DC's Octobers Previews Reviewed

Hi there loyal Every Day Is Like Wednesday readers! It’s that time of the month again, when DC releases their next round of full solicitations, Newsarama posts them, and I react to them for your edification/amusement.

Up this month is October and, I’ve gotta tell you, things are not looking good. Countdown is proliferating miniseries and tie-ins at an alarming rate (I’m not sure, but I think DC must add one new issue to the Countdown story for every reader who drops it from their pull list).

Eventitis isn’t limited to Countdown, of course, as the Sinestro Corps storyline rages on, and it looks like the Bat-books are ramping up for their first major event since War Games. Considering how that turned out, that is very bad news indeed.

M.I.A. for the month are all three Kuberts, other hot DC exclusives Jim Lee and Frank Miller, and there are no All-Stars and only one Grant Morrison-written book.

There are some bright spots though, like some interesting trades, the fact that The Spirit still isn’t cancelled and Gail Simone’s much anticipated run on Wonder Woman begins.

Ready to take a closer look? Are you sure you want to do that? I mean, things are probably gonna get pretty ugly in this post. I have to stay here, it’s my blog, but there’s no rule saying you folks have to suffer through all this disillusioned DCU fan bile and crazy nerd ranting, you know? Not when you could be doing something more constructive with your time, like enjoying funny pictures of cats.





ACTION COMICS #858 Written by Geoff Johns. Art by Gary Frank & Jonathan Sibal. Cover by Frank. Welcome superstar Gary Frank as he kicks off his run as the new monthly artist on ACTION COMICS with the extra-length first chapter of “Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes”! Spinning from “The Lightning Saga,” the original Legion of Super-Heroes returns! When he was a boy, Clark Kent was isolated and alone until he met this teen team from the 31st Century. Today, it’s been years since Superman saw his childhood friends. Why haven’t they returned to visit him? What’s become of the symbol of Superman in the future? And just why is the future so dangerous for Superman? They warned him away, but now he’s determined to help his friends — even if it means his life!

What should have been the “One Year Later” Action Comics team finally makes is debut…one (and a half) year(s) later.

I hope this story finally resolves just what the hell is going on with Legion/Superman continuity. Because it always scared me away when there was just one Legion, and now we seem to have at least two completely different Legions interacting with the DCU proper simultaneously.




AQUAMAN: SWORD OF ATLANTIS #57 Written by Tad Williams. Art by Shawn McManus. Cover by Kevin Maguire. Young Arthur must accept the role that destiny has cast him in…and accept his place as the new Aquaman!

This is the finaly issue, I’m not really surprised. Or even terribly disappointed, despite my love of Aquaman (which hasn’t really been a good book since Peter David left it a half dozen creative teams ago).

If Kurt Busiek was doing something with the swordfish and sorcery OYL direction, he sure took his time doing it…and then quit before he got anywhere. Tad Williams did an admirable job making sense out of the book, synthesizing characters and themes from it’s last several versions, but was left with far too much mess to clean up.

I would at this point offer up some half-baked analysis on why replacing Orin with a brand new, younger, weaker version of himself probably wasn’t a very good idea, but the all-knowing Absorbascon’s insightful
“Aquamanifesto” is so on the money, I don’t see any need to.

I will add that “killing” Orin off in Infinite Crisis was kinda stupid, seeing as how they had just “killed” him off in the last big DCU story event, “Our Worlds At War.”

At this point, I hope DC just Aquaman in limbo for a year or two or three, and wait for the right creators with the right idea, ones that have the time, imagination, skill, interest and energy to tackle one of superhero comics’ most notoriously difficult to handle franchises.

In the meantime, there’s always JLA: Classified as a place to see Aquaman adventures set in the past.





