10 Iconic Series That Should Join The DC Compact Comics Line

DC Comics’ collected editions department has undergone some shifts in recent months. From focusing less on the hardcovers that plagued the department for years to printing and reprinting more fan-favorite material and introducing entirely new formatting lines, DC has been on the up and up when it comes to making its catalog more accessible.

One of the best decisions they’ve had on this front is the DC Compact Comics line. To make some of their greatest hits more accessible, the Compact Comics are being printed in a smaller format similar to manga collections, with dimensions of around 5.5″ x 8.5″ instead of the traditional 6.625” x 10.25”. As a result, the comics are all priced at $10 USD, making them much more appealing to readers— especially beginners. The line appears to be incredibly successful so far, which leaves DC with the chance to introduce more comics, old and new, to the line.

10 Monkey Prince Is Perfect For New Readers

Gene Luen Yang is a fantastic talent in comics, with a wide array of works ranging from his time on Superman to memoir material such as Dragon Hoops. He’s had a legendary history working with DC in particular, with one of his best recent projects with the company being the Monkey Prince series.

Monkey Prince followed Marcus Sun, a boy revealed to be the magical clone of Sun Wukong himself. The boy came from an interesting background aside from that, raised by parents who used their smarts to assist supervillains and growing up with a myriad of phobias— as well as a distaste for superheroes. What followed was Marcus eventually discovering his heritage and powers and using them for good in an action-driven adventure. Clocking in at an even twelve issues, Monkey Prince seems to be a perfect selection for Compact Comics— especially as the series has only been collected in two pricy hardcovers— as it is very appealing to Shonen manga fans.

9 The Legend of Wonder Woman Redefined The Golden Age

Wonder Woman has had many series over the years, but The Legend of Wonder Woman had to be one of the character’s best. The series revisited the character’s Golden Age roots, with Diana’s origins and debut in Man’s World happening during the tragic events of World War II.

The Legend of Wonder Woman was done solely by Renae De Liz and Ray Dillon, an impressive feat as the series originally came out weekly through digital chapters. The series was an original take on Wonder Woman’s world, spinning the Amazon’s society into a new direction. While it reintroduced many concepts from the 40’s, such as the Duke of Deception and the Holiday Girls, it updated them with a modern perspective. Despite the series’ ending being a tease of a follow-up that would never come, it’s a great standalone entry for readers to be introduced to Wonder Woman.

Jeremy Adams’ Flash run was a great boon to fans, restoring the character of Wally West to a comfortable status quo after a disastrous streak inflicted upon the character for several years— not too dissimilar to the treatment of Dick Grayson in his “Ric” era. But one of the biggest highlights of the run was the highly anticipated “One-Minute War” arc.

Released twice monthly at a breakneck pace— fitting, all things considered— “One-Minute War” seems like a strange recommendation to new readers interested in the Flash and his mythos. However, considering that a key theme of The Flash is legacy, “One-Minute War” seems like a great way to introduce readers to the key characters involved in the Flash Family and show them working together as a team and as a family in tandem.

7 Nice House On The Lake Was Critically Acclaimed

Alongside Compact Comics collecting many of DC’s greatest hits featuring their greatest heroes, the line has slipped in some more creatively driven ventures such as American Vampire and The Authority to attract readers less interested in typical capes and cowls. As a result, releasing James Tynion IV’s The Nice House On The Lake would be a brilliant move.

A deeply unsettling horror comic about a group of friends at the end of the world, Nice House On The Lake was a masterwork story from DC’s Black Label line— a series jokingly known by fans for its heavy reliance on more Bat-centric properties. Alvaro Martinez Bueno’s art is surreal and dismal, truly lending itself to the purgatory-like setting in which the characters are trapped. It’d be a good move to make the series more accessible to readers, especially as the one time the series was collected in its entirety was in the pricier boundaries of a hardcover.

6 Robin & Batgirl’s Year Ones Go Perfectly Together

Since the success of Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, DC has put out at least a dozen titles sporting that moniker in one way or another, even influencing competing publishers to use it for origin stories or early careers of their various characters.

