It’s the 18th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers DC Comics May 1 2024 releases, which actually hit comic stores on Tuesday April 30 2024. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics April 24 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 May 1 2024 New Releases post… for releases on April 30 ? )
Unlike Marvel, who likes to fill every week to the brim with new releases, in a month with five new comic book days, DC treats the fifth one as a free play to release one-shots an annuals. That’s because their books tend to have a fixed schedule of what week(s) of the month they arrive.
This week in DC Comics: an absolutely stunning Dini & Ross collection, Spurrier’s Flash family squad gets bigger, the secret history of Nightwing’s pirate queen, Harley cruises with Zatanna, a House of Brainiac special, and more!
This list includes every comic and digital comic out from DC 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 May 1 2024 Collected Editions
Absolute Justice League: The World’s Greatest Superheroes
(2024 slipcased oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1779526311)
This is a definitive oversize collection of the Paul Dini & Alex Ross collaborations on DC Comics original graphic novels from 1998 to 2003. Together, they wrote definitive stories for DC’s Trinity, Shazam, and the Justice League.
They are all collected here in order: Superman: Peace on Earth (1998) OGN, Batman: War On Crime (1999) OGN, Shazam!: Power of Hope (2000) OGN, Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth (2001) OGN, JLA: Secret Origins (2002) OGN, and JLA: Liberty And Justice (2003) OGN
Read on for a summary of all of the DC Comics May 1 2024 single issue and digital releases!
DC Comics May 1 2024 Physical Comic Releases
DC’s Spring Breakout! (2024) #1 – One of DC’s seasonal one-shot anthology issues featuring eight stories. I really need a way to handle these in a guide, in the same way I need a guide for the Marvel’s Voices one-shots.
The Flash (2023) Annual 1/2024 – See Guide to Flash. This issue by regular series writer pulls Wallace West & Avery Ho into the Flash Family mix after the conclusion of their duo comic, Speed Force.
Harley Quinn (2019) Annual 1/2024 – See Guide to Harley Quinn. A Harley & Zatanna one-shot adventure written and illustrated by Erica Henderson, who you might know best from Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.
Nightwing (2016) Annual 1/2024 – See Guide to Nightwing. Writer/Artist Travis Moore digs into the background of the so-called “Pirate Queen” from the current Tom Taylor arc – Taylor’s own unexpected spin on a character from the Ric Grayson period before he took over.
Superman: House of Brainiac Special (2024) #1 – See Guide to Action Comics (1987 – Present). This is “Chapter 2.5” of the current “House of Brainiac” crossover through the super-books (with some addition tie-ins thrown in).
Would you believe I’ve never read a Brainiac issue in my life before this week?! I literally only know the character as the chrome-plated toy from Kenner’s DC Super Powers!
Well, that changed with me catching up on the first two chapters of this story from Action Comics (1938) #1064 and Superman (2023) #13. And… IT IS FREAKING AMAZING.
You don’t really need to know anything about current Superman status quo to appreciate it. It starts with a knock-down, drag-out fight throughout Metropolis with a fleet of Czarnians (Lobo’s people!) against the full Super-Family plus some folks from LexCorp in Action Comics (1938) #1064. Then, in Superman (2023) #13, Superman recruits a main man to help in his counterstrike against Brainiac while we get a hint at Brainiac’s plot.
Rafa Sandoval drew both issues with Alejandro Sánchez on colors and they are seriously at BEST IN INDUSTRY quality. My jaw was on the floor.
This Brainiac special will be the first issue without Sandoval on art duties, and it’s not necessarily a sequential chapter of the story – more of a backgrounder of how we got here and what else is occurring in response to Brainiac’s smash-and-grab in Metropolis. But, at this point they’ve got me totally hooked!
If this sounds interesting at all to you I’d say you should check out Action Comics (1938) #1064 rather than picking up this Special cold.
[…] It’s the 18th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers DC Comics May 8 2024 releases, which actually hit comic stores on Tuesday May 7 2024. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics May 1 2024 new releases. […]