DC Comics set the standards for what superheroes could be in the Golden Age and has spent the intervening decades tearing up those rules and rewriting them. Over the years, we’ve gotten some of the greatest heroes, villains, and supporting characters in the history of comics from them, but that’s just the beginning. The publisher has employed some of the talented creators in the history of the medium, and they’ve been able to tell some of the most fantastic stories you can imagine. DC played a huge role in the maturation of the medium, and their best books have been consistently praised. The most well-known of these tales have become legends.
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DC put out their first superhero comic in 1938, and since then have put out thousands of stories. While many of the best get a lot of attention, some of them have been lost to the endless tide of monthly comics. These ten DC stories are amazing, but they don’t get the ink that other great tales do.
10) Green Lantern: Larfleeze Christman Story
Green Lantern: Rebirth was a new beginning for the Lantern mythos, leading inexorably to the War of Light stories like “The Sinestro Corps War”, “Rage of the Red Lanterns”, “Agent Orange”, and more, all of which led to Blackest Night and introduced numerous new characters. Larfleeze, the Orange Lantern, became a fan favorite and in 2010, readers got an amazing look at the character on his own in Green Lantern: Larfleeze Christmas Special #1, by Geoff Johns, Bart Baltazar, Franco Aurellani, and Brett Booth. The book’s main story is a surprisingly heartfelt, revealing the secrets of the character, and the back-up is extremely entertaining. It’s been unfairly forgotten, and is one of the best Christmas stories ever.
9) “Prince of Darkness”
JSA is an amazing team book and some of its best moments don’t get talked about enough, especially “Princes of Darkness”. The story ran through JSA (Vol. 1) #46-51, by Geoff Johns, David S. Goyer, Leonard Kirk, and Sal Velluto. It paid off over 40 issues of set-up, as Mordru, Eclipso, and Obsidian launch an attack on Earth that only the Justice Society can stop… if they hadn’t already been thrown to the winds by the villains. This story was basically an event comic in a monthly team book and is one of the finest examples of what DC was doing so well in the ’00s. It’s brilliant, and if you haven’t read it, you need to.
8) JSA: The Liberty File
There are some awesome Elseworlds stories from the ’90s, but most fans talk about the ones starring Batman or Superman. However, one of the best starred members of the Justice Society (and Batman; it is DC after all). JSA: The Liberty File, by Dan Jolley and Tony Harris, took place in World War II, with the Clock (Hourman), the Bat (Batman, obviously), and the Owl (Doctor Mid-Nite) fighting against the Nazis. When intel of a new German superweapon reaches the Allies, the team is sent to figure out where it is and how to stop it. This two-issue mini is phenomenal, leading into several sequels, and it’s a shame that more fans don’t know about this fabulous series.
7) Chase
So, technically, this isn’t a story, but a ten-issue series that was cancelled before its time, from Dan Curtis Johnson, JH Williams III, Bob Hall, and Charlie Adlard. The book followed DEO agent Cameron Chase as she investigated the secrets of the superhero community and tried to build a new life for herself in New York City. This book was fantastic, giving readers awesome one and done stories that built Chase and her supporting cast into compelling characters. This series can be rather hard to find, but it’s such a great book that you owe it to yourself to find it. It should have run for years, but what we got is awesome regardless.
6) “I Am Suicide”
Tom King’s Batman run is unfairly maligned. The 85-issue run isn’t perfect, but it has a lot of great moments and one of the best of them came early in the run. “I Am Suicide” ran through Batman (Vol. 3) #9-13, from King and Mikel Janin. Batman assembles his own Suicide Squad to attack Bane in Santa Prisca’s Pena Duro prison to get his hands on Psycho-Pirate to save his new sidekick Gotham Girl, gingerly walking into a trap. This story digs into the psychology of the Dark Knight, revealing the real reason he became Batman, but what really makes the story sing is Janin’s pencils. There are some gorgeous actions scenes in this five-parter, giving it amazing visuals that match its heartbreakingly awesome story.
5) The Green Lantern Season One and BlackStars
Grant Morrison is one of DC’s greats, having wrote some of their best characters. 2018 would see them and artist Liam Sharp (with Xermanico for Blackstars) get handed the keys to one of the publisher’s biggest icons: Hal Jordan. The Green Lantern #1-12 was envisioned as a “season” of television in comic form, giving readers one and done stories that all added to an overarching story arc involving new bad guys the Blackstars. This is amazing sci-fi from Morrison and Sharp, two creators who know their way around a science fiction story. These are Green Lantern comics the way they’ve meant to be, and never got the praise they definitely deserved (The Green Lantern: Season Two is also amazing, and you should check it out too).
4) “Emerald Knights”
The ’90s saw many of DC’s greats broken and replaced, including Hal Jordan. He was replaced by Kyle Rayner and Green Lantern (Vol. 3) became a favorite of fans. However, everyone wanted to see a team up between Kyle and a non-Parallax-ified Hal and they got it in “Emerald Knights”. Running through Green Lantern (Vol. 3) #101-106, by Ron Marz and Daryl Banks, this story saw a Jordan from the past show up in the present, with Rayner meeting the man who killed the Green Lantern Corps before he ever did it. This is a sensational story, the first crossover between Jordan and Rayner, and an important part of DC history that more fans need to read.
3) Brightest Day
Blackest Night was the culmination of years of Green Lantern stories, and it ended with the resurrections of some DC’s greatest heroes and villains. Brightest Day gave readers the aftermath, revealing the reasons that the White Lantern brought them back to life. This 25-issue biweekly series by Geoff Johns, Peter Tomasi, Fernando Pasarin, Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Sayif, Scott Clark, Joe Prado, and Oclair Albert was meant to bring the DC Multiverse into a new era, setting up numerous cool ideas and bringing back some amazing characters. Not long after it ended, the New 52 started, squandering any potential this book’s various plotlines had to shine after it ended but it’s still worth reading to imagine what could have been.
2) Vigilante #17-18
Alan Moore is one of the greatest comic writers ever, with his work at DC introducing him to the world. Everyone knows about his stories starring Superman, Batman, Swamp Thing, and the Green Lantern Corps, but most fans don’t know about Vigilante #17-18, an excellent two-parter with artist Jim Baikie. Adrian Chase ends up getting embroiled in a missing person’s case, when an abusive father kidnaps his daughter after escaping prison. This story is as dark as they come, a violent crime story that pushed the envelope of what this kind of tale could be.
1) DC One Million
DC One Million is a fantastic event comic. Spinning out of Grant Morrison’s JLA, the four-issue event series from the Scottish scribe and artist Val Semeiks saw the Justice Legion A of the 853rd century come back to the present. They wanted the present team to go to the future to witness the return of the Prime Superman, promising to look after the universe while they’re away. However, the whole thing is a trap, as future Vandal Savage and Solaris the Tyrant Sun put a plan into motion that will end the legacy of the Justice League forever. This is the kind of big superhero action that Morrison did so well and it’s easily one of the best event comics of the ’90s, despite me being the only person to ever talk about it.
What’s your favorite under-praised DC story? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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