Where Should I Start? New 52 Titles.

[Jess]

I haven;t read DC since Flashpoint other than JL New 52. I want to pick up some TPB's of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Is it better to start with Action Comic and Detective Comics or Superman and Batman etc. I just want to start off with the right continuity.

Any help is greatly appreciated. thanks.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I would avoid Superman and Detective Comics, those titles come off as quite pointless and have been varied in quality. I would recommend Action Comics, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern, and Justice League to really get the feel of the New 52 continuity. And they're pretty good to boot.

 

[souvlaki]

Outside the ones already mentioned both Animal Man and Swamp Thing are must reads in my opinion.

 

[CConn]

Action Comics
Aquaman
Batman
Detective (#13 onwards)
The Flash
Green Arrow (#17 onwards)
Green Lantern
Justice League
Justice League of America
Wonder Woman

That'll give you the main continuity. Mostly everything outside of those titles are pretty horrible, IMHO.

 

[The Squirrel]

I think I'm going to check out the Green Arrow/Green Lantern trades that have been released.

 

[webhead921]

I think Justice League Dark is one of the best New 52 books. I love it.

 

[Cain]

Justice League is pretty terrible. I don't give a damn if it's the "backbone" of the New 52 the book feels like a waste of time every time I've read it. Only thing that was worth it was the Shazam backup and they even skipped that last month.

These are the only DC ongoings (1 isn't New 52) I'm really feeling right now and therefore the ones I'd recommend:

Action Comics
Superman (finally decent with the new creative team)
Superman Family Adventures (great for those who like fun all ages comics that aren't ever super serious)
Batman Inc
Batman & Robin
Detective Comics (after 13 just like CConn said)
Red Hood & the Outlaws
The Flash
Wonder Woman
Aquaman
Justice League Dark
Animal Man
Swamp Thing
I, Vampire (3 issues left though)
Demon Knights
Dial H
All-Star Western
Earth 2
World's Finest

Everything else is either pretty forgettable or just not good at all. Though admittedly I haven't read Green Arrow since Jeff Lemire took over and he was always a favorite character of mine. Haven't read Sword of Sorcery either.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Outside the ones already mentioned both Animal Man and Swamp Thing are must reads in my opinion.

Yeah, if you really want to start going beyond the mainstream heroes of the DCU, Animal Man and Swamp Thing are fantastic reads. I'd also recommend Green Arrow and Justice League Dark starting with Jeff Lemire's runs on those books.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Just skip it and hope that Johns retcons stuff back to normal whenever DiDio leaves. But if you're determined to read something, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Action Comics, and I, Vampire are pretty much the only comics that have been consistently worth reading, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Just skip it and hope that Johns retcons stuff back to normal whenever DiDio leaves. But if you're determined to read something, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Action Comics, and I, Vampire are pretty much the only comics that have been consistently worth reading, as far as I'm concerned.

Considering that Johns is the CCO of DC, I doubt he will change things once DiDio leaves. As a matter in fact, I think that DiDio's position is far more secure than Johns'. DC under DiDio has seen a huge sales boost while Johns' creative direction has given us the Green Lantern movie.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Well, DiDio's gotta leave someday and I can always hope.

 

[BigSams50]

Just skip it and hope that Johns retcons stuff back to normal whenever DiDio leaves. But if you're determined to read something, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Action Comics, and I, Vampire are pretty much the only comics that have been consistently worth reading, as far as I'm concerned.

God i hope this would happen. But i dont see things ever going back to the way they used to be

 

[CConn]

The status quo isn't the problem.

The problem is DC has **** writers and artists on 80% of their books.

Which is Bob Harass' fault.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The status quo's part of the problem for me. I feel like I'm reading weird, s***tier versions of a lot of characters I used to enjoy.

 

[JewishHobbit]

If you're just now wanting to jump into the New 52 with trades... here is what I suggest:

Justice League - It's not the best book out there but it's still pretty good, and it's gotten better as it's gone on. The most recent arc, a crossover with Aquaman, was actually fantastic.

Aquaman - This was a character and title that I had zero interest in. Then the crossover with Justice League happened and I got curious. I picked up his entire series starting with issue one and it's been one of the best titles I read post-New 52. Definately worth the pick up.

Batman - The main title by Snyder has been really good, though others feel otherwise. This has been the title that influences most of the other Bat Books. It's a good story with great art. It's what I'd recommend from the Bat-World.

Green Lantern - You can start this with the trades or just wait a couple months. Geoff Johns has been on this book for years and years and everything he's been doing with the New 52 is still playing off the previous stuff he was doing. However, he's leaving soon with only 3 issues left (if I'm not mistaken). If you want to save some money and go with new reader friendly, pick this book up after Johns leaves and the new guy comes on. If you don't mind having all the back story then feel free to start with issue 1 (or trade 1). The Sinestro/Hal team-up has been enjoyable.

