Starman (maybe)

Titans: Total Chaos

Suicide Squad

Greg Rucka

Supergirl

Collections of Note

Batman

Miscellaneous

Usually how it goes is that we see new collection solicitations in catalogs first, and then the online listings show up second, but every once in a while those online listings outpace everything, and there's a whole slew of interesting ones that just showed up. Among these DC Comics books (which seem to be scheduled for release between May and July 2016) arecollections around the "Total Chaos" crossover; some unexpected material related toand also, two of DC's hot media properties; spotlights on some of my favorite Greg Rucka work; the mystery of the recently-solicited Batgirl Cassandra Cain books; a dedicated Killer Croc collection(?!); and more.Dive in and take a look at what might be coming up. Remember all of these listings are subject to change before publication.For a couple of years now we've been talking about the cancellation of the Starman Omnibus Vol. 3 paperback, which ended the paperback reprints of the hardcovers mid-series. Many collectors who bought volumes 1 and 2 of the paperback series felt let down that it didn't continue, especially since many of the hardcovers are out of print.For a long while "phantom" solicitations for the Vol. 3 paperback could be found online that were really just artifacts of the original cancelled volume; some of these were future-dated, and it's possible that this latest solicitation is just one of those future-dated listings with the listing getting close. I don't want to get your hopes up, and don't believe it until you see the book actually officially solicited. At the same time, the fact that I'm posting it means I think it's worth watching.Following the solicitation for Deathstroke, the Terminator Vol. 2: Sympathy for the Devil is this solicitation forVol. 3, which appears to collect issue #14-20 and whose solicitation, you can see for yourself, mentions Lord Chaos from the "Total Chaos" crossover withandYou might've been thinking thatbook would read a bit funny without the "Total Chaos" issues when ... lo and behold, acollection solicitation. No word yet on the exact contents, though "Total Chaos" was#90-92,#1-3 (yes, I bought five copies to get each of the different back-up stories) and#14-16. The latterissues weren't really that connected, however, and "Total Chaos" was really part of a larger Titans storyline that began back in issue #71 with "Titans Hunt" and concluded roundabouts issue #100 (when artist Tom Grummett left the book, though writer Marv Wolfman would remain).I'm surprised to see thebook -- Deathstroke I know is popular right now, but not so much the Titans except if it's to relate to the TNT show or the new animated movie. I'm not complaining, mind you; I love that Titans era. But I am surprised to seebefore, especially with the new Dan Abnett series. My suspicion is that all of this suggests acollection not too far away ...Two interesting-related books, which I think are worth noting because they acknowledge the breadth of the Suicide Squad beyond just Harley Quinn and Deathstroke. The Silver Age Suicide Squad stories are considerably removed from the current incarnation, but star Rick Flag in weird war/Challengers of the Unknown-type stories. And then I love that DC is acknowledging the 30th anniversary ofwhich, not coincidentally, was written by's John Ostrander and introduced the Squad into the post-DC Universe. No word on the contents but I'd be happy to see this anniversary book collect beyond just the miniseries to some of the tie-ins.What's prompted a spate of new DC Comics/Greg Rucka collections, I'm not sure (too much to hope Rucka might be returning to DC? His recent prominentwork), but we see here collections of some of my all-time favorite comics. Rucka'sis a brilliant geopolitical spy thriller using a who's who of DC Comics characters; hisis also great superheroics by way ofis kind of an oddball addition here, but it is that famous pre-Maxwell Lord story and involves Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, so maybe it's being pitched to tie to the new movie. Either way, more Greg Rucka collections is always a good thing.Three very different Supergirl collections to coincide with the continuing new TV series. The Silver Age paperback undoubtedly includes Kara Zor-El's firstappearance and stories of that era;, in contrast, is the early 1980s stories of Supergirl in Chicago, shortly before her death inis the popular miniseries aimed at younger readers by Landry Walker; there's been for a long time a sequel rumored, and I wonder if sales of the new collection would help move that along at all.One of my absolute favorite Triangle Titles Superman stories, and one that it's probably fitting for DC to re-release about now, since it heavily involves Supergirl (the Matrix version;would re-introduce her as a member of Superman's supporting cast shortly before "Death of Superman") and also because it leads in to the stories collected in the recently-announced Superman and the Justice League of America collection.What had been DC Comics: Elseworlds Vol. 1 appears to now be listed as Elseworlds: Batman Vol. 1; hopefully this is still a collection of previously-uncollected Batman Elseworlds stories and not the better-known material like, etc. On the heels of it, however, there's now aVol. 2 solicited, which at this point might very well morph into another character-focused collection.The recent announcement of a new relationship between DC Comics and Milestone came with the promise of both new graphic novels and new collections. It would be nice if, in DC's recent style, this newcollection included more than issues #1-8 from the original collection, or at least if the next collection was more complete (it skips from issue #13 to issue #19, etc.). Of course, to really be complete we're going to need collections of the "Shadow War" Milestone crossover and also the "Worlds Collide" DC/Milestone crossover.With the popularity of the new Mark Russell (mini)series, this appears to collect both the original Joe Simon four-parter and also the Ed Brubaker one-shot (no word on thestory).: Also apparently a new run of Matt Wagner's Sandman Mystery Theatre, which was never fully collected and tied in with Starman, quite apart from being great on its own.Troublingly to be sure, the recently announced Cassandra Cain collection Batgirl Vol. 1: Silent Knight is now showing signs online of being cancelled; however, there's a listing online now for a second volume. Hopefully this just means a change to the first book and not outright cancellation.Killer Croc is a Batman villain I really enjoy mainly because he's not as over-exposed as your Jokers or Two-Faces, and still lends himself to a variety of interpretations, albeitVol. 2, and so on. I'm very curious to see what "classic" Killer Croc stories DC collects for this volume.As I was discussing on the Facebook page the other day, this book has changed from being calledtoand now. The contents listed are still the "Legacy" event's issues however, which makes me hopeful in a convoluted way that this will becomewith "Contagion"'s issues, and then that a truecollection will follow.The recentcollection was solicited to contain the first and second Tim Drakeminiseries, plus#455-457, which to be very exact would collect the aftermath of the death of Tim Drake's mother without collecting the event itself. When released, this book actually contained the first miniseries, theissues, but then also#618-621, so both the death and the aftermath. This second volume is solicited to include issues #6-10 of the Chuck Dixonseries, but probably now it's the second miniseries and maybe even the third.No word yet on the contents but I'd be thrilled if this was going to start collecting the whole Alan Grant run.The firstcollected all the early already-collected issues of Perez'srun, and so there was some question whether another volume would ever be released. It would certainly be great if this second volume finished out Perez's run, going all the way to issue #62 even if that made the book a little bigger than the first.This volume follows theby Millar expected in November, and finishes out theseries that included Alan Moore and Grant Morrison,