Action Comic #1. The debut of Superman. I have a hard cover book of the superman comics from 1938-1954. I absolutely love it.
Thanks everyone so much for all the advice, opinions and input! I am feeling better about jumping into DC and having a great time reading and watching!
Side note- apologies that it took me this long to respond. I honestly thought my post was gone. I’ve seen other messages on here asking for a search function or tracking ability on this board. I VERY MUCH want to add my want for this as well as it took me about a half hour going through posts to finally find this. There should be a way to track these posts and also be notified of replies on a thread. Please add these features right away!!!
Thanks again guys and girls! Looking forward to chatting with yall for the foreseeable future!
Well, I guess everyone is different. I love the Elseworld arcs, but for me, I think those are for more seasoned DC readers. If I were to curate a list for a DC newbie, I would suggest starting with Batman: Year One, followed by Detective Comics #566/Batman #400 (great intro to Batman’s villains), Batman: The Killing Joke, and then the Batman: Cataclysm and Batman: No Man’s Land arcs (again, it features a who’s who in the world of Batman).
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@Gar, that’s a good list. There are multiple ways to feature the who’s who though (like Battle for the Cowl, and the Long Halloween for the Villains). Some of them even have their own stuff. Catwoman’s Her Sister’s Keeper is one of my favorite Bats story so far. The biggest thing missing is the Jason Todd stuff and probably the stuff around Knightfall. How could you leave off Batman’s defeat? 
After reading several of the Elseworld arcs, I get where your coming from. I think it’s a little different for me because I wasn’t a complete Noob. So, I picked up most of what was going on in them.
Death in the family then red hood
Don’t forget the back alleys of DC. Read Doom Patrol issues 19 up on the app. Grant Morrison’s early run on the title. Then give Warren Ellis’s Authority a go. Then Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing. In my opinion it really doesn’t get much better than these books.
I got super into it with the introduction of the New 52. While New 52 isn’t that great it had a few good titles like Batgirl. When I branched out of New 52 I learned that 2000’s comics were the best namely Supergirl, Green Arrow and Black Canary and Birds of Prey. I’d also recommend The Flash and Teen Titans.
I always recommend Identity Crisis to people who want to get into the DC Unoverse. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are there and have a major role (especially Batman), but the story really focuses on the other characters of DC. This was the first DC book I read outside of the Batman and Superman trades I would pick up at Barnes and Noble. When I started reading I felt like I was dropped in to a very unfamiliar world with very unfamiliar characters, but by the end I felt like I knew just about every major player in the dc universe, and was completely in love in the world, to the point I am still obsessed 14 years later. Also, this is a great kick off point for the major DC events of the 2000’s.
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Batman Year One
Justice League Origin
Watch the Dark Knight movie! It’s a perfect introduction to Batman!
I really recommend you read content from the main earth of the 1980’s to get a really good idea of who these characters are. That is still the strongest decade of publishing that DC has seen and still holds a strong influence on a lot of creative decisions the company has made when it comes to it’s cartoons, movies, and shows. . It saw the publication of the New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez which served as the basis for the 2000’s cartoon and really brought classic characters like Dick Grayson out into their own as Nightwing. There’s also Crisis on Infinite Earths which inspired the Crisis on Two Earths animated movie. You can also take a gander at the George Perez Wonder Woman reboot which revitalized the character from her Golden Age self and made her more into the character we see today. It served as the basis for the animated Wonder Woman movie too.
Just some pointers.
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Batman Year One is another great gem that served as an inspiration for Batman Begins. The Long Halloween and The Killing Joke inspired The Dark Knight. Batman: Knightfall and No Man’s Land inspired The Dark Knight Rises too. Of course not all of those are from the 1980’s but most are.
I’m digging into Identity Crisis right now. Video wise I really enjoyed watching Batman TAS, Son of Batman, and Bad Blood
In this app the have a comic “run” called “saga of the swampthing” start there.
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Justice League and Unlimited are amazing, original Teen Titans, Flashpoint after all this.
Start with watching Batman the Animated series !!
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Although it gets a lot of hate I love the first 2 years of basically everything in the new52, and I’m 41 and have been a heavy subscriber since my teens. But I will say this is an extremely hard question to answer even in the main continuity…you can’t go wrong with “justice league:origins” which is the first 6 issues of justice league in the new52 so if your looking it up it would probly say “justice league(2011-)” and its issue 1-6…however “flashpoint” is the “event” that led to the universe re-booting and is why when you read “origins” the justice league are all re-meeting for the first time and that is great as well but if you read that first you would then open whole can of worms of wanting to go back and understand how all the characters got to where they were at the end of that continuity so I would start with “origins” if you want a good place to start in the more “current” dcu there’s also an animated movie adaption called justice league:war but the read is better. As far as Batman goes his continuity didn’t change much in new52 with the exception of few minor things most of what was in place previously carried over to new52 and the history and key events are massive his parents dying was just the beginning so much more has happen over the years that molded him into the Batman today I suggest going through the robins history’s especially dick turning to nightwing and Jason Todd(the 2nd robin) being murdered by joker(death in the family) and then 8 years later coming back as red hood(under the red hood) there is a great red hood animated movie that wraps it all into one it’s probly one of the best dc animated movies to date honestly but again the reads are better especially when you take into account that there really was 8years of him being dead in between the 2 stories when they actually were released. And also Batman’s son Damian Wayne the newest robin his whole history is great too and all of this carry’s over to new52 from original continuity so even if you start with new52 then read all that it will all still apply now to Batman. And you know Incase you don’t even know what we all mean by new52 lol in 2011 the flashpoint event caused the whole DCU to re-boot and the main reason I loved it so much despite its flaws is the fact that everything was re-created and revamped in today’s day and age and it was a bold move by dc I thought but a lot of people couldn’t cope with the past elements we lost which I get but it was great none the less imo…also an extremely honorable mention the entire first run of batgirl in the new52 all written by Gail Simone at the time when it was new it was my favorite book…but only the Gail Simone run I forget what issue it ended at but after that they completely ruined her it literally went from most bad ass batgirl ever to her being like an Archie comic I don’t know why but it was horrible so if you read the run basically when you get to an issue where all of a sudden her costume turns purple and the whole book looks like Archie then that’s where you want to stop lol…great question tho exciting have fun diving in
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Also this app has an encyclopedia of the entire univers history so as you read if something comes out of left field that your like who’s this you can stop n research quickly
I would probably start with the Batman: The Animated Series, then Superman:The Animated Series, Justice League and finally Justice League Unlimited those series helped me grasp the foundations of the DC Universe and understand the comics and other media better
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You can’t go wrong with Superman: TAS or Batman:TAS, but reading wise, on this platform, go to the character intros and check out the material under the one that most intrigues you.
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