DC Comics brought readers the superhero, with Superman presaging thousands of colorful heroes and villains. Over the years, DC has both set the tone of superhero comics while and went out of their way to break those rules and make new ones. Marvel gets all of the sales and mainstream esteem, but DC is the publisher that truly pushed comics as an art form. There’s something special about a DC comic that you can’t really get anywhere else, and there are so many amazing comics from the publisher. DC is the best of the best, and that’s really all there is to it.
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Over the years, DC has put out thousands of comics. Some of them are amazing, and some of them are legitimately bad. However, there are also a whole lot of underrated comics. Sometimes, these comics are known to be good, but don’t get the credit they deserve. Sometimes, people haven’t heard of them, and they deserve to. Finally, there are some stories that have been maligned by fans, but they’re actually pretty good. These ten DC stories are criminally underrated, and they deserve way more praise.
10) Chase
’90s DC is one of the best periods in the publisher’s history. While Marvel and Image were more concerned with eye-catching art, DC was putting out the best-written stories of the decade. There are some brilliant series from this decade, but not all of them were as beloved as they deserved to be, and some of these ended way too soon. Chase is one of those. Chase, written by Dan Curtis Johnson with art by J.H. Williams III, seemed like it was trying to tap into the X-Files vibe of the ’90s mixed with superheroes instead of aliens. The series fellow DEO agent Cameron Chase as she’s forced to deal with the underbelly of the metahuman community. The book only ran for 11 issues, ending with issue #1,000,000 (which was part of the DC One Million event, which is also a pretty underrated story, and a hilarious way to end the series), but it was pitch perfect. Chase is a great character, and it’s honestly a shame that this book didn’t get more time to shine. It’s very hard to find, but it’s definitely worth the hassle.
9) The Unstoppable Doom Patrol
The Doom Patrol has starred in some of DC’s best team comics, and their last series, The Unstoppable Doom Patrol, is one of their best. Written by Dennis Culver with art by Chris Burnham, this story takes the ideas of the Doom Patrol — a group of heroes whose powers have made them outcasts acting as a found family — and mixes them with the ideas of the X-Men in the best possible way. After the eruption of the Lazarus Volcano, metahumans are popping up every where and the Doom Patrol takes it upon themselves to help the more monstrous of them learn to control their powers and give them a new family. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood of Evil returns, and begin a plan meant to destroy the Doom Patrol once and for all. The Unstoppable Doom Patrol is hands down the best X-Men story that Marvel hasn’t made. It digs into the characters, presents some great action set pieces, and ties it all up in a neat little bow. This seven-issue miniseries is awesome, and I wish DC would let Culver and Burnham cook on the Doom Patrol again.
8) The Multiversity: Pax Americana
The Multiversity is an excellent story, one that uses the magic of comics to inform its tale. Grant Morrison had teased the book after they finished Final Crisis, but readers wouldn’t get it until 2014. The series spans two bookend issues and seven one-shots, taking readers across the New 52 DC Multiverse. They’re all great reads, but the best of them is The Multiversity: Pax Americana #1, from Morrison and Frank Quitely. The best way I can describe the story is that it’s Watchmen, but actually hopeful. The book stars the Charlston characters that the Watchmen characters were based on and tells its story out of temporal sequence. You can start at the end of the comic or the beginning. You can start on any page you want and just read it. It’s a brilliant piece of storytelling, one that will change how you think about comics. Morrison and Quitely are always an amazing team together, and this is one of their greatest works.
7) “Thy Kingdom Come”
The Justice Society of America are an amazing team, and they’ve starred in some of the coolest stories in DC history, especially since the late ’90s release of JSA. Post-Infinite Crisis saw JSA relaunched as Justice Society of America (Vol. 2), and readers got the great story “Thy Kingdom Come”, by Geoff Johns, Dale Easglesham, Fernando Pasarin, and Alex Ross. This story gave readers the origin of Magog, the anti-hero from Kingdom Come, and kicked off with the Superman of Kingdom Come coming to the mainline Earth and joining the Justice Society. This story is the kind of the story that you could only get from DC. It’s got the multiverse, it’s got Jack Kirby-inspired shenanigans, and it has battles of a magnitude you’ve rarely saw. There’s even an issue with Alex Ross’s unpainted pencils. “Thy Kingdom Come” was rendered uncanon recently with a Kingdom Come prequel in Kingdom Come writer Mark Waid’s Batman/Superman: World’s Finest, and it’s long been out of print, but it’s a great read.
6) “The Archer’s Quest”
Green Arrow is one of DC’s most venerable characters, having been around for over 80 years now. Green Arrow has had some amazing changes of fortune over the years, and the biggest was when Green Arrow became a bestselling comic in the early ’00s, thanks to writer Kevin Smith and artist Phil Hester. After Smith’s run ended, novelist Brad Meltzer would team with Hester for “The Archer’s Quest”, one of the best Green Arrow stories ever. Oliver Queen and Roy Harper go on a road trip, as Ollie collects various artifacts from their time as superheroes for a secret purpose. It’s sort of a travelogue through Green Arrow history, and it’s excellent. However, what really makes it work is the twist at end; you’ll think you know why Ollie went on his quest by the end, but the truth behind it will destroy you. It’s a forgotten story that does everything a superhero story should and then some.
