Wanting to read the comics

Hey all I’ve been a fan of the super hero genre for a while but have really only seen the movies and tv shows. I want to into the comics but I have no idea which edition I need to start with for all the heroes. If possible I want to start at the very first issue for all of them. If y’all can give me a hand that would be great thanks.

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Are there certain characters you want to read more about? Or styles you prefer? There are a ton of characters and a ton of ‘first issues for all of them’. If you narrow it down a bit and start with one character or storyline and spread out from there is is easier to understand and follow.

Also, welcome to DCU!

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Starting at issue 1 is often very unnecessary for most characters. With that being said, who are you into or what kinda genre are you looking for?

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This site has some really interesting information for new readers. General how-to stuff here:

Some DC Reading Arcs (mostly self contained stories):

Keep in mind that some of these Heroes date back to the 30’s so you may not really want to start at the very beginning. Instead, consider reading a story arc or a “crisis” (a major story that has serious ramifications on DC continuity).

My suggestion, and others will likely differ, is to start with The New 52 or Rebirth. Both of these are large and include most of the characters in their own runs. From there you may find references to past stories that you may choose to pursue.

Best of luck and welcome.

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Welcome to the community @christiant180! It’s so exciting to enter into the comic world. Aside from all of the excellent advice already given, there is a thread in Essential Reading that will help you get started:

And if you’re ever looking for some solid Batman recommendations, let me know!

Happy reading! :nerd_face: :books:

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Batman: new 52

Green lantern: green lanterns rebirth, green lantern corps rebirth

Batfamily: redhood and the outlaws: new 52, batwoman new 52

Yeah, just start with the first issue of whichever series you want to read, there are some complicated story arcs too, but they get kinda hard to read.

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Superman starts with Action Comics #1 (1938).

Batman starts with Detective Comics #27 (1939).

What you’ll quickly discover upon reading those two stories is that early comic books were not all that different from comic strips, and while they are quite entertaining, they are not very complex or compelling. The stories become somewhat more character-driven around the late 1960s and continue in that direction throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.

In the mid-1980s, DC reworked its universe with the story Crisis on Infinite Earths, and as a result, stories from the late 1980s make for an easy entry point for new readers:

  • Superman’s origin was retold in the miniseries The Man of Steel, and a new series simply titled Superman was introduced immediately afterward.

  • Batman’s first year as a vigilante was explored in a four-issue arc starting in Batman #404, followed by a new origin for his then-current sidekick, Jason Todd.

In the mid-2000s, a sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths called Infinite Crisis again made some adjustments to the DC timeline, but these were less drastic. Batman’s 1980s origin remained unchanged, but Superman’s backstory was retold in the miniseries Secret Origin. This version of his past is currently the official one.

A far more drastic change to both origins came in 2011. After a Flash story called Flashpoint led to a drastic reworking of the DC universe known as the New 52, both Batman and Superman received new tales of their early days. Superman’s story has since reverted to the one told in Secret Origin thanks to the events of a 2016 story called DC Rebirth, while Batman’s current origin appears to be a blend of his 1980s and 2010s origins.

  • Superman’s New 52 origin appears in the early issues of Action Comics (2011).

  • Batman’s New 52 origin is called Zero Year and appears in the pages of Batman (2011).

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Welcome @christiant180! If you want to start at the beginning for everyone I would simply look up the character you want to start with on DCU, click on “Comic Series”, and find the series with the oldest start date and just the character’s name as the title. You might also try detective comics and action comic where Batman and Superman made their first appearances respectively.

I would personally recommend not starting at the beginning. If you know the character’s origin, it is often better to just read some of their most popular stories and learn as you go. Early comics were very different from modern comics and, after the origin, most of the time it doesn’t matter which order you read them in. Another reason not to read in order is that there are over 1,000 issues of some comics now and you’ll never read about all the characters you want if you have to get through that many issues first.

That said, there is no “right” or “wrong” reading order.

Here are links to the comics on DCU.

Batman: DC Universe

Detective Comics: DC Universe

Superman: DC Universe

Action Comics: DC Universe

Wonder Woman: DC Universe

I can find more if you want. It only takes a second.

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Ok, this can be tricky, with most character you can take 2 routes, you can go Post Crisis (80’s - 2010’s) or New 52 (2010’s - Today) to start, if you want to read stuff like Batman, then check out a few post crisis stories like The Long Halloween or Year One, but if you want to catch up to today, then start with the New 52

I will put down some books you should read and are good starting points

Batman:Year One/The Long Halloween/Dark Victory
John Byrne The Man of Steel
Animal Man by Grant Morrison
The Dark Knight Returns
New 52 Wonder Woman
New 52 Batman
Maybe Swamp Thing (70’s)/Saga of the Swamp Thing

Seeing a lot of good suggestions on where to start. One piece of advice i wish someone told me when i started reading comics, you have to get used to the way comics are read. It could take a while. Its daunting trying to follow a story when you’re mind is trying to figure out who is talking or narrating, even worse when characters talking about a past event that you have no idea about. Here are some quick tips:

  1. Narrations are usually in colored boxes and sometimes comics will change who is narrating and indicate so by changing colors and font. Sometimes you wont know who is narrating until you read further and thats okay.
  2. Talking bubbles usually go in a simple order of left to right.
  3. Using panel read can be a major help if youre new but can also make things confusing if not careful. Try full page and panel read to see what works for you.
  4. Its ok to be a little confused sometimes. One of the worst decisions i made was reading Watchmen on my very first read…damn thing was hard to follow at the time. Just be patient and the flow of reading comics will come to you. Its just like reading a reg book but comes with a little more mind work sometimes.
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You should check out Batman hush and batman universe

Are you wanting to start at the very beginning? Because there are a lot of golden age issues.
Wonder Woman has multiple number 1 and origin stories.
Justice League books might be a good place to start with a variety of characters so you can see what heroes you want to read further into.

f you don’t know much about DC

Watch Secret Origins Siory of DC Comics. it covers DC Comics up to the the big three British Authors Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore and Grant Morrison

It only takes an hour and a half and gives you a solid background in the History of DC Comics

in Comic Books
Browse
Get To Know
Sort Alphabetically

There are start Reading Guides
for

Batman
Dick Grayson
Supergirl
Superman
The Flash
The Teen Titans
Wonder Woman

Storylines in Browse can also be sorted
alphabetically
that makes it easier to find great Batman storylines among other characters.

