DC Comics continues their recent spate of great 1990s reprints in their September 2017 trade paperback and collected hardcover solicitations; we see the third Flash by Mark Said volume, the start of Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner collections, and the next Wonder Woman and the Justice League volume, collecting the “Judgment Day” crossover! Also not to be missed is the Justice League of America: The Detroit Era Omnibus, a Batman: Hush 15th anniversary deluxe edition, and a handful of Rebirth deluxe hardcovers as well as the regular paperbacks.
Let’s see what else is on the list as we look forward already to the start of fall …
• Flash by Mark Waid Book Three TP
It's great to see the third Flash by Mark Waid book already on the schedule and arriving in October, making that two volumes of this series we'll have seen this year (and with the first having come out as recently as last December). I'm glad to see DC striking while the iron is hot (and also with the Green Arrow Grell books, the Suicide Squad Ostrander books, etc.). This is an exciting one, collecting issues #80-94, because it includes the issues between "Return of Barry Allen" and "Reckless Youth/Terminal Velocity" that were good -- Waid ramping up for what was to come -- but haven't been collected before. Of course, this book does also include "Reckless Youth," the first appearance of Impulse Bart Allen, as well as an appeared by the "Bloodlines" New Blood Argus and the well-regarded Flash #91 where Wally West uses Johnny Quick's speed formula.
The next book I imagine will go up to but stop just before the "Dead Heat" crossover with Impulse, so something like issues #95 to #107.
• Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner Vol. 1 TP
As previously solicited, a seemingly chronological collection of Kyle Rayner's appearances, which'll end up covering some good material by Ron Marz (and hopefully Judd Winick) from the 1990s and 2000s. There's potentially a hundred issues to collect between the two writers, so this could be a collection series that goes on for a while (ten books, at this rate). On the assumption there's no clipping involved, DC starts this collection of issues #48-57 off right with the entirety of "Emerald Twilight," even though Kyle only cameos, and we've got the REBELS '94 #1 and New Teen Titans #116 issues where Kyle appears. A little more of New Teen Titans would probably fit here or in the next volume, and also probably this book should have Green Lantern#0 in it, too.
• Justice League of America: The Detroit Era Omnibus HC
I'm pleased to see this "Detroit Era" Justice League collection coming to fruition, collecting issues #233-261, the Annual #2, Infinity Inc. #19 (a Crisis on Infinite Earths tie-in), JLA Classified #22-25 and JSA Classified #14-16 (the solicitation attributes both to JLA Classified, but JSA Classified was a continuation of the JLA Classified story), and the DC Retroactive: Justice League of America: The '80s special.
I'm especially glad to see the Classified and Retrospective issues included. The Classified story is admittedly somewhat troubled, but these issues do represent a kind of "new nostalgia" for Detroit. While not considered much at the time, the Detroit era's underdog fame spawned these "retrospective"-type stories that look at the Detroit era with rose-colored glasses of sorts. It'll be interesting to read both the source material and then also see how the "future," so to speak, looked back on the past.
• Supergirl Vol. 3: Peter David TP
I'm pretty sure this won't actually be called Supergirl Vol. 3: Peter David, though it's funny to think so. This collects David's Supergirl #21-31 and the DC One Million issue, and includes appearances by Steel, Matrix, and the Female Furies, and a crossover with Resurrection Man. The next volume ought include a crossover with David's Young Justice.
• Wonder Woman and the Justice League of America Book Two TP
This (fantastic) collection of Justice League America #86-91, Justice League International #65-66, and Justice League Task Force #13-14 collects the entire "Judgment Day" crossover plus a Justice League America lead-in story. This finishes Dan Vado's run on Justice League America just before Zero Hour. Wonder Woman would continue as team leader for about another twenty issues until Justice League America ended before JLA, but as those issues are all written by Gerard Jones, it remains to be seen if DC will continue this collections series or just stop here.
• Nightwing: The Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book One HC
Collects the Rebirth special and issues #1-15, so the entirety of the first and second paperback volumes including the Night of the Monster Men crossover issues.
• Suicide Squad: The Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book One HC
Collects the contents of the first two Rebirth paperback volumes: the Rebirth special, issues #1-8, and the Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad April Fool's Special.
• Wonder Woman: The Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book One HC
Collects the first two paperback Wonder Woman Rebirth volumes. I'm curious here to see whether DC collects the issues interspersed -- which I think they should, different from the staggered-issue paperbacks -- or if they paste together the present- and past-set stories respectively.
• Batgirl Vol. 2: Son of Penguin TP
Collects issues #7-11 and part, I expect, of the Annual #1, with the other part of that annual appearing in the Supergirl collection solicited below.
• Batman: Detective Comics Vol. 3: League of Shadows TP
The next volume of the Rebirth series I can't wait to read, collecting issues #950-956.
• Deathstroke Vol. 3: Twilight TP
Collects Christopher Priest's Deathstroke #12-18.
