What are some good DC epics? I mean like in Graphic Novel form.
Kingdom Come, one of, if not the best, graphic novels of all time.
The Nail is another good one. It's sequel, Another Nail, wasn't quite as good, but it wasn't a bad read.
Crisis on Infinite Earths pretty much defines the genre. It doesn't get much more epic than the reboot of the universe (although diminishing returns did kind of kill later crises). I also enjoyed Grant Morrison's run on JLA (collected as 6 trades). The buildup is cool and the end is a good definition of "epic", equally his JLA: One Million is also very cool and has an epic feel, if not length necessarily.
I like Justice.
By epic, do you mean big stories with piles of characters?
JSA: The Liberty Files
JSA: The Golden Age
Justice
Kingdom Come
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Infinite Crisis
All-Star Superman Vol 1 & 2 (it's one big story)
Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory
Grant and Geoff Johns seem to be the only guys attempting DC "epics" nowadays.
I don't know what you mean by epics so I'll just name some favorite DC TPB's of mine.
Sinestro Corps War 1 & 2
Superman: Red Son
Green Lantern: Rebirth
All-Star Superman
Identity Crisis
Green Arrow: Quiver
Green Arrow: Sounds of Violence
JLA: Tower of Babel
not really an epic story, but in my opinion one of the best superman stories, looking more into the clark kent side... "Under a yellow Sun"
Justice is fantastic, a top notch DC adventure free of bad continuity. As you can imagine, it was right up my alley. Morrison's JLA was pretty solid overall as well.
The Watchmen
The Nail
The Golden Age
Identity Crisis
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Kingdom Come
Legion of Super Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga
That's prolly a list of my favorites...
Urg......Identity Crisis? :huh:
Oh Oh! I know this one! It's the one where the Justice League fights some supervillains! And then they have a Crisis! Possibly to Infinity!
In all seriousness, I liked the latter half of JLA:Divided We Fall. I'm not an overwhelming Morrison fan, but I liked how the whole "Split Personalities" examined the characters (even if I'm not necessarily a fan of the plot itself, hokey as it was). Plus, it had another hero punching Batman (technically Bruce Wayne, but whatever) in the face. That's always a plus for me, though I've never known why.
GL Rebirth is another great book, though you should probably go back and read some of the older GL books first (enough to understand the whole Parallax thing, at least). And... well, it also has a hero punching Batman in the face.
Darwyn Cooke's The New Frontier.
Alan Moore's Swamp Thing.
...i'm so old...
Cosmic Odyssey!
The first Generations is pretty good. The second one isn't bad. The third one has never been collected.
Quote from: BentonGrey on July 04, 2009, 01:38:44 PM
Urg......Identity Crisis? :huh:
A mini-series sometime before Infinite Crisis. Villains find out the secret identities of some DC super-heroes. The villains end up targeting family members instead of the heroes. I won't say much more. As much as I love Green Lantern, I'd put this above Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War. Far above.
Quote from: murs47 on July 07, 2009, 04:07:57 AM
Quote from: BentonGrey on July 04, 2009, 01:38:44 PM
Urg......Identity Crisis? :huh:
A mini-series sometime before Infinite Crisis. Villains find out the secret identities of some DC super-heroes. The villains end up targeting family members instead of the heroes. I won't say much more. As much as I love Green Lantern, I'd put this above Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War. Far above.
Ohh, I know about the book, and it represents a great deal that I despise in modern comics.
Quote from: BentonGrey on July 07, 2009, 12:54:44 PM
...and it represents a great deal that I despise in modern comics.
Quality story telling?
Quote from: murs47 on July 07, 2009, 02:44:16 PM
Quote from: BentonGrey on July 07, 2009, 12:54:44 PM
...and it represents a great deal that I despise in modern comics.
Quality story telling?
Hmm, let's see:
Heroes acting like villains? Check!
Batman acting like a jerk? Check!
Twisting of heroes lives because we've run out of good stories to tell? Check!
Sensationalist garbage to replace real depth? Check!
Bringing the worst of human depravity into superhero comics where it doesn't belong? Check!
Seriously, (word filter doesn't like what happened in this book any more than I do) has no place in a world where men can fly and a six inch superhero fights crime. That is a world of the fantastic, and the home to the better elements of our souls. There is no room for our worst. To Meltzer's credit, the twisting of character's lives in place of actual development began long before he got ahold of them.
