Confusion re: DC Comics

[KingstonTrekker]

I am a 38 year old man. I was an avid collector and reader of DC Comics titles when I was a teenager in the '80's. I remember reading "Crisis on Infinite Earths" which basically combined the DC Multiverse into one continuity/universe. It "cleaned house" so to speak and brought order to the DC titles.

I have been dabbling in reading DC Comics again over the past year...however it is all so darn confusing!! There have been so many reboots/restarts/Crises etc. in recent years. Titles have stopped and then restarted, characters have died and then been reborn/revisualized, characters overlap across way too many series/comics, etc.

It is next to impossible for a newbie (or returnee) to make sense of it all. I am left thinking that the DC Universe has become needlessly convoluted and the company is on the road to making its products inaccessible to new readers.

What do people think? Am I just missing something that helps one make sense of the current DC Universe?

 

[scarab]

For both companies, it's reached a point where continuity is secondary in many instances. But for the past few years, DC has led the way. Read the books you enjoy and go from there.

"Secret Six" is under appreciated and wonderful. I'm not an event guy, but "Blackest Night" looks promising. While I've dropped the Superman books, get the trades of Johns' stuff and pick up "Secret Origins". "Madame Xanadu" is good. "Batman and Robin" is great and buy the collections of "All-Star Superman".

 

[Mr Light]

I just got back into comics a year or two ago, and to me the fun of it IS trying to figure out the confusing details of it. You can read a comic, try to follow it, go on wiki and read about the characters, then go back and get a completely new experience reading the same material.

 

[CaptainCanada]

I started reading around 2003; obviously, there are references to lots of things that I haven't read. I find Wikipedia makes it fairly easy to follow along.

 

[shivkala]

Personally, I find that both major companies seem to be working on the premise that they'd rather focus on keeping readers than attracting new readers. I'm more of a DC man, but from what I've heard over at Marvel, it wouldn't be easy for me to pick up some of their series (especially because since 2003ish they've just had one event building toward the next event building towards the next event and so on...).

I second the recommendation of Secret Six, it's still a relatively new title and you really don't need too much back story to enjoy it.

As for the other titles, you should, theoretically only need to go back to the beginning of the OYL event in March 2006 to understand most of the current series. At that point, DC jumped forward a year from the previous issues and started new storylines based on the end of Infinite Crisis. Even then, if you pick up the TPBs of Last Sun, Brainiac, and the two New Krypton volumes (the second one comes out September 8th), you should be able to understand any of the Superman titles.

Flash is a good title to get in on, since you'd only need to find the first four issues of Flash: Rebirth for the reintroduction of Barry Allen to the DCU (with the understanding that he came back during Final Crisis). The remaining issues of this mini-series, which haven't come out yet, will set the stage for the upcoming new Flash series.

 

[Mike Farley]

Maybe it's because I've been reading along all this time, but I don't find the DCU all that confusing. What are you reading that's giving you troubles?

As for a jumping on point (and I HATE the idea of jumping on points--every issue should be a good jumping on point) INFINITE CRISIS was the last Universe altering event and after that all the DCU books leaped ahead one year establishing some new directions and status quos. IC and OYL were all about three years ago, so theoretically you shouldn't have to go any further back than that on any given book.

And going back is much easier than when you were a regular reader back in the 80's. Almost every comic storyline is reprinted in a trade paperback these days. So most of the stories from the last 5-7 years or so are still in print and available at your LCS, Amazon, or your local bookstore.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I never had a problem understanding what was going on with either Marvel or D.C.. I also don't buy into every big crossover event that happens either (quite a few I'm sitting out on this year). I pretty much stick with the titles I've been already buying and don't pay too much attention to whatever else is happening out there, because if something truly big enough happens, it'll make itself known in my books eventually...

 

[theenglish]

One thing about comics today, is that you can find just about all the background information you want online and keep up with most of the current storylines just by Googling them.

 

[Captain Mike]

I am a 38 year old man. I was an avid collector and reader of DC Comics titles when I was a teenager in the '80's. I remember reading "Crisis on Infinite Earths" which basically combined the DC Multiverse into one continuity/universe. It "cleaned house" so to speak and brought order to the DC titles.

I have been dabbling in reading DC Comics again over the past year...however it is all so darn confusing!! There have been so many reboots/restarts/Crises etc. in recent years. Titles have stopped and then restarted, characters have died and then been reborn/revisualized, characters overlap across way too many series/comics, etc.

It is next to impossible for a newbie (or returnee) to make sense of it all. I am left thinking that the DC Universe has become needlessly convoluted and the company is on the road to making its products inaccessible to new readers.

What do people think? Am I just missing something that helps one make sense of the current DC Universe?

