It’s the 15th new comic book day of the new year, but it’s my first ever DC Comics New Releases post!! This post covers DC Comics April 10 2024 releases, which actually hit comic stores on Tuesday April 9 2024.
(DC is still releasing their comics on Tuesday until the start of July, but I think most folks think of Wednesday as release day, so that’s how I’m labelling my posts until it becomes official.)
This week in DC Comics: Rebirth Flash in Omnibus, House of Brainiac begins, the delightfully macabre Dylan Dog, Lanzing & Kelly’s Outsiders swings big, Dreamer vs Amanda Waller, and more!
These DC New Releases posts will be a work in progress. I’m 30 months behind on my DC reading, and some of my DC Guides are twice that far behind on updates. I thought it might be a good idea to do all my reading and updating before beginning this series of posts, but there’s no better way to catch up on all of that than diving deep into New Releases! Sometimes you’ve got to build the plane while you are flying it!
This list includes every comic and digital comic out from DC Comics April 10 2024, plus collected editions in omnibus, hardcover, paperback, and digest-sized formats. For each new release, I’ll point you to the right guide within my Crushing Comics Guide to DC Comics to find out how to collect each character in full – and, if a guide is linked from this post, that means it is updated through the present day!
DC Comics April 10 2024 Collected Editions
DC vs. Vampires Vol. 2 [paperback]
(2023 hardcover, ISBN 978-1779521248 / 2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779520296 / digital)
Collects DC vs Vampires #7-12, part of James Tynion & Matthew Rosenberg’s vampire-focused Elseworld.
Detective Comics – Batman: Detective Comics Vol. 4 Riddle Me This [paperback]
(2023 hardcover, ISBN 978-1779520678 / paperback 2024, ISBN 978-1779524867 / digital)
See Guide to Detective Comics (Post-Crisis). DC still has a select number of titles where they released an initial hardcover and have a paperback staggered behind by nearly a year. That means this Detective Comics collection is still collecting material from before Ram V took over the book. Detective Comics (1937) #1059-1061 feature the arc directly following Mariko Tamaki’s weekly run of the entire Bat-Family (minus Bruce) starring in the book, plus a Sina Grace back-up story.
The Flash By Joshua Williamson Omnibus Vol.1
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1779526984)
See Guide to Flash. I really enjoyed this DC Rebirth Flash series, although after the first year of double-shipping it began to chase its own tail a bit. However, this omnibus collects just some of that first year burst of brilliant fun from Flash: Rebirth (2016) Rebirth & #1-35, the “The Button” crossover with Batman (2016) #21-22, plus Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps (2016) #32, Justice League (2016) #32-33, and a story from DC Holiday Special 2017 #1.
Tales of The Titans
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779527141 / digital)
I do have a Guide to Teen Titans, Titans, & Young Justice, but it hasn’t been updated for 2024 yet. I’ll tackle it when the next issue of Titans hits! This collects the brief Tales of the Titans (2023) #1-4 featuring solo stories of the team, itself a wink at a similarly-named title that’s now nearly 40yrs old.
The Vigil
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779523433 / digital)
This is part of the “We Are Legends” line of new comics focused on Asian heroes that launched in the wake of 2023’s Lazarus Planet mini-event. This book was from superstar writer Ram V and artist Lalit Kumar Sharma. It followed a team of vigilante metahumans trying to disrupt trade of next-gen weaponry. This collects the full series, The Vigil (2023) #1-6.
Read on for a summary of all of the DC Comics April 10 2024 single issue and digital releases!
DC Comics April 10 2024 Physical Comic Releases
Action Comics (1938) #1064 – A guide to modern era Action Comics will be coming in just a few weeks.
Until then, we have to talk about Jason Aaron and his recently-wrapped first arc on this title.
This issue is the start of a new “House of Brainiac” crossover through Action Comics and Superman (2023) by Joshua Williamson. That comes on the heels of Jason Aaron’s first ever arc on an ongoing title for DC Comics, having wrapped up in three double-sized issues from #1061-1063.
