DC's July previews reviewed

There's no cover image supplied for Black Adam—The Justice Society Files: Hakwman #1 by Cavan Scott, Bryan Q. Miller, Scot Eaton and company, but we do have a few paragraphs of solicitation copy and that long, strange title to go on, and, well, it sounds awfully weird. DC Comics disintegrated JSA continuity during the New 52 era , the very continuity that the upcoming Black Adam film that is inspiring this comic seems be based on, and so now I'm not so sure what the state of the JSA's history in the new, post-Death Metal DCU even is. Did everything just get restored and go back to the way it was prior to Flashpoint? If so, then there's still a weird, ten-year gap among the various JSA legacy heroes that needs back-filled in....which maybe this is an attempt to do so...? 

Ha ha, and I didn't think Hawkman continuity could get anymore weird and alienating! 

I'm honestly eagerly awaiting the Elseworlds-style DC: Mech #1, which looks to balance "awesome" and "stupid" in that way that certain superhero comics manage that I like (See also Jurassic League). I've read a couple of Marvel mech stories (Avengers Mech Strike, reviewed here), and DC tried something similar at least once, but it's been a while. 

Anyway, I am, as the kids say, here for it. 

I'm not sure I'm sold on the way DC has been managing its DC Vs. Vampires franchise, what with all the spin-offs like this month's DC Vs. Vampires: All Out War #1 being released as the main series is still ongoing and uncollected, but any excuse for James Stokoe drawing the DCU is worthwhile, if you ask me. 

The main series, meanwhile, will ship its seventh issue this month. 

The Franco-written, multi-artist book Deadman Tells The Spooky Tales has a pretty on-the-nose sounding title. I've no real idea what to expect beyond what that title says the book is about, of course, but Derek Charm is one of the "fiendish friends" of Franco providing art work, so I know that at least one story should be worth a look. Fingers crossed for a Kelley Jones chapter!

Dark Crisis: Young Justice #2 Wait, what? #2?! D'oh! I assumed June's Dark Crisis: Young Justice #1 was a one-shot, so I went ahead and ordered it. I didn't realize it was part of a six-issue miniseries tying into the Dark Crisis event series and that I, therefore, should have just waited for the trade. Dang.

Here's a title seemingly designed specifically to make readers feel old: Harley Quinn: 30 Years of The Maid of Mischief The Deluxe Edition. Has it really been 30 years already? Gee, I guess it has, hasn't it? Gah!

Having just recently fallen down a Gotham earthquake rabbit hole and purchased the titanic  $125, 1,000+-page Batman: No Man's Land Omnibus Vol. 1 and finding it incredibly difficult to read at all—it's quite unwieldly, and I am in constant fear of tearing the spine via a combination of clumsiness, gravity and its own weight—I have mixed feelings about this $100, 650-page collection of Gotham City Sirens, renamed as Harley Quinn and The Gotham City Sirens.  

A fan of Guillem March's work, I'd love to read it, given how little of it I saw when it was published serially, but I'd much rather buy, say, four to six trade paperbacks than something the size, weight and fragility of a family Bible. 

Does anyone know if this material is all already available in trade, or is there some of it that would be unique to this collection? 

Okay, that's a pretty great cover on Robin #16 by Dan Schoening.

Okay, how do you feel about Dreamer's costume? I mistook the hero, making her in-continuity debut in the pages of Superman: Son of Kal-El #13, as Huntress at first glance on the above cover. Upon closer inspection of the other two covers for the issue, it's pretty clear the ways in which her costume varies from the latest Huntress costume, but it still looks a little too...well, too CW to me. I wonder if there's a way to tweak it to make it look more organically part of the DCU, and less like a costume from a TV show based on a DC comic...? If that makes sense...?  Maybe it just depends on who is drawing it, and the level of realistic detail they bring to their style. 

I'm not sure how I feel about Mark Russell writing an official, canonical Superman after reading his Superman Stories and the Superman analogue-starring Second Coming series that came out of it so many years later, but I know Mike Allred was born to draw the Man of Steel, as his 1997 Superman/Madman Hullabaloo proved. At any rate, their collaboration Superman: Space Age #1 should be a book to keep an eye on. 

When I realized I didn't understand any of the words in the solicitation copy, I realized that Young Justice: Targets #1 must be related to the cartoon series, and not the long-running comic series I used to read. There's also yet another Batman Beyond-related comic, while the world cries out for nire comics based on Batman: The Brave and The Bold.