BATMAN #670 Written by Grant Morrison. Art and cover by Tony Daniel.The next chapter of Batman’s life starts here! The shadow of Batman’s archfoe Ra’s al Ghul still looms large over the head of the Dark Knight. Is Ra’s al Ghul destined to live again? Batman begins his quest for the truth in this special prelude to “The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul,” guest-starring Talia al Ghul, Damian, the Sensei and I-Ching!

Hey, wait a minute, Tony Daniel’s not Andy Kubert!





BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #1 Written by Tony Bedard
Art by Koi Turnbull & Art Thibert
Cover by Turnbull
Variant Cover by Ryan Sook
Tony Bedard (BIRDS OF PREY, COUNTDOWN) and Koi Turnbull (Fathom) launch a bold new direction for the DCU’s misfit heroes! The rules have changed all over the DC Universe — but for the Outsiders, they’re still just things that were made to be broken!
It’s a fresh game of dirty pool for the Outsiders as the Dark Knight sends his new team to the frontlines of a massive assault on metahumans. Batman and the Outsiders must fight even dirtier than their enemies...and risk becoming the supervillains they despise!


After reading Bedard’s Newsarama interview about the direction for the book, I’ve got to say, I think I liked this line-up a lot better:









BLACK ADAM: THE DARK AGE #3
Written by Peter J. Tomasi
Art by Doug Mahnke & Christian Alamy
Cover by Mahnke
After Black Adam and Faust strike a deal within the bowels of Fate's Tower that will aid Adam in his search for the lost amulet of Isis, Adam finds himself face to face with his former JSA teammate, Hawkman, in an epic battle that will rock the streets and skies of St. Roch!

Ha ha! “Bowels.”

Now, how are they going to make a Black Adam vs. Hawkman fight last longer than one panel, I wonder?





BOOSTER GOLD #3
Written by Geoff Johns & Jeff Katz
Art and cover by Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund
This is it! The DEATH of BOOSTER GOLD!! And nothing will ever be the same aga...wait. We already tried to kill him? Really? Well, in this issue Booster Gold heads back to the Old West and runs into Jonah Hex. You know, that crazy looking gunfighter! But what does Jonah Hex have that Booster desperately needs? Plus: the Death of Jonah Hex!!
What? We can't kill him either? Well, someone’s going to fall off a horse at least!*
(*Warning: This issue may not contain a scene of anyone falling off a horse.)

I’m much, much more excited about this particular exploration of the new multiverse than I am all the “Challengers of Beyond” business. This actually looks fun and exciting, instead of random and confusing.





CAPTAIN CARROT AND THE FINAL ARK #1
WRITTEN by Bill Morrison
Art by Scott Shaw! & Al Gordon
Cover by Shaw! & Morrison
The Zoo Crew is back in a 3-issue COUNTDOWN tie-in miniseries! Captain Carrot reunites the team to face a threat that begins at the “Sandy Eggo Comic-Con” and quickly menaces the entire world ! The gang’s all here: Fastback, Pig-Iron, Yankee Poodle, American Eagle, Alley-Kat-Abra, and the Captain himself, taking on the Salamandroid!


Read that first sentence again. And despair.






COUNTDOWN 30-26 …Covers 30-27 by Ian Churchill & Norm Rapmund; Cover 26 by J.G. Jones. Karate Kid confronts Brother Eye! Jimmy Olsen is grabbed by Forager! Shadowpact tries to subdue an out-of-control Mary Marvel! The Crime Syndicate, the Extremists and Monarch gather against the Challengers! Holly and Harley arrive on Paradise Island — and begin their “training”! A lucky coin-toss might have Two-Face save Piper and Trickster from Checkmate! And who is the mysterious— but funny — Jokester? Oh, and Mister Mxyzptlk explains it all!

In theory, a lot of that sounds pretty awesome. There’s even a mention of Mr. Mxyzptlk in there. But in reality, this series has been just plain unreadable, and it doesn’t look like it’s gotten any better since I dropped it.

