Plus, more news on how DC will collect the Batman crossover "Night of the Monster Men," and a pre-Rebirth Batman/Superman collection with trade-exclusive content!
Let it snow and let's take a look.
• All Star Batman Vol. 1: My Own Worst Enemy HC
As many of you noticed in DC's earlier solicitations, the Rebirth "paperback first" rule does not seem to extend to crossover collections nor to "special" series, likely ones DC discerns readers would be willing to pay hardcover prices for. One such, not surprisingly, is Scott Snyder's All Star Batman, which sees its first collection of issues #1-5 in hardcover.
• Aquaman Vol. 2: Black Manta Rising TP
The second collection of Dan Abnett's Rebirth Aquaman series collects issues #7-15.
• Batman Vol. 2: I Am Suicide TP
The contents solicited for Batman Vol. 2: I Am Suicide are issues #9-15, whereas Vol. 1 collected issues #1-6. Yes, that means if these solicitations hold, the only place you can read the Batman issues of the "Night of the Monster Men" crossover is in the Night of the Monster Men hardcover itself. It looks, however, like the same is true for the second Detective Comics collection, and the first Nightwing collection simply skips those issues altogether within itself.
That Nightwing approach is controversial; what I'd really like is for each individual book to collect its own issues, since I'm buying the individual books anyway, and then I can just read across the trades as I like. But, my foremost concern is not feeling like I have to double-dip, so if all the "Monster Men" issues will be collected in their own trade and none of them will be collected in their individual series, that's better, at least. I simply don't want a situation, like Green Lantern: Godhead or Superman: Doomed, where one or two issues are isolated in a crossover trade and all the other issues are in individual books.
• Batgirl and the Birds of Prey Vol. 1: Who is Oracle? TP
Collects issues #1-6 and the Rebirth special.
• Green Arrow Vol. 2: Island of Scars TP
Collects issues #6-11.
• Green Lanterns Vol. 2: The Phantom Lantern TP
Collects issues #7-14.
• Justice League Vol. 2: Outbreak TP
Collects issues #6-11.
• Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 1: Dark Trinity TP
Collects issues #1-6 and the Rebirth special
• Superman -- Action Comics Vol. 2: Welcome to the Planet TP
Collects Action Comics #963-966.
• Superman Vol. 2: Trial of the Super Sons TP
Collects issues #7-13
• Batman: Legacy Vol. 1 TP
A new collection of the Batman: Legacy crossover has been on and off the schedule for a while, so it's good to see it finally, officially solicited. This is notably called "Volume 1," and the issues listed are a curious set of pre-"Legacy" stories -- Robin #31 (collected in the previous Legacy trade but I think about one page leads in to "Legacy"); Catwoman #33-35 (of which only #35-36 were collected in the previous Legacy trade, and #33-34 are lead-ins); Shadow of the Bat #53 and Batman #533 (both labeled "Legacy preludes"); and Detective Comics #697-700, of which the former two were generally unconnected issues between "Contagion" and "Legacy" (whereas this trade collects Detective "long" and Shadow and Batman "short," the recent new Contagion trade collected Shadow and Batman leading up to this point).
I would like to see the Bane of the Demon miniseries included, but otherwise DC is doing a bang-up job of collecting this era of Batman with few holes.
• Batman/Two-Face: Face the Face Deluxe Edition HC
Circa 2006, just after Infinite Crisis, when the "One Year Later" Batman story "Face the Face" came out, I'd have absolutely devoured a hardcover instead of the paperback. Now I'm pretty well beyond it, but a new deluxe edition is a curious artifact. Leaving aside that new publication of James Robinson's DC work is a good thing, artists here were JSA's Leonard Kirk and Don Kramer, two great artists who for whatever reason don't have the celebrity status of some others, and for their work to be reprinted in deluxe format is surely deserved.
My original review of Face the Face notes not so much the Two-Face story as Robinson's presentation of a "kinder, gentler" Batman in the wake of some of his War Games and Infinite Crisis antagonism; remember Face the Face in many respects bridged what came before to Grant Morrison's "hairy-chested love-god" era of Batman, which directly lead into Scott Snyder's New 52 version and the present day.
