Or about as much as Franklin Reeve knew when his son Christopher told him he'd gotten the role of Superman and Franklin thought he was talking about the George Bernard Shaw play. What are the greatest and most essential stories you'd recommend to someone who wanted to go from having ZERO knowledge to being able to answer any trivia question on the Man of Steel?
IMO there's no such thing as a shortcut with a few TPB to be then able to answer any trivia question. It's a bit stupid : the character is out there since 1938.
The best way to have immediate knowledge of those characters would be to watch a movie: In 2 or 4 hours time, you get the basics.
Then you can always read the most famous comics about Superman, like Red Son or All star, or this one, or this one, but you can't know kryptonite was invented for the radio show in just 5 minutes.
Let's say you watch smallville or S: tas one afternoon. You're then aware of who is Bizarro, right ? Cool. Bizarro is the reverse of Superman with a twisted color scheme costume.
Or is it ? Last time I checked he was purple and created by the joker. Oh no wait he was in fact created by lex Luthor in Byrne's run on Superman. Oh no wait, at first he was not zombie-like but diamond-shaped-like. And his suit was the exact same than Superman.
Then comes the trivia question : who created Bizarro. Which one ??
The only way to know about a character is to read his books on the long run and from different eras, and look for him in interviews or stuff like that. I do it with Superman since I'm 15 or so, I read a lot of comics from the 40es, the 50es, the 60es, the 70es a bit and so on, I even did this panorama you can find on the web with all the suits through history, and despite all that, if I meet Mark Waid one day, he would still be able to ask me something I don't know the answer to.
So, in order to "answer any trivia question" ... I think you need time, not a shortcut to culture.
edit : ah yes, banned user ><
