Cancelled Trade Cavalcade -- where the Collected Editions blog looks back at some trades that never quite made print. You were going to see a different Cancelled Trade Cavalcade today, but in light of the fact that Suicide Squad Vol. 2: The Nightshade Odyssey suddenly disappeared from DC Comics's release list, we interrupt your regularly scheduled cavalcade.

The 1980s Suicide Squad series has had a long, strange collection history of late. In 2009 or earlier, DC solicited a black-and-white Showcase Presents Suicide Squad that would have collected the series' first eighteen issues plus some crossovers; they cancelled this (twice, I believe) and ultimately released the color Suicide Squad: Trial By Fire, collecting the series' first six issues.

I, for one, considered getting the collecting of the Suicide Squad series in color to be a victory, and I was excited to hear about the forthcoming second volume, collecting issues seven through twelve plus more crossovers.

Except, the week that DC had scheduled the release of Suicide Squad Vol. 2: The Nightshade Odyssey, the book disappeared both from DC's site and from Amazon, at least. There's no cancellation notice so far in DC's release lists, but the book didn't come out as planned.

This is a disappointment, first, for those of use eager to read this Suicide Squad series. It's a disappointment also, however, because each successive Suicide Squad trade would have moved us closer to a collection that included Suicide Squad #23 -- the first appearance of Barbara Gordon as Oracle.

Suicide Squad Vol. 2: The Nightshade Odyssey is only the latest in a string of trades that have recently been cancelled by DC: Doom Patrol: Fire Away, JSA All-Stars: Puzzle Men, and brand new -- Supergirl: Good-Looking Corpse, the collection of final pre-Flashpoint Supergirl issues by Nick Spencer, James Peaty, and Kelly Sue DeCconnick, now appears cancelled.

To be sure, pre-ordering is your friend, to create order numbers such that DC will actually print any given trade, but frankly I'm not sure what could save some of these, these days.

Next week, another Cancelled Trade Cavalcade, and new reviews tomorrow! Don't miss our great discussion going on about the merits of continuity, and also breaking news about the DC Retroactive collections. Thanks for reading!

There's a number of ways in which JSA vs. Kobra marks a return. It is the return of artist Don Kramer to the JSA characters that he drew under writer Geoff Johns. The art gives the miniseries an authenticity that in my opinion the current "split" Justice Society lacks, suggesting the return of the original (JSA-era) Justice Society as well. And it's also the return of Eric Trautmann to the Checkmate characters, tying up some loose ends and addressing some long-simmering issues. All in all, despite some rough patches, that adds up for to me to a book worthy of taking a look.

[Contains spoilers]

Eric Trautmann's work on Checkmate and The Shield has given him a reputation, to me at least, of being a writer whose stories contain political or global undertones. In JSA vs. Kobra, Trautmann examines the underpinnings of terrorism; as he writes through Mr. Terrific in the end, "Suicide bombings, terror weapons, assassinations -- it's all about kicking down the underpinnings of society." Far from costumed goons robbing a bank in Gotham City, Trautmann posits this new iteration of Kobra as the DC Universe's ultimate terrorist cell -- seemingly regular people who might suddenly cause destruction without warning. Worst of all is the Kobra members unwavering faith to their cause, unmatched by the generally agnostic DC heroes and specifically the traditionally atheist Mr. Terrific.

Trautmann wisely builds upon the issues of faith that Terrific faced in JSA: Lost and elsewhere, enhancing just how much this story feels like an original JSA tale. While Terrific and Power Girl take up most of the action, there's scenes for Sand, Jakeem Thunder, and Stargirl, among others. I'm hopeful for good things from Marc Guggenheim's forthcoming Justice Society run, but it seems Eric Trautmann could do a fair job on the title, too.

