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
Historical? Yes. Important? Yes. But this was a very strange period for Superman. This was when Jack Kirby took over Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen and tried to turn the Man of Steel psychodelic!
And by taking away kryptonite, they had to give a new weakness. In fact, they gave him several: Q-Energy, removing a third of his powers and, lest we forget, "Lynx"!
Actually, I feel the stories directly after these are much better: Luthor & the Galactic Golem, the introduction of Terra-Man (still one of the best origins), "Must There Be a Superman?", etc.!
In addition to Kirby taking over Jimmy Olsen, Denny O'Neil took over the Man of Steel in Superman and Action Comics. This was a bigger change than it seemed at the time, because O'Neil wasn't just a different type of writer than previous Super-writers Otto Binder, Robert Bernstein, Bill Finger and the other old hands. He was a different generation altogether, and he and his cohort (Tony Isabella, Marty Pasko, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, et al) were changing the old. staid DC office in a lot of ways. Plus, Mort Weisinger was gone as of 1970. The chocks were off for both Superman and Clark Kent, who became a TV newscaster.
Of those, I'm definitely down for the Superman one (these are books from slightly before I was reading comics, so of course it's my jam), and likely the Batman one too. One thing I liked about the first Batman volume is it has a warts-and-all approach -- weird little missteps in that hazy post-Crisis era. There were some promising ideas that weren't followed up on, some downright corny ideas, and some weird glitches as the new continuity was taking hold. In the first volume, the Year One story and the Barr/Davis issues were the main attraction, but I found rereading the Collins stuff, and reflecting on why he didn't turn out to be a classic Batman writer, was often just as interesting. In the second volume, sure, there's the Killing Joke and Son of the Demon -- and also Five Nights of the Beast (or however many there were) -- but there's also Alan Grant and John Wagner's debut on the character. And unlike when they were first published, I've now read enough Judge Dredd to see where they're coming from...and I think that might shed new light for me on their work.
Most of these books reprint material I already have, so I won't be getting them. But I look forward to what you guys have to say about them -- not only to reminisce, but to see what insights you have that I missed.
I'm honestly deligted to see DC's '70s and '80s material showing up in reprint lines, even though I have the original books. This material deserves to be preserved.
I just read the Legion of Super-Heroes DC Finest, Zap Goes the Legion! Or rather, I read the last third or so of it; I'd read the prior stories just last year in the Silver Age Legion Omnibus volume 3. But these stories at the end -- largely written by Cary Bates with art by Dave Cockrum -- are a revelation!
It turns out that these stories are among the last handful of classic Legion stories I'd never read. I have most of the Legion Archives, which eventually cover this point, but there are one or two later volumes that were really expensive on eBay, and I've never been able to find -- they include some of these stories. And here's EXACTLY the moment when the Silver Age/early Bronze Age Legion becomes the Legion I grew up with. Once the Legion returned to Superboy's book, the stories began expanding from the 8-10 page soap operatic backups featuring 2 or 3 characters, and started becoming superhero stories again. But also, continuity became important in a way that it wasn't before. We see the return of Timber Wolf, and the introduction of Tyr...and then when Tyr is captured, his gun-hand escapes, and becomes a threat two issues later! Meanwhile, Wildfire makes his debut as ERG-1, and then seemingly dies... showing up only as a mysterious blob of energy in a later issue, and then reappearing as Wildfire the next month! We also see the Fatal Five go through some changes, as Tharok in particular gets captured, and his robot half damaged...but then parts of his robot brain start contolling Validus anyway!
I'm using a lot of exclamation points, but I'm excited! This is a missing puzzle piece in my core fandom, and I'm so glad I've finally read it!
Also super-cool: I finally got to read "The Fatal Five Who Twisted Time" at its original size, as opposed to the digest reprint I bought around 1980 or so. It's still one of my absolute favorite Legion stories.
That's really cool, Rob. One of my earliest comics was Superboy #197, equal in its own way (AFAIAC) to Giant-Size X-Men #1, both of which impacted me at roughly the same time.
Superboy #203 was my first proper Legion story. I missed the Dave Cockrum run but got quickly caught up into Legion lore. It became the first comic I actively collected just by buying it every time I saw it, along with Justice League of America.
The Shooter/Swan era was pretty good, but Bates/Cockrum is where the strip really took off. I'm glad you got to fill in that missing piece of your fandom!
Oh, I'm not knocking Shooter/Swan at all! That Mordru story is one of the all-time classics!
And Philip, #203 was one of my first Legion stories too! My first was issue #232 -- or that was the first I bought, at least -- but I have distinct memories of reading issue 203 VERY early on, as part of my friend Dave's collection. It was published when we 5 (or he was 5, I was 4), so I don't know how he got it. Maybe from one of his older sisters?
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