And I take it from the images being released thus far that the Kyle Rayner appearing in these Countdown books is an alternate universe version of Kyle? Am I reading them right? If so, awesome! The only one of the “Challengers of the Beyond” I actually like isn’t actually himself anyway! Now I don’t even have to feel bad about not reading any of them!




COUNTDOWN TO MYSTERY #2
Written by Steve Gerber and Matt Sturges
Art by Justiniano & Walden Wong and Stephen Segovia
Cover by Paul Gulacy
Doctor Fate faces a steep learning curve when it comes to mastering his new powers. Uneasy lies the head who wears the helmet when he faces “The Devourer of Souls” in Las Vegas! Plus, Eclipso has discovered Plastic Man’s weak point: attacking him through his son, the Titan known as “The Offspring!”


Okay, the fact that they get Offspring’s name wrong (“The Offspring” is the band) doesn’t instill me with a lot of confidence that the back-up can possibly be at all not terrible.

How bad has continuity and quality control gotten in the DCU? Well, I now cringe to see the names of favorite characters like Plastic Man showing up in solicitations, because I’m afraid they’re better off in limbo where nothing stupid can be done to them. Of course, in Plastic Man’s case, DC’s already given him a second illigitimate child that he ignored for years, making him not only a deadbeat dad, but a double deadbeat dad. Chances are, they’ve already done their worst to Plas.




COUNTDOWN PRESENTS THE SEARCH FOR RAY PALMER: CRIME SYNDICATE #1
Written by Sean McKeever
Art by Jamal Igle & Rob Hunter
Cover by Tony S. Daniel
Learn the origin of the newest Challenger from Beyond, from the world where the heroes are villains. But what does that make the bad guys? Can even the Challengers make things right?


Uh-oh. This does not look good. First of all, we’ve got Jason Todd on the cover, which in my experience pretty much translates directly into “Do Not Buy!” Then we’ve got a title with the word Countdown in it, because, you know, things are going so well with the core title, it really needs to spin off into some additional stories.

Now, where is this book set? Earth-3, huh? Not the old, pre-Crisis (On Infinite Earths) Earth-3, but the new, post-(Infinite Crisis/52), the one, where the Batman is apparently evil and…

Hey, wait a minute, isn’t the Batman of the new Earth-3 actually an Owlman?



Yep, sure looks like it.

Well, the Joker is a superhero. That’s kind of an original concept. If you don’t count, you know, these stories, which are about a heroic Joker in an alternate dimension:










COUNTDOWN PRESENTS: LORD HAVOK AND THE EXTREMISTS #1 Written by Frank Tieri. Art and cover by Liam Sharpe. Don’t miss this special 6-part COUNTDOWN miniseries featuring the most powerful beings on Earth-8 — Lord Havok and his Extremists — written by Frank Tieri (GOTHAM UNDERGROUND) and illustrated by Liam Sharp (TESTAMENT)! Lord Havok! Dr. Diehard! Tracer! Gorgon! Dreamslayer! Carny! Meet these dangerous individuals and learn why they are so integral to COUNTDOWN and the fate of the Multiverse! Guest-starring Monarch, the Monitors, Donna Troy, Jason Todd and Kyle Rayner!


Okay, this one just makes my head explode.

First off, we have a six-part series spinning out of a 52-issue maxiseries. Just wrap your head around that for a moment.

They couldn’t think of anything to cut out of Countdown to make room for this storyline in it? Not those first few introductions of Karate Kid, where he just kinda stood around waiting for “The Lightning Saga” to wrap up? Not one of the two times Jason and Donna had the exact same conversation, or one of the three times The Piper and Trickster had the exact same conversation? Not that page of the Amazons Attacking, which just underlined the fact that the timeline between DC’s concurrent events doesn’t match up correctly?

Now, let’s look a little closer. Let’ see, Lord Havok and the Extremists. You remember them from Justice League America/JLI, provided you were reading DC superhero comics in the early ‘90s and/or have thoroughly raided back issue bins, as I have, because DC doesn’t have a majority of their appearances in trade.

