DC's Digital Backlist - Secret Society of Super Villains spotlight!

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

A while back, I logged some week-to-week posts on DC’s digital reprint program through Comixology. It’s been a while, and their digital offerings have matured, so I thought I’d take another look at what they’re adding each week. Currently, they seem to be doing about 30 books a week. I might not list all the issue numbers going forward – if the 90s Superman titles continue moving forward at two of each a week, there’s not much value in listing each issue. But let’s take a look at this week’s, and let’s see where the patterns take us, shall we?

 

90s Superman: DC is following the 90s Superman titles (soon to be the 2000s Superman, as this week’s titles are from December 1999) pretty quickly, giving us 8 issues of the books every week. There’s a lot of material to get through, but that’s still an admirable clip. We may only have a few more weeks of this, judging by Action Comics (the one title of the bunch that doesn’t change its numbering and continues for a long while) – 761 is the most recent issue, and Action already seems to be in the digital library from 769 on. Superman, Adventures of Superman and Superman: Man of Steel have bigger gaps, though. 

Action Comics 760, 761

Adventures of Superman 574, 575

Superman 152, 153

Man of Steel 95, 96

 

Arion: 11, 12

DC has been adding two issues of Arion: Lord of Atlantis a week for the last 6 weeks. There are 35 issues and a special, so there's a way to go before the series is completed.

DC Comics Presents: 75, 76

DCCP started out at a faster pace, but has been going two a week for a little while now. There are about 20 issues to go. Bonus: More Arion this week, in issue 75!

Guy Gardner: Warrior: 33

11 issues to go.

Huntress: 19, 4-issue 1994 series

We wrap up the Cavalieri/Staton ongoing that introduced Helena Bertinelli, and then power through a Chuck Dixon mini from 1994. Will Huntress return next week, or will we move on?

Justice League America (Bwa-ha-ha) 51, 52

This one has a ways to go before having everything available.

Manhunter: 34

Four more issues till it’s all there!

Mister Miracle: 23-25

This wraps up the 70s run – Kirby and then Marshall Rogers, it’s all there! (I think DC also recently wrapped the 70s Return of the New Gods run, too.)

Superman (Bronze Age): 233

This is an interesting one. The Kryptonite Nevermore cover – I’m surprised it wasn’t available before this. Will DC continue from here? Their 70s Superman offerings on Comixology are paltry.

Wanderers: 7, 8

This 80s Legion spinoff ran 13 issues, so we’re almost there.

Wonder Woman (Silver Age): 130, 131

DC has been making silver age Wonder Woman stories available, probably wishing to expand their catalog in anticipation of the movie. At this point the silver age issues go from 112-131, with a couple of gaps.

Swamp Thing (Diggle/Dysart run): 25

4 more issues to go.

Trigger: 5

This Vertigo sci-fi series lasted 8 issues. I don’t remember it at all.

 

That’s a pretty exhaustive look at this week’s offerings. Next week, I’ll probably just note new additions (what will replace Mister Miracle? The '89 and '96 series have already been collected, so we might be in for something new. And there might be more Huntress comics that haven't been reprinted yet, but Comixology has a bunch of them listed already, and the Bat-universe is so sprawling it's tough to search), unexpected omissions, breaks from the patterns, and go forward from there. 

And to make things easy to follow:
Week 2. (April 6, 2017)

Week 3 (April 13, 2017)

Week 4 (April 20, 2017)

Week 5 (April 27, 2017)

Week 6 (May 4, 2017)

Week 7 (May 11, 2017)

Week 8 (May 18, 2017)

Week 9 (May 25, 2017)

Week 10 (June 1, 2017) -- All the golden age Wonder Woman goodness!

Week 11 (June 8, 2017)

Week 12 (June 15, 2017)

Week 13 (June 22, 2017)

Week 14 (June 29, 2017)

Week 15 (July 6, 2017)

Week 16 (July 13, 2017) -- Our Worlds at War! Underworld Unleashed!

Week 17 (July 20, 2017) -- The Great Ten! More Wonder Woman!

Week 18 (July 27, 2017) -- Batman Confidential and Deathblow? Young Heroes in Love?? Doom Patrol!

Week 19 (Aug 3, 2017) -- Some Bronze-age Batman!

Week 20 (Aug 10, 2017) -- Loeb/Sale Challengers begins!

Week 21 (Aug 17, 2017) -- Silver Age Challs!

MIDWEEK SALE BLAST (Aug 22, 2017): Wildstorm!

Week 22 (Aug 24, 2017) -- Holding pattern...

