DC Power: A Celebration

DC Power #1+

by N.K. Jemisin, Dorado Quick, Jordan Clark

DC A Celebration honors the power of Black excellence across the DC Universe!

Cyborg, John Stewart, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Batwing, Vixen, Amazing-Man, and more take center stage to highlight the power of Black excellence across the DC Universe, in stories from a variety of comics' finest Black artists and writers!

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Adult, Anthologies, Graphic Novels

80 pages, Hardcover

First published January 23, 2024

About the author

N. K. Jemisin lives and works in New York City.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

DC's Black heroes need to be celebrated, but this anthology feels more like an afternoon reception at a Holiday Inn meeting room than the all-night rager they deserve.

The short stories have abrupt and thin little plots that barely introduce or sometimes don't even name the characters they feature. Some profile pages are scattered through the book to help, but most of them might have been of more value if placed before the stories starring the characters.

Nothing in here is bad, but nothing is really striking or memorable either except for some of the art. And based on this sampling, DC's lineup of Black superheroes doesn't seem as deep or impressive as Marvel's.


FOR REFERENCE:

Contents:
• Introduction / John Ridley, writer
• Amazing-Man: Black Paradise [DC Power: A Celebration #1] / Evan Narcisse, writer; Darryl Banks, artist
• Amazing-Man [Will Everett character profile] / Julian Totino Tedesco, illustrator
• Black Lightning: Separate But Equal [DC Power: A Celebration #1] / Lamont Magee, writer; ChrisCross, penciller; Juan Castro, inker
• Thunder and Lightning [Anissa Pierce and Jennifer "Jen" Pierce" character profiles] / Ken Lashey and Juan Fernandez, illustrators
• Nubia, Queen of the Amazons, and Bumblebee: The Queen, the Bee & the Symphony [DC Power: A Celebration #1] / Stephanie Williams, writer; Alitha Martinez, penciller; Mark Morales, inker
• Nubia [Zahava character profile] / Clayton Henry and Marcelo Maiolo, illustrators
• Green Lantern: Keeping the Peace [DC Power: A Celebration #1] / Brandon Thomas, writer; Natacha Bustos, artist
• Green Lantern [John Stewart character profile] / Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Alex Sinclair, illustrators
• Aquaman and Kid Flash: Own Your Name [DC Power: A Celebration #1] / Dorado Quick and Jordan Clark, writers; Clayton Henry, artist
• Kid Flash [Wallace West character profile] / Alex Garner, illustrator
• Aquaman [Jackson Hyde character profile] / Khary Randolph and Emilio Lopez, illustrators
• Vixen and Batwing: Vixen & Batwing [DC Power: A Celebration #1] / Chuck Brown, writer; Petterson Oliveria, artist
• Vixen [Mari Jiwe McCabe character profile] / Jamal Campbell, illustrator
• Batman: The Cavalry [Batman Black & White Vol. 2 #3 (2021)] / John Ridley, writer; Olivier Coipel, artist
• Batwing [Lucas "Luke" Fox character profile] / illustrated by Doug Braithwaite
• Batman [Timothy "Jace" Fox character profile] / illustrated by Mateus Manhanini
• Far Sector [excerpt from Far Sector #5] / N.K. Jemisin, writer; Jamal Campbell, artist
• Green Lantern [Sojourner "Jo" Mullein character profile] / Shawn Martinbrough, illustrator
• Cyborg: Booyah! [DC Power: A Celebration #1] / Morgan Hampton, writer; Valentine de Landro, artist
• Cyborg: Inner City Blues [Cyborg (2023) #1] / Morgan Hampton, writer; Tom Raney, artist
• The Art of DC Power / Sozomaika; Ken Lashley and Juan Fernandez; Taj Tenfold; Mateus Manhanini; ChrisCross and Wil Quintana; Taurin Clarke; Edwin Galmon, Khary Randolph and Alex Guimarães; Alexis Franklin; Manou Azumi; Robyn Smith; Jerry Gaylord; Jay Hero; Sean Damien Hill, Anthony Fowler, Jr., and Christopher Sotomayor; illustrators

[Eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glad this collection exists. Good quality content. Just a reminder that DC has some great black heroes.

[Gilbert A. Dillard Jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this , great read and good for your collections

I loved, wish they would cover more black superheros also maybe do a volume 2.
Cover Superman, Black Adam, Bolt, and others

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars overall
Some great art in this collection, especially Natasha Bustos on the Green Lantern story " Keeping the Peace", Clayton Henry on "Own Your Name" and Olivier Coipel on the Batman story "The Cavalry".
Unfortunately most of the short strips don't feel like fully fleshed-out stories, just interludes or anecdotes.
As I'm not a big DC reader anymore, they were passingly entertaining, but apart from Batman, none of them made me want to dive back into their Universe/s...also, the Far Sector (Green Lantern Sojourner 'Jo' Mullein) and final Cyborg stories are merely there as tasters/extracts from already published series and books; and as stated above they were not enough to get me back as a major DC reader...

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Should be retitled, 'Kitchen Sink Edition' as in...'we're including everything we can (including the kitchen sink)'...

Great art, great stories, and great characters make this a great piece of history.
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Bonus: I used to LOVE reading Amazing-Man stories in All-Star Squadron

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75