These are characters that Dan Didio and Greg Rucka specifically said were featured in storylines that no one remembered and/or liked, which is why they ignored the Lord Havoc/Max Lord plot to make Lord a human with a more easily snappable neck in the Countdown to Infinite Crisis period (Later, a few panels of Infinite Crisis Secret Files & Origins Special #1 would be used to show that Superboy-Prime punched the Havoc/Lord plot out of continuity…although since Bluejay was in Action recently, at least the original Extremist story occurred).

See DC, this is why people hate you. You don’t make any goddam sense.

But wait, wait—there’s even more that’s nonsensical here.

For example, the original Extremists story occurred on an Earth that was an analogue of the Marvel Universe. But that wasn’t a parallel earth, because there were no parallel earths between Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis (unless you count Hypertime, which no one does). That means the Extremists’ earth was actually a pocket dimension within the DCU, right?

Now they get an Earth of their own, though, so their alternate dimension was apparently promoted by the cosmic events of IC/52. Specifically, they get Earth-8, which during Infinite Crisis we were told was only a theoretical Earth that would have existed and been where Kyle Rayner and Jason Rusch became superheroes if there were a multiverse after COIE, which there wasn’t. But now there is. And it’s an analogue to the Marvel Universe.

Man, this solicitation, and all that it implies, burns my brain and hurts my soul. And that’s just a few sentences about the comic; how am I supposed to actually read the comic itself?

One good thing about this? If the Extremists become surprise hits, perhaps it will encourage DC to finally put the Giffen/DeMatteis run of Justice League in trade. I mean, they’ve only been using characters from that era in all of their biggest stories since Identity Crisis now. At the very least, let’s make sure A New Beginning is back in trade, and the epic Breakdowns, huh?





DC INFINITE HALLOWEEN SPECIAL #1
WRITTEN and illustrated by various
Cover by Gene Ha
Don’t miss this collection of 13 stories of tricks and treats by some of comics’ top creators, including writers Steve Niles, Mark Waid, Steve Seagal, Dan DiDio, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Peter Johnson (TV’s Supernatural), David Arquette (Scream), Cliff Dorfman (Entourage) and many more with art by Ian Churchill, Dean Ormston, Dustin Nguyen, Bernard Chang and others! The inmates of Arkham horrify each other with terrifying tales involving Superman and zombies, Batman and vampires, Robin and werewolves, Aquaman and witches, Flash and the dead, and more! Plus, the return of Resurrection Man!

Another wonky holiday special title, and a weird group of contributors, including a lot of unknown quantities that— Resurrection Man?!?!

Awesome! Man, that was an excellent series. And it’s a downright tragedy that it’s not available in a big, fat trade, while, come October, you’ll be able to buy a trade of World War III.





DEATH OF THE NEW GODS #1-2
WRITTEN by Jim Starlin
Art and covers by Starlin & Matt Banning
Variant cover issue #1 by Ryan Sook
The title says it all! For months now readers have witnessed the unimaginable and unthinkable as New Gods across the DCU have seemingly died, with Lightray’s death in COUNTDOWN the biggest of them all. Now, the carnage continues but the mystery and adventure is just beginning! Jim Starlin — master of the cosmic odyssey — writes and illustrates this epic tale of death and destruction on a scale never seen before. With a cast of hundreds and cameos by the entire DCU, this intergalactic 8-part series cannot be missed!

If there’s one thing the DCU need more of, it’s death, and here’s the book to deliver it.

Odd they mentioned “New Gods across the DCU” having “seemingly died,” since Lightray and Sleez are the only Fourth Worlders we’ve actually seen die so far. But I guess there’s still plenty of time between now and October to slot some more.

Odder still they’re even contemplating temporarily killing off Jack Kirby’s greatest contributions to their fictional universe. I mean, Grant Morrison just killed off all the New Gods in his Seven Soldiers mini Mister Miracle (sort of); wasn’t anyone at DC paying attention? And is Starlin going to seemingly kill off/recreate the New Gods in a way that is more imaginative, relevant and satisfying than Morrison did?





