Details for Batman: Black Casebook, Final Crisis Companion

The latest DC Comics Direct Channel has a breakdown of the contents for the Final Crisis Companion, Batman: The Black Casebook, Robin: The Teen Wonder, and more. Here's all the details, with explanations of relevant issues. (Spoilers may follow for Batman RIP and others; don't know, haven't read 'em, so proceed at your own risk. Please no additional spoilers in comments.) Thanks to Kelson for the heads up.

GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY: A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN TP
Writer: Judd Winick
Artists: Mike Norton, Diego Barreto, Wayne Faucher and Robin Riggs
Collects: GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #11-14 and GREEN ARROW SECRET FILES #1
$17.99 US, 128 pages

- The Green Arrow Secret Files contribution is an origin of Green Arrow story written by Judd Winick.

THE FLASH PRESENTS: MERCURY FALLING TP
Writer: Todd Dezago
Artists: Ethan Van Sciver, Eric Battle, John Stokes, Prentis Rollins and others
Collects: IMPULSE #62-67
$14.99 US, 144 pages

- The Flash Presents makes far clearer the intentions of this trade.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA: THE SECOND COMING HC
Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Artist: Ed Benes
Collects: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #22-26
$19.99 US, 144 pages

THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: ENEMY MANIFEST HC
Writer: Jim Shooter
Artists: Francis Manapul and Livesay
Collects: THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #45-50
$24.99 US, 144 pages

- This indeed completes the Jim Shooter run on Legion.

RANN/THANAGAR: HOLY WAR VOL. 1 TP
Writer: Jim Starlin
Artists: Ron Lim, Jim Starlin, Rob Hunter and Al Milgrom
Collects: RANN/THANAGAR: HOLY WAR #1-4 and HAWKMAN SPECIAL #1
$19.99 US, 168 pages

- The Hawkman special here suggests that volume two will have the Adam Strange special. Is anyone else just loving how DC's letting Jim Starlin run wild with the DC cosmic characters in a series of miniseries (instead of an ill-considered ongoing)? I wish they'd do the same thing with the supernatural characters.

ROBIN: THE TEEN WONDER TP
Writers: Dennis O'Neil, James Robinson, Chuck Dixon, Jim Starlin, Marv Wolfman, Bill Willingham and Geoff Johns
Artists: Dave Taylor, Lee Weeks, Scott McDaniel, Andy Owens, Jim Aparo, Mike DeCarlo, Damion Scott, Tony Daniel and Marlo Alquiza
Collects: BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #100, NIGHTWING #101, BATMAN #428 and 442, ROBIN #126 and 132 and TEEN TITANS #29
$17.99 US, 160 pages

- Legends Of the Dark Knight #100 is a story of Dick Grayson's training as Robin; Nightwing #101 has Dick setting out on his own; Batman #428 is the death of Jason Todd; Batman #442 is the first appearance of Tim Drake; Robin #126 has Spoiler Stephanie Brown becoming Robin; Robin #132 has Tim Drake moving to Bludhaven; and Teen Titans #29 has Tim Drake versus Red Hood. Now, you know I say any collection is good collection, but this strikes me as fairly ridiculous. The third part of "Death in the Family," the first part of "Lonely Place of Dying," and the first part of "Fresh Blood"? This seems a largely disorganized trade, when a collection of Silver Age or Earth-2 Dick Grayson adventures might've filled a far better gap.

STATIC SHOCK: REBIRTH OF THE COOL TP
Writers: Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III
Artists: John Paul Leon and Steve Mitchell
Collects: STATIC #1-4 and STATIC SHOCK: REBIRTH OF THE COOL #1-4
$19.99 US, 192 pages

- This is solicited as Static, not Static Shock, and they really should rename it, otherwise they're never going to duck that misnomer.

SUPERMAN: ENDING BATTLE TP
Writers: Geoff Johns, Joe Casey, Mark Schultz and Joe Kelly
Artist: Pascual Ferry, Cam Smith, Derec Aucoin, Brandon Badeaux, Mark Morales, Duncan Rouleau, Marlo Alquiza and Mark Farmer
Collects: SUPERMAN #185-186, ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #608-609, SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL #130-131 and ACTION COMICS #795-796
$14.99 US, 192 pages

- The list above must be missing Superman #187, which is part five of Ending Battle. Superman #185 is indeed a Geoff Johns issue, a one-shot with Major Disaster that ties thematically into Ending Battle, so it would be appropriate to include it. It makes me wonder if they might ever reprint the Geoff Johns/Joe Kelly four-parter that followed a bit later, "Lost Hearts," which included later-Blue Beetle cast member Traci 13.

SUPERMAN: NEW KRYPTON VOL. 1 HC
Writers: Gary Frank, James Robinson and Sterling Gates
Artists: Pete Woods, Gary Frank, Renato Guedes, Jon Sibal, Wilson Magalhaes and Pere Perez
Collects: SUPERMAN: NEW KRYPTON SPECIAL, SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN SPECIAL SUPERMAN #681, ACTION COMICS #871 and ADVENTURE COMICS SPECIAL FEATURING THE GUARDIAN
$24.99 US, 176 pages

- Ah, $25 for a hardcover with remarkably few actual Superman issues in it. Some days it sucks to be such a sucker.

