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)]

An easy week to write about this week, with 18 more entries, all continuations from last week.

First up are 11 more partial issues of Action Comics -- 67 to 77. That brings us to 1944! Action still has a ways to go to reach the next available issue, #252, the debut of Supergirl. 

Next up are 4 more partial issues of Detective Comics -- 60 to 63, all from 1942. Detective's next available issues at this point are a run beginning at 113.

And then we get three more issues of Batman: Gotham After Midnight, issues 4-6, by Steve Niles and Kelly Jones. It's a 12-issue series, so we should get two more weeks of these.

DC's sale on Comixology this week focuses on Deathstroke, with the various permutations of his title being available in collections and singles. Unfortunately, his Rebirth issues go up in price at just about the same point where I dropped the paper editions, so I'll wait until the next one to follow along. 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Only 15 releases this week... or 16, depending on how you count.

Action and Detective Comics continue their Golden Age lead-only releases, with Detective offering 4 issues, 64-67, and Action offering 5, from 78-82. Only 80 and 81 are packaged together, forming a 25-page issue...but also priced at 99 cents. It's probably an error, but maybe DC is testing out a new package. 

Next up are three more issues of Gotham After Midnight, issues 7-9. Next week should wrap that up.

Offered in complete form this week is the three-issue prestige Elseworlds miniseries Green Lantern: Evil's Might, issues 1-3.  Set in 1890s New York City, it features Hal Jordan, Alan Scott, Kyle Rayner...and Boss Tweed! Written by Howard Chaykin and David Tischman, drawn by Marshall Rogers. I picked up the first issue of this at a comic con a few years ago, and I remember liking it. So many Elseworlds are centered around Batman or Superman, so this makes a nice change of pace. 

And finally, there's Starman Secret Files & Origins #1 (1998) -- which might be the last unavailable Jack Knight story from the era. Of the 71 SF&O that DC has published, there are still 40-some unavailable on Comixolgy; they seem to pop up now and then to fill out a week, and they could continue to do that for quite some time. 

In its sales, DC has got both a Fables sale (along with its sequels and spinoffs, including the recent Ever After) and a Shazam sale (with some guest appearances and miniseries along with Power of Shazam, but not, unfortunately, Cap's 70s series or the World's Finest issues he appeared in -- and no Golden Age material, either).  

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Oh, heck -- here's a little bonus thing to keep track of: DC's Secret Files and Origins that appear on Comixology to date. Here's a list of them all, swiped from a Wikipedia page. The ones in bold are available on Comixology. I'll update this post when new ones are released. (Last updated 5/25/2018, with Titans SF&O #2)

If you know of other SF&O that were released, or if you've seen other SF&O on Comixology that my search didn't turn up, please let me know and I'll update it. 

Aquaman Secret Files and Origins #1

Aquaman Secret Files and Origins 2003

Batgirl Secret Files and Origins #1

Batman Secret Files and Origins #1

Batman Allies Secret Files and Origins 2005

Batman: Gotham City Secret Files and Origins #1

Batman: No Man's Land Secret Files and Origins #1

Batman Villains Secret Files and Origins #1

Batman Villains Secret Files and Origins 2005

Birds of Prey Secret Files and Origins 2003

Catwoman Secret Files and Origins #1

Day of Judgment Secret Files and Origins #1

DCU Heroes Secret Files and Origins #1

DCU Villains Secret Files and Origins #1

Final Crisis: Secret Files #1

Flash Secret Files and Origins #1

Flash Secret Files and Origins #2

Flash Secret Files and Origins #3

Flash Secret Files and Origins 2010 #1

Golden Age Secret Files and Origins #1

Green Arrow Secret Files and Origins #1

Green Lantern Secret Files and Origins #1

Green Lantern Secret Files and Origins #2

Green Lantern Secret Files and Origins #3

Green Lantern Secret Files and Origins 2005

Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps Secret Files and Origins #1

