Where to start with DC comics?

[Sexy Magician]

My fondness for DC started back in the early 90's when I was roughly 8 years old, Batman TAS was by far my favourite show, I still to this day have a ton of figures from that show, I was hooked on all things Batman. Spider-Man and X-Men were also on air around this time, I wasn't as keen on them as Batman but I liked them none the less.

I obviously wanted to learn more about my favourite characters, but at that time in the UK, it was much easier to get a Spider-Man/ X-Men comic than a Batman one, or any DC comic for that matter, don't get me wrong, obviously they were in comic shops, but the 8 year old me didn't have access to that, he had access to the local newsagents, and they stocked The Astonishing Spider-Man and Essential X-Men only, these are just reprints where we get like 3 issues in one but they were a few years behind the US. Naturally my love for Marvel grew and still to this day it's all I read, amongst Image titles and random others, I've grown to have quite a knowledge of the Marvel Universe over my 20 years of reading comics, and I want the same with DC.

I've tried a few times but just couldn't get hooked and I felt a bit bogged down by references, clones, new characters using existing superhero names, muti verses e.t.c. and then this whole new 52 stuff! I LOVED Hush, Batman year one and Teen Titans year one, thought they were great, but others I tried like Superman Earth One, All star Batman and Identity Crisis I didn't really like at all. I've had The Return of Superman graphic novel for about 14 years and still haven't read through it all even though I tried numerous times.

I'm asking for DC fans out there to guide me to not only the best stories, but essential stories that can bring me up to speed with the DC universe, stories that you think will make me want to continue reading, it doesent have to be about the heavy hitters either, I've recently been researching Suicide Squad after watching Batman: Assault on Arkham and the Task Force X episode of JLU and that seems cool, so it could be anything, I'm just looking for new material and DC has decades worth I'm sure.

Thanks.

 

[Mee]

The mods will probably close this thread and direct you here http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=310496


But I'll go ahead and give you some. Batman is what I'm most versed in from DC so I can recommend plenty of batbooks.


I don't really care about continuity and it's all a mess anyway, so I'm just going to recommend you good stories.


Batman (you've already read Year One, that's a great start):

The Long Halloween
Dark Victory
The Killing Joke
Broken City
The Man Who Laughs
Mad Love (you mentioned Batman the Animated Series, this is written by Paul Dini and drawn by Bruce Timm who created the show)
Heart of Hush (since you liked Hush, this was a great follow-up, also written by Dini)
Dark Knight Returns
Batman and Robin by Grant Morrison (though you might have to read Batman and Son and Batman RIP to be up to speed on what's going on there)


Other good DC stuff

All Star Superman
Lex Luthor: Man of Steel
Kingdom Come (set in the future, painted art by Alex Ross)
Anything Flash by Brian Buccelletto and Francis Manapul
Superman: For Tomorrow
Batman/Superman: Public Enemies
JLA: Tower of Babel

That's all that jumps off the top of my head right away.

 

[Mee]

In general I'd say avoid anything that was an "event book."

So No Man's Land, Knightfall, Death of Superman, anything with Crisis in the name (though I did enjoy Final Crisis), etc


Skip all that stuff. Might be important to continuity but generally not good stories. With a few exceptions.

 

[Sexy Magician]

The long Halloween is one I've been meaning to read for a while! Is the Batman and Robin you refer to the run where Dick is Batman and Damian is Robin? I liked that idea because of it's complete role reversal for the two, an easy going Batman with a ruthless Robin. I've read Public enemies, I thought it was alright but I didn't like the art so much.

See I know about certain characters and I read about them but I don't read the comics.

 

[Mee]

Yeah the Dick/Damian Batman & Robin, great stuff

 

[Mee]

If you wanted to put Batman stories into some kind of chronological order

Year One first obviously, which you've read
Then Man Who Laughs is basically a direct sequel, picks up with Joker's water supply plot
After that Long Halloween which has a lot of elements from Year One, Falcone, Dent, etc
Then Dark Victory is the sequel to LH with the introduction of Robin


That covers all of Batman's early history. Pre-New 52 anyway.

 

[Sexy Magician]

If you wanted to put Batman stories into some kind of chronological order

Year One first obviously, which you've read
Then Man Who Laughs is basically a direct sequel, picks up with Joker's water supply plot
After that Long Halloween which has a lot of elements from Year One, Falcone, Dent, etc
Then Dark Victory is the sequel to LH with the introduction of Robin


That covers all of Batman's early history. Pre-New 52 anyway.

Thanks for the help, I am gonna be biased to Batman comics so this info is great.

 

[Mee]

No problem

 

[Anubis]

Don't forget Robin Year One after Dark Victory.

 

[Victarion]

Sandman: Nocturnes and Preludes