As requested by no one, my thoughts on all 31 DC FINEST books on the schedule from here to next summer, ahead of the first ones coming next week. General thoughts on the line
. Note all comments are based on tentative contents, taken from the listings on
. Some will change, some of the books might never come out, the covers of a few will be different (looks like they'll all have the classic DC logo, for one thing).
Aquaman adventures from the early Silver Age, with great art by Ramona Fradon and Nick Cardy. Looks like they moved back the start point from what they used in ARCHIVES and SHOWCASE PRESENTS, so you get a few dozen 1950s stories that have never been reprinted, drawn by Fradon. Makes this a tempting book.
A run of a Batman family book featuring the Cassandra Cain version of the Batgirl character, the first one to ever hold her own solo series, launched in 2000. Tried it a few times, never really appealed to me, though I often like Kelley Puckett's writing in other books, so I'm not opposed to trying a bigger chunk. But not in any hurry, either. Starts with #7, leaving room for an earlier volume to have stories from before the series starts.
Two consecutive runs of the main Batman books, BATMAN and DETECTIVE, and a few side things starting in 1986, pretty much what would be considered the launch of the post-Crisis version of Batman. These are going to read as pretty disjointed books, but they will have a lot of highlights, including the title stories "Year One" and "The Killing Joke" ("Year Two" less so, but it has its moments. If only it had more consistent art...), "Son Of The Demon". Some very good work by Jim Aparo, Alan Davis, Norm Breyfogle, David Mazzucchelli, Brian Bolland and others. Maybe not enough for me that I don't already have in preferable formats.
Two consecutive books with the earliest solo adventures of the longtime Batman villain, from the 1989 mini-series to some one-shots and short stories to the 1993 on-going series. Pretty much the most "not for me" that the line is getting in the announced books.
Very entertaining comics by Bruno Premiani and Arnold Drake starting with the launch of the team in 1963. Major point of interest here are a few crossover issues, an issue of CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN and a Flash team-up in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, which have been reprinted but not as widely as the other issues (most importantly, not in any of the SHOWCASE PRESENTS books). I could see myself buying this someday. A second book would run out of Drake/Premiani stuff quickly, so probably leak into the later revivals.
THE FLASH
"The Human Thunderbolt"
Hey, I'm not going to really complain about a book of Infantino, Kanigher and Broome, but talk about starting with the most oft-reprinted part of the characters run.
Might still get this after I get a few of the other books, if it becomes my preferred format for DC reprints, but I hope we see some stuff from the vast unreprinted (especially in colour) years of Barry Allen.
GREEN ARROW"The Longbow Hunters"
Initially, didn't care that much about this. Mike Grell's Green Arrow run is okay, aged a bit poorly, falls off in quality quickly and is as common as dirt in both the original issues and prior reprints.
But...
Unlike those prior reprints, which only took Grell's stories, this one is including some Dennis O'Neil stories, in particular the
"Fables" storyline which spanned the 1988 annuals for DETECTIVE, GREEN ARROW and THE QUESTION (plus two earlier issues of THE QUESTION with a cameo and guest role for Green Arrow). That is some remarkable stuff, and until recently hadn't been reprinted (and still hasn't outside a $100 book). That's some of the best writing O'Neil did in a career full of great writing, and some great art by Denys Cowan. Might be worth the book for that stuff alone. And some of the rest is okay.
GREEN LANTERN"The Defeat Of Green Lantern"
What will end up being the second book of Hal Jordan's adventures as Green Lantern, mostly still by Gil Kane, John Broome and Gardner Fox. Solid stuff, well worth a look. Most interesting thing might be the less-often reprinted THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD issue with a GL/Batman crossover drawn by Ramona Fradon. And like FLASH there are a lot of later unreprinted runs to get to.
HARLEY QUINN"Birth Of The Mirth"
Interesting approach to this one, mixing in some Harley Quinn books based on the animated series, where she made her debut, and her appearances in the main DC comics universe, leading up to an including the early issues of her solo series by Karl Kesel and Terry Dodson, which is a lot of fun. The animated stories are good coherent stories, sometimes excellent (including the origin story "Mad Love" by character creators Bruce Timm and Paul Dini). The DC universe stories can be a bit disjointed, often lone chapters of long stories, until you get to the on-going. It'll be interesting to see if they separate the two version of the character in the book, or mix them in publishing order.
