A while back, DC announced a new line of reprints, called DC Finest, that packages about 500 pages of comics from various eras into a $40 softcover. From all appearances, it looks to be an attempt to mimic Marvel's successful Epic Collections line, in which complete runs of their books are reprinted in similar paperbacks, but often out of order. So you might get Fantastic Four volume 3 (The Coming of Galactus) before volume 1 (the early stuff), but the volumes have all been mapped out, and gaps get filled in as time goes on.
DC announced a bunch of collections, ranging from the Golden Age (All-Star Comics, Superman) to the 2000s (Wonder Woman), with plenty in between. In October's solicitations, they've finally nailed down the contents for most of the announced books. Here's what's been announced so far.
DC FINEST: WONDER WOMAN: ORIGINS & OMENS
ON SALE 10/8/24
DC Finest: Wonder Woman: Origins & Omens collects these Wonder Woman issues from October 2007 to 2009: Wonder Woman (vol. 3) #14-35, Outsiders: Five of a Kind – Wonder Woman/Grace #1, and The Brave and the Bold #7.
DC FINEST: SUPERMAN: THE FIRST SUPERHERO
ON SALE 11/5/24
The First Superhero covers Summer 1938 to Fall 1940 and reprints classic stories from Action Comics #1-25, Superman #1-5, and New York World’s Fair #1.
DC FINEST: BATMAN: BATMAN: YEAR ONE & TWO
$39.99 US | 592 pages | 6 5/8″ x 10 3/16″ | Softcover | ISBN: 978-1-77952-835-3
ON SALE 11/5/24
Collects Batman #404-414, Batman Annual #11, and Detective Comics #571-581.
DC FINEST: CATWOMAN: LIFE LINES
ON SALE 12/17/24
Collects Catwoman (vol. 1) #1-4, Catwoman (vol. 2) #1-12, Catwoman Annual #1, Batman/Catwoman: Defiant #1, and stories from Action Comics Weekly #611-614 and Showcase ’93 #1-4.
DC FINEST: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA: THE BRIDGE BETWEEN EARTHS
ON SALE 11/19/24
Collects Justice League of America #45-72 from July 1966 to June 1969.
DC FINEST: GREEN LANTERN: THE DEFEAT OF GREEN LANTERN
ON SALE 12/3/24
Featuring works from revered comics writers and artists such as John Broome, Gardner Fox, and Gil Kane, this volume collects classic stories from Green Lantern #19-39, The Flash #143, and The Brave and the Bold #59.
DC FINEST: EVENTS: ZERO HOUR PART ONE
ON SALE 12/10/24
This first of two collections features Superman #93, The Flash #94, L.E.G.I.O.N. #70, Green Lantern #55, Super-man: The Man of Steel #37, Team Titans #24, The Darkstars #24, Valor #23, Batman #511, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #31, Detective Comics #678, Legionnaires #18, Hawkman #13, Showcase ‘94 #8-9, Steel #8, Superboy #8, Outsiders #11, and Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #3-4.
DC FINEST: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: ZAP GOES THE LEGION
ON SALE 12/10/24
This first collection starring the greatest heroes of the 30th century features stories pulled from the pages of Action Comics #378-387 and #389-392, Adventure Comics #374-380 and #403, and Superboy #172-173, #176, #183-184, #188, #190-191, #193, #195, and #197-203.
DC FINEST: THE FLASH: THE HUMAN THUNDERBOLT
ON SALE 11/26/24
Collects Showcase #4, #8, and #13-14, and The Flash #105-123.
DC FINEST: JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA: FOR AMERICA AND DEMOCRACY
ON SALE 12/3/24
Collects All-Star Comics #3-12.
DC has also announced three more for January, although the exact contents aren’t announced yet:
DC Finest: Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters – 21st of January, 2025
The most iconic stories starring Green Arrow! (From the cover, it looks like it’s the start of the Grell run, starting with The Longbow Hunters miniseries.)
DC Finest: Supergirl: The Girl of Steel – 14th of January, 2025
The earliest stories starring Supergirl! (Looks like Supergirl, from the beginning.)
DC Finest: Aquaman: The King of Atlantis – 7th of January, 2025
The earliest stories starring the King of the Seas: Aquaman! (Silver Age Aquaman, with Jack Miller, Robert Bernstein, and Ramona Fradon listed as creators.)
