Bunny Blog

Fair warning right now: If you aren’t into comics, or, more accurately, aren’t looking to get a crash course in the DC Universe, then this post is probably not for you.

Still here?  Cool.  About a year ago, as Final Crisis was hitting stands, my friend Pat asked me to give him a crash course in the DC Universe so he could get caught up.  Whoops!  Final Crisis requires a pretty deep knowledge of DC history (even I got confused, and I’ve got be one your better educated folks on the subject).  However, I took this as an opportunity to take Pat on a whirlwind tour of the DC Universe, all the best (and most important) storylines therein, and spit him out the other side prepared for Final Crisis.  Admittedly this was fairly subjective - it’s made up of books I consider good enough to own, but excises a lot of material that is great but not necessary to the central story.  What I didn’t quite expect is that from this vantage, with collected trades and a guided tour, Pat was able to experience the DCU as I (reading in realtime) never got to… as one magnificent interweaving story.

Since then a few friends have asked for this guide, and having already done the heavy lifting, I’m happy to provide it.  It’s also worth noting that this a fine primer for this year’s big (hopefully more sensical than Final Crisis) event, Blackest Night. So head below the jump, dear reader, for your DCU Crash Course.

[Now edited to include suggestions from Scott Tipton at Comics 101)

We start off with brief peek into the Silver Age (now filled out thanks to Scott Tipton, his suggestions in italics of a different font - I didn’t take all his suggestions, but it sure does help), spend a little time in the 1980s, try our best to skip the 90s, and then go crazy for the last couple years of mega crossovers.  And away we go…

• SHOWCASE PRESENTS: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA VOL. 1 — After all, the JLA is really the lynchpin around which the entire DC Universe revolves.
• Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, pg 119, The Origin of the Batman-Superman Team
• Jack Kirby’s New Gods, best to read all of this.  Enjoy how totally insane Jack Kirby can be.  His dialogue is insane-o!
• BATMAN IN THE SEVENTIES –The refocusing of Batman as a serious detective and all-around badass has repercussions that play out in DC Comics for decades, so I think you need a taste of that here.
• Jack Kirby’s Mr. Miracle, this you can get away with just reading the first few issues.
• New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, You’ll appreciate meeting all these characters, I promise.
• DC COMICS CLASSICS LIBRARY: THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA BY GEORGE PEREZ, VOLUME 1 –Although this isn’t out for another couple of months yet, I think it’s a must-include. In order to really understand the poignancy to come in later stories when the JLA falls apart, you have to have a glimpse of them in their glory days, and this is it.
• THE MAN OF STEEL –John Byrne’s revamp of Superman set the tone both for the character and the company for the next few years.
• WONDER WOMAN: GODS AND MORTALS –In similar fashion, George Perez’s reset of the Wonder Woman mythology revitalized the character, and it still plays through the way Diana is portrayed today.
• Crisis On Infinite Earths, Oh boy, are we already rewriting the last 40 years of comic book history?  We sure are!  Almost everything before this doesn’t matter, because this happened!  This, like Teen Titans, is almost painfully 80s, but worth knowing what happened.
• Batman: Killing Joke, It’s great, and important stuff happens!
• Death of Superman, Not so great, and frankly what you need to know is that Doomsday kills Superman, and the JLA at this time is a bunch of D-listers that couldn’t stop a shoplifting, let a lone a thing called “Doomsday.”
• Return of Superman/Reign of the Supermen, also not great, but so much important stuff happens that you should read it and skim the thought balloons
• Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight, this is short and crazy enough that it almost overcomes being a superhero book from the 90s.
• JLA: Grant Morrison’s run (New World Order, American Dreams, Rock of Ages, Strength in Numbers, Justice For All, World War III), this is actually a good comic from the 90s.  Morrison takes you on a whirlwind tour of the DCU, lays a lot of groundwork for Final Crisis, and tells some great stories.  Meanwhile, look what he had to deal with…
• Teen Titans: A Kid’s Game, check it out, it’s been a decade since Return of Superman and Superboy is finally a likable character!  Way to go Geoff Johns!
• JLA: Earth 2
• The Flash: Blitz, Just playing catch up with the Flash (isn’t everyone?)
• Identity Crisis, controversial, but necessary (and I liked it a lot)
• Teen Titans: The Future is Now, notice how there are less disclaimers now?  These comics are actively good.  Also, you might start noticing that at this point, Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison are the major architects of the DCU.
• The Flash: Secret of Barry Allen, stuff!  Paying off!
• Green Lantern: Rebirth, dense as hell, but good if you want to make it to Blackest Night
• Green Lantern: Revenge of the Green Lanterns, ahh, GL is such a good space adventure.
• Omac Project
• Villains United
• JLA: Crisis of Conscience, psst, guess what, this leads right into Infinite Crisis
• Infinite Crisis, another Crisis!  We totally skipped Zero Hour, and that’s OK, but this one we’re gonna do.
• 52, volumes 1-4, The DCU jumps forward a year, and this is what happened while everyone else was irrelevant.  Great stuff.
• Seven Soldiers of Victory volumes 1-4, this is all good, but if you want you can just read Mr. Miracle.  It’s important for Final Crisis.
• Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War books 1 and 2, the crossover that completely overshadowed Final Crisis as being a big fun crossover.  It’s why everyone is excited for Blackest Night
• Batman and Son, weird and great (ninja man-bat army!) and aren’t you curious what’s up with Batman?  Psst!  Batman doesn’t have much affect on the DCU as a whole.  Which makes sense.  He’s a street level hero.
• Final Crisis, Super dense and I will say, totally falls apart in the end, but there’s lots of good stuff in here.  Under no circumstances read this without Superman Beyond, which is conveniently included in the hardcover.
• Batman and Robin, single issues for now, just skip Battle for the Cowl and read this.  You’ll figure out what happened.
• There are plenty of recent Green Lantern issues you should read right now, but they aren’t in trade yet, so probably you can just skip ahead to…
• Blackest Night! Coming this summer.

There it is.  Enjoy!  Comments, suggestions, and needed additions are much appreciated.

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