Guide to the DC Universe 2000 Secret Files and Origins #1

Guide to the DC Universe 2001-2002 Secret Files and Origins #1

Hawkman Secret Files and Origins #1

Infinite Crisis Secret Files and Origins 2006

JLA Secret Files and Origins #1

JLA Secret Files and Origins #2

JLA Secret Files and Origins #3

JLA Secret Files and Origins 2004

JLA in Crisis Secret Files and Origins #1

JLA/JSA Secret Files and Origins #1

Joker: Last Laugh Secret Files and Origins #1

JSA Secret Files and Origins #1

JSA Secret Files and Origins #2

Just Imagine... Stan Lee's Secret Files and Origins#1

Legion of Super-Heroes Secret Files and Origins #1

Legion of Super-Heroes Secret Files and Origins #2

Legion Secret Files and Origins 3003

Lego Batman: Secret Files and Origins

New Gods Secret Files and Origins #1

Nightwing Secret Files and Origins #1

President Luthor Secret Files and Origins #1

Silver Age Secret Files and Origins #1

Starman Secret Files and Origins #1

Superman Secret Files and Origins #1

Superman Secret Files and Origins #2

Superman Secret Files and Origins 2004

Superman Secret Files & Origins 2005

Superman Secret Files and Origins 2009 #1

Superman/Batman Secret Files & Origins 2003

Superman: Metropolis Secret Files & Origins #1

Superman: Our Worlds at War Secret Files & Origins #1

Superman Villains Secret Files and Origins #1

Team Superman Secret Files and Origins #1

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files & Origins 2003

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files & Origins 2005

Titans Secret Files and Origins #1

Titans Secret Files & Origins #2

Swamp Thing Vertigo Secret Files & Origins #1

Hellblazer Vertigo Secret Files and Origins #1

Wonder Woman Secret Files and Origins #1

Wonder Woman Secret Files & Origins #2

Wonder Woman Secret Files & Origins #3

Young Justice Secret Files & Origins #1

Young Justice: Sins of Youth Secret Files & Origins#1

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I'm not going to be around on Thursday, so here's a list of what DC has coming up in their Comixology backlist releases:

Four more Golden Age Action Comics releases, covering issues 82 to 87. Like last week, one of the releases covers two issues (85 and 86), probably for the same price (99 cents). I have the feeling DC is testing whether those issues sell better. 

Likewise, Detective Comics has three new Golden Age releases, 70-72. I assume these issues and the Action Comics issues will continue the trend of reprinting the lead feature only, leaving all the backups unreprinted. It's probably a lot of work for little return. If we want to see more full Golden Age issues released, we should probably buy the ones out there, to make them stand out from the partial issues. 

Then we've got the three final issues of Batman: Gotham After Midnight. One of these days, Comixology will run out of forgotten Batman limited series to reprint. I can't even imagine how our grandchildren will react when that happens.

Then we've got another Elseworlds mini from 2000-2001 -- JLA: Act of God, by Doug Moench and Dave Ross. The premise seems to be the JLA (and presumably all the world's heroes and villains) somehow lose their superpowers. How do they cope with the new normal? All three issues are available.

And the final thing is a Young Justice 80-Page Giant #1, from 1999. Someday I'll make a list of all the 80-Page Giants that DC has released on Comixology, and which ones are yet to come. (Today is not that day, and tomorrow doesn't look good, either.) I'm pretty sure that'll be more daunting than listing all the various Secret Files and Origins issues. 

DC's sale this week is Future's End: They've got the whole weekly series on sale, as well as all the New 52 tie-in issues. With the digital collections, you can get the whole 48-issue series for $17. I haven't reread it since it came out, but I remember liking it quite a bit in weekly installments. I was worried that it would be another Countdown, but instead it kept itself pretty focused and engaging. It didn't swing for the fences as much as 52 did, but I thought it was a pretty solid comic. (I'm sure the tie-ins varied in quality...but they're also unnecessary to the main plot. I remember liking the Batgirl one quite a bit, if you feel like dropping 99 cents for a one-shot.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Another week, another batch of digital DC comics.

