Tag Archives: Collections

This Week (Oct 8): Going Ape

This week, two Flash stories are reprinted in the DC Goes Ape collection.

DC Goes Ape

Written by Otto Binder, John Broome, Gardner Fox and others; Art by Carmine Infantino, Wayne Boring, George Papp, Ross Andru, C.C. Beck, Jim Starlin and others; Cover by Arthur Adams
You’ll go bananas for this new title collecting simian stories from Superboy #76, Superman #138, The Flash (vol.1) #127, Detective Comics #339 and 482, Hawkman #16, Wonder Woman #170, Strange Adventures #201, Shazam #9, Super Friends #30 and The Flash (vol.2) #151!

168pg. | Color | Softcover | $19.99 US

Notes: The two Flash stories are:

“Reign of the Super-Gorilla” (Flash v.1 #127, 1962), in which Gorilla Grodd imbues himself with “neo-magnetic radiation,” making everyone within a 100-mile radius think he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Everyone but the Flash, that is. He easily takes over Gorilla City, then moves on to Central City…where the citizens decide to run him for state governor.

“Territorealis” (Flash v.2 #151, 1999), a flashback told at the beginning of the Dark Flash Saga. Kid Flash mistakes another intelligent Gorilla for Grodd himself, then has to help him return to Gorilla City in order to prevent an invasion. In a way, it serves as a prologue to the “JLApe” storyline that ran through that summer’s annuals.

DC has a long tradition of using intelligent apes as characters (Grodd, Monsieur Mallah, Detective Chimp, etc.), but I have to wonder whether the timing of this collection might be influenced by the Marvel Apes miniseries currently in stores.

This Week (Sep 24): Salvation Run & Kingdom Come

There’s no new Flash comics this week, but Salvation Run is being collected, and Kingdom Come is being reprinted.

Salvation Run

Written by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges; Art by Sean Chen and Walden Wong; Cover by Joe Corroney

The hit 7-issue miniseries spinning out of Countdown to Final Crisis is collected in this new trade paperback. Exiled to a distant hell planet, the villains of the DCU split into two warring factions led by Lex Luthor and The Joker!

Notes: While Salvation Run tended to focus on Luthor and the Joker, each issue was told from the point of view of one of the Flash’s Rogues, the first group of villains to be exiled to the planet for murdering Bart Allen.

Kingdom Come – New Edition


Written by Mark Waid; Art and Cover by Alex Ross

Eisner Award-winning artist Alex Ross provides an amazing new cover painting for this new edition of KINGDOM COME, which features a deluxe foldout cover only on its first printing! (Subsequent printings will not include the foldout.)

Written by Mark Waid and illustrated by Ross, this is the unforgettable, best-selling tale of a world spinning inexorably out of control. Waid and Ross weave a tale of youth versus experience, tradition versus change, and what defines a hero. KINGDOM COME is a riveting epic that pits the old guard – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and their allies – against a new, uncompromising generation of heroes.

No Black Flash Trade Yet

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Contrary to previous reports, it turns out that “The Black Flash” isn’t getting the collected edition treatment just yet. Now that DC’s December solicitations are out, they’ve officially solicited the January 21 release of The Flash: Emergency Stop. It’s confirmed at a $12.95 trade paperback covering Flash vol.2 #130-135 — only half of the Grant Morrison/Mark Millar run.

So what does that include?

  • “Emergency Stop” — Flash vs. the Suit, with a time travel mystery.
  • A one-shot fighting the Mirror Master.
  • A one-shot focusing on Jay Garrick.
  • The third part of the “Three of a Kind” crossover with Green Arrow and Green Lantern.

See also my overview of the whole run.

The surprise here isn’t that it’s only half the run. 6 issues is typical for a collection these days, and since the whole run is 12 issues, that makes it easy to cover the whole thing in two books.

The surprise is that with “Three of a Kind,” they included 1/3 of a 3-part story. At least it should flow reasonably well, since it was told with its own framing sequence, but it’s still an odd choice.

Update: “The Black Flash” will appear in Flash: The Human Race, shipping in June 2009.

Emergency Stop: Full Run?

