Rachel Pollack

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – June 5 2024

June 1, 2024 by krisis 1 Comment

It’s the 23rd new comic book day of the new year! This post covers DC Comics June 5 2024 releases, which actually hit comic stores on Tuesday June 4 2024. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics May 29 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: DC debuts Compact Comics for Batman & Watchmen, Dawn of DC collections for Hal Jordan & Shazam, climaxes for Zdarsky Batman & GWW Ivy, a My Adventures with Superman cartoon comic 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 June 5 2024 Collected Editions

Barda
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779511133 / digital)
A new out-of-continuity Big Barda graphic novel exploring her origins and relationship to Scott Free from author/illustrator. Ngozi Ukazu.

Batman: The Court of Owls Saga – DC Compact Comics Edition
(2024 smaller-than-digest-size paperback, ISBN 978-1779527271 / digital)
See Guide to Batman. DC’s new Compact Comics are upon us! These are chunky paperbacks that collect 10+ issues of massive hit runs for just $10 in a format that is slightly smaller than “digest” size. It’s a bane for old eyeballs like mine, but a perfect format for newer fans and manga readers! This book collects the first 11 issues of Scott Snyder’s New 52 Batman run, possibly the single best Batman book to hand to someone curious about the character’s in-continuity adventures.

Green Lantern Vol. 1: Back In Action
See Guide to Green Lantern – Hal Jordan. I disliked this opening Hal Jordan arc from Jeremy Adams, Xermánico, Romulo Fajardo Jr., & Dave Sharpe, but not for any deficiency in their craftsmanship. I didn’t like it because it gets Hal Jordan so right, and Hal is my least favorite main character in all of Big Two comics! In fact, you could almost say I loved to hate it, because the level of craft was pretty damned great on every issue.

Adams leans in to writing a Hal Jordan as a man without a ring and with no redeeming qualities other than his willpower. Quarantined to Earth and with no powers or influence left to his name, Hal leans heavily into his privilege to get exactly what he wants – from demanding a job flying test planes to forcing himself into moments alone with Carol Ferris.

Along the way, we really do see how Hal’s willpower makes him one of the most formidable Lanterns. There are moments of this where I feel like we’re on the knife’s edge between Hal Jordan being a “nice guy” who always gets what he wants versus him turning into a full on villain and sexual predator.

For me, that clearly echos his previous downfall as Parallax, which in a way brings this around from being hate-worth back to being intriguing. Is Adams playing these beats deliberately to try to show us how Hal’s willfulness brings him right to the edge of villainy? Or, is Adams writing Hal totally straight, thinking we would all root for him to get everything he wants?

Either way, I think if you are fascinated by Hal Jordan and want to see him tackling a new set of challenges, this book could work for you. And, beneath that, there is a tickle of mystery about why Hal is ringless on Earth and what the Green Lantern Corps are like under new management. Despite my hatred, I’m still reading every month! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – June 5 2024

DC Teams: Birds of Prey, Titans, & Suicide Squad Omnibus Mapping for the Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus 1st Annual Poll

May 15, 2024 by krisis

It’s time for a team-up! All of the remaining team-ups, to be precise. I’ll be loosely mapping missing and most-wanted DC omnibus volumes every day until May 19th! Then, on the 19th, I’ll be joining with Near Mint Condition to launch the first annual Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus Annual Poll! This post covers every DC team we haven’t covered so far, including mapping for Birds of Prey, Legion of Super-Heroes, Outsiders, Titans, Suicide Squad omnibus volumes – and much, much more!

This post explains potential DC Teams omnibus mapping for votes on the Tigereyes Most Wanted DC Omnibus 1st Annual Secret Ballot. I’m posting all of these maps before the poll begins to give people the time to consider their favorites, correct our mapping mistakes, and catch books I might have missed.

Here’s the full list of the teams and groups this post covers: Birds of Prey (including Black Canary!), Challengers of the Unknown, Checkmate, Dial H for Hero, Doom Patrol Legion of Super-Heroes, Metal Men, New Gods, Outsiders, Power Company, Sovereign Seven, Stormwatch, Suicide Squad, The Terrifics, Titans & Young Justice, Trinity of Sin, and even Watchmen!

If you don’t know DC well enough to know what to vote for, stick around for my explanations! Learn why the team behind the poll decided on these books and titles – including giving us feedback if we missed the mark.

If voting is now open, you can use this as your crib sheet! Or… just find some great comics to read!

Remember: These mappings are just my suggestion of how DC could assemble these books. They are meant to help you decide on your votes and build your personal reading list, but your vote on the poll is NOT an endorsement of my specific map. It’s a vote in favor of DC creating a book with that title or covering that period.

High-effort, heavily-researched, over-the-top comics posts like this one are made possible via the support of Patrons of Crushing Krisis. For less than the cost of a single comic issue a month you can fuel my in-depth comics coverage, plus gain access to dozens of exclusive collecting guides & reading orders – including all of the Crushing Comics Guide to DC Comics.

Updated: Guide to Doom Patrol

March 27, 2023 by krisis

Today I have an update to my guide to DC’s strangest team of all, my Guide to Doom Patrol – to celebrate this week’s release of the team’s new series with Unstoppable Doom Patrol #1 written by Dennis Culver with line art by Chris Burnham, color art by Brian Reber, and letters by Pat Brosseau.

Guide to Doom Patrol

This guide was originally launched with the support of Patrons of CK back in 2020. There has only been one major development in Doom Patron collected editions sine then, but it was a big one! Last year saw the release of a Doom Patrol by Rachel Pollack Omnibus (2022 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1779515346). This collects the beloved run that ended the 1987 Vertigo series for the first time – meaning the entire series is now collected in three omnibus editions!

In addition to adding the Pollack Omnibus, the Guide to Doom Patrol now includes digital links both to buy Doom Patrol single issues and collections and to read if you subscribe to DC Universe Infinite!

This is my first update to a DC guide since starting my lengthy mission to bring all of Crushing Comics completely up to date for 2023! While my regular weekly updates will continue to focus on X-Men for the next few weeks, you can look forward to more DC Guide updates in the next few months – including one key DC team guide being made available to all readers! Make sure you stay tuned to the CK homepage so you never miss a guide update or other comic news.

Doom Patrol – The Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Updated Mar 19, 2025! The definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for DC’s Doom Patrol comic books in omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated February 2025 with titles scheduled for release through June 2025.

The Doom Patrol is DC’s weirdest team of all. They’re part Fantastic Four super-science, part X-Men misfits assembled by a brainy benefactor, but still something entirely their own.

Despite being a Silver Age creation, this title will always be associated with Grant Morrison, who had one of their many early star-making turns with the Patrol as they pivoted from the fringes of DC’s superhero universe into the realm of their Vertigo line in the early 90s. Morrison’s run was followed by much-beloved run by Rachel Pollack.

Since then, DC has wrestled the team back into the superhero world several times, but it always clicks the best when they allow it to sit just outside the borders of their mainstream continuity – as it did when it was revived by Gerard Way for his Young Animal imprint in 2016. [Read more…] about Doom Patrol – The Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order