It’s the 16th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers DC Comics April 17 2024 releases, which actually hit comic stores on Tuesday April 16 2024. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics April 10 2024 new releases.
(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 then – which means this is the DC Comics April 17 2024 New Releases post… for releases on April 16 😂 )
This week in DC Comics: Jurassic Justice, Tynion & Martinez Bueno Dark omnibus, Catwoman’s final lives, Constantine in America, the 300th Nightwing issue, Titans are manipulated, Wonder Woman loses, 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 Marvel this week, plus collected editions in omnibus, hardcover, paperback, and digest-sized formats. I recap and review every new single issue. Plus, for every 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 17 2024 Collected Editions
Batman: White Knight Presents – Generation Joker
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1779524904 / digital)
More of Sean Murphy’s ongoing White Knight mini-verse, this features the future children of Joker and Harley Quinn.
City Boy
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779524874 / digital)
A series by Greg Pak and Minkyu Jung that was part of DC’s short-lived “We Are Legends” line introducing new Asian heroes.
The Jurassic League
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779524898 / digital)
The Justice League as dinosaurs drawn by indie mega-star Daniel Warren Johnson with his trusty colorist Mike Spicer. Either that sentence sounds like complete gibberish to you or you want that in your eyeballs right now!
Justice League Dark Rebirth Omnibus
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1779525888)
I won’t refer you to my Justice League guide, since that’s in line for a massive update in the coming weeks. However, I will say that this very complete collection of James Tynion’s run on Justice League Dark (with art largely by Alvaro Martinez Bueno) is an absolute delight. It’s dark, it’s twisted, it’s funny, it’s gorgeous, and the stories often feel big enough to be an entire DC event while still feeling like they have the right scope for one flagship title. FYI, this also collects the Ram V back-up stories!
Naomi: Season Two
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779524829 / digital)
Collects the second go-round on this made-for-TV DC teen from Brian Bendis, David Walker, & Jamal Campbell.
Tim Drake: Robin Vol. 2 – A Case of Chaos
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779524911 / digital)
See Guide to Robin(s). The second-half of Meghan FitzMartin’s short-lived Tim Drake series that concluded nearly a year ago. I’m convinced this sputtered so quickly not because of Drake (and the recent revelation of him being bisexual), but because Riley Rossmo’s cartoonish art work is a total non-fit for a Tim Drake detective story.
Read on for a summary of all of the DC Comics April 17 2024 single issue and digital releases!
DC Comics April 17 2024 Physical Comic Releases
Batman / Superman: World’s Finest (2022) #26 – Sorry, no guide to Batman/Superman team-ups quite yet! I still need to make it through modern Action Comics and Superman… coming very soon!
I am a moderate fan of Mark Waid and a massive fan of the art team of Dan More & Tamra Bonvillain. Yet, I barely made it through the first arc. I seem to be in the <1% of fans who dislike this series based on its massive positive reception on review sites.
I don’t understand why we should read arc after arc of pointless retcon stories by Waid when he could be creating something in the modern day of DC. That’s just who I am as a reader – I want new stories set right now, and if you’re doing retcons you better tell me the exact panels that retcon fits between so I can enjoy it in the context of where it fits into the past. Otherwise, it might as well be an Earth One, or Elseworlds, or Black Label book. DC has plenty of ways to tell non-continuity stories.
I know that’s a me thing and that 99% of fans are devouring this series month after month. I’ll catch up on it eventually, if only for the beautiful artwork.
Batman: Off-World (2023) #4 – I’m not the biggest fan of Jason Aaron, but I’m a big fan of this version of Jason Aaron – one who can deliver pulpy sci-fi fun with some heart beneath of it and without a lot of cynicism and gore. This is Aaron’s first DC series (it debuted before he was on Action) and it’s meant to be Batman’s first space adventure and it’s mostly an excuse for Doug Mahnke to draw a bunch of cool aliens.
