Shelfology Book Pairing

by FRANK. MILLER

He will become the greatest crimefighter the world has ever known. A Dark Alley. A faceless man with a gun. A child's life shattered forever. You know why Bruce Wayne becomes Batman, but do you know how? Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli produced this groundbreaking reinterpretation of the origin of Batman--who he is, and how he came to be. Sometimes careless and naive, this Dark Knight was far from the flawless vigilante he is known as today. In his first year on the job, Batman feels his way around a Gotham City far darker than the one he left. His solemn vow to extinguish the town's criminal element is only half the battle; along with Lieutenant James Gordon, the Dark Knight must also fight a police force more corrupt than the scum in the streets. DC Black Label, a new publishing imprint from DC Entertainment, gives premier talent the opportunity to expand upon the canon of DC's iconic Super Hero comic book characters with unique, standalone stories that are outside of the current DC Universe continuity.Featuring an all-star lineup of creative teams that will craft their own personal definitive DC stories in the tradition of compelling literary works like Batman: The Killing Joke, All-Star Superman and Kingdom Come. Collects Batman #404-407

by Peter Hart

The Great War was the first truly global conflict, and it changed the course of world history. Empires fell, others were crippled and new contenders emerged. Economies crashed, and millions would be affected by the Depression that followed. Understanding The Great War is crucial to understanding the history of the twentieth century and the present day.In this magnum opus, critically-acclaimed historian Peter Hart examines the conflict in every arena around the world, in a history that combines cutting edge scholarship with vivid and unfamiliar eyewitness accounts from kings and generals, and ordinary soldiers. He focuses in particular on explaining how technology and tactics developed during the conflict - and determined which battles were crucial to its outcome. Combatants from every corner of Earth joined the fray, but their voices are rarely heard together. This is a major history of the conflict whose 100th anniversary is fast approaching.