DC Comics: The Ultimate Character Guide

• 24th Oct 2011

Author: Brandon T Snider

Big, brash and glossy, The Ultimate Character Guide is exactly that, with over 200 characters and bios. The graphics are strong and punchy and the characters are displayed mid-action giving the book a kinetic energy. No expense has been spared on the production of this book, which is well priced, particularly as it’s a hardcover.

The book’s mainly about the visual aesthetic and there’s only enough space for 200–300 words on each. It’s not a book for hard-core DC Comics fans who want to know more about the characters’ story arcs; the DC Encyclopaedia delivers that. It will appeal to younger audiences who can quickly thumb through all the characters, discovering recognisable faces and ones that they’ve undoubtedly never heard of.

The book’s penned by Brandon T Snider, actor, writer and producer, who’s produced a long line of books for DC. The writing’s fairly impersonal and straightforward, as it seems there isn’t enough space or opportunity to write anything other than a very factual account of each character. Having said that, the book’s still a strong addition to his other work and to the DC line.

This is also a great tome for those interested in graphics, illustration and character development. There’s a huge variety of characters to be inspired by and the vast use of poses encourages dynamic imitations. Anyone thinking about a career in graphic novels would benefit from having this huge resource of characters and traits to look into. There are a huge variety of graphic styles and facial expressions that any budding artist could use.

A must have for DC and comic fans, this is a slick book you could leaf through for years. It will also give hope to all comic book movie fans that DC will never run out of characters to plunder for live action film.

Maliha Basak