DC Hardcover Collected Editions Part 3

[Balakin]

I'm no Superman expert either, but I just finished the Death and Return Omnibus last night and really enjoyed it. There was an issue not long after the Death that was not very good (IMO), but I really enjoyed the rest of it. Part of my enjoyment could be revisiting some issues that I haven't read since my youth, but there were quite a few issues I never read. I thought for the most part the entire book was enjoyable (barring that one issue and perhaps the way Superman returned).

I really enjoyed it too. It's not a kind of classic like TDKR or Kingdom Come but it's an absolutely enjoyable superhero book, I really don't regret buying the omnibus.

[GenericUserName12]

I really enjoyed it too. It's not a kind of classic like TDKR or Kingdom Come but it's an absolutely enjoyable superhero book, I really don't regret buying the omnibus.

Cool, thanks guys! I'll definitely look towards picking up this book.

[victorxd1999]

Planetary, Sandman, and Watchmen... in no particular order.

Same for me

[The_Dark_Knight]

Also, here's another question. What are your top 3 favorite Absolutes in terms of story?

Difficult question considering the Absolute line was essentially designed as a celebration of the very best stories DC's ever had (barring some books like Superman For Tomorrow which was clearly included predominantly for the art).

That being said, if we're narrowing it down to 3, it's hard to beat the holy trinity of The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, and Kingdom Come.

My favorite Absolute may be Crisis on Infinite Earths for the art and the extraordinary extras (as well as for how significant the book is in DC history), but you're unlikely to find anyone who will argue the actual story is better than the 3 I've named.

Planetary and Sandman are of course fantastic, but it's arguable that their respective omnibuses are a better or more complete treatment of the material (certainly the case for Planetary).

Absolutes are my favorite line of collected comics and I have every one barring the Planetary books (got the omni), Danger Girl, and the 2nd volume of Superman/Batman (I even hunted down the quasi-Absolutes like JLA / Avengers, World's Greatest Superheroes, and the "proto-Absolute" Green Lantern / Green Arrow Collection). That being said, maybe it's because these 4 (DKR, KC, Watchmen, and CoIE) were my first 4 Absolutes, but if I could only keep 4 it would be those.

[The_Dark_Knight]

This Absolute talk got me thinking about the various titles spread across what's become a pretty diverse line. I thought it'd be interesting to separate and aggregate the line by creator to see which creators have the most Absolutes which may be instructive in speculating about future releases. I'll only list the creators with more than one Absolute to their name. Additionally, I'm not going to include the artist unless he is the primary artist on the book (books with multiple artists such as Sandman, B&R, etc. would overly complicate things).

9 - Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Watchmen, LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier, Promethea 1-3, Top Ten)
6 - Neil Gaiman (Sandman 1-5, Death)
6 - Jeph Loeb (Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight, Hush, Superman/Batman 1-2)
4 - Grant Morrison (Batman & Robin, Batman Inc., Final Crisis, All-Star Superman)
3 - Warren Ellis (Authority 1, Planetary 1 & 2)
3 - Geoff Johns (Rebirth, Sinestro Corps, Blackest Night)
3 - Jim Lee (Hush, For Tomorrow, All-Star Batman)
3 - Frank Miller (DKR, Ronin, All-Star Batman)
3 - Kevin O'Neil (LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier)
3 - Alex Ross (Kingdom Come, Justice, World's Greatest Superheroes)
3 - Tim Sale (Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight)
3 - JH Williams III (Promethea 1-3)
2 - Brian Azzarello (For Tomorrow, Luthor/Joker)
2 - John Cassaday (Planetary 1-2)
2 - George Perez (Crisis on Infinite Earths, JLA / Avengers)
2 - Frank Quitely (Authority 2, All-Star Superman)

So, though Absolutes are often categorized as "art books," or books aimed primarily at the display of great art, this list seems to indicate that it's the writer, not necessarily the artist, who has the greatest impact on Absolute selection. Granted, this isn't a perfect analysis as each of these writers tend to work with extraordinary artists. Interesting to note that while Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison seem to be kings of the DC omnibus, Alan Moore is the undisputed king of the Absolute. Could this mean Absolute Swamp Thing and Absolute Tom Strong are in our future?