• New Super-Man Vol. 2: Coming to America TP
The second volume of Gene Luen Yang's New Super-Man series, collecting issues #7-12, also includes a "Superman Reborn Aftermath" tie-in issue.
• Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 2: Who Is Artemis? TP
Collects issues #7-11.
• Super Sons Vol. 1: When I Grow Up TP
The first volume of the hit series collects issues #1-5. I'm rather shocked DC didn't go for hardcover with this one given how popular the series is.
• Supergirl Vol. 2: Escape from the Phantom Zone TP
Collects Supergirl #7-11 as well as the relevant story from the Batgirl Annual #1.
• The Hellblazer Vol. 2: The Smokeless Fire TP
Collects issues #7-12 of the John Constantine series.
• The Wild Storm Vol. 1 TP
Anyone reading Warren Ellis's Wild Storm? It is good? I feel I haven't heard as much fanfare for it as the "Young Animal" titles, for instance. This first volume collects issues #1-6.
• Absolute Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang Vol. 2 HC
This second Absolute volume finishes the Brian Azzarello/Cliff Chiang run, collecting issues #19-35 and #23.2, the Vol. 4: War, Vol. 5: Flesh, and Vol. 6: Bones collections.
• Batman: Hush 15th Anniversary Deluxe Edition HC
Honestly it seems longer than 15 years since Hush, not shorter, but thinking back, that seems about right. I'm surprised this hasn't been collected in DC's deluxe-format size before and it should make a nice collection, a little bigger than normal without being overwhelming.
• Demon by Jack Kirby TP
A paperback reprinting of the sixteen-issue hardcover collection. In looking at this, I was interested to see that Jack Kirby not only created Etrigan, but also Klarion the Witch Boy, Teekl, and Harry Matthews, which I hadn't realized.
• House of Secrets: The Bronze Age Omnibus HC
Collects House of Secrets #81-111, including the first appearance of Swamp Thing. Notable is that this book has either been combined with or replaced the previously-solicited DC Horror: House of Secrets collection.
• Justice League of America: A Midsummer’s Nightmare Deluxe Edition HC
A deluxe collection of the Mark Waid miniseries that bridged the end of Justice League America and the beginning of Grant Morrison's JLA.
What looks good to you this month?
I wonder if Mark Waid is writing something for DC in the near future. About a year ago, there was concern that his Flash run would never get reprinted. Now we're already on the third volume.
ReplyDeleteWell, so far Johns has managed to bring both Rucka and Robinson back to DC, so maybe this could be his next big diplomatic feat. At the moment, is seems Waid's relationship with DC has at least improved enough for him to write new introductions for the latest collections of his older DC work.
DeleteWith the upcoming releases of Demon by Kirby and Deadman by Kelly Jones in September (I think), I suspect that DC will release a new collection of John Ostrander's run on the Spectre in october or November.
ReplyDeleteThe Wild Storm is pretty fantastic. It feels a little like Ellis' newuniversal but with an added mastery of the universe since he was one of Wildstorms best creators in its heyday.
ReplyDeleteFlash by Waid and Super Sons are the only ones calling to me from that list.
ReplyDeleteKind of wish these 90s complete collections would come out a bit more quickly - 13 months between Robin volumes 3 & 5, about 5-6 months between Flash by Waid 2 & 3, etc. I'm not sure what the sweet spot for DC is (mine would be a new one each month, but I'm sure I'm not an average reader), but I think two a year seems slow. Not sure how many people (other than our gracious host?) are buying every one of these - I'm just doing Robin, Nightwing, and Flash - so I don't know if the release schedule makes sense if you're getting SotB, Catwoman, Azrael, Robin, Nighting, BoP, etc
It looks like I'm going to buy a lot of collections in October. I'm particularly excited about The Flash by Mark Waid Book Three (almost all of the Wieringo-drawn issues will be in it), Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner Vol. 1 (good thing it's not skipping "Emerald Twilight" as the content listings at Edelweiss and Amazon had led us to believe) and Justice League: A Midsummer's Nightmare Deluxe Edition.
ReplyDeleteI am in for the Waid Flash, Kyle Rayner Green Lantern, Detroit Justice League, Peter David Supergirl, and Wonder Woman Justice League.
ReplyDeleteOutside of Green Lantern, I never thought any of these collections would get published.
What DC publishes and how much demand there is for something is a mystery to me.
Sandman Mystery Theater vol 3 was just cancelled. I thought that would make it another couple of volumes. I am surprised that the Detroit era Justice League is getting an omnibus.
I am happy to see everything published but I wonder what the future of collected editions market is. Most eras of DC have seen large chunks of the main characters get collected editions on good paper. After DC burns through the 90's, will they keep going into the 2000's? I hope the pre crisis era from the late 70's to Crisis timeframe gets a solid push.
So happy "Judgment Day" is finally being reprinted. That was like the exclamation point of that era.
ReplyDeleteYeah, and especially with Justice League Task Force (hopefully) getting a collection, one can get a nice deep dive into this era that they couldn't get before. Now if we could get those comprehensive Justice League International collections ...
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