Tag: DC

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WatchmenDC Comics has posted a list of 30 Essential Graphic Novels (that are published by DC or one of their imprints).

I’ve read:

  • Watchmen
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol. 1 & 2
  • V for Vendetta
  • Sandman vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes
  • Sandman: Endless Nights
  • Fables vol.1: Legends in Exile
  • Batman: Arkham Asylum
  • Batman: The Long Halloween
  • Batman: Dark Victory
  • Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
  • Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again
  • Kingdom Come
  • Identity Crisis
  • JLA vol.1: New World Order
  • Crisis on Infinite Earths
  • Transmetropolitan vol.1: Back on the Street

I haven’t read:

  • Superman for All Seasons
  • Superman: Birthright (but it’s on my to-read list)
  • Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
  • Batman: Year One
  • Batman: Hush vol.1 & vol.2
  • Green Lantern: Rebirth
  • The Quitter
  • Hellblazer: Original Sins
  • Y: The Last Man vol.1: Unmanned
  • Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne
  • Sword of the Dark Ones
  • Ex Machina vol.1: The First Hundred Days

The list is a bit heavy on Batman at a full 25% of the titles. And since it’s roughly 50/50 super-hero stuff and, well, other stuff, that means half their “essential” super-hero books are Batman. Come on, DC, show people a few more facets of your line!

On the plus side, they’ve chosen just one volume each for series like Transmetropolitan, Fables, etc.—so they can recommend as many different series as possible—and it’s the first volume. Unlike the well-known super-hero books, where the average potential reader probably knows enough to hit the ground running, it helps to start at the beginning, with a book that’s specifically designed to introduce each concept. And many of them are big, long stories. You wouldn’t recommend starting Lord of the Rings with The Two Towers, you’d tell someone to start with Fellowship of the Ring or get a combined edition.

Personally, I’d drop The Dark Knight Strikes Again (does anyone really consider it a “must read?”) and possibly the second volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Maybe even Endless Nights, though I suppose it represents the overall tone of Sandman better than the first book does. Maybe Dark Victory, since it’s essentially a continuation of The Long Halloween. With the Justice League, I might replace New World Order with Rock of Ages.

I’d add the first Astro City book, no questions asked. For the other space(s), I’d plug in something less well-known, but highly regarded. Maybe some more WildStorm, like Planetary
or The Authority Or how about a another DC hero, like Wonder Woman, Starman, or the Flash?

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[Flash Logo]Last month, Comics Should Be Good ran a fan poll for the top 50 DC characters and top 50 Marvel characters. They’ve been posting the results over the last few weeks, finishing on Friday. The four main Flashes all made it to the top 50, and one even made it to the top 5.

#3.  Flash: Wally West
#29. Flash: Barry Allen
#41. Flash: Jay Garrick
#42. Kid Flash/Impulse: Bart Allen (tied with Bizarro)

Master list of all winners. Profiles of all four Flashes (and dozens of fill-in, alternate, and one-offs) at Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning.

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Arr! Barry Allen may not know how to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day, but he do celebrate Jog Like a Pirate Day!

Showcase #13: The Flash runs across the water from a torpedo with a pirate flag on front. 'No matter how fast I go---this pirate torpedo keeps following me!'

From Showcase #13, it’s “Around the World in 80 Minutes,” a tale of the Flash. (Mostly he runs around the world, helps people out, and gets kissed by women. Aye, it be good to be a superhero.)

(Cover via GCD. This story appears in Showcase Presents: The Flash vol.1 and The Flash Archives vol.1.)

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OK, DC’s next big event is called Final Crisis. Does anyone believe they’ll simply stop with the events? They might actually stop putting the word “crisis” in the title, I suppose, but what will they call the next event after?

  • Final Crisis II
  • Post-Final Crisis
  • Final Crisis X-2
  • Final Crisis Leopard
  • Final Crisis Vista
  • Son of Final Crisis
  • Finaler Crisis
  • Final Crisis Again
  • Final Crisis: The Final Chapter

(List put together at the Ghirardelli ice cream shop late Saturday evening after three long days of Comic-Con.)

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Bart Allen, a.k.a. Impulse.Superman, Batman, and Max Mercury have all been cited as giving comic-book speedster Bart Allen the name Impulse. Batman most famously in Impulse #50, and Superman just recently in the previews for next month’s All-Flash #1. But who named him originally?

Cover: Flash #93
Cover: Zero Hour #3The name first appears on the cover of Flash #93 (August 1994), with an out-of-control Bart Allen fighting the Flash. The cover is captioned, “Brash Impulse!” Over the next few issues, Wally West’s inner monologue refers to Bart as being impulsive, or (at one point) as “Mr. Impulse.”

It first appears on-panel as a name in Zero Hour #3 (September 1994), when Bart meets Superman for the first time, but Bart introduces himself as Impulse. Dan Jurgens writes.
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One of the controversies surrounding this summer’s relaunch of The Flash is the question of how far ahead it was planned. Interviews with Mark Waid and Marc Guggenheim make it clear that it was in the works “nearly a year ago,” and definitely before Guggenheim took over as writer. Dan Didio has suggested it was their plan all along, though many fans find this idea suspect, and find it more likely that it was put in place after the first few issues of Flash: The Fastest Man Alive failed to catch on with readers.

While looking for something in Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1, I noticed something interesting. Continue reading →