Dynamite's Black Bat Omnibus drops on Wednesday!

One of the reasons I'm grateful for the arrival of this book is that tracking it has been a chore.

Writer: Brian Buccellato
Art: Ronan Cliquet
Format: Softcover
Page Count: 336 pages 

The classic pulp vigilante, reimagined for a new generation!

Tony Quinn is a brash defense attorney to the mob who compromises his ethics for financial gain. When he refuses to cross the line and commit murder, he is tortured and blinded by his gangster employers. When a fortuitous meeting with a covert agency gives him a chance to make amends, Quinn transforms into the Black Bat and embarks on a redemptive quest to right the wrongs of his past. 

The complete 12-chapter epic, written by Brian Buccellato (of DC Comics' Flash) and collected into one massive omnibus!

Dynamite at one point advertised a "volume 1" of The Black Bat. Perhaps prompted by the book's cancellation at its 12th issue, an omnibus collecting all 12 issues was later solicited. I thought at first the plan was to have it out by the end of last year. Next thing I knew Amazon had a release date of July 2015, yet here it is, sporting a release date of February 18th, 2015.

Dynamite's website, by the way, includes the book under its "Black Bat Hardcovers" category while the solicitation clearly labels it as a softcover. Based on price, I assume the solicitation is accurate.

Now as to the book itself, it'll drive purists absolutely nuts (much like Dynamite did to fans of The Phantom and The Green Hornet). But understanding it was a "reimagined", modernized version, I went in with an open mind. And loved the book.

To the extent that I read it, anyway. When the book was cancelled, I stopped getting individual (digital) issues in anticipation of buying trade paperbacks for the cover galleries. Essentially, I'm paying for issues nine through twelve or so, the gallery and better packaging.

And hopefully a better cover. What I hated about the Moonstone version of the The Black Bat from a couple of years ago is that he came off like nothing more than psychotic thug. Making a character schizophrenic does not modernize him, in my opinion. The Black Bat was a cerebral character, not just a gunslinger and making him mentally unstable strips away a portion of his appeal for me.

The cover above is one of very few from Dynamite (and there must have been in the range of 40 covers created for the 12 issues, not counting black and white versions and so on) that gives off that Moonstone vibe. That said, Dynamite's page does not display a cover at the moment, so perhaps we'll be lucky and the omnibus will feature a different one, or a new one altogether.

I should probably mention that the "Dynamite covers" page under the banner is about 95% complete. They should all be on the display aside from an occasional virgin art version or black and white variety or some such. I may need to work on the spacing but the eye candy itself should be all there. Enjoy!