Action and Detective continue their trends. Action Comics picks up 7 more Golden Age issues, 88-94, with 91 and 92 packaged together. Detective Comics gives us 3 more issues, 71-73.

Now that Gotham After Midnight has wrapped, we get three more modern Batman issues: Batman: Madness and Batman: Ghosts, two Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween specials from 1994 and 1995, and a Legends of the Dark Knight Special #1 from 2010.

Two weeks after the Secret Files and Origins, we get a little more Starman, too: The Starman 80-Page Giant #1, and Starman: The Mist, which I think was part of the Girlfrenzy! fifth-week event of female led comics.

And maybe our April snows have inspired this pick: DCU Holiday Bash, DCU Holiday Bash II, and DCU Holiday Bash III, from 1996-1998. These could be perennial sellers, so it's good to have them available. I'm surprised they weren't available already.

DC's sale this week focuses on the Joker. You'll find all the usual suspects there, but I'm happy to see there's a collection of his 1970s solo series, and also Detective Comics 826 on sale, in which Joker drives around Gotham with Robin tied up in the back of the car.  

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

You're recollection matches mine on Starman: The Mist, and this reminds me what a great villain she was. 

I'm surprised the DCU Holiday Bash comics weren't available, last holiday season, but I'm glad to see that they are. They're always fun. 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Sorry for the delay in this week’s report, but we get the return of some old friends! 21 issues in all.

First up, though, are the regular mainstays: Golden Age Action and Detective Comics.

Action Comics seems to be ending its experiment with combined issues for 99 cents – only single (partial) issues are offered this week, from 95 through 101.

Detective Comics offers three more (Batman-only) issues, 74-76, featuring Tweedledum and Tweedledee – and I’m only just now noting the similarity to Boss Tweed in their names; I wonder if that was an inspiration (beyond Lewis Carroll, of course)? – The Robber Baron, and The Joker!

But then we get three titles we haven’t seen for a while…

First up is Infinity, Inc., picking up where it left off in December with three more issues—38-40. The series goes to 53…we’ll see if we make it this time.

In other Earth-2 news, we also get two more issues of Secret Origins (31 & 32), one of which has the (post-Crisis) origin of the Justice Society. The other is the post-Crisis origin of the JLA. The last issue of Secret Origins we saw was in December, a straggler issue that Comixology caught up with; the last of the regular Comixology run was issue 30, in September. The series ran to issue 50, but there are a few random issues in the remaining run already available, so there are only 13 to go.

And finally, we have the return of The Brave and the Bold, with issues 140 to 146. We were getting Silver Age Showcase-style Brave and Bold issues back in February, but we haven’t seen any 70s Batman team-ups since December. The series ran till issue 200, but there are plenty of issues between 146 and 200 already reprinted (including the next two, 147 and 148). In these issues, Batman teams up with Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Creeper, Green Arrow, the Phantom Stranger, and the Unknown Soldier.

 

Digital sales-wise, there’s a big sale on Action Comics celebrating the 1000^th issue. There are plenty of trades available, and a lot of single issues as well. (Unfortunately, in the “triangle era,” only the Action chapters are discounted, with the other chapters costing the usual $1.99.)

 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Nineteen items this week -- let's get to 'em!

First of all, there's four more issues of Action Comics -- issues 102-105. Only the Superman sections again, and only for 99 cents. 

Likewise, we've got three Golden Age Detective Comics issues, 77-79, with just the Batman material, for 99 cents. 

But we've also got more Detective Comics -- issues 505-513 -- which seems to reprint both the Batman lead story (usually by Gerry Conway and either Don Newton or Gene Colan) and the (largely) Batgirl backups (by Cary Burkett and Jose Delbo). I think the first issue of Detective I bought regularly was #521, so it's nice to see comics from the year before showing up. 

