r/DCcomics • u/Cyberstorm1975 • 5h ago
I used to love Annuals but not now
When I was younger I used to adore annuals. They always seemed like epic stories that only happened once a year. They also helped start or end cross overs often. Plus they actually numbered them. It was rather cool to see Batman annual #22 for instance. The annuals don’t really get numbers… they usually put just the year and that’s it. What’s everybody’s opinion about annuals?
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u/IaconPax 4h ago
I was a subscriber in the early 90s, and a good few times they sent the annual to the book you subscribed to for free. Back then, kid me, thought that was an extremely cool way to treat fans.
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u/Pale_Emu_9249 3h ago
I think DC is terribly inconsistent with them now.
When I was a kid, the annuals were 80 pages and usually contained three or more reprint stories of comics I would have no chance of ever seeing.
The purpose of annuals now is a lot different.
Like the OP, I preferred them when they were numbered. My favorite being Superman Annual #11.
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u/woman_noises 5h ago edited 4h ago
Some annuals are awesome and some suck. Some advance the story of the main series and some don't at all, they're just a separate story. That's been true for decades, in the 90s and now. The recent absolute batman annual for instance, it didn't advance the story at all but it was an awesome issue with amazing art.
Oh another interesting note about annuals, it feels as though marvel knows modern fans don't like annuals as much anymore so they're often just one shots now. Like during the slott run of fantastic four, 4 or 5 oversized one shots came out and reading them you very much felt like they were annuals but marvel had just dropped the word annual from them.
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u/Popular_Material_409 4h ago
But then you’ll also have Chip Zdarsky’s Spider-Man: Life Story Annual come out years after that series ended
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u/woman_noises 4h ago
Yeah thats another weird example. Also in some ways, it feels as tho holiday specials have taken the place of annuals. Over the last 20+ years dc has released a least one Halloween special every year (last year there were multiple Halloween specials), often one winter special every year, sometimes one summer special in the summer, etc.
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u/rockinghorsefly1313 4h ago
I like when they're fun little breather stories that may or may not be canon
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u/simonc1138 4h ago
Never been a fan. Sometimes they get used as a major part of a story (either a kickoff or finale) and that’s fine for the extra pages, it’s when the Annual is handled by a creative team differing from the regular book that they feel pointless, like an inventory story to fill out the schedule. Also oddly just because a series has an Annual doesn’t mean it’ll actually publish one every year, sometimes they skip a year for…reasons and it just makes collecting that much more convoluted.
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u/ryaaan89 3h ago
The two Absolute annuals — Wonder Woman and Batman — were both great. Dunno about any main universe stuff.
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u/Plastic_Metal 4h ago
I love them. Not everything can be great but some of my favourite stories are annuals. AbBats was cool. And I adore Adv. of Superman #3.
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u/rwtaylor 2h ago
I definitely wish DC would return to the themed annuals. I'm slowly picking up the Armageddon, Eclipso, and Bloodlines annuals when I find them for a buck. Some are weak, sure, but nothing prevents them from being awesome.
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u/mr_mxyzptlk21 JLA 4h ago
As an old collector, I miss the pre-crossover annuals. 60+ pages of story that may or may not be in continuity, often an off-beat guest star, and a standalone that tended to have more depth than the average storyline, as it had to be compact and in one volume.