Who's Who in the DC Universe
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Who's Who in the DC Universe (usually referred to as Who's Who, proper title Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe) is a comic book series which DC Comics published to catalogue the wide variety of fictional characters in their imaginary universe, the DC Universe.
Who's Who was the creation of Len Wein, Marv Wolfman and Bob Greenberger, and its first incarnation debuted in the first month of 1985 (cover dated March, 1985) and ran 26 issues until 1987 (cover dated April, 1987). It was essentially an encyclopedia in comic book form, listing the characters, places and things in the DC Universe. It began one month before the 12-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths began, and therefore it is of interest to note that the earlier issues contemplate the characters pre-Crisis, whereas issues released subsequent to the conclusion of the limited series discuss the post-Crisis universe. For example, while both the Flash (Barry Allen) and Supergirl died during the Crisis, the Flash's death is not mentioned as issue #8 predates his death, but Supergirl's death is recounted 14 months later in issue #22. Also, entries for characters such as the Silver Age Superman and Wonder Woman recounted their post-Crisis histories only, which at the time were only a few months old, while their entire Silver Age histories (and all the unique elements of those characters during that time) were ignored.
Who's Who was DC's answer to The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, which was published a few years earlier. The DC version had a less formal style than its Marvel counterpart. Each character had an individualized logo instead of a standard typeface; figures were shown in action poses rather than full-body portraits; character histories and power descriptions were more vague; and characters from all of DC's publishing domain were included (such as out-of-continuity series like Camelot 3000 and Watchmen), not just those from its shared universe (although the Who's Who Update '88 did limit its entries to in-continuity series only).
Various updated versions of the Who's Who have appeared over the years, including Who's Who Update '87 (five issues, cover dated August to December, 1987) and Who's Who Update '88 (four issues, cover dated August to November, 1988). Both books featured new entries and revised entries for characters in previous volumes, as well as an Appendix which included minor updates and corrections for previous entries. In 1989, several DC annuals also included Who's Who entries. Some of these were revised versions of entries in the regular Who's Who series, but there were a few new entries (such as Antithesis).
DC Comics also put out two Who's Who spin-off series in the 1980s. The first was Who's Who in Star Trek, a 2 issue series (cover dated March and April, 1987) which profiled many of the people and places from not only the 1960s Star Trek series (and subsequent movies), but also the 1980s Star Trek comic book published by DC. There is no Star Trek: The Next Generation information included.
The second spin-off was Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes, a 7 issue series (cover dated April to November, 1988) which expanded on the Legion information included in the regular Who's Who and featured profiles on the various supporting characters, organizations, locations, and villains which have appeared in Legion stories over the years. Some of the information contained in this book was post-Crisis instead of pre-Crisis. For example, the Superboy profile relates the post-Crisis origin of the character as a creation of the Time Trapper, and there is no profile for Supergirl, despite her many adventures with the Legion, since by this time she was written out of continuity.
In 1990, DC started over with a new Who's Who series titled Who's Who in the DC Universe (16 loose-leaf issues with binders sold separately, cover dated August, 1990 to February, 1992). This book was not as comprehensive as the previous Who's Who (for example, there was no entry for the Atom), and some of the entries took on a less serious tone (one of the entries for Guy Gardner is written from the character's perspective). This series was followed up by Who's Who in the DC Universe Update 1993 (2 loose-leaf issues, cover dated December, 1992 and January, 1993). DC also released a Who's Who series for their Impact Comics line (3 loose-leaf issues).
For the time being, Who's Who has been replaced with Secret Files and Origins, a series of one-shots devoted to particular characters or events in the DC Universe and which feature Who's Who-like profiles. DK Publishing has also released a number of Ultimate Guides which serve a similar purpose.
An unofficial version of Who's Who is available online here. DC Comics maintains an abbreviated version here.