I think it's also interesting to break the books up by primary characters. Again, only characters with more than one Absolute to their name are listed. Here's how that looks:

11 - Batman (DKR, Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight, Hush, Batman & Robin, Batman, Inc., Superman / Batman 1-2, Luthor / Joker, All-Star Batman)
8 - JLA (Crisis on Infinite Earths, Identity Crisis, Final Crisis, Justice, JLA / Avengers, Kingdom Come, World's Best Superheroes, New Frontier)
7 - America's Best Comics (LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier, Promethea 1-3, Top Ten)
6 - Sandman (Sandman 1-5, Death)
5 - Superman (For Tomorrow, All-Star Superman, Luthor / Joker, Superman / Batman 1-2)
4 - Wildstorm (Authority 1-2, Planetary 1-2)
4 - Green Lantern (Rebirth, Sinestro Corps, Blackest Night, Green Lantern / Green Arrow Collection ["proto-Absolute"])

No Flash, no Wonder Woman. Only Vertigo books are the Sandman related ones (I'm not really counting V for Vendetta or the re-branding of ABC books as Vertigo post-dissolution of Wildstorm).

[momaw]

Planetary and Sandman are of course fantastic, but it's arguable that their respective omnibuses are a better or more complete treatment of the material (certainly the case for Planetary).

I couldn't disagree more. The Absolute presentation of planetary is far superior to the omnibus. They only point in the omnibuses favour is the additional material which to be honest, I found rather wanting. I would swap the extra material for the larger art and much better build found in the absolutes every time.

I also prefer the Absolutes of Sandman over the omnibus. If only because of the superior binding.

[The_Dark_Knight]

I couldn't disagree more. The Absolute presentation of planetary is far superior to the omnibus. They only point in the omnibuses favour is the additional material which to be honest, I found rather wanting. I would swap the extra material for the larger art and much better build found in the absolutes every time.

I also prefer the Absolutes of Sandman over the omnibus. If only because of the superior binding.

I hear ya about the build. Believe me, having the Planetary hole in my Absolute collection kills me. I absolutely prefer the Absolute build to the omni build. However, I gotta disagree with you about the quality of the crossover issues in the omni that were missing in the Absolutes. The Batman one in particular was as brilliant as any of the best issues of the main Planetary series.

[Enormouse]

This Absolute talk got me thinking about the various titles spread across what's become a pretty diverse line. I thought it'd be interesting to separate and aggregate the line by creator to see which creators have the most Absolutes which may be instructive in speculating about future releases. I'll only list the creators with more than one Absolute to their name. Additionally, I'm not going to include the artist unless he is the primary artist on the book (books with multiple artists such as Sandman, B&R, etc. would overly complicate things).

9 - Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Watchmen, LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier, Promethea 1-3, Top Ten)
6 - Neil Gaiman (Sandman 1-5, Death)
6 - Jeph Loeb (Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight, Hush, Superman/Batman 1-2)
4 - Grant Morrison (Batman & Robin, Batman Inc., Final Crisis, All-Star Superman)
3 - Warren Ellis (Authority 1, Planetary 1 & 2)
3 - Geoff Johns (Rebirth, Sinestro Corps, Blackest Night)
3 - Jim Lee (Hush, For Tomorrow, All-Star Batman)
3 - Frank Miller (DKR, Ronin, All-Star Batman)
3 - Kevin O'Neil (LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier)
3 - Alex Ross (Kingdom Come, Justice, World's Greatest Superheroes)
3 - Tim Sale (Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight)
3 - JH Williams III (Promethea 1-3)
2 - Brian Azzarello (For Tomorrow, Luthor/Joker)
2 - John Cassaday (Planetary 1-2)
2 - George Perez (Crisis on Infinite Earths, JLA / Avengers)
2 - Frank Quitely (Authority 2, All-Star Superman)

So, though Absolutes are often categorized as "art books," or books aimed primarily at the display of great art, this list seems to indicate that it's the writer, not necessarily the artist, who has the greatest impact on Absolute selection. Granted, this isn't a perfect analysis as each of these writers tend to work with extraordinary artists. Interesting to note that while Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison seem to be kings of the DC omnibus, Alan Moore is the undisputed king of the Absolute. Could this mean Absolute Swamp Thing and Absolute Tom Strong are in our future?

