"John Byrne wasn't the first to offer that pronunciation for Mxyzptlk. Michael L. Fleischer…"
DC's Digital Backlist - Secret Society of Super Villains spotlight!
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
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) on
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DC is promising 5 new backlist issues a week for DC Infinite, and that's exactly what we get on Comixology as well. (I expect these things to be lockstep.)
As promised, we get new issues of Batman, Stalker, and Super Friends. We also get a Firestorm Annual and the first issue of Icon.
Batman 201: The synopsis asks the question "Why would the JOKER, PENGUIN, CATWOMAN, MAD-HATTER, amd JOHNNY WITTS team up to save the life of their arch-foe Batman?" A better question: Who the hell is Johnny Witts? 202 and 204 are set be released in the next two weeks. (203 has been available for some time.)
Icon 1: It looks like this Milestone book will be released weekly; Issue 2 and 3 are on deck for the next two weeks. And it looks like both Static and Hardware will be releasing issues 2 & 3 in the next two weeks as well.
Stalker 4: The final issue of this 70s fantasy series.
Firestorm Annual 5: With this, it looks like (Fury of) Firestorm volume 2 has been completely reprinted.
Super Friends 35: Issues 36 and 37 will be available in the coming weeks.
With that, and the pre-order info, it looks like the 5 books we can count on for the next two weeks are Batman, Icon, Hardware, Static, and Super Friends. Not a bad group.
DC's sale is a bunch of it's deluxe hardcovers. On digital. I'm not sure what about the digital version makes them "deluxe" -- although I guess in some cases there are introductions.
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As expected, DC released new back issues of Batman, Icon, Hardware, Static, and Super Friends on Comixology today. It also released an issue of Catwoman that probably was skipped for some time (though it never made the Gap List).
Let's run through 'em!
Batman 202: Batman and Robin encounter a grave with their name on it! 204 and 205 are set be released in the next two weeks. (203 has been available for some time.)
Icon 2, Static 2, and Hardware 2: Looks like we'll continue to get these three Milestone series weekly for a while. (No word on Blood Syndicate, Milestone's other initial offering, yet.) Icon lasted 42 issues, Static lasted 45, and Hardware lasted 50, so they'll be around pretty much all year at this pace.
Super Friends 36: This teamup with Plastic Man was recently included in the first DC Through the 80s hardcover. Issues 37 and 38 will be available in the coming weeks.
Catwoman 24: Somehow this issue seems to have been left out of the run of the Jim Balent-era Catwoman. (Now there's a run that's better known for its artist than its writers; this issue's writer is Deborah Pomerantz, a name I'm unfamiliar with. Comixology lists her on Catwoman and Showcase '96.)
Like last week, the pre-order info indicates the 5 books we can count on for the next two weeks are Batman, Icon, Hardware, Static, and Super Friends.
DC's sale this week celebrates Black History Month. Aside from the too-few expected books like Black Lightning and Cyborg (where's Vixen?), fans of The Other History of the DC Universe can check out John Ridley's earlier series, The American Way.
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This week looks much like the last, and much like the next. And thus does DC's digital backlist become a metaphor for life during the pandemic.
Anyway, five issues, here we go!
Batman 204: Operation: Blindfold begins! 204 and 205 are a two-parter in which the Dynamic Duo is beset by a gang of apparently blind assailants. For some reason I was well familiar with the cover of next week's 205, but never saw this week's cover before. Until I discovered they were a two-parter, I thought Batman and Robin were making a cottage industry out of clobbering blind dudes.
Icon 3, Static 3, and Hardware 3: Continuing the weekly release of three of the four original Milestone titles: Hardware continues "Man in the Machine," Static fights Tarmac, and Icon makes his public debut.
Super Friends 37: A teamup with Supergirl this time. Issues 38 and 39 will be available in the coming weeks. Strangely enough, the two issues skipped on Comixology, 32 & 33, are available on DC Infinite. Probably an oversight.
