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Who's Who Omnibus #1
Who's Who Omnibus Vol. 1
The series fans demanded is collected at last! Who's Who was a series that began in 1985 and ran through the 1990s, cataloguing every character, good or evil, in the DC Universe, from Abel to Zyklon and beyond, with copious detail on powers, origins, and other key facets of each character.
Illustrated by a wide range of top artists from the Golden Age of comics up through the 1980s indie comics scene, Who's Who was a feast for the eyes as well as being the ultimate guide to the denizens of the DC Universe.
Collects Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #1-26 (1985), Who's Who Update 1987 #1-5 (1987), Who's Who Update 1988 #1-4 (1988), plus material from Action Comics Annual #2 (1987), Batman Annual #13, Blackhawk Annual #1 (1989), Detective Comics Annual #2 (1988), Dr. Fate Annual #1 (1989), Green Arrow Annual #2, Justice League Annual #3 (1987), Secret Origins Annual #3, Swamp Thing Annual #5, The Flash Annual #3 (1987 series), The New Titans Annual #5 (1995), The Question Annual #2 (1988), and Wonder Woman Annual #2 (1988).
Illustrated by a wide range of top artists from the Golden Age of comics up through the 1980s indie comics scene, Who's Who was a feast for the eyes as well as being the ultimate guide to the denizens of the DC Universe.
Collects Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #1-26 (1985), Who's Who Update 1987 #1-5 (1987), Who's Who Update 1988 #1-4 (1988), plus material from Action Comics Annual #2 (1987), Batman Annual #13, Blackhawk Annual #1 (1989), Detective Comics Annual #2 (1988), Dr. Fate Annual #1 (1989), Green Arrow Annual #2, Justice League Annual #3 (1987), Secret Origins Annual #3, Swamp Thing Annual #5, The Flash Annual #3 (1987 series), The New Titans Annual #5 (1995), The Question Annual #2 (1988), and Wonder Woman Annual #2 (1988).
1320 pages, Hardcover
Published April 13, 2021
5 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Len Wein
1,585 books154 followersLen Wein was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men (including the co-creation of Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus). Additionally, he was the editor for writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons' influential DC miniseries Watchmen.
Wein was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2008.
Wein was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 4, 2021
Who's Who Omnibus Vol. 1 collects Who's Who in the DC Universe 1-26, Who's Who Update '87 1-5, Who's Who Update '88 1-4, and various single page Who's Who entries.
When I was nine or ten, I first chanced upon Who's Who #14 on the spinner rack at the local Venture store and was enthralled, knowledge of the most obscure DC characters starting with the letter M at my fingertips. I went on to collect the entire series, read it until it was on life support, and finally buy the series again at a convention in 2017. When I saw this was finally being released, I pried open my wallet and ordered it immediately.
For a reference book nearly 35 years out of date, this was a lot of fun for me and all the nostalgia neurons were firing. This came out as Crisis was happening so of course, further updates were necessary in true DC Comics fashion.
I don't think people who grew up with the internet realize what a big deal this was for DC nerds back in the day. When I was a kid, we had to learn the real names of Red Bee, Bouncing Boy, and the various characters named Manhunter in Who's Who or not at all!
Absent are the Atari Force characters, though Tempest is still on one cover and Blackjak wound up being included in #26 due to some oversight. The covers have been altered to include the page numbers in this mammoth tome rather than the original issues, which I thought was a nice touch. It does irk me that they never fixed The Huntress entry to change her name to Helena instead of Selina in the profile section.
Lots of old timers got one last chance to strut their stuff in this, like Wayne Boring, and some up and comers like Todd McFarlane and Erik Larsen got a chance to contribute. Whatever happened to those guys?
It's funny seeing how many pages were devoted to characters that probably haven't made an appearance since. It's also interesting to see minor characters get more space than major ones. The letters page reveals that comics fans have always had entitled shits in their ranks, as well as people who were rightly skeptical of the long term benefits of Crisis.
Who's Who Omnibus Volume 1 is an interesting time capsule to a tumultuous era in DC's past. Does nostalgia sell better than sex? Yes, yes it does. Five out of five stars.
When I was nine or ten, I first chanced upon Who's Who #14 on the spinner rack at the local Venture store and was enthralled, knowledge of the most obscure DC characters starting with the letter M at my fingertips. I went on to collect the entire series, read it until it was on life support, and finally buy the series again at a convention in 2017. When I saw this was finally being released, I pried open my wallet and ordered it immediately.
For a reference book nearly 35 years out of date, this was a lot of fun for me and all the nostalgia neurons were firing. This came out as Crisis was happening so of course, further updates were necessary in true DC Comics fashion.
I don't think people who grew up with the internet realize what a big deal this was for DC nerds back in the day. When I was a kid, we had to learn the real names of Red Bee, Bouncing Boy, and the various characters named Manhunter in Who's Who or not at all!
Absent are the Atari Force characters, though Tempest is still on one cover and Blackjak wound up being included in #26 due to some oversight. The covers have been altered to include the page numbers in this mammoth tome rather than the original issues, which I thought was a nice touch. It does irk me that they never fixed The Huntress entry to change her name to Helena instead of Selina in the profile section.
Lots of old timers got one last chance to strut their stuff in this, like Wayne Boring, and some up and comers like Todd McFarlane and Erik Larsen got a chance to contribute. Whatever happened to those guys?
It's funny seeing how many pages were devoted to characters that probably haven't made an appearance since. It's also interesting to see minor characters get more space than major ones. The letters page reveals that comics fans have always had entitled shits in their ranks, as well as people who were rightly skeptical of the long term benefits of Crisis.
Who's Who Omnibus Volume 1 is an interesting time capsule to a tumultuous era in DC's past. Does nostalgia sell better than sex? Yes, yes it does. Five out of five stars.
February 25, 2022
A vast, vast collection of the old Who's Who maxi-series plus the next 4? 5? update minis. Light on the extras, but what is there is very nice, including a breakdown of the late, great Neal Pozner's design choices for the series. Despite some repetition, a lot of fun info about the old DCU with lots of great art.
June 19, 2021
Not as exhaustive as the Marvel Universe (Deluxe)— and the series started before the DC universe-shattering Crisis on Infinite Earths— but fun nonetheless. It’s a beautiful volume.
February 19, 2024
This is a great collection showing so many DC characters that I knew and many I didn’t. Doesn’t have as good a listing as the marvel handbooks in relation to data but still very fun to flip through and read. A must read for every DC fan. Sure some of the info may be considered out of date but it’s from a better time at DC.
January 1, 2026
The original DC Directory of Superheroes, Villain's, Teams and Lairs from the 80's reprinted in a hardback tome!! It was great re-reading entries and reminiscing over storylines pre and post Crisis on Infinite Earths...
October 24, 2021
Invaluable resource for, primarily, the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC universe -- and printed much better than the original comics.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews