DC Hardcover Collected Editions Part 3

[Vilynne]

There's been an update to the Knightfall Omnibus:

> has been increased to 952 pages and now collects Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1, Batman #484-#500, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #16-#18, Detective Comics #654-#666, Showcase '93 #7-#8.

[Eddy82]

There's been an update to the Knightfall Omnibus:

> has been increased to 952 pages and now collects Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1, Batman #484-#500, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #16-#18, Detective Comics #654-#666, Showcase '93 #7-#8.

Nice, thats the first trade, with some extra issues from Detective Comics en Batman. Never read those issues, but I guess it contains some sort of road to.. storyline?

[Captain Craig]

There's been an update to the Knightfall Omnibus:

> has been increased to 952 pages and now collects Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1, Batman #484-#500, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #16-#18, Detective Comics #654-#666, Showcase '93 #7-#8.

Excellent! I had thought leaving out Vengeance of Bane #1 was an oversight and necessary. I can't say I recall the importance of these other issues though. I'm sure they are relevant though.

[Dick Grayson]

Excellent! I had thought leaving out Vengeance of Bane #1 was an oversight and necessary. I can't say I recall the importance of these other issues though. I'm sure they are relevant though.

Yes, they show Batman's deteriorating physical and mental state, Tim training Jean Paul, and Bane plotting Bruce's demise. But how they can leave out Sword of Azrael is beyond me.

[mtop2036]

I've never read knightfall on account of people saying how the trades were incomplete. Does this vol 1 fill in those gaps not in the tpb?

And as for sword of azrael isn't the only available version the tpb with the extremely blurry art work?

[SJNeal]

It wouldn't make as much sense as putting it in the "Knightfall" omni, but maybe DC will include "Sword of Azrael" in the (probable) "Knightquest" follow up...?

[Dick Grayson]

I've never read knightfall on account of people saying how the trades were incomplete. Does this vol 1 fill in those gaps not in the tpb?

And as for sword of azrael isn't the only available version the tpb with the extremely blurry art work?

No way to know if these new omnis will include Knightquest: The Search (since this first omni focuses on Knightfall proper), but this new one does, outside of Sword of Azrael, include the relevant lead-up issues for Knightfall.

The new Azrael trade has good reproduction for Sword of Azrael, it's the issues of the regular Azrael series that are all from scans and look blurry.

So yes, you will be able to read "Vengeance of Bane", put down the new omnibus, pick up the new Azrael trade to read Sword of Azrael, then continue reading the omnibus to get the whole story if they don't include Sword of Azrael. But if the point of this new release is to be complete, it would make more sense to be, you know, complete. And the four part story introducing the main antagonist of the entire saga seems, you know, somewhat important The idea that they'd decide to release a series of omnis (now making their third attempt at Knightfall collections!) and still omit a key part of the saga because it was published in a trade is a little silly. If they just wanted to reprint the lead-in issues, they could do a "Road to Knightfall" trade that includes the Batman & Tec issues that were previously uncollected.

[Dick Grayson]

It wouldn't make as much sense as putting it in the "Knightfall" omni, but maybe DC will include "Sword of Azrael" in the (probable) "Knightquest" follow up...?

Sure, they could do that, if they wanted the reading experience to make no sense at all! It's not like Knightfall has a super complex ordering of parts, it's pretty straight forward. Of course, they'll probably still put the Shadow of the Bat arc in the wrong spot as they have for the past two collections, so it wouldn't surprise me to see "Sword of Azrael" in the Knightquest volume.

And the best part is, we won't know until any of these books are out because DC is still completely incapable of putting the accurate contents of their books in the solicitations with any regularity. Why they can't hire an intern or someone whose job it is is to ask the collected editions department what's going in a book, and then provide that information to the folks in charge of solicits is beyond me. Maybe they should ask Marvel how they've been able to do it for years?

Sorry, end of rants!