We've got no more Infinity Inc., Secret Origins or Brave & the Bold this week, but we do get one more Christmas special: 1988's Christmas With the Super-Heroes. Helpfully, Comixology is grouping all these books under the umbrella title DC Holiday Special.

We also get two Lobo specials from 1993: The Lobo Convention Special (by Keith Giffen, Alan Grant, and Kevin O'Neil), and Lobo: Unamerican Gladiators (by Grant and Cam Kennedy). 

Sales-wise, last week's Action sale continues on, joined by a lot more Superman comics and collections. There's a lot to choose from, but don't be fooled by The Superman Chronicles; you can get all that material and more for the same price in Superman: The Golden Age volume 1! If you get all three Golden Age volumes, you can get all the material (and more) of the first Superman Omnibus for less than $18. For more modern stuff, I'd recommend the two "Camelot Falls" trade paperbacks by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

This is a pretty limp list as far as I'm concerned, but to each his own!

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I'd definitely like to see more variety, too! But I'm glad they're giving the early 80s some love.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Only 11 new items in DC’s Comixology backlist this week, so let’s get to ‘em!

 

Detective Comics continues its Golden Age (Batman-only) run, with issues 80-82.

 

Action Comics, on the other hand, jumps into the Silver Age, adding four issues, 324-327, to an existing run.

 

We’ve also got two new Lobo specials – 1992’s Lobo: Infanticide and 1994’s Lobocop – as evidence that the Czarnian well never runs dry.

 

And then we’ve got Christmas, because for DC on Comixology, April is somehow the Most Wonderful Time of the Year…1998’s Christmas with the Superheroes #2, and then as an unexpected surprise: Superman’s Christmas Adventure, first published as a promotional comic in 1940. It was a giveaway for Nehi drinks, the Bailey department store, Ivey-Keith Co., Kennedy's Boy’s Shop, Macy's, and Boston Store. I don’t know if it’s ever seen the light of day since then!

 

And that’s it! DC’s big sale this week is Vertigo titles, which makes it a perfect time to round out your 100 Bullets collection, or dig into other gems, new and old (Unfollow and Clean Room are in the mix). (I wish the collection sale price stayed at $4.99, but it seems like $5.99 is the new normal…which means there’s no discount to incentivize buying the collections rather than buying each issue at 99 cents apiece.)

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Yesterday's backlist release from DC includes 24 items, so let's get to it!

First up, we have some postwar Batman comics: We have Batman 38-40 from 1946, and Detective Comics 128-131, from 1947. Judging by their $1.99 price tags and their page counts, these are all complete issues, unlike the recent golden age material that only included the lead features. The backups in Detective are Air Wave, Slam Bradley, and the Boy Commandos -- supplemented by humor features like Three-Ring Binks and Nifty. These issues are a jump of several years from the issues of 'Tec we got last week.

We've also got some Silver Age Action Comics, 328-331, continuing the run from last week.

We've also gone back to a few of the titles we revisited a couple weeks ago. Infinity Inc. gets three more issues, 41-43. (Ten issues to go!)

And we get more Secret Origins, too, with the origins of various JLI characters recounted in issues 34 and 35 (issue 33 already was available); we get the origins of Captain Atom, Rocket Red, G'Nort, J'onn J'onnz, Booster Gold, and Maxwell Lord.

And then we get a ton of new Brave & the Bold, with issues 149, 150, and 152-156 being put online. (Issue 151 was already available.) These issues have teamups between Batman and the Teen Titans, Superman, Atom, Red Tornado, Metamorpho, Green Lantern, and Doctor Fate!

Rounding this off is one of the Dollar Comics issues of World's Finest, #270, which leads off with a Superman/Batman teamup, and is backed up by stories starring Hawkman, Green Arrow, Captain Marvel, and Red Tornado. There are only a handful of this run of World's Finest on Comixology so far, but they're always a lot of fun. 

DC's big sale this week is Green Lantern, and there's a little something for everybody in it. I picked up a golden age single issue, but the comics and trades range from the early days through collections of the two GL Rebirth titles that are still ongoing.