10 Best DC Omnibuses For Beginners

DC Comics is known for publishing many fantastic stories over the years, with an expansive and enviable catalog building across its history. As a result, much of DC’s work has been archived in the omnibus format, which works very well for the company’s typically self-contained sagas.

Many omnibuses cover the exploits of DC’s greatest comics, but some can be more accessible to readers of all calibers than others. Whether through availability, having a story contained in one volume, or being a simple jumping-on point, new DC readers can tap into a fairly wide spread of omnibuses.

10 Doom Patrol by Morrison Is A Great Start To An Esoteric Team

Many fans of the Silver Age of comics often cite the Doom Patrol as one of their favorite facets of that era of the DC universe, and author Grant Morrison wasn’t alone in that. In 1989, following the Crisis on Infinite Earths relaunch, Morrison was tasked with modernizing the eclectic team— and they knocked it out of the park. With baffling plot lines, strange characters, and absurd high concepts all intersecting, one can see the legacy Doom Patrol left behind.

Later followed up with iconic runs from Rachel Pollack and Gerard Way— yes, that one— and helping inspire the Vertigo imprint for DC, Morrison’s run on Doom Patrol is undeniably brilliant. Serving as not only a launch point for the legendary author’s status in the public eye as someone to watch out for but also a launch point for anyone interested in weird, surreal, absurdist, self-contained, and deeply entertaining comics, Doom Patrol is an easy pick-up for new DC fans.

9 The Question’s Definitive Run Is A Gritty Epic

The Question is a fan-favorite character for viewers of the Justice League Unlimited cartoon. His enigmatic and eccentric nature charms fans. Many would be surprised, however, to learn the character has had many reinventions in the comics, the most prominent of which were under the pens of Dennis O’Neil and Denys Cowan.

The Question was envisioned as an objectivist by creator Steve Ditko at Charlton Comics. Still, when the character falls under DC’s ownership, he underwent radical development that changed his entire worldview. Vic Sage became a sort of philosopher character, interrogating the foundations of his reality in a dinghy, corrupt city. The Question was a title that delved into deeply political issues, pulling no punches with the liberty of the “Mature Readers Only” label it boasted. The series is a self-contained noir epic with slight supernatural elements, serving as an amazing comic for new readers, and the tale told in its two volumes is a great one for those more inclined to darker stories.

8 The Gotham City Sirens Posit A Fun Look At Gotham’s Greatest Villains

Batman has one of the best rogue galleries in comics, and the original run of Gotham City Sirens by Batman: The Animated Series creator Paul Dinitaps into what makes these villains so great— some of them, anyway. Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn take the spotlight as a group forced together in the comic. It’s one part character study and one part screwball comedy, as the premiere villainesses of Gotham wreak havoc together.

Despite later incarnations of the group portraying the Sirens as more of a buddy-buddy trio of best friends, the original series had no qualms about the fact the three were supervillains— or, in the case of Catwoman, an anti-hero— in very unstable positions in their lives. They backstabbed one another, their allies, and their enemies in various adventures that ranged from silly to dramatic. While the development the series’ main trio had is the draw of it all, Gotham City Sirens posits a great look into both Gotham’s criminal underworld as well as what it looked like in the absence of Bruce Wayne’s Batman.

7 Gotham Central Fleshes Out Looked-Over Aspects Of Gotham

Gotham City Sirens was a fun look into what the villains of Gotham did when Batman wasn’t around. So, it seems natural to mention that Gotham Central showcased how the plainclothes citizens of Gotham handled themselves in the shadow of the Caped Crusader and his villains. Gotham Central was a police procedural written by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, handling the day and night shifts of the GCPD.

While this sounds a bit dull on paper, the duo makes excellent use of the series’ setting to flesh out its hidden corners. Supervillains from Joker to Firebug are utilized and developed while civilian lives tormented by these criminals are elaborated on. The psychological impact of dealing with Gotham’s darkness is a cornerstone of the run. While Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock are relegated to minor appearances in an arc here and there, the series makes excellent use of Renee Montoya as the closest thing it has to a central protagonist in its huge ensemble cast.

6 Hellblazer by Jamie Delano Started Constantine’s Long And Successful Series

John Constantine is a fan favorite character, and for good reason— he’s got a 300-issue solo series that lasted from 1988 to 2013, no mean feat for a character as alternative as him under a Big Two title. This began with his debut in the pages of The Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore but was elaborated on at the beginning of the ongoing Hellblazer by Jamie Delano. John Constantine has been an alternative punk character since day one, but Delano amplified those traits to a fascinating extreme in his run.

