November solicitations

What’s the deal? Spin the wheel with November’s TPB solicitations:

Marvel, soon to be a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney, is trying to choke you with Dark Reign, but I’ll ignore that:

• Kathryn Immonen’s first arc is put between two solid covers in Runaways: Homeschooling (if you’re into the hardcover thing). It collects #11-4 and a What If? issue, and Marvel isn’t afraid to sell it for $19.99. It can hardly be worse than Terry Moore’s run.
• The Korvac Saga? In hardcover? Really? With two different covers? Huh. On the other hand, there’s Fantastic Four: In Search of Galactus. It reprints the first Fantastic Four comic I’d ever read; I had no idea what was going on, but it had the Sphinx and Nova and Diamondhead and the Fantastic Four growing old (except Johnny) and everyone was afraid of Galactus (I didn’t know why) and oh no I think nostalgia will make me buy it even though I already have the 44 Years of the Fantastic Four DVD. It collects #204-14. $29.99 each
• A sign of the coming apocalypse: Star Comics: All-Star Collection, v. 1. Reprinting two issues each of Planet Terry, Wally the Wizard, and Royal Roy (Royal Roy?) and three issues of Top Dog. The thought of someone paying for this makes me weep. $19.99
• The Deadpool Classic line must be doing well: v. 3 reprints #9-17 (and Amazing Spider-Man #47, which Deadpool visits). Expensive, though. Still, better this than another version of The Korvac Saga. $29.99
• Relive the high point in Howard Mackie’s career (or perhaps even life): Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch Classic, v. 1. The first ten issues of the second volume will remind you of what the ‘90s were truly about: looking kewl. The art, by Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira, might be worth it, but I balk at spending $29.99 on Howard Mackie’s writing.
• One of the most unusual ‘80s / ‘90s offerings from Marvel is being rereleased in November: The ‘Nam, v. 1. It collects the first ten issues of the series as well. The price tag is almost justified — well, since it’s so different from everything else in the solicitations, it at least makes it palatable. $29.99
• The Essential for the month is Moon Knight, v. 3. A little disappointing, really. The page count looks a little light on this one too, and they advertise it as collecting stories from three monthly series but they only have two Moon Knight volumes represented. If this had been cut short to wrap up v. 1 plus some extra material, with a corresponding lower price tag, I might have bitten … $19.99

DC likes you and wants you to save money for a rainy day:

• DC is releasing a new printing of Batman: The Cult. I mention this mainly because I just read the entry on the villain of this book, Deacon Blackfire, in The Essential Batman Encyclopedia. It’s a four-issue miniseries by Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson and involves Batman vs. a charismatic leader of a cult, and Batman gets to beat up the homeless. $19.99
• If you like your Silver Age in color, there’s Green Lantern Chronicles, v. 2, reprinting #4-9. $14.99
• The Showcase for the month is Wonder Woman, v. 3, reprinting #138-56 for the value price of $17.99.

For those of you concerned with your Image:

• The critically acclaimed Chew releases its first TPB, Taster’s Choice. Det. Tony Chu lives in a world where bird flu has made poultry illegal; his ability to get psychic impressions from whatever he eats makes him a hell of a detective, even if it leads, inevitably, to cannibalism. I haven’t heard a bad word about this series, and the price is astounding: $9.99
• The Omnibus craze has caught up to Spawn, and unsurprisingly, Todd McFarlane has proven too weak to fight back. Spawn Origins Collection: Deluxe Edition, v. 1 collects #1-25 in 620 hardback pages. $100

If you want to bet on a Dark Horse:

• The first half of Barry Windsor-Smith’s Conan run is reprinted in the Barry Windsor-Smith Conan Archives, v. 1. A second volume is presumably planned. Two hundred pages in hardcover for a steep $49.95.