10 Criminally Underrated DC Comics You Must Read
Batman, but not as you remember.
The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, All-Star Superman and dozens more are oft considered DC's greatest tales, but for every Batman: Hush, there is always a comic that deserves to be looked at with a similar eye.
Everyone has their own special book that is just as good as Watchmen, but doesn't have the same recognition for one reason or another. Considering the sheer quantity of books DC have published, this was always going to be the case - however unfortunate it may be.
These books may have been critically adored at one point, or even did the rounds when they first came out, but they are still criminally underrated today. Each and every last one is worth reading though, and with books spanning from the most popular corners of the DC Universe all the way through to its more obscure areas, it's clear that the publisher has a troff of under-appreciated gems in its library, just waiting to be read.
10. Before Watchmen: Minutemen
Watchmen is one of the sacred texts of the medium, so much so that it's considered to be one of the finest novels of the 20th century. So, when DC announced in 2012 that they would be doing seven prequel comics for Watchmen, the comic fandom went into the usual uproar about changing the continuity.
The resulting backlash meant that, by the time DC published Before Watchmen, not many actually went out of their way to read it. In regards to Before Watchmen: Minutemen specifically, however, those that did read it had a positive outlook on it, with the book even garnering a bit of critical success.
Did it live up to the original? No, but the sordid details that Darwyn Cooke brought to the page illustrated a clear reverence for Alan Moore and David Gibbons' text, while at the same time elevating the established canon. He told a fantastic story about Hollis Mason, the original Nite Owl, and how when superheroes aren't invincible or super-powered it is much harder to be a boy scout than a traditional anti-hero.
Plus, with Hollis Mason as the point of view, the Minutemen as a group comes to life like the reader's never seen them before - rough edges and all.