• Batman/Superman Vol. 6: Universe’s Finest HC
If you consider that the other Super-titles that this volume crosses over with saw/will see their collections by the end of December 2016, and this collection doesn't come out until March 2017, it's fairly late, and especially to be set prior to the events of DC Rebirth. That said, this collects issues #28-32 plus the never-published issues #33-34 and Annual #3 -- so, in-continuity trade-first stories -- and I am chomping at the bit to read these (and in Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 5: A Savage End) and see what they are.
• Earth 2: Society Vol. 3: A Whole New World TP
The Earth 2: Society series ends with issue #22 (also solicited this month), so we can assume that this collection of issues #13-16 and the first Annual will be the second-to-last collection.
• Flash by Mark Waid Book Two TP
Collects issues #69-79, the Annual #6, Green Lantern #30-31 and #40, and a story from Justice League Quarterly #10. That is the "Gorilla Warfare" crossover with Green Lantern (issues #69-70 and the first two Lantern issues), a Dr. Alchemy story (timely), and then into "Return of Barry Allen." Issues #74-79 are previously collected (and one page each from issue #72-73), and the rest is new to collection, including Green Lantern #40. Annual #6 is a "Bloodlines" crossover that introduces the Argus character who'll show up again later;
• Justice League: Breakdowns TP
At some point this collection showed up online as Breakdowns Vol. 1, but the contents here show the full "Breakdowns" story from Justice League America and Justice League Europe, detailing the end of Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis's "Bwa-ha-ha" era. The end of this book leads right into the recently-published Superman and the Justice League collections; hopefully good pre-orders of this book might trigger more of the Justice League International collections of the beginning of this series (collections currently go up to America #35 and Europe #11, vs. this book's #52 and #29 respectively).
• Legionnaires Book One TP
Collects the beginning of the popular post-Zero Hour Legion reboot by Tom McCraw, Tom Peyer, and Mark Waid. Issues #0 and #62-65 of Legion of Super-Heroes and #0 and #19-22 of Legionnaires have already been collected, but #66-68 and #23-24 respectively are new to trade. Next volume could collect a crossover with Karl Kesel's Superboy and Underworld Unleashed tie-ins.
• Suicide Squad Most Wanted: El Diablo TP
• Suicide Squad Most Wanted: Killer Croc/Boomerang/Amanda Waller TP
Apparently after the Suicide Squad Most Wanted: Deadshot/Katana miniseries, this second mini moves to even more of an anthology series with a leading El Diablo story and then a backup story, first with Captain Boomerang, then Killer Croc, then Amanda Waller. So all told these two collections together collect all of the second Most Wanted series. (The latter collection is titled Suicide Squad: Secret File online.)
• Superman: The Man of Tomorrow Book One HC
It's here! The long-awaited first book to collect the Superman "Triangle Titles" era of the 1980s and 1990s, arguably the greatest modern era of Superman that saw Lois and Clark engaged and included the best-selling "Death of Superman" storyline. The first book has Adventures of Superman #445-450 and Superman #23-27, so picking up right where the John Byrne Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 9 left off. These are previously uncollected stories leading into the (collected) Superman: Exile storyline, which see Superman dealing with a proto-Brainiac in the aftermath of his controversial actions in the "Supergirl Saga," plus an increasingly violent Gangbuster and an Invasion! crossover.
• Wonder Woman: Who is Wonder Woman? TP New Edition
Going along with the new printing of James Robinson's "One Year Later" Batman story is this new edition of Allan Heinberg and Terry Dodson's "One Year Later" Wonder Woman story. I called this at the time "Hush for Wonder Woman" since it involves a large swath of Diana's villains, as was en vogue at the time. Though this is the title that would ultimately lead to the much derided Amazons Attack, it came out the other side with Gail Simone's Wonder Woman run. The ways in which this story hearkened back to the Lynda Carter television series makes reprinting it now pretty sensible.
• Young Justice Book One TP
The second-best news after the Young Justice cartoon getting a third season is a new, hopefully complete and definitive, series of collections of Peter David's Young Justice comic. This first volume collects nothing that wasn't already in the JLA: World Without Grown-Ups and Young Justice: A League of Their Own collections, but the series is mostly uncollected from there so the next volume should get into new stuff.
One last time for 2016, what's on your buying list? What comics are you hoping to get as gifts this year?
