Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The New DCU - A Look Back.



In honor of DC COMICS' impending reboot and relaunch, I thought I'd take a moment to look back at some of my most fondly-remembered comics, stories, characters, and arcs from 20 or so years of reading DC Comics. This is only scratching the surface, of course, but it's a start. What were your favorite moments from the "old" DC Universe? Here are some of mine.





50 Things That Were Great In The Old DCU:






1. Mark Waid's run on THE FLASH ("My name is Wally West, and I'm the fastest man alive.")



2. The Death and Return of Superman. Epic.



3. Knightfall. Similarly epic.



4. Bruce Wayne: Murderer? Rucka and Brubaker tore it up on the Bat-titles.



5. No Man's Land - one of the coolest, best Batman stories ever.



6. Green Lantern by Geoff Johns. Rebirth. The Sinestro Corps War. 'Nuff Said.



7. Chuck Dixon and Gail Simone's runs on BIRDS OF PREY. Girl power was never stronger.



8. HOURMAN. The android one, from the future. One of the best, most underrated books.



9. Speaking of underrated, how about Karl Kessell and Tom Grummett on SUPERBOY.



10. Grant Morrison and Howard Porter. JLA. Definitive.



11. The David Goyer, James Robinson, Geoff Johns rebirth of the JSA. An amazing run.



12. Scott Snyder's just-completed run on DETECTIVE COMICS. Closed out 'Tec in style.



13. Tim Drake as ROBIN. A better Robin there never was.



14. Giffen and DeMattais' JUSTICE LEAGUE. Don't bwahaha it, it's a legendary run.



15. John Byrne's MAN OF STEEL. Rebooted Superman for the modern era.



16. Frank Miller's BATMAN: YEAR ONE. The definitive Batman origin.



17. CHASE. Introduced numerous killer concepts. One of the great gems of the 90's.



18. Mark Waid's JLA: YEAR ONE. Johns and Lee will ahve to work hard to top it.



19. JONAH HEX's recent run of awesomeness. Wild West at its best.



20. DC ONE MILLION. Grant Morrison's best-ever in-continuity DCU epic.



21. FINAL NIGHT. Hal Jordan reignites the sun, achieves redemption. Chills.



22. Gail Simone's SECRET SIX. Bad guys have never been so good.



23. SUICIDE SQUAD. Ostrander's legendary run. Barbara Gordon given new life as Oracle.



24. CHECKMATE by Greg Rucka. Brought black-ops intrigue back to the DCU.



25. Geoff Johns on THE FLASH. Few could have hoped to follow Waid, but somehow, Johns did.



26. Kyle Rayner as the one and only Green Lantern. A GL with imagination? Makes sense!



27. Guy Gardner as the one, true, Green Lantern. With Sinestro's ring. As Warrior.



28. Conner Hawke as Green Arrow. A standout star of DC's new generation.



29. BOOSTER GOLD's post-52 book. Time-travel adventure done right.



30. GREEN ARROW brought back to life by Kevin Smith, then turbo-charged by Brad Meltzer.



31. "Hush." Jim Lee drawing every Batman villain = geek out.



32. Paul Dini writing DC Comics. Amazing runs on 'Tec, Gotham Knights, Zatanna, etc.



33. UNDERWORLD UNLEASHED. The Joker vs. Satan. Kickass.



34. Cassandra Cain as BATGIRL. Batman as ninja girl ... she was awesome.



35. Stefanie Brown as BATGIRL. Spoiler warning: the recent run suprised by rocking hard.



36. THE HUNTRESS: CRY FOR BLOOD. The definitive look at Gotham's toughest vigilante.



37. The Wedding of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. It was meant to be. Don't undo it, DC.



38. "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?" Best. Superman. Ever.



39. THE KILLING JOKE. An all-time classic Batman / Joker tale.



40. MARTIAN MANHUNTER's underrated solo book. Amazing Tom Mandrake art.



41. Batwoman's run as star of Detective Comics. Rucka. JH Williams. Incredible.



42. ZERO HOUR. Controversial at the time and today, but I maintain it was a great story.



43. Some great stories with THE NEW GODS, including Walt Simonson's epic run on ORION.



44. GOTHAM CENTRAL. Someone make this a TV show, now.



45. BLACKEST NIGHT. "Rise!"



46. NIGHTWING by Chuck Dixon. Dixon had an unparallelled knack for writing the Bat-family.



47. Panic In the Sky - an epic early-90's Superman tale that established Supes as A-#1.



48. Grant Morrison's uber-ambitious 7 SOLDIERS mega-series.



49. IDENTITY CRISIS. A turning point for the DCU, but a great, gripping story.



50. Geoff Johns' most personal story - STARS & S.T.R.I.P.E. - Courtney Whitmore FTW.


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