THE UNBOXING - MARCH 2014

This may be my smallest box ever from Discount Comic Book Service: two books. It was supposed to be three, but the CAPTAIN AMERICA EPIC COLLECTION: DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT volume dropped off my order to ship next month instead, due to a shortage from the supplier. I had no plans to read that book any time in the immediate future, however, so I'm fine waiting another month. Thus, without that sole Marvel offering, all I have this time are two volumes from DC -- and just as receiving only two books is a first, so is having my entire order be in the form of DC volumes.

First is BATMAN: MAD LOVE AND OTHER STORIES, a trade paperback collecting most of the Batman comics by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini set in the universe of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, along with works from some of their other BTAS collaborators. I have most all of these stories in comic book format (I read the cover off of the single issue MAD LOVE when I was a kid), but this is the first time I will have purchased them as a trade. I believe this book came out a while back in hardcover format, but I passed it up. The trade may in fact have been released previously as well, but when this edition came up for pre-order a couple months ago, I jumped on it.

Secondly we have POWER GIRL: POWER TRIP, reprinting all of artist Amanda Conner's work on the character in one thick trade, with writing by Geoff Johns and the team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. I have a weird relationship with Power Girl (though I suspect I'm not alone in that regard). As an impressionable kid, I thought she was just about the greatest heroine ever, for two very obvious reasons, even though I had never read a single comic with her in it. I'm sure I've probably read one or two of her appearances since, but I have still never looked at any of her solo stuff. However, I continued to have an interest in the character from afar. I have several Power Girl collectibles on my desk.

So, when this trade paperback was announced, I finally decided to actually read some Power Girl stories. I've heard good things about the Palmiotti/Gray issues -- plus I've read some of their work recently through Marvel Unlimited, as readers of the blog will soon find out -- and I love Amanda Conner's artwork, so I'm hoping for a fun series. I have to admit that I wish this book was a hardcover -- an Omnibus, better yet -- but you take what you can get. Anyway, regardless of content and format, at the very least I'll finally be able to say that all those collectibles on the desk have some source material to go with them. I hope to get to this book sooner rather than later; hopefully by year's end.

That's it for this month, but I expect April to be more substantial. The afore-mentioned Captain America book will show up, but more importantly the month will be an exciting one thanks to a single substantial volume: the long-awaited SPIDER-MAN BY ROGER STERN OMNIBUS.