Catwoman (2016) #64 – See Guide to Catwoman. This title was a huge part of me quitting DC in mid-2021. Every time I came back to the next issue in my pull I just dreaded reading it. I couldn’t tell what it was about or what Selina’s motivations were, and I usually fell asleep in the middle of every issue – even if it was in broad daylight!
Since I’m in no hurry to catch up from where I left off, I simply read the newest Tini Howard arc that this issue completes, following Selina’s participation in the Gotham War crossover with Chip Zdarsky’s Batman. I love Howard’s concept here: six one-shot stories of scores too big and too dangerous for Selina to risk her life over… until now! I love taking Selina out of Gotham and giving her a reason for thieving.
However, I am really struggling with Veronica Gandini’s colors, especially on Carmine di Giandomenico’s art- someone I usually love! I didn’t love Gandini’s palette from the start of this arc, but with Giandemonico’s level of detail and active backgrounds I’m completely losing the narrative on every page. It has made the past few issues unpleasant for me. At a glance, I think Gandini was better suited to the plain, clean lines of Marcus To’s art on a prior arc.
Green Lantern: War Journal (2023) #8 – This is a Jon Stewart title, who I routinely love, and a Phillip K. Johnson comic, who I routinely skip. I’ll get my Guide to Green Lantern – Jon Stewart updated with this next month and maybe give the first issue a try.
Jay Garrick: The Flash (2023) #6 – See Guide to Flash. I’ll need to catch up on this present day adventure for JSA Flash Jay Garrick and his previously lost-in-time daughter!
John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America (2024) #4 – See Guide to Hellblazer, John Constantine. I was obsessed with Si Spurrier, Aaron Campbell, Jordie Bellaire, & Aditya Bidikar’s last go-round on Hellblazer in 2019. It was one of my top books of the year and truly one of my favorite comics of all time. I can’t wait to catch up on this book to see what they’re doing with Constantine translated into the American idiom.
Nightwing (2016) #113 – See Guide to Nightwing. This is Nightwing’s 300th issue and I can’t wait to read it! Tom Taylor has done an extraordinary thing with Nightwing, which is to simply stay close to the heart of the character and write that with joy. Taylor’s Dick Grayson has been through some difficult plots, but what comes through in every issue is just the pure unadulterated love of this character and his continuity that Taylor brings to the book. There’s hardly a weak issue in this multi-year run, even after you strip away all the amazing art feats from Bruno Redondo & Adriana Lucas. I love this team’s signature villain of Heartless, a dark reflection of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, but with a sci-fi twist.
Superman (2023) #13 – I have yet to catch up on this Joshua Williamson Superman series, but I do love me some Lobo – the guest star in this arc. I can’t wait to catch up on this for next month.
Titans (2023) #10 – See Guide to Titans, Teen Titans, & Young Justice. I’ve only caught up with this first arc of this book through issue #5 – prior to Beast War. It’s an absolute delight. Few people draw more realistic and distinct faces than Nicola Scott, and Tom Taylor clearly has a love for these characters and their histories!
However, Taylor likes to write fast, loose, and funny, so I’m hoping he will find more time to develop characters on the team that don’t have their own solo or team titles like Nightwing and Wally West do. Perhaps that has already kicked in throughout Beast Wars – I’ll find out when I read it next week!
Wonder Woman (2023) #8 – See Guide to Wonder Woman. Diana is my favorite comics character – one of the very few where I get a little blinded by fandom and unhinged in my opinions. Tom King is one of my least favorite popular comics writers. I disagree with his approach to the medium on a fundamental level that makes me object to how he crafts nearly every sentence and panel.
I’m sure you can imagine how much fun I am having with this series
I think if you enjoy King’s increasingly militaristic, “all comics are war comics” take on super-heroics this series will ring for you. He’s doing a thing he thinks is clever by telegraphing Diana’s future victory in the narration while beating her down in the present, but for me it doesn’t alleviate how joyless I find this comic (especially his stilted voice for Diana).
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