"The Bridge Between Worlds"
Pretty straight forward, probably the eventual third volume of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, in an era of transitions as original artist Mike Sekowsky gets replaced by Dick Dillin partway through the book, and a few issues later original writer Gardner Fox gets replaced by Dennis O'Neil. O'Neil and Dillin probably do enough to warrant names on the cover, which DC can do while they're in there fixing "Sekowsky". Anyway, good stuff, but I'm looking more forward to a less-reprinted era like Steve Englehart in the 1970s.
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA"For America And Democracy"
"The Plunder Of The Psycho-Pirate"
The earliest adventures of the Justice Society from the 1940s. The stories are generally still solo adventures of each member by different artists, tied together with a framing sequence. Enjoyable, and much more so in two $40 paperbacks than they were in five $50 hardcovers a generation ago. Although originally just a dime each, $2.10 for the whole shebang a few more generations back. Those were the days. Boy, the way Glenn Miller played...
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES"Zap Goes The Legion"
Odd choice from the Legion history to start. Can't recommend the first half of the book, as the Legion goes from lead feature to back-up to occasional guest stars. But the second half is pretty nearly all Dave Cockrum, his full run on the series, as the Legion works its way back to lead status. Cockrum is one of the best regular artists the Legion ever had, and he starts early in his career and starts good and gets even better quickly. The writing improves as the book goes on as well. But it's a bit of a slog to get there.
METAMORPHO"The Element Man"
The choice to include Metamorpho early in the run of SHOWCASE PRESENTS was unexpected and great, one of the things that sold me on that line. The choice to include it early in this run is less unexpected (the character is appearing in an upcoming film), but still pleasant. This also includes one additional Batman team-up not included in the SHOWCASE.
PEACEMAKER"Kill For Peace"
And this is the one that drives me crazy. First half of the book is long overdue, the 1960s comics by creators Pat Boyette and Joe Gill, published by Charlton. You figure with the character being in a movie and on TV we'd have seen a nice slim book of that by now, only five issues and a few back-ups. Instead we get this, mixing in the later DC version of the character from the 1980s on. I can't see many people who want the front half being happy with the second half, and the people, if any, excited by the second half having any interest in the first. It's not like the HARLEY QUINN book, where it's different but compatible versions of the same character, it's essentially two different characters sharing a common trademark.
And I've got no faith they'll go with that great Boyette cover. Not sure I can bring myself to buy the book anyway, but definitely not with a non-Boyette cover.
I'd almost rather have had something like this:
PLASTIC MAN"The Origin Of Plastic Man"
Most of what was reprinted in the first three PLASTIC MAN ARCHIVES back in the day, the first four years of Jack Cole's 1940s comics published by Quality. On the one hand, great comics, great price. On the other, DC's ability to really capture Cole's linework from printed comics wasn't really that good 25 years ago, and I doubt they've gone back to square one with this, more likely they're using the same "restoration" created then. But even watered down Cole is still great.
SCIENCE FICTION"The Gorilla World"
One of the more unusual choices for the line, so far the only title that's not a super-hero book, and gives some hope for the future of the line expanding further into DC's rich history (war, western, mystery, humour, funny animal). This collects some early 1950s science fiction stories from STRANGE ADVENTURES, MYSTERY IN SPACE and ACTION COMICS, mostly stand-alone short stories with a few continuing characters like Captain Comet and Tommy Tomorrow. Fun stories with some great artists. This is the book I'm most likely to buy, although it's not out for a while, next summer by the latest schedule.
SUICIDE SQUAD"Trial By Fire"
The 1980s comics by John Ostrander and Luke McDonnell, reprinted before but this time including a lot of other comics, such as the LEGENDS mini-series where the team debuted, the SECRET ORIGINS issue, several issues of Ostrander's FIRESTORM where the team appears and other crossovers. Not sure it needs all those crossovers (and how something like MILLENNIUM #4 will read out of context, or if they'll only include the Squad relevant pages), but the core of the book is some really good stuff.
