Return of Bruce Wayne deluxe hardcover, Brightest Day continue DC 2011 trades

For those who felt the other day's list of DC Comics' early 2011 trade paperbacks lacked a certain "oomph," here's two doses of "oomph" for you.

* Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne deluxe hardcover

Details and such on this will surely change, but right now it's listed as 224 pages. The biggest surprise here, though it shouldn't be, is the deluxe size -- since Batman RIP and Batman & Robin were both deluxe, it stands to reason that Return of Bruce Wayne should be deluxe, too. Perhaps the better question should be, when will the Batman titles stop being deluxe?

* Brightest Day Vol.1 hardcover

Rats. At twenty-six issues, I guess I was silly to think Brightest Day wouldn't be two volumes, but I really hoped it would follow 52, Countdown to Final Crisis, and Trinity in coming out in paperback. Of course, I'm disappointed because Brightest Day is the kind of series I want to read first-run, no waiting. Anyone already sure they're waiting for the paperback on this?

Looking out over the landscape of 2011 graphic novels already announced, I see a lot of hardcovers -- Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, Brightest Day ... might we be headed for a situation where all, or at least the majority, of DC's collections come out in hardcover first? What do you think of that? Are Marvel or other companies headed the same direction? I know at some point I'll have to "push back" -- with the major events in hardcover, that'll mean I might have to skip some of the marginal titles in paperback for a while.

Posted in: Relook Series