Among fans, some of DC’s best-known Year One series are Batgirl: Year One and Robin: Year One. Each one, as the title would suggest, go into the early days of two of Batman’s closest allies, Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson. Both series also share much overlap, not just thematically but in terms of the characters featured and their creative teams. As a result, reading the two series back-to-back is a remarkably seamless experience, and thus, it would make plenty of sense for them to be packaged together in one volume.

5 The Earth One Universe Could Use More Eyes

With DC’s Absolute Comics line right around the corner, due to start releasing in October, recommending the Earth One line in any capacity seems a little redundant. However, DC’s first attempt at making their riff on Marvel’s Ultimate Universe still produced some solid results and intrigue from fans. This is especially noticeable, as the Wonder Woman: Earth One series was printed in Compact Comics’ first wave and has been flying off store shelves.

While not the main universe counterparts of any characters involved, Earth One seems like a no-brainer for Compact Comics due to their self-contained and brief natures. All of the series received only 2-3 volumes, making them easy to print, and don’t rely on any pre-existing knowledge for the characters present. Some have even subtly inspired adaptations like Matt Reeves’ The Batman or the upcoming Lanterns show from DC, so continuing their influences in a new print format seems right.

DC has been making strides to appeal to younger readers in recent years with its YA comics, like this year’s Barda, but there haven’t been many books from its main publishing line designed for children or tweens. Cue the Super Sons series, a lighthearted comic that follows the adventures of Damian Wayne and Jon Kent.

While the series’ leads aren’t as young as they are nowadays– with Jon speedily aging up due to a series of misadventures and Damian maturing normally– their earlier stories are fantastically suited for an entry in the Compact Comics line. They’re simple, cute, and very episodic, lending themselves well to easy reading from people unfamiliar with them. Super Sons can also serve as a great gateway to other characters in the DCU, like Damian and Jon’s respective families and friends.

3 Loeb & Sale’s Batman Works Are Classics

If any new fan is interested in starting Batman comics, they will almost always be recommended Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s work on the character—specifically the trilogy of Batman: Haunted Knight, Batman: The Long Halloween, and Batman: Dark Victory—and it’s easy to see why that’s the case. These stories took place at the beginning of Batman’s career, introducing readers to the nooks and crannies of the hellhole that is Gotham City.

Carried heavily by the evocative and atmospheric art of Tim Sale, these stories are engaging mysteries and character studies about all of Gotham’s residents. Batman, of course, takes center stage. With Loeb’s other most prominent Batman work, Batman: Hush, getting printed in Compact Comics’ first wave, it seems inevitable that his previous series will join the line sometime soon.

2 Justice Was Drawn By A Legend

Fans regard Alex Ross as one of the most iconic comic artists of all time, and for good reason. His delicately rendered, painterly style is unique among his contemporaries, and as a result, most of the comics he works on are immediate classics. Such is the case with Justice, a comic that is an homage to old-fashioned Super-Friends adventures.

Despite the comic being a throwback to a simpler era on the surface, Justice is a book all about introducing readers to the basics of the DCU and what the characters within represent. Justice is more about characters and the Justice League as symbols rather than individuals— painting them as almost mythological beings of the modern age. While reader mileage on this may vary, it’s a fascinating and accessible comic for any reader, especially with Ross’ eternally gorgeous art.

1 New Frontier Was A Love Letter To DC

Darwyn Cooke was and still is considered a legend in the comic space, for reasons too plentiful to list in full. Cooke was full of talent, captured especially in his deceptively simple illustration style. While easily recognizable, Cooke’s work was incredibly versatile and easily malleable to fit stories in the sci-fi, noir, historical, and superhero genres.

Perhaps this is why The New Frontier was one of his best works, being a tale easily able to distill Cooke’s best attributes as a creator across 6 triple-sized issues. Not only was his art firing on all cylinders, but the story quickly cemented itself as a classic. Cooke revisited DC’s Silver Age through a modern lens and all the— often tragic— history that entailed. The New Frontier is a love letter enjoyed by all sorts of fans and is the perfect entry point for new readers interested in DC. It is still a fan-favorite origin for characters such as Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern.