I am way behind on this now not so new line of chunky paperbacks published by DC. However, I have recently picked up this volume which follows straight on from the Year One & Year Two volume.
Added Attractions: The Killing Joke & Birth of the Demon
As well as continuing with issues of Batman and Detective Comics from the late 1980s, this issue also includes two self contained Batman stories: The Killing Joke and Son of the Demon. Okay, Son of the Demon did go on to have two sequels so isn’t completely self contained. However, I had been wondering what approach the DC Finest line would take with the more stand alone mini-series. This volume answers that: they are going to be included in with the main line issues from the time.
Mixing in one offs like The Killing Joke might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but it is certainly interesting browsing it alongside issues from the same time period. All within the covers of one book too.
Anyway, cutting through my waffle here’s the contents of this volume: Batman #413–422 Batman: The Killing Joke Detective Comics #580–589 Batman: Son of the Demon.
So along with the previous volume, this completes 1987 and moves into 1988.
If you were collecting the previous paperback collections The Caped Crusader and The Dark Knight Detective, this DC Finest volume covers parts of volume one of the former and volumes two and three of the latter. The older lines unfortunately don’t really line up with the DC Finest books. That’s a shame for anyone simply wanting to plug some gaps in their collection. However the DC Finest line seems to be more completionist in their contents and I’m a big fan of that approach.
The Killing Joke
The Killing Joke is of course a very famous Alan Moore and Brian Bolland Batman story. It gets a lot of re-prints and has had the deluxe hard back treatment in the past. I’ve got one of those handy so let’s compare a couple of pages form each volume:
On first glance, the DC Finest volume seems to be using the original colouring. It’s a lot more well, colourful than the Deluxe Edition. This is because artist Brian Bolland re-coloured the art back in 2008 for (I think) the first printing of the Deluxe Edition. His colouring is more muted but also has some changes. Take a look at the Joker’s (or who we assume is the Joker’s) prison outfit in the gallery above. In the DC Finest volume it’s a bright green while in the Deluxe Edition it’s a light grey.
The Deluxe Edition also has taller pages than the DC Finest. This makes enjoying the excellent art easier and is a plus for the Deluxe Edition. So those are two good reasons to hang on to your copy if you have one already.
You might of course also prefer a nice separate hard back book for this important Batman story, but I do like having it sandwiched between the main line Batman comics from the time. It puts the standalone one shot story in a bit more context for me.
A Well Thought Through Volume
There are pros and cons with regard to the choice of colouring for the Killing Joke but overall, I think this volume of DC Finest is really well put together by the editors of the line. I much prefer this completionist approach over the way earlier lines tackled it. Everything is housed within the covers of one chunky paperback and not split between several different books. What’s not to like about that?
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