Like last week, the pre-order info indicates the 5 books we can count on for the next two weeks are Batman, Icon, Hardware, Static, and Super Friends. There's plenty of Batman in the 200s left to reprint, and plenty of Milestone books too; Super Friends has 10 more issues to go.
DC's sale focuses on heroes in love this week -- there's lots of Aquaman, Batman, Catwoman, Superman, and any graphic novel that has the word "love" in the title. Plus some single wedding issues of various titles.
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Five more DC Comixology backlist books up, and they're the five we expect: Batman 205, Super Friends 39, and Icon, Static, and Hardware #4.
Looks like we'll be getting the same next week & the week after that (with the possible exception of Icon in two weeks), too.
Dc's sale is START HERE! -- a lot of first issues and volume 1 graphic novels.
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Permalink Reply by Luke Blanchard on
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Reportedly, Stalker was cancelled after #3, and #4 appeared because the title was mistakenly included in a production schedule and it was easier to do one more than retype the list. I've read #3-#4. I remember them as competent but uninspired in both art and writing. The end of #4 semi-concludes the storyline.
The Global Guardians were introduced in Super Friends, and a number of the later issues starred them in solo back-ups. They also appeared in DC Comics Presents #46.
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That's right -- and the two most famous members of the Guardians, Fire and Ice, began as Green Fury and Ice Maiden. Beatriz first appeared in Super Friends 25, and Sigrid (the first Icemaiden, who was eventually replaced by the better-known Tora) debuted way back in Super Friends 9. (In a similar continuity goof to the inclusion of Wonder Girl in the Teen Titans, the creators of JLI assumed Icemaiden's name was never revealed, so they named her Tora Olafsdottir. Sometime retroactively, she became considered a separate character from Sigrid because of the new name.)
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This week's books, released on Tuesday, were exactly what we expected:
Batman 206: Batman on Death Row?Icon 5: Guest-starring Blood Syndicate!
Static 5: Static tries to stop a riot, instigated by Commando X.
Hardware 5: Guest-starring Deathwish!
Super Friends 39: Versus the Overlord...and with PENCILS by Vince Colletta?
Next week, you can pre-order another issue of all of these books but Icon. I don't see any pre-orders set for the week after that.
DC's sale this week is Joker's Greatest Jokes, which I feel comfortable ignoring. Instead, check out Dark Horse's sale of former Vertigo editor Karen Berger's Berger Books! I liked the Mata Hari book a lot, Invisible Kingdom is great, and I like what I've read of The Seeds so far. Great prices on books like Incognegro, She Could Fly, and Ruby Falls.
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Permalink Reply by Travis Herrick (Modular Mod) on
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I think I would have enjoyed Mata Hari, if the story was told a more linear fashion. Jumping around normally doesn't bother me, but for some reason it was jarring in this series.
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Looks like we've got a change this week, with a newcomer joining DC's backlist!
AlongsideBatman 207: A great Irv Novick death-trap cover... with a story by Frank Robbins and Novick.
Static 6: Commando X's secret revealed!
Hardware 6: The Deathwish story continues!
Super Friends 40: Wonder Woman...arrested? Plus a Jack O'Lantern backup!
We also get
Wonder Woman 111: Wonder Woman fights a robot duplicate of herself... backed up by a Wonder Girl story!
That Wonder Woman story is on the Gap List... and it looks like DC is planning to take March to fill the holes in the Silver Age WW catalogue. A Newsarama article says these books are coming up on DC Infinite in March:
March 1:- Batman (1940-2011) #207
- Super Friends (1976-1981) #40
- Wonder Woman (1942-1986) #111
- Static (1993-1997) #6
- Hardware (1993-1997) #6
March 8:
- Batman (1940-2011) #233
- Super Friends (1976-1981) #41
- Wonder Woman (1942-1986) #113
- Blood Syndicate (1993-1996) #1
- Icon (1993-1997) #6
March 15:
- Detective Comics (1937-2011) #111
- Super Friends (1976-1981) #42
- Wonder Woman (1942-1986) #123
- Static (1993-1997) #7
- Hardware (1993-1997) #7
March 22:
- Justice League of America (1960-1987) #112
- Super Friends (1976-1981) #43
- Wonder Woman (1942-1986) #143
- Blood Syndicate (1993-1996) #2
- Icon (1993-1997) #7
And March 29:
- Justice League of America (1960-1987) #159
- Super Friends (1976-1981) #44
- Wonder Woman (1942-1986) #198
- Static (1993-1997) #8
- Hardware (1993-1997) #8
All five of those Wonder Woman issues are gaps in the Silver Age run, and the Detective Comics and Justice League books are gaps as well. It could be that DC is looking at their main titles and wanting to be thorough! It looks like Super Friends will continue weekly through its conclusion at issue 47, and Static and Hardware will be bi-weekly, alternating with Blood Syndicate and Icon.
