DC Comics Solicitations for May 2010 - Blackest Night, Final Crisis, and Suicide Squad

Without a doubt, DC Comics May 2010 solicitations spell out an expensive month for collected comics fans.

In terms of new material, with the exception of Doom Patrol, Green Arrow/Black Canary, and the World's Finest miniseries collection, DC devotes most of its output to the whopping seven Blackest Night hardcovers solicited.

Fittingly, two major paperback reprints this month are Final Crisis and Batman RIP, crossover precursors to Blackest Night; if you were waiting for paperback on Final Crisis but buying hardcover Blackest Night, won't your wallet be sore! Also don't overlook one long awaited gem, the Showcase Presents: Suicide Squad black and white collection (Chris, believe it yet?).

With the Brightest Day initiative beginning in May, I might have liked to see the Blackest Night hardcovers also in May, but I imagine that would require DC to have announced the collections officially well before Blackest Night endeded, and I wonder if that was the sticking point.

The biggest news from these solicitations is that, contrary to DC Comics' own press release, Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps won't (or won't just) reprint stories from Tales of the Sinestro Corps, but rather includes stories from Green Lantern #49 and Adventure Comics #4-5, which we had noted here were otherwise missing.

Also, the Blackest Night: Rise of the Black Lanterns hardcover contains not only the "resurrected" cancelled DC titles, but also "Black Lantern" Green Arrow #30 and Adventure Comics #7, which means just about every Blackest Night crossover issue is collected ...

... except Titans #15.

Given the fanfare with which DC announced Titans #15 just before Blackest Night began, it seems a shame not to include it somewhere. Hey DC, couldn't we get this slipped in?

So now my question to you is, the seven Blackest Night hardcovers look like about $180 worth of comics before discounts. How are you planning to afford it? Anyone been on a comics diet to make room in their budget? Or is $180 on comics no big deal, especially for Blackest Night?