Hey, I just turned 42 myself and read DC extensively since i was able to read and put the words with the drawings. I really preferred the "post"-crisis era beginning with the Byrne reboot and a fan of Kyle rayner as Green Lantern. I stopped reading them altogether when the "silver-age" started creeping back in (i.e, changing Superman's powers (to almost infinite) and origin(yet again), Bringing Hal Jordan and the GLC's back, and now Barry Allen ) Don't get me wrong I am not a Barry hater, it is just with the way Wally was written compared to Barry's silver age stories, Wally's were the most interesting. So until DiDio is canned or leaves make mine Marvel if I decide to read again...

 

[gastrof]

I am a 38 year old man. I was an avid collector and reader of DC Comics titles when I was a teenager in the '80's. I remember reading "Crisis on Infinite Earths" which basically combined the DC Multiverse into one continuity/universe. It "cleaned house" so to speak and brought order to the DC titles.

I have been dabbling in reading DC Comics again over the past year...however it is all so darn confusing!! There have been so many reboots/restarts/Crises etc. in recent years. Titles have stopped and then restarted, characters have died and then been reborn/revisualized, characters overlap across way too many series/comics, etc.

It is next to impossible for a newbie (or returnee) to make sense of it all. I am left thinking that the DC Universe has become needlessly convoluted and the company is on the road to making its products inaccessible to new readers.

What do people think? Am I just missing something that helps one make sense of the current DC Universe?

I know what you mean.

I'd gotten out of comics for a long time, and only got interested again when I heard in the news they were about to kill off Superman.

It was only then that I'd realized how much the CRISIS had affected the DC universe. The loss of Superboy alone to Clark's history was a big surprise, not to mention all the things that were affected by it (such as the changes to the Legion's continuity).

Subsequent changes to the timeline have driven me nuts. Power Girl now having been established as having NO origin in the current mainstream DC universe, an acknowledged left-over from the pre-Crisis Earth 2 universe...

HOW can she have no origin? How can Superman remember her arriving on the mainstream Earth if they're also admitting she landed on the pre-Crisis Earth 2...

WHICH NEVER EXISTED!!!

It's insane.

And now, after all the years of trying to figure out the post-Crisis (and then the post-ZeroHour) timeline, they go and do Infinite Crisis which saw the mainstream DC Earth's universe merged with a bunch of alternate realities, which went and restored a LOT of the pre-Crisis elements.

Don't get me started, tho', on the matter of Supergirl now being (technically) OLDER than Superman, rather than younger.

Welcome to trying to figure it out all over again.

 

[KingstonTrekker]

[/QUOTE]

I know what you mean.

I'd gotten out of comics for a long time, and only got interested again when I heard in the news they were about to kill off Superman.

It was only then that I'd realized how much the CRISIS had affected the DC universe. The loss of Superboy alone to Clark's history was a big surprise, not to mention all the things that were affected by it (such as the changes to the Legion's continuity).

Subsequent changes to the timeline have driven me nuts. Power Girl now having been established as having NO origin in the current mainstream DC universe, an acknowledged left-over from the pre-Crisis Earth 2 universe...

HOW can she have no origin? How can Superman remember her arriving on the mainstream Earth if they're also admitting she landed on the pre-Crisis Earth 2...

WHICH NEVER EXISTED!!!

It's insane.

And now, after all the years of trying to figure out the post-Crisis (and then the post-ZeroHour) timeline, they go and do Infinite Crisis which saw the mainstream DC Earth's universe merged with a bunch of alternate realities, which went and restored a LOT of the pre-Crisis elements.

Don't get me started, tho', on the matter of Supergirl now being (technically) OLDER than Superman, rather than younger.

Welcome to trying to figure it out all over again.[/QUOTE]




I appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions...thank you! I tried to read the hardcover version of Final Crisis today --- and gave up halfway through. It was just too bloody confusing. I am a well educated person (three university degrees) but these comics have just become too convoluted with too much history.

I will still try some of the separate titles that several people recommended in this thread...maybe it will make more sense if I just try individual titles rather than trying to get a grasp of the "big picture" of the DC Universe.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Subsequent changes to the timeline have driven me nuts. Power Girl now having been established as having NO origin in the current mainstream DC universe, an acknowledged left-over from the pre-Crisis Earth 2 universe...

HOW can she have no origin? How can Superman remember her arriving on the mainstream Earth if they're also admitting she landed on the pre-Crisis Earth 2...

WHICH NEVER EXISTED!!!

It did exist; then the universe was remade, and she was a leftover who survived the transition. The concept is really pretty simple.

 

[Mike Farley]

I appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions...thank you! I tried to read the hardcover version of Final Crisis today --- and gave up halfway through. It was just too bloody confusing. I am a well educated person (three university degrees) but these comics have just become too convoluted with too much history.

I will still try some of the separate titles that several people recommended in this thread...maybe it will make more sense if I just try individual titles rather than trying to get a grasp of the "big picture" of the DC Universe.

