This book looked interesting because it is basically a way to know which comics should be the first DC ones that you read. I already read plenty of DC comics, but it’s always nice to see how the company orders their favorites. Naturally, this is a book that is best if you are about to start reading comics or want to check out some of the classics.

That being said, I felt that the book plays it a little too safe. In their Top 25 Graphic Novels section, I heard of at least 20 of them…possibly every title. Batman Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, V For Vendetta, etc. They were all titles (Except Superman Earth 1) that you essentially expected to be on the list. I would have liked some surprises. A few obscure titles would have been great.

Of course, the classics should make up most of them. They are the classics for a reason and I would have been sad if The Death of Superman hadn’t made it. Most of the comics are from The New 52 since that is where they want you to start reading from. It’s nice to see the summaries for all of the graphic novels and it reaffirms the fact that most of DC’s comics have great artwork. Only a handful of them didn’t look so good and most of the issues were 5 star quality.

The older comics mostly show up in the character section. Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, and Superman get two-three pages to themselves where the book lists their best comics. While the New 52 ones are always present, there are also older ones to keep things interesting. After all, you can’t mention Green Lantern and skip the War of The Green Lanterns graphic novel. That’s simply not done!

The only section of the graphic novel that wasn’t very entertaining was the Vertigo lineup section. (I think it was just Vertigo, but there may have been a few other obscure sections) The comics just weren’t my style since I’m more of a superhero guy. The fairy tales thing was intriguing until I read the summary. Eh, I’ll just stick to the usual DC fighters.

There aren’t really any comic previews, but the Top 25 Graphic Novels all get a few panels to show off the art and the dialogue. The pictures are very small so you’ll have to squint if you want to read them. I had already read most of the interesting ones though and comics like the Watchmen didn’t interest me. (The Watchmen is pretty overrated if you ask me)

The collection nearly 200 pages, but it’s really about half of that since the last half is all made up of checklists and such. You’ll breeze through the guidebook, but that’s actually a good thing. The print isn’t small and intimidating like the Marvel counterparts. It would have been nice to get even more data in there, but containing the size is important so I’m glad that they succeeded.

Overall, this is a very good guidebook. It covers a lot of ground while also making the fonts easy to read and staying under 200 pages. The reading list at the end is also very fun and reading all of the comics in them would be a pretty great feat. Checklists like that are simply fun to have. I do think that they should have included some more obscure titles in there, but there were still a lot of comics that were covered. If you’re jumping into DC comics, then this is the perfect guide to get you all set. This review was rather short, but you can only write about a guidebook for so long. There simply isn’t a whole lot to say. Back on topic, I recommend getting the Justice League comics if you really were going to buy a comic for the first time. Nothing is more accessible than the firs issue of that series and you’ll get to meet a whole lot of characters!

Overall 8/10