I'm curious, has this blog become DC exclusive?
ReplyDeleteI review what I'm interested in, always have, be it DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, Star Wars, Star Trek, so on and so forth. Nothing exclusive per se, just whatever way the wind blows me.
DeleteWhat you might be noticing is the absence of our dedicated guest blogger Doug Glassman, who often provided Marvel reviews. We look forward to having more reviews from Doug in the new year. Thanks!
Why is Superman Man of Tomorrow a hardcover? Outside of the Death of Superman Omnibus, all of the post Crisis Superman releases have been in paperback.
ReplyDelete40 bucks for this seems steep. I think I will pass on this and hope it gets released later in paperback.
For Marvel Solicits:
Captain America Secret Empire
Black Widow vol 2.
A few Epic collections of early Avengers, Captain America, and the X Men are solicited. Good stuff to pick up if you missed the material in any or all of the times they have been previously released in other editions.
>> Why is Superman Man of Tomorrow a hardcover?
DeleteBecause these are the awesomest stories in the history of awesomeness? (Mr. Z, folks. Mr. Z! Not to mention, They Saved Luthor's Brain!)
Seriously, I feel your pain. Before discounts that is a little steep. I'd be happy if these saw paperback after hardcover, too.
What is your feeling on this series being continued? How far before the Death of Superman stories? I was looking at the new editions of the Death of Superman that came out earlier in the year (4 different books, I think?) but don't want to double dip if it looks like DC will be reprinting them in this series in a couple of years. Thoughts?
DeleteIt's a good question; I was wondering about this myself a couple months ago on Twitter. The new solicitation calls these the stories that "led the way to" Death of Superman, so that suggests to me they're going to stop roundabouts Death of Superman. Personally I doubt these will go past Death of Superman; there's a lot of rough stuff on the other side of that and I don't believe there'd be consistent buyer interest for as long as all of that would take to collect. I'd be satisfied with running right up to the new Death collections, though now that I think about it, the suggestion of Action #700 isn't bad, and then there's the Conduit Kenny Braverman stuff right after ... but the farther you go, the rougher it does get.
DeleteI really wish they'd collect the Justice League America #37–40 storyline - that was my first exposure to Despero, and I thought it was pretty brutal at the time. Seems like we skipped over that in trades, though.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the Justice League International books deserve to have a complete collection. What always interests me was how really ubiquitous this League was at the time -- in Suicide Squad, in crossovers, etc. Within the title the League was kind of jokey, but they really were *the League* of the time.
DeleteI've actually got every issue of the New52 Batman/Superman and Superman/WonderWoman titles individually, and the "Universe's Finest" storyline that is in this final volume (6) was by far my favorite in the series. So I don't mind picking up the collected edition if there's a chance the three 'new' comics in it are as good.
ReplyDeleteRegarding #30-31 in S/WW 5 though, are we positive those were not included in any of the other recent Superman or WW hardcovers? I tried to research this on comicbookdb but it seems to not be updated yet. Because I don't really want to rebuy it for just two issues if I don't have to, unless I hear that they're amazing. At the very least DC should put digital copies on Comixology don't you think?
Thanks
>> At the very least DC should put digital copies on Comixology don't you think?
DeleteYes, this seems fair to me.
Depending on what solicit you read, the unpublished Superman/Wonder Woman #30-31 are supposed to be in both the Superman: Savage Dawn trade and also Superman/Wonder Woman Vol 5: A Savage End. The former is already out and the latter should be in stores today, if anyone wants to confirm or deny.
I haven't taken a look at the Superman: Savage Dawn HC yet, but an Amazon reviewer confirms Superman/Wonder Woman #30-31 were included in it. Apparently, they're written by Brian Buccellato and show Wonder Woman dealing with the aftermath of "Last Days of Superman". I guess DC should have collected them along with that crossover instead, but I'm glad they'll be in SM/WW Vol. 5, too.
DeleteAgreed, also strange that these stories are with Savage Dawn and not Last Days of Superman, but I wondered if there was simply a rush to get them out. Near as I can tell the Final Days of Superman trade has one or two issue less than Savage Dawn, so yeah, a little strange.
