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)]

It's new comics day! Well, not really -- we're not doing those for a month or so. But it's new OLD comics day, so let's get to it! DC's got 8 more books on the electronic shelf, including a debut, and two final issues!

First let's go with the debut: Weird Mystery Tales #1.  Weird Mystery Tales ran 24 issues, from 1972 to 1975. The first few issues included Kirby stories intended for the canceled Spirit World comic (and subsequently reprinted in the Spirit World hardcover published almost a decade ago). Another nice and creepy Kaluta cover here! (We don't get new issues House of Secrets or House of Mystery this week; will this unsung title be our mystery fix for the coming months?)

Also this week is Doorway to Nightmare #5, the final issue of the series. This week's ever-shifting creative team is Scott Edelman on script, with Romeo Tanghal on pencils. (I love Tanghal's pencilling work, though he's better known as an inker -- he did a two-issue uncompleted indie series called Phase in the 80s that blew me away.) Inks by Vince Colletta. Sigh. 

The other final issue this week is Wanted #9: We get Superman vs the Prankster, and Sandman and Sandy vs. The Nightshade. Both are golden age tales -- and it looks like the Sandman story is from the Kirby costumed era. (There's a 10th issue, unpublished in the original run but included in the recent collection, that miiiight show up here next week, or eventually. But I doubt it.)

1st Issue Special 8 gives us the debut of Mike Grell's The Warlord, making it the most special issue of all first issue specials -- the only one to actually launch a long-running series. I don't think I've ever read this issue... but I'll be buying it this week to revive my long-dormant Rob Reads The Warlord thread.

Next we've got Detective Comics 356, where Batman fights the Outsider, and we find out who that dastardly villain is! Plus, a long-missing supporting character returns! Are there parallels to today's DC Universe? Probably!

The Spectre 4 continues the Doug Moench and Gene Colan run, now under a Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez cover.

And we also have Super Friends 4, with the forgettable Skyrocket as the featured villain, but we also have the promise of The Riddler in an inset panel!

And lastly, we have Eclipso 3, by Robert Loren Fleming, Keith Giffen, and Bart Sears. I don't remember much about this series at this point, aside from there being a Suicide Squad style slaughter of a lot of underused characters in one of the later issues. What fun!

For this week's sale, DC is going with a little black humor -- it's the Darkest Timeline sale, as a lot of books with alternative histories and futures are available. This includes issues of Hex and Kamandi, as well as Scooby Apocalypse, Wacky Raceland, and Futures End, if you're looking for an alt-future serial which I remember as being pretty decent, but released at a time when everyone had given up on DC because of the New 52. Also, for some reason, Sweet Tooth is included in the sale. Maybe it has alternative histories in it? If so, I didn't get that far. 

I'm very tempted by Scooby Apocalypse, though. 

But altogether the best use of your money is over at Marvel, where Spider-Man: Life Story is available for $3.99 right now. A decade-by-decade look at Spider-Man from Chip Zdarsky and Mark Bagley, it's absolutely terrific. 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

And here we go again, with more DC classic Comixology releases. Let's see what we have, shall we?

We've got a few horror titles in the mix, and let's start with a debut: The Witching Hour #1.  Under the creepy Nick Cardy cover are stories by both Neal Adams and Alex Toth, so this debut is nothing to sneeze at. Denny O'Neill shares writing duties with Toth, and Jack Sparling and Pat Boyette also draw. The Witching Hour ran 85 issues, from 1968 to 1978, after which (after witch?) it was folded in to a dollar-comic version of The Unexpected. This is the first issue Comixology has republished.

We get the return of Black Magic with issue #5, entirely reprints of the 1950 Simon & Kirby series. This series ran 9 issues overall, so four to go. 

And horror fans can return to the House of Mystery with issue 205: It sports a moody Jack Sparling cover of a hooded figure using an open coffin as a pole-boat on a moonlit night. Inside we have art by Sparling, Bernie Wrightson, Gerry Taaloc, Alan Weiss, and John Albano. Written by Albano, E. Nelson Bridwell, Michael Fleisher, Joe Orlando and Lore Shoberg. It looks like Shoberg mostly wrote the humor shorts for DC's mystery books -- Abel's Fables, Cain's Game Room, that sort of thing. 

1st Issue Special 9 gives us the wonderful Marty Pasko/Walt Simonson issue of Dr. Fate. If you haven't read this before, it's a treat. And it absolutely establishes the visual iconography for Dr. Fate that's been used in the decades since.

