DC Solicitation Sneaks: June 2024
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
DC vs. Marvel Omnibus
Believe it or not, DC and Marvel heroes used to meet up on a fairly regular basis before relations froze over at the start of the Joe Quesada/Bill Jemas era at Marvel. First, Spider-Man met Superman, then the X-Men met the Teen Titans, and before you knew it Batman was teaming up with the Punisher and Daredevil, Green Lantern and the Silver Surfer met up, and Galactus took on Darkseid. It seemed like everyone was going to get their turn in the team-up spotlight, but this omnibus represents a comprehensive collection of a bygone era. One which collects a ton of comics that I’ve never read. So yeah, I’m VERY interested in seeing how these hold up, as well as just how much tolerance Batman has for Spider-Man’s shtick.
All these crossovers eventually did give way to the massive event that was “Marvel vs. DC” which not only had each company’s heroes engage in a big battle between universes, but also the Amalgam Universe which saw these characters smashed together to form new characters. What do you get when you combine Batman and Wolverine? The adamantium-laced detective billionaire known as Dark Claw. Most of the Amalgam stories and the “Marvel vs. DC’ miniseries along with its two follow-ups, “All Access” and “Unlimited Access” are being collected in the DC vs. Marve: The Amalgam Age omnibus, which is also being solicited here. I’m less interested in this since my memory of these stories was that they were a fun gimmick that ran out of steam after the follow-ups failed to capture the magical hype of the original.
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight – The Kryptonian Age #1 (of 12): “Gotham by Gaslight,” the story of what would happen if Batman was around in 1889 and crossed paths with Jack the Ripper, was the first Elseworlds story (and it’s being reissued in facsimile form in these solicitations as well). It inspired A LOT of stories that followed, yet it only spawned one direct follow-up with “Master of Reality.” DC is looking to fix that now as it relaunches the Elseworlds line with this maxi-series written by Andy Diggle and illustrated by Leandro Fernandez. As the title implies, expect a new version of the Man of Steel to make an appearance in this late 19th century setting, along with similarly revamped versions of familiar DC characters as well. Diggle’s relationship with DC hasn’t always been smooth – remember his abortive attempt to follow Grant Morrison’s “Action Comics” run that lasted all of one issue – but he’s always been an inventive writer and Fernandez rarely disappoints with his work as well.
Outsiders #8 (of 12): Bendis’ tenure at DC is increasingly looking like a Thing That Happened with no long-term effects on its characters or continuity. Then again, you never know who might decide to pick up a character or concept he created and try to run with it. Case in point: Kate “Batwoman” Kane heads off to the Southwest on her own and winds up meeting with Jinny Hex, the granddaughter of Jonah Hex who was created by Bendis and Nick Derington for their “Batman: Universe” story. Whether or not co-writers Jackson Lanzing and Colin Kelly have found a way to make her more than The Granddaughter of Jonah Hex remains to be seen. But this means there’s still hope that someone will take a crack at making Rogol Zaar or the Synmar Utopica interesting.
Zatanna: Bring Down the House #1 (of 5): Zatanna Zatara is content with slumming it in a third-rate Vegas casino practicing sleight-of-hand rather than real magic. A traumatic experience involving that will do that to you. However, when an actual demon makes an unexpected appearance during her act, Zatanna finds that she’s going to have to deal with her past whether she wants to or not. This is a $6 an issue Black Label miniseries whose price looks to have been inflated due to its cardstock covers, because this first issue is said to contain the standard 32 pages. That makes this a hard recommendation, particularly since while I’ve heard good things about writer Mariko Tamaki, I can’t say that I’ve come across something she’s done that has made me want to actively go out and read it. Perhaps this will be the one, especially since it has art from the immensely talented Javier Rodriguez, who is likely going to kill with all of the magical-based insanity he’ll get to draw here.
Poison Ivy vol. 3: Mourning Sickness; Batman: Detective Comics vol. 3: Gotham Nocturne, Act II; Nightwing vol. 5: Time of the Titans: What do these three collections have in common? They all belong to series whose latest volumes have been published in hardcover first and paperback later, but whose latest editions are now arriving in both formats at the same time. I think that’s great as it looks like DC is realizing that there are a lot of people (like me) who’d rather wait for the paperback if they don’t think the series is good enough to buy in a hardcover format. It’s also a timely decision for Ram V’s “Detective Comics” run as the first two volumes are hitting paperback in these solicitations.
Superman: Lost: Superman steps out one evening on what seems like a routine mission. However, when he returns to Lois after what seems like a few hours for her, twenty years have actually passed for the Man of Steel. As his wife tries to ease her husband back to the life he once knew, Superman’s thoughts are still out in space grappling with the mission he left unfinished. This is a darker-than-usual setup for a “Superman” story, but that’s what makes it interesting. Now the collected edition is here and while writer Christopher Priest’s work on “Black Adam” may give cause for concern, the collection is coming at us in a $25 for 248 pages softcover, which is a pretty good deal in these interesting times. Additionally, the story also promises quality art from Priest’s “Deathstroke” collaborator Carlo Pagulayan and Lee Weeks.
100 Bullets: Brother Lono – The Deluxe Edition: This epilogue to “100 Bullets” by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Eduardo Risso gets the hardcover treatment for $35. What does that get you? The original eight-issue miniseries, a new eight-page story, a connecting cover from artist Dave Johnson, and a new introduction from Matz, who (like Azzarello) knows a thing or two about telling compelling stories about unlikeable characters. As someone who bought this story when it was first collected in paperback, this… isn’t enough for me. Not even the new eight-page story as it feels really unlikely that Azzarello and Risso could give me the closure I’d be looking for after I read this story.
Detective Comics #1000: The Deluxe Edition: The milestone issue originally came out back in 2019. We even did a podcast about it. Now this issue which originally retailed for $10 is getting an expanded hardcover edition at $25 for 176 pages. The solicitation text states that we can expect additional stories from writers Robert Venditt and Alan Grant, as well as a collection of variant covers for the issue. No disrespect to Venditti and Grant, but I’d need a lot more story content to consider re-buying this issue in that format.