Scott and Dan pick the comics they’re most looking forward to…
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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension
Life With Archie #42 Facsimile Edition, Archie. The 1965 debut of Pureheart the Powerful — and the comic I’m most looking forward to this week. And, hey, did you see the Ben Cooper-style variant featuring Fly-Girl that’s coming in September? Far out! More superhero Facsimile Editions, Archie People! More! Especially the members of the Mighty Crusaders! Should I get the foil version of the main cover here? I probably should but I didn’t reserve one. Help!
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Summer of Supergirl Special #1, DC. Hey, did you know it’s SUPERGIRL WEEK here at the ol’ 13th Dimension? It is!
Anyway, may fave of this issue’s covers is this dandy variant by Pablo Villalobos:
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Superman #39, DC. Prime’s reclamation proceeds. “Get ready for a wild ride across the DC Universe as Prime is dragged kicking and screaming across past events, lost reboots, relaunches, and restarts!” sez the solicitation info, and I’m down for it. If you haven’t been spoiled yet, a classic Earth-Two character shows up.
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X-Men: Elsewhen Vol. 1, Abrams ComicArts/Marvel. John Byrne’s much ballyhooed return to those dirty, filthy mutants. Click here for a SNEAK PEEK and here for a complete, SPOILER-FREE REVIEW, by our pal Jim Beard.
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Justice League of America: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1, DC. A re-release that covers Snapper Carr’s betrayal of the League and takes you through the JLA/JSA team up where we find out that Sandman kept his old sidekick Sandy imprisoned for years. Kind of by accident. Oops!
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Legends Omnibus, DC. Do you know I barely remember anything about Legends?
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Detective Comics 1110, DC. The Batman, Green Arrow, and Black Canary arc continues.
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The Flash #34, DC. I’m gonna do a David Nakayama feature one of these days. I promise! These variants — both DC and Marvel — are a groove.
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The Infernal Hulk #8 and Captain America #12, Marvel. The two latest Alex Ross Marvel Dimensions covers.
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Scott Tipton, contributor-at-large, 13th Dimension
DC Finest: Fourth World — When the Old Gods Die, DC. If you’ve never read Jack Kirby’s original Fourth World comics, here’s your perfect opportunity to get your mind blown.
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Madman Omnibus Volume 3, Dark Horse. A giant collection of Mike Allred comics is always worth picking up.
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Batman & Robin by Grant Morrison: Absolute Edition, DC. Morrison’s Batman was my favorite DC work of his since JLA.
Dan adds: I’m not as high on the run as a whole. Parts were Morrisonian impenetrable but the highs — like Batman and Robin and the second Batman Incorporated — were exceptionally high. Among the best Bat-comics of the Modern Age.
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MORE
— HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week! — June 15. Click here.
— HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week! — June 8. Click here.
June 22, 2026
I re-read Legends a few years ago when it was released in TPB. My main memory of it is the beautiful artwork by John Byrne and Karl Kesel. I remember it being informally promoted at the time as a sort of Crisis 2, and by that metric the story was much less consequential but also much more streamlined and less repetitive (I like Crisis, but that story could have been told in half the length). It was a good kickoff to the post-Crisis DC Universe that set in motion:
— Justice League International
— Suicide Squad
— Wally West as the Flash
— The rebooted Shazam: The New Beginning (the best Shazam reboot in my mind)
— Introducing the rebooted Wonder Woman
— Introducing the rebooted Superman (Legends ran more or less concurrently with the Man of Steel mini-series which pre-dated it by maybe a month or so)
So, in that sense, it did what it was designed to do. My two issues with it:
1. Large swaths of this story make no sense unless you read the tie-ins (e.g., the Justice League Detroit show up in issues 1 and/or 2 and then completely disappear from the story with no explanation). So the omnibus (which collects the tie-ins) is probably the best option, but I’m also of the mind that the main series should be self-contained and any tie-ins supplemental, not required reading.
2. Even though this is a post-Crisis story, the writing style is still very much of the Bronze Age in its prose and narrative tropes (e.g., each issue offering endless, inartful recapping of the previous issues). There was a definite shift in writing styles post-Crisis (led mostly by TDKR and Watchmen), but Legends fell into that in-between period where some of the writers had not yet evolved.
All that said, I have it on pre-order and look forward to reading it again, if only for the artwork.
June 22, 2026
So, Kirby’s assistants convince him to kick Colletta to the curb while he’s still at Marvel, yet Colletta ends up inking Kirby when he comes to DC?
June 23, 2026
That was a decision made by DC at the time so they would have some control.