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
I just put in my order for my next two DC Finest volumes: Batman: The Killing Joke and Superboy: The Dog from Krypton. Hopefully I'll have Team-Ups done and be deep into Peacemaker before they arrive. Ideally I'll be able to follow along with a Superboy thread if Jeff starts one up after he's done with Superman Family!
The thing that pushed me toward Superboy over Superman Family was that I enjoyed the slow accumulation of mythology in the Aquaman volume so much; these Superboy stories seem to offer that same sort of glimpse into the addition of ideas into the Superman universe.
As for Batman? Now that I've been reading Judge Dredd, I'd like to revisit the stories where the Dredd guys finally started writing Batman. With art by the much-missed Norm Breyfogle, no less!
I've back-burnered Batgirl and Superman Family for now, and hope to pick them up for a decent price at this year's Baltimore Comic-Con, if I'm able to make it back.
Also: I was chatting with someone on Bluesky about a tricky situation with the next (chronological) Teen Titans volume. It would basically cover the year when New Teen Titans (Baxter) and Tales of the Teen Titans were publishing concurrently. Would the proper approach be to follow comics chronology and present the Tales stories first, or should it follow publishing chronology and interweave the books? I think, since both sets of stories will be in the same volume, the comics chronology is the better choice...even though that shakes up the DC Finest mission a little.
And the volumes after that will have to fold in the Teen Titans Spotlight run! A two-part Starfire story, a Jericho 4-parter, a Hawk 2-parter, and then single-issue stories spotlighting other cast members.
I recently re-read the Jericho 4-parter. Man, did they really want Jericho to be their next star!
I remember liking him a lot when he was introduced, but he never really took off. And by 1990 -- the beginning of the "Titans Hunt" storyline -- I guess the writing was on the wall!
When first published, DC (and maybe even Marv Wolfman's) chronology was all the Tales issues happened before the first Baxter issue on Titans. Not sure if that still works for the Tales versus Baxter issues of the Legion of Super-heroes, but that's how I read all of them at the time.
I'm pretty sure that the Teen Titans and the Legion were handled differently.
The chronological order for Teen Titans was as you say. There were twelve issues of Tales published in parallel with the Baxter books, but taking place before them. After that, Tales switched so that each issue reprinted the 12-months-earlier Baxter book. Thus, if you only bought Tales, you were reading the storyline in the correct order, at least until Tales was cancelled. At this point, if you wanted to keep reading, you had to scramble to find old copies of the Baxter book that were still available. (That's what happened to me).
The Legion, presumably because there were a lot more characters to play with, was handled differently. For the first twelve months of the Baxter book, the two storylines were happening simultaneously. That meant that events in one comic took place at the same time as events in the other comic published in the same month, and there could be same-month crossovers. Again, after that twelve months, the non-Baxter comic switched to reprinting the Baxter book from the start.
George Perez really went to town on Jericho's outfit, which didn't really look like a superhero outfit. It gave a Ren Faire troubadour vibe.
I think, since both sets of stories will be in the same volume, the comics chronology is the better choice...
I definitely agree. You wouldn't want that first five-part "offset" story to have random chapters out of order would you?
I've back-burnered Batgirl and Superman Family for now...
Well, the "Superman Family" discussion will be there waiting for you. At my current pace, I should have it wrapped up by this weekend.
Ideally I'll be able to follow along with a Superboy thread if Jeff starts one up after he's done with Superman Family!
Hmm...
Oh, these don't tend to go in super-strict chrono order -- just a rough chronology that still alows them to keep multi-part stories together. So the Batman comics that made up "Batman: Year One" was presented one issue after another in the first Batman volume, and the concurrent Detective Comics issues piled up either before or after it. Same with Team-Ups: they didn't publish a Brave & Bold issue between the Flash two-parter that kicks off DC Comics Presents. They'd definitely keep that 5-part NTT opener intact, no matter which option they chose.
Oh, you mean publish all of the Tales stories before any of the "Baxter" stories? Yes, I think they should do that (because that's the way they "happened").
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