Need DC recommendations

Seldes Katne

Seldes Katne

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I'm in the process of weeding and ordering for my Young Adult area, including the graphic novels. We have a lot of Marvel, but only a few DC titles. I'd like to balance it out a little more. I don't read DC, so I'm looking for suggestions for good trades featuring DC characters. What we have at the moment:

Batman: Blind Justice
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again
Batman: The Killing Joke
Green Arrow: Quiver
Impuse: Reckless Youth
Sandman, Vol. 1
Stardust
Superman for All Seasons
Swamp Thing 4
Thessaly: Witch for Hire
Watchmen
911: Stories to Remember, Vol. 2

We're also supposed to have V for Vendetta, but I'm not seeing that on the shelf. Apparently someone wandered off with it and "forgot" to check it out first. :? Oh, well, I can always re-order....

What am I missing that you would consider a DC "must-have"? It needs to be available in trades, since we don't circulate single issues.
 
The Grant Morrison JLA trades have a lot of fans. So so the two Batman: Hush trades.
 
Batman: Haunted Knight
Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: Dark Victory

And I would suggest getting the trade, DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore, which was The Killing Joke, What Ever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, and other classics.
 
My recommendations:
-Animal Man
-The Authority (Highly recommended.)
-Batman: The Long Halloween
-Batman: Year One (Highly recommended.)
-Crisis On Infinite Earths (Haven't read it, but its one of the most important DC stories ever so its definitely a must.)
-Doom Patrol
-JLA
-Kingdom Come (Highly recommended.)
-Planetary (Highly recommended.)
-Preacher (I'm not sure if this would be good for the "Young Adults" section. It has a sometimes ridiculous amount of sex/nudity/violence/f-bombs.)
-MORE Sandman (There are ten volumes of it and I recommend you get as many as you can. I'd also recommend the various spin offs and such, like Death: The High Cost of Living, Death: The Time of Your Life, Endless Nights and Dream Hunters.)
-Superman: Red Son (Highly recommended.)
-Superman: Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow? (I haven't read this, but I know they just released a "DC Stories of Alan Moore" trade that has this and many other stories for about $20.)
-WE3 (Highly recommended, though its UNBELIEVABLY violent.)

DC has produced a lot of great stuff. I'm sure you'll get more excellent suggestions.
 
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The DC Universe stories of Alan Moore is a must.
Check out the Vertigo site, any book they've produced that you've heard good things about,order. If you haven't heard of it, don't. A general rule of thumb for that imprint.
Grant Morrison's JLA, and JLA:Crisis Of Conscience.
Identity Crisis, Prelude to Infinite Crisis & the four Countdown trades.
Green Lantern: Rebirth, Green Lantern: No Fear.
The second & third Green Arrow trades-Sounds of Violence & The Archers Quest.
Batman: Year One, Under The Hood.
 
Authority V. 1 & 2

Batman Knightfall, Knightsquest, and Knightsend

JLA (Morrison)

JLA Tower of Babel

... I'll try and think of more...


Ooh, Superman Red Son,

Batman Long Holloween

Batman Dark Victory
 
Y The Last Man and Ex Machina are also good, and pretty cheap, but they're not really suited for Young Adults. :?
 
Mark Waid'sLegion of Superheroes
and Geoff Johns' Teen Titans are great teen-centric comics

JLA: Year One
Batman: Year One
Robin:Year One
Batgirl: Year One
Nightwing: Year One

Are all great Starter points for many characters...

Green Lantern: Rebirth is also a great into to a character...

Any Mark Waid or Geoff Johns Collection of The Flash

And I would strongly recommend absolutely everything by Alan Moore.
 
JLA Age of Wonder strikes me as excellent reading for the 11-17 age bracket, although it is an excellent read for older comic readers like us as well.

It basically uses the Elseworlds premise to place the various JLA members and put them in a 19th century Industrial Revolution context, with the various superhuman analogues being inventors of a sort, forming a scientific cabal.

Its basically the kind of superhero comic I would've wanted to read when I was young and saturated with Sherlock Holmes books and captivated by late 19th century/early 20th century mythically hyped scientist-legends.
 
Young Adult huh? Well, I wouldn't reccomend Authority since theres alot of sex, drugs, violence, implied rape... I could keep going really, but bottom line is it could get you in some trouble. Planetary is fine though. Most of the Vertigo stuff is on the line too. Sandman and Animal Man would be fine, but Fables, Preacher and Y: The Last Man have some things that are a bit contriversal. Just the beastiality comments in Fables should probably rule it out. Teen Titans is an excellent suggestion, and so are the Elseworlds books. Kingdom Come, Red Son, even Byrne Generations are fun reads.
 
Baxter said:
Young Adult huh? Well, I wouldn't reccomend Authority since theres alot of sex, drugs, violence, implied rape... I could keep going really, but bottom line is it could get you in some trouble.
Click to expand...
I think the first trade is clean enough, apart from the violence. Millar's first arc in V2 may be a bit much though, what with the incinerating of infants and the disturbingly high number of references to rape.
 
Baxter said:
Most of the Vertigo stuff is on the line too. Sandman and Animal Man would be fine, but Fables, Preacher and Y: The Last Man have some things that are a bit contriversal. Just the beastiality comments in Fables should probably rule it out.
Click to expand...
I mean this with all seriousness, but Fables, Preacher and Y: The Last Man are exactly the kind of 'adult' material I'd recommend to 13 and up.

Sure, they have some questionable content like the aforementioned bestiality in Fables, and a bit of sociopolitical extremist nutcase-ism in Y, but they're placed in the kind of serious context that makes it easier to swallow.

I'm actually less likely to recommend something like Alias, as it features a woman who engages in rather questionable sexual behavior and some rather manipulative relationships. (And yes, it's a MAX book, but I'm trying to differentiate between what kind of 'mature' content is questionable or not)

And okay, fine. I CAN'T defend Preacher.
 
She has Watchmen.

Compared to that, the Socio-Political statements in Y:The Last Man, and the romanticized "beastiality" (i quote it because Bigby is essentially a demi-god, and if they let kids read their Greek Myths, this is hardly new material) in Fables are nothing.

And they are both fantastic stories that I have recommended to kids ages 12-15 all the time at Borders, and I've never had a customer come back and complain that I gave their child smut.

Preacher is not a kid friendly series by any means.

I would also recommend Hard Time: 50 to Life for young teens. It approaches the idea of consequence and superpowers in a unique way...

And for the Teens+ Crowd, I would highly recommend Strangers in Paradise, especially now that it comes in handy-dandy $10 Pocket books.
 
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