That arc focused on Bizarro. At first I felt like I was the one who was Bizarro because I really enjoyed the first issue despite almost always hating Bizarro material (it’s just not my jam). However, from there Aaron devolved into his typical tricks that have frustrated me for the past 15 years – chief among them brutality and scope problems.
When it comes to brutality, Aaron really wants you to imagine the worst possible things happening around our heroes. His examples of a Bizarro Metropolis quickly escalated from firefighters who started fires to making comments about the unspeakably reversed things happening on Maternity Wards. This is a thing Aaron does to try to contrast horrible events with the purity-of-purpose of his hero.
For me, it just doesn’t work in a Superman book the way it did on Aaron’s spectacular run on Punisher (2022). I’m not reading Superman to hear about all of the atrocities he’s just not fast enough to prevent. I realize that’s a good way to show the character being defeated, but I felt as though these issues were just a litany of these sorts of things over and over and over again, which is an Aaron speciality.
The other issue for me was the scope problem, which is a drum I beat often in my video discussions of comics on Near Mint Condition. Essentially, in a world where every comic wants to feel like an event, every comic author wants each of their little plots to be a worldwide catastrophe. That works on some books – particularly Justice League. We don’t want to see the Justice League saving a single family from a burning building.
Heck, we barely even see Spider-Man doing that anymore.
Aaron had a great, tidy story of a Bizzaro infection in Metropolis, but he had to push further and make it about the whole world being infected so he had an excuse to bring in The Joker as a protagonist. As a continuity-obsessed reader, that means I’m thinking about how this plot interrupted the plots of every other book – Wonder Woman, Flash, Titans, et cetera. Of course, Aaron tied it up afterward in a neat little bow: No one remembered! Only Superman!
I think a much stronger story beat would have stayed focused on Metropolis, with Batman suggesting infecting Joker as a failsafe for Superman. Instead, we got a bland “the whole world burns” beat that – based on Aaron’s grim set-up – probably resulted in millions of people dying and being maimed. All for an incredibly bland issue of Joker acting as Superman’s therapist.
For an arc that started so strong, it fell apart so quickly and so hard for me. Yet, if I’ve learned anything in 15 years of reading Jason Aaron comics, it’s that his dedicated audience loves those grim plot beats and scope problems.
The Bat-Man: First Knight (2024) #2 – This is a non-continuity Black Label book telling a grounded, noir-influenced version of Batman’s earliest years by Dan Jurgens, Mike Perkins, Mike Spicer, and Simon Bowland.
Batman / Dylan Dog (2024) #2 – I read the first issue of this comic after seeing voluminous social media praise and I loved it.
Dylan Dog is a famous Italian horror comic that still sells more copies of new issues than many Marvel and DC comics! He is a paranormal detective who would be at home with some of the oddest and bloodies of Batman’s cases.
The first 80-page issue of this series was a sheer delight – every page gorgeous, and with a fast-pasted and charming story that involves Joker and one of Dylan Dog’s signature nemeses – plus, Catwoman! I’ll absolutely continue to read this series even though it exists outside of continuity.
Batman and Robin (2023) #8 – See Guide to Robin(s). I wasn’t in love with this series to start – I thought Joshua Williamson’s plot was a bit amorphous and I find artist Simone Di Meo’s artwork hard to comprehend.
Yet, a pivot after issue #4 has brought this title more into focus: it’s a very regular Father/Son title with Bruce adjusting to being not-rich and Damian adjusting to going to high school … except, their new villain may or may not be Damian’s principal, and his fellow students may or may not be criminals in training.
I don’t think this book has found the right artist for its vibe yet, but I love how it pivots from adventures through Gotham at night to a sports book about soccer to tender moments of Bruce Wayne trying to be a great dad.