Week 23 (Aug 31, 2017) -- chugging along

Week 24 (Sept 7, 2017) -- Same old, but with newer Challengers

Week 25 (Sept 14, 2017) -- Baron/Jones Deadman debuts

Week 26 (Sept 21, 2017) -- Holding steady, with more Deadman

Week 27 (Sept 28, 2017) -- Deadman in Action Comics Weekly?

Week 28 (Oct 5, 2017) -- A slow swerve into Batman

Week 29 (Oct 5, 2017) -- Doom Patrol finishes in the smallest week ever

The Gap List: a list of unexplained or awkward skips.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Hardware 44 and Stormwatch 15 have appeared from last week. And today we get more!

Static 45: By M.D. Bright and Jeffrey Moore. Static vs the speedster, Laserjet, plus Virgil's classmates protect themselves from crime at school. Final issue, under a Moebius cover.

Gen 13 3:  Written by J. Scott Campbell & Brandon Choi, art by Campbell and Joe Benitez. The cover & logo treatment evoke Indiana Jones. 

Stormwatch 16: By Ron Marz and Matt Broome Stormwatch battles a monster that wants to destroy the Hawaiian islands. Plus... is this the death of Batallion?

Wetworks 11: By J.M. DeMatteris and Joel Gomez. Ab-Death learns a terrible truth. (4 issues to go.)

There was also supposed to be a WildCATS issue this week (#14), but so far it hasn't appeared.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Aside from the early issues of Sandman released last week, next week's archive release of Secret Society of Super-Villains 1 will be the first comic originally printed under the DC imprint since July (Captain Carrot #16), and the first one taking place (largely) in the main DC Universe since March's New Guardians #12.

I'm very happy to have a lot of Milestone material available again. I'm much less enthused about the deluge of Wildstorm that's coming out now, although I imagine it makes some people happy too. Hopefully we'll see more DC-native material starting in September. 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

DC's released its September schedule for digital backlist releases, and it's staying the course -- a lot of Wildstorm (WildCATS, Gen13, Wetworks, Stormwatch) plus wrapping up Milestone (Hardware) and adding Secret Society of Super Villains. Wetworks wraps up in September. And while it looked for a moment like we'd be getting 6 books a week, we seem to have settled at 5 for the time being. 

DC also still hasn't released last week's WildCATS 14...or Stormwatch 15 (despite what I said above; either it appeared and then disappeared, or I was mistaken). I'm adding them to the Gap List.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Here's this week's backlist! Six titles, but don't get used to it -- we'll be going back to five next week.

Hardware 45: By DG Chichester and Prentis Rollins. Hardware goes back to basics! (5 issues to go)

Gen 13 4:  By J. Scott Campbell and Tom McWeeney. Jungle and pirate adventure with Gen13!

Stormwatch 17: By Ron Marz and Matt Broome (and others). The aftermath of Battalion's death. 

Wetworks 12: By J.M. DeMatteis and Joel Gomez. The vampire Red comes clean about her reason for joining Wetworks.  (3 issues to go.)

WildCATS 15: By James Robinson and Travis Charest. The first issue of a new run, starting with a Daemonite shapeshifter conspiracy. 

And from the DCU...!

Secret Society of Super-Villains 1: DC's villain book had almost as tumultuous a creative team as it did the villains themselves, but it started with Gerry Conway and Pablo Marcos. The starting lineup of baddies includes Manhunter, Grodd, Star Sapphire (no, not that one), Captain Cold, and Sinestro. Like I did with New Guardians, I might try to read these as they're being released.  This series lasted 15 issues (and a special), but ended on a cliffhanger; a few unfinished issues appeared in Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, and later in the trade paperback collection, but I don't expect them to show up here. 

Looking forward in September, SSOSV isn't every week, but that might change once Wetworks ends.

Most of the Wildstorm books have long runs -- Stormwatch and WildCATS ran for 50 issues apiece, Gen13 ran for 77 -- so I suspect we'll veer off from these books before they're completely collected. But if they do make it to the end, they'll be on the schedule until May 2023 or so, at this rate.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Reading SSOSV #1: 

It's a strange little book. The opening blurb mentions that we're invited to the bi-monthly meeting of the SSOSV, which is a nod to how often the book was published. I have a feeling that story-wise, they'll be meeting a lot more frequently. 

Pablo Marcos provides a double-page spread, unusual for that period, of Sinestro disguising himself in the shadow of the villain's San Francisco skyscraper, the Sinister Citadel. There's three major action sequences in the book -- an opening bank robbery with Mirror Master and Captain Cold, an "initiation" battle against JLA robots that Manhunter (Paul Kirk) sets up, and a sequence with Grodd and Copperhead at the end, which leaves Copperhead on his own in the ocean as Grodd escapes. Grodd later tells Manhunter that Copperhead betrayed him, but it seems to me it was Grodd who betrayed Copperhead.

