Ripping Good Yarns: An OCD Dream - The DC Chronicles

Oh, how I loves the books of comics!  Anyone who follows my blog at all has probably stumbled onto to this fact.

It is often hard for someone my age to keep up with comic books.  The superheroes tend to reboot every few years, and it turns out everything you've read for years means absolutely nothing. comics numbering, which used to be sacrosanct is yanked back to number one, for no rhyme or reason.  So comics that were in their 700s or 800s would be number one again, eliminating decades of consecutive numbering.

So what is a long time superhero comics fan to do?

Thank the stars for DC Chronicles!  The perfect answer to the OCD accountant in me, and someone who revels in the roots of storytelling and wants to read it in order from the beginning!

Here are the ones that DC has released so far:

Superman from the late thirties and on!  When Superman started out he was not quite as powerful, but he was an amazing advocate of social justice!  His Clark Kent disguise of newspaper reporter was used to root out corruption and injustice, and then Superman would come in to set things right.  He worked for the Daily Star (not yet the Daily Planet) and Lois Lane was an early comer to the story, bright and sassy from the very start.  There are ten volumes in the series so far, and I have cherished each one, as it reprints the adventures of Superman IN THE EXACT ORDER they first appeared!

It's The Batman!  Starting with Detective Comics #27 in the late thirties and moving forward, Batman started out darker, alone, and even sometimes packing heat.  Over time Alfred is introduced, as is Robin and the gallery of villains begins, including Joker, Penguin and Scarecrow. There have been eleven volumes to date.

Wonder Woman starting in the early forties.  An amazingly strong portrayal of the strength and grace of women.  The comic was often more cartoony and broad than Superman or Batman, but it was often more epic and mythic in approach. She for some reason had a best friend getting into her adventures, Etta Candy, who was an overweight young woman who loved to consume food and often brought in her all-girls college band to help Wonder Woman.  Wonder Woman as Diana Prince was a wartime Secretary in the army.  Her boyfriend Steve Trevor, in an interesting role reversal for comics, had to be constantly rescued by Wonder Woman.  There are three volumes so far in this series.

The Flash Chronicles inexplicably starts with the late fifties Barry Allen version,  I would have preferred Jay Garrick from the forties, but you can't have everything, I guess.  This is the comic that reintroduced the forties versions of comic heroes with it's seminal story A Flash of Two Worlds.  There have been three volumes so far, but I should soon be getting Volume Four!

Green Lantern also starts with the early sixties Hal Jordan version.  There have been four volumes so far.  His powers seem strange and ill-defined from the very beginning.  But they have an odd scientific bent, and it is interesting to see the character mature over time.  There have been four volumes so far.


I have also recently ordered the first volume of The Justice League of America.

So keep them coming, DC!  This is one old, OCD fan who really appreciates them!