DCU Reading Recommendations

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CounterPunch
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DCU Reading Recommendations

Post by CounterPunch »

My brother has been getting in to the DCU recently after I convinced him that the characters arent all boring and he wants some recommendations on reading material, think hes looking at it in terms of TPB's, mostly ones that dont require all that much prior knowledge.

I've given him a few of mine -

Most of Morrisons JLA output, some of Johns Superman stuff, Kingdom Come, Batman: Year One and DKR...

Can anyone recommend any for him? He likes Morrisons stuff, especially his weirder stuff, so I might point him towards Animal Man and Doom Patrol, but he hasnt liked anything he has read by Johns, and has never been much of a fan of Miller.
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Post by Hound »

Green Lantern by Johns
Birds of Prey, Secret Six and Wonder Woman by Gail Simone
Power Girl
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DrSpengler
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Post by DrSpengler »

I'd highly recommend Johns' Green Lantern stuff. It does a lot with continuity, tying a slew of disperaging elements together into a cohesive mythos, but it's executed in a way that's still accessible to newcomers while encouraging them to take an interest in the older stories he's deriving material from.

I'd say start him out with the Sinestro Corps War and if he likes that, then have him go back to the beginning of the volume and read sequentially (you can actually do that without being confused; it's what I did).

You also can't go wrong with Mark Waid's run on The Flash. Again, he does a lot with tying continuity elements together into a coherent mythos, but in a way that doesn't confuse newcomers.

Have him pick up a copy of "The Return of Barry Allen" and if that doesn't hook him then I guess nothing will.

Geoff Johns' run on The Flash is also some great reading, but I wouldn't go for it until after reading the Waid trades, since they set up a lot of the Flash's universe like the Speed Force and what have you.

The brief Morrison/Millar run in-between the Waid and Johns runs is also good times and only exompasses two trades, so definately go for that, too.


If he's into Batman, then the "trilogy" of Year One, The Long Halloween and Dark Victory is a must, since they successfuly cover years 1 through 3 of Batman's career and set up his universe very nicely. As a PHD-holding Batmanologist, I've actually taken the effort of assembling all the "early years" trades and stories I can get my hands on into a quasi-coherent chronological listing that holds together *alright* (there are continuity errors, naturally). If he's interested in trying to read Batman's stories as he meets his variosu villains and what-not "in order" via a modern lens, then I can throw you the list.


Does he like comics from the late 80s/early 90s? Is he interested in reading about the modernized origins and early adventures of a lot of DC's primary characters?

If so, then most of DC's post-Crisis reboots are very, very good. I love John Byrne's reboot of Superman, collected in the 6-volume "Man of Steel" series, recounting his early years and first encounters with all his villains.

George Perez's reboot on Wonder Woman marks the only time I've ever been interested in the character and really revels in her origins in relation to Greek mythology, also tying together all the bizarre elements of her Golden Age origins and making them make sense.

The Emerald Dawn Volumes I and II are some great reading in regards to Hal Jordan's origin and a good look into the inner mechanics of the Corps.

And though not a reboot from the beginning, the Giffen/Dematais run on Justice League International is so hilarious and accessible to anyone that he probably won't even mind that the Justice League is full of second stringers. Nobody else did.


Then there's all the Vertigo stuff, primarily Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing, but that's a separate post altogether.
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Post by CounterPunch »

I think he is pretty much up for reading anything really, as long as it is easily available in TPB form. I was debating as to whether to recommend him Johns' Flash and GL stuff, as well as the first modern reboot of the JSA (Robinson, Goyer and Johns) but I dunno, he hasnt liked what I have given him by Johns.

He is in his early 30's and read comics on and off as he was growing up, so luckily he wont be against reading some older stuff, but wasnt sure on recommending things like the post-crisis reboots as I have yet to read a selection of them myself.

His comic reading career (atleast in his adult life, compared to when he was growing up which I think was jus a few things here and there) has largely been confined to Vertigo books and stuff written by Whedon, but he has always considered Marvel to be better than DC, believing that only the core members of the JLA are half decent, but even then he thought that because they were so powerful they were boring.

I have changed that opinion with what I have lent him, he's realised that as the power increases so does the scope of the stories, so interesting stories can still be written about Superman.

So really, I dont think he necessarily has a specific view to read a certain type of story, just one that is interesting.

Its so hard recommending him stuff, just because there is so much that I love... Whether that means it is good quality or not...

Oh the subject, he likes Kingdom Come, are the spinoff releases anything special?
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Post by Transformer Kamen »

"The Kingdom" a sequel to "Kingdom Come" is not that great, certainly no-where near the epicness of "Kingdom Come"

I've been reading the miniseries "52" most recently, and so far that has been fantastic. Also, the latest Blue Beetle series written by Giffen and Rogers is tons of fun.

For older stuff, I really enjoyed O'Neil's run on The Question, and if he likes strange stories "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth" by Morrison is a head-trip. On the same subject, "The Killing Joke" by Alan Moore is also really good.
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Post by ganon578 »

I've recently picked up The Death of Superman and The Return of Superman, both of which I thought were pretty good, and available as TPB. Also, I thought Batman: Hush was pretty good as well. He might like those...
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Post by DrSpengler »

If he's a Vertigo fan, and an Alan Moore fan, then you should get him a copy of DC Universe: the Stories of Alan Moore.

It's a selection of most of Moore's non-Vertigo, DCU stories and it's mostly very good stuff. It has a lot of mainstays in there, like The Killing Joke, For the Man who has Everything and Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, all of which are very good.

But it also contains a smorgasbord of stories he did for other characters, such as a ton of his Green Lantern Corps stories that are all great stuff, especially Mogo Doesn't Socialize.

There's also a Green Arrow story, some Vigilante stuff (didn't care too much for those), a Superman/Swamp Thing team-up and a few others.

If he's into Alan Moore via Vertigo, then the DC Universe trade is a good way to get him interested in all the various corners of the mainstream DCU, as it covers a wide variety of characters. Not all of them are winners (that's right, Alan Moore CAN write bad stories every now and then), but most of them are very good and it's a great value considering Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow and The Killing Joke tend to go or an equal price just by themselves.
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