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)]

Good guesses! Wrong on all counts, but I'd love to see all of those! I'd especially be very interested in seeing other features from Military Comics!

All of these characters have appeared on Comixology, to be certain -- or at least the headliners have. But not these particular series, from what I can tell. 

[Luke Blanchard]

I've had my guess, so I shouldn't - ooh, a clue.

Our Army at War, The Phantom Stranger and All-Flash?

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Oooh! 

nope, nope, and nope. 

We've had specials of all three of these titles -- or very similar ones -- in more recent* years.

*"More recent" being a relative term...1999 being considered a more recent year for one of these. 

[Luke Blanchard]

The Spectre, Tomahawk and Star Spangled Comics?

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Nope again... but the star of one of these titles appears almost every week in current DC comics; the other one, slightly less so. And the issue # of the Golden Age title being offered is #16.

[Luke Blanchard]

The Golden Age title must be All-American Comics, as #16 was the debut of Green Lantern. The Silver Age ones might be Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane and Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

There ya go!

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

So it's a new week, and there's only 14 new items, but there's a lot to talk about just the same.

Let's start with the items I've been teasing for the past few days. All-American Comics #16 is the first appearance of the golden age Green Lantern, who immediately becomes the cover feature. But there's also Hop Harrigan; Red, White, and Blue; Scribbly (yeah!); Adventures into the Unknown, and Gary Concord, the Ultra-Man -- as well as a bunch of Mutt & Jeff, Cicero's Cat, and Believe it Or Not strips. I might pony up the two bucks just for the Scribbly tale alone.

Then we've got Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #93, and Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #148. Both are the first issues on Comixology of their respective titles. The Lois Lane issue pits her against the de-powered Wonder Woman in a battle for Superman's affections (under a Neal Adams cover; the interior story is by Robert Kanigher and Irv Novick), and the Jimmy Olsen story is, strangely enough, the last issue of the Kirby run (also under an Adams cover). Why this issue? I'm at a loss. There's a Newsboy Legion backup. (Edited to add: The Newsboys story isn't included.) And --making this even MORE puzzling -- this one is FREE. So pick it on up!

There's more going on in Metropolis, though -- there's The Legacy of Superman, a death-of-Superman-era one-shot that looks at other heroes of Metropolis, like Guardian, Rose & Thorn, and Gangbuster.

And then there's Action Comics 557-559, three fairly nondescript issues of late pre-Crisis Superman. They immediately follow 552-555, already on Comixology, so it's possible the the plan is to fill in the gap from the 550s to 583, the final pre-Crisis issue (the second part of "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?", already available). In which case it looks like we might have a month or two of regular 1980s Superman comics to look forward to.   

We've also got a late Golden Age (or at least, pre-Silver Age) Batman comic, Batman #59, the first appearance of Deadshot. Even better, to my mind, is the cover, in which the Bat-Signal is projected on the moon to show the Batman of the Future that he's needed on Earth.

Those are the surprises. The other seven are continuing patterns we've already seen. We get two more issues of Detective Comics, #399 and 403. I'm happy to see this 70s run of Detective Comics getting filled out. Beneath more Neal Adams covers, they seem to be done-in-one mysteries by Frank Robbins and Bob Brown, with backups as well.

Then there's House of Secrets, continuing its two-a-week pace: We get issues 100 and 101 this week, under Wrightson and Kaluta covers. I'm glad DC is delving into these.

And we get two more issues of The Brave & the Bold, 44 and 45. This was a bit of an inflection point; I wasn't sure what they were going to do. Issue 44 is a Hawkman story, and I felt pretty sure they'd reprint that. But #45 is the first of several issues featuring Strange Sports Stories, and I had no idea whether DC was going to reprint them, skip over them, or just stop for a while. I'm glad we've got at least one...but I suspect we'll get a couple more next week. After all...once people read about the "Challenge of the Headless Baseball Team!" they'll be more than ready for "The Phantom Prizefighter!"

As for sales, DC is having an Event Books sale -- not only are a lot of trade paperback collections onsale, but there are also single issues for DC One Million, Our Worlds At War, Final Night, Genesis, War of the Gods, and Sins of Youth, among others. 

But that Jimmy Olsen comic is FREE, y'all!

[Luke Blanchard]

Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) said:

Why this issue? I'm at a loss.

The issue of the Kirby run that best stands alone, perhaps?

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Maybe. It concludes, at least, even if it does pick up from a cliffhanger. 

Oh, and I just flipped through my copy on Comixology -- the Newsboy Legion reprint blurbed on the cover, "The Meanest Man on Earth," isn't included. 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I just realized that DC is publishing a House of Secrets Bronze Age Omnibus this week -- it covers issues from 81-111. So the handful of issues DC recently put onto Comixology both acts as marketing for the book, and also didn't require any special work to restore them for digital...since they were already being restored for the collection. 

Secrets of the comics!

[Luke Blanchard]

Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) said:

 Oh, and I just flipped through my copy on Comixology -- the Newsboy Legion reprint blurbed on the cover, "The Meanest Man on Earth," isn't included. 

Yet the issue description includes "Joe Simon" in the creators list. It's poor practice to misdescribe your product. I assume DC provides the descriptions.

Comixology describes the e-version as 25 pages. That counts the cover (cover + 22 page story + 2 page short item).