It's odd to see Manhunter in a villainous puppetmaster role. From what I recall, he gets written out pretty quickly, as new people step in -- including Kirby's Stan Lee parody, Funky Flashman! I first encountered Flashman in these pages, and thought he was a much more prominent figure in DC lore than he turned out to be. But I do love the idea of Stan Lee organizing all the villains in the DCU to fight the heroes.

There's also a new Star Sapphire -- the same villain inhabiting a new body, named Camille, since Carol Ferris is no longer available. 

I'll probably do a SSOSV report whenever a new issue drops -- or spotlight another new backlist book -- just to liven this thread up a little.

[Luke Blanchard]

My understanding is the published first issue was a second go. The first go was printed in Amazing World of DC Comics #11. The series was a significant step forward in the integration of the DC universe, I think.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Oh, wow -- I'd never heard that! If you have details on the first try, I'd love to hear 'em!

And I can totally see this as being a big step into an integrated DCU. I started reading DC comics about a year into its run, so to me, these books were always interrelated, but historically I know it just wasn't so. Which means there's a special thrill seeing characters like Grodd and Copperhead work together. When I read these, I'll keep that in mind, too.

Luke Blanchard said:

My understanding is the published first issue was a second go. The first go was printed in Amazing World of DC Comics #11. The series was a significant step forward in the integration of the DC universe, I think.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

I've read a handful of the SSOV books, the one that stands out to me (I don't remember the issue number) was the one that the cover ruined the surprise in the issue. That being said, I found it waaaayy better the Marvel's Super Villain Team-up, which I thought was terrible.

[Luke Blanchard]

Sorry, Rob, I don't know a thing about it. The GCD says it was included in a 2011 SSoSV collection.

DC Special Series #6 was a SSoSV issue. Mike's Amazing World places it after SSoSV #10. The villains also appeared in Super-Team Family #13 (marginally) and #14 (where a faction are the key villains). Justice League of America #166-#168 wound up the storyline involving the Wizard's faction that was underway when the title ended. The JLA and JSA fought the SSoSV in Justice League of America #195-#197.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Nice! I didn't realize about those Super-Team Family appearances. DC Special #6 is probably my favorite SSoSV story... although I know I would have loved the story that started in issue 15, had the series not been canceled.  

The DC Special issue might have been my first encounter with them. I also had issue 8 in my collection from when I was a kid, but I have a feeling I picked that up slightly later than the Special. Not as a back issue, but just in a bookstore with slightly older comics, or a school-sponsored bookswap or something.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

It was a busy week for me last week, but here's what was released on 9/6.

Gen 13 5:  By Jim Lee, Brandon Choi, J. Scott Campbell and Tom McWeeney. More island adventure with Gen 13 -- plus, what secrets will we learn about Fairchild's dad?

Stormwatch 18: By Ron Marz and Matt Broome, Pop Mahn, Sal Larocca. A guest appearance by Void and Maul makes it look like the WildCATS were responsible for Battalion's death. 

Wetworks 13: By Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Billy Patton. The original Wetworks team is back, but can they face the enhanced Night Tribes?  (2 issues to go.)

WildCATS 16: By James Robinson and Travis Charest. Can Ben Santini and his Black Razors to uncover the Daemonite shapeshifter while protecting diplomats? 

Secret Society of Super-Villains 2: By Gerry Conway, David Anthony Kraft, and Pablo Marcos. Captain Comet shows up, and is duped into joining the team... or is he? 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Reading Secret Society of Supervillains 2, I realize that, although I have all the issues of this series, this will be the first time I read them in order. In this one, Captain Comet returns to earth after a 20-year absence, and discovers it overrun by superheroes and villains. He mistakes Green Lantern for a bad guy and winds up rescuing Grodd and Hi-Jack (formerly of the Royal Flush Gang, now solo). The villains vote to take him into the group, thinking they've duped him that they're heroes -- Grodd is shielding their minds, so they think they're safe. 

But later, Manhunter -- the group's leader -- approaches Comet alone, and tells him that a) they're bad guys (which Comet already knows -- his psychic powers are more powerful than Grodd), and b) Manhunter is a good guy, coasting on a bad-guy rep the other clones of Paul Kirk earned. But then they're ambushed by New God (and Apocalyptan lackey) Mantis, who fights them and then flees -- with hilarious bravado -- then eventually comes back to fight the whole group in an underground lair at Darkseid's behest. Because Darkseid is apparently the msterious financier of the group, who is for some reason using Paul Kirk's clone as a middleman?

This absolutely makes no sense, but what the hell, it's fun!