DeleteThis makes me so excited!! I've always wanted to read the Young Justice comic, but never got around to collecting it in singles. So, I'm very hyped for this trade. As for Superman I'm also excited as his Rebirth comics have been super fun. Plus I've been collecting the Justice League International trades so Breakdowns is like a dream for me :D
ReplyDeleteTime to get back to work...
ReplyDeleteMarvel: http://www.cbr.com/marvel-comics-solicitations-for-march-2017/
*Monsters Unleashed: Monster-Size HC--As one of Marvel's smaller events, this will hopefully turn out better than the Civil War II slow-motion trainwreck.
*Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus HC--Just about everything here has been collected several times before, so if you have the Avengers hardcovers and the Infinity hardcover you're already set.
*Marvel Masterworks: The Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 1 HC--This is a book full of 70s retro Spidey goodness from Archie Goodwin, Bill Mantlo, Gerry Conway and Sal Buscema (just to name a few). They even put one of my favorite ridiculous Marvel villains--the Tarantula--right on the cover.
*Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme HC--This collects his 80s and early 90s series, often held as a high point for the character. It most notably intersects with "Infinity Gauntlet" as well as the Midnight Sons.
*Spider-Man: The Clone Conspiracy HC--Part of the reason I've been away was to be free from previews spoiling comics three months in advance. I honestly have no idea how this book will turn out, but these big Spider-Man epics tend to work out fairly well.
*Enchanted Tiki Room HC--For a while I was trying to figure out why these theme park attraction-based comics (Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad) exist. It's actually to sell comics at the parks themselves. That they come out in comic book stores too is just a side benefit.
*Star Wars Special Edition: A New Hope HC--Released to coincide with the reedited film in 1997, this features art by Eduardo Barreto so at least it'll look pretty.
*Classified Prelude TPB--Okay, Marvel is now officially trolling people who read the solicits. I can surmise that this collects older comics related to whatever the Classified event is but that's about it.
*Astonishing Ant-Man Vol 3: The Trial of Ant-Man TPB--Almost the entire first year of this comic has been told in flashback from Scott Lang while he's imprisoned. This finally addresses how that happened. Plus it has the previously uncollected issue of "Guardians Team-Up" where Scott met Drax the Destroyer.
Your public is asking for you. :-)
DeleteThe first Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus will actually include some stuff that's not in the hardcovers, like the "Bobby and Sam in Mojoworld" short stories from Astonishing Tales #1-6 and a Shang-Chi/Deadpool story from a black-and-white Master of Kung Fu special. They're not essential or anything, but a completist like me appreciates their inclusion.
DeleteThe Silver Age Doom Patrol Omnibus is an interesting solicit. With a heavy discount, it is a steal. I am unsure however if there is enough interest in this era of the Doom Patrol to get enough pre orders to save it from cancellation.
ReplyDeleteAlso at 1000 pages, it will be unwieldy at best and possibly have huge gutter loss if DC goes cheap on the production.
One thing to remember, a lot of the material in these new Golden/Silver Age Omnibi have been collected in Archives before. So a lot of the initial upfront cost of getting material ready for publication is probably long paid for. So hopefully, the margins are not as tight as with a completely new book. Doom Patrol was completely collected in five volumes of the Archives series.
DeleteI'm stoked about that Young Justice trade, but also hoping the solicitation is incomplete. As of now, it's missing issue 1,000,000 (released between issues 2 and 3), and the Secret Origins 80-Page Giant (set between issues 3 and 4).
ReplyDeleteNeither issue is *critical* to the narrative, but the 1,000,000 characters appear once more in the series, and it'd be a shame to have that joke ruined because the 1,000,000 issue wasn't included in the first trade. Likewise, you don't *have* to have the Secret Origins 80-Page Giant in there, but it gives a nice primer on the characters, and IIRC at least some of the segments were done by their primary creative teams at the time (Chuck Dixon on Robin, Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos on Impulse, etc).
Good catch and I hope that gets corrected. Dan DiDio does tend to be responsive to suggestions of that sort via his Facebook page.
DeleteAvoiding double dips to get the hardcover is going to be a problem ... ��
ReplyDeleteWhich book?
DeleteBane of the Demon was in the recent Batman vs Bane tpb, released around dark knight rises. I would have thought it would include the Batman: Bane one shot too, but I guess Legacy is a better place for that.
ReplyDelete