[edit] Bibliography of Who's Who series
[edit] Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe
| Volume | Info | Cover Date |
|---|---|---|
| I | Abel to Auron | March, 1985 |
| II | Automan to Blackhawk Plane/Island | April, 1985 |
| III | Black Lightning to Byth | May, 1985 |
| IV | Cadre to Chris KL-99 | June, 1985 |
| V | Chronos to Cyclotron | July, 1985 |
| VI | Daily Planet to Doctor Polaris | August, 1985 |
| VII | Doctor Psycho to Fastback | September, 1985 |
| VIII | Fatal Five to Garguax | October, 1985 |
| IX | Garn Daanuth to Guardians of the Universe | November, 1985 |
| X | Gunner and Sarge to Hyena | December, 1985 |
| XI | Icicle to Jonni Thunder | January, 1986 |
| XII | Jonny Double to Kong the Untamed | February, 1986 |
| XIII | Krona to Losers | March, 1986 |
| XIV | Luthor I to Masters of Disaster | April, 1986 |
| XV | Matrix-Prime to Mister Tawky Tawny | May, 1986 |
| XVI | Mr. Terrific to Nightmaster | June, 1986 |
| XVII | Nightshade to Persuader | July, 1986 |
| XVIII | Phantom Girl to Pursuer | August, 1986 |
| XIX | Puzzler to Roy Raymond | September, 1986 |
| XX | Rubberduck to Shining Knight | October, 1986 |
| XXI | Shrinking Violet to Starfinger | November, 1986 |
| XXII | Starfire I to Syonide | December, 1986 |
| XXIII | Syrene to Time Trapper | January, 1987 |
| XXIV | Tim Trench to Universo | February, 1987 |
| XXV | Unknown Soldier to Witch Boy | March, 1987 |
| XXVI | Wizard to Zyklon, plus additional entries omitted from previous volumes | April, 1987 |
[edit] Who's Who Update '87
| Volume | Info | Cover Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | All-Star Squadron to Catalyst | August, 1987 |
| 2 | Catwoman II to Goldstar | September, 1987 |
| 3 | Gray Man to Lionmane | October, 1987 |
| 4 | Lois Lane to Rampage | November, 1987 |
| 5 | Reaper to Zymyr, plus Appendix | December, 1987 |
[edit] Who's Who Update '88
| Volume | Info | Cover Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amazing-Man to Harlequin II | August, 1988 |
| 2 | Icemaiden to Nightwing | September, 1988 |
| 3 | Parliament of Trees to Trident | October, 1988 |
| 4 | Ultra-Humanite to Zuggernaut, plus additional entries for supporting characters and Appendix | November, 1988 |
[edit] Who's Who Annual entries
| Issue | Info | Cover Date |
|---|---|---|
| Action Comics Annual #2 | 1989 | |
| Batman Annual #13 | 1989 | |
| Blackhawk Annual #1 | 1989 | |
| Detective Comics Annual #2 | 1989 | |
| Flash Annual #3 | 1989 | |
| Green Arrow Annual #2 | 1989 | |
| Justice League International Annual #3 | 1989 | |
| New Titans Annual #5 | 1989 | |
| Question Annual #2 | 1989 | |
| Secret Origins Annual #3 | Entries for Antithesis, Bumblebee, Flamebird, Gargoyle, Golden Eagle, Herald | 1989 |
| Swamp Thing Annual #5 | 1989 | |
| Wonder Woman Annual #2 | September, 1989 |
[edit] Who's Who in Star Trek
| Issue | Info | Cover Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | March, 1987 | |
| 2 | April, 1987 |
[edit] Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes
| Issue | Info | Cover Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | History of the Legion (part one), plus entries for Absorbancy Boy to Dr. Gym'll | April, 1988 |
| 2 | History of the Legion (part two), plus entries for Dr. Mayavale to High Seer of Naltor | June, 1988 |
| 3 | Planets of the 30th Century, plus entries for Heroes of Lallor to Legion of Super-Rejects | July, 1988 |
| 4 | Homeworlds of the Legion, plus entries for Legion of Super-Villains to Mon-El | August, 1988 |
| 5 | Tour of Legion Headquarters, plus entries for Mordru to Science Police | September, 1988 |
| 6 | The Wonders of Metropolis, plus entries for Sden to Timber Wolf | October, 1988 |
| 7 | The Nik Feelds Show, plus entries for Time Trapper to Zoraz | November, 1988 |
[edit] Who's Who in the DC Universe
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[edit] Who's Who in the DC Universe Update 1993
| Issue | Info | Cover Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||
| 2 |
[edit] Impact Comics Who's Who
| Issue | Info | Cover Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 |
[edit] External Links
- Who's Who Article at DC Database Project