I think it's also interesting to break the books up by primary characters. Again, only characters with more than one Absolute to their name are listed. Here's how that looks:

11 - Batman (DKR, Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight, Hush, Batman & Robin, Batman, Inc., Superman / Batman 1-2, Luthor / Joker, All-Star Batman)
8 - JLA (Crisis on Infinite Earths, Identity Crisis, Final Crisis, Justice, JLA / Avengers, Kingdom Come, World's Best Superheroes, New Frontier)
7 - America's Best Comics (LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier, Promethea 1-3, Top Ten)
6 - Sandman (Sandman 1-5, Death)
5 - Superman (For Tomorrow, All-Star Superman, Luthor / Joker, Superman / Batman 1-2)
4 - Wildstorm (Authority 1-2, Planetary 1-2)
4 - Green Lantern (Rebirth, Sinestro Corps, Blackest Night, Green Lantern / Green Arrow Collection ["proto-Absolute"])

No Flash, no Wonder Woman. Only Vertigo books are the Sandman related ones (I'm not really counting V for Vendetta or the re-branding of ABC books as Vertigo post-dissolution of Wildstorm).

Interesting when you lay it out like that.

Not that its of any consequence to your point, but Quitely also did Batman and Robin.

Edit: Of course I see that you're probably limiting the statistic to books with a single artist?

[victorxd1999]

This Absolute talk got me thinking about the various titles spread across what's become a pretty diverse line. I thought it'd be interesting to separate and aggregate the line by creator to see which creators have the most Absolutes which may be instructive in speculating about future releases. I'll only list the creators with more than one Absolute to their name. Additionally, I'm not going to include the artist unless he is the primary artist on the book (books with multiple artists such as Sandman, B&R, etc. would overly complicate things).

9 - Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Watchmen, LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier, Promethea 1-3, Top Ten)
6 - Neil Gaiman (Sandman 1-5, Death)
6 - Jeph Loeb (Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight, Hush, Superman/Batman 1-2)
4 - Grant Morrison (Batman & Robin, Batman Inc., Final Crisis, All-Star Superman)
3 - Warren Ellis (Authority 1, Planetary 1 & 2)
3 - Geoff Johns (Rebirth, Sinestro Corps, Blackest Night)
3 - Jim Lee (Hush, For Tomorrow, All-Star Batman)
3 - Frank Miller (DKR, Ronin, All-Star Batman)
3 - Kevin O'Neil (LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier)
3 - Alex Ross (Kingdom Come, Justice, World's Greatest Superheroes)
3 - Tim Sale (Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight)
3 - JH Williams III (Promethea 1-3)
2 - Brian Azzarello (For Tomorrow, Luthor/Joker)
2 - John Cassaday (Planetary 1-2)
2 - George Perez (Crisis on Infinite Earths, JLA / Avengers)
2 - Frank Quitely (Authority 2, All-Star Superman)

So, though Absolutes are often categorized as "art books," or books aimed primarily at the display of great art, this list seems to indicate that it's the writer, not necessarily the artist, who has the greatest impact on Absolute selection. Granted, this isn't a perfect analysis as each of these writers tend to work with extraordinary artists. Interesting to note that while Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison seem to be kings of the DC omnibus, Alan Moore is the undisputed king of the Absolute. Could this mean Absolute Swamp Thing and Absolute Tom Strong are in our future?

I think it's also interesting to break the books up by primary characters. Again, only characters with more than one Absolute to their name are listed. Here's how that looks:

11 - Batman (DKR, Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight, Hush, Batman & Robin, Batman, Inc., Superman / Batman 1-2, Luthor / Joker, All-Star Batman)
8 - JLA (Crisis on Infinite Earths, Identity Crisis, Final Crisis, Justice, JLA / Avengers, Kingdom Come, World's Best Superheroes, New Frontier)
7 - America's Best Comics (LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier, Promethea 1-3, Top Ten)
6 - Sandman (Sandman 1-5, Death)
5 - Superman (For Tomorrow, All-Star Superman, Luthor / Joker, Superman / Batman 1-2)
4 - Wildstorm (Authority 1-2, Planetary 1-2)
4 - Green Lantern (Rebirth, Sinestro Corps, Blackest Night, Green Lantern / Green Arrow Collection ["proto-Absolute"])

No Flash, no Wonder Woman. Only Vertigo books are the Sandman related ones (I'm not really counting V for Vendetta or the re-branding of ABC books as Vertigo post-dissolution of Wildstorm).

And that proves my point, Dc doesn't care about Wonder woman. She is supposed to be one of the 3 most important characters but she hasn't even got an absolute or an omnibus yet. And it's not because she doesn't have proper material to be used, they just seem to not care about it. Same for Aquaman btw

[NZ_InFerno]

This Absolute talk got me thinking about the various titles spread across what's become a pretty diverse line. I thought it'd be interesting to separate and aggregate the line by creator to see which creators have the most Absolutes which may be instructive in speculating about future releases. I'll only list the creators with more than one Absolute to their name. Additionally, I'm not going to include the artist unless he is the primary artist on the book (books with multiple artists such as Sandman, B&R, etc. would overly complicate things).