Batman and Robin and Howard (2023) #2 – See Guide to Robin(s). This is a single-issue release of an existing kids graphic novel with cartoonish, crayon-style artwork that explores the relationship between Damian Wayne and his regular kid school friend Howard.
Green Lantern (2023) #10 – I have several Green Lantern guides that await a fresh 2024 update, but I haven’t started catching up with this book yet – so I’m not sure which Lantern it stars! I’ll get onto this one for the next issue.
Outsiders (2023) #6 – See Guide to Outsiders. This book is so up my alley, y’all! It is a flat-out, completely-obvious relaunch of Ellis & Cassaday’s Planetary from Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing, but with Batwoman in the role of the skeptic who is new to the team.
I’ve devoured this comic in my DC catch-up. It’s emulating Planetary’s habit of serving up genre-hopping one-shot stories which all inform each other. I think issue #2 is the one to sample if you want a hint of what this can achieve, but for me issues #4 (with its overt reference to The Authority) and #5 (with a nod to Batwoman’s more horrific leanings) show this book really sizzling while keeping the endgame of its multiversal plot slightly more oblique.
I think that plot will sing for you even if you’re not an old-school WildStorm addict and this issue promises some big answers for the end of the first arc.
PS: I don’t think the covers are doing this book’s interiors from Robert Carey justice.
Red Hood: The Hill (2024) #3 – Should I have a guide to Red Hood? Jason Todd is the next former Robin with the most material to his name, but he’s probably my least favorite of the former Bat-Kids.
This series picks up directly after the conclusion of his ongoing Outlaw run at the end of Joker War. In fact, I think this is set that far in the past?
The fact that I’m unsure is part of the problem with this book, which is trying to replicate the “Nightwing takes care of Bludhaven” vibe without spending the time to fully sketch out the setting. It’s also relying heavily on characters who were only briefly set up at the end of that Outlaw run.
Ultimately, I do think it’s a positive thing for DC to have creators come back to conclude previous plot lines, but this one just feels like the pitch wasn’t tight enough.
Sinister Sons (2024) #3 – I’m not sure where this book would even live! On a Sinestro Guide, I suppose. This cartoonish book tries to replicate the breakout success of Peter Tomasi’s Super Sons – now nearly a decade ago – by repeating the gag with the sons of Sinestro and Zod.
I think the problem is that Sinestro and Zod haven’t ever had a book of their own (to my knowledge), so there’s nothing fun and silly about watching their progeny bump up against each other like there was with Damian Wayne and Jon Kent. (Plus, we had already known Damian for the better part of a decade at that point, so he served as an anchor to the much-newer Jon).
The first two issues were full of dazzling colors from Tamra Bonvillain, but we’ve already swapped artists from starter David Lafuente and most of Tomasi’s script is just a pair of brand new, one-note characters yelling at each other. There’s something compelling about Sinestro’s supposed son wanting to confirm his paternity, but nothing is really drawing me in to read this third issue.
Speed Force (2023) #6 – See Guide to The Flash. The final issue of this series starring the young pair of Flashes. Wallace West and Avery Ho.
Suicide Squad: Dream Team (2024) #2 – I do have a Guide to Suicide Squad, but it’s not updated to present day quite yet. Next month! I’m fascinated by this book but not entirely sure where it’s headed.
This is a direct follow up to Amanda Waller’s part in the Titans “Beast World” story that just wrapped, which I’ve read none of, but I get the broad strokes – the island nation of Gamorra is destabilized and Waller sees an opportunity to be its new puppet-master, but only if she can use The Dreamer to insert her Suicide Squad du jour.
Nicole Maines played Dreamer on DC’s CW shows and is the solo author of this book, with veteran artist Eddie Barrows on art. I think it made for a nuanced, textured first issue that made clear that the Waller vs. Dreamer conflict will be at the center of this book. That might turn off some fans of Suicide Squad (and especially of modern Harley Squads), but I’m definitely ready to tune in for more.
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