Among the comic library expansions waiting for us in DC Universe Infinite, in addition to the shortening of the 12 month runway to 6, and the Black Label slate, and possibly, possibly some Vertigo is that graphic novels- long an exception to the library- are now back on the table. “Graphic Novels” are usually defined by DC as oneshot stories in a book-sized volume. With their return imminent, which DC graphic novels would you most like to see in the New DCU?
Here’s my personal top ten most wanted. I’ve checked that all of these have already been digitized, so it would just be a matter of granting us access to material already available for individual purchase elsewhere.
BATMAN: EGO AND OTHER TAILS – An essential collection of stories by the late Darwyn Cooke, including one which Matt Reeves cited as particularly influential on the upcoming film The Batman. Do I smell cross-promotion in the air?
BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE – C’mon.
BLACK CANARY AND ZATANNA: BLOODSPELL - Written by Zatanna champion Paul Dini, and one of the best stories featuring either character.
HARLEY QUINN: BREAKING GLASS – Winner of the 2019 Eisner Award for Best Writing!
JONAH HEX: NO WAY BACK – The missing volume of Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti’s Jonah Hex epic.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: A LEAGUE OF ONE – That time Wonder Woman defeated the entire Justice League so she could go on a suicidal mission to fight a dragon. Essential reading before 2018’s JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK.
THE POWER OF SHAZAM! – Jerry Ordway’s graphic novel which begins the series proper. Without it, Ordway’s POWER OF SHAZAM series is missing its first and most important chapter.
SHADOW OF THE BATGIRL – The best Cassandra Cain content of the decade.
THE WORLD’S GREATEST SUPER HEROES – A collaborative graphic novel series between Paul Dini and Alex Ross, religiously illustrated treatises on Superman (PEACE ON EARTH), Batman (WAR ON CRIME), Shazam (POWER OF HOPE), Wonder Woman (SPIRIT OF TRUTH), and the JLA (SECRET ORIGINS; LIBERTY AND JUSTICE).
ZATANNA: EVERYDAY MAGIC – Paul Dini’s first Zatanna graphic novel, before writing his fan-favorite ongoing series.
I love things like this as DC comics novice cause at the very least it gets me interested in reading these GNs even if they don’t come here right away…
I want The Killing Joke with the original coloring, but I can’t remember if it has been digitized. The bat logo needs the oval! I’d also like Daughter of the Demon, Full Circle, and Two-Face Strikes Twice, all by Mike Barr. Oh, and Gotham by Gaslight is another essential that’s missing.
Oh man, you just reminded me! We have Son of the Demon, but we definitely need the rest of the Demon Trilogy up here — especially BIRTH OF THE DEMON, Ra’s al Ghul’s origin story by Denny O’Neil, and Norm Breyfogle’s best art.
Since we have the Batman Returns comic adaptation on here now, it’s only fair to get the Batman '89 comic by Denny O’Neil and Jerry Ordway.
Joker by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo is also a great candidate.
While we’re at it, Batman: Noel written and drawn by Lee Bermejo would also be cool.
Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean is also a classic.
I hope we’ll get to see more Hellblazer in general, but graphic novel wise I’ll add the OGN City of Demons.
I would be SHOCKED if this was included, but I would love to see Dark Knight: A True Batman Story, which was a Vertigo “Batman” story written by Paul Dini and drawn by Eduardo Risso, which is a memoir about Dini’s time working on the Batman animated series and he was severely mugged, and the physical and mental turmoil and healing that came from it.
JLA: Earth 2 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely would be cool, especially since it was extremely inspirational for the more modern takes on the Crime Syndicate we see today.
New Teen Titans: Games by Marv Wolfman and George Perez would be awesome to see – essentially the last work the two titan creators did on the, erm, Titans.
And of course the Earth One OGNs would be awesome.
The event millennium isn’t on here, every dc event should be available but the 8 issue miniseries “millennium” isn’t.
There are lots of green lantern issues missing. Lots of issues from the 1970s and 1980s are missing, green lantern corps is missing 2/3 of its issues. You can’t find green lantern Mosaic or any of the issues by Gerald Jones (issues 1-47). I understand the creator may have done something illegal but that doesn’t change the fact his stories are very important to the GL mythos.
There are lots of issues of Batman and detective comics that are missing pre 1980.
The early 2000s beast boy miniseries is also missing.
Action comics is missing a lot of issues, off the top of my head I know it’s missing a lot of the issues in the 600s which matters to me because that’s when they cancelled green lantern and put them in action comics for around 40 issues.
I would also love to see all the Earth one comics.
Graphic novels like killing joke should be in this app because it’s soo important. There are also lots of DC graphic novels that aren’t on here. No Hunger dogs graphic novel.
I would love to see all the vertigo series on here but don’t know if it’s possible. Sandman is a very popular series and I believe the app would greatly benefit from it.
Hunger Dogs is FOR SURE an important story we need here. The only missing piece of Jack Kirby’s original New Gods. I don’t think it’s ever been individually digitized, but it is included in the NEW GODS BY JACK KIRBY collection.
Technically not a graphic novel, it was a mini series of four issues. For some reason DC considers it a GN. But yes, absolutely, can’t wait to get it here!
I’m concerned that TPTB may see the YA material as a conflict of interest, since DCU’s target demographic is older readers… but I’m hoping they see we want those, as well.
