New reprint collections predictions

In April 2021, I made a bold prediction on what I thought DC was going to reprint in 2022, given that we had just found out that "Before the Darkness" vol 2 was on the schedule. I looked at the tea leaves and made what I thought were good, sound prognostications on what I thought the most likely reprint collections would be given DC's reprinting history of Legion volumes to that point. I figured we were good for any 3 of the 5. Over three years later, I only got two out of five right: the second volume of the Five Years Later Omnibus, and the Great Darkness re-release.

My original predictions from 2021:

• Bronze Age Omnibus vol 1 (new)
• Great Darkness Saga Deluxe Edition (re-release)
• Five Years Later Omnibus vol 2 (new)
• Legionnaires [Reboot] vol 3 (new)
• Legion Worlds (new)

Well, we recently learned that "DC Finest: Legion of Super-Heroes: Zap Goes the Legion" will be coming out in December 2024, reprinting the end of the Adventure run, the Action run, and the first part of the Superboy run (Adventure 374-380, Action 378-392, and the Legion stories in Superboy 172-203). Don't know why they did the Adventure and Action runs again, seeing as how they this book now contains more than half of the Silver Age Omnibus vol 3 (Adventure 361-380 and Action 378-392) or nearly all of Archives vol 9 (Adventure 377-380 and Action 378-392). If they had done a pure Bronze Age Omnibus vol 1 instead, with 544 pages in this Zap volume, they could have reprinted Superboy 172-219 instead. I should try to take partial credit for the Zap book covering some of the Bronze Age, but I'm going to hold out for a full-up Bronze Age Omnibus vol 1.

And in 2025 we're finally getting a full reprint of the Great Darkness Saga Deluxe Edition, PLUS a surprise re-release of The Curse Deluxe Edition, which I would have put on my new list if it weren't already coming out.

 

I tried to use historical data to predict how many new reprint volumes will come out in 2025 and 2026. Let's dive into things and see what we can come up with. DC has put out the following Legion reprint collections over the last few years:

• 4 in 2017: 1 Silver Age, 1 Bronze Age, 2 Reboot
• 5 in 2018: 2 Silver Age, 1 Bronze Age, 2 Reboot
• 0 in 2019
• 3 in 2020: 1 Silver Age, 1 5YL, 1 Rebirth
• 3 in 2021: 2 Bronze Age, 1 Rebirth 
• 4 in 2022: 2 Bronze Age, 1 5YL, 1 Rebirth
• 0 in 2023
• 2 in 2024: 1 Silver Age/Bronze Age, 1 Bronze Age
• 3 in 2025: 1 Bronze Age, 1 5YL, 1 Retroboot

Given that, I'd expect maybe 2025 is done and we should look for 2-3 to come out in 2026. Thoughts:

SILVER AGE

• The "LSH: The Silver Age Omnibus" line is complete in three volumes, covering Adventure 247 to Action 392. Since the 3 Silver Age Omnibus books came out 2017-2020, I’m not inclined to think that we’ll see another Silver Age non-Omnibus. But then again, 2024 will see "Zap" which is half Silver Age and half Bronze Age, so who can say?

BRONZE AGE (which for the purpose of this discussion I'm saying goes through the end of v2)

• I still expect the Bronze Age Omnibus series to start. The Silver Age books were an average of 630 pages each, meaning that this hypothetical volume 1 would cover Superboy 172-224, which are what's covered in Archives 10-12 (reprinted in 2000, 2002, and 2003). Yes, I know that "Zap" covers the start of the Bronze Age, but that's for the DC Finest line. 
• Since we will see both "The Great Darkness Saga Deluxe Edition" (392 pages) and "The Curse Deluxe Edition" (522 pages) in 2025, which cover up to the end of v2, that should be it for the Bronze Age non-Omnibus books.

V3/BAXTER RUN + TALES

• I'm including the first 12 issues of Tales to be in this section since they were published concurrently with the first 12 issues of vol 3. After "The Curse" came "An Eye for an Eye" (2007, LSH v3 1-6) and "The More Things Change" (2009, LSH v3 7-13), but neither contained the "Tales of the LSH" stories that were published concurrently with the first year of v3. I hope to see one volume that includes all of those (LSHv3 1-13, Tales 314-325, and DC Comics Presents 80) plus stories that were not collected earlier (DC Comics Presents 59, DC Sampler 1-3, New Adventures of Superboy 50, and even the random covers from the Adventure Comics digests 491-503 and the Best of DC Digests) - I added them all up and we can do that in about 558 pages total. So let's call this "The Super-Villain War Deluxe Edition". Since it covers up to just before Crisis, it could be considered the end of the Bronze Age, but to me it's post-Bronze but without a good name for an overall title.

FIVE YEARS LATER

• The 5YL Omnibus vol 2 should get a new re-release given that vol 1 is coming out in 2025.

