So now that the dust has settled, I'm finally willing to give the New 52 a try, so I can work my way into Rebirth comics. I'm all excited to turn my brain off and just enjoy reading a stupid amount of comics just for fun.
Trying to decide where to begin, I picked Flashpoint as the story that started it all, but then I found out I should read the 2010 The Flash series as a primer for that. However, then I found out I should read the Blackest Night Flash mini before that in order to fully appreciate it. Except that before that, I should actually read Flash Rebirth first, only there's also Rogue's Revenge even earlier than that, which is built out of Countdown and Salvation Run, with character beats coming from Geoff Johns original run on the Flash.
I don't consider myself a casual, since I have a near complete run of the Flash from silver age up to Morrison's run. But god damn, if it isn't overwhelming choosing where my autism will actually let me start read.
How deep down the rabbit hole do you go when jumping into newer stories?
I totally forgot about the 13 issue Flash Fastest Man Alive series following the end of Flash v2.
See, I can't even shitpost in peace because there's too much to keep track of.
Dominic Morgan
If you really were nuts you'd end up in the bronze age with all the characters that became major players in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. If ya don't wanna go all the way back to the 70s/80s just read some summarized wiki or pick up on the context clues characters will reference to in comics (treat it like a high fantasy story like LOTR where you're not gonna know every detail about characters but how the characters react to names like Balrog you begin to understand it's a big deal). If you were gonna stick to the 00s you'd begin with all the Infinite Crisis preludes: OMAC Project, Identity Crisis, Villains United, Day of Vengence, and Rann-Thanagar War. For focuses stuff like Batman you'd go back to Batman 666 (Morrison's oneshot that is set in the future setting up Damian Wayne) or Batman Hush or Son of Batman. For Green Lantern you'd go with GL Rebirth and continue with the GL run by Johns and GLC run by Tomasi which continue into N52.
Liam Thomas
I mean, you're talking to someone who actually read the first 20 years of every single published Marvel comic, just to get a solid foundation to appreciate writers like Busiek and Stern better. I'm totally okay going that far back.
Luckily modern comics are easy to binge, because the stories can basically be condensed into animated movie pitches, but this idea of the backstory being a "rich tapestry" is thrown out the window when most of these modern stories were pretty abysmal.
Michael Young
Almost 100 yesrs of superhero fiction in publication and the only stuff anyone on this board cares about is published after 2011. I don't get it.
Gabriel Perry
I literally said I own comics from the 60s, and you're trying to show off how cultured you are over those wanting to catch up with stuff published in the past decade.
Jonathan Hughes
After Infinite Crisis you the the OneYearLater and 52. OneYearLater is all ongoing jumping a year after Infinite Crisis and continuing in the new 00s multiverse continuity. IMOORTANT READ THIS. 52 is the story of what when on in the year after Infinite Crisis, focusing on lesser B characters like Question, Booster Gold, Steel, etc. It is considered one of the best event comics ever and if you wanted to jump in and read this and backtrack to preludes for Infinite Crisis you can just so your starting point is with a really good story.
There is a Countdown to Final Crisis, which is meant to be a prelude but I haven't read it since everyone speaks negative of it (and it apparently is largely ignored by the event). Final Crisis is the next big event.
Blackest Night is GL related but has a sample issue 0 that sets up the plot so far, so if you didn't wanna read all GL to prepare for it thats fine. NOTICE. This book has like 98 issues in total since everything had a Tie In for it. Make sure to look up a reading order. It gets complicated. After Blackest Night comes Brightest Day. The tie ins all suck or aren't important so at best just read the main story.
Around here Flashpoint begins. You might need a reading order for this too if you read all the tie ins. At the very end of Flashpoint, N52 Justice League begins. So now you're in N52. N52 is straightforward with all books reset to issue #1so as long as you read 2011s onward you're golden. Rebirth is used like it's a reboot to the series but it's not. Don't have to worry about any new continuity.
Convergence can get fucky. It might need a online reading order. But don't worry about knowing every character most I could follow with context clues.
Jonathan Johnson
I feel like you're writing all this without actually reading my OP.
I'm not asking for advice on how to get into DC comics, I'm lamenting the fact that a story line meant for casuals is based off of ten years of poorly-rated backstory, and my own autism won't let me just jump right on in.
You really don't have to give me an info dump about DC events.
Jayden Brooks
What's with the shitty event shilling recently? Anyone with more than a single braincell shouldn't read anything this guy suggested.
Jack Phillips
Honestly, I think he just clicked through Wikipedia.
Bentley Reyes
Nah fuck that I read all this crap and I've got the use this trivial knowledge whenever I can to validate the hobby I spend over $1000 a year and at least a terabyte of computer memory on.
I enjoyed and wanted to give advice similar to how I started since it clearly was good enough to make a big fan out of me.
All from memory. Wikipedia would have left more details for Final Crisis.
Jonathan Hernandez
I appreciate the bump nonetheless.
Dominic Flores
>I'm finally willing to give the New 52 a try Don't bother. Literally every series is fucking awful. It seems tailored specifically to do as much damage as possible to every franchise.
Charles Turner
At least flash has only one book. Imagine trying to read superman without jumping left and right between suggested readings.
Logan Cook
Fuck that's nothing. Feel the pain of someone whose favorite character isn't from the main lineup. To see even nice pictures of Doctor Fate you have to read exactly 459 comic series and he gets his own series flushed down the toilet with horrendous """art""".
Jace Roberts
>implying Aquaman, Demon Knights, Amethyst, Captain Atom, DCU Presents, JL3000, Vibe, Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin, the first half of Snyder's Batman, Batman Inc, first half of Batwing, Batwoman, Gotham By Midnight, Grayson, Morrison's Action Comics, Batman/Superman, Supergirl, Sinestro, Legion of Superheroes, All Star Western, Secret Six, Star Spangled War Stories, Penguin Pain & Prejudice, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Dial H, Frankenstein agents of SHADE, Resurrection Man, Phantom Stranger, Multiversity, or the Forever Evil event were fucking awful
Jackson Barnes
They were.
>He included Animal Man, the fucking mad man New 52 Literally tried its best to end the character.
Noah Ross
I started reading the new 52 with Geoff John's justice league and Scott snyders batman trades.
I'd say if you want kind of all the big events that led from pre n52 to now its >flashpoint >new 52 JL volumes 1-8 >batman/flash the button >DC rebirth action comics volumes 1 and 2 >dc rebirth JL (maybe) >doomsday clock
Depends on what you mean by new. If you wanna read rebirth you start at all the volume 1s of rebirth because it's a restart of DCs continuity, so you wont need to know anything that happened in new 52. Luckily, rebirth started in 2016 so theres not a whole lot of material yet so itll be faster to catch up on. We're still in the rebirth line but they just changed the name to DC universe because based dan didio hates multiple earths
Mason Lewis
Because the stuff prior to new 52 isnt canon :^)
Brody Howard
Nu52 Flash is garbage, mang. It's just the writers trying over and over to flesh out Barry's crappy supporting cast and failing each and every time. Even Thawne was boring.
Rebirth Flash is up and down, but New 52 Flash makes it look like Shakespeare in comparison.
Of the New 52 I liked Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Justice League, and Forever Evil. Apart from Forever Evil you can read any of those without prior reading
