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
Yep, Dead Nazi Dad was at least a conceptual improvement from him hearing the voices of the people he killed in his helmet -- but it didn't make the comic any more readable. But I think the evolution of that concept to the character of his dad in the TV show, a belligerent white supremacist played by Robert Patrick, was pretty successful. I guess these things take a while to gel.
On the other hand, I thought the Vigilante comics were more enjoyable than the Peacemaker comics -- it was probably good to have the vantage point of the Vigilante (himself not the most stable guy) anchoring that book.
I'm about a third of the way through The Janus Directive now (reading the whole thing on DCUI, rather than the excerpts in the Peacemaker book), and I have to admit, I'm skimming it. But it makes me think that I've been looking at Amanda Wallert with rose-colored glasses for a while now, and despite her protestations, she's always been more villainous that I gave her credit for from the start.
Yep, Dead Nazi Dad was at least a conceptual improvement from him hearing the voices of the people he killed in his helmet -- but it didn't make the comic any more readable. But I think the evolution of that concept to the character of his dad in the TV show, a belligerent white supremacist played by Robert Patrick, was pretty successful. I guess these things take a while to gel.
It's funny, I usually argue that movie/TV writers should just adapt what's on the page instead of arrogantly assuming they can improve what's essentially been focus-grouped for many decades. When you get to Ed Brubaker's Catwoman, for example, it's the result of dozens of failed approaches, origins and characterizations that didn't sell, until they finally zeroed in on the platonic ideal of Catwoman that did. That version clicked in every way, at every level. Just adapt THAT, Hollywood, and don't try to "improve" it.
But Peacemaker turns my argument on its head. It was a terrible comic book, and it was an utter failure. So James Gunn takes the exact crap that's on the page, turns it into a black comedy, and it works gangbusters. He really DID improve it. Peacemaker having a lot of specialty helmets, Iron Man style, is a dumb idea in a grim-n-gritty comic book. But Peacemaker telling the Justice League audition, in deadpan, "I have a lot of helmets," is hilarious.
Same with Vigilante. I didn't really enjoy a mentally unbalanced character with a lust for "justice" and no regard for human life. But an impulsive fanboy who is delusional about justice and has no regard for human life is comedy gold. He's still killing a lot of people, but now it's funny.
But it makes me think that I've been looking at Amanda Waller with rose-colored glasses for a while now, and despite her protestations, she's always been more villainous that I gave her credit for from the start.
She was definitely a bad guy in the beginning, especially when people other than John Ostrander were writing her. (IIRC) They played her a little more sympathetically now and then in recent years, and since this was after several reboots, I was prepared to accept "this" Waller as an anti-hero. But then she went full-on villain again.
Ostrander gave her a lot of shades of gray, but I wasn't seeing that in the beginning of the Janus Directive and was wondering if I'd imagined them. Then, about two-thirds of the way through, we get the reveal that Waller has been pretending to be her own doppelganger who Kobra had sent to take control of Task Force X, and was just playing along for a while.
Holy cow, the Janus Directive is kind of a mess. The Ostrander-written issues work better than the Kupperberg-written ones (Ostrander dives the art more room to breathe, for one thing), but overall, it's not a highlight of the Suicide Squad run.
I've started reading the Peacemaker segments of Checkmate after the crossover, and they actually read better than anything Peacemaker material that came before. For one thing, without the needs of a crossover to satisfy, or the constraints of a 4-issue miniseries, Kupperberg and Epting let the art breathe a little more. For another, the letterer begins to put a yellow border around Dead Nazi Dad's word balloons, which sets them appart from regular dialogue that everyone can hear. It's simple, and works really well.
This is one of the things I love about DC Finest books -- creators learning on the job about how best to use their characters, or in this case, even how to express the action!
-
31
-
32
-
33
-
34
-
35
of 35 Next