Even people who are well versed in the current state of the DCU have no idea what FINAL CRISIS was about. That book read like Morrison threw a bunch of ideas into a blender, hit puree, and poured what resulted onto the page. And for the most part DC seems to be ignoring it so it's safe for the rest of us to ignore it too.

You might try BLACKEST NIGHT, it's the big Green Lantern event currently running. The second issue just came out this past week. And although there are a number of minis and specials spinning out of this the actual story is supposed t be self contained. From what I've heard, many people have picked this up based on the hype and been able to jump on with little to no DCU knowledge.

 

[coolghoul]

I appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions...thank you! I tried to read the hardcover version of Final Crisis today --- and gave up halfway through. It was just too bloody confusing. I am a well educated person (three university degrees) but these comics have just become too convoluted with too much history.

I will still try some of the separate titles that several people recommended in this thread...maybe it will make more sense if I just try individual titles rather than trying to get a grasp of the "big picture" of the DC Universe.

I know you used to avidly follow comic books earlier so my comments might not apply to you - but I read comic books that become available to me via the library or friends lend them to me and stuff. The best way is to read some of the more standalone stories first and only then get into the Crises and major events. The Crises themselves come with so much stuff (multiple trades, crossover events happening in multiple titles etc) that it can be a bear to handle. Also when they do hit the "reset" button, things remain hazy. You never know what has happened in the current universe' past until the writers choose to mention it. "Is Jason Todd still dead?" or "Who knows Spidey's identity and who doesn't?"- They won't answer that question at the conclusion of whatever the event is. They will answer that in some mag several issues down the line.

Frankly, imo, being a continuity stickler is only going to cause us pain. Everything's fluid, everything changes.

Having said that - I'd recommend "Identity Crisis" - it's remarkably "self-contained" and the events that happen occasionally get mentioned till today. I'd also recommend "JLA - Tower of Babel" as another one of those trades that you should pick up as it will get mentioned from time to time.

Another thing that people have suggested is Green Lantern since DC is doing the Blackest Night event. I have generally heard positive feedback from most fans about Geoff Johns writing Green Lantern and so I decided to get into that recently.

I have just started reading Green Lantern (starting with trades for Rebirth which gets started with making Hal Jordan Green Lantern again, No Fear, Wanted, Revenge of the Green Lanterns, and finally getting into the Sinestro Corps War). Geoff Johns is doing some epic story-telling (tho' I find his heroic characters being rather cold bastards! Not at all like my usual DC superheroes) involving multiple planets/races/colors (green lanterns, yellow lanterns, red lanterns, blue lanterns, purple lanterns, and now *black* lanterns). He also likes to do brief recaps in some of his issues (I'm reading the trades and so I find him covering what has happened just a few pages ago!).

I think all you need to have read prior to this is a little bit of Green Lantern (know the Guardians, Oa, Krona, Sinestro) and also the Alan Moore story of Abin Sur going to Ysmault (it's reprinted in DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore ). You might need to know a little bit of backhistory of how Hal Jordan turned evil for a little while and then became something else and then finally he turns up in Rebirth).

Here is a pretty good list of published trades for Green Lantern (principally focused on Hal Jordan) and the Green Lantern Corps (a separate mag focusing on the Corps) that I found very helpful from Amazon

 

[Mistral]

I gave up years ago. The idiocy of the stories combined with ever-climbing prices soured me. I read the whole story about the Gotham quake, and the a couple more-or-less stand alone TPBs but trying to follow what's going on in the regular series? Forget about it.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I am a 38 year old man. I was an avid collector and reader of DC Comics titles when I was a teenager in the '80's. I remember reading "Crisis on Infinite Earths" which basically combined the DC Multiverse into one continuity/universe. It "cleaned house" so to speak and brought order to the DC titles.

I have been dabbling in reading DC Comics again over the past year...however it is all so darn confusing!! There have been so many reboots/restarts/Crises etc. in recent years. Titles have stopped and then restarted, characters have died and then been reborn/revisualized, characters overlap across way too many series/comics, etc.

It is next to impossible for a newbie (or returnee) to make sense of it all. I am left thinking that the DC Universe has become needlessly convoluted and the company is on the road to making its products inaccessible to new readers.

What do people think? Am I just missing something that helps one make sense of the current DC Universe?

I am from that era of comic books...So welcome. I gave up reading comics after CRISIS OF INFINITE earths...I came back for the Infinite Crisis, and pretty much agreed with superman-earth two in his belief that heroes were no longer heroes...

I will give you a tip. The newest version of JSA (which started a couple years back) was a GREAT READ. Find the trade paper back and read the entire run and catch up with the newer stories. It is by far the best DC book now, because it is aimed at readers from our time.

Rob

 

[KingstonTrekker]

Thanks again to everyone for all of your tips -- I will check out some of these books!