THE UNBOXING - NOVEMBER 2014

Delayed slightly but worth the wait, it's time for November's "Unboxing"!

First up this month, from DC, is BATMAN ADVENTURES, volume 1. I had originally passed on this book because I thought it was a reissue of a trade I already owned from the nineties, containing the first five issues of the series, but then later I learned it actually contains twice that number, BATMAN ADVENTURES #1 - 10.

I've made no secret of my love of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, and I think I've noted before that BATMAN ADVENTURES, which told original stories based on B:TAS, was pretty much the only ongoing DC series I read regularly growing up. I hope DC commits itself to collecting all of BATMAN ADVENTURES in trade, and moreso, I hope they will follow it up with THE BATMAN AND ROBIN ADVENTURES and BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES, the subsequent series which followed. At the very least, BATMAN ADVENTURES volume 2 has already been solicited, so that's a step in the right direction.

THE UNBOXING - JANUARY 2014

Time for a new feature. The second week of every month, I receive a box of pre-ordered trades and/or hardcovers from my preferred online retailer, Discount Comic Book Service. I've decided, for no particularly good reason, that the first free Sunday following the arrival of said box (meaning a Sunday when I don't have another post already scheduled), I will post the contents here. It'll give an idea of what collections you might expect to see covered at some point in the future.

This month, my goodies include:

• DEADPOOL BY JOE KELLY OMNIBUS
  
• DEADPOOL CLASSIC, vol. 7 (the first part of Gail Simone's run)
  
• THANOS: INFINITY ABYSS
  
• TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE, vol. 3

Of the above, I expect REGENERATION ONE is the book I'll get to first for coverage here. But I'm waiting until volume 4 comes out as well, then I'll cover both together, as I did a few months back with volumes 1 and 2.

The Deadpool books are items I want to get to one day, but for the foreseeable future, they're just shelf-candy/skimming material. I have very good memories of reading Kelly's DEADPOOL when I was in college, and the Simone run, with spectacular art and color from UDON Studios, was a whole lot of fun. But I won't get to that book until volume 8 is released to complete Simone's time on the series.

And INFINITY ABYSS is Jim Starlin's last really good work at Marvel, so I expect I'll cover it here eventually as well, but not until after I've gotten to Starlin's CAPTAIN MARVEL, WARLOCK, SILVER SURFER, INFINITY GAUNTLET, INFINITY CRUSADE, and INFINITY WAR. So don't hold your breath for it.

Final note: There are plenty of books on my bookcase already that I haven't gotten to, so even though I'll be posting everything new here going forward, there will still certainly be some surprises coming up. Plus there will be certain things I'll pick up elsewhere, from Amazon, etc., which will not make "The Unboxing". Unless it's something I'm really excited about, then perhaps I'll do a supplemental post.