I need some help, my dudes. Please help me out

I need some help, my dudes. Please help me out.

I'm trying to get into DC but it's kinda hard and very complicated. I don't know what to read. I read Flashpoint as I heard that was a good start but I have no idea how it ties into Rebirth and if the current 52 are the new 52? I'm seriously lost and Google just puts me deeper into the rabbit hole instead of helping. I found out there's a Batman who laughs, which I'm reading right now, but he's from Earth -11, which I think is the antithesis of Earth 11? Are those two different universes or will it all tie-in in a bigger event? Is that what Doomsday Clock is?

I'm not asking for a reading list per se, or for you guys to tell me who's who, but please, help me make sense of all this as it's hard to figure out where to start properly or to know what ties into what.

For now, I've read: Flashpoint and that Thomas Wayne spin-off, which was fucking great; Rebirth #1; Injustice Year 1 to Year 5 (I have yet to play Injustice 1/2 story modes); Batman, the Drowned; The Batman Who Laughs.

Thanks in advance, guys.

Cheers.

I don't know what retard told you Flashpoint was a good place to start.

Protip: don't worry about continuity because if you do you'll pull your hair out. Events and their tie-ins are always retarded and not worth reading.

What characters are you interested in reading about?

Pick up a book you like the look and premise of and read it. It's that easy.

Batman the Drowned and Batman who Laughs are from doomed universes where everything went wrong. They're two of the bad guys in a DC event called Metal.

The New 52 was the name of a group of books that were launched in 2011. after the Flashpoint book. The original 52 was a miniseries back in 2006. Rebirth is DC's current line of books, and that started in 2016.

Injustice is a hypothetical story set in an alternate universe.

If you're interested in Batman, which it seems you are, a great place to start if you want to read newer books is to just pick up Volume 1 of Batman from the New 52 line. It goes on for 10 volumes and is pretty solid the whole way through.

If you're okay with reading some older books, try out Batman: Year One, Batman: The Man Who Laughs, The Long Halloween, and Dark Victory. Those are all pretty good.

If you're looking to get into like the characters just start at a jump on point, or I dunno wiki the background stuff and start wherever seems interesting.

If you're trying to get into the overall story, you're fuck outta luck. I'm not against this sort of thing entirely, but the fact of the matter is all the shenanigans around the alternate realities and prior realities and meta implications are for fans who have been keeping up for some time or reading up a lot. If you want to join that crowd you'll just have to follow their footsteps, but I'm not sure what's possessed you to think it's going to pay off.

You're starting with comics that are too recent. You need to go older to get a real feel for the DC Universe. Go back to the original "Crisis on Infinite Earths". Don't actually read it, just go back to it. Read "Legends", which is a 1986 comic from shortly after the Crisis. It sets up the universe-wide status quo for several years. Then read "Justice League" (1987) and "Suicide Squad" (1987). Those two books comprise the backbone of the universe for the next several years, and they'll introduce you to all sorts of characters from the A-List through the Z-List, as well as help you to understand all the important concepts that you need to grasp in order to fully comprehend the DC Universe.

Stay away from newshit for now.

I'm interested in the Injustice series, whatever Flashpoint is and the Dark Universe, because that looked cool. I don't mind reading a lot to catch up, really. I just want to know what's going on before going down the rabbit hole.

Hey dude, thanks for the reply.

I forgot to say I already own some of those, like Year One and TDKR. I'll look into the new 52 and those books you listed.

Damn, that's a shame. I think it's like wrestling in a way, where you don't know if it's a good time to jump in because every story line gets so intertwined sometimes that context from older episodes is mandatory.

I'll try to read everything everybody here listed and go from there.

I've never read those, so I'll get to those as soon as possible.

Thank you all for being so helpful.

Batman Hush is the easiest break-in point IMO. Not the best but a good feel around

Only because it runs the gauntlet of a bunch of his side-characters and villains. The actual story isn't very good.

>Injustice
Don't bother. Its only fun if you have prior knowledge of these characters and have fun with everyone acting pants on head retarded. Best thing to do with comics is just jumping in, absorbing as much material as you can, and worrying about continuity later.
>Flashpoint
Overrated crap. Its like Marvel's Civil War, only parroted given its marketing.

>I read Flashpoint as I heard that was a good start
Someone has played a cruel trick on you. My recs for you are:

Jonah Hex and All-Star Western for some good ol' Spaghetti Westerns

Aquaman under Johns and Parker was a great gem of the New 52, and its still good in Rebirth.

Can't go wrong with Geoff Johns run on Green Lantern

There's lots of Superman stories of course, but for something in that vein that is different, check out New Superman, seriously the best of Rebirth.

