EXTRA! DC Hater reads IC!

You should definately get Crisis on Infinite Earths and Identity Crisis. Those are the first and second parts of the story really. There's also the four lead ins, OMAC Project, the Rann Thanagar War, Day of Vengeance and Villians United. Those are all the ones you NEED to understand IC, and the summaries of those can all be found on Wikipedia.

The good guys have fallen apart basically, the villians have united, and a shadow third group is in the background... with its own cybernetic army of super soldiers and ties to a prior Crisis...

 

It's a comic book, it's not rocket science.

 

anyways, I wouldn't recommend reading Crisis on Infinite Earths... I'm actually surprised your friend didn't tell you to read Identity Crisis if he wanted to get you into DC.

It'd be easier to just ask questions here... but yeah, wikipedia will have all the information you need.

Also, there are some things that are supposed to be a mystery that will be explained later on.

 

Crisis on Infinite Earths, even though sacred in every way, is NOT a good place to start! I started back heavy into DC w/Identity Crisis and it was perfect! So I'd been reading tons of DC books for the last year, and over the Christmas season I finally picked up Crisis on Infinite Earths...and while it is significant to so many things, it just doesn't read like today's books. I'm a HUGE DC enthusiast but I struggled through COIE! It's LOOOOONG and full of endless dialogue...

 

Going straight into Infinite Crisis is not a good idea for DC n00bs. As a matter in fact it's a terrible idea. You will be confused as hell. Infinite Crisis is a story for people who have stuck with DC for a long time and prior reading is required. You would have to read:

1. Crisis on Infinite Earths
2. Identity Crisis
3. Adam Strange: Planet Heist
4. the OMAC Project
5. Day of Vengance
6. Rann-Thanagar War
7. Villains United
8. Superman: Sacrifice
9. Teen Titans/Outsiders: Insiders
10. Teen Titans/Outsiders: The Death and Return of Donna Troy
11. JLA: Crisis of Conscience
12. Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 1-4 (not needed but it better understands the story involving the multiverse)
13. Zero Hour: Crisis in Time (not at all needed, but it was DC's first attempt to create a sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths)
14. Green Lantern: Rebirth

The Infinite Crisis Specials: the OMAC Project, Day of Vengance, Villains United, and Rann-Thanagar War are part of the Infinite Crisis story. These are not to be confused with the titles I've already listed, these are separate issues that are part of the series and will most likely end up in the Infinite Crisis TPB. The Infinite Crisis: Secret Files and Origns 2006 is a semi-prequel to it and helps you understand the characters.

And if you wanted to know the tiny little details about certain pages of Infinite Crisis you would need the tie-in issues of Gotham Central, Batman (an you would need to get Batman: Under the Hood to understand that story), Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Firestorm, the Outsiders, Teen Titans, JLA, JSA, Superman, Action Comics, Adventures of Superman, Nightwing, Robin, and Green Lantern.

52 will explain the One Year Later gap between DC comics printed before March 2006 and Infinite Crisis to the comics that were printed on March 2006 and beyond. This is a weekly comic consisting of 52 issues that starts next week.

As you can obviously see it takes a lot of time and money. Go onto simpler stories such as Batman: Year One, Geoff Johns's runs on Teen Titans or the Flash, JLA up to Kelly's run (almost everything afterwards sucks), and other stories.

 

It took me three times to get a full grasp on Crisis on Infinite Earths. I understand it but I still can't fully explain it to other people

 

It's not really too hard to understand.

I'll start from the beginning.

A few years ago, a super heroes wife was raped. The JLA caught the villain and decided to tamper with his mind to keep him from trying it again. Batman caught them in the act and was outraged, so they made Batman forget that ever happend.

Batman eventually creates a spy satellite to keep tabs on the heroes. The satellite is stolen from him and later gains sentience controlling these things called OMACs that turn ordinary people into robotic killing machines.

The Spirit of Vengence is tricked into declaring war on all magic.

There is a war in outer space.

And the worlds super villains are unified after hearing about the JLA messing with villains heads.

Infinite Crisis is pretty much the worst time to be a super hero.

 

Borrow Identity Crisis instead... if you're friend doesn't have that, then he sucks


Also, what Marvel titles do you enjoy?

 

Yeah, punch your friend in the face for having Infinite Crisis and not Identity Crisis. Countdown might help too.

 

Some of it will be confusing but its not that hard to get a basic grip on. Infinite Crisis #2 explains a lot especially if you are not familiar with Crisis on Infinite Earths. So make sure you read that one if you try it. Also the Villians United thing they just did is basically Infinite Crisis #7 with IC#7 being like 8 (so that is essential). It really is destined to go down as one of the great comic stories of all time...so I suggest you give it a real chance just as I am giving Civil War a chance. (I'm kind of a Marvel hater here.)

 

Kotagg - I'm agreeing with these guys, if you're gonna try out something DC, this probably was not the best place to start (and you shouldn't really just GIVE UP on them once we tell you that, we are recommending good starting points, although I can tell you're a skeptic and probably have no interest in reading the vast number of suggestions you've just been given just on people's say-so)

Tell you what, I'm in a generous mood tonight: IF you'd be willing to give me your address, I'd be willing to send you a good DC starting point TPB for free. Howsabout that? No biggie if you don't want to, just making the offer

 

Well... he is an actual monkey...

 

Hehe, he was new to me, too, but don't be so quick to judge - Remember, Marvel's got Howard the Duck, and characters like "Mr. Fantastic", "SuperPro", "Green Goblin", "Dr. Doom", "Power Man" et cetera, sound JUST as stupid as any DC character to anyone who doesn't read comics, they just sound more normal to you because you've been hearing them for so long

 

Detective Chimp rocks. He is the world's second greatest detective.

 

That would be Batman.

 

Third. Tarnish not the name of Elongated Man, heathen.

 

Hey.

Hey.

Detective Chimp is third. After Wesley Dodds and Batman (in that order). Elongated Man ties with him though, and Ralph doesn't have as much sleuthing experience!

 

Oh yeah, I forgot Dodds. All right, Elongated Man gets third and Detective Chimp gets fourth. Or third-and-a-half if it'll placate the rabble.

 

The Question is gonna be pretty peeved at you guys for leaving him out.

 

If the Mighty Trinity doesn't grab you...why not pick a book of a single hero--like Robin, NIghtwing, Flash, Green Lantern, some Vertigo books like Sandman (which is out of my area); rather then a big crisis series.
Or better yet team books....Because if you're new to the DCU you need some education before you can actually grasp the seriousness of those yearly events.

If you can appreciate old school, with a modern twist...pick up JSA. It focuses mainly on the old JSA'ers opening their doors to the modern generation. Everyone who was active in the old days now hold a Elder statesman position to the younger members...helping them learn how to be a hero. It deals with some individual problems too; but the overall theme is to learn how to be a hero. You don't see the Mighty Trinity in there too much (maybe an issue or two)--

Another book I'd recommend is Teen Titans because it focuses on forming a family out of your family...being there for each other. etc.

Hope our contributions help.

 

I am a DC noob and i understood IC pretty well...