Hellblazer was overt in its political commentary, with its English writer taking consistent jabs at the way those like Margaret Thatcher ran the UK— going as far as to say demons got her elected because they revel in the suffering she brought. It was wonderfully combined with a grimy sort of dark magic Constantine went on to specialize exclusively throughout his stories, adding a strong aura of horror that would permeate all of Hellblazer from then on. Volume two of the series’ omnibuses has yet to be released, but the length of the first omnibus will be sure to hold fans over.

5 Geoff Johns Revived A Golden Age Icon In JSA

Before the author’s run on Green Lanternthat revolutionized Hal Jordan, Geoff Johns spent some time on another DC property: The Justice Society of America, the original DC super-team from before the days of the Justice League. While modernizing the team, Johns didn’t throw away its ’40s origins, instead opting to incorporate the team’s elderly status into his writing.

Contained within three entire omnibus volumes— though, just the first is enough of a glimpse into this team if a new reader wouldn’t want to commit that hard— Johns wrote JSA for roughly 100 issues, a shockingly long run by DC standards. Blending the old and the new of DC’s history— literally, as the JSA is composed of elderly and teenage heroes alike— JSA has firmly stood as the perfect incarnation of a legendary team.

4 The JLA Found New Life Under Grant Morrison

One would assume the Justice League would serve as a great jumping-on point for new readers into DC, and they’d be right— the catch is finding the right one to start from. Cue Grant Morrison’s time on Justice League of America, a series that brought the classic idea of the Justice League back into the public consciousness after Justice League International plucked the vague idea of the team from obscurity.

Morrison’s JLA shot new life into a version of the team that had grown stagnant over time, excelling at every aspect that made a team book engaging. The chemistry between characters remained on-point, the pacing was brisk and action-packed with just enough breathing room, lesser-known characters without their own series got the chance for development, and villains weren’t just easily discarded props. While the single volume collecting everything is massive— clocking in at about 1500 pages— it is a great start for anyone looking to understand the wider DCU.

3 PKJ’s Superman Was A Champion Of The Oppressed

When Superman was first introduced by his creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, he was given the tagline “Champion of the Oppressed”— a title author Phillip Kennedy Johnson doubled down on heavily in his recent Action Comics run. A story about helping the weak and oppressed while sacrificing yourself, there’s a reason “PKJ” has become a household name for comic fans.

Many people just now getting into Superman as a character have likely heard the term “Warworld” thrown around, with that being the colloquial name for the major arc of Johnson’s run on Action Comics. Featuring Superman emancipating a slave planet in a beautiful homage to the story of Moses— a deep honor to Kal-El’s Jewish creators and the religious parallels that have existed within him since day one— readers will be able to pick up the perfect intro to the Man of Steel when the omnibus collecting this run releases in July of 2025.

2 Perez’s Wonder Woman Is A Great Start For Any Reader

When it comes to any character as iconic as Wonder Woman, it may seem like an imposing challenge to find a good starting point for their comics. This is where George Perez’s Wonder Woman comes into play as the character’s reinvention during the Post-Crisis era. The run, over 60 issues long, streamlines Wonder Woman’s world and themes into a coming of age story with engaging side characters, plots, and payoffs.

Perez’s time on the title is accessible for anyone, introducing readers to all sorts of aspects of Princess Diana’s mythos in a very digestible way. His run is also divided up into a sort of three-act structure across its three volumes— covering Diana’s arrival in Man’s World, the peace she barters between her sisters and Man’s World, and the cataclysmic battle in the event War of the Gods the villain Circe begins— making its pacing incredibly engaging. While some aspects are very dated and should be treated as such, the sum of Wonder Woman’s parts is worth looking into across its three volumes.

1 Snyder and Capullo’s Batman Perfectly Distilled the Character

It’s hard to name a series of back-to-back comic stories as amazing and iconic as “The Court of Owls,” “Death of the Family,” and “Zero Year,” the trilogy that kicks off Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s take on the character of Batman for the New 52 initiative. While “New 52” may scare off some new readers, it should be known that the time the creative powerhouse of Snyder and Capullo spent on Batman was legendary, potentially being the Caped Crusader’s greatest run ever.

Snyder and Capullo’s Batman is collected in two omnibuses, clocking in at a total of 52 issues— not to mention all of the additional goodies, such as Batman: Last Knight on Earth— that are almost always kept in the reprint cycle, making them much cheaper and easier to find than most other omnibuses. A must-have for Batman fans and something you’ll never find missing on a comic collector’s shelves, Batman by Snyder and Capullo is the perfect intro to Batman, an amazing exhibit of Bruce Wayne, and the best time you’ll have reading his comics.