Collected Comics Library Podcast #290
35,234Kb; 35m 16s

It’s been a long time coming, but I finally get back to DC Comics and there is a lot to cover:

• T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archives Volume 7: The new DC Comics solicitations came out just a few days ago and this book took me by surprise, but I guess now it make sense. For years DC has been after the rights to publish new T-Agents comics and now since, shall we say, curator of the Agents John Carbonaro is dead, DC did got their wish. The official solicit of this book states, In the mid-’80s, classic 1960s heroes The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents returned for Wally Wood’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1-5. That is true however they returned for 4 issues, under the direction of Carbonaro and before this David Singer 5-issue run.
• Legends Of The DC Universe: The now classic 41-issue run has never been collected in its own set of trade paperbacks and it’s doubtful it ever will. However, there is a bit of hope, DC is reprinting certain issues in their DC Comics Presents line of books. You know them, they are the $7.99, 100 page monthlies. It’s not how I would do it, but it’s good to see this series is getting another go around.
• There’s a set of three classic Green Lantern Corps trade paperbacks that came out in conjunction with Blackest Night. The first is Green Lantern In Brightest Day (2008) and all the stories collected were hand picked by Geoff Johns. DC capitalized on this with Tales of the Green Lantern Corp Volume 1 (2009) and Volume 2 (2010). A closer look a the latter two books and you’ll notice that they collect some of the same material that was reprinted in the Johns trade. It’s unclear why DC did this. I just hope DC learned their lesson because I hate when companies repackage the same material in different books with releases dates so close to one another.
• Lastly, is the feature at hand: The Spectre. This is one of the most iconic and powerful characters in the DC Universe. Subsequently he his one of the hardest to write for. Add another iconic character to the mix, Hal Jordan, and you have a big bowl of what the hell do we do now? When Hal took over as the Spectre it was a very controversial decision. Not only did they bring Hal back from the dead, something that many people did not want (IE Barry Allen), but many fanboys didn’t know their DCU history and thus had to learn just who the Spectre was. Thankfully Jay Garrick, Ted Grant, Alan Scott and the rest of the JSA were around to help sort things out. But the character became lost in his own series and couldn’t establish a past or present. Lucky for us, Geoff Johns came around and took Hal out of his misery (literally) and planted the seeds for his Rebirth as Green Lantern. Oddly enough Hal’s run as the Spectre, including his first appearance in the Day Of Judgement event, has never been collected. But could that change?

All this including the New Releases of the Week.

Thanks to Mike McLarty @MrDystopia for the Spectre suggestion!

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