DC Digital: Releases for October 27

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Move along, nothing to see here.

Okay, that’s not entirely true, as the DCU has two debuts and another imprint has a dramatic break in its pattern, but on the whole, this is a pretty ho-hum week. And a smaller week, too, as DC released only 32 comics, as opposed to numbers in the low 40s these past few weeks.

First, the debuts: Green Lantern Corps: Recharge arrived with two issues, and Batman: The Long Halloween premiered with one. Both had been previously announced, although to be frank I’d completely forgotten about the Recharge mini that preceded the GLC’s ongoing series. It’s a six-issue stint, probably two a week for the next two weeks, after which I’d expect the ongoing to start being serialized as well.

As for The Long Halloween, it debuted with one issue, and I doubt it will speed up. And with Batman: RIP drawing to a close, could this be our only Batman for the next three months? I kinda doubt it. (I’m hoping Long Halloween is followed up by later Loeb/Sale collaborations, like Dark Victory and Superman for All Seasons, because maybe they’ll get to the Catwoman series they did that I somehow skipped. Ah, the perils of tradewaiting for a forgetful man.)

A couple other items of note: DC promotes the new Teen Titans team with a 10-page preview, and I have to admit that what they give us is pretty promising. Of course, it looks even better than it reads, because Nicola Scott’s pencils can outclass just about anybody, and her art looks better here than I’ve ever seen it. The free origin is of the Ted Kord Blue Beetle, fresh from a recent appearance on TV’s Batman: Brave & Bold.

Other than that, we get the usual suspects: two issues each of Birds of Prey, JLA, Justice Society of America and Wonder Woman. The second Wonder Woman issue is the beginning of the Gail Simone run, and worth reading if you missed them. I suspect her extended Rise of the Olympian arc will read much better in weekly installments rather than monthly.

JLA, it seems, really likes to end on a cliffhanger. There are three two-parters in a row in this run, and since Rock of Ages, we’ve seen the book release the final part of one story along with the first part of the next. We’ll see if the pattern continues next week; it seems like a smart plan to me. Always keep ‘em wanting more. (We don’t get any more of the Meltzer Justice League of America series yet, by the way.)

Also, there are single issues of Batman, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Power Girl, Starman and Superman/Batman, and this week’s Generation Lost.

Vertigo and Wildstorm toddle along with their regular stories – including the revived Planetary – but nothing new gets released. Vertigo has two more issues of Hellblazer, plus Fables, Sandman and Y. Wildstorm has Planetary, Ex Machina, Sleeper (two issues) Supernatural (one issue left!), Trick’r Treat (last issue), and Gears of War (also closing in toward the most recent issue, #14).No Victorian Undead once again, which you'd think would be a shoe-in for around Halloween.

And Zuda released…

Huh, that’s funny. Zuda releases four books a week, every week. But this week, there’s nothing. I pointed this out to the folks at Comixology, and they assure me that DC is still making them; they just didn’t release any this week. We’ll see, I guess.

The DC store features Gears of War as its banner book, with Sleeper, Teen Titans and JSA as its buttons. So the two legitimate debuts this week are getting snubbed for material that’s had a few weeks to build. I’ll be curious to see if that continues.

Rob

[Cavaliere (moderator emeritus)]

From all the new releases, it looks like I'll only be buying the new issue of Generation Lost this week. I was buying the issues of Birds of Prey up until a couple of weeks ago. I think I'll wait on any more until ComiXology has a sale.

I will buy the collections of The Walking Dead eventually. By "eventually" I mean after that magical day far in the future when I can afford an iPad. This goes against my usual stance of "why buy it when I can read it for free" but this series is so good that I want to have in in my library. Eventually.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I'm missing a bunch of scattered Birds of Prey issues, too ... Most of what I own of Gail's run before issue 100 I picked up as random single backissues at a deep discount. I might pick fill in the blanks up at a sale, as well.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

DC released a few books -- mostly Batman, but also Starman 8 -- on Halloween. I'll have more to say about it this week's post.