With Zack Snyder’s Justice Lea­gue having been released recently on digital platforms, the curiosity level of many DC lovers has reached a zenith. They want to know all there is to know about the many characters that appeared in the superhero flick. Some want to know about the bad guys that nearly had their say, while others want to read about the superheroes who saved the day.

In such a scenario, Brandon T. Snider’s DC Comics: The Ultimate Character Guide is the perfect book to guide you into the DC Universe ... so let’s go up, up and away!

Besides consisting of short sketches of all the superheroes and supervillains we know, it also improves your superhero knowledge in a way that no other book would. Every major character— be it a hero, villain, or side character — who makes it to this guide that is ideal for those fans who want to have a handy book around to consult it any time of the day.

Although I couldn’t find ‘Steppenwolf’ within these pages, there were lots of other characters who were there, who I didn’t know were part of DC Comics, or were significant enough.

Some of the characters’ information and their back-story were updated to make it more relevant for the readers, while the presence of characters in alphabetical order makes it easy to flip through the book in no time. The limited amount of text on each page might irk readers who know the basic stuff but trust me, there are many out there who have limited knowledge of these characters and they would appreciate anything thrown their way.

In total, over 200 DC characters are discussed here, with special emphasis on their origin, their brief history before they turned over a ‘super’ leaf and their vital statistics. The vital stats here range from Real Name, Nickname, Occupation, Height, Weight, Base, Allies, and Foes, and while it might not look interesting here, trust me it is. Each superhero or super villain team gets a special entry, so don’t be surprised to find Legion of Super-Heroes as well as the Secret Six in this book, they are quite significant.

If you don’t know that Darkseids’ real name is Uxas, Lois Lane’s middle name is Joanne, Mister Freeze used to freeze animals as a child, former Robin Dick Grayson is the Nightwing, the Penguin is five feet two inches tall and weighs 175 pounds, then you need to brush your skills as a DC fan. Better get going or someone else will beat you to a trip through the galaxy of superheroes and their nemesis!

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 27th, 2021