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Rumor column Lying in the Gutters seems to think that the upcoming Emergency Stop trade paperback contains the entire Morrison/Millar run on The Flash from 1997. And considering that Amazon is currently quoting a list price of $60(!), I certainly hope so! For that price — heck, even for the discounted price of $37.80 — it ought to be both complete and a hardcover!

It’s still listed as shipping in January, so with any luck we’ll get more solid information in DC’s next round of solicitations.

On a related note, the first real substantive post I made on this blog was a summary of the Morrison/Millar run. I don’t remember what price Amazon was quoting back then.

Flash Archives 5 Coming in 2009

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Flash Archives 5Keith Dallas (author of The Flash Companion) spotted The Flash Archives Volume 5 on Amazon.com, with a release date of March 10, 2009.

The detail page doesn’t list contents, just that it’s 248 pages. Like most of DC’s Archive Editions, the list price is $50 (still less than it would cost to track down the originals in decent condition), but Amazon is currently offering it at a 37% discount.

Dallas figures that it most likely contains stories from the Silver Age Flash #133–140, which would include:

  • the introduction of Professor Zoom (#139) and Heat Wave (#140);
  • stories with Abra Kadabra (#133), Captain Cold (#134), Mirror Master (#136) and Pied Piper (#138);
  • another Jay Garrick/Barry Allen team-up, this one involving the entire Justice Society of America against Vandal Savage (in fact, this is the first JSA appearance of the Silver Age);
  • and the tale of Kid Flash finally losing the “Mini-Me” costume for the yellow one he joined the Teen Titans with (#135)

Interestingly enough, going through Flash #140 would exactly match the current span of the cheaper, black-and-white Showcase Presents: The Flash collections (volumes 1 and 2).

Update (October 2008): The official solicitation is out, and it covers #133-141 — one more issue than predicted. The additional issue contains another milestone: the first appearance of the Rogues’ tailor, Paul Gambi.

This Week (Aug 6): The Wild Wests

This week we have the first collected edition from the current Flash relaunch, featuring Mark Waid’s brief return to the title. Several Flashes also appear in Final Crisis.

Flash: The Wild Wests

Wally West returns to active duty as the Flash — with the addition of his two children — in this amazing hardcover collecting The Flash #231-237, guest-starring the Justice League! What’s his dark, dark family secret — the one that’s helping him keep the peace in Keystone? This volume also includes “The Fast Life,” by Mark Waid, John Rogers and Doug Braithwaite — the compelling tale of the West family’s life on a Flash-friendly alien world.

Written by Mark Waid, John Rogers and Keith Champagne; Art by Daniel Acuña, Freddie Williams II and Doug Braithwaite; Cover by Acuña.

Notes: It’s odd that this would be the first Flash collection to come out in hardcover (not counting the archive editions), given how many people disliked the direction the series took. (Personally, I wasn’t wowed by it, but I enjoyed it well enough, and it led into Tom Peyer’s run, which I’ve really liked.)

This was originally scheduled for last week, but pushed back. Oddly enough, I saw a copy at Freddie Williams II’s table in Artist’s Alley the weekend before the original release date.

Final Crisis #3 of 7

Batman missing in action! Superman immobilized! Green Lantern on trial for his life!

A shadow is falling across Earth’s super heroes — and now it’s Wonder Woman’s turn to face the Evil Gods!

What bizarre warning from beyond awaits Frankenstein, The Question and the agents of S.H.A.D.E. in the shadows of the Dark Side Club? What grim fate lies in store for The Human Flame? What happens when the Anti-Life Equation hits the internet? Can the Fastest Men Alive outrun The Black Racer — Death himself? And who are the Justifiers?

The answers are all here as the unstoppable rise of evil continues in FINAL CRISIS #3 by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones.

Notes: We all saw what happened at the end of the last issue. It seemed obvious from the cliffhanger, but just in case, the three fans who read the B&W preview at Comic-Con have assured us that yes, Barry Allen does appear in this issue. And then there’s the four-page preview released yesterday…

Edit: Either I misread the release date, or Tangent: Superman’s Reign has been rescheduled. It’s actually coming out August 20.