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)]

Perez at first (with Bob Smith), then Jim Starlin, Denys Cowan, and Pat Broderick, who went on to be the regular penciller for Fury of Firestorm.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

And with a glance at Supergirl, I've found that most of the obvious stuff is out there. The titles with her name on them, for instance, are all accounted for, including the 1972 series (1-10), the 1982 Daring New Adventures of... (1-23), the 4-issue miniseries from 1994, and the 80-issue Peter David series that started in 1996. Also, her series from Adventure Comics (381-424) is all available.

Not available is the stuff that doesn't have Supergirl's name as the main cover title. So Superman Family (164-222) is a no-go. And her run of backups in Action Comics (roughly 252-376) isn't available separately, aside from her introduction in 252 and a story in 267. However, there's also Supergirl: The Silver Age Volume 1, which collects her stories from 252 to 284. So if you want to get them all in a bunch, they're available, even if the single comics the stories first appeared in aren't. (I'd expect more of these volumes, as they seem like they're based on paperback versions from the Omnibus titles, and SG is getting a second Silver Age Omnibus next May.)

[Luke Blanchard]

It might be smart for DC to include hero histories with the e-versions that explain where their features have appeared. It need only be a page summary, with the URL for a more complete account, and the online page could be updated as new issues were released. How is a casual reader supposed to know between Supergirl and The Daring New Adventures she appeared in The Superman Family, and The Daring New Adventures became just Supergirl for its final issues?

Come to think of it, there is a potential downside. It could be off-putting to young readers to learn Supergirl was killed.

[Detective 445]

Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) said:

Also, the Flash Spectacular (DC Special Series #11) isn't available...although I could have sworn it was!

Maybe there was a glitch on their site:

https://www.comixology.com/DC-Special-Series-1977-1981-11/digital-c...

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Oh, for crying out loud, there are TWO comics called DC Special Series -- 1968-1977, and 1977-1981. Which is almost certainly a factor of the original numbering scheme, and not Comixology's fault, but still.

For instance, the Flash Spectacular is DC Special Series (77-81) #11, and appeared in April 1978. The Justice Society origin is DC Special Series (68-77) #29, and appeared in May 77. According to Mike's Amazing World, the first issue of the 77 series (the Five Star Superhero Spectacular, cover dated September) appeared on June 16, 1977, when the last issue of the 68 series (the JSA origin) was also on the stands (dated August-September, shipped May 12, 1977). The numbering change was probably demanded by the accounting department, as collectors weren't demanding new #1s at the time, nor was the 5-Star marketed as such.

And yet because of this, it's much harder to catalog DC Specials, whether in an electronic database or a longbox.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

But thanks, Tec! The worst part about that is...I actually own that Comixology version, and couldn't even find it in "My Books"!

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Yeah, those info pages have their upsides and downsides. The sheer volume of other stories can be daunting. But it's good to be able to direct people to other comics with the character. And it's more important with modern comics, when continuity is a lot stricter and the characters are more malleable. (Such as, say, Matrix Supergirl or the Earth Angel Supergirl holding the title.)

On the other hand, we didn't have those online fact sheets when we were starting out, either -- we tracked the information down in fits and starts, and kept track of what was important to us. And that laissez-faire approach might be the best one, trusting new readers to dig deeper into the stories that grab them, and not to worry about the rest.



Luke Blanchard said:

It might be smart for DC to include hero histories with the e-versions that explain where their features have appeared. It need only be a page summary, with the URL for a more complete account, and the online page could be updated as new issues were released. How is a casual reader supposed to know between Supergirl and The Daring New Adventures she appeared in The Superman Family, and The Daring New Adventures became just Supergirl for its final issues?

Come to think of it, there is a potential downside. It could be off-putting to young readers to learn Supergirl was killed.

[Detective 445]

I'm not sure if it's an official designation but many times when I've organized my comics I've come across one series being labeled DC Special and one being called DC Special Series.

[Luke Blanchard]

By numbering, they were two different series. In fact, they were really three series, because DC Special had a hiatus of several years. The final issues of DC Special Series were digests and tabloids. There was also a digest series called DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest in 1980-82.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Yeah, that's what's really crazy -- the second half of series 1 really belongs with series 2!

The worst part is, I even knew about the two runs of DC Special... but I assumed that the JSA origin and the Flash Spectacular (and the Dinosaurs special, which Comixology also has) would be part of the same run. It's maddening. 

[Detective 445]

And then they had those tabloids with the weird numbering system like All New Collector's Edition C-56 etc...

[Luke Blanchard]

DC Special Series #22 was a non-reprint issue featuring "G.I. Combat". Some earlier issues in the series were original spectaculars featuring particular features, like the Flash one, but according to the GCD the "G.I. Combat" issue appeared for an unusual reason. It "was originally intended as G.I. Combat (DC, 1957 series) #222, as the title converted from bi-monthly to monthly frequency, but due to a clerical error in making the necessary changes in the UPC the contents were shifted to this series at the last moment". I would not have guessed something like that could affect what appeared where.