DC Trade Solicitations for July 2014 - Forever Evil and Justice League tie-ins, Blight, Absolute Batman, Inc. Flash Omnibus, Katana, Captain Carrot

There's a theme to DC Comics's July trade paperback and collections solicitations, and that theme is "Forever Evil." In August and September, we'll see the main Forever Evil hardcover, plus the Justice League, America, and Dark tie-ins, with even a little "Blight" on the side.

The collections schema isn't going to please everyone here, but when Forever Evil #7 is a month late and a dollar more expensive, trade-waiting looks more and more attractive ...

• Forever Evil HC
• Justice League Vol. 5: Forever Heroes HC
• Justice League of America Vol. 2: Survivors of Evil HC

The Justice League Vol. 5 collection includes issues #24-29, which is the entirety of the title's Forever Evil tie-in; issue #30 begins the team's new status quo. Ditto the Justice League of America trade collects that title's entire Forever Evil tie-in, issues #8-13, plus the book's final issue (before Justice League Unlimited), issue #14.

How many different variations of "forever" and "evil" can they use in trade names? Don't know if that's "better" or "worse" than just calling each trade Title: Forever Evil, a la "Death of the Family" ...

• Justice League Dark Vol. 4: The Rebirth of Evil TP

Justice League Dark is still on volume 4 while Justice League has moved on to volume 5 (blame some short Justice League collections and some long Justice League Dark ones), but the good news is that this collection includes both the Trinity War and the Forever Evil tie-in issues, so the Justice League and Dark collections are essentially in the same place. One piece of bad news is that this collection comes out a month before the Forever Evil collection, which might make for some out-of-order reading; the other bad news is that this book contains parts 1, 2, 6, 10, 14, and 18 of the "Forever Evil: Blight" storyline. Someone who's reading it can tell me if you can read the Dark issues on their own, but for Trinity War you couldn't.

• Constantine Vol. 2: Blight TP

Here, too, we have parts 4, 8, 12, and 16 of "Forever Evil: Blight"; up in the air whether this is going to be readable or not.

• Absolute Batman, Incorporated HC

Collects the entire Batman, Incorporated saga, including the first and second series, Leviathan Rises, and the finale special. Someone asked a good question on Dan DiDio's Facebook page the other day that given that we have an Absolute Batman & Robin and an Absolute Batman, Inc., isn't the first half of the story also due for an Absolute? At least Batman and Son and Batman RIP, right?

Hopefully there will be some scans of the new Chris Burnham art online, with comparison shots of the original pages. I'm curious.

• DC Comics Presents: Batman Adventures #1

Collected Batman Adventures #2 and #27, Batman: Gotham Adventures #2 and #4, and a story from  Adventures in the DC Universe #3. These are, respectively, a Catwoman story, one where Batman investigates his doppelganger, a Two-Face story, another Catwoman story, and a Poison Ivy story. The solicits says Joker is in there, too (but you have to provide your own Mark Hamill voice); your guess is as good as mine.

• Flash Omnibus Vol. 1 HC

For the Flash fans out there, this collects Showcase #4 and #8 and Flash #105-132 (when the new Flash series took up the numbering from the Golden Age comic), from the 1950s-1960s. A collection of the Mark Waid era would be more my "speed," but to each their own.

• Green Lantern: New Guardians Vol. 4: Gods and Monsters TP

Admittedly I've looked away from DC's Green Lantern titles after Geoff Johns's run ended; matter of fact, I read all the parts of "Rise of the Third Army," but I had to remind myself just now whether I read all of "Wrath of the First Lantern" or just the Green Lantern parts, and the answer is just the Green Lantern parts. Probably in a couple months you'll see a bunch of Green Lantern title reviews here as I catch up and then catch up again with the new teams. This is the first post-"Wrath" Green Lantern: New Guardians trade, issues #21-27, but no rest for the weary because issue #24 here is part of the "Lights Out" crossover, and also included is the finale of that crossover, the Green Lantern Annual #2.

• Katana Vol. 1: Soultaker TP

Resolicted finally is the Katana: Soultaker collection, now including issues #1-10 (instead of #1-6) and the Justice League Dark: Creeper Villains Month issue. I'm up for this one mainly because of the ties to Jeff Lemire's Green Arrow series.

• Showcase Presents: Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew TP

Captain Carrot really isn't my thing, but as long as they were printing a big collection, it's probably a shame the newest miniseries wasn't in here, too. Think a Captain Carrot Omnibus would sell?

If I'm recalling right, this is the last of the once-solicited-and-cancelled Showcase Presents to finally make it out, aside from Secret Society of Super-Villains that got a color printing, and Suicide Squad. Y'know, I'm still optimistic about Suicide Squad, what with the recent collections of John Ostrander's Martian Manhunter and Spectre. Maybe next season?

• Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Power Couple HC

Even as I have mixed feelings about the Superman/Wonder Woman relationship -- when it ends, it's going to end badly, and I fear that bad ending won't be written to reflect well on either character -- I'm eager for this book if only to see how it brings together the rather disparate continuity from the Superman, Wonder Woman, and Justice League titles together.

I'm down for the "evil" in July -- what's on your pick list?