Miniseries serve several purposes for publishers. Sometimes they’re a way for publishers to put out solo stories about characters that can’t support their own ongoings. Other times they allow creators who can’t commit long-term to an ongoing to still put out some amazing content.
While ultimately the goal of letting fans experience more cool stories is met, there’s just one problem. Some of the best stories can often be way too short, often deserving of either an ongoing or at least a few more issues. DC Comics not only has solo stories that could be expanded on, but some amazing ensemble miniseries that needed more too.
10 Space Ghost
By Joe Kelly, Ariel Olivetti, and Richard Starkings
Future Quest wasn’t the first time DC tried to do a modern take on classic Hanna-Barbera characters. In the 2000s, Joe Kelly and Ariel Olivetti worked together to do the origin story for Space Ghost. The series begins with the Peacekeeper Thaddeus Bach being invited to join a special force known as The Wrath.
When Bach learns part of the group is corrupt, he’s shot for not falling in line. Not long afterward though, he’s given special powers by an alien known as Salomon, who also grants him a new base and special technology to bring peace to the stars. This book could have been an ongoing, or even folded Space Ghost into the DC Universe.
9 Justice
By Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, Doug Braithwaite, and Todd Klein
Alex Ross and his team put out a Justice League story in the mid-2000s that was basically an episode of the Superfriends with better art. The story focused on some of the Justice League’s greatest villains as they recognized the coming of a great calamity.
Working together, the group sought to protect the world while taking down the Justice League at the same time. Though the book might have taken forever to release, it was still an amazing comic book that catered to fans who wanted more of the classic Satellite Era Justice League. Ultimately, so long as it maintained the same artistic standard, it could’ve continuously released for years.
8 Multiversity
By Grant Morrison, Ivan Reis, Chris Sprouse, Ben Oliver, Frank Quitely, Cameron Stewart, Marcus To, Paulo Siqueira, Jim Lee, Doug Mahnke, and more
Multiversity was a project Grant Morrison spent years working on. Fortunately, it was everything they’d advertised and more, easily taking a spot in some of the best comics they’ve ever done for DC. Much like Seven Soldiers, the story was split across multiple one-shots that focused on different characters.
Unlike Seven Soldiers though, each book was set on a different Earth. Some of them were familiar, like the new Earth-5 that focused solely on Captain Marvel and his family, while others were brand-new, like the pulp heroes of Earth-20. All of them were woefully under-explored and could’ve easily supported their own miniseries.
7 JSA: The Liberty Files
By Dan Jolley, Tony Harris, Ray Snyder, Matt Hollingsworth, and Ken Lopez
Tony Harris and Dan Jolley came up with a brilliant take on the Justice Society of America with JSA: The Liberty Files. Taking the title of “mystery men” seriously, this alternate universe turns superheroes into secret agents operating during World War II.
Changing their codenames into more grounded names but still keeping the names and gadgets, The Liberty Files focuses on the heroes’ attempts to slow the Axis war efforts. A comic like this had ton of potential, and could’ve easily run for at least 12 issues, perhaps even showing readers where these spies went after the military no longer had use for them.
6 DC: The New Frontier
By Darwyn Cooke
DC: The New Frontier might be the best “Elseworlds” storyline DC’s ever published. It’s a gimmick readers are familiar with by now – the heroes are introduced during the time they appeared in real life – but it’s executed better than any other series. It begins in the Golden Age with heroes like Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman, but continues into the Silver Age as new heroes join them.
With a strong Atomic Age aesthetic, this is a world that readers could’ve lived in for longer than just six issues. An entire ongoing could’ve been done with these characters if DC wanted that introduced even more key heroes from those 50s and 60s comics.
5 Shazam!: The Monster Society Of Evil
By Jeff Smith and Steve Hamaker
Imagine having the creator of one of the biggest fantasy comics ever working on one of the coolest superheroes ever. Now imagine them only letting them do four issues. Yet that’s what happened with Captain Marvel, where DC let legendary artist Jeff Smith write one prestige miniseries in Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil.
The story is the perfect introduction to Shazam and his world, starting with his origin story and gradually introduces elements from Captain Marvel history. With only four issues however, there was plenty of fun content left that could’ve been included.
4 Wednesday Comics
The fourth in a series of attempts at weekly comics with DC, Wednesday Comics was the boldest idea of them all. Rather than focus on some kind of ongoing story within the DC Universe, Wednesday Comics was a series of anthology stories. Moreover, they were meant to resemble newspaper comic strips of old, with each story told one page at a time across 16 pages.
Fans got to get stories about popular heroes like Superman and Batman, but they also got less popular characters like Kamandi, Sgt. Rock, and the Metal Men. This idea could have gone on for much longer and reminded fans of the potential of the medium.
3 Mystery in Space
By Jim Starlin, Shane Davis, Matt Banning, Phil Balsman and Jeromy Cox
In the late 2000s, DC allowed Jim Starlin and Shane Davis to work on a story for Captain Comet entitled Mystery in Space. The title was taken literally, as Captain Comet was literally forced to solve a mystery involving who was responsible for killing him.
Starlin was well on his way to crafting a believable cosmic area for future writers to play with, but the story ended after a mere eight issues. Though Captain Comet had solved his mystery, fans were left wanting more of Starlin’s version of outer space.
2 JLA/Avengers
A story that was 10 years in the making, JLA/Avengers was everything fans of both universes wanted it to be. It’s a massive event book that focuses on the two biggest superhero teams ever coming together. It’s filled with awesome moments like Batman’s stare down with Captain America, and Superman finally getting to face Thor in a fight.
If there was one flaw to an otherwise flawless story, it’s that it’s simply too short. A longer series might have allowed the characters to build greater bonds, making it even more bittersweet when their universes separated.
1 Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds
When DC did Legion of 3 Worlds, it was a surprisingly great story that kept the differences of all the separate versions of characters. Teaming up all three Legion teams created by DC over the years, it saw them rush into battle against the forces of the Time Trapper, Superboy-Prime, and the Legion of Super-Villains.
The miniseries hit all the fanservice notes for Legion fans, but there was one issue with it: the story was simply too short. It took place over only three issues, when it could’ve easily been twice that length. More issues could’ve given each Legion team their own spotlight, further delineating them in case someone wanted to do more stories about them later. Unfortunately, it was tied to Final Crisis meaning it was on a time crunch, even though ultimately the story barely tied into Final Crisis at all.
#Comics #Short
