DC is continuing to expand their collected editions catalog, this time with a new line of oversized trade paperbacks. The new line of collections, DC Finest, was unveiled today as part of DC’s presentation at ComicsPro. DC Finest will, according to DC, collect “the most in-demand periods, genres, and characters from across DC history.” The publisher also previewed the first wave of titles for the new line.
More from DC on the new line:
Scheduled to launch in November, these affordably priced, large-size paperback collections start at $34.99, and will take full advantage of DC’s extensive backlist and appeal to casual and completist fans alike. Focusing on characters and storytelling genres instead of creators or prior series will give casual fans the chance to discover full continuities for their favorite characters, while offering completist readers an affordable option to build out their ultimate collection of stories based on their favorite DC Super Hero or genre.
The format and $34.99 price point may draw immediate comparisons to Marvel’s Epic Collections line, which is aimed at collecting every issue of a particular title in chronological order. The scope of DC Finest is wider than that, though, according to DC, collecting stories grouped by character or genre and not just series. It sounds like a cross between the Epic Collections and DC’s old “The Greatest _______ Stories Ever Told” collections:
Character-focused collections will spotlight multiple iterations of fan-favorite DC Super Heroes; for example, a “Robin” volume may include stories featuring Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, and Jason Todd, while a “Green Lantern” volume would include classic stories featuring Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Alan Scott, and other fan-favorite ring slingers. Genre fans can curate collections of their favorite tales of science fiction, romance, humor, war, Westerns, horror, and other genres; many of these volumes will feature material reprinted for the first time, by some of comics’ greatest storytellers.
The publisher also released full details for the first wave of DC Finest titles, along with mock-ups of what the books will look like.
DC Finest – The Flash: The Human Thunderbolt:Collects classic adventures of Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, including 1956’s iconic Showcase #4. Also includes Silver Age Flash stories that include the first appearances of famous Flash rogues, including Captain Cold, Mirror Master, and Gorilla Grodd.
DC Finest – Batman: Year One & Two: Collects the Dark Knight’s adventures following the game-changing crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths,including Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli and Batman: Year Two by Mike W. Barr and Todd McFarlane, plus more mid-to-late-’80s Batman stories from Barr, Max Allan Collins, Norm Breyfogle, and others.
DC Finest – Wonder Woman: Origins & Omens: This collection spotlights fan-favorite writer Gail Simone’s run on Wonder Woman, starting with 2007’s “The Circle,” with artist Terry Dodson, plus celebrated story arcs “Ends of the Earth,” “Rise of the Olympian,” and “Warkiller,” featuring art by Aaron Lopresti.
DC Finest – Catwoman: Life Lines: Selina Kyle steps out of Batman’s shadow and becomes a protagonist in her own right in this collection featuring Catwoman’s 1989 solo debut by Mindy Newell and J.J. Birch, Peter Milligan and Tom Grindberg’s Catwoman Defiant from 1992, and the first year of DC’s Catwoman ongoing series, by writer Jo Duffy and artist Jim Balent.
DC Finest – Superman: The Coming of Superman: Features the Man of Steel’s earliest and most iconic adventures, starting with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s groundbreaking Action Comics #1. This collection includes Action Comics #1-25, Superman #1-5, and New York World’s Fair Comics #1.
Unlike DC’s upcoming Compact Comics line of graphic novels, DC Finest appears aimed more at traditional comics readers, at least in terms of format, but aside from the Catwoman collection, which features material that’s never been collected before, the rest of the first wave includes stories most existing readers probably already have collected in one form or another. The character- and genre-focused collections are also an interesting choice, and definitely different from anything else DC has on bookshelves right now.
What do you think of this new line of DC collections? Sound off below!
This has the potential to be great, but DC need to stop focusing on the “Big 3”. Those mock ups are 95% stuff we have seen a thousand times before. They need to use this line as an opportunity, as Marvel has done with Epic Collections, to put out material featuring lesser known characters:
Gerry Conway’s Firestorm
John Ostrander’s Hawkworld
Alan Grant’s The Demon
John Ostrander’s The Spectre
Roy & Dann Thomas’ All-Star Squadron
I could go on for another 20 lines, but you get the idea.
pretty much what Adam said – and I hope they’re on uncoated paper like the bronze-age softcovers DC put out a few years ago. So many more to hopefully see
DC just reached the early 1950s with its Superman Omnibus series. Then skips to 1958 to start Silver-age Superman omnibus that comes out next month, and this goes back to 1938 and starts all over again. It’s like a 5 year old trying to pee in the pot and spraying everything but the water. All that after printing Archives for about 25 years and never finishing.
Agreed with all posters that this is cool, but DC really needs to use this format to collect stuff that is not reprinted in a billion formats already. Reprinting stuff like all of Peter Milligan’s Shade or Cary Bates/Greg Weisman Captain Atom in this format would be great (along with the aforementioned Spectre by Ostrander, Firestorm, The Demon…). Even sticking to the big names, Bronze Age Superman by Maggin/Bates or holistic Wein/Conway Batman would be fantastic…
I’d love to see volumes in this format for DC’s western comics other than Jonah Hex, as well as their 1950s and 60s mystery/horror titles and science fiction. A volume of pre-Doom Patrol “My Greatest Adventure” would be a treat.
I’m very curious as to the content of these character-specific ones. Will the Flash volume be every Flash story from Showcase 4 to its endpoint? Or will it skip some, focusing on the best Silver Age stories and covering more ground?
I love that the Wonder Woman collection looks like it will veer over to The Brave and the Bold to collect Diana’s team-up with Power Girl.
I like the trade dress for these a lot, but I wish they had volume numbers of some kind. I hope that DC has a roadmap for these volumes like Marvel has for the Epic collections.
Considering that every other collection put out by DC in past years was abandoned and unfinished, this “completist” is going to hard pass. How about continuing the Essentials, DC ? That was the best one. How about the “Archives” ? Not to mention the “Chronicles”… How about a proper editorial direction and schedule for the (still?) current Golden / Silver / Bronze Ages Omnibus volumes collection? Until then, I’m out.
the rules should be simple :
Print On Demand so all volumes are always available.
Cover the whole DC library, lots of forgotten series there.
find the right format for the right price point.
Offer different options for buyers, Golden / Silver Age looks so much better in B&W.
Use the original colors from the original books whenever possible, not the f*cked up retracing / flat recoloring from the Archives and Omnibi that makes the Golden Age stories unreadable. Simple touch up for errors should keep costs down.
affordable mat paper that does not make everything look garish and ugly
do not skip the periods that have not been reprinted ad nauseum (I mean 70s and 80s mostly untouched so far except sporadically by author. Why do the recent Batman TPB series start in the 90s?)
take over from the collections that have stalled (Man of Steel HCs anyone ?)
Keep characters stories together (why split BATMAN AND DETECTIVE TPBs when they are the same continuity?)
Keep the freaking spine design consistent and aligned for god’s sake.
What else ? We are the buyers, let’s tell them what we want.
I like the plan of not numbering these. The spine just includes the years included in the volume, so DC can skip around a bit. Hopefully they’ll eventually release the Silver Age Superman and Superboy years in this format (since Golden Age Superman has already been collected many times). Would love to see a Captain Marvel or Marvel Family from the 1950s by Otto Binder and CC Beck.
I’m happy to have them jump around — I really hope they do! I just hope that as we get more volumes of specific titles, it’s apparent in which order to read them (if you want to read them consecutively). I suppose the dates of publication on the back can do that, but it’s a little less intuitive than a volume number.
I’m just a little jealous of Marvel’s Epic Collections, and have wanted DC to have something similar ever since I realized how they were set up.
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