DC Comics

Debating our Evergreen Batman Omnibus List – LIVE on Near Mint Condition

May 22, 2024 by krisis

Are you ready to rumble? Tomorrow – Thursday May 23 @ 6:30 PM US ET, I’m live with Near Mint Condition to share my Evergreen Batman Omnibus List – that means the Batman books should never go out of print!

Of course, I’m not a noted Batman fan, so what do I have to contribute to this debate? Well, over the past several weeks of DC Omnibus mapping I made time to read a handful of issues from every single Batman & Bat-Family omnibus ever printed by DC. Not only did I want to make an informed vote, I wanted to be able to joust with all of our many merry guests!

I’ll be co-hosting this debate with Uncanny Omar of Near Mint Condition, featuring Jess the Omnidog, Lars of Mad Norwegian Press, Jake from The Brave & The Boys, Wonder Maddie from NMC’s Old Reader / New Reader, and even more distinguished panelists. We will each share our 3 picks for Batman & Bat-Family evergreen omnibus volumes… and then we’ll fight tooth and nail over our officially endorsed Evergreen Batman Omnibus List of 10 books. Plus, viewers on the live stream will get to have their say to correct our mistakes and choose their own fan vote!

It’s the stream that is half serious recommendations, half a cut-throat game show of all of us trying to block other people’s recommendations so that all of our own make the list.

Tune in to Near Mint Condition on YouTube tomorrow to find out!

Announcing the Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus 1st Annual Poll on Near Mint Condition

May 19, 2024 by krisis

The time has arrived! Join me LIVE at 2:30 PM US ET with Omar of Near Mint Condition and the legendary and elusive Tigereyes as we review every one of nearly 600 voting options on the Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus 1st Annual Poll! Once we’re done reviewing the title options, voting will begin!

For more details on how to vote, including the voting link, visit my Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus 1st Annual Poll page.

Watch us announce the Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus 1st Annual Poll on YouTube!

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – May 22 2024

May 19, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 21st new comic book day of the new year! This post covers DC Comics May 22 2024 releases, which actually hit comic stores on Tuesday May 21 2024. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics May 15 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: Waid’s World’s Finest, oversize Fables, House of Brainiac continues, JL vs Godzilla vs Kong concludes, Taylor’s final Nightwing arc begins, Joker’s best friend, Constantine’s road trip continues, many WebToons in physical format, 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 22 2024 Collected Editions

Barkham Asylum
(2024 digest-size paperback, ISBN 978-1779505002 / digital)
This is a non-continuity OGN aimed at 8-12 year-old readers about Joker’s dog Jester being locked up in the pet equivalent of Arkham Asylum. Can this bad dog find a good streak, or is he doomed to heed the call of his villainous master? It sounds silly but super-cute! I might try to get it from the library for Kid Krisis.

Batman: Wayne Family Adventures Vol. 4
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779526915)
Speaking of non-continuity Batman adventures, this volume continues to collect the hit non-continuity WebToon about the extended BatFamily. Y’all know it is an enduring mystery to me why anyone reads non-continuity stories, but I hear from many friends that this is a fun book!

Perhaps the popularity of this run is a part of why every single one of DC’s major heroes are currently leading their own families of characters of every age, gender, and sexual orientation (which is a big part of what I love about DC right now).

DC Pride: Love and Justice
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1779525918 / digital)
This anthology of anthologies claims to collect all of DC Pride (2021) #1, plus selected (or all?) stories (presumably all from LGBTQA* characters) from Mysteries of Love in Space (2019) #1, New Year’s Evil (2019) #1, and Young Monsters in Love (2018) #1.

The real mystery in space is trying to figure how how and where DC collects all of these stories from single issue anthologies into collections, often years after the fact!

Batman: Black Mirror The Deluxe Edition
(2024 deluxe hardcover, ISBN 978-1779525895 / digital)
A brand new deluxe hardcover of Scott Snyder’s first major foray into Batman from just prior to Pre-Flashpoint with artists Jock and Francesco Francavilla, which is certainly a factor in what landed him his iconic New 52 Batman run! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – May 22 2024

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – May 15 2024

May 10, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 20th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers DC Comics May 15 2024 releases, which actually hit comic stores on Tuesday May 14 2024. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics May 8 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: all-new iconic Superman villains, an all-in Justice League omnibus, best-ever Poison Ivy, Blue Beetle swings big, Outsiders after the reveal, the House of Brainiac continues, Batman & Dylan Dog concludes, Hal reunites with the Corps, and more!

DC Comics May 15 2024 Collected Editions

Adventures of Superman: George Pérez
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1779525871/ digital)
See Guide to Action Comics (Post-Crisis, 1987 – Present) or Guide to Superman (Post-Crisis, 1987 – Present). This collects George Pérez’s work on Superman from two different transitional periods – from Action Comics in 1989 just after the year of “Action Comics Weekly” (and just before the Triangle Era), and his launch of Superman (2011) for DC New 52.

The late-80s material is much more compelling, but it’s just starting to be covered in omnibus right now – so the only reason to pick this up is if you’re a major George Pérez fan rather than a huge Super-fan.

Batman: Fortress
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779525086 / digital)
DC’s solicit text calls this Gary Whitta & Darick Robertson mini-series an “Elsewords-style” story about Batman breaking into the Fortress of Solitude, which means it’s not in current DC continuity.

As a result, I haven’t caught up on this one – but I’ve seen it savaged by fans online. While we should all make up our own minds (when do I ever agree with fans online?), there’s also a surplus of fantastic Batman material right now – both in and out of continuity. For an easy-to-pick up Batman series, check out my rapturous reaction to Batman / Dylan Dog (2023), below.

Justice League International Omnibus Vol. 3
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1779525642)
See Guide to Justice League. This isn’t just an International omnibus, it’s a dream League omnibus. That’s because as this omnibus line has pressed on past the initial run of Justice League International it has collected everything Justice League in the Post-Crisis era. It collects Justice League America (1989), Justice League Europe (1989), and Justice League Quarterly (1990).

This volume adds some 00s era material by Keith Giffen, John Dematteis, & Kevin Maguire, which makes me slightly nervous this is a final volume. Fingers crossed that DC keeps up this all-in omnibus line – you can see the mapping in my Justice League Omnibus Mapping post from earlier this week!

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – May 8 2024

May 4, 2024 by krisis

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!

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. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – May 8 2024