Encyclopedia Week Begins

Who's Who Vol. IX, DC Comics, November 1985Who's Who

Full title: Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe

Strengths: Rather comprehensive. All original art. Those George Perez covers.

Weaknesses: Sometimes slim on information, especially powers and abilities.

I'm quite the sucker for comics encyclopedias. Any "fictional" encyclopedia, in fact, can get my attention. I think I'll be exploring some of the ones I have lying around the house for the next week or so. Join me in the A to Z, won't you?

In the 80s, Marvel had the Marvel Universe Handbook and DC had Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe. I used to prefer the former, with its anal measurements of how many tons each superhero could lift (I'm anal, so I see this as a good thing), but in the final analysis, it's Who's Who I love.

Face it, you get less detailed information, but you also get more entries for less money, the art pieces are all original, and the covers much crazier. More than that, in Marvel Universe, you sort of had to still be alive to get an entry in the main Handbook (then all the dead guys got one in the Handbook of the Dead issues), but DC doesn't really discriminate.

Take a random issue like Volume IX as an example. Where else but in Who's Who would the likes of the Green Lanterns and Granny Goodness cohabitate with the Golden Gladiator (a hero from ancient Rome), the Ghost Patrol (who fought World War II from beyond the grave) and Gemworld (Amethyst's fantasy world). Any given issue might also have the first true appearance of a character in a DC comic, seeing as the Crisis was going on, and they were being brought in. This is in fact the only DC appearance of the Charlton version of The Ghost.

More than a celebration of DC's characters and concepts, it also celebrates 50 years of artists, and you always get some nice surprises, like the Green Lantern Corps 2-page spread by Brian Bolland, or Gorilla Grodd penciled by classic Flash artist Carmine Infantino and inked by bizarre expressionist Bill Sienkiewicz:
Joe Kubert on Gentleman Ghost, George Perez on Gizmo, Eduardo Barreto on the Global Guardians, Jack Kirby on the Guardian, Gil Kane on Green Lantern, there's plenty to see. And at least one character you've never heard of:
The Grim Ghost gets a whole new name here. All previous appearances were as The Gay Ghost. This isn't mentioned anywhere, but look it up. I guess DC is all about traditional family values. It doesn't say the Global Guardians' Tasmanian Devil is gay either (still in the closet at this point). How a company can have a character called Glorious Godfrey, but still have a straight agenda is beyond me...G.I. Robot! According to this, he was sent to the Pacific with a robot dog AND a robot cat. To counterbalance that entry, if I had to pick the most kickass entry, I'd have to say the Green Man. What?!? Yep. The guy looks like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' inbred cousin... until you notice he's kicking a dinosaur in the head in the background art.
Sorry, but for my money, fighting dinosaurs hand-to-hand wins every time. Especially when your greatest power seems to be that you have "poisonous blood" (so the dinosaur would have died anyway) and "stoic calm". Sadly, the Green Man has recently been turned into an Alpha-Lantern in the pages of Green Lantern Corps. Sigh. Resistance is futile. He has been assimilated.