Well, fuck. I'm already into it, so I guess I'll just read it and google everything I might have missed afterwards. I also like playing the game (Inj2), which is the reason I got interested in reading the comics. I'll take that advice, though!

Green Lantern was cool in Injustice but I don't know much about him other than what I read on the comic and a basic look up on google. I'll definitely look into it. Thanks for the suggestions!

Just remember that Injustice is not a great representation for most of these characters

Expect Injustice versions of characters to be very different from wwhat you'll read from now on. Injustice is its own weird little alt universe.

Don't read anything made after 2000.
Ignore everything else.

>I think it's like wrestling in a way, where you don't know if it's a good time to jump in because every story line gets so intertwined sometimes that context from older episodes is mandatory.
That's a great comparison, the way characters and events are handled in comics I guess is similar to how the personalities and events are handled in wrestling. There's an overall narrative but from one point to the next the details change depending on a lot of things like fan reception and plans to push who and what.

So I personally think it's better to come into comics looking for and getting what interests you, rather than following the interests of others.

I'll give you an example that might not mean anything, but in that is why it's perfect. We all enjoyed the event Sinestro Corps War because it did some interesting things with the Green Lantern property, expanding their ranks to unconventional members, pitting Will against Fear, and yes making call backs and forwards to concepts, but we enjoyed because of the simple fact it was, for the most part, well done, not because it was complicated or connected or "the consequences would never be the same" or whatever editors and writers seem to think people want from events.

Anyway, after SCW but before anyone knew for sure what the events Blackest Night and Brightest Day were, everyone just assumed because the thing before was good the next would be, so everyone just assumed they should start fussing about trying to catch up on Green Lantern lore in advance this time, so everyone assumed surely, surely this would be make it even more satisfying.

How many people do you see talking about Blackest Night these days?

Now, there's nothing wrong with being invested in an interest, I'm not discouraging that, I just dissuade others from making the same mistake in thinking the quantity of material and readers and hype for any measure of quality.

I'll keep that in mind.

Last questions, I promise:

Who is Red Hood? From my understanding, he's Robin after coming from the dead, but now he uses guns and is an anti-hero. He looks cool in-game. Is he worth looking into?

Are Green Arrow and Black Canary worth looking into? Wonder Woman? These are my dudes in game too.

Seriously, thank you all for helping me out.

I see. I'm a wrestling fan so I can relate to that, every year before Summerslam or Wrestlemania: why is HHH back? Wasn't he retired? Didn't he marry a McMahon? Was that storyline? Wait, that was real and storyline?

I guess it's the same: keep hype in check (and oh boy, is that absolutely mandatory these days...) and just jump in.

Jason Todd, the second Robin, is Red Hood. Killed off via fan vote in the even Death in the Family. He's alright, check out the Rebirth Red Hood and the Outlaws first since its pretty damn good. After that, maybe look into the New 52 book of the same title, its okay.

I'm not too knowledgable about GA beyond Lemire's run in the N52 which was good and had great art, and I've heard good things about the Rebirth title which built off of that.

Wonder Woman is a mixed bag since every writer wants to make a mark with the character. Check out Azzarellos' run for some cool god on god fights. Others might be able to give you more on her than I can.

If you turn it on nowadays you'll see Kurt Angle is back and he has a black son! Ain't that something. Just watch Lucha Underground and wait for Wrestle Kingdom in NJPW.

The Red Hood is Jason Todd, the second Robin, and is/was the black sheep of the Bat-family. He died in Death in the Family, where Joker beat him to death with a crowbar and blew him up in middle east. He later returned in Under the Red Hood, using Joker's old alias as mockery. Theres a current Rebirth series out called Red Hood and the Outlaws thats pretty good, kind of a "Dark Trinity".

Green Arrow and Black Canary are fun, try Year One for island Ollie stuff.

Wonder Woman is tricky, but try George Perez's run

>Are Green Arrow and Black Canary worth looking into?
Read all of the Mike Grell stuff starting with the Longbow Hunters mini.

Will do, thanks! I have a pretty long reading list now thanks to you guys, but I'm absolutely looking forward to it.

I never said it was

>Anything by Keith Giffen and/or Alan Grant

>80's Omega Men series
>Invasion storyline
>L.E.G.I.O.N.
>The Demon
>Hitman
>Justice League of America
>Eclipso: Darkness Within storyline
>R.E.B.E.L.S. vol.1
>Mystery in Space starring Captain Comet
>R.E.B.E.L.S. vol. 2

Also Ambush Bug