DETECTIVE COMICS #837
Written by Paul Dini
Art by Don Kramer & Wayne Faucher
Cover by Simone Bianchi
This special issue of DETECTIVE COMICS features two of Gotham’s recently reformed rogues: Harley Quinn and the Riddler! Readers who have enjoyed Harley’s role in COUNTDOWN will take special pleasure in this story as they learn how she became involved in the Amazonian Women’s Help Center.

The narrative black hole of Countdown sucks in one of DC’s most consistent monthlies.

I wonder why Riddler is wearing his Justice coat...or is that just a stylistic choice by Bianchi?





GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #1
Written by Judd Winick
Art and cover by Cliff Chiang
Variant cover by Chiang
The new Green Arrow/Black Canary team investigates the shocking results of the Wedding of the Century in an all-new adventure that brings the Star City-crossed lovers together!

Cliff Chiang?! But…but…Judd Winick. Oh man…

Mr. Winick, I know I dropped your Green Arrow a few years back, and tried it “One Year Later” only to drop it again immediately, but with Chiang involved I’m afraid I have no choice but to try it one more time. Please don’t fuck this up this time around, huh?





GREEN LANTERN #24
Written by Geoff Johns
Art and cover by Ivan Reis & Oclair Albert
“The Sinestro Corps War” continues as Hal Jordan and the world's greatest heroes struggle against the combined terror of Sinestro, Parallax and the Corps of Fear. And when Hal finds himself face-to-face with one of the most bizarre members of the Sinestro Corps he has a simple choice to make — keep fighting and die or lay down and walk away. Plus, what is the prophecy of the Blackest Night and what does it mean to the future of Hal Jordan and the Corps?


Um, not to nitpick or anything, but can Hal really “lay down and walk away?”






JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #14Written by Dwayne McDuffie. Art by Ed Benes & Sandra Hope. Cover by Ian Churchill & Norm Rapmund. The League loses a member as writer Dwayne McDuffie turns up the heat in the “Injustice League” story arc! A party has turned very deadly for the World’s Greatest Heroes when they find themselves prisoners of the Injustice League!

Debate has broken out on the Newsarama.com thread under these solicits about what it means that we see John Stewart instead of Hal Jordan on this cover.

Yes, it only takes a single image to drive Green Lantern fans insane with their bizarre factionalism.

Personally, I’d prefer John to Hal in the League, seeing as John was the League’s Green Lantern right up until Brad Meltzer started writing JLoA and decided to ignore the members of the Justice League (when they broke up, it was just John Stewart, J’onn J’onnz and Plastic Man and Aquaman officially, although the current membership of those latter two were ignored in “Crisis of Conscience”) in order to build his own from the ground up (And I should say that I actually like Meltzer’s line-up quite a bit; I just didn’t care for the way he built it).

But even from an outside looking in perspective, John makes more sense than Hal. Hal’s got the Green Lantern monthly; does he need to be in JLoA too, while John is reduced to the occasional cameo? Nuh-uh. With John on the League, all of the Earth Lanterns have their own books (if you count the infinite Countdown spin-offs as Kyle’s books).

Additionally, with McDuffie writing, Hawkgirl and Vixen prominently featured, and a satellite Watchtower as their HQ, why not go ahead and have John on the team, making it as much like JLU as possibl?

All that said, if I were writing JLoA, John, Hal, Guy and Kyle would all be active members, with John logging the most panel-time.

Also, I would beg my editors to find a new penciller, because Ed Benes? Not really that good.





