DC announces ‘Absolute Power,’ DC Finest and a return to Wednesdays

If you’re wondering why so much comic news broke today, it’s because ComicsPRO, the Comics Professional Retail Organization, is hosting its industry meeting over the next three days. As a part of that meeting, comics publishers are presenting some of their future plans to attendees and, in many cases, releasing that news into the wild.

DC was one of many publishers on hand to talk to retailers, and gave several updates on their future plans. But let’s not bury the big news — DC announced at the conference that they plan to move the release of their new issues back to Wednesday. DC moved the release date of their comics from the traditional Wednesday to Tuesday back in 2020, when they moved away from Diamond to Lunar Distribution and other distributors. It was, and remains, a controversial move, and from what I’ve heard retailers gave this news a standing ovation at ComicsPRO today. The shift will occur in July.

In other news …

Absolute Power corrupts absolutely this summer

DC announced a crossover event, coming this summer, from the team of Mark Waid and Dan Mora. (Wohoo!) The World’s Finest team will show us what Amanda Waller is really up to, as she attempts to steal the super powers of every hero and villain:

Helmed by the critically-acclaimed duo of writer Mark Waid and artist Dan Mora, this four-issue series launches July 2 and shows how Waller will use the strategic and military might of Failsafe and the otherworldly technology of the Brainiac Queen to steal all metahuman abilities from every super hero and super-villain around the globe, a threat so dire it will take the combined efforts of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Super Heroes of the DC Universe to defeat it.

The story gets a preview in DC’s Free Comic Book Day title in May, which will feature a new story by Waid with art by Mikel Janín, a recap of the events that led to Absolute Power and a sneak preview of Absolute Power #1. Here’s Mora’s cover:

And there’s also a prelude issue before the event begins, which will connect the House of Brainiac story running in the Superman titles to the bigger event. Again, Mora does the cover:

I’m sure we’ll learn more about the crossover in the weeks ahead.

Nothing finer than DC Finest

DC also announced another new line of “comprehensive collections of the most in-demand periods, genres, and characters from across DC history,” called DC Finest.

Scheduled to launch in November, these affordably priced, large-size paperback collections start at $34.99, and will take full advantage of DC’s extensive backlist and appeal to casual and completist fans alike. Focusing on characters and storytelling genres instead of creators or prior series will give casual fans the chance to discover full continuities for their favorite characters, while offering completist readers an affordable option to build out their ultimate collection of stories based on their favorite DC Super Hero or genre.

This follows the news from last November of the DC Compact Comics line, which is focused on runs vs. characters.

The first collections that were announced are all character focused, but DC said they also had plans for genre-focused collections, featuring horror, science fiction, war comics and more.

Here are the collections they announced today:

DC Finest – The Flash: The Human Thunderbolt: Collects classic adventures of Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, including 1956’s iconic Showcase #4. Also includes Silver Age Flash stories that include the first appearances of famous Flash rogues, including Captain Cold, Mirror Master, and Gorilla Grodd.

DC Finest – Batman: Year One & Two: Collects the Dark Knight’s adventures following the game-changing crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, including Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli and Batman: Year Two by Mike W. Barr and Todd McFarlane, plus more mid-to-late-’80s Batman stories from Barr, Max Allan Collins, Norm Breyfogle, and others.

DC Finest – Wonder Woman: Origins & Omens: This collection spotlights fan-favorite writer Gail Simone’s run on Wonder Woman, starting with 2007’s “The Circle,” with artist Terry Dodson, plus celebrated story arcs “Ends of the Earth,” “Rise of the Olympian,” and “Warkiller,” featuring art by Aaron Lopresti.

DC Finest – Catwoman: Life Lines: Selina Kyle steps out of Batman’s shadow and becomes a protagonist in her own right in this collection featuring Catwoman’s 1989 solo debut by Mindy Newell and J.J. Birch, Peter Milligan and Tom Grindberg’s Catwoman Defiant from 1992, and the first year of DC’s Catwoman ongoing series, by writer Jo Duffy and artist Jim Balent.

DC Finest – Superman: The Coming of Superman: Features the Man of Steel’s earliest and most iconic adventures, starting with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s groundbreaking Action Comics #1. This collection includes Action Comics #1-25, Superman #1-5, and New York World’s Fair Comics #1.

An Elseworlds Update

Remember that line of Elseworlds comics DC announced at New York Comic Con last October? They’ve now announced release dates, or at least release months, for them:

June – Gotham by Gaslight: The Kryptonian Age #1, by Andy Diggle and Leandro Fernandez

July – Dark Knights of Steel: Allwinter #1, by Jay Kristoff and Tirso Cons

August – DC vs. Vampires: World War V #1, by Matthew Rosenberg and Otto Schmidt

September – Batman the Barbarian #1, by Greg Smallwood

October – Green Lantern Dark #1, by Tate Brombal and Werther Dell’Edera

November – Batman: Nightfire #1, by Clay Mann

Jim Lee is drawing Marvel characters again

Finally, DC revealed the covers for the upcoming DC vs. Marvel collections they announced earlier this month, as well as a “work in progress” cover by Jim Lee featuring the Amalgam characters. What’s interesting is that at the time the Amalgam comics were originally being published, Lee was not at either company and wasn’t involved — he was running Wildstorm and publishing through Image. Here’s his WiP piece:

And here’s the cover for the DC vs. Marvel Omnibus:

And DC/Marvel: The Amalgam Age Omnibus: