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DC Finest: Batman Year One and Two (Nov 5, 2024)
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Here is a rare book report for you. Amazon has reduced many of the physical-only DC Finest books, as part of their Father’s Day sale. In addition, if you buy two books, you save an additional 50% off the second book, resulting in about less than $20 per book. Retail price is $40, so this is a very good savings, considering that these titles were launched fairly recently.
Just a little background on DC Finest, for those who don’t keep up with comic books. This is a line of full-color trade paperbacks that DC Comics is promising an affordable large-volume book collecting and compiling stories in chronicle reading order. These books are in response to Marvel’s popular Epic Collection, which launched in 2013… so DC is very late to the party.
With the benefit of waiting, DC has decided to make all the DC Finest in uniform, standard trades. For example, the cover has a square art with the collection title in giant standard fonts (note: no logos), the spine lists the year of the collection, and it seems the background colors are character related (Superman: dark blue, Batman: black, JLA: red, etc.) I don't really love the front cover design, but for example, I would have prefer to have the title on top vs on bottom.
They all have a standard look, so they look great when you put it on your book shelf. My only complaint is that the size of the DC bullet is not all the same size, as it depends on the pages in the collection. Some books, like Batman: Year One and Two are over 600 pages, compared to Event Zero Hour Part One, which is only 500 pages. Personally speaking, I wish they were consistent make all the books to be about the same pages. For collections that falls short of 600 pages, I’m sure you can throw in bonus related-stories or special features like full scripts or interviews or original pencil pages, etc.
With about 50 books already announced, this is a great way for new and old fans to read DC’s entire history, from 1938 to 2011. Why 2011? That’s the year DC rebooted to the “New 52” (as a result of Flashpoint), which is basically modern DC. In short, the DC Finest line will not be collecting modern stories, they are only concentrating on pre-Flashpoint books. That’s fine with me.
With the sale and previous purchases, I have in my collection five DC Finest books to read. Due to the large number of pages, they do take me much longer to go through, as not only do I want to read everything, but I also like to take a moment to admire the art. I’ve read through the Teen Titans: Judas Contract and Batman: Year One and Two.
I’ve little complaints about the Teen Titans book, mostly because the collection has a new version of The Judas Contract. All the previous reprints were using the printing plates of the 1988, which alters the original pages to remove credits and titles in favor of a marbled title. Seeing the The Judas Contract restored to its original presentation was much needed. DC also had the book recolored, so there are some things miscolored, but it’s all very minor stuff. You’ll only notice it if you had the original books to compare to the new colors.
What I also really like about the new DC Finest Teen Titans book is that it collected all the story leading up to the The Judas Contract, all the crossovers (like the Titans appearing with Superman in Action Comics), as well as the aftermath of the dissolvement of the H.I.V.E. organization. This is thanks to the DC Finest format, which allows for the entire year to be collected in the same book. Previous Judas Contract collection only reprinted the core four issues plus the annual.
With that said, I think the only glaring problem was that it was missing the fourth page of World Finest #300. DC made an effort to reprint the cover and the first three pages, but totally forgot there is a fourth page that is buried later in the story.
Otherwise, this DC Finest: Teen Titans - The Judas Contract is well worth picking up, if you wanted to learn about the famous storyline or an old fan (like myself), who wanted a refresher and easy way to read the story without going through your back issues and pulling out those issues. It’s all collected here, plus even more from various titles to give you the full story. Highly recommended.
The other book I read through was DC Finest: Batman Year One and Two. Year One is a much-celebrated story by Frank Miller (who also revolutionize Batman with The Dark Knight Returns) and art by David Mazzucchelli (the same team of Daredevil: Born Again). Year Two, not fondly remembered, all except that Todd McFarlane drew 3/4 of the story.
I’ve no complaints about the story and collection, but some of DC’s coloring choices puzzles me. For one, DC decided to revert back to the original Richmond Lewis newsprint colors. I think this would work if the book was printed on newsprint, so you’re limited to 64 colors. With modern printing and paper (the DC Finest uses a very bright reflective semi-glossy heavy stock paper), it opens up a wide spectrum of colors. When DC collected Year One, Lewis went back and recolored the series to match the visuals on the new paper. To me, the new colors work much better … but I can also understand DC’s decision to reprint the original colors. However, reprinting the original color on glossy paper is wrong, according to Mazzucchelli, “they printed the book on shiny paper, which was never a part of the original design, all the way back to the first hardcover in 1988.”
Although DC has decided to use the old colors for Year One, they did the opposite for Year Two - which has updated colors by Steve Oliff (who is not even credited in the DC Finest book). DC also decided to remove the title card art by Alan Davis, to replace it with a generic title and credits… which made no sense to me. Why remove the essential artwork?
I have three more DC Finest books to go through, and if there’s something interesting to note, I’ll review them… otherwise, my conclusion is these books are wonderful value for the money. Based on what I’ve seen, so far, these are massive collections for a very good price… but not a lot of care or attention was put into it. So, if you want a sloppily put together book, for very little money, DC Finest is at their finest!
Just a little background on DC Finest, for those who don’t keep up with comic books. This is a line of full-color trade paperbacks that DC Comics is promising an affordable large-volume book collecting and compiling stories in chronicle reading order. These books are in response to Marvel’s popular Epic Collection, which launched in 2013… so DC is very late to the party.
With the benefit of waiting, DC has decided to make all the DC Finest in uniform, standard trades. For example, the cover has a square art with the collection title in giant standard fonts (note: no logos), the spine lists the year of the collection, and it seems the background colors are character related (Superman: dark blue, Batman: black, JLA: red, etc.) I don't really love the front cover design, but for example, I would have prefer to have the title on top vs on bottom.
They all have a standard look, so they look great when you put it on your book shelf. My only complaint is that the size of the DC bullet is not all the same size, as it depends on the pages in the collection. Some books, like Batman: Year One and Two are over 600 pages, compared to Event Zero Hour Part One, which is only 500 pages. Personally speaking, I wish they were consistent make all the books to be about the same pages. For collections that falls short of 600 pages, I’m sure you can throw in bonus related-stories or special features like full scripts or interviews or original pencil pages, etc.
With about 50 books already announced, this is a great way for new and old fans to read DC’s entire history, from 1938 to 2011. Why 2011? That’s the year DC rebooted to the “New 52” (as a result of Flashpoint), which is basically modern DC. In short, the DC Finest line will not be collecting modern stories, they are only concentrating on pre-Flashpoint books. That’s fine with me.
With the sale and previous purchases, I have in my collection five DC Finest books to read. Due to the large number of pages, they do take me much longer to go through, as not only do I want to read everything, but I also like to take a moment to admire the art. I’ve read through the Teen Titans: Judas Contract and Batman: Year One and Two.
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DC Finest Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (Feb 4, 2025 )
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What I also really like about the new DC Finest Teen Titans book is that it collected all the story leading up to the The Judas Contract, all the crossovers (like the Titans appearing with Superman in Action Comics), as well as the aftermath of the dissolvement of the H.I.V.E. organization. This is thanks to the DC Finest format, which allows for the entire year to be collected in the same book. Previous Judas Contract collection only reprinted the core four issues plus the annual.
With that said, I think the only glaring problem was that it was missing the fourth page of World Finest #300. DC made an effort to reprint the cover and the first three pages, but totally forgot there is a fourth page that is buried later in the story.
Otherwise, this DC Finest: Teen Titans - The Judas Contract is well worth picking up, if you wanted to learn about the famous storyline or an old fan (like myself), who wanted a refresher and easy way to read the story without going through your back issues and pulling out those issues. It’s all collected here, plus even more from various titles to give you the full story. Highly recommended.
The other book I read through was DC Finest: Batman Year One and Two. Year One is a much-celebrated story by Frank Miller (who also revolutionize Batman with The Dark Knight Returns) and art by David Mazzucchelli (the same team of Daredevil: Born Again). Year Two, not fondly remembered, all except that Todd McFarlane drew 3/4 of the story.
I’ve no complaints about the story and collection, but some of DC’s coloring choices puzzles me. For one, DC decided to revert back to the original Richmond Lewis newsprint colors. I think this would work if the book was printed on newsprint, so you’re limited to 64 colors. With modern printing and paper (the DC Finest uses a very bright reflective semi-glossy heavy stock paper), it opens up a wide spectrum of colors. When DC collected Year One, Lewis went back and recolored the series to match the visuals on the new paper. To me, the new colors work much better … but I can also understand DC’s decision to reprint the original colors. However, reprinting the original color on glossy paper is wrong, according to Mazzucchelli, “they printed the book on shiny paper, which was never a part of the original design, all the way back to the first hardcover in 1988.”
Although DC has decided to use the old colors for Year One, they did the opposite for Year Two - which has updated colors by Steve Oliff (who is not even credited in the DC Finest book). DC also decided to remove the title card art by Alan Davis, to replace it with a generic title and credits… which made no sense to me. Why remove the essential artwork?
I have three more DC Finest books to go through, and if there’s something interesting to note, I’ll review them… otherwise, my conclusion is these books are wonderful value for the money. Based on what I’ve seen, so far, these are massive collections for a very good price… but not a lot of care or attention was put into it. So, if you want a sloppily put together book, for very little money, DC Finest is at their finest!
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