• Couple articles out there suggested some sort of epic badness on comiXology's part in not being prepared for the Marvel free comics onslaught. I can't get that worked up about it. It's not like comiXology has regular server problems (this is the only time I recall hearing about something like this), and even more so than we fans who can't reach our comics when they're down, they can't make money when they're down, so you know comiXology cares about being up even more than you do. Yes, this underlines the issue that when you license digital material, it can be taken away from you at any moment, but this isn't a case where comiXology took something away -- they simply crashed. And now they're back up. And they were nice about it. I have trouble throwing brickbats at that.
• The Star Wars: Clone Wars finale was very good, but I sat through that godforsaken droid arc and they're not even going to finish the show on TV?
And now on to the solicitations ...
• Absolute Luthor/Joker
This is a good use of the Absolute format, in my opinion, pulling together Brian Azzarello's two villain tales with Lee Bermejo. The stories are good one-offs, and thematically related; I may not be running to pick this up myself, but this is the kind of unique, "special" use of the Absolute format that sounds right to me and will certainly look good on someone's shelf out there.
• Camelot 3000 TP
I generally like Mike Barr's work -- I like Batman: Year Two! -- and I've heard about Camelot 3000 for years but never read it. Worth a look?
• Silver Age Teen Titans Archives Vol. 2 HC
I'm pretty surprised to see an Archives back on the list. What's the trade dress for these any more? What DC Comics logo are they using?
• Savage Hawkman Vol. 2: Wanted (not on the June 2013 solicitations list)
This book is coming. I may be the only one excited about a Deathstroke/Hawkman/Green Arrow/Rob Liefeld mash-up, but I am.
• Flash Vol. 2: Rogues Revolution HC
• Justice League Dark Vol. 2: The Books of Magic TP
• Nightwing Vol. 2: Night of The Owls TP
• Supergirl Vol. 2: Girl in The World TP
• Team 7 Vol. 1: Fight Fire With Fire TP
Team 7 will turn out to be a done-in-one series, which is unfortunate because I thought the concept was interesting. I'm glad the same is probably true for Sword and Sorcery, however, because I wasn't as excited about following an Amethyst book long-term, but I'm happy to read a single trade of those issues.
Like I said, not a big month in terms of collections releases, but still some things to talk about. What's on your buying list?
Camelot 3000 is absolutely worth your time, if only for Brian Bolland's art. It's very 1980's sci-fi but still a heck of a lot of fun.
ReplyDeletehaven't read Camelot 3000 since it first came out, but i remember it being a great read.
ReplyDeletenot sure what you mean about being surprised seeing Archives on the list? DC has solicited a number of archives this year, from Metal Men vol 2, a 1950s era WW volume, and Captain Comet.
OK, maybe I just blinked. I had theorized here some time ago that Archives were on their way out; guess there's still some books better for the Archive format than the omnibus format, and good on them. I'm still curious though whether DC has updated their logos and trade dress on the Archives or if they look the same as the "classic" ones.
ReplyDeleteMarvel: http://www.newsarama.com/comics/marvel-comics-june-2013-solicitations.html
ReplyDelete*Iron Man by Busiek and Chen Omnibus: Huh... that's an interesting choice. I mean, I get that it’s part of the Iron Man 3 tie-in rush, but out of all the “Heroes Return” titles, this wasn’t the one I thought would get an Omnibus. Hopefully they’ll do one of Daniel Jurgens’ Thor, which had a very long, Omnibus-worthy story arc. (When does Thor: The Dark World come out? I expect we’ll see a solicit for that Omnibus soon enough.)
*Inhumans by Jenkins and Lee HC: I have this in trade and it’ll be reviewed soon enough, but Jae Lee is one of those “hardcover-worthy” artists like Clayton Crain.
*Superior Spider-Man Vol. 1 HC: As silly as the idea was, I’ve been impressed by the new asshole-ish Spidey that I’ve seen in Journey Into Mystery and Avengers, so I might give this a whirl in paperback. Plus, maybe we can finally get Ryan Stegman to admit that he’s secretly Stegron: The Dinosaur Man…
*Avengers Vol. 2: The Last White Event HC: Having just read the first few issues of this in single-issue format, all I can say is that if you’re a fan of 80s Marvel, you’re going to get a kick out of this. Marvel’s price-gouging on the HCs is a bit excessive, though.