Justice League Dark - It started out slow, though enjoyable, but it really picked up with Milligan left the book and Lemire started writing it. It's been really good since then with amazing art. The characters are great. I'd recommend this to anyone.

Batwoman - While it dragged a bit in the middle, this title has been very good. The art is gorgeous most of the time, and while the plot seemed like it dragged on a bit too long, the payoff was absolutely fantastic. The final issue of the first major plot was issue 18 (I think) and the two issue finale made it all worth it. Now I'm real excited to see where this goes. My recommendation, get the trades that came before this series as well, the Eulogy one specifically (from Detective Comics). I don't know if they made a trade for the arc following Eulogy (if I'm even spelling that right) but it was also really good. It was basically her origin.


I've not read any Wonder Woman or Superman outside of Justice League so I can't recommend outside of that.

 

[CConn]

The status quo's part of the problem for me. I feel like I'm reading weird, s***tier versions of a lot of characters I used to enjoy.

Yeah, because they're being written by weird, ****** writers.

If DC had just let, say,Mark Waid do whatever he wanted with Teen Titans or Red Robin or Superboy, do you think they'd have the same bland characterizations, ****** origins, and downright strange character interaction that we have now? No, we'd essentially just have Marvel Now.

All the reboot really should've/could've been was a combination of less continuity confusion, and more freedom for writers to really tell the stories they wanted. But, again, the writers (and sometimes editors) they put in charge of things just acted downright dumb with a lot of the decisions they made.

 

[CantThinkOfAName]

I tried out Lemire's first issue of Green Arrow and thought it was okay...I would have more interest in his JL Dark (I didn't originally pick it up for whatever reason). I've also heard Detective Comics has gotten really good since John Layman took over. And I've read good things about Dial H.

You could also wait for Snyder's new Superman series later this year. I don't know how it will be but Snyder is consistently the best DC writer these days (thanks to Batman and Swamp Thing...I'll cut him some slack on Talon since some other guy actually writes it).

 

[CantThinkOfAName]

Yeah, because they're being written by weird, ****** writers.

If DC had just let, say,Mark Waid do whatever he wanted with Teen Titans or Red Robin or Superboy, do you think they'd have the same bland characterizations, ****** origins, and downright strange character interaction that we have now? No, we'd essentially just have Marvel Now.

All the reboot really should've/could've been was a combination of less continuity confusion, and more freedom for writers to really tell the stories they wanted. But, again, the writers (and sometimes editors) they put in charge of things just acted downright dumb with a lot of the decisions they made.

Considering the line-wide reboot was just an editorial/business decision, I don't know why you'd think they would have given any more creators any more power. If they wanted to do that, they wouldn't really need a reboot and just given a book to a creator when the ideas came to them (the last time I can remember that happening was when Quesada and Jemas let it happen in the early 2000's for Marvel).

I will say one of the better things to come out of the reboot is that they gave chances to some of their Vertigo writers like Sndyer, Lemire, and Layman, on their bigger books. Simultaneously though, they gave Rob Lefield three books

 

[CConn]

I think you misunderstood me. They have given creators a **** load of power. Snyder and Lobdell and a few other hacks are being allowed to do pretty much anything they want. That's part of the problem.

 

[CantThinkOfAName]

I think they've given some creators a ****load of power. Maybe they have for Snyder, but I don't mind that at all since he's awesome. I don't think it was his decision to have every batbook crossover with his Death of the Family story, though, so I don't know what you're referring to him having too much power. I don't know about Lobdell, but I kind of feel Morrison is leading the direction of Superman books moreso than Lobdell (but then I only read Action Comics).

But you're right that they gave a bunch of ****** to mediocre creators reigns over a lot of characters. But hey, you relaunch 52 books all at once, most of them are gonna be duds. What are the chances there are going to be 52 awesome creative teams ready to roll in one month.

 

[CConn]

Oh, no, I wouldn't ever expect their to be.

But the smart thing to do, I'd say, is to first ensure all of your major books have top tier talent on them (which they pretty much do) and give those creators free reign, then have the lesser writers and books be more heavily edited by editors who have some clue what they're doing.

But apparently DC is in short supply of those too.

And Snyder is terrible. I just have to say.

 

[CantThinkOfAName]

Are you serious?? Snyder is amazing. His Detective Comics run (Black Mirror) was one of the best Batman stories I've ever read. And Court of Owls and the recent Joker story were great. I feel like while Marvel brings in new talent to the top tiers pretty regularly, Snyder and Lemire are the only two that have gotten that chance at DC (or are the only two that are actually good). Otherwise it's just Johns (who I don't care for) and Morrison.