SUPERBOY"The Super-Dog From Krypton"
The Silver Age SUPERBOY series (when not involving the Legion) is a bit of a blind-spot in DC's reprint history, at least partly because of some litigation involving the company and the creators of the character. That seemingly resolved* we can now get this, the stories from SUPERBOY and ADVENTURE COMICS beginning in 1954, and including the debut of Krypto, the pet dog Jor-El shot into space before doing the same with his infant son. Not sure how that test proved the rocket was safe, since he never got Krypto back...
[*SUPERBOY created by JERRY SIEGEL. By special arrangement with the JERRY SIEGEL FAMILY. SUPERMAN created by JERRY SIEGEL and JOE SHUSTER. By special arrangement with the JERRY SIEGEL FAMILY.]
SUPERGIRL"The Girl Of Steel"
Various short stories and guest appearances from Kara Zor-El from her 1959 debut on. Most of it drawn by Jim Mooney, who does a great job. Perfect, no notes. Well, maybe a different cover, but there aren't many Supergirl covers of the era that don't have Superman on them.
SUPERMAN FAMILY
"The Giant Turtle Man"
How great would it be if there was just a 600-page story that was just about Jimmy turning into a giant turtle? Sadly, that only takes up 8 pages of the book, which almost feels like false advertising. Still, ten issues each of JIMMY OLSEN and LOIS LANE, plus various other relevant stories from the other titles from the early 1960s. This starts a bit later and goes a few issues beyond what the SHOWCASE PRESENTS SUPERMAN FAMILY got to in the fourth volume.
Oh, I was bored and, weirdly, this is the kind of thing I do for fun, I thought I'd re-imagine the cover with a few tweaks to the format as how I'd like it
Of course not all logos would work as well in the format as this one, based on one of the top logos ever designed for anything, ever. And some of the books are based on concepts that never even had logos ("Science Fiction" and "Team-Ups" of the initial batch).
SUPERMAN
"The First Superhero"
"Kryptonite Nevermore"
Two distant eras of Superman, starting with the original stories in 1938 from creators Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, soon joined by others. That's all a well trodden path for reprints, not sure if DC ever improved the reproduction of some of those early issues. Still formative stuff.
TEAM-UPS"Chase To The End Of Time"
An interesting choice to combine the team-ups with Superman (in DC COMICS PRESENTS) and Batman (in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD) starting in 1978, but not their team-ups with each other (in WORLD'S FINEST) from the same era. I kind of like it. I wonder if they'll separate the two series in the book or alternate? It's mostly single issue stories in this era (with some exceptions like the title story), so either could work fine.
Kind of interested, although most of it won't be new to me.
TEEN TITANS
"The Judas Contract"
Pretty much undeniable material by George Perez and Marv Wolfman, up there at the top of the heap for 1980s DC. The title story has been reprinted quite a bit, but not always with the surrounding material which provides the extensive set-up and aftermath in the same volume, plus other relevant appearances of the team in other books..
WONDER WOMAN"The Legend Of Wonder Woman"
"Origins & Omens"
Two era of Wonder Woman. The first is the end of one age, right before the post-Crisis reboot by George Perez. Only read the title story by Trina Robbins and Kurt Busiek, which isn't really indicative of the contents (most of which have never been reprinted), but I'll consider getting it. The other is the most recent material being offered in the DC FINEST line so far, from 2008 to 2009. Doesn't really appeal to me, I kind of suspect most people it would appeal to have gotten prior reprints.
EVENTS: ZERO HOUR"Crisis In Time Part One"
"Crisis In Time Part Two"
I assume they'll standardize the subtitle by the time it comes out.
A hodge-podge of DC comics from the middle of 1994, all around an event series I don't recall much at all, and dislike most of what I do recall other than the art. Can't imagine it reads well as a book, with all these individual chapters of larger stories. It does give an idea of how they plan to handle crossovers in this series of books.
The next exclusion among the ARCHIVES opens up a whole other line of possibilities. There were two volumes of Jack Kirby's KAMANDI series in 2005 and 2007, which had the first 20 of Kirby's 40 issues of the series. Those same 20 eventually were put in the 2011 hardcover book KAMANDI, THE LAST BOY ON EARTH BY JACK KIRBY Vol. 1 book, which was followed up by a Vol 2 the next year, finishing the essential part of the run (it continued for a while beyond Kirby). The run also got a later one-volume hardcover and two-volume softcover release. So don't cry for Kam, he got some reprint representation, just not in black&white. Except the two Artist's Editions. And some people consider that series a failure...
