I've blogged about the 20-volume extension to the DC Heroes & Villains Collection a couple of times now, and posted repeatedly in the DC Heroes & Villains Collection Facebook group, but those posts have been somewhat piecemeal in nature, and not everyone has the time, patience or, frankly, interest in putting the various pieces together. So I thought a straightforward rundown of the first ten releases in the extension might be of more use, along with a little additional background.
First out of the blocks, and already in some readers' clammy hands, are issues 101 and 102, namely Batman: Universe and Justice League vs. Suicide Squad, both of which I wrote about in this post, along with issues 103 and 104:
The Joker: The Series and Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast, which will be published later this month and early in the new year. Having already blogged about all four of the initial volumes in the extension, I shan't dwell on them here... except to say that as magnificent as Batman: Universe and Justice League vs. Suicide Squad are – and as huge a book as the latter of those two is, at nearly 300 pages – The Joker: The Series and Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast are even more special because they're unique to the DC Heroes & Villains Collection: bespoke volumes collecting, respectively, all of the mid-1970s The Joker series – including the 'lost' 10th issue – plus two key Denny O'Neil, Neal Adams and Irv Novick issues of Batman, and the first half of Jim Starlin's late-1980s Batman run, including the classic Ten Nights of the Beast. On top of which, both books are chock-full of bonus features.
Speaking of the Joker and bespoke volumes – and indeed big extents – later in January there's issue 106, The Joker: Vengeance. Collecting all 21 chapters of the lead storyline from James Tynion IV, Guillem March and co.'s 2021–2022 15-issue The Joker series – for my money one of the best extended comics storylines of the last five years – it's one long twisty-turny suspense thriller in one unique 328-page graphic novel. Just ahead of that book there's issue 105, the visually spectacular The Man of Steel, featuring showstopping art by, among others, Jim Lee, Jason Fabok, Steve Rude, Ryan Sook, Kevin Maguire and Adam Hughes, and then in February we have releases 107 and 108:
Batman: The Cult and Justice Society Returns! I vividly recall reading both of these on original publication, in 1988 and 1999 respectively, which is true of a good many of the comics in the DC Heroes & Villains Collection, and an indication of how personal the collection is to me (although personal preference obviously wasn't the only criteria for the selection of the stories). Published a couple of years after Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson's The Cult was only the second Batman miniseries to be published in the then-relatively new upmarket Prestige Format, and thus felt like a very different kind of Batman comic when I picked it up off the shelves of Forbidden Planet on Denmark Street: one seemingly set in current continuity, but bearing the influence of the dystopian Dark Knight Returns, as Starlin readily admitted.
The Cult was a high-profile project for DC at the time, whereas the Justice Society Returns! event flew very much under the radar in 1999, yet was a revelation for me: a terrific introduction to the Justice Society of America (with whom I was only passingly familiar at the time) ahead of the JSA series which launched in its wake, by the architects of that series, James Robinson and David S. Goyer, plus the likes of Mark Waid, Geoff Johns, Ron Marz, Chuck Dixon, Michael Lark, Eduardo Barreto, Peter Snejbjerg, Stephen Sadowski, Chris Weston and Russ Heath. Moreover, the format of the event – two issues of a revived All Star Comics bookending seven resurrected Golden Age titles, with the story reflecting the way JSA stories of the past saw the team splitting up into smaller units – was a really nice idea.
With both Batman: The Cult and Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast in the extension, it's only fitting that the remainder of Jim Starlin's stint as Batman writer be included too, which it will be in March, in the shape of issue 109, Batman: A Death in the Family. Collecting not just that notorious storyline but the issues either side of it, it's another bespoke volume and boasts some terrific bonus content, including Jim Aparo's original art pages for the alternate outcome of Batman #428 alongside their coloured and lettered counterparts, which were only belatedly published this year. A 400-page follow-up volume, Batman: Under the Red Hood, will be published later next year – I'll blog about that book nearer the time – but before then, and rounding out the initial ten releases in the extension, we have issue 110, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Originally published from 2021–2022 as an eight-issue miniseries, Tom King and Bilquis Evely's celebrated sci-fi fable is a story that I suspect a lot of people will be interested in reading, due to the Craig Gillespie/Milly Alcock movie currently in pre-production.
