Essentials Issues To Read on DC Infinite Before Crisis on Infinite Earth for the Various Heroes?

Since DC Universe Infinity has finally launched I wanted to get more into the comics starting with Crisis on Infinite Earths but also wanted to read some of the essential older issues for the various heroes like Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman, Green Lantern etc and some of the team-up series to get a better feel of who they were at that time without having to read through hundreds of issues.

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First
Watch
Secret Origins the Story of DC Comics

In that hour and a half you will get a good overview of most of our comic book library. It was filmed in.2009 so of course can’t talk about newer than that

The DC History Club has this video as the topic for the month of September 2020

This is my complete list for New DC Readers. It is intended to introduce most of the major characters of the universe at a basic level. It is by year.

https://community.dcuniverseinfinite.com/t/new-to-comics-and-the-dc-universe-any-recommendations/1245979/5?u=turoksonofstone1950

This is my
Batman for new readers

if you want to learn significant events in super hero genre history. Most significant issues are mentioned here. It is by year

if you want to learn how Superman Batman.and Wonder Woman were created

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Oh wow thank you! Does the documentary go beyond Crisis on Infinite Earths? I’m trying not to get too spoiled with things that come after.

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Most of the material is by year, so just stop at 1985

Batman is not by year
But by concept
Majority are before1985

Batman.Year One is 1987

Long Halloween is 1996.

Trinity is 2003

Owls is 2011

Tynion is 2016

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Look no further than this service, They have a vast collection on here that collects most of what you need to read. I assume they will add more as time goes but here is a list of some amazing stories they have. Most of these take place after Crisis with a few exceptions (in the 1970’s and modern day series), but don’t contain spoilers of any fashion. Start with Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow due to it being published as Crisis was being finished. I also added a few independent series just in case you get interested, runs on characters that define them, and some one shots that are worth a read.

Batman Essentials
Batman: Year One
The Long Halloween
Dark Victory
Robin: Year One
Batgirl Year One
Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth
Batman: Ego
Second Chances
The Cult
A Death in the Family
A Lonely Place of Dying
Knightfall
Knightquest
Knightsend
Under the Red Hood
The Black Mirror

Runs to check out
Batman by Scott Snyder
Detective Comics by James Tynion IV
Detective Comics (1938-2011) #583-614

One Shots
Detective Comics #457
Detective Comics #500
Detective Comics #1000
Batman: Red Rain
The Dark Knight Returns
Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader

Superman Essentials
All Star Superman
Superman: Secret Origins
Birthright
Secret Identity
For All Seasons
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

Runs to check out
Superman by Tomasi and Gleason
Action Comics by Dan Jurgens

One Shots
Action Comics 1000
Action Comics #775

Wonder Woman Essentials
Runs to check out
Wonder Woman by George Perez
Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello

Others to Check Out
Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Hard Traveling Heroes (Green Lantern #76-89)
The New Frontier
Harleen
Mister Miracle
The Question by Dennis O’Neil
Multiversity
Zatanna by Paul Dini
V for Vendetta
Hellblazer (If not so good of a start, skip to #41)
Kingdom Come
Swamp Thing (Original Series)
Saga of the Swamp Thing (Second Series)
Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison (Start at #19)
Flex Mentallo
The New Teen Titans
Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters
Green Lantern: Rebirth and Green Lantern by Geoff Johns
DC Elseworlds Label
Preacher
Aquaman by Geoff Johns

Not on here, but worth looking up
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman
The Killing Joke by Alan Moore
Watchmen by Alan Moore
Green Arrow by Mike Grell (Have half of his run on here)
Animal Man by Grant Morrison
Batman: Noel
Batman: Vampire Trilogy

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Before 1985…

The formation of New Teen Titans would be one. Judas Contract also happened before Crisis.

Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga happened before Crisis.
And Levitz was in top form back then.

There’s a couple issues of Wonder Woman that I would’ve recommended. They retold her origin and started a new direction. But they’re not on here, yet. For future reference, these are #269-271.

Batman #400 was good.
JLA #200, as well.

JLA #183-185 was my favorite JLA/JSA team-up and also featured the New Gods.