METAMORPHO YEAR ONE #1-2 WRITTEN by Dan Jurgens. Art by Jurgens & Jesse Delperdang. Covers by Kevin Nowlan. DC’s new series of Year One miniseries continues with the origin of the Outsiders’ resident shape-shifter, Metamorpho, featuring story and art by Dan Jurgens (Death of Superman, Booster Gold) and Jesse Delperdang (Batman, Batgirl) with covers by renowned artist Kevin Nowlan (Superman vs. Aliens, Tomorrow Stories)! Adventurer Rex Mason is a star — as the host of the reality series Treasure Quest, he travels the world on the hunt for the world’s hidden riches, and it’s all to help line the pockets of one of the world’s richest men: Simon Stagg. When Mason’s latest quest leads him to Egypt to recover the mysterious Orb of Ra, his life will be forever changed. What other surprises are in store? Find out in Metamorpho Year One!

Okay, assuming that DC doesn’t downgrade this six-issue Year One series to a four-issue one at some point like that did with Green Arrow: Year One, you can read this new 132-page take on Metamorpho’s origin for $18. Or for a mere $17, you can buy Showcase Presents: Metamorpho Vol. 1 , featuring 569 pages of Metamorpho’s first few dozen adventures, including zany Bob Haney dialogue, gorgoeus Ramona Fradon art, crossovers with the Metal Men and JLA, and one of the single coolest stories in comic book history (Which Chris Sims has already lovingly detailed here).

Wait, did I say for a mere $17? Because, as I type this, it’s actually available at amazon.com for a mere $13.25).

As for the Jurgens/Delperdang version, I suppose it may be more up to date (the DCU’s timeline has been reset two and a half times since the stories in the Showcase collection were continuity), and the reality series element mentioned is certainly new (and which ought to date this series just as severely as Haney’s lingo dates the original).

I do love Nowlan’s art, but I’ve got to say the designs on that cover aren’t doing much for me. Stagg just doesn’t look insane enough, Sapphire doesn’t look shapely enough and without a suit on, Java just doesn’t look Java-esque enough (I had the same problem with Bart Sears’ Java in Justice League Europe….speaking of which, maybe if Metamorpho becomes a break-out star based on this series and the new Outsiders, DC will finally get around to putting out Giffen/DeMatteis/Sears’ Justice League Europe in trade!)




GOTHAM UNDERGROUND #1WRITTEN by Frank Tieri. Art and cover by J. Calafiore. This 8-part epic explores the underbelly of the DC Universe and ties in to COUNTDOWN! Frank Tieri and COUNTDOWN’s J. Calafiore team up to deliver an action-packed tale that features Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Batwoman and just about every other Gotham guest-star imaginable. As more and more evildoers seemingly disappear into thin air, Gotham City finds itself in the midst of a villainous vacuum. Who will rise to commandeer the remainder of Gotham’s rogues? As several factions scramble to stake their claim, Batman and friends strategize a counter-attack!

Hey look, an eight-part series tying into the 52-part Countdown! If you’re keeping track, as a friend of mine is, that’s over 90 parts all together! At $3 a pop, that’s $270 for Countdown…so far. And remember, Countdown is counting down to the next big event. Which, given the thousands of pages and hundreds of dollars it will take to actually get to, had better be the best goddam thing imaginable, or else it’s going to feel like he biggest let down of all time.

This looks like an easy book to pass on. I can’t think of any terrible stories Tieri’s written that I’ve read, but likewise I can’t think of any great ones either. And while I kind of liked Calafiore’s work back when he was doing Aquaman, just seeing his name is giving me bad flashbacks to some of the worse art of Countdown. Between Batman and TEC, it’s not like I’m hurting for more good Batman comics, anyway.

Interesting thing about this solicit, aside from the fact that it adds to Countdown tie-in count? The mention of Batwoman. Is this going to seriously be the first time Batman and Batwoman have met since he got back from his year of vacation? All this time has passed and Batman hasn’t sought out the new Batwoman? I find that kind of hard to believe. And, given the big publicity push Batwoman received upon introduction, I find it hard to believe DC hasn’t sought to capitalize on a story involving the two yet. Wouldn’t that make for a better read than any of those fill-ins on TEC revolving around characters and plotlines form the ‘70s, or that unfortunate “Grotesk” story arc in Batman?




