DC Digital Releases: September 29

[Rob Staeger]

Last week was a big week for DC, so it’s probably not surprising that its digital releases are in something of a holding pattern this week. Interestingly enough, the newly-defunct Wildstorm has the most noteworthy new release this week, releasing all three issues of Warren Ellis & Cully Hamner’s Red at once. Want to read the comic before the movie? The whole thing’s yours for six bucks. (Red also dominates the DC store this week, with Dual, JLA and Ex Machina rounding out the buttons.)

Wildstorm’s other new release is Supernatural: Beginnings, a series I wasn’t aware existed. So okay, when this one is over, that’s it for the Supernatural books. Other than two specials, that is.

Wildstorm rounds out its releases with Ex Machina, Gears of War, another issue of Victorian Undead (!) and Welcome to Tranquility — which, incidentally, is being offered at only 99 cents a pop.That’s what we call a bargain, kids. (Telera Chronicles, which premiered with a free 0 issue last week, isn’t continued this week.)

Vertigo sticks with its game plan, offering one issue each of American Splendor, DMZ, Fables, Sandman and Y: The Last Man. Zuda continues Dual, High Moon, I Rule the Night and Supertron. No free premiere book this week.

There’s also no free 10-page preview from DC this week, though it does have its traditional free origin story (this week’s is the Penguin). The DCU offers only continuations this week: Batman, Birds of Prey (two issues), Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Jonah Hex, JLA, Superman/Batman and Wonder Woman, the first post-Heinberg issue (ironically published before Heinberg’s story finished; ah, 2007: the year schedules were thrown into the shredder.). Also, the Batman story “The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul” gets two more chapters, in Batman and Detective, and Crisis on Infinite Earths concludes with the release of the last three issues.

Overall, DC released 32 issues again this week, but Wildstorm took a bigger than normal share (8) by adding Red.

Without Crisis, DC will be three issues shy next week – or six, if Wildstorm drops down to its previous levels. So I thought I’d toss a few titles out that I think might be good choices for DC to release in this format. (Excepting Zuda, that is; I’m not familiar enough with the available comics.)

Wildstorm seems to thrive on miniseries. I’d love to see Two-Step or Red Herring get released. And It’d be great to see Astro City get some more exposure this way.

Vertigo could use another mini and another long-runner, I think. Preacher, Transmet or Hellblazer are naturals for the long runs, and I’d love to see older minis like Sebastian O or Skreemer get released.

There’s plenty of places to go in the DCU, but the Johns/Jurgens Booster Gold isn’t a bad place to start – nor is the recent Blue Beetle comic, although at the moment he doesn’t have a newsstand book to drive sales to right now. I also think Green Lantern Corps could use some new releases, and wouldn’t be surprised if we see some soon. Jonah Hex is also a pretty big seller; I wonder if the recent Kubert (or Zulli) Sgt.Rock miniseries would be a good companion to that? I think 52 is a natural for this sort of thing, but if I were DC, I’d wait until May, since the various weeks are keyed into the times the issues were originally released. And, of course, Superman really needs to have more of a digital presence. Busiek & Johns’s “Up Up and Away” is probably the best starting place.

What would you like to see?

Rob

[Travis Herrick]

On the free origins are those new materials? IE are they getting a a writer and artist do one of those each week? How is the quality of 'em?

I wouldn't think you would see Blue Beetle get reprinted since it never did sell all that well. Then again maybe it would be something more tech savvy teens would be into. I dunno.

I think James Robinson's Starman would be neat. Unless they did that already and I wasn't paying close enough attention.

[Rob Staeger]

Starman's a great choice -- and Robinson is a writer DC's invested in promoting. It's a perfect combo.

The free origins are reprints of the two-page origins featured in the backs of 52 and Countdown. All of the ones in 52 were written by Mark Waid, and drawn by some top-notch talent (for instance, last week's Joker origin? Mark Waid and Brian Bolland). I didn't read much of Countdown, but it seems they stayed pretty high-quality, too.

You're right that the Blue Beetle series didn't sell incredibly well, but Jaime does seem to be a character DC's invested in (in a way that they aren't with, say, Ryan Choi -- although I think Choi is actually alive). I'm thinking that might give him a boost. But I agree they probably have higher priorities at the moment.