Mr. Terrific and Kobra Jason Burr are obviously pitted here as foils. Both are brilliant; both came to their current lives from the brink of death; and both are chess-players, planning their moves well in advance -- only Burr represents the faithful, and Mr. Terrific represents the faithless. Burr succeeds through most of the story due to his single-minded devotion to his cause, while Terrific flounders for some time because he can't trust his friends. Burr, as a matter of fact, spends much of the miniseries killing off those who followed his brother's Kobra cult; indeed it's Burr's luxury that the only person he has to have faith in is himself. While Trautmann has a tendency to over-narrate here, letting Burr or Terrific describe the action on almost every page, certainly he believably sets up the two as life-long DC Universe nemeses.

At one point in the story, Terrific prevents the hero Damage from severely beating a suspect, reaffirming "that's not how we do things." While no less true, this sentiment that "heroes don't torture" becomes somewhat old hat at this point, reaffirmed as it's been any number of places including Justice League: Cry for Justice. Whereas Cry ends on a somewhat uncertain note as to whether torture or murder might sometimes be justified, Trautmann here is nicely unequivocal, in that Terrific decides that trust in his friends, reason, and love will guide him against Kobra. If not the most complicated conclusion, it is well in-character for Mr. Terrific and the JSA.

JSA vs. Kobra feels almost pleasantly inevitable, like the intended last chapter of both JSA and Checkmate, in that for a long time Mr. Terrific served as a member of both organizations; some tension regarding this was bound to arise. Indeed, in that the arc of the Checkmate series was always Checkmate's growing acceptance by the superhero community (from Shadowpact to the Outsiders and Nightwing, and finally to DC's Big Three), this final equalizing -- Mr. Terrific learning which side to trust when -- seems perfectly natural. Further, JSA vs. Kobra hinges squarely on Final Crisis: Resist (from the Final Crisis Companion), making the story all the more relevant; for fans, this is really the next volume of the Checkmate series.

Inasmuch as I've sometimes decried DC Comics's miniseries-with-a-purpose, feeling they lead too much into something else without meaning something on their own, JSA vs. Kobra might be too far the other way. This is seemingly the concluding Checkmate story, and all I want is more -- some indication that the Checkmate characters will appear elsewhere, or that Kobra will continue to be a threat, that we'll learn more about Jason Burr -- something other than "this is it." If you have a chance at conventions, please do ask -- JSA vs. Kobra is a spy thriller of the type that seems rare these days at DC, and I'd be eager to see more of the same.

[Contains full covers]

Coming up ... Collected Editions's look at the new Batgirl!

Let joy rain down from above -- it may say Kobra: Resurrection on the cover of this book, but this is actually the unnamed fifth volume of Greg Rucka and Eric Trautmann's Checkmate series. The quality of stories in this volume isn't exactly steady from beginning to end, but overall it's an impressive and creative collection, and DC Collected Editions Group Editor Georg Brewer, Editor Sean Mackiewicz, and the rest of the department should all be proud.

[Contains spoilers for Kobra: Resurrection]

Kobra: Resurrection is essentially the collection of the recent Faces of Evil: Kobra one-shot special (which itself leads in to Trautmann's JSA vs. Kobra series) padded out with filler material. DC has filled out the collections of a couple shorter storylines recently to fair effect (Superman: Back in Action and Escape from Bizarro World are two in recent memory), but Resurrection well illustrates the value of this approach. Not only does Resurrection include two pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Kobra stories that lead in to the Faces of Evil book (one story drawn, no less, by Jack "The King" Kirby), but also the three-part "Castling" story that concluded Rucka and Trautmann's Checkmate run (#23-25), the only issues that were, until now, criminally uncollected.

