DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore is a compendium of Alan Moore stories that he did as one-offs (or 2 or 3 offs) with various characters in the DC Comics Universe. Some of these stories have been reprinted in other books and some are only collected here. There are a mishmash or full comic length stories and smaller backup length stories. Not all of them are great, but for an Alan Moore fanboy, this is a must have.

For starters, we’ll skip the stories that are in Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?. I’ve covered these stories previously. This collection does cover Moore’s two big Batman stories. The Clayface issue from Batman Annual #11 which is a decent enough story, but nothing special. And Batman: the Killing Joke which has been subject to many, many debates over the years.

The Killing Joke features Joker kidnapping Commissioner Gordon and shooting (and paralyzing) his daughter Barbara (who was Batgirl for awhile). It also features an origin for The Joker (which the Joker admits in the book might not be the real origin) with The Red Hood gang (the DVD version of this will come out at the end of the month). The Red Hood idea has spread throughout the DC Universe, lately taken up by JasonTodd. Barbara Gordon’s becoming paralyzed provoked an outcry from many quarters as a mistreatment of a female hero in an industry that routinely mistreats female characters. Kim Yale (and her husband John Ostrander) were upset by Barbara Gordon’s treatment and decided to remake her into a hero even after being paralyzed. From this Oracle was born (and then brought into Birds of Prey which was made into a TV series). This is one of the more controversial books that Alan Moore has written and was out of print prior to this.

Also included are a two part Green Arrow/Black Canary story and a two part Vigilante (if you don’t remember the character, don’t worry no one else does) story. Also three back up stories for Omega Men (again, don’t worry if you don’t remember them) and Green Lantern Corps. The Green Lantern Corps stories are interesting because of future developments from a couple of them. One of them features a blind Green Lantern that has thankfully been forgotten. A second one is the first appearance of Mogo (the planet Green Lantern) who has appeared on and off around the DC Universe ever since. The third one covers an adventure of Abin Sur(better known as the Green Lantern who died and gave his ring to Hal Jordan) and a planet that greatly resembles Hell. In the story, there are 2 future prophecies that are interesting. The first covers Abin Sur’s death and how the prophecy leads to his death. The second covers the end of the Green Lantern Corps and was brought out in the Sinestro Corps Wars.

While this is not exactly Alan Moore’s greatest hits storywise, it is a good collection with some interesting stories. Recommended.