Next we've got Detective Comics 357, where Batman fights the Outsider, and we find out who that dastardly villain is! Plus, a long-missing supporting character returns! Are there parallels to today's DC Universe? Probably!

Sun Devils 10 is where Dan Jurgens officially takes over the writing duties from Gerry Conway. I thought it would happen a lot sooner than this, considering I always think of Sun Devils as a solely Jurgens series. (Though I've never read it, so I'm surprised it made any impression at all.) Two issues to go!

The Spectre 5 continues the Doug Moench and Gene Colan run, as our forlorn phantom pulls a Hamlet on theJose Luis Garcia-Lopez cover.

And Super Friends 5, as the Super Friends do a telethon, and Bruce Wayne gets kidnapped for ransom by this week's forgettable villain, Greenback!

And it must be Batman-on-TV week, as in Detective Comics 357, Batman and Robin go on a talk show with Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. How? HOWWWW?

Eclipso 4 continues the run by Robert Loren Fleming, Keith Giffen, and Bart Sears. The cover shows that it guest-stars the Creeper!

And finally, DC puts pretty much the whole Vertigo line on sale! You can't get the whole series yet, but there are two collections of the first 24 issues of Sandman Mystery Theatre available for $5.99 apiece. I highly recommend 'em.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Today I learned that a Bronze Age Superman villain is actually a Silver Age Batman villain! Plus, the first issue of 1st Issue Special I ever owned! All that and more, in the seven books that comprise this week's DC's Comixology Backlist!

Let's start with 1st Issue Special 10. I think I first bought this back issue thanks to the name of the feature -- The Outsiders -- which was the same as a team Batman debuted in the early 80s. So maybe I thought that as a precursor, it might be worth something? Or maybe I thought this team would show up somewhere. No matter -- they didn't and it's not. But this version of the Outsiders were a gang of super-deformed heroes from a mental asylum. Written by Joe Simon (who else?) and drawn by Jerry Grandinetti. I don't think they've ever appeared again, but I'm sure someone will prove me wrong 

We've also got a few continuations that I won't delve too far into: New issues of Eclipso (#5), The Spectre (#6, which is the last with Gene Colan art), and Super Friends (#6, featuring new villain the Menagerie Man, and guest-starring the Atom!).

Then we've got a couple of horror books:  Weird Mystery #2, featuring a Kirby story intended for Spirit World (and scripted by Mark Evanier) and a Jack Abel/Howard Purcell story about the Titanic, and House of Mystery #206, under a nice Tony Dezuniga cover of a creepy scarecrow. 

And finally, we have Detective Comics 358, where Batman fights the master of hypnotism, The Spellbinder! This is the same villain who later fought Superman in 1978's Superman 330, where we learn Superman has been secretly hypnotizing everyone using the Kryptonian lenses in his glasses. I had no idea Spellbinder was a revival for that story... he seemed to fit it so perfectly, I thought he was created for it. 

And that's it! No Sun Devils this week, no Superman, Lois, or Jimmy, no Black Magic or House of Secrets or Witching Hour. 

As for DC's sale this week, it focuses on Catwoman. I might just pick up Catwoman: When In Rome, a Loeb/Sale book I'd intended to buy in trade paperback and then never did. There's also Batman: Ego: The Deluxe Edition, which has a lot of Darwyn Cooke Batman and Catwoman work, including, I believe, Selina's Big Score. 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Whoa... this is the lightest week we've seen in ages, if not ever. Just four titles from the DC backlist appearing on Comixology today. None of the horror titles, all DCU. This is so unusual, I'll be checking back later to see if any are added. But here's what we've got.

For 1st Issue Special 11, we get the introduction of Codename: Assassin, who's turned up as a bit player in the DCU a handful of times (most recently, I believe, hunting Jimmy Olsen in the Superman books about a decade ago). 

1st Issue Special only lasted 13 issues, but two more issues were planned, according to the GCD, and their stories landed elsewhere. A Batgirl & Robin teamup was intended for issue 6, and instead was used to launch Batman Family. And a Green Arrow/Black Canary teamup intended for issue 14 was shunted over to Green Lantern/Green Arrow 100 when 1st Issue Special was cancelled. 

Next we've got a big jump for Detective Comics, with issue 375 -- issues 359 (the debut of Batgirl) through 374 were already up on the service. In this one, Batman faces a crook who can tell the future. The credit for the cover is Irv Novick, but I'll eat my Bat-hat if hes not working from a Carmine Infantino design. The next issue on Comixology is 385, so there's a couple months of single issues before we get another jump.  