I like this cover.





And I like this cover a lot...manly because of the bit with the glasses.



I like this one even more though. I wonder when Jason Todd and Donna Troy will visit Earth-Eisner, and if I’ll have any tears left to cry when that occurs.





WONDER WOMAN #13
Written by Gail Simone
Art and cover by Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson
An electrifying new era begins for the world’s greatest superheroine! Gail Simone (BIRDS OF PREY, SECRET SIX) joins the phenomenal art team of Terry and Rachel Dodson for what promises to be one of the most exciting Wonder Woman stories ever! What exactly is the Circle, and what deadly secret do they hold about Diana’s birth? What familiar face from Wonder Woman’s past returns with a mission to spy on Special Agent Diana Prince? Why is the Department of Metahuman Affairs on a collision course with the wounded remnants of the Society of Super-Villains? All this plus monkey assassins in a story that spans the globe and shakes Diana to her core!

Well it’s about time. Thirteen issues and well over a year later, DC gives the Wonder Woman book to a competent, dependable, professional comic book writer. Like Action, this is the creative team that should have taken the reigns right after Infinite Crisis. From the sounds of things, Simone’s stuck with some of the sillier aspects of the relaunch—the secret identity, the job with the U.S. government—but at least we can count on a book that ships monthly and won’t be horrible. And, while it’s depressing to consider, that’s really all it takes to be considered a vast improvement.





TALES OF THE BATMAN: TIM SALE HCWritten by Darwyn Cooke, James Robinson, Kelley Puckett and Alan Grant_Art and cover by Tim Sale & Jimmy Palmiotti_Over the years, many artists have contributed to the look of one of the most iconic characters in popular culture: Batman. One of the influential and popular illustrators of the Dark Knight is Tim Sale, who, in addition to providing artwork for the hit TV series Heroes, illustrated the Eisner Award-winning graphic novels BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN, BATMAN: DARK VICTORY and SUPERMAN FOR ALL SEASONS. Sale’s distinctive vision of the Dark Knight put the iconic hero back in the shadows and updated his image for a new generation of fans. Now, for the first time ever, these Batman tales drawn by Tim Sale early in his career are collected in one sensational volume.

I kind of they would have listed the stories. Based on the writers listed, I think LDK arc “Blades,” Shadow of the Bat arc “The Misfits” (featuring the best Calendar Man, Catman and Killer Moth team-up you’ve ever read!) and maybe the Showcase story about the Arkham Asylum baseball team are all in here. This is one of those no-brainer trades that should have happened a while ago, but I’m glad it’s finally here.



JLA: ULTRAMARINE CORPS TP Written by Grant Morrison. Cover by McGuinness & Vines. Art by Ed McGuinness, Val Semeiks, Dexter Vines and others. Grant Morrison returns to the JLA with this incredible volume collecting JLA ClASSIFIED #1-3, and JLA//WILDCATS! In it, the International Ultramarine Corps, a super-team from around the globe, is attacked by the hyperintelligent, evil Gorilla Grodd and his guerilla gorilla militia. Plus, the JLA meets the WildCats to take on the threat of the Lord of Time!

I was wondering if, when and how they were going to collect Morrison and McGuinness’ kick-off to JLA:C, seeing as it was only three issues long, and not big enough for a trade of it’s own (I kind of thought it might be collected with Seven Soldiers, since it’s essentially a prelude to the event, introducing the Sheeda and the new Nebula Man. Both of these are great stories that fit in well with the rest of Morrison’s run, and both feature the League meeting another superteam, but otherwise they have nothing in common, and I don’t see why it’s called “Ultramarine Corps.” I mean, I guess “The Last Two Uncollected Morrison JLA Stories” wouldn’t exactly work for a title.