Ret-Conned - Blog - Doesn't Add Up

Friday

Oct152010

Doesn't Add Up

Friday, October 15, 2010 at 12:00AM |

We’ve discussed the high cost of Kyle’s comics previously, but sometimes extra care has to be taken to make sure comics don’t come before food.

October is going to be a very expensive month for us. Not only has DC started “Bruce Wayne: The Road Home” as a way to reconnect Bruce with the extended Bat-family, but they are also doing several oversized one shots that they are calling “DC Presents.” Most of the DC Presents line consists of older comics that are being collected and printed. Some, like DC Comics Presents Brightest Day #1 and DC Comics Presents Green Lantern, collect old published stories that are relevant to readers for back story that they might not have because of how old the comics are. For example, the DCCP Green Lantern book had stories concerning Jade and her relationship with Kyle Rayner. Jade died during Infinite Crisis, which occurred in 2005. Anybody who started reading comics after that time would have no knowledge of her, making it a little bit harder to understand and care about her resurrection in Blackest Night. Republishing these older stories is a really interesting way to get illumination not only about the particular characters but also as a way to see how writing has changed over the years.

Some of these older stories that DC is publishing aren’t actually re-published material, but are actually being published for the first time. One that I’m really interested in looking at comes out at the end of the month is the Vertigo Resurrected special. This is a collection of Vertigo stories that were never published when they were originally written, but Vertigo is “cleaning house” and decided to publish them now. One of the stories included in it is a story from Hellblazer that focuses on a school shooting. The story was written and drawn several months before, but was scheduled to be published right after the Columbine shooting. After the shootings, Vertigo pulled the story and never published it. Now a decade removed, people will have a chance to read the story.

Biggest problem right now is finding the time to read all of these comics, but then who really needs sleep, right?

Travis, what’s on your pull list?

Bruce Wayne The Road Home: Batman & Robin #1 - Bruce Wayne reconnecting with his family begins here. It’s a very cool concept, with some great writing.
Bruce Wayne The Road Home: Red Robin #1 - Bruce’s journey continues here, this time alongside Red Robin. We also get the return of the Council of Spiders. Very cool.
Bruce Wayne The Road Home: Outsiders #1 - It’s amazing how much more interesting these characters are written by someone other then Dan Didio.
Bruce Wayne The Road Home: Batgirl #1 - Stephanie’s story comes full circle here. Great art and very well written. I also loved the revelation about my other favorite Batgirl. Pick of the Week.
Knight & Squire #1 - This issue crammed in a lot of names of new characters with very little actual plot and story. I’ve been really looking forward to this one, but was kind of disappointed.
Tiny Titans/Little Archie #1 - Tiny Titans AND Little Archie’s gang. Cute overload!
The Unwritten #18 - Tommy figures out the next phase of his mission while The Unwritten regroup. Very interesting read.

Kris, what’s on your pull list?