Here we go with another look at my three latest DC Finest purchases and reads … and this time, it’s All Batman, All the Time! There’s already been two Batman volumes in 2026, and there’s three more on the horizon between now and the end of the year, plus another Bat-centric Team-ups volume (which just happens to come out on my birthday).
DC Finest Team-Ups: Chase to the End of Time by Bob Haney, Martin Pasko, Jim Aparo • 3 Stars on Goodreads
To be honest, this is not my favorite DC Finest book to-date. This book’s timeline covers 1978-79, during which DC Comics Presents, the company’s Superman team-up book was launched (created to coincide with the imminent release of the Superman movie). The title starts with a bang—at least art-wise—with the first four issues drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, but goes downhill quickly after that. Julius Schwartz was the editor, so all the Superman stories lean very heavily into science fiction. Schwartz also utilized his own favorite writers, most of which pretty much never appealed to me, then or now.
The spine and back cover timeline from DC Finest Team-Ups: Chase to the End of Time.
The first 12 issues of DC Comics Presents are featured in this 560-page volume, alongside the Batman team-up stories from The Brave and the Bold issues 141 through 155, pretty much all written by Bob Haney and drawn by Jim Aparo, who was the main reason I was interested in this volume. Aparo is having a bit of a long overdue moment right now, with an illustrated biography from TwoMorrows Publishing and an Artist’s Edition from Act IIII, but to be honest, Haney’s scripts are a bit disappointing and Aparo’s art seems muddy, reproduction-wise in some of the stories in this book. All the stories are certainly part of the 1970s, though, and the first few issues of both titles take place during the infamous “DC Implosion,” when the books went from 32 pages and 35 cents to 44 pages and 50 cents, and just as quickly back to 32 at 40 cents. It was not a fun time, business-wise, for DC. I love most of Aparo’s B&B covers, though, and some of Haney’s (and editor Paul Levitz’s) team-up combos for the Caped Crusader are fun choices. A second Team-Ups volume comes out in June (on my birthday, even!) and will include more Brave and the Bold stories plus ones from Super-Team Family, a title lost to the ages.
DC Finest Batman: A Death in the Family by Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, Bernie Wrightson, Mike DeCarlo • 5 Stars on Goodreads
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this DC Finest volume, featuring one of the most controversial story arcs of Batman’s history: The death of the Jason Todd version of Robin, where infamously you got to call in to a 900-number and vote for the character’s death or survival (and pay 50 cents per call for that honor, thus insuring the anger of your parents if you called multiple times). The “kill him” side won by just a few votes and Jason Todd’s days as Robin were over, soon to be replaced by the much nicer and more palatable Tim Drake, because someone, somewhere, still—very quaintly—thought Batman needed a ‘tween boy to pal around with and place in life-threatening situations. Jim Starlin is the main writer in this volume, both on the “Death in the Family” storyline and the four-part prestige mini-series Batman: The Cult, with art by Berni (not Bernie) Wrightson and color by Bill Wray.
The spine and back cover timeline from Batman: A Death in the Family.
Starlin’s writing is definitely of its time—this volume’s timeline spans a short period from August through December 1988, when comics had become horribly dark and gritty after series like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. I believe Starlin left the Batman title shortly after the “Death” story, but man, some of his writing here—including The Cult—bring new meaning to the term dark and gritty. Some of Aparo’s and (inker Mike DeCarlo’s) best work on the Batman main title appear in the “Death” storyline. The Detective Comics stories reprinted herein are drawn by Norm Breyfogle, at the top of his Batman game (and written by Alan Grant and John Wagner, two writers I never really warmed up to on Batman). This volume includes Batman Annual 12, Batman 423-429, Detective Comics 590-595, and Batman: The Cult 1-4, and is 640 pages long.
DC Finest The Joker: The Last Ha Ha by Dennis O’Neil, Bob Haney, and Elliott S! Maggin • 3 Stars on Goodreads
This is one of those DC Finest volumes that I almost regret buying, even though I did enjoy it. The reason is it’ll probably end up being one of the books that has the most stories that will end up being reprinted in other volumes, especially Batman and Team-ups. The timeline on this 552-page book stretches all the way from 1969 through 1981, and it includes Batman 251 (the classic O’Neil/Adams issue), 260, 286, 291-294, and 321; The Brave and the Bold 111, 118, 129-130, and 141 (also reprinted in the above-mentioned Team-ups volume 1); Detective Comics 475-476 and 504; The Joker 1-10 (issue 10 was never actually published; the title was cancelled with 9, but it did previously appear in the recent Bronze Age Joker Omnibus); Justice League of America 77; and Huntress back-up stories in Wonder Woman 280-283. But I was seduced by that Neal Adams cover, and hey … it’s also purple, which was always DC editorial director Irwin Donenfeld’s favorite cover color; he thought it sold books, so I guess it worked on me!
The spine and back cover timeline from DC Finest The Joker: The Last Ha Ha.
Most of the O’Neil stories are entertaining, but Martin Pasko and Elliott S! Maggin’s Joker series stories are a little too much like the Batman TV show in tone. The bulk of the book is edited by Julius Schwartz, and the highlight is the Adams story and the two Joker stories by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers from Detective 475 and 476, all of which will appear in a Batman volume in the near future, I’m sure, since the DC Finest series seems to be very Batman-heavy (five volumes alone this year, not counting this Joker one or the second Team-ups one).
Note that the first Rogers’ story has a weird defect on the last page of the first story (444 in the book), which leaves one of the panels only partially colored, with a black-and-white Batman figure. I’m guessing this is probably a restoration error brought on by the killer schedule of putting two or three of these books out each month. I have copies of the Shadow of the Batman Baxter series from the 1980s and the Batman: Strange Apparitions TPB from the late 1990s, reprinting all the Rogers stories and the coloring on both is fine.
Next up for me: DC Finest Sgt. Rock: The Rock of Easy Co. by Robert Kanigher, Bob Haney, and Joe Kubert, a second Team-Ups volume by Haney and Aparo, et al; and Deadman: How Many Times Can a Guy Die? by Arnold Drake, Jack Miller, and Neal Adams.
And here’s a look at this year’s Batman volumes … we’re halfway there, folks! Blind Justice comes out in July, The Demon Lives Again in September, and The Curse of Crime Alley in November. Which ones will you be reading?
Click here for reviews of other DC Finest volumes!
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