Quote from: BentonGrey on July 07, 2009, 05:18:30 PM
Quote from: murs47 on July 07, 2009, 02:44:16 PM
Quote from: BentonGrey on July 07, 2009, 12:54:44 PM
...and it represents a great deal that I despise in modern comics.
Quality story telling?
Hmm, let's see:
Heroes acting like villains? Check!
Batman acting like a jerk? Check!
Twisting of heroes lives because we've run out of good stories to tell? Check!
Sensationalist garbage to replace real depth? Check!
Bringing the worst of human depravity into superhero comics where it doesn't belong? Check!
Seriously, (word filter doesn't like what happened in this book any more than I do) has no place in a world where men can fly and a six inch superhero fights crime. That is a world of the fantastic, and the home to the better elements of our souls. There is no room for our worst. To Meltzer's credit, the twisting of character's lives in place of actual development began long before he got ahold of them.
Yeah if you're not up for those kinds of things in comics it's definitely not for you. However Dr. Kraken if that stuff doesn't bother you it's not bad. My memory of it is shoty so I can't recall how well it came together but it did keep me interested when it was coming out.
Not positive they're in trade form (probably) but I'd recommend Geoff Johns Teen Titans run. After he left it kinda fell apart though.
Also any of Gail Simone's Secret Six stuff is great.
I liked the Fernus story arc. that and emperor Joker. :)
Well, the guy did ask for Epic... and Identity Crisis pretty much set the table for everything happening today in the DC universe. So I'd say that's epic. It's modern, sure, but it's epic. Hey, how about suggesting something _you_ think is epic, rather than dissing what I offered?
Quote from: triad4evr on July 09, 2009, 01:01:55 AM
Well, the guy did ask for Epic... and Identity Crisis pretty much set the table for everything happening today in the DC universe. So I'd say that's epic. It's modern, sure, but it's epic. Hey, how about suggesting something _you_ think is epic, rather than dissing what I offered?
Ha! Well triad, I did, didn't I? As a matter of fact, I have the first response here. I've also voiced my opinions on several of the suggestions given by other posters, all to the positive except for IC. I didn't spontaneously offer my thoughts on it, but did so in response to someone asking for clarification. I'm sorry if that rubbed you the wrong way.
Anyway, back on topic, I found the Syndicate Rules TPB to be quite enjoyable. It might go best with the previous CSA offering, though.
A few more, not as epic but still good reads:
Batman: The Long Halloween (definitely read if you liked TDK movie)
The Return of Barry Allen
Quote from: Tomato on July 09, 2009, 02:29:56 PM
A few more, not as epic but still good reads:
Batman: The Long Halloween (definitely read if you liked TDK movie)
The Return of Barry Allen
Yeah, Long Halloween was quite a ride. It was an excellently written story, though a little darker than I generally like my Batman. LH is one of the best Batman stories to be collected so far.
Man I love hearing benton rant about modern comics... its like grandpa saying " back in my day robin didn't need pants to fight crime" :D I tease I tease
You kids get off my lawn!
It's not my fault that I'm painfully right. :P
Quote from: BentonGrey on July 09, 2009, 06:49:29 PM
You kids get off my lawn!
It's not my fault that I'm painfully right. :P
C, too gimmicky. -- Murs's teacher.
tee-hee
The Long Halloween would be great...
Spoiler
if only Batman actually solved the case, or the plot made sense.
Barring those two issues, it's pretty good.
Quote from: Talavar on July 09, 2009, 09:51:43 PM
The Long Halloween would be great...
Spoiler
if only Batman actually solved the case, or the plot made sense.
Barring those two issues, it's pretty good.
Well, I actually rather liked the fact that:
Spoiler
he didn't manage to solve it. I thought it was an excellent twist. Also, I thought it made perfect sense. What didn't jive for you?
I just didn't like that...
Spoiler
in a Batman comic about the supposed World's Greatest Detective, he doesn't actually manage to solve anything.
As to the not making sense, I remember at the time I read it that the twist ending doesn't actually work, but I can't specifically remember why, it's been too long since I read it. Up until the unnecessary, in my mind, twist, I'd been enjoying the Long Halloween quite a bit.
Batman's not omniscient. Sometimes even he can't find all the information. Heck, the most interesting Sherlock Holmes stories were the ones where Holmes DIDN'T manage to figure out everything.