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I haven't read any DC comics before, but started reading The new 52 series. I've tried various families such as Batman, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Red Lanterns, Green Lantern - New Guardians, Superman, Action Comics, Justice League and many others.

Whatever family I read, it seems that they are not really the first ever comic of that series. For example Hal Jordan got sacked from Green lanterns in the Green Lantern #1, the Blackest night already happened, Bruce Wayne is already batman and fought Joker and many such incidents.

So my question is where should I look if I want to read about the origins or start of the series? Do I need to read the complete Post-Crisis (Dunno when it started, 1985?) to understand the origin or is there any list of pre new 52 comic which are required to be read to understand the current continuity?

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  • Blackest Night is actually not part of the New 52 continuity - that was the last major event of the Post-Crisis one.
    – Omegacron
    Nov 4, 2014 at 18:59
  • @Omegacron But it is part of Green Lantern's New 52 continuity. DC reboots are confusing.
    – Boelabaal
    Apr 15, 2015 at 14:04

2 Answers 2

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DC's current continuity - known as the "New 52" began following the FlashPoint event. That event effectively 'reset' the DC multiverse into 52 parallel Earths. Here are links to the collected volumes that cover both that event as well as the formation of the New 52 version of the Justice League:

Both the FlashPoint event and the formation of the New 52 Justice League (Vol. 1 above) have been adapted into animated films:

DC Comics has been releasing collected editions (TPB) of its New 52 titles. A search on Amazon for "New 52 TPB" reveals numerous options for catching up, and would probably be a good place to start for family-specific origin reboots and such.

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  • I've already seen both the movies. So you mean to say if I just read all the new 52 titles, I won't have to read anything else and I am just reading them in wrong order?
    – noob
    Nov 4, 2014 at 19:06
  • The four books I linked to will show how the New 52 came to be and how the Justice League started in the new continuity. For character-specific details, you'll need to read their solo titles. So far DC has been pretty good about indicating which titles are New 52 in the titles themselves (ex - "Batman (New 52)") if searching online.
    – Omegacron
    Nov 4, 2014 at 19:30
  • Thanks! I already bought a lot of comic in new 52 and was wondering if I needed to buy something before these. I am yet to read all of them. I guess I have to read them all before asking questions ;-)
    – noob
    Nov 5, 2014 at 7:04
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Basically DC wrote their reset so that it wouldn't completely invalidate their previous (pre-New52) work. This allowed them to reference old stories as if they are the past of the current continuity. In reality the current continuity starts at the point Barry Allen (The Flash) enters it from the old continuity, he just happens to do that at a point where a lot has already happened to our famous heroes, rather than entering when everyone are children then Barry would be a generation older than them, relatively speaking. What this means for you is that even if you read every single New52 comic, you're still going to feel like there's some trivial details about characters you're missing out on, and yeah, to find out you would need to go read every single DC comic. A better solution I think is just to focus on a character (eg Batman) or a theme (eg Gotham (batman, robin, batgirl, etc)) and just catch up on all New52 titles then ask questions online to fill in any gaps.

However to answer your question directly, you'd need to read Flashpoint and 52 to understand how things played out and why there's a new continuity in the first place (aside from DC using it as an excuse to fix some plot-holes of course).

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  • “A better solution” — better than reading every single DC comic? WHAT SORT OF WEAKSAUCE FAIRWEATHER COMICS FAN ARE YOU?!?!?
    – Paul D. Waite
    Apr 15, 2015 at 13:00
  • Ha. To read every DC comic is a task you couldn't do in a lifetime even if you wanted to.
    – NICHOLAS MARK AMOS
    Apr 15, 2015 at 13:32
  • Really? They don’t have that many words in them.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Apr 15, 2015 at 14:05
  • Does the fact that I have a job and life, helps anyway in deciding that if I can read all the comics or not?
    – noob
    Apr 15, 2015 at 14:42
  • @noob Just pick some you really like. Issues will usually have a box in-context "see issue #xx -signed" if there's some important backstory on what you're currently reading. You've probably noticed that. Just follow those from reading comics you actually care about and you'll be fine.
    – NICHOLAS MARK AMOS
    Apr 15, 2015 at 14:54

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