The Encyclopedia may give you important titles and issues for the character you are interested in.

You can join.a Book.Club

A good link for Batman is

A good starting point is after Crisis on Infinite Earth

Man of Steel by John Byrne

Wonder Woman by George Perez

Batman Year One by Frank.Miller

Justice League International

Are great reads

f you are interested in recent comics

I suggest the following Titles

Aquaman 2011

DC Rebirth 1 2016

Superman Lois and Clark followed by
Superman Rebirth 2016 followed by Super Sons

Wonder Woman 2016 Year One Issues 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Detective Comics 2016

Green Lanterns 2016

The Flinstones

Also

Aquaman 2016

RedHood and the Outlaw 2016

New Superman 2016

Titans Hunt followed by
Titans with.Orginal Titans 2026

Demon Knights

Earth 2 issue 17 on

Huntress Mini series followed by
Worlds Finest

Good new series

Justice League Dark 2018

Justice League Odyssey 2018 issue 6 on

Shazam 2018

Hawkman 2018

If ypu want to start with earliest issues
Filter Comic by Era to get Golden Age
And read Only the following

Superman 1
Batman 1
Wonder Woman 1

Look.at Movie and TV to see if any videos interest you.

The DC Animation.Universe starts with
Batman The Animated Series
Superman the Animated Series
Justice League
Justice League Unlimited

Also Wonder Woman TV series
Superman 1978 movie with Christopher Reeves

And original Content
Titans two seasons
(partially based on
New Teen Titans 1980
Teen Titans 2003
Titans Hunt)

Young Justice (three seasons of original storylines)

Doom.Patrol (1989 Doom Patrol 19 Crawling from the Wreckage Grant Morrison)

Swamp Thing (1984 Saga of Swamp Thing 21 The Anatomy Lesson Alan Moore)

Finally

My short list of best DC stories is found at

My Super Hero Genre History lists significant DC Titles and issues
It is by year
Look.at the start of each post for starting year to
Find issue or titles that might interest you
After Crisis on Infinite Earth is year 1986

Identity Crisis is probably my favorite comic arc of all time. Definitely worth a read. I would also recommend Teen Titans: Year One (a 6 issue, one-off series from 2006 I believe).

Identity Crisis is a book.people either hate or love

It is not for beginning DC teaders for many reasons.

Very violent actions occur to a beloved charactet. If you don’t know who Sue Digby was it loses a lot of its effects.

There are a lot of other deaths.

There are a lot of characters in it and it may be confusing if you don’t know who many of the charactets are.

If you dont mind spoilers

The topic that discusses pro and cons of this series is

After you have more knowledge of DC

If you want

An event Comic
Written by Brad Meltzer
Featuring Deathstroke and a lot of Justice League members
Instead

Try

DC Universe Last Will and Testament

It is a one shot
Not related to any evrnt.

Or his excellent JLA series
Which requires less knowledge.

You are a wealth of knowledge!

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I can confidently say that Identity Crisis was my first Justice League story (and one of my first comics in general). Sue Dibny’s role in the DC Universe is well established in the run and the emotion hits well from it. On top of that, it’s written in a way that you very quickly understand the relationships and personalities of all of the characters. I don’t think it’s as big of an issue. That being said, this is my own, personal, anecdotal experience that I understand may not be universal. I just wanted to provide it and maybe give a different perspective. Thanks for providing another Meltzer story for OP. :slight_smile:

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I think you’re trying to go about this the wrong way. If you’re just starting comics, it’s better to read more complete stories at a time rather than numerically go through the entire run of a character. The best thing you can do is go to the “comic books” tab on DC Universe and then select “Storylines” and just read what looks interesting to you.

I personally would recommend “DC’s New Frontier” as it gives a nice intro to most top characters. If you’re looking for Batman stories I would say take a look at " Batman Zero Year," it’s a three-part retelling of Batman’s origin that is great for new readers. If you want Superman, I would read “Superman Brainiac” as it does a great job showcasing superman, especially because the movies always get him wrong. Once you feel like you’ve got a handle on DC, pick up Crisis on Infinite Earths as it is still the greatest mass crossover in DC.

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@Mister_Assister

I definitely agree about DC New Frontier

I wish the movie was available and hope it would be back soon.

Somr people don’t like the first issue which involves a military group on Dinosaur Iskand. So I would advise skippong that issue if it doesn’t grab the reader.

The story is non canon

It involvrs the 1940s Golden Age Superman Batman and Wonder Woman and the newer 1955 to 1960 Silver Age Martian Manhunter Green Lantern.and Flash including the origins of MM and GL.

There is also a one shot that was great also

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Just find something that seems interesting and read it. If it ends up being uninteresting, stop reading and find another. That’s all it takes to get into comics. If something doesn’t make sense, either because you don’t know a character or event being referenced or something, just move on. It doesn’t matter. Don’t try and read big runs, or even famous/popular/well-received storylines. Just open up something that looks kinda cool.