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.
(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.)
This week in DC Comics: spotlight on Steel, the mystery of Birds of Prey, the end of Poison Ivy begins, Zod lost in space, Shazam gets silly again, a massive Dick (Grayson) Compendium, and more!
This list includes every comic and digital comic out from DC this week, plus collected editions including 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 8 2024 Collected Editions
52 Volume One
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779525857 / digital)
See Guide to DC Universe Events – Trinity, 52, and One Year Later. This is a straight reprint of a 2016 recollection of this 52-issue weekly anthology series that collected exactly half of its run.
The 52 (2006) series was a delightful sampler platter of slightly more obscure DC heroes, who would largely disappear from view from 2011-2020. If you enjoy the idea of a grab-bag of smaller DC characters operating in a vacuum where Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman won’t be saving the day, this is for you.
Nightwing: A Knight in Blüdhaven Compendium Book One
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779525864)
See Guide to Nightwing. Ah, the DC collected editions “strategy” strikes again. DC is rolling out these 1,000-page hulks of paperback collections with 40-ish issues each. Great way to collect huge swaths of DC’s endless catalog in a uniform format, right? These massive doorstops could cruise across all of DC’s major superhero title lines, and even the hugest ones like Action/Superman and Detective/Batman could be knocked out over time if DC kept at it. And, single title heroes like Nightwing could be totally collected in just 4-5 volumes.
Well, at the same time DC are also rolling out their new “DC Finest” line which are effectively DC’s version of Epic Collections. These books are 16-25 issue paperbacks that… do the exact same thing as the Compendiums in a seemingly identical format, just at half the length.
Now we’re all left with a decision. Do we want to buy this Nightwing Compendium, which collects the first third of Pre-Flashpoint solo Nightwing all in one book? Ah, but before you answer, note that Catwoman – a character also in the Batman line with similar scope and length of solo series that crosses over with Batman just as much as Nightwing does – is getting a “DC Finest” trade and not a compendium.
Basically: DC’s strategy doesn’t make a lick of sense.
What would make more sense is using compendiums to knock through runs that could never be collected completely in 20-issue chunks – namely, Pre-Crisis Golden, Silver, and Bronze Age. Then, use the “DC Finest” line for everything Post-Crisis – a much smaller scope than Marvel’s Epic Collection is covering.
Alas, we already have DC Finest collections announced for Golden and Silver material, and Compendiums announced for the 90s and 00s. It looks like these two formats will be competing with each other, sometimes within the same line or even across the same titles.
Steelworks: A Hero Reborn TP
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779525024 / digital)
See Guide to Action Comics (Post-Crisis, 1987 – Present). This collection focused on Steel includes a trio of (not great) back-up stories from Action Comics and then Steel’s own six-issue series written by Michael Dorn – Steel’s voice in animation, and Worf from Star Trek!
I mildly enjoyed the mini-series, but it felt like a weak sauce version of the same action happening in Action at the same time with Superman fighting Metallo. Both series featured the full Super-Family, just with different perspective characters.
Yet, the more I think about this story, Steel’s perspective never really makes sense in the end. He begins the story wanting to relieve Metropolis of its reliance on the Super-Family, and basically ends it saying “aw, shucks, I was dumb, we can only survive with superheroes.”
So, I’d say even if you’re a major fan of Steel I’m not sure this is going to be hugely satisfying for you. I’d recommend you read Action Comics first, and then if you’re craving more of the same read this.
Read on for a summary of all of the DC Comics May 8 2024 single issues and digital releases!
DC Comics May 8 2024 Physical Comic Releases
Batman (2016) #147 – See Guide to Batman (Post-Crisis, 1986 – Present). Part three of Chip Zdarsky’s “Broken Prisons” arc.
Speaking of which, I’ve just broken into the first arc of this much-reviled Chip Zdarsky run and I absolutely loved it.
Granted, I’m the easiest possible mark for a comic with Jorge Jiménez art. But, the idea of past Batman unwittingly outwitting present Batman in a way that causes total disaster is delicious fun for me. I also love Three Jokers nonsense, and apparently this run includes that as well!
I think I just care about different things than the average fan of Batman and Superman. When people were annoyed with the previous James Tynion run on Batman it was at the very top of my pull list. And, when people were annoyed at the “America’s Dad” Superman by Tomasi & Gleason I was eating it up.
Maybe it’s an old age thing. Maybe it’s a being a parent thing. Or, maybe it is because my love of Batman and Superman is rooted in comics directly surrounding Zero Hour, so I’m looking for a lot of big, bold story beats and less of the grimly fought puzzle solving of the 00s.
Who knows?!
I’ll continue to work through an arc of this every time a new issue is out, so you’ll get to experience my defiance of the zeitgeist or my increasing frustration in real time.
