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Monday, July 18, 2011

DC Comics Ultimate Character Guide

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A few weeks ago, DC Comics and DK released this brand-new hardcover book, DC Comics The Ultimate Character Guide, which is a slick compendium of Who's Who-esque character bios from the DCU.

I hadn't known of the book until its author, Brandon T. Snider, wrote to tell me about it. I of course wanted to see inside, so Brandon helpfully sent along some pics:
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Clearly, this book leans heavily on the art side of the equation, dispensing some quick bursts of information as accompaniment to the visuals. Which is a-ok, since they really did a fine job here: I like how different the art styles are, giving each character their own sense of identity (one of the qualities I liked most about the original Who's Who).

My only complaint from the Aqua-side of things is...no listing for Mera! Considering what a huge role she has had in the DCU in the last year or two, she really deserved to be in here (though she is mentioned on Aquaman's page). Other than that, all the other members of the Aqua-Family are represented: along with Aquaman, Black Manta, and Ocean Master, there's also Aqualad and Tempest.

While I don't think the DC Comics Ultimate Character Guide is for die-hard fans, most of whom probably already know all the info included, it'll work great as a durable primer for those readers just getting into DC superhero comics. And as I said, I think the art is fantastic.

If you'd like to order a copy, you can click through to Amazon right here:


Here's an ad running in various DC comics for the book, using the classic tagline that copywriters can't resist when talking about books like this:
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Man, how the heck did Red Tornado make this ad over Batman, Flash, or Wonder Woman (not to mention Aquaman)? Pretty good showing for the android!

6 comments:

Diabolu Frank said...

Oh, God! I thought that cover was just a mock-up. They really published it like that? Blech!

Delmar Osborne (Titansfan) said...

just ordered this off amazon. Under $10 is a great price.

Brent said...

I agree with fid — such wonderful art inside, but the cover looks like a quick collage mock-up.

And I'm disappointed — in just these few pages Rob's posted they mention spouses/love interests of Aquaman, Barda and Catwoman, but they fail to mention Batwoman's relationship to The Question, only listing her as an "Ally".

Luis said...

If you want a REAL and much more extensive character guide, more in line with the Who's Who series published years ago look no further than the The DC Comics Encyclopedia which is still in print and may have been mentioned already in this blog. At 400 pages it lists just about everybody, yes, including Mera.
This particular guide does lean more towards the art than information but as such, I believe it looks pretty good. I also agree that the cover leaves much to be desired with its collage of different artists. It would have been better a cover by ONE artist doing all the characters.

Orin's dad said...

Not a fan of the cover either, but I do enjoy the different artist styles used for the individual characters. And for less than $10, it's probably not a bad deal...

Anthony said...

>>
And I'm disappointed — in just these few pages Rob's posted they mention spouses/love interests of Aquaman, Barda and Catwoman, but they fail to mention Batwoman's relationship to The Question, only listing her as an "Ally".<<

:-(

Wonder what prompted that descriptive decision ("kids might buy this like our other DK books!", maybe?).