*New Avengers Vol. 1: Everything Dies HC: This series weaves in and out of Hickman’s main Avengers book, similar to his FF/F4. It’s… different, to be sure, but well-worth a look.
*Deadpool by Daniel Way: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 TPB: Way’s Deadpool run can be a bit confusing to put together since the early issues involve the Thunderbolts, Secret Invasion and Dark Reign. I salute Marvel for the convenience.
*Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 1: It’s here, just in time for the Days of Future Past movie! Which this omnibus doesn’t collect! Cutting the omnibus off at part two of the Dark Phoenix Saga is just bizarre.
Image: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=44289
*Dark Skullkickers Dark #1: This isn’t a trade, but I want to highlight this as one of the funniest solicits I’ve seen in ages.
*Prophet Vol. 2: Brothers TPB: Okay, so now I have three more months to figure out what the hell happened in the first volume before the second comes out. I honestly haven’t been this confused with a comic since Hickman’s SHIELD, but unlike that book, I actually want to read more.
IDW: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=44290
*Mark Schultz’s Xenozoic Tales: Artist’s Edition HC: Admittedly, I’m not buying this, but I was just lamenting on Facebook that Schultz needs more work, and hopefully this is a sign that we’ll get more from him.
*GI Joe: Hearts and Minds TP: This is getting reviewed very, very soon. It’s by the writer of World War Z and is an extremely cool riff on an origins series.
*Transformers 30th Anniversary Collection: The stories in this collection aren’t listed, but I’m assuming from the authors that it’ll include the first issues of the various ongoings, plus (most likely) the Primus story from Marvel and something from Last Stand of the Wreckers at the very least.
*Mars Attacks: Classics Obliterated: What can I say? I’m a sucker for literary parodies, especially when Phil Hester is involved.
Dark Horse: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=44271
*The Black Beetle Vol. 1: No Way Out HC: I’ve been hearing great things about this series, and after seeing Francovilla’s incredible covers for Secret Avengers, I'm very intrigued.
*Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic TP: The KOTOR era is one of the SW stages that the Essential Guides didn’t spoil for me, so I might pick this up.
it did seem that DC had stopped with the archives for a while, but last year we had a Legion and JLA volume, as well as Sgt Rock, Batman, Batman: Dark Knight, Green Lantern, and Flash. there's also another Superman: Man of Tomorrow volume out this summer.
ReplyDeleteBatman: The Dark Knight Archives vol 8 came out in January, and it still has the classic DC starred bullet. the design scheme on the dust jacket is the same, too. is that what you mean by "dress"?
one problem i have with the upcoming Captain Comet volume is that it reprints his stories from Secret Society of Super-Villains, which were just recently reprinted in the two SSOSV volumes. seems redundant. i'd rather see more Silver Age volumes, like the rest of Hawkman, Atom, and their combined title.
btw, do you know who is head of Collections at DC? i've been wanting to pester DC about a Secret Six trade for some time, the classic 60s Secret Six, plus the feature that was in Action Comics Weekly back in the 80s.
also, even though i am a DC Archives enthusiast, i did opt for the Kamandi Omnibi over the Archives, to match the rest of the Kirby Omnibi.
ReplyDeleteDoug: I agree that the Iron Man Omnibus is intended as cross-marketing with the movie, but I imagine the reason why Marvel chose to release one collecting this particular series is that they were halfway through collecting it in Premiere Classic format when that line got canceled. They probably had the rest of the issues all ready to go, and this is just their way of unloading them all at once at an opportune time. (Which is fine by me, as I thought the Premiere HCs that were released were quite good, and I've been wanting to read the rest of that run.)
ReplyDeleteJoseph: A good call on the Kamandi books, since it seems quite unlikely to be finished in Archive format!
I pester Didio. I guess Xavier does the same.
ReplyDelete