BATMAN: THE BLACK CASEBOOK TP
Writers: France Herron, Edmond Hamilton, Bill Finger
Artists: Dick Sprang, Charles Paris, Sheldon Moldoff, Stan Kaye
Collects: Stories from BATMAN #113, 134, 156 and 162, DETECTIVE COMICS #215, 235 and 267 and WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #89
$17.99 US, 144 pages

- Batman #113 is the story "Batman: The Superman of Planet X," which features the alien Zur En Arrh; Batman #134 is either the story "The Rainbow Creature," "Batman's Secret Enemy," or "The Deadly Dummy"; Batman #156 is "Robin Dies at Dawn"; Batman #162 has Batman turning into the King Kong-like "Batman Creature"; Detective Comics #215 features "The Batmen of All Nations" also seen in Batman: The Black Casebook; Detective Comics #235 tells of "The First Batman," Thomas Wayne; Detective Comics #267 is the first appearance of Bat-Mite; and World's Finest Comics #89 also features the Batmen of All Nations. I can't tell you how excited I am about this trade; the best thing about writer's reinterpreting old stories are these collections where we can cite the original source material.

FINAL CRISIS HC
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artists: J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco, Jesus Merino, Marco Rudy, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy
Collects: FINAL CRISIS #1-7
$24.99 US, 240 pages

FINAL CRISIS COMPANION TP
Writers: Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Eric Trautmann and Peter J. Tomasi
Artists: Ryan Sook, Matthew Clark, Norm Rapmund, Doug Manhke and Christian Alamy
Collects: FINAL CRISIS: REQUIEM, FINAL CRISIS: RESIST, FINAL CRISIS: SUBMIT, FINAL CRISIS: SUPERMAN BEYOND #1-2 and FINAL CRISIS SECRET FILES
$19.99 US, 200 pages

- We see now that Superman Beyond indeed ends up in the Final Crisis Companion, along with the Final Crisis Secret Files. With Rage of the Red Lanterns coming out on its own in hardcover, we now know how the entirety of Final Crisis will be collected, with two big exceptions: DC Universe #0 and DC Universe: Last Will and Testament. Better start combing the back issue bins!

THE FLASH: THE HUMAN RACE TP
Writers: Grant Morrison and Mark Miller
Artists: Paul Ryan, Ron Wagner, Pop Mhan, Mike Parobeck, Joshua Hood and others
Collects: THE FLASH #136-141 and a story from SECRET ORIGINS #50
$14.99 US, 160 pages

- According to Kelson, Secret Origins #50 is a Grant Morrison retelling of the "Flash of Two Worlds" story.

HITMAN VOL. 1 TP
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: John McCrea
Collects: HITMAN #1-3, THE DEMON ANNUAL #2, HITMAN #1,000,000 and a story from BATMAN CHRONICLES #4
$14.99 US, 144 pages

JLA: THE DELUXE EDITION VOL. 2 HC
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Howard Porter, Gary Frank, Greg Land, Val Semeiks, Arnie Jorgenson, John Dell, David Meikis, Mark Pennington and others
Collects: JLA #10-17, PROMETHEUS #1 and JLA/WILDCATS
$29.99 US, 304 pages

THE STARMAN OMNIBUS VOL. 3 HC
Writer: James Robinson
Artists: Tony Harris, Wade von Grawbadger, Mark Buckingham, Steve Yeowell, Wayne Faucher, Richard Pace, Mitch Byrd, Stefano Guadiano, Gene Ha, Dusty Abell, Dexter Vines, Phil Jimenez, J.H. Williams III, Bret Blevins and Michael Zulli
Collects: STARMAN #30-38, STARMAN ANNUAL #2, STARMAN SECRET FILES #1 and THE SHADE #1-4
$49.99 US, 432 pages

- The Shade miniseries, too? I'm so all over this.

SUPERMAN/BATMAN: FINEST WORLDS HC
Writers: Michael Green and Mike Johnson
Artists: Ed Benes, Rafael Albuquerque, Rags Morales and John Dell
Collects: SUPERMAN/BATMAN #50-56
$19.99 US, 192 pages

- Nice to see Superman/Batman #50 here. I'd like to see a collection with the recent Superman/Batman annuals, and also Superman/Batman #25.

TRINITY VOL. 1 TP
Writers: Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza
Artists: Mark Bagley, Scott McDaniel, Mike Norton, Tom Derenick, Art Thibert, Andy Owens, Jerry Ordway and Wayne Faucher
Collects: TRINITY #1-17
$29.99 US, 416 pages

- Interesting that this has issues #1-17, whereas the 52 and Countdown to Final Crisis collections had thirteen issues each. Might DC be reducing this to three volumes, instead of four?

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What's on your "must have" list here?

Posted in: Relook Series