Batman: Year One. The Dark Knight Returns. Kingdom Come. Watchmen. All-Star Superman. Crisis On Infinite Earths.
These stories are all widely recognized as some of the pillars of DC Comics. These are important stories. Their massive sales figures and continued relevance to fans many years after their publication reflect that importance. But what about another group of stories? Ones that are also beloved by fans and highly rated by critics, but have perhaps not enjoyed quite the same legacy as the aforementioned titles? DC Comics' history is chock full of awesome stories that deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the most important stories ever and this article will spotlight 10 of them. Here are 10 DC stories that are way more important than you thought.
10 GREEN LANTERN: THE SINESTRO CORPS WAR
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The Sinestro Corps War is way more important than you think because it was that rarest of beasts: a superhero crossover event that was universally acclaimed by fans and critics alike. This event made Green Lantern the hottest thing going in DC Comics and confirmed Geoff Johns' position as the writer most adept at updating and expanding various DC heroes' stories and universes.
This story re-imagined Sinestro by drawing parallels between his fear-based Yellow Corps and Adolf Hitler/Nazi Germany and also introduced five new color-based Lantern Corps into the emotional spectrum: the Red Lanterns (rage), Orange Lanterns (avarice), Blue Lanterns (hope), Indigo Lanterns (compassion) and Violet Lanterns (love).
9 JLA VOL. 1
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These days the Justice League is one of DC's premier franchises, but it wasn't always that way. In the early to mid-90's the main title was Justice League International, which added a comical flavor to proceedings, and there were also spin-offs such as Justice League Europe, Extreme Justice and Justice League Task Force.
These teams all consisted of heroes who were far from the A-list and eventually DC canceled every title, before relaunching with JLA in 1997. This put the focus back on the big seven heroes: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter. This is the first collection of that series, which brought the League back to prominence, and comes from the creative team of Grant Morrison and Howard Porter.
8 BATMAN: HAUNTED KNIGHT
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Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Batman: The Long Halloween is one of the most beloved and influential Batman tales of all time. Its year-long murder-mystery gripped readers completely and it is still cited as a favorite by fans and creators alike today. However, before Loeb and Sale collaborated on that maxiseries, they did three one-shot specials together that helped perfect their vision of the Bat.
Read where it all began with these spooky stories from Batman: Legends Of The Dark Knight Halloween Special, Batman: Ghosts and Batman: Madness, featuring villains such as The Joker, Poison Ivy, The Scarecrow and The Mad Hatter.
7 BATMAN: EGO AND OTHER TAILS
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When legendary cartoonist Darwyn Cooke passed away in 2016, most of his fans pointed to DC: The New Frontier as his definitive work for the publisher. A work which editor Mark Chiarello called 'as pure a comic-reading experience as any comic that's ever been published', it's undoubtedly a masterpiece.
But, four years prior to New Frontier, Cooke had written and drawn a Batman graphic novel entitled Batman: Ego that laid the groundwork for his later work at DC, making it much more important than you might think. This collection features Ego, which is psychologically compelling and fiendishly intelligent, and Selina's Big Score, another one-shot graphic novel Cooke wrote and drew, which is one of the best Catwoman stories ever published.
6 JSA: THE GOLDEN AGE
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Geoff Johns is arguably the modern creator most closely associated with DC Comics, having written defining runs on characters like Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman, Shazam and Justice League, as well as serving as the President and CCO of DC Entertainment.
However, Johns' first major long-running work at DC was on JSA, which he wrote for six years. Johns credited JSA: The Golden Age, a 1993 Elseworlds miniseries by James Robinson and Paul Smith, as being responsible for his love of the JSA characters, so that makes it much more important than you may think. The series is a tale of the Golden Age heroes entering the 1950's and encountering the threat of McCarthyism.
5 BIRDS OF PREY VOL. 1
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The upcoming movie Birds Of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn) is a very interesting prospect to many DC fans, as it's unclear as to whether the movie will place most of the focus on Margot Robbie's Harley or whether the core Birds characters (Black Canary and Huntress) will receive equal attention.
Either way, the original Birds Of Prey stories from the '90s are essential reading for any fan who wants to see where the group started. This collection features several miniseries' and one-shots that preceded the first issue of their ongoing title and is very important as it shows us the very beginnings of one of the most revolutionary female groups in DC Comics' history.
4 WONDER WOMAN: THE HIKETEIA
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Greg Rucka is one of the most preeminent Wonder Woman writers of the modern era. His three year run on the title from 2003 to 2006 contains some of the most definitive Diana Prince stories ever written and when he returned to the character as part of DC Rebirth, he was given a hero's reception. However, these runs are not his only significant work featuring the character.
Way back in 2002 he and J.G. Jones collaborated on the hardcover graphic novel Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia and at the time it was considered arguably the best Diana story ever. A modern Greek tragedy of duty and vengeance, the story presented Diana as a real person, with real flaws, caught in a no-win situation. It's ground zero for Rucka's Diana and is therefore way more important than you think.
3 HARLEY QUINN: PRELUDES AND KNOCK-KNOCK JOKES
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This collection features the first seven issues of Harley Quinn's ongoing series from 2001, written by Karl Kesel and drawn by Terry Dodson. In 2019, Harley is a genuine icon and one of the most popular characters in comics, but back when this series began she had only been introduced to comics two years earlier.
DC used this series to test if her popularity from Batman: The Animated Series and her early comics' appearances would carry over and sustain her own comic book. Brilliantly, it proved popular enough that it ran for 38 issues! This is more important than you think because, aside from Catwoman, no other Bat-villain had sustained their own series for any length of time; not even Harley's puddin' The Joker, whose own solo series lasted a mere nine issues in the '70s!
2 BATGIRL: A BLADE FROM THE SHADOWS
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This story appears in 2013's Batgirl #19, written by Gail Simone and penciled by Daniel Sampere. Unlike other stories on this list, this is a single issue, and it comes in the midst of Simone's lengthy run on the title. Why is it way more important than you may think, then? Well, it's because this issue features Alysia Yeoh, Barbara Gordon's roommate and best friend, revealing to her that she is a transgender woman.
Simone has always been at the forefront of LGBT issues and gender representation in comics, so it makes sense that she would've been the writer to introduce the first major transgender character in mainstream superhero comic book history. A landmark moment.
1 THE NEW TEEN TITANS VOL. 1
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In 2019, the Teen Titans are very popular. There is the Titans show on DC Universe, the Teen Titans Go! animated series (and movie) and their ongoing comic book series' have been good performers for DC in the Rebirth era. Despite this, it's still somewhat hard to believe that there was a time in which the Teen Titans were the hottest superhero group in comics, with their title outselling even the X-Men!
This time was the 1980's and it was thanks to George Perez and Marv Wolfman's seminal The New Teen Titans run. This collection features the first eight issues, which gave the world the first appearances of Cyborg, Raven and Starfire!
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