9 - Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Watchmen, LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier, Promethea 1-3, Top Ten)
6 - Neil Gaiman (Sandman 1-5, Death)
6 - Jeph Loeb (Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight, Hush, Superman/Batman 1-2)
4 - Grant Morrison (Batman & Robin, Batman Inc., Final Crisis, All-Star Superman)
3 - Warren Ellis (Authority 1, Planetary 1 & 2)
3 - Geoff Johns (Rebirth, Sinestro Corps, Blackest Night)
3 - Jim Lee (Hush, For Tomorrow, All-Star Batman)
3 - Frank Miller (DKR, Ronin, All-Star Batman)
3 - Kevin O'Neil (LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier)
3 - Alex Ross (Kingdom Come, Justice, World's Greatest Superheroes)
3 - Tim Sale (Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight)
3 - JH Williams III (Promethea 1-3)
2 - Brian Azzarello (For Tomorrow, Luthor/Joker)
2 - John Cassaday (Planetary 1-2)
2 - George Perez (Crisis on Infinite Earths, JLA / Avengers)
2 - Frank Quitely (Authority 2, All-Star Superman)

So, though Absolutes are often categorized as "art books," or books aimed primarily at the display of great art, this list seems to indicate that it's the writer, not necessarily the artist, who has the greatest impact on Absolute selection. Granted, this isn't a perfect analysis as each of these writers tend to work with extraordinary artists. Interesting to note that while Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison seem to be kings of the DC omnibus, Alan Moore is the undisputed king of the Absolute. Could this mean Absolute Swamp Thing and Absolute Tom Strong are in our future?

I think it's also interesting to break the books up by primary characters. Again, only characters with more than one Absolute to their name are listed. Here's how that looks:

11 - Batman (DKR, Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight, Hush, Batman & Robin, Batman, Inc., Superman / Batman 1-2, Luthor / Joker, All-Star Batman)
8 - JLA (Crisis on Infinite Earths, Identity Crisis, Final Crisis, Justice, JLA / Avengers, Kingdom Come, World's Best Superheroes, New Frontier)
7 - America's Best Comics (LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier, Promethea 1-3, Top Ten)
6 - Sandman (Sandman 1-5, Death)
5 - Superman (For Tomorrow, All-Star Superman, Luthor / Joker, Superman / Batman 1-2)
4 - Wildstorm (Authority 1-2, Planetary 1-2)
4 - Green Lantern (Rebirth, Sinestro Corps, Blackest Night, Green Lantern / Green Arrow Collection ["proto-Absolute"])

No Flash, no Wonder Woman. Only Vertigo books are the Sandman related ones (I'm not really counting V for Vendetta or the re-branding of ABC books as Vertigo post-dissolution of Wildstorm).

This is an interesting analysis, I've always considered the Absolutes to be Archive quality editions(read about this somewhere years ago) with the best presentation and designed to showcase the best stories that DC has to offer. I've commented on this before but lately that has not been the case but I think this was the intent of the original program and most of the subsequent releases bear this out. Therefore its not unexpected to see highly acclaimed authors getting a lot of releases, its not necessarily the writer driving the Absolute releases but the stories. Some authors happen to write a lot of great works.

I think its only lately that the focus has been on Absolutes as art vehicles, mostly because these are big ass books with large page sizes that does showcase the artwrok very well. I suppose its partly a justification on the selection of recent titles like Blackest Night/ Batman Superman/For Tomorrow etc which when you compare them to previous Absolutes such as Watchmen/DKR/Kingdom Come are not even in the same ballpark story wise. So it must be the Art driving the selection rather than Archiving the very best of DC. Though once you release all the legendary stories, and the line is selling well you want to keep releasing them so inevitably you will put out stories that are not as good as what came before. Thus the Morrison/Johns explosion of releases.

I know I used to own nearly all the Absolutes, but for the last couple of years I've been less interested as the books coming out just haven't been up to previous standards IMO.

I couldn't disagree more. The Absolute presentation of planetary is far superior to the omnibus. They only point in the omnibuses favour is the additional material which to be honest, I found rather wanting. I would swap the extra material for the larger art and much better build found in the absolutes every time.

I also prefer the Absolutes of Sandman over the omnibus. If only because of the superior binding.

Going to double down on this, Absolute Planetary is streets ahead of the Omnibus. The Planetary Batman issue is one of my favourite issues and it really blows that its not in the Absolute Editions but they are still better than the Omnibus in every way. And it's not like the Omnibus is bad, because its not.

[momaw]

Going to double down on this, Absolute Planetary is streets ahead of the Omnibus. The Planetary Batman issue is one of my favourite issues and it really blows that its not in the Absolute Editions but they are still better than the Omnibus in every way. And it's not like the Omnibus is bad, because its not.

I approve of the proper use of "streets ahead" in this post.

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

This Absolute talk got me thinking about the various titles spread across what's become a pretty diverse line. I thought it'd be interesting to separate and aggregate the line by creator to see which creators have the most Absolutes which may be instructive in speculating about future releases. I'll only list the creators with more than one Absolute to their name. Additionally, I'm not going to include the artist unless he is the primary artist on the book (books with multiple artists such as Sandman, B&R, etc. would overly complicate things).

9 - Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Watchmen, LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier, Promethea 1-3, Top Ten)
6 - Neil Gaiman (Sandman 1-5, Death)
6 - Jeph Loeb (Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight, Hush, Superman/Batman 1-2)
4 - Grant Morrison (Batman & Robin, Batman Inc., Final Crisis, All-Star Superman)
3 - Warren Ellis (Authority 1, Planetary 1 & 2)
3 - Geoff Johns (Rebirth, Sinestro Corps, Blackest Night)
3 - Jim Lee (Hush, For Tomorrow, All-Star Batman)
3 - Frank Miller (DKR, Ronin, All-Star Batman)
3 - Kevin O'Neil (LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier)
3 - Alex Ross (Kingdom Come, Justice, World's Greatest Superheroes)
3 - Tim Sale (Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight)
3 - JH Williams III (Promethea 1-3)
2 - Brian Azzarello (For Tomorrow, Luthor/Joker)
2 - John Cassaday (Planetary 1-2)
2 - George Perez (Crisis on Infinite Earths, JLA / Avengers)
2 - Frank Quitely (Authority 2, All-Star Superman)

So, though Absolutes are often categorized as "art books," or books aimed primarily at the display of great art, this list seems to indicate that it's the writer, not necessarily the artist, who has the greatest impact on Absolute selection. Granted, this isn't a perfect analysis as each of these writers tend to work with extraordinary artists. Interesting to note that while Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison seem to be kings of the DC omnibus, Alan Moore is the undisputed king of the Absolute. Could this mean Absolute Swamp Thing and Absolute Tom Strong are in our future?

I think it's also interesting to break the books up by primary characters. Again, only characters with more than one Absolute to their name are listed. Here's how that looks:

11 - Batman (DKR, Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight, Hush, Batman & Robin, Batman, Inc., Superman / Batman 1-2, Luthor / Joker, All-Star Batman)
8 - JLA (Crisis on Infinite Earths, Identity Crisis, Final Crisis, Justice, JLA / Avengers, Kingdom Come, World's Best Superheroes, New Frontier)
7 - America's Best Comics (LoEG 1, 2, Black Dossier, Promethea 1-3, Top Ten)
6 - Sandman (Sandman 1-5, Death)
5 - Superman (For Tomorrow, All-Star Superman, Luthor / Joker, Superman / Batman 1-2)
4 - Wildstorm (Authority 1-2, Planetary 1-2)
4 - Green Lantern (Rebirth, Sinestro Corps, Blackest Night, Green Lantern / Green Arrow Collection ["proto-Absolute"])

No Flash, no Wonder Woman. Only Vertigo books are the Sandman related ones (I'm not really counting V for Vendetta or the re-branding of ABC books as Vertigo post-dissolution of Wildstorm).

Thanks for putting this together. It must have taken a bit of time. All good stuff and food for thought

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

Recently met up with my friend who had just driven over from the UK to Poland and had managed to pick up and bring over the majority of my graphic novels which had been delivered to my UK address. Below are the DC lot:

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And here's Wednesday Comics next to various books. It really is quite a tall book and beautifully presented. I'll post a few more pics shortly.

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[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

Wednesday Comics pics - Part 1

There is no dustcover, as the cover is printed on the hardcover (probably better this way). There is a table of contents and intro and some short creator bios at the back. It's a beautiful book to look at, especially with all the art in such an "oversized" format.

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[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

Wednesday Comics pics - Part 2

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