With Super Friends 7, the team is finally assembled in its best-remembered form, as the Wonder Twins replace Wendy and Marvin on the team (literally shoving them out of the way on the cover). IIRC, Wendy leaves the team to study criminology at Gotham University! The villain is Grax, a Superman baddie from 1966.

Eclipso 6 continues the run by Robert Loren Fleming, Keith Giffen, with Luke McDonnell on art this time. I have to admit, I'm starting to get curious about this title that I pretty much shunned when it was originally published. I'm sure that's the cabin fever talking.

And that's it!

DC's new sale is a "Starter Pack" sale, with tons of volume-1 graphic novels and first issues discounted. I get the feeling these #1s weren't specifically selected, but are rather a result of a result of a search that selected all #1s available on Comixology to be discounted. This has the happy result of certain miniseries being almost entirely available (there was a classic JSA event from the early 2000s that gave each member an issue of a golden age DC title -- All-American Comics #1, Star Spangled Comics #1, etc.,, and they're all available -- as are all the more recent Dark Knights Metal oneshots). Plus, there are a lot of Annual #1s, and first issue of forgotten Vertigo books like Tattered Banners. Basically, it's a hodge-podge. But there are some gems in there, and one-shots that are definitely worth your 99 cents, like Batman/Spirit or Before Watchmen: Dollar Bill. 

Also -- and seemingly unrelated to this sale -- all issues of classic The Brave & The Bold are being sold for 99 cents apiece. I've no idea how long this will last, but it's definitely worth checking out!

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

And in the case of collections driving the digital reprint bus again, there's a collection of DC's 1st Issue Special coming out in the next few weeks.

There's also a Bronze Age Robin omnibus.

Collects BATMAN #192, #202, #203, #227, #229-231, #234-236, #239, #240-242, #244, #245, #248, #250, #252, #254, #259, #333, #337-339 and #341-343; DETECTIVE COMICS #390-391, #394, #395, #398-403, #445, #447, #450, #451 and #481-485; BATMAN FAMILY #1, #3 and #4-9 and 11-20; WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #200 and DC COMICS PRESENTS #31 and #58.

A lot of those books have already appeared on Comixology, but there are definitely some gaps in that Batman run. Maybe we'll start to see them filled. 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

WHAAAAT? Tuesday????

That's right, DC has released a handful of new-to-Comixology books on Tuesday this week -- while also moving their new comic release day to Tuesday as well. What this bodes for the future, I have no idea. But here's what's cookin'.

For 1st Issue Special 12, we get a new Starman -- destined for only this appearance, until he was revived by James Robinson in the 90s for his Jack Knight Starman comic. This one's Mikaal Tomas, an alien Starman pursued to Earth, and created by Gerry Conway and Mike Vosburg.

Detective Comics 376 gives us time-travelers who come back to the 60s to prove Batman wasn't an urban legend. If they'd come back to the 90s instead, what would DC have told them?  

Super Friends 8 guest-stars the Red Tornado in a time-travel story, and Zan and Jayna continue with the team (as they would throughout the book's run). The story's called "The Mind Killers," but I don't see how it's a direct reference to Dune ("Fear is the mind-killer").

Eclipso 7 starts a 2-parter with Ted McKeever art.

The Spectre 8 teams Doug Moench with Cam Kennedy -- but it looks like this is the second part of the story. Spectre 7 will go on The Gap List; it's probably just a temporary oversight.

Finally, out of the blue, we get Wonder Woman 45, from 1951. This will probably continue for a while, since it's a good idea to build up the digital archives before Wonder Woman 1984 comes out -- whenever that will be. There's an origin story in this one, which makes it as good a place to begin a run as any. A nice photo album-themed cover from Irv Novick.

Also: Starting today, there's DC's spring sale -- over 2000 comics and graphic novels at a discount. To be honest, though, the prices don't impress me; a lot of trades that used to be priced at $4.99 at sale recently moved to $5.99 -- but here, they're $6.99. Or something like the Aquaman/Suicide Squad crossover, Sink Atlantis, is $5.99... and it only collects 4 issues. For digital, that's not much of a bargain at all.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

And.... there's no classic DC books released on Comixology today. Maybe the release day is moving permanently to Tuesday, or maybe this is a temporary thing -- perhaps to emphasize the new comics DC is releasing on Tuesday these days.

I'll keep watching for new (old) releases each day.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

It's new/old comics Tuesday again today. Here goes! It's hard to find the older books now, in a sea of new releases.. but it looks like we've got eight.