So for the purposes of discussion... which ones of these interest you the most? And looking forward, where would you go for the second volumes of these titles?
Replies
Doctor Fate was in all or most of Flash #305-313. He was indeed a guest in #305's team-up between Jay and Barry, and then Martin Pasko wrote solo stories for him in #306-309, later joined by and Steve Gerber in #310-313.
Yep! I loved those stories. Those I'd already accounted for in my map, aside from the guest appearance in 305. With the guest appearances, I guess it'd be worth distinguishing whether they were cameos or full guest-starring roles, to see if they should be included.
I don't recall if I mentioned this before but I stopped buying new comics by mid-2020 and only got a handful of trades since them including my first (and only) omnibus. I wasn't thrilled by the format or weight!
I have a lot of Archives, Showcase Presents and the Golden/Silver Age collections but the Archives are 20-25 years old so we'll see about duplicate runs.
But all this has worn me down and I ordered the Aquaman, Supergirl and Legion volumes and will probably get more in the coming months. The Plastic Man and Peacemaker are the ones that got my attention!
Awesome! I'm feeling like my sweet spot with the DC Finest line will be runs from the 70s, 80s, and 90s -- either books I already have (but don't have collected, and am willing to sell), or books I didn't follow from that time. I have a lot of 60s and 40s collections already through the Archives, and I don't know how much stuff from the 2000s will grab me (although I TORE through the Wonder Woman volume!). Next up will be Aquaman and Green Arrow, which I'll order once the GA volume goes up on instocktrades.com (on Wednesday, I believe). I'll probably also order the Superman Triangle Era omnibus, as I'm closing in on the end of some other omnis I'm reading.
I have my eye on Peacemaker, Science Fiction, Team-Ups, and a few more in the coming months!
Just wrapped up the Batman: Year One and Two DC Finest volume. A few thoughts.
Batman: Year One is still an amazing story. It's pretty much Peak Batman, or at the very least Peak Noir Batman. Batman: Year Two could never be as good, but it got kneecapped when Alan Davis left after the first issue. McFarlane's art looks pretty great here, but the storytelling gets muddier, and some of the complexity of the story gets lost. And a lot of the emotion of the story gets lost, as McFarlane simply wasn't as good at conveying that as Davis was.
Other than Batman: Year One, the Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis Detective Comics stores are head and shoulders above everything else. There's so much zest in them. If Davis stuck around, I feel like Jason Todd would never have died.
On the other side, most of the Batman stories are written by Max Allen Collins, who brings a lot of the hard-boiled true-crime attitude of Ms. Tree to Batman. It's not that successful, IMO. (It's also in stark contrast to the silly, comic-booky names he tends to give side characters, like identical twins in Two-Face's gang called the Rorrim Twins -- mirror spelled backwards, wink.) I like a Batman who's more compassionate, and less (as Collins puts it in a later story) "Old Testament." To me, Collins's best story is the "Penguin goes straight" story in the Batman Annual; Norm Breyfogle's debut brought out the best in him.
Of course, even that was outshone by the Alan Moore/George Freeman Clayface story in the first part of the annual. Seeing a Moore story in this context -- rather than in a collection of Moore stories -- really emphasizes how special a writer he is. It's a gem.
There are some nice stories at the beginning before the long runs get rolling, too -- a Magpie story with art by Trevor Von Eeden, and a Penguin story drawn by Klaus Jansson. Both feel a little old-fashioned in the best of ways -- the last gasp of an earlier era of Batman.
Oh, and Batman 412 -- featuring the debut (and only? appearance of The Mime -- might be the comic with the greatest discrepancy of cover art to interiors. Check out this Kevin Nowlan cover, and then dig this sad mishmash of Dave Cockrum and Don Heck, which doesn't serve either artist well.
Just weighing in...
Batman: Year One is still an amazing story.
This is the story that introduced the term "year one" to the comic book lexicon. The mistake virtually every supposedly "year one" story has made since is to tell a story set during a hero's first year, whereas Batman: Year One detailed the entire first year.
McFarlane's art looks pretty great here...
McFarlane's art probably never looked better than here and on his Hulk run, both of which had editors who curtailed his more... "flamboyant" tendancies and forced him to utilize more traditional comic book storytelling methods.
Batman 412 -- featuring the debut (and only?) appearance of The Mime...
The only one I know of.
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