DC Comics Villains Month trade reading order
Further confusing things is the fact that some of these issues tie in to the Forever Evil event miniseries that began the same month as Villains Month, and some of these issues are "standalone," but this doesn't factor into whether or not the issues are collected. Indeed, two fairly significant issues, Justice League of America #7.4: Black Adam and Detective Comics #23.3: Scarecrow, are each uncollected even though they tie in to Forever Evil and Forever Evil: Arkham War respectively. I wish quite a few more of these had been collected than they were.
This first list includes the Villains Month issues that were collected and where they can be found. The issues that take place during or around Forever Evil are listed in bold.
These issues take place during or around the events of Forever Evil, but are not collected (except in the omnibus):
- Action Comics #23.3: Lex Luthor
- Action Comics #23.4: Metallo
- Aquaman #23.1: Black Manta
- Aquaman #23.2: Ocean Master
- Batman #23.2: Riddler
- Batman #23.3: Penguin
- Batman and Robin #23.1: Two-Face
- Batman and Robin #23.2: Court of Owls
- Batman and Robin #23.3: Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins
- Batman: The Dark Knight #23.2: Mr. Freeze
- Batman: The Dark Knight #23.3: Clayface
- Detective Comics #23.1: Poison Ivy
- Detective Comics #23.3: Scarecrow
- Detective Comics #23.4: Man-Bat
- Flash #23.1: Grodd
- Green Lantern #23.3: Black Hand
- Justice League #23.4: Secret Society
- Justice League of America #7.2: Killer Frost
- Justice League of America #7.3: Shadow Thief
- Justice League of America #7.4: Black Adam
- Superman #23.1: Bizarro
- Teen Titans #23.1: Trigon
- Wonder Woman #23.1: Cheetah
- Action Comics #23.2: Zod
- Batman #23.1: Joker
- Batman and Robin #23.4: Killer Croc
- Batman/Superman #3.1: Doomsday
- Earth 2 #15.2: Solomon Grundy
- Green Lantern #23.2: Mongul
- Justice League #23.2: Lobo
- Justice League Dark #23.1: The Creeper
- Justice League Dark #23.2: Eclipso
- Superman #23.2: Brainiac
- Superman #23.4: Parasite
- Teen Titans #23.2: Deathstroke
How frustrating that they didn't simply collect these issues with the regular title. The Batman ones, in particular, could have gone into the catch-all Volume 6...
ReplyDeleteMaybe it has something to do with the poor quality of some of these issues?
I'm miffed about the ones I mentioned, Black Adam and Scarecrow. In both of those cases, I had a "When did that happen?" moment reading Forever Evil and Arkham War respectively because of events that take place in the uncollected issues. You'd think like a Villains Month: Superman and a Villains Month: Batman trade might be good sellers.
DeleteAn addition for you :)
ReplyDeleteAction Comics #23.1: Cyborg Superman is in Supergirl vol 4: Out of the Past
I don't think the regular title is necessarily the right place for them - but they're missing opportunities to reprint them in other places that make even more sense. It's kind of annoying that they haven't done more pairing of the issues with the storylines they tie in to - the Doomsday and Zod issues would work pretty well in the first Superman/Wonder Woman collection, and Mongul in the second Batman/Superman collection.
Y'know, I was thinking and thinking the Cyborg Superman issue was in the Supergirl volume, but then I couldn't find it in any of the online solicitations. Should've gone with my gut; thanks for the correction and I've fixed it.
DeleteDitto I would've enjoyed reading that Doomsday issue with Superman/Wonder Woman (would answer a lot of questions!).
Batman and Robin Vol.5 collects the Two-Face issue.
ReplyDeleteThat's one where the back of the book doesn't mention the Villains Month issue. You're sure it's in there?
DeleteIts solicitation says as much according to amazon. Might need to double check though.
DeleteI took a look at the book with my own eyes and the Two-Face issue isn't in there. I see the solicitations said it in a couple places, but it didn't turn out to be in the book.
DeleteSo those uncollected ones are not even in the big omnibus?
ReplyDeleteNo, they're all in the big omnibus; it's just that very few of them are collected anywhere other than the omnibus. This is a change from the Zero Month issues and the Futures End issues, both of which had an omnibus but also had most of the issues collected with the individual series.
DeleteFlash's Grodd issue is actually quite related to Forever Evil and is most definitely considered a prequel to Forever Rogue's Rebellion.
ReplyDeleteGot it now. The confusion came from an erroneous listing of the Grodd issue included in the Rogues Rebellion trade, which it is not (the Rogues issue is); however, as you said, the Grodd issue still takes place around Forever Evil, it just isn't collected.
DeleteAny chance of getting an update on what's been collected since January? For instance, DC has been doing a series of Batman: Arkham trades each focusing on a different villain, and each has featured a Villains Month issue. The third one features Scarecrow and is scheduled to come out in February, and the first two were Riddler and Two-Face.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think the confusion about the Two-Face issue being in the Batman and Robin volume (which it isn't) comes from the fact that Batman and Robin changed titles several times, and that volume collects the Batman and Two-Face issues.
ReplyDelete