[Vilynne]

Sure, they could do that, if they wanted the reading experience to make no sense at all! It's not like Knightfall has a super complex ordering of parts, it's pretty straight forward. Of course, they'll probably still put the Shadow of the Bat arc in the wrong spot as they have for the past two collections, so it wouldn't surprise me to see "Sword of Azrael" in the Knightquest volume.

And the best part is, we won't know until any of these books are out because DC is still completely incapable of putting the accurate contents of their books in the solicitations with any regularity. Why they can't hire an intern or someone whose job it is is to ask the collected editions department what's going in a book, and then provide that information to the folks in charge of solicits is beyond me. Maybe they should ask Marvel how they've been able to do it for years?

Sorry, end of rants!

Shoot, I'm here, I'll do it!

Also, aren't you the same Dick Grayson (AGE Twelve!!) That does the custom binds on trades? If so, do you have any pics to share? Love to see what DC COULD be doing.

[Captain Planet]

I've been looking at descriptions of the Rebirth omnibus but cant quite tell what it is. Is it just like the New52 where in includes the first issue of each comic?

[Dick Grayson]

Shoot, I'm here, I'll do it!

Also, aren't you the same Dick Grayson (AGE Twelve!!) That does the custom binds on trades? If so, do you have any pics to share? Love to see what DC COULD be doing.

Yep, that's me There's a binding thread with some pics, plus the link in my signature. I've done Knightfall a couple times, though they just mostly mirrored the art of the official releases for one batch, and didn't stray too far from that for the most recent one, other than having connecting spines. I think art-wise they do a good job with their collections generally, the only thing I do they never attempt are connecting spines. I don't have a clear pic of the finished books, but here's the spine design:

[Vilynne]

Yep, that's me There's a binding thread with some pics, plus the link in my signature. I've done Knightfall a couple times, though they just mostly mirrored the art of the official releases for one batch, and didn't stray too far from that for the most recent one, other than having connecting spines. I think art-wise they do a good job with their collections generally, the only thing I do they never attempt are connecting spines. I don't have a clear pic of the finished books, but here's the spine design:

Oh beautiful! I'll check out the link, thanks for the info. I absolutely love an image across the spine. Nearly all manga collections ive seen do this in some way, and I wish for DCs runs they would a little more goods on their trades such as this.

[Dick Grayson]

Oh beautiful! I'll check out the link, thanks for the info. I absolutely love an image across the spine. Nearly all manga collections ive seen do this in some way, and I wish for DCs runs they would a little more goods on their trades such as this.

Yeah, I think DC avoids it because doing such a thing requires A) knowing what's going to be in the content of each collection B) knowing how thick each collection will be and C) releasing every book planned. None of those are DC's strong suits, unfortunately. The one time I can think of that DC tried it was the Morrison JLA deluxes and they botched 'em pretty good.

[The Lucky One]

I've never read knightfall on account of people saying how the trades were incomplete. Does this vol 1 fill in those gaps not in the tpb?

Sort of, maybe. Knightfall "officially" begins in Batman 492, that's the first issue with the Knightfall banner at the top. But there were a few unlabeled "prelude" issues before that (Batman 488-91) where Robin starts training Azrael as a vigilante (488), and Bane monitors Batman from afar, fights Killer Croc (489), pumps Riddler full of venom as a test for Batman (490), and finally frees all the Arkham inmates (491). The 2012 trades started with Batman 491... so, only the Arkham breakout.

But if you go even earlier than that, the writers had been sowing seeds that Batman was wearing down, getting sick and not sleeping enough for months beforehand (Batman 484/'Tec 654), which is why this omnibus starts with Batman 484. You could find people who might make the argument that this dilutes the story -- after all, you're reading at least 6-8 issues of tangentially-related stories before even getting to the prelude to the event -- but, well, omnibuses are for the hardcore collectors, those of us who want the WHOLE story. Even the barely-related stuff.

[FlashingSabre]

Shoot, I'm here, I'll do it!

Also, aren't you the same Dick Grayson (AGE Twelve!!) That does the custom binds on trades? If so, do you have any pics to share? Love to see what DC COULD be doing.

Damn you and you're lemonade, Batman!