Checkmate?

[firestarfan]

Hi everyone,

First, allow me to introduce myself as a lifelong Marvel guy. I've been following comic books since the early 1980's, and aside from the occasional Superman movie and re-runs of the Adam West "Batman" show (It was on right before The Monkees on Sunday morning when I was a kid) I have absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of the DC Universe.

That being said, I've been playing the Upper Deck "VS System" game, which includes characters from both DC and Marvel. While I normally stick to the Marvel characters, I've lately been using characters who belong to a team called "checkmate."

I've read the Wikipedia page on it, but I was hoping somebody could point me to some trades that would feature the Checkmate organization -- that would require no prior knowledge of the DC Universe.

Thanks!!

[Matt K]

Well, the current Checkmate series is a pretty good place to start. It was one of the first DC books I picked up (along with Blue Beetle and Aquaman)

[titanfan]

There's really not that much.

The only one I can think of is the OMAC Project TPB. It is an Infinite Crisis tie-in so there might be some "I don't get it" moments, but for the most part, I think you should be able to figure out what's going on.

[Matt K]

You could probably pick up the series starting with last month's issue (the start of the Suicide Squad's story) and be able to follow things fine. The books been doing a good job of having new reader friendly entry points and unless you want to the a character's complete backstory, the book does a decent job of introducing them.

[ExoKnight]

The older version of Checkmate is in batman: fugitive and murderer tpbs. The new series just started and is pretty good so far.

[Shem the Penman]

The older Checkmate series has, AFAIK, never been collected (except as part of crossovers, as noted above). I don't play the game you describe, but if the cards are recent, the characters probably aren't from the old series anyway.

The new Checkmate series might be a little rocky going for someone with no knowledge of DC continuity, though. A lot of the characters have been ported over from other books and have very long histories, and while Rucka has obviously taken care not to let these histories get tangled up in the current series, there are still times I wish he'd spend more time explaining just *who* these people are for the newcomers.

[PastePotPete]

Agreed. If I hadn't been a JSA fan from way back, I might be confused why there's a guy running around Checkmate headquarters with 'TERRIFIC' written on his jacket.

Still, this is my favorite book right now. Lots of fun.

[firestarfan]

Thanks everyone!

It's funny, I never even look at the DC section at the comic store -- or I'd have known that there was a Checkmate comic out now, and I wouldn't have had to ask this question. :)