1st Issue Special 13 gives us Return of the New Gods -- Gerry Conway & Denny O'Neill writer it, and Mike Vosburg draws this revival of the Kirby series. Conway would continue with the series when it spun into its own title (picking up the New Gods numbering), and Don Newton would draw it. Those issues are how I first encountered the series. Lightray, in particular, always seems like he should be drawn by Don Newton to me. 

We get our first new issue of Black Magic in a while, #7. (We've skipped 6; it'll go on The Gap List.) More Simon & Kirby 50s horror, reprinted for the 70s, and then digitized 50 years later!  We also get a nice Bernie Wrightson cover on House of Mystery 207, as that horror book also returns. The John Albano art that opens the book looks pretty stylish, too.

Detective Comics 377 is a new Riddler story, "The Riddler's Prison Puzzler Problem!" The stories inside are written by Garner Fox, and drawn by Mike Sekowsky and Frank Springer. 

Super Friends 9 wraps up the Grax three-parter (I just realized it now!) that introduces the Wonder Twins... as well as the Global Guardians, who have been guest-starring this whole time!

Eclipso 8 wraps up the Ted McKeever two-parter.

The Spectre 9 teams Doug Moench with new permanent artist Gray Morrow -- and opens with a page of Madam Xanadu writhing as she sleeps in the nude. Also: judging by the one preview page he appears on, Morrow is modeling Jim Corrigan on Robert mitchum, which I like. Spectre 7 is still MIA.

There's also a facsimile issue of DC Super Stars 17, which has the origin/first appearance of The Huntress -- but that's not part of this program, that's a comic that was released in print this week, for shops that are open. Which leads to the confusing situation of the book being available on Comixology for two different prices -- $1.99 for the regular digital reprint, and $4.99 for the digital version of the facsimile edition, ads and all.

The DC sale is the same one from last week -- not nearly the bargains we've seen in other sales.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

It's Tuesday, and DC Comics new and old are available on Comixology. Let's look at the old ones, shall we? Like last week, it looks like there are eight in all.

1st Issue Special wrapped up last week, but we'll always have horror! We get House of Mystery 208, with a great Nick Cardy cover of the grim reaper standing outside a cemetery with a sign that says "Closed: No One Dies Today." (If only!) Plus, we get Witching Hour 2, with stories by Alex Toth (including a framing sequence with the three witches, which he illustrates) and art by Delbo, Grandinetti, and Springer. Plus there's Weird Mystery 3, which leads off with "The Burners," a Jack Kirby story about spontaneous human combustion originally intended for Spirit World. Nick Cardy covers on all of these!

Horror-adjacent The Spectre 10 continues the team of Doug Moench and Gray Morrow. This one's a Millennium crossover, with a mini-crossover between Captain Atom, Suicide Squad and Detective Comics. Still no sign of Spectre 7.

Detective Comics 378 has two stories, one by Gardner Fox and Bob Brown, and another by Frank Robbins and Sid Green. The cover story is about Batman & Robin having a falling out, and Robin winds up becoming a roommate to the sidekick of the criminal they were chasing.  

Super Friends 10 has another spooky cover, as the Super Friends face off against basically the Universal Monsters!

Eclipso 9 continues the run, as artist David Klein joins the team. It's a name I'm unfamiliar with, but he's got a bit of a Luck McDonnell style to his figures.

And finally, we've got Wonder Woman 50, from the same era as the recent #45, but not following up directly on it. Maybe DC is just going for the cream of the crop in this run, rather than trying to reprint every issue? Regardless, it's got an exciting cover by Irwin Hasen and Bernard Sachs!

The DC sale is for DC Deluxe collections -- usually higher-end collections that collect double what a normal trade paperback would. They're probably the best way to catch up on Vertigo series like DMZ, Scalped, or Fables. There's also the sharp-looking Aquaman: The Atlantis Chronicles, by Peter David and Esteban Maroto. 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

We've got 7 new titles on DC's Comixology backlist today. What are they?

DC is sure emphasizing its spooky side lately. We get House of Mystery 209, with a great Bernie Wrihtson cover of a grave digger facing off against the grim reaper. The credits say Wrightson does an interior story as well, as does Jim Aparo. 

That's the only specific horror book this week, but we've got three entries to the spooky superhero universe. The Spectre 11 continues the team of Doug Moench and Gray Morrow. This issue brings in DC's supernatural cast to guest-star -- everyone from Zatanna to the Gentleman Ghost. (Still no sign of Spectre 7.) Eclipso 10 continues the run, as Colleen Doran steps in on the art. Giffen's gone from the writing, too -- it's all Robert Loren Fleming now.