Whereas Rucka and Trautmann's other last volume of Checkmate, Fall of the Wall, effectively concluded the book's long-running Amanda Waller storyline, "Castling" brings Checkmate full circle from the events of Rucka's The OMAC Project where it all began. Over the course of Checkmate, we've seen the organization recruit a who's who of the DC Universe, including the Outsiders, Shadowpact, the Martian Manhunter, and more, but "Castling" involves the heavy-hitting Justice Society and Justice League -- and most importantly, it's three charter members, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

OMAC Project readers know that if anyone has a reason to distrust Checkmate, it's DC's Big Three, after former Checkmate-head Maxwell Lord nearly killed Batman using a mind-controlled Superman before Wonder Woman killed Lord to free Superman. Superman states from the outset that he doesn't like Checkmate when they deputize him to stop a Kobra plot, and Black Queen Sasha Bordeaux wises rips up the deputation order in favor of asking for help; this first step launches "Castling" as a story about how Checkmate has changed, especially in comparison to the all-too similar Kobra cult.

At the end, Sasha faces the choice to kill a deadly nursery of Kobra infants, and instead chooses to raise them under Checkmate jurisdiction; it's a surprisingly bloodless move that's surprising from the often tough-as-nails organization. The writers emphasize (with artist extraordinaire Joe Bennett) Wonder Woman's face when she tells Sasha that she looks forward to working with Checkmate again, and there's no greater compliment the organization can receive given their history. "We have time. Checkmate isn't going anywhere," Sasha says, and it's a wonderfully hopeful message, this reader interprets, from Rucka and Trautmann, that a Checkmate series or mini-series might find it's way to the stands one day.

In contrast, then, I found Ivan Brandon's Faces of Evil: Kobra tale at the end of this book less satisfying. In the classic issues here, we meet Kobra leader Jeffrey Burr -- a Siamese twin kidnapped as a child by the Kobra cult -- and his brother Jason, teamed with Batman to try to stop his brother. Jeffrey seemingly kills Jason, but in the Faces of Evil story, Jason apparently returns to life and takes on his brother's role. I say "apparently" because what's going on in the story is not at all clear; far more pages are spent on a bloody shoot-out than explanation Brandon tells the story well, but it's too much of a bridge to JSA vs. Kobra -- the book just ends, rather than concludes, without any answers, and feels unfinished.

That said, to be sure Kobra: Resurrection gets an honored place on my shelf. Checkmate was a smart, worldly, political series that fully immersed itself in the DC Universe, and signifies for me much of the good that came out of DC Comics "One Year Later" after Infinite Crisis. If enough of us pick up this book, maybe DC will see fit to reconsider Checkmate and publish another.

[Contains selected covers, classic Kobra Who's Who page and pin-up art]

Thanks for reading!

Admittedly, I was predisposed to judge harshly Bruce Jones's Checkmate: Chimera, given the difficulties with his brief-but-disastrous stint on Nightwing. Indeed, in the end I think Checkmate fans might be better off thinking Checkmate ended with the previous volume, Fall of the Wall; there's nothing here quite so outlandish as Jones's tentacled mutant Jason Todd in Nightwing, but neither does the story rise to the bar set by writers Greg Rucka and Eric Trautman before.

Whereas much of Rucka and Trautman's Checkmate run focused on the Sasha Bordeaux, Mr. Terrific, and Amanda Waller (the Black Queen and the White King and Queen of Checkmate respectively), Jones centers his story on the Black King, and more specifically the Checkmate Pawns that function in the field. An explosive nearly kills military soldier Adam Sharp, and Checkmate recruits his body for their ultimate weapon program. Sharp, now called Chimera, is predictably unreliable and violent, and he fights armageddon brought inexplicably by the devil himself while Sharp's finance works to free him.

Given the previous focus on Checkmate royalty, I don't at all mind Jones turning instead to the Checkmate ground forces; my chief complaint is that there's little specificity here. The devil possesses one of the few named Pawns in the story early on, and the rest function like unnamed "red shirts" on Star Trek, there for collateral damage. This is a story told from the perspective of the Pawns, but it doesn't do much do show what the Pawns' lives are like.

