DC Trade Solicitations for October/November 2015 - Convergence, Batman: Road to No Man's Land, Birds of Prey, Secret Six ~ Comics Live Updates

Obviously the big headline for DC Comics's October/November 2015 hardcover and trade paperback collection releases (posted June 2015) are the Convergence collections. And with eight out of nine of them in paperback, there's almost no waiting -- this is the format almost every trade-waiter is going to pick up. I'm really excited to get my hands on these come October.

Plenty of other good things in this month. That we see Batman: Road to No Man's Land, War Games, Birds of Prey, and Secret Six collections all in the same month should suggest to any ardent trade-waiter that the state of DC trades is pretty healthy right now, or at least healthier than it's been. Road to No Man's Land has some issues we've been waiting forever to see collected; the new Birds of Prey trade is on its way to collect never-collected Chuck Dixon issues; and Gail Simone's Secret Six gets its due respect in these reprints. Good news, all.

Let's dig in and see what else we've got:

• Convergence HC

The centerpiece of the Convergence collections but the least notable in terms of contents, this book collects issues #0-8 as expected.

• Convergence: Zero Hour Book One TP
• Convergence: Zero Hour Book Two TP

Arriving the same week as the Convergence collection, on October 7, the first Zero Hour book collects Justice League International, Catwoman, Superboy, Green Arrow and Suicide Squad. I only just got this, but weirdly Suicide Squad is a Convergence title without a series antecedent because there wasn't a Suicide Squad title at that time; instead this just brings together relevant villains of that time period.

The second Zero Hour book collects Superman: Man of Steel, Batman: Shadow of the Bat, Supergirl: Matrix, Aquaman, and Green Lantern/Parallax. I don't dismiss the first volume but you can't beat Steel and the Matrix Supergirl in the second.

• Convergence: Crisis Book One TP
• Convergence: Crisis Book Two TP

I still find it weird that it seems the Convergence collections are being released in a different order than the original release weeks. Anyway, the first Crisis collection includes Batman and the Outsiders, Adventures of Superman, Green Lantern Corps, Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, and Hawkman. Second volume is Flash, Wonder Woman, Justice League of America, Swamp Thing and New Teen Titans. Book Two wins the week again for me.

• Convergence: Flashpoint Book One TP
• Convergence: Flashpoint Book Two TP

Probably the collections I'm most looking forward to are the Flashpoint collections. Sure there's some great characters to revisit in Zero Hour, but from "our" perspective we didn't lose them in Zero Hour but rather they continued on (you can even say that, after a fashion, about the Legion of Super-Heroes). But these characters were gone-gone after Flashpoint, and I'm excited to see them again.

Book One is Superman, Question, Batgirl, Nightwing/Oracle and Justice League. Book Two is Atom, Speed Force, Titans, Batman and Robin, and Harley Quinn. Plenty I want to read in Book Two, but I've got to give it to Book One there.

• Convergence: Infinite Earths Book One TP
• Convergence: Infinite Earths Book Two TP

Infinite Earths Book One collects Justice Society of America, Infinity Inc., Detective Comics, World’s Finest Comics and Action Comics; Book Two collects Shazam!, Blue Beetle, Crime Syndicate, Booster Gold and Plastic Man and the Freedom Fighters. Interested in Justice Society and Infinity Inc., though the Justice Society isn't really my (pre-Flashpoint) Justice Society, and surely Book Two's Booster Gold book rules the week.

• Batman: Road to No Man's Land Vol. 1 TP

As I've recounted elsewhere, I've wanted a Road to No Man's Land collection for a while, and the contents of this book are even better. This is actually a collection of the "Aftershock" stories that came before "Road to No Man's Land" (which preceded No Man's Land itself), so we're getting even more than I hoped, assuming it sells enough for the second volume. This is Batman #555-559 (with an appearance from the New Blood Ballistic, there's a throwback for you) by Doug Moench; Shadow of the Bat #75-79 by Alan Grant with art by Mark Buckingham; Detective Comics #722-726 by Chuck Dixon; Robin #54 also by Dixon; and Batman Chronicles #14.

Detective #723 collected here, by the way, is part of the "Brotherhood of the Fist" crossover with Green Arrow, Robin, and Nightwing, which we've reviewed here before as an "Uncollected Edition." Unfortunately the whole thing isn't collected and I'm not sure how just one piece of it will read in this trade, but I'd rather DC collects it than skips it.

• Batman: War Games Vol. 1 TP

This volume collects the whole of the previous Batman: War Drums and Batman: War Games: Act 1: Outbreak collections. The Batman: Murderer/Fugitive trades were ground-breaking because they cut-and-pasted the various issues into a cohesive whole, for one, and for two, included the Fugitive Vol. 3 collection that served no other purpose than to be an epilogue to the first two books, when previously collections only collected the event itself and that was it. The "War Games" collections built on this trend with the War Drums collection that served as prologue to "War Games," the three War Games trades, and then the epilogue trade War Crimes. As this new volume collects the first two of five in this set, it remains to be seen whether the next volume will collect the last three trades, or if there's two additional new trades coming.

• Birds of Prey Vol. 1 TP

According to DC's solicitations, at least, this collects all the Birds of Prey miniseries by Chuck Dixon that lead into the ongoing series, but no issues of the ongoing series itself. That means this book collects the issues in the first Birds of Prey collection and then also part but not all of Old Friends, New Enemies. Dixon's run on Birds of Prey was not collected past Old Friends (which collected up to issue #6), so it'll be a nice addition to DC's list if stories now start to see print with the next collection.

• Secret Six Vol. 3 TP

Collects the two previous Secret Six trades Vol 3: Danse Macabre and Vol. 4: Cats in the Cradle. One more collection of two volumes to finish out these new collections of the Gail Simone series.

• Blackest Night Unwrapped Deluxe Edition HC

Obviously these Unwrapped pencils-only collections must be selling well since DC keeps releasing them. If someone out there has bought one, I'd be curious to have you chime in to talk about what the value is to you. Are you an artist and this is a learning tool? Big fan of the artist in question's work? I don't dispute there's a difference between an artist's original pencils and the inked version; I guess I'm just surprised there's that big of an audience for these, but I could certainly be mistaken.

• Catwoman: A Celebration of 75 Years HC

Simply glad to see Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke's names attached to this, such that this will include, for me at least, the best era of Catwoman that there's ever been.

• Justice League: A League of One TP

Nice to have both of Christopher Moeller's painted Justice League stories in one volume. Rather surprised this isn't being presented deluxe.

• Batman and Robin Vol. 7: Robin Rises HC

Collects the final issues of Batman and Robin before Convergence, #35-40, plus Robin Rises: Alpha, the Annual #3, the Futures End story, and a Secret Origins story.

• Earth 2 Vol. 6: Collision HC

Earth 2 coincides with the World's End weekly series beginning with this volume.

• Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 3: Casualties of War HC

First collection of the Peter Tomasi/Doug Mahnke run. Some of my favorite creators; could not be more excited for this one.

Got a Convergence collection week you're most excited about? Another pick on this list? Give a shout out in the comments section and let me know.