The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries (2024) #5 – This is the third consecutive series of Batman teaming up with the Scooby Gang, now an ongoing due to his perennial popularity! This book not only features Batman, but also other DC characters like Nightwing, Catwoman, and Deadman. Do I need a Scooby Guide?!
Birds of Prey (2023) #9 – See Guide to Birds of Prey. Kelly Thompson’s first DC ongoing title continues into a third arc, as the core mystery of this new Birds of Prey expands.
The first arc of this book was a revelation. Thompson brought the acerbic wit of her Hawkeye (2017) run to a team of mismatched heroes. While some might have objected to her comedic take on Big Barda, it also included a pitch-perfect Harley Quinn and Zealot and an electrifying confrontation with Wonder Woman and the Amazons of Themyscira.
That initial arc deliberately avoided using Barbara Gordon, and the lightweight story co-starring Vixen in issues #7-8 explained why. That will lead us deeper into the mystery of how Barbara relates to this new team in issue #9.
If you haven’t been reading this from the start, I suggest going back for issue #1. It’s one of Thompson’s best scripts of all time, and the entire first arc features all-time-great work from Leonardo Romero and Jordie Bellaire.
The Boy Wonder (2024) #1 – See Guide to Robin(s). A non-continuity Black Label fable written and drawn by Juni Ba.
Kneel Before Zod (2024) #5 – See Guide to Superman (Post-Crisis, 1987 – Present). I love stories that let villains be villains (more on that in a moment), so I was intrigued by this Joe Casey series. Casey wrote the super-books more than 20 years ago, but he’s also an oddball creator who has a way of pushing the limits and playing with transgressive ideas.
Casey’s perspective got this series off to an interesting start. Zod is free to rule over his world of New Kandor with an iron fist as long as he plays lip service to the rules of the new United Planets. Zod is perfectly happy to keep up his streak of cruelty as he constructs weapons of mass destruction to extend and expand his rule. However, that quickly unravels due to challenges from his partner Ursa, his child Lor-Zod, the warlike Khunds, and from within his own mind.
If that sort of thing sounds interesting to you, then you will love this series. There’s not a single redemptive panel to be found so far. Every character is crueler than the last, which speaks to Zod’s entire existence.
However, it also means it’s hard to root for or against anyway. Zod is our protagonist, but he’s also everyone’s antagonist. Rooting for him involves rooting for genocide and enjoying women and children being treated cruelly (both by the story and the author). Personally, it’s hard for me to get excited for more of that. However, I can’t deny it is well-made, andlLast issue ended with Zod drifting towards a possible comeuppance, which is intriguing.
Poison Ivy (2022) #22 – See Guide to Harley Quinn (for now). I think I have loved every G. Willow Wilson comic I’ve ever read, so I have been hotly anticipating my chance to dig into this series!
I read the first arc this week and it totally blew me away. I love that GWW leans into Ivy being a villain not because she is a murderous psychopath, but because she thinks she has to hate people to love The Green. There is something so incredibly pure about that to me, because it speaks to Ivy’s discomfort with her own humanity and how hard it is for her to form human connections.
I am not rushing through my catch-up on this one, so I don’t have any fresh news on the current arc! However, if you haven’t read this series yet, the first story comes with my highest possible endorsement!
Shazam! (2023) #11 – See Guide to Shazam. This series kicked off a year ago with Mark Waid & Dan Mora as the creative team, hot from their mega-popular run on World’s Finest.
Maybe that means folks enjoyed this book. I did not. Maybe this comes from seeing so many joyous early Shazam stories as I put together my guide, but I am totally turned off by the idea of Billy Batson being an asshole – either as himself or as Shazam. I’m not saying he has to be constantly perfect or always kind. He’s a fallible kid who doesn’t fully appreciate the nuances of the adult world that being Shazam thrusts him into. However, when a book steers into depicting him as excessively lazy or cruel get completely turned off.
Add to that that this book was rated 13+ seemingly just so it could use the word “ass” several times and I couldn’t make it through more than a few issues.
That all changed with issue #10! New author Josie Campbell wrote a more youthful, joyous version of the Shazam family that immediately appealed to me, and Emanuela Lupacchino’s pencils always hit the mark.
I suspect this book won’t last too much long without Waid’s name on it, but it ought to. We have so many comic books where the darkness of the world is the point. I think Shazam is custom-made to be about a more light-hearted take on the world. I want to see it lean into the humorous and the fantastical, all while reminding us that Billy is just a kid in the guise of a superhero… but I know that doesn’t appeal as much to modern readers.
Suicide Squad: Kill Arkham Asylum (2024) #4 – See Guide to Suicide Squad. The penultimate issue of a mini-series prequel to the Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League game.
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