Comics vs. trade collections: Different content

For quite a long time now, it's been common practice for comic book publishers to reprint comics in trade or graphic novel form once a comic book storyline reaches completion. Readers with enough patience often wait for the trade releases of storylines rather than buy the individual comics. After all, the trade collections contain the same content that was in the original comics, right?

WRONG. Take the following example:

Recently, DC Comics republished Green Lantern (2007) issues 14 through 20 in a hardback volume called Green Lantern -- Wanted: Hal Jordan:

Now take, for the sake of comparison, an original copy of Green Lantern #20 (2007) ...

... which is supposedly faithfully reproduced in Green Lantern -- Wanted: Hal Jordan. Take a look at this four-panel sequence from the comic book:




Now, compare the previous sequence with the following four panels, taken from the hardback book:




The artwork is the same, but the dialog is VERY different.

Here's another example. First, here are two panels from the comic book:


Here are the same panels from the hardback book:


MUCH different information between the two!

One more example. Two panels from the comic book:


The same two panels from the hardback book.


There are even more differences between the comic book and the trade book, but you get the idea. Comic books and trade collections are not created equal!