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As for the documentary
About one hour two minutes in
The Modern Age is covered
With Frank Miller on
The Dark Knight Returns

Crisis is not mentioned in the video

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If you have any questions about continuity and events, don’t be afraid to ask the community.

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These are the early eras of DC Comics

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Oh, I was confused by the title.
I thought he was looking for stories to read before Crisis on Infinite Earths.

But if he’s wanting to start with Crisis or shortly after, I’d suggest-

Man of Steel
Batman: Year One (by Miller)
Legends
The first year or so of Wonder Woman

The Secret Origins series from 1986 is also a good starting point for a lot of characters.

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Thanks, yeah I was looking for titles to help my understand Crisis on infinite Earths a little bit more.

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That is mainly in the Flash old and new and JLA / JSA teamups I mentioned in my New Readers link

03 1961 Flash 123, 129, 137 and Justice League of America 21 22
Introduced Earth 2 where the original 1940s Golden Age Flash and the Justice Society of America live.
Introduced the concept of parallel worlds and the Multiverse which existed until Crisis of infinite Earths in 1985.

06 1976 All Star Comics 58 on revival of Justice Society of America on Earth 2 Introduces Power Girl. By Conway Wood…

09 1984 All Star Squadron. Set in World War II on Earth 2 By Roy Thomas (team ups with Quality heroes and Marvel family)

In crisis
Charlton
Quality
Fawcette
Earth 2
Joined with Earth 1 heroes on same earth at end

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So basically I’m an OCD freak and wanted to read everything i could before Crisis and get the full knowledge of all that has happened. So here is my list:

-All of Allan Moore’s run, its absolutely great, introduces the green and Constantine. Half of it is before Crisis so that’s cool
-For Batman you want to read all of Neal Adam stuff for sure and strange apparitions which is a really great 8 issue miniseries. You should also read the 3 issue mini series by Len Wein on the secrets of the batman or whatever, it’s basically the entire history of the silver age batman in one.
-For LHS you need to read the bouncing boy and also the lightning lad wedding for a cool overview and stuff. Also dark circle saga which is in the Super Boy title too. There is a bunch of other stuff pre the 1980s LHS title but those are the basics. You need to 100% read all of Paul Levitz’s run and some before he took over too on that title. It’s really good. If it’s too much you can stop after the epilogue of the great darkness saga and switch to the series from the 1984s.
-For superman you need to read Allan Moore’s story’s on him and sand superman. Also read the three issue mogul war worlds run in dc comics presents. There’s the world of krypton and stuff too but it MoS is better for that after Crisis.
-For WW you need to read the 3 issue arc of the books with all the female superheroines. That’s great, also the first silver swan arc which is great.
-for aquaman you should read the finding mera and dead prince story line. It gets pretty choppy at parts but at the end it will be worth it.
-For the flash you need to read trial of the flash and the death of Iris.
-For green lantern you need to read arrow and lantern by oneil, the tales of the corp, and the lead up to hal leaving the corp
-For the JLA you need to read 100-102 and that’s pretty much it. Most of the stories are pretty much the same.
-Read all of the revival of the jsa in the 70s and the adventure comics. For the all star squadron you need to read the first arc, the kkk arc, and the infinity inc ultra humanite arc. For infinity inc you need to read generations and a little of the bones helix stuff at teh end but Roy Thomas spends little time on interesting arcs or character development and just focuses on how it connects to the 1940’s titles.
-read all of the batman and the outsiders run, its really good. The last arc with halo is kinda boring because her origin is weird but still worth a skim.
-All of New Teen Titans, so good!
-All of Jack Kirbys 4th world, the first few issues of demon, and the apokolips now arc for jla which features orion and mister miracle and barda.
-Sword of the atom is pretty cool too, i really enjoyed it.
-the strange adventure run on deadman i think, might be the otehr adventures comic but still it was very good.
-the green arrow miniseries was great
-for firestorm you need to read all of his first series, for his second series only read 1-9 and 13 to the first annual or something
-all of the vigilante run, super good especially Moore’s work
-finally, amethyst is cool for a skim, its not super good but its decent.
I didn’t read blue devil or omega men but I should’ve probably. I got super hyped for US vs JSA but it was terrible. That’s pretty much everything, gl dude don’t become a weirdo like me and abuse covid!

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