Sales-wise, DC is offering DC Teamwork this week, focusing on team books and team-up titles! So if you feel like catching up on that Dan Jurgens run of Teen Titans (with Argent, Risk, Hotspot, Prism, and a teenage Atom) now's your chance!
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Since it looks like DC is cleaning up some of their gaps, I thought I'd check out a franchise I haven't taken a close look at for a while. Here's what's missing from various Teen Titans titles. (I'm drawing an arbitrary line at the title when Geoff Johns took over.)
In the original 1966 Teen Titans series, 23-28 are missing from Comixology. (Oddly enough, 24 and 24 appear in DC Infinite.) The team's previous appearances in Brave & Bold 54 and 60, and Showcase 59, are already available too. All of the 70s revival is included in this run, and is available.
In the Wolfman Perez 1980 run, everything's included: Issues 1-58, Annuals 1-4.
In the direct market title that launched in 1984, almost everything is available from those 130 issues and 11 annuals, aside from Annual #2, vs Brother Blood. (Annual #2 was released 9/21/2021)
Teen Titans Spotlight, which ran for 21 issues, is only missing issue 15, starring the Omega Men. (Issue 15 was released 11/2/2021)
There was also Team Titans, at the height of all this: It had 24 issues -- 28, really, when you consider there were 5 different #1s -- two annuals, and an aptly named Sell Out Special. They're all available, and the first issue contains all 5 of the issue 1 variants, totaling 115 pages. Right now it's on sale for 99 cents, which is a bargain if volume is your only consideration.
The Dan Jurgens Titans that came next has all of its 24 issues and one annual available.
Finally this team was succeeded by Titans, written originally by Devin Grayson. It ran for 50 issues, one annual, and 2 Secret Files & Origins issues (both of which are available, but issue 2 is listed with the Titans book, while issue 1 is listed with the Secret Files books. Databases, amirite?)
So just a handful of issues are missing! They're going on the Gap List.
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As foretold, this week's DC backlist includes:
- Batman (1940-2011) #233 -- a reprint Giant collecting 5 stories focusing on Bruce Wayne. (The previous issue was the debut of Ra's Al Ghul. I guess the team just decided "job well done!" and took a month off.
- Super Friends (1976-1981) #41 -- the team takes on the Toyman!
- Wonder Woman (1942-1986) #113 The Sphinx pounces! Yes, the literal sphinx.
- Blood Syndicate (1993-1996) #1 Dakota's super-powered street gang is back in circulation! I love the confrontational taglines under the logo with every issue, and this one -- AMERICA EATS ITS YOUNG -- is one of the best.
- Icon (1993-1997) #6 Blood Syndicate guest-stars!
DC is having its Wonderful Women of DC sale, celebrating Women's History Month. One title worth looking at is Primer, a YA graphic novel that came out last year, about a girl who gets super powers from special body paints. I don't much about it, but it looks like it could be a fun read. And it's not on DC Infinite, so if you want to read it, Comixology is the place.
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Permalink Reply by Lee Houston, Junior on
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Rob, et al:
Reprint issues were a regularly scheduled event for a lot of DC titles between the 1960s to the mid-1970s, so Batman #233 was probably more of an interruption than a celebratory kudo.
Besides, Ra's early appearances were not subsequent until the initial story neared its conclusion, based upon the back issue listings in future reprints of the saga.
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