DC Finest: Team-Ups: Chase to the End of Time

DC Finest: Team-Ups #2

by Bob Haney, Martin Pasko, Jim Aparo (Illustrator)

It's Superman and his greatest allies, facing impossible odds! Kicking off with an iconic race between the Man of Steel and the Fastest Man Alive, The Flash, this new volume in the DC Finest line catalogs some of the best and most memorable team-ups across the DC Universe!
DC Finest continues, a major publishing initiative presenting comprehensive collections of the most in-demand and celebrated periods in DC Comics history, spanning genres, characters, and eras!
Experience the best and most exciting team-up stories of the 1970s with this new volume of DC Finest! Join Superman as he joins forces with his friends like the Flash, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman in unforgettable stories that have informed the DC Universe for generations!
This volume collects stories from DC Comics Presents #1-14; The Brave and the Bold #141-155.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels

560 pages, Paperback

Published March 18, 2025

About the author

Robert G. Haney was an American comic book writer, best known for his work for DC Comics. He co-created the Teen Titans as well as characters such as Metamorpho, Eclipso, Cain, and the Super-Sons.

Reviews

[Ignacio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hay cuatro historias de DC Comics Presents, sus cuatro primeros números, que bordean la obra maestra. Fraguadas en el dibujo de un José Luiz García López mayestático y tres de ellas en guiones de Martin Pasko que bordan lo que debe ser un Team-Up: encuentro de superhéroes con villanos que los pongan a prueba en un argumento que, al final, los deje como estaban pero sin sentirse vacuo o una estupidez. Y joder si lo logran, sobre todo en la primera historia en dos partes, enfrentando a Superman con Flash en una carrera por el tiempo para conseguir salvar la raza humana sin poner en riesgo el origen del primero. ¡Olé! También hay alguna así de las que Bob Haney y Jim Aparo hacen para The Brave and the Bold, reproducidas, por cierto, a partir de un material mucho peor conservado (o tratado).

El problema es que en la primera colección pronto empieza a salir gente muuuyyyyyyy de segundo nivel en el dibujo (Dick Dillin, Murphy Anderson) y los guiones, mientras que en la otra Haney tira mucho de ocurrencias sin pies ni cabeza que pocas veces están en el nivel de locurón que necesitaría tener para merecer el esfuerzo. El resultado es un tomo para muy cafeteros que, además, exhibe sin vergüenza la escasa cabeza que hay detrás de muchas reediciones de DC. En este caso alternando el material de ambas cabeceras, prometinéndote al final de cada capítulo una historia de la misma colección que no vas a leer 20 o 40 páginas después. Nadie al volante.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some good stories in this collection, and a few that are something less than good, but if you're a fan of what they call the Bronze Age of DC comics then you'll enjoy this volume. The appearance of The Legion of Superheroes was the stand-out for me along with the follow-up featuring "Superboy", but I have a strong bias for all of those characters, so take that as you will.

[Andrew Buttery · Rating 5 out of 5]

perfect reproduction. reprinted classic stories that look and feel like the originals with better colors and higher quality paper. These will prove to be popular reprints and I look forward to what future titles come out

[Shawn Gallagher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun. This book is old-fashioned fun.

[Gary Sassaman · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, this is not my favorite DC Finest book to-date. It’s from the years 1978-79, and the launch of DC Presents, the company’s Superman team-up book (probably due to the imminent Superman movie), and the title starts with a bang—at least art-wise—with the first four issues drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, but the book itself goes downhill after that. Julius Schwartz was the editor, so all the Superman stories lean very heavily into science fiction. The first 12 issues of DC Comics Presents are featured here alongside the Batman team-up stories from The Brave and the Bold issues 141 through 155, pretty much all written by Bob Haney and drawn by Jim Aparo, who was the reason I was interested in this volume. Aparo is having a bit of long overdue moment right now, with an illustrated biography from TwoMorrows Publishing and an Artist’s Edition from Act IIII, but to be honest, Haney’s scripts are a bit disappointing and Aparo’s art seems muddy in some of the reproduction in this book. All the stories are certainly part of the 1970s, though, and the first few issues of both titles take place during the infamous “DC Implosion,” when the books went from 32 pages and 35 cents to 44 pages and 50 cents, and just as quickly back to 32 at 40 cents. It was not a fun time, business-wise, for DC. I love most of Aparo’s B&B covers, though, and some of Haney’s (and editor Paul Levitz’s) team-up combos for the Caped Crusader are fun choices. A second Team-Ups volume comes out in June (on my birthday, even!) and will include more Brave and the Bold stories plus ones from Super-Team Family, a title lost to the ages.

[Gavin Dawson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading this collection as I hadn’t read most of the stories in here before, although oddly the first DC comic I ever remember reading in a UK reprint was (DC comics presents 8). Unfortunately it was very mediocre stuff, with the writing being the main issue. Most stories were forgettable and felt very dated with corny dialogue, even for the time, with the low point being the disco of death. I found it a real chore to finish as it went on because of such uninspiring cartoon plots. The only saving grace and reason I didn’t give it one star was because of some lovely Aparo artwork as well as the issues by Garcia-Lopez and Newton. Also, I’m no expert, but I’m not sure about some of the loose continuity which admittedly wasn’t a big priority for DC back then. Not one I’d recommend as there are definitely better DC finest books out there.

[Steven desJardins · Rating 3 out of 5]

DC ran two team-up books concurrently, The Brave & The Bold featuring Batman teaming up with other heroes, and DC Comics Presents, starring Superman and other heroes. The Brave & The Bold was written exclusively by Bob Haney and had a pretty shaky grasp on continuity, while DC Comics Presents had a wide variety of creative teams of pretty variable quality. The best of the stories are okay to good, the worst are pretty bad, the collection overall is worth picking up for nostalgia, but without the appeal of nostalgia, there are better collections out there.

[Matt Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be the most fun DC Finest so far. It contains the stories featuring Superman and Batman each teaming up with a variety of different heroes. My favorite is the Superman and Adam Strange team up. Covers 1978-1979.

[Egghead · Rating 3 out of 5]

detective comics
comics make some okay stuff...
not memorable.