Second, Chimera simply lacks the detailed politics of Rucka and Trautman's run. Jones introduces armageddon legends from a number of different cultures, but these seem incidental to the story; which monster attacks when doesn't turn the story as much as dealings between China and North Korea turned other Checkmate tales. Jones attempts some backroom dealings in the interaction between the Black King Taleb Beni Khalid and his Bishop the August General in Iron; while I enjoyed the spotlight on the August General, this basic interaction (they disagree; the General disobeys) missed the subtleties of what we saw before.

One bright spot in this story, I'd note, was the inclusion of the new Global Guardians. I've enjoyed how characters like the Guardians and the Great Ten have travelled from <52> to Green Lantern to Checkmate, and I'm glad Jones included them here. Of course, I could quibble that the Guardians are hardly fleshed out and sometimes their individual powers are confusing; also, while one strong part of Chimera are the devil's monsters as rendered by Manuel Garcia, often it was tough to tell one Global Guardian from another.

Checkmate had been one of my favorite new titles coming out of Infinite Crisis, and I'm sad that I can't recommend this last volume. It seems to be the case with Checkmate, Shadowpact, All-New Atom, Blue Beetle and more that a book will start strong, then DC Comics will replace the original creative team, then the book will shortly be cancelled. Don't get me wrong, sometimes the replacement teams do a good job, but I wish sometimes DC would pull the plug when the original team leaves (as with Gotham Central and Starman, for instance), rather than draw things out with mixed results.

[Contains full covers]

Coming soon ... a special announcement, and the Collected Editions review of Batman RIP!

Loyal readers know I'm a Checkmate fan. And Checkmate fans, run, don't walk, to pick up Suicide Squad: From the Ashes.

John Ostrander, 1980s Suicide Squad-writer and general comics writer extraordinaire, returns to the title in this volume that generally reads like Checkmate volume three-and-a-half. Amanda Waller, ejected from Checkmate after the events of Fall of the Wall and now fully in control of Task Force X, mounts a Suicide Squad mission with personal repercussions for Squad member Colonel Rick Flag.

Of everything new coming from DC Comics in the Infinite Crisis/One Year Later era, I've found myself most enjoying DC's new "intrigue" set: Checkmate, Outsiders, and now Suicide Squad. While Suicide Squad contains less real-world politicking than Checkmate, there's plenty of betrayal, backstabbing, and divided loyalties here. Amanda Waller is played as the "bad guy" in Checkmate, but in Suicide Squad it's good to be bad, and this volume delivers plenty of fiendish fun.

From the Ashes does double-duty as a tale for both old and new Suicide Squad fans. The first few chapters are set firmly in the past, relating the end of the previous Suicide Squad series and catching up with the main characters from there. Then, the series jumps past a couple of DC Universe events, including Infinite Crisis and 52, to pick up with the modern-day Squad. I especially liked how Ostrander reconciled two incarnations of General Wade Eiling--former Captain Atom-series nemesis and current Justice League bad guy "The Shaggy Man"--in a way that worked with the themes of the series as a whole.

It's Rick Flag's journey that ties together these two eras of the Suicide Squad. As someone who did not read the series previously, I was unsure how much of what we learn here is new information and what had been established earlier. Despite my confusion, I still found Flag an interesting protagonist, seemingly a lone good man able to work with a team of villains and still keep his conscience clear. Ostrander suggests toward the end that Flag may not be who we think he is, but--despite the ties to the book's theme of family--I'm not quite sure what this adds to the character; Flag is far more interesting as Flag than as someone else (just as Captain Atom became far less interesting in Extreme Justice when it seemed he was not Nathanial Adam). I'd be curious to see Ostrander follow up on this revelation elsewhere, to see what else can be made of it.

I've never been much for military comics, but Suicide Squad: From the Ashes deftly mixes the military, politics, and evil super-villain in a way that's very, very engaging. Checkmate fans, this is a must-have for your collection.

[Contains full covers.]

We'll stay on the darker side of super-heroics next with Batman and the Outsiders: The Chrysalis and then maybe some more Countdown tie-ins from there. Don't miss it!