5) Seven Soldiers of Victory
Grant Morrison left DC Comics in the year 2000, and returned in 2004. Their first stories back were at Vertigo — We3, Vimanarama, and Sea Guy — but they eventually started telling superhero stories again. This lead to 2005’s Seven Soldiers of Victory, a 30-part story consisting of two bookend issues and seven four-issue miniseries — Shining Knight, Zatanna, The Manhattan Guardian, Klarion the Witch Boy, Mister Miracle, Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E., and The Bulleteer. The universe is under attack by the Sheeda, a group of mysterious conquerors (some of whom actually look like Grant Morrison), and only those seven heroes who have never met can stop them. This is one of those perfect examples of Morrison madness that sometimes gets left out of the discussion of the best Grant Morrison stories of all time. There’s twists, there’s turns, and there’s great art; it’s amazing, a high point of Morrison’s long and illustrious career.
4) The Green Lantern by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp
Grant Morrison and artist Liam Sharp were announced to take over Green Lantern in 2019, and fans wondered exactly what they would get. The Green Lantern comics had been in a bad place for a while, and Morrison and Sharp had a lot of work ahead of them. However, in the oh so humble opinion of this writer, they did an amazing job. The Green Lantern #1-12, Green Lantern: Blackstars #1-2 (which was drawn by Xermanico), and The Green Lantern: Season Two #1-12 are peak Green Lantern. Morrison and Sharp brought Green Lantern back to basics, following Hal Jordan as he traveled the universe as the galaxy’s greatest lawman, dealing with the kind of threats you could only get from creators as gifted as Morrison and Sharp. There is so much going on in this 26-issue series, but what really makes it sing is the artwork of Liam Sharp. Sharp changes up his art style multiple times throughout the run, matching the mad cap style of Morrison’s writing, and giving readers some spectacular visuals. This is a brilliant run, and it doesn’t get nearly as much as praise as it should.
3) “One Minute War”
Jeremy Adams’ run on The Flash gave readers back Wally West, the West family of Linda, Jai, and Irey, and retconned out the character assassination that was Heroes in Crisis. The Flash was consistently one of the best superhero books while Adams wrote it, and while his run ended much too soon (luckily, he was put on Green Lantern, where he’s been killing it), it was capped off by the fantastic “One-Minute War”, with artists Roger Cruz, George Kambadais, Fernando Pasarin, Serg Acuna, and Lisandro Estherron. The Earth is attacked by an alien race called the Fraction, who move from planet to planet, stealing their Speed Force energy, and destroying the planet. With the heroes of the Earth frozen along with the rest of the popular, the Fraction using their Speed Force energies to slow down time, only the Flash family can fight against the aliens. This story does an amazing job of reminding everyone why the Flash Family is one of the coolest groups of heroes in comics, as it uses who each character is to inform their chapters, and is full of breathtaking action (which is fitting for a story starring characters who run). It’s sci-fi superhero awesomeness at its finest, and it deserves to be talked about more.
2) Gotham City: Year One
Writer Tom King is one of those creators who people either love or completely hate. I’m one of the people who love him, but I get why people don’t. However, he does have some comics that I think any fan will enjoy and Gotham City: Year One, with artist Phil Hester, is one of those. The book takes place in ’60s Gotham, as Detective Slam Bradley is pulled into a crime that involves the richest family in the city — the Waynes. Gotham City: Year One is an amazing crime noir comic, never flinching from the darkness of Gotham City or the 1960s. It’s a brutal story in just about every way, and that’s what I love about it.
1) Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths
Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths is more important than most people give it credit for. Joshua Williamson and Daniel Sampere’s epic pits the heroes of the Earth against Pariah, Deathstroke, and their Dark Army, as Pariah tries to recreate the pre-Crisis DC Multiverse so he can back to his Earth. Look, this story treads a lot of familiar ground if you’re a DC fan, ground that has been better tread by other stories. However, it’s also one of those stories that if you’re a hardcore DC fan, you’ll find a lot to like about it. There’s great art, some cool action scenes, and a basically flawless last issue. It’s definitely not a completely perfect book, but most fans treat it like it’s the worse thing out there. However, it’s a pretty good event comic (it’s better than the vast majority of event comics that Marvel has put out in the last ten years, for example) that has more going for it than a lot of readers realize. Plus, it helped pave the way for the current DC All-In publishing initiative, which makes it cool.
What DC stories do you think are underrated? Sound off in the comments below.
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Image courtesy of Marvel Studios. -
Image Courtesy of Marvel Studios