REBOOT

• The Reboot had volume 2 last published in 2018, so it's due for the next volume. I estimate there are up to 11 volumes (depending on size) before we hit the Abnett/Lanning run which has already started to get reprinted. The next volume should reprint LSH v4 #74-80 and Legionnaires #31-37 plus the Superboy crossover (maybe more, depending on page count), and continuing the naming for this reprint series as "Legionnaires". These stories have never been collected.
• The Abnett/Lanning vol 2 reprinted “Legion Lost” in 2018, but there are still 6 issues of Legion Worlds, 38 issues of The Legion, some Secret Files, and some Titans/Legion stories left, which I estimate would take up another 4 volumes. Legion Worlds should be next, as a 6-issue series, unless they want a collected Legion Lost/Legion Worlds for 18 issues.

THREEBOOT

• Threeboot (LSH v5) was complete in 2007-2009, with volumes published concurrently with the title. We are getting a new release of Legion of Three Worlds Deluxe Edition in 2025.

RETROBOOT

• The Retroboot was reprinted concurrently with the v6 series in 2008-2011, but only about half of the Adventure series has been reprinted (the Legion Academy stuff has not) and a handful of random stories from various books (about 200 pages worth). Not expecting this anytime soon.

NEW 52

• New 52 was all reprinted concurrently with the v7 series and Legion Lost in 2012-2015. Not expecting a re-release any time soon.

REBIRTH

• The 12 issues of the regular series and the JLA/LSH miniseries have already been reprinted so I don't expect anything else any time soon. 

So here are my 4 candidates for reprinting in 2026 (assuming nothing more in 2025). I'd bet on any 2 or 3 of these coming out (listed in chronological order of original printing):

1. Bronze Age Omnibus vol 1: reprinting Superboy 172-224, last reprinted 2000-2003 in Archives 10-12; the last Silver Age Omnibus volume came out in 2020.
2. Baxter vol 1: reprinting LSH v3 1-13, Tales 314-325, and lots of extras and one-off stories; the vol 3 books were last reprinted in 2009.
3. Legionnaires vol 3: reprinting the Reboot from LSH v4 #74-80 and Legionnaires #31-37 plus the Superboy crossover, all of which have never been reprinted; volume 2 came out in 2018.
4. Legion Worlds: issues 1-6 never reprinted, although solicited but cancelled in 2013; last Abnett/Lanning volume 2 came out in 2018.

New reprint collections for 2025

Well color me shocked that DC has decided to put out FOUR new Legion reprint collections in 2025! I had despaired of ever getting more, so maybe this is a harbinger of some NEW collections, as these are all (mostly) new editions of previously-released books. Given that DC is returning to its bullet logo later this year, I'd expect all of these (except maybe the first one) to have the bullet instead of this one.

There's one coming out next month, I'm including that one here because I never mentioned it previously when it was announced. But it's a curious one.

Arriving 9/24/24: Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga. The first edition was published in 1989, with a second edition in 2000 that did not have the fold-out Giffen/Mahlstedt poster. This is the original version, reprinting only the Great Darkness storyline itself from LSHv2 #287, 290-294, and Annual 3. The original included the newly-redrawn version of the story from 287, I suppose to keep the art all Giffen, but I think I heard that they will restore the original version for this volume (or maybe include both). But given the next entry on the list, I'm surprised this one is coming out at all.

Arriving 3/4/25 - Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga Deluxe Edition (New Edition). This was previously published in 2011. The Deluxe version  reprints LSHv2 #284-296 and Annual 1, meaning it's complete and follows “Before the Darkness vol 2” chronologically. No, I don't know why they are going to have two versions of GDS in print at the same time. 

Arriving 4/15/25 - Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later Omnibus Vol. 1 (New Edition). This was previously published in 2020. There may be some new content in this one, the original was 1413 pages, new is 1425 pages, but it also implies a new edition of Vol. 2 later this year or next year. This reprints LSHv4 #1-39 and Annuals 1-3, plus Adventures of Superman #478 (part of the "Time & Time Again" storyline), the 5-issue Timber Wolf series, and various Legion-related entries from the 1990-92 Who's Who in the DC Universe series.

Arriving 5/6/25 - Superman – Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds: The Deluxe Edition. This was previously published in 2009, under the title of "Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds". This Deluxe version will have lots of extra content, this one is 240 pages vs 160 in the original, but it doesn't say what the new content is that makes this deluxe. I'm hoping it will be lots of Perez stuff (pencils-only version of an issue, sketchbooks, reference material, etc.).

Arriving 5/20/25 - Legion of Super-Heroes: The Curse Deluxe Edition (New Edition). This was previously published in 2011 and reprints LSHv2 #297-313 and Annuals 2-3, closing out the v2 series and ending right before the split to Tales and v3 series. This one surprises me in that it's the next volume in the series after GDS Deluxe, and coming only 2-1/2 months later. I hope that this volume implies that there's a follow-up volume that will finally reprint not only LSHv3 #1-13 (which appeared in "An Eye for an Eye" (2007) and "The More Things Change" (2009) but also Tales of the LSH #314-325, which have never been reprinted and occurred at the same time as v3 #1-12. It should also include DC Comics Presents #80, which took place in between a couple of those v3 issues. (This one is not on Amazon or Penguin yet for some reason, so no cover photo or link, but this screengrab from the Near Mint Condition show on YouTube).