← Previous Issues
#10 Direct #10 Newsstand
Next Issues →
#12 Direct #12 Newsstand
The Best of DC, #11 Direct

Published: April 1981

Reviews

No reviews yet
Posts About This Issue

No discussions yet.

Issue Contents:
Year's Best Comic Stories

"Top ten stories of 1980! Starring your favorite DC heroes!"

Credits
The Miraculous Return of Jonathan Kent!

Story Featuring Superman

"And thanks to Superman, the Queen Dory was pulled away from the killer typhoon intact--"

Storyline

Clark Kent's long dead father, Jonathan Kent, suddenly shows up alive and well in Metropolis.

Credits
Pinball

Story Featuring Tales of Gotham City

"You can hear the pulse-beat of the city..."

Credits
Story Notes

Story title from table of contents.

Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker...!

Story Featuring Batman

"Since 1899, Gotham Police Headquarters has stood at the junction of the area called Five Points, on the lower east side of the city..."

Storyline

The Joker plans his own birthday party and invites all of Gotham to watch the explosive celebration with some of Batman's closest allies. It is up to the Caped Crusader to find the event before the fireworks start.

Credits
Brief Encounter

"Finally, the fifty-billion-to-one-shot-- mankind's wildest dream-- comes to fruition in a..."

Storyline

Aliens from another planet travel to Earth to meet the people living here.

Credits
The Man Who Was the World!

Story Featuring Superman , Story Featuring Deadman

"On a lonely storm-swept mountain peak, the star-crossed spirit of a man who had once been the world's greatest circus aerialist vents his frustrated rage to the howling wind..."

Credits
A Bridge Called Charlie

Story Featuring Sgt. Rock

"How's it goin'? Me? I'm Rock... Sergeant... Easy Co.! I just left ten Easy guys guardin' a bridge..."

Credits
Story Notes

World War II; Nazis

Star Light, Star Bright... Farthest Star I See Tonight!

Story Featuring Legion of Super-Heroes

"The year is 2979 A.D., the city is Metropolis, the planet Earth. And the flying figure is, of course, Superboy, breaking the time barrier to visit the most extraordinary band of heroic youths in the galaxy..."

Storyline

Superboy convinces the Legion of Super-Heroes to go searching for the star that shown over Bethlehem during Jesus' birth on Christmas Eve.

Credits
The Vow of a Samurai!

Story Featuring Jonah Hex

"Might's well hitch up at thet country saloon fer a spell an see if'n ah cain't wash down some'a this trail dust wi'f a few whiffs of rye whiskey--"

Credits
Bruce the Barbarian!

"What new and wondrous land is this-- and what dangers lurk around the next bend?"

Storyline

After being dumped by Cornelia, Bruce uses the powers of his mind to transport himself to another place where he is a barbarian hero.

Credits
The Secret World of Jonathan Kent!

Story Featuring Superman

"Jonathan Kent, kindly foster-father to Clark (Superboy) Kent, tragically died many years ago..."

Storyline

Superman battles Starshine and his powers of suggestion. Then we learn the secret of Jonathan Kent's return to life.

Credits
And the Winners Are...
Credits
Story Notes

Back cover. List of interior stories over a background collage of cover the stories appeared in: - Action Comics (DC, 1938 series) #507 (by Andru & Giordano), - Batman (DC, 1940 series) #321 (by García-López), - Jonah Hex (DC, 1977 series) #39 (by DeZuñiga), - DC Comics Presents (DC, 1978 series) #24 (by García-López), - Action Comics (DC, 1938 series) #508 (by Andru & Giordano), - Detective Comics (DC, 1937 series) #494 (by Aparo), - The Unexpected (DC, 1968 series) #205 (by Janes & Giordano), - Sgt. Rock (DC, 1968 series) #337 (by Kubert), - Time Warp (DC, 1979 series) #5 (by Kaluta), - DC Special Series (DC, 1977 series) #21 (by García-López)

The Story Behind the Issue

"For this, the second annual collection of Best of DC, we strove to get a wide range of different types of stories."

Credits
Story Notes

Last interior page and inside back cover. Explains how the stories were selected. Cover illustration from 1979's "Year's Best Comics Stories" is reprinted in black and white with the text changed from 1979 to 1980.

Year's Best Comics Stories
Story Notes

Inside front cover. Contents and indicia.