Have I griped recently about how poor a job DC does with distributing their hardcover/TPB collections and using them to build readership? I have? Ah, well consider this another anecdote on the pile, then.
So I was at the Barnes & Noble yesterday, and noticed a few collections of Geoff Johns' Action Comics run: Last Son, Brainiac, and Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes. Having heard good things about his stuff, I thought I might see about giving these books a chance. But where should I start, and what order should I read them in?
The trade dress was no help; nowhere did they say which issues they contained, nor were they numbered in any way to indicate their relationship to each other. Well, fine; I know where that information is contained in the copyright page, so I can hunt it out there. Except...a problem. Two of them were paperbacks, so that was easy, but the hardcover was wrapped in cellophane — no way to get to the copyright page.
After much finagling, I was able to ultimately discover the following:
• Superman: Last Son — reprints Action Comics #844-846, 851
• Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes — reprints Action Comics #858-863
• Superman: Brainiac — reprints Action Comics #866-870
Which is great and all, except...look at those gaps in issues between books. Does that mean that these are not the full sequence? Was that other stuff filler, and so not "necessary" for following Johns' run? I don't know. I decided to leave the books un-looked at and came home.
Later, I went to DC's website, hoping I could get some guidance there, but no such luck; it was as mum about the relationship between one book and another as the books themselves were. And so...I won't be giving Geoff Johns' Action Comics run a TPB try because I don't know how to know if I'm missing anything.
And once again, to DC's reprint publishing approach, I say "Feh."