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 was working part-time at a husband-and-wife comic book store at the time (on the weekends; my main gig was teaching high school). The husband ordered one for the store, but it was a huge point of consternation between them because it didn't sell. Eventually, it sat there for so long, I made the wife an offer, which she accepted. When I pointed out to the husband that it finally sold, he told me that he had actually sold several of them. I don't know if that was true or not, but I've got mine.
Discussion HERE.
FIRESTORM: I was never a big fan of Firestorm, but I was and am a fan of Ostrander/Mandrake. Even they could not entire me to buy Firestorm, however, but I would welcome a DCF collection circa #85 or so.
I loved that run -- it was full of crazy surprises in a series that had gotten kind of rote. But Ostrander strarted with issue 55 (although I think it and 56 are fill-in Legends crossovers, and his permanent run starts in issue 58). I'd start a DC Finest run around there, as the whole run makes up a big story -- or at least several stories that lead right into each other.
I didn't know. (I did read those "Legends" crossovers but that's about it.) Let's see... the series lasted 100 issues... the Ostrander run should fill two DCF volumes nicely.
Firestorm was pretty much Gerry Conway's character up until the Ostrander run.
Then Ostrander single-handedly made Firestorm his own character, and a much more interesting one than the previous incarnation.
It is also much more experimental and given a far more dynamic status quo. Many plot points arise and are allowed to follow through to their logical conclusions.
And it starts with the Legends crossovers, or very close to them.
Yesterday, I got the LEGEND OF WONDER WOMAN volume in the mail and started reading those "final adventures".
By the time they originally came out, I had dropped Wonder Woman from my pull list. I had stopped reading it after #300. Oh, I had a couple of issues from that run: the team-up with Black Canary and the Elongated Man, the reintroduction of the Atomic Knight and, naturally, the last issue.
You can't escape the fact that the run was kind of...weird. There were some bizarre situations going on!
Wonder Woman wants to tell Steve Trevor that she's really Diana Prince but he does NOT want to know her secret identity. She is Wonder Woman, his Angel and that's enough for him. He doesn't want the "reality" of her doing mundane things, it seems.
The villain Aegeus gets a rematch which I suppose justified him being in Who's Who when so many other characters weren't.
They got back to a plot point that took place a decade ago and bring back Eros, the God of Love from DC Comics Presents #32 (Ap'81) with a shocking revelation!
And, once again, Wonder Woman's memory has been altered so often, I'm amazed that she can remember anything that happened after a year or two!
You can't escape the fact that the run was kind of...weird.
Nothing wrong with that. Might even be a draw.
I think the weird runs are the biggest draw of the DC Finests for me. Most collections tell a story: A leads to B, which leads to C, and gets resolved as D. But DC Finests give us a window to an era -- a year or so, or several, where we see everything that anyone tries to do with the character. There are some longer stories in there, and maybe everything adds up to a character arc, or at least a trajectory. But sometimes it's the creators and editorial working out what stories work best for the character as they try to create some solid footing to keep publishing them. Wonder Woman's history of amnesia/memory alteration is a case in point -- not a story in itself, just a heavy-handed way of swerving to try something new.
Working my way through the Batman: Killing Joke volume, I've just gotten to the first Alan Grant/John Wagner story, "Fever," which introduces the Ventriloquist and Scarface. (Norm Breyfogle is on the art; he arrived an issue earlier for a Millenium crossover written by Jo Duffy.) Having read a lot more Judge Dredd than I had when this was first published, it's easy to see the Dredd influences here -- the comical, over-the-top villain with the distint speech pattern, the dark humor, and a level of relentlessness to Batman that feels appropriate to the time, but matches Dredd pretty well. It's easy to see why these guys were picked as the new writers, and why they were so successful.
Next up is "Ten Nights of the Beast," by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo. I've only read one chapter so far, but it's full of gems. First of all, it's got some really bold pacing for a Batman comic -- he doesn't appear until page 11, after 10 pages of learning the backstory and watching the progress of the KGBeast. Second, DC used to play much harder with current events and politics: The Beast is going after scientist working on Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars"), and he's even suspected of the 1981 killing of Anwar Sadat! It's impossible to imagine any comic from DC or Marvel using real political events like this these days. The Beast also arrives at Gotham's Brigstone Beach -- probably an analog to NYC's Brighton Beach, which has a large Russian population.
One of the Beast's victims is named Terry Cavanaugh -- a motorcyclist who gets beheaded by piano wire. I wonder what contemporary comics creator (he was an editor at Marvel at the time) thought about that?
Jim Gordon is introduced to a host of identical FBI agents, all named after mystery writers: Agents (Ross) MacDonald, (Elmore) Leonard, (Anne) Perry, (Rex) Stout, and (Andrew) Greeley. (Despite Perry's namesake, the agents are all male.)
And finally, there's a great sequence where Batman has to let go of his Bat-rope to save a falling man. Over four pages, he uses flagpoles, telephone wires, building cornices, etc., to slow their descent. It's reminiscent of the later Wally West story where he jumps out of a plane to save a flight attendant. It's works just as well here...albeit with more frustrating results.
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