DC Character Recommended Reading Lists

For Batman, I believe his 3 best stories are

  • Batman: The Killing Joke

  • Batman: White Knight

  • Batman: The Court of Owls

As for the Justice League, the storyline known as Identity Crisis is really good. It is pretty controversial, though, due to its mature subject matter and the way the story goes with its characters. However, I think it’s 1 of the best DC stories of all time.

And for the Flash, the storyline called Flashpoint is just amazing!

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I like the Kate Kane Batwoman in the I Am Gotham and Joker Wars arcs, but I’m not sure what her backstory is. Any recommended reading, beyond the 2011 Batwoman series?

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Definitely check out Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka - best origin for her!

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This is finally on DCUI and was worth the wait.

Batman Earth-One Geoff Johns

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These will be very helpful, thank you.

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I have been trying to catch up on DC for what feels like forever to get to enough establishment to get to the Button and then beyond that into dark metal. At this point I am trying to get things straight from a post Flashpoint standpoint when everything rests and I am mostly through the main and supplementary events of 52 but I never know where to start rebirth and what i need to know to get there.
Any help would be appreciated.

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Thanks so much for making this! I think I’ll start with Martian Manhunter. The only characters on this list I’m well read in are The Question, Batman, Aquaman, and Superman.

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I am not (yes, I know heresy) as big of a fan of the Power of Hope (or the other books in that series, even the Superman one as one might think I would be) as others are of that series (here and elsewhere); so I would replace with the collect of Monster Society of Evil by Jeff Smith.

I also welcome and heartily second your recommendation of Bill Batson and the Magic of Shazam; as someone fully on board with the seduction of innocent children in to the joys of comic books at the earliest possible ages, I always look for books like this one. I enjoyed reading it as an adult, since I like to preview books before I give them to impressionable minds (plus my siblings would kill me if I bought something inappropriate for a niece or nephew!).

I really found this interesting, and in many ways it reflects what I often like about Lemire, that he takes chances and does interesting thing, never leaving it to the cheap or easy path, so I am pleased this is in your recommendations. I can see that some people, especially if they have not read your other recommendations, would be a bit thrown and it’s definitely a mature audiences book I would not give to someone not at least at the end of their high school career, but it’s a great addition.

EDIT: The DC wikia reading recommendation appears to be the same as what it used to be - which was correct and useful - before Fandom took over the site and can be found here: Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus (2007—2008) | DC Database | Fandom

Although, again, since your question is old, I hope someone else has answered it more fully since then, elsewhere if not in this particular thread.
Even if the Kirby issues for Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olson were not listed in any recommended reading list for Fourth World completeness, I would still encourage reading them - even the Don Rickles two parter somewhat make sense to read - plus they are actually fun to read. It collected edition was one of my first purchases when I started buying books again last decade. That and Kirby’s Newsboy Legion, but that’s another post!

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Just start with this issue and then your favorite hero’s issue one…i think each of them got a rebirth special issue but am not sure. DC Universe: Rebirth #1

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If you have read Flashpoint, I think you can straight from that to the DC Universe Rebirth one shot, and then straight to The Button collected edition (or the floppies that make it up) without reading anything else. If you are in the states, I’m pretty sure all of this is on Hoopla, and the individual issues are on DCUI if you have the standard membership, as far as I last looked (I’m currently not a member of DCUI’s comic book site).

You might be thrown by a few things - because post the FLASHPOINT cross-over, even though it ends with Barry going to Bruce’s cave and handing him that handwritten note, when the New 52 started a few months later, Bruce and Barry didn’t know each other (in Johns version of Justice League’s first issue from 2011), and of course, since the Button is 2017, and Rebirth kicked off mid-2016, there’s a lot of comics, depending on how far you are going to go, in between.

HOWEVER, IMHO, while you might enjoy reading all those comics, you don’t NEED to. Anything you might be confused about, you can read up on a Wikia or you can just ask here, on one of the Flash or Batman comic book reading threads.

Enjoy the books!

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Does anybody know what issues to to read for the Death of a Prince storyline? the links still only lead to the DCUI homepage

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It was actually very easy to Google. Unfortunately, many of the Adventure Comics issues are not on DCUI. Anyone who wants to read the story will need to either purchase the collected edition or unlock it on DCUI by upgrading to Ultra.

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G’Nort - The Goodest Green Lantern

First Appearance

Justice League International # 10

Origin Story

Secret Origins # 34

His Most Epic Adventure

JLI # 14-21

The Scarlet Skier Trilogy

Justice League International (America) # 36

Justice League International (America) Annual # 4

Justice League Quarterly # 2

My Dinner with G’Nort

Justice League International (America) # 51

Those are the essential Giffen/DeMatteis issues. Throw in Mister Miracle # 6 after JLI # 21.

G’Nort would go on to support in the monthly GL book at the time and had a feature in the GL Corps Quarterly book but alas, those are dark times that DC would rather forget about and I get it.

G’Nort has sporadic appearances from there, popping up in Giffen’s Larfleeze and his throwback JLI minis, Tom King’s Human Target (?!), and most recently headlined his own swimsuit special.

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