Romulo Fajardo Jr.

New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – June 12 2024

June 8, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 24th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers DC Comics June 12 2024 releases, which actually hit comic stores on Tuesday June 11 2024. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics June 5 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: Simone’s Secret Six in omnibus, Waid’s Year One JLA reprinted, Gaslit Gotham revisited, Hal Jordan’s lantern revolt, Batwoman outside the Outsiders, Dreamer vs. Waller, and more!

The Krisis Pick of the Week: Outsiders (2023) #8! Last issue left me speechless as a major fan of Planetary. This book has major WildStorm energy, with a pinch of Grant Morrison meta-textual commentary.

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 12 2024 Collected Editions

Batman Beyond: Neo-Gothic Vol. 1
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1779525154 / digital)
This collects the complete Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing six-issue mini from 2023, continuing their run from a prior 2022 mini called “Neo-Year.”

JLA Year One
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779525949 / digital)
See Guide to Justice League. This capitalizes on Mark Waid’s amazing resurgence in popularity at DC to reprint the 12-issue maxi-series exploring the Post-Crisis formation of the League that ran alongside his and Grant Morrison’s runs on JLA (1997).

Nightwing Vol. 3: The Battle for Blüdhaven’s Heart
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779525222 / digital)
See Guide to Nightwing. This is one of the final “paperbacks of a hardcover” DC has left to release at a great delay before both formats begin to come out on the same day later this year. I really enjoyed this arc of Nightwing, which felt like one of the early peaks of the Tom Taylor’s ongoing plot.

Secret Six by Gail Simone Omnibus Vol. 1
(2024 oversize hardcover, ISBN 978-1779525956)
After many years out of print, Gail Simon’s run on this unlikely team of heroes gets the omnibus treatment! This volume collects Villains United (2005) #1-6, Villains United: Infinite Crisis Special (2006) #1, Birds of Prey (1999) #104-109, Secret Six (2006) #1-6, Secret Six (2008) #1-16, and stories from 52 (2006) #28 and Countdown [to Final Crisis [2007] #22.

There are still another 20 issues left to collect of this run, plus a crossover with Action Comics (1938) #897, Doom Patrol (2009) #19, and the Blackest Night revival issue of Suicide Squad #67. That’s pretty slim for an omnibus, so I suspect we’ll also get the complete Secret Six (2014) #1-14, also by Simone.

Read on for a summary of all of the DC Comics June 12 2024 single issues. [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – June 12 2024

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

June 1, 2024 by krisis

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!

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

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 – April 24 2024

April 20, 2024 by krisis

It’s the 16th new comic book day of the new year! This post covers DC Comics April 24 2024 releases, which actually hit comic stores on Tuesday April 23 2024. Missed last week’s releases? Check out last week’s post covering DC Comics April 17 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 – which means this is the DC Comics April 24 2024 New Releases post… for releases on April 23 😂 )

This week in DC Comics: a hunk of Booster Gold, evergreen Zatanna, Spurrier’s Flash gets weirder, Green Arrow strikes a deal with Amanda Waller, Harley becomes a villainous consultant, Power Girl in the House of Brainiac, and more!

These DC New Releases posts will be a work in progress. I’m slow catching up to present on my DC reading, and some of my DC Guides are twice that far behind on updates. I thought it might be a good idea to do all my reading and updating before beginning this series of posts, but there’s no better way to catch up on all of that than diving deep into New Releases! Sometimes you’ve got to build the plane while you are flying it!

This list includes every comic and digital comic out from DC this week, plus collected editions in 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 April 24 2024 Collected Editions

Booster Gold: The Complete Series, Book One
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779527233 / digital)
This collects more than a year of the 2007 Geoff Johns Booster Gold series. The series ran for #47 issues – right up until Flashpoint – so we’ll need two more volumes to complete it.

The Flash Vol. 20: Time Heist
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779525017 / digital)
See Guide to Flash. DC loves to really make fans wait for their trade paperbacks, so this is the final collection of the 2016 Flash ongoing that concluded a full year ago! There’s no need to backtrack for this if you want to jump onto the current Flash run.

The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing Vol. 2
(2024 hardcover, ISBN 978-1779524928 / digital)
After bouncing around on a couple of DC properties, it seems that Matt Rosenberg has shown a real knack for the underbelly of Gotham. I haven’t caught up to this Joker series that concluded at the end of 2023 yet, but I absolutely loved Rosenberg’s back-ups in Detective Comics so I’m excited to catch up on this. If you prefer a paperback, DC releases a single paperback collection of this entire series in September.

Zatanna by Paul Dini TP 2024 Edition
(2024 paperback, ISBN 978-1779525833 / digital)
This Paul Dini Zatanna material is nearly evergreen – DC always brings it back to print. This includes her entire 2010 series, plus Dini’s famous Zatanna: Everyday Magic (2003) OGN.

Read on for a summary of all of the DC Comics April 24 2024 single issue and digital releases! [Read more…] about New Comics & Collected Editions Releases: DC Comics – April 24 2024

The Pull List: Avengers in No Surrender, Detective Comics, Mister Miracle, Paradiso, & more!

January 13, 2018 by krisis

Welcome to the second week of “The Pull List,” where I give a quick rundown of all of the non-X comics I read this week.

My pulls this week came from a wide spread of publishers – Marvel, DC, Image, Aftershock, and Valiant! It was also a week where the minutia of the craft really took me out of enjoying the storytelling. I had a lot of bones to pick with letterers, and many comments about pace and continuity.

This week’s Pull List included:

Avengers (2017) #675
Detective Comics (1937/2016) #972
Judas (2017) #2
Mister Miracle (2017) #6
Monstro Mechanica (2017) #2
Ninjak vs. The Valiant Universe (2018) #1
Paradiso (2017) #2
Port of Earth (2017) #3
Rise of the Black Panther (2018)
Runaways (2017) #5
Sleepless (2017) #2
Witchblade (2017) #2
Wonder Woman (2016) #38.

You might be surprised at which of these books I loved and which left me in a seething rage. There’s at least one where I disagree with seemingly 99% of the folks who I’ve seen react to the book in the past few days. [Read more…] about The Pull List: Avengers in No Surrender, Detective Comics, Mister Miracle, Paradiso, & more!