Plus, we have a new supernatural star on Comixology -- and the first of two surprises this week! Phantom Stranger 1 from 1969 appears. This issue is mostly reprints, of a Phantom Stranger story and a Dr. Thirteen story, both from 1952. But there's also a new Phantom Stranger story in the back(!), from Mike Friedrich and Bill Draut. Strange placement...you'd think DC would want to front-load the new material.

This week's other surprise is a HUGE jump for Wonder Woman...as we get Wonder Woman 301, by Dan Mishkin and Gene Colan, with a Huntress backup by Joey Cavalieri and Don Heck.And just to keep up the creepy, there's a skeletal Wonder Woman on the cover.

Detective Comics 379 has two stories, one by Gardner Fox and Bob Brown, and another by Frank Robbins and Sid Green. Robin's being held hostage, so Batman has to be in two places at once! So sure, let's have Alfred wear he costume! Why the heck not? 

Super Friends 11 promises "The Kingslayer" -- but I have it on good assurance that Jaime Lannister is nowhere to be found. Inside there's also a villain called the Overlord, who has the best chest symbol I've ever seen -- a globe, with a tilted crown around it. Seriously, check out the first page of the preview.

DC's Memorial Day sale is going on this week -- more collections from all over, pretty much the same as the past few weeks. I'd consider the 100 Bullets collections -- 5 volumes collect the entire 100-issue series, for $5.99 each.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

7 more titles in DC's Comixology backlist this week!

In Detective Comics 380, a woman shows up and claims to be Bruce Wayne's wife. Who is Ginny Jenkins, and what is she up to?

Eclipso 11 sees Amanda Waller assemble a group of "Shadow Fighters" to confront Eclipso. Given that it's a team full of also-rans like Peacemaker and the Yolanda Montez Wildcat, we might just be in for a bloodbath.

Super Friends 12 guest-stars TNT and Dan the Dyno-Mite, and they fight a giant green mole. 

In The Spectre 12, the ghostly guardian chases down a pickpocket demon named "Fingers"! (Still no sign of Spectre 7.)

House of Mystery 210 includes a story about the best exterminator in the world. Weird Mystery 4 includes "The Secret of Bat Island!" 

And again, we get a random issue of Wonder Woman, shooting back in time to 1955's Wonder Woman 76, and "The Bird Who Revealed Wonder Woman's Identity!" This is a weird, higgledy-piggledy reprint strategy, but I like it. What's next for the Amazing Amazon!

This week's DC sale is "What Happens Next?" -- a whole lot of volume 2s are on sale. There are a couple of volume 1s I haven't gotten around to read yet -- the current version of the Teen Titans, and Batgirl & the Birds of Prey. Maybe I'll race through one this week in time to decide on volume 2. But I'd recommend Legion Lost volume 2 -- essentially the whole Legion Lost storyline, as volume 1 reprints the end of the previous Legion series, as the team fought against the Blight. Legion Lost is one of the all-time great Legion stories... and you can check out a recent review here, on Mart Gray's blog.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Only five DC backlist titles arrived on Comixology on Tuesday. I remember when we'd get 28 in a week...

It's mostly usual suspects, but fewer of them. Running through them quickly, there's Detective Comics 381, which shows Batman throwing Robin off a lighthouse on its striking cover; Eclipso 12, which has a final conflict between a team of also-rans and the title character (how's that gonna go?); and Super Friends 13, which briefly ran the wrong cover last week. THIS week is the week they fight the giant green mole! No Wonder Woman, no Spectre, no horror titles.

We've also got Batman: Penguin Triumphant, a prestige-format one-shot that came out around the time Batman Returns was in theaters. (Its co-release, Batman: Catwoman Defiant, has been on Comixology since 2018.)

And we get Action Comics 643, the first issue after Action Comics Weekly ended, featuring story and art by George Perez and Brett Breeding. Roger Stern would soon join Perez with the writing, and he and Breeding would be joined by Kerry Gammil, until after a year Perez would be gone altogether. But these are books from an excellent period in Superman history, and I'm surprised they haven't been available all along. Hopefully we'll get an issue a week until we reach the next sustained run on Comixology, starting with 669. (And after that, maybe DC can go back and wrap up the last 16 issues of Action Comics Weekly, too!)

It's a "super"-sale this week, meaning lots of trade paperbacks and single issues of Superman, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and for some reason, Green Lantern. I love when singles go on sale... it's almost always worth scrolling through and picking something up.