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.

[Lee Houston, Junior]

Surprised to be making two posts in a row here, but for those interested...

Amazon e-book listings are teasing me with the resumption of Challenge of the Super-Sons starting with issue 8 the week of March 15.

Through issue 10 is listed on a weekly release basis from that point, but no idea how long the series is supposed to last.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Oh, glad to see it come back! I feel like I'd heard it would be 16 installments in all, but I might be thinking of something else. 

And yeah, my tongue was planted firmly in cheek when I mentioned that Batman reprint issue,

[Lee Houston, Junior]

Hope I didn't blow your comedy routine (tongue in cheek) Rob.

[Lee Houston, Junior]

More Batman: The Adventure Continues ARE coming!

[1xxtglbeice6g]

 

      Go Here for DC's BLACKHAWK.

Blackhawk v1 250 | Read All Comics Online For Free

    Yeah, it's free, but past #125, rarely readable.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

I bought the print version, and I really liked it. Glad to hear its coming back.

Lee Houston, Junior said:

More Batman: The Adventure Continues ARE coming!

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

As was foretold, this week's five DC backlist books are:

• Detective Comics (1937-2011) #111: From 1946: Batman and Robin vs a greedy coal mine owner! Plus, stories starring Air Wave, Slam Bradley, and the Boy Commandos! This issues fills a gap, meaning all issues of Detective from Batman's debut in 27 to issue 132 are now available (though a handful of the early Batman issues are doubled up with just the Batman stories). After 132, the pickings are slim -- only issue 200 is available before another run begins with issue 298.
• Super Friends (1976-1981) #42: Plant-controlling Green Thumb faces off against Brazilian superheroine (and future Justice Leaguer) Green Fury!
• Wonder Woman (1942-1986) #123: Adventures of Wonder Tot, Wonder Girl, and Wonder Woman! (And another gap filled!)
• Static (1993-1997) #7: Still facing off against Commando X! This issue also leads into the first Milestone crossover, Shadow War.
• Hardware (1993-1997) #7: Hardware vs Deathwish! 
  
  

The DC sale this week focuses on the Justice League. The DC RetroActive issues from years ago are available for a buck apiece, and what looks to be a fun kid's book, Dear Justice League, is on sale for $3.99. Plenty of other stuff, but those are some off the beaten path books that seemed worth highlighting.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Here's what we're looking at for this week:

• Justice League of America (1960-1987) #112: A 100-page Super Spectacular, with a new story where the JLA fights Amazo, plus a JLA reprint, a Seven Soldiers of Victory story from the 40s, and a  golden age Starman solo story!
• Super Friends (1976-1981) #43: We're nearing the end of the run here; only about a month of issues to go. Here, the Super Friends fight Futurio; there's a Plastic Man backup. (Also: Ramona Fradon takes a month off from the art chores, and Romeo Tanghal takes over.)
• Wonder Woman (1942-1986) #143: This one was a gap, but I think a data entry error makes it seem like it's been available since 2017. Regardless, enjoy the Terror Trees of Forbidden Island!
• Blood Syndicate (1993-1996) #2: Tech-9 and Holocaust vie for leadership of the Blood Syndicate!
• Icon (1993-1997) #7: Icon and Rocket don't see eye to eye about  local store.

Sales-wise, it's DC's "Explore the Multiverse" sale -- which includes some of the new YA OGN's, like Primer, Anti/Hero, Batman: Overdrive, and Black Canary: Ignite. 

[Lee Houston, Junior]

Justice League of America #112 is FINALLY on Kindle???

For years that's been the lone hold out of the regular series.

Now if they would just digitize all of DC's 100 page for 50 cents (no ads) specials of the past, although I'm still waiting for all the Kindle copies of every comic book to finally include at least the letter columns, if not the house ads as well as other features of the past they always seem to skip.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I can't speak to Kindle -- it might have a slightly different availability than Comixology -- but even now that we have issue 112, there are a few more JLA holdouts on Comixology.

There’s also JLA 159 and 160, which I see are scheduled to be released in the next two weeks, March 30 and April 6.

Also missing are 162-165, 169, 175, 206. It looks like that's it -- from there on, the original JLA series and the Detroit League are all available. I wouldn't be surprised if those gaps got filled in the next month or so. (Once we get into the Bwa-ha-ha league, all bets are off -- most of the JLA/JLI run has been collected, with some exceptions, but very little of Justice League Europe is available, presumably because DC prefers to dissociate itself from Gerard Jones, who started co-writing right when the series cuts off.) 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Looking around, I see evidence that DC will be doing more gap-filling in the near future. In addition to JLA 159 and 160, I see Action Comics 341, 343, and 661 available for pre-order for mid-April. It's a little haphazard: In Action, 351, 352, 355, and 360-363 are missing, and the jump to 661 skips over this missing 660. But regardless, I'm glad to see them closing the gaps.

[Lee Houston, Junior]

There were two different formats to the original DC 100 page giants from the 1970s.

The first was 50 cents with absolutely no ads, which also gave readers wrap around covers and inside cover text material and the 60 cent version which had ads, so only the standard cover.

Kindle/e-format wise, I know Adventure Comics 416 (50 cents), all the Brave and the Bold, Detective Comics, and Justice League now that #112 is available have been digitized (60 centers).

But among the notably still missing are just about all the 50 centers, produced as either a stand alone special or part of the regular title, and a whole lot of the 60 centers including the two Action Comics issues, the entire blocks of Superman Family, Shazam, World's Finest, and more.

Maybe someday...