Is the new 52 a good place to start?

[Dark-Jacket]

Without being specific, if you like comics with a lot of angst a 90's vibe and "Ultimates" feel, new 52 might be a good starting point for you. If you're more interested in iconic versions of heroes and continuity, go for older stories or Convergence which turned out great actually.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

It's a pretty terrible place to start and that's really a problem as it was supposed to be the perfect jumping-on point for new readers. Instead, it started off with a contradictory and overly complicated continuity with almost no thought put into it. Tons of it has been retconned away too. Though far from all of it.

All this said, despite what some might say, there were a few really good books, or at least they were really good for a while. Stuff like Swamp Thing and Animal Man, in particular, were brilliant at first - though even they got derailed by an underwhelming crossover and getting lost in their own mythology.

The honest answer to this question, which comes up a lot, is that there is no perfect place to start reading the DCU. I think I speak for most readers in saying that you basically just jump in and take it from there. Filling in the gaps is a lot of fun. I really loved exploring all the different aspects of the DCU when I first started reading comics regularly - and that was in teh days before the internet was really a thing!

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

They had to erase the pre-Flashpoint Superman after Grounded to get people to like Superman again as well.

Except they ended up going back to a Superman that was more like Pre-Flashpoint Superman anyway...

[Ilan Preskovsky]

There was nothing wrong with post-Crisis Superman. Writers like JMS and James Robinson were just a godawful fit for the character, the whole New Krypton thing went on way longer than it needed to and the Busiek and Johns era suffered from delays and fill-in artists. Morrison's Action comics was such a breath of fresh air because it was the first decent run of Superman comics in years, not because it rebooted Superman. It still wasn't a patch on All Star Superman, though. The Perez run at the same time is not exactly looked on with much fondness (to put it kindly) even by Perez himself. The return on post-Crisis Superman was where the Superman line really started to turn around.

[Dark-Jacket]

There was nothing wrong with post-Crisis Superman. Writers like JMS and James Robinson were just a godawful fit for the character, the whole New Krypton thing went on way longer than it needed to and the Busiek and Johns era suffered from delays and fill-in artists. Morrison's Action comics was such a breath of fresh air because it was the first decent run of Superman comics in years, not because it rebooted Superman. It still wasn't a patch on All Star Superman, though. The Perez run at the same time is not exactly looked on with much fondness (to put it kindly) even by Perez himself. The return on post-Crisis Superman was where the Superman line really started to turn around.

Agreed 100%

[SiegePerilous02]

Except they ended up going back to a Superman that was more like Pre-Flashpoint Superman anyway...

Doesn't change the fact that he was in such sorry shape that they felt they needed to reboot him in the first place. it seemed like a good idea and got short term benefits in a way they didn't feel the need to for Batman and Green Lantern. End of the day: line wide reboots catch attention, and depend on strong follow up to sustain themselves. Both New 52 and Rebirth Superman caught attention, the difference is the latter eventually got a big name creator who had a direction in mind for the whole line. The former didn't have much organization and plan beyond the initial run, and even the things didn't get bad until the last year or so before Rebirth.

That being said...

There was nothing wrong with post-Crisis Superman. Writers like JMS and James Robinson were just a godawful fit for the character, the whole New Krypton thing went on way longer than it needed to and the Busiek and Johns era suffered from delays and fill-in artists. Morrison's Action comics was such a breath of fresh air because it was the first decent run of Superman comics in years, not because it rebooted Superman. It still wasn't a patch on All Star Superman, though. The Perez run at the same time is not exactly looked on with much fondness (to put it kindly) even by Perez himself. The return on post-Crisis Superman was where the Superman line really started to turn around.

I agree that reboots don't solve anything in the long run that a good soft reboot/creative shift couldn't do better. That's why I regard COIE as being as bad as the New 52, it was just slightly better planned. But good books came out of both eras, they just didn't need a reboot to happen.

Morrison's Superman run could have worked even better as an extended "Year One" type story re-telling the origin while being concurrent with the present, full continuity. Something like his Batman run where "everything happened" and he re-worked forgotten pre-Crisis elements into the story through flashback scenes/arcs. A full Superman continuity where he died fighting Doomsday and was married to Lois, but spent his early years as the Golden Age-style t-shirt and jeans guy before he grew more powerful and wiser, would have worked better. But it works as a largely self contained early years Superman story that tells people everything they need to know about the character, the dumb Jim Lee costume is the major thing that firmly places it in the New 52 era. The other most synonymous thing with this era, the misguided romance with Diana, is nowhere to be found in the run thankfully.

It doesn't have a patch on All-Star, but there are very few (if any) Superman comics that do. Certainly not anything else in the rest of the New 52 era or Rebirth comes close.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Doesn't change the fact that he was in such sorry shape that they felt they needed to reboot him in the first place. it seemed like a good idea and got short term benefits in a way they didn't feel the need to for Batman and Green Lantern. End of the day: line wide reboots catch attention, and depend on strong follow up to sustain themselves. Both New 52 and Rebirth Superman caught attention, the difference is the latter eventually got a big name creator who had a direction in mind for the whole line. The former didn't have much organization and plan beyond the initial run, and even the things didn't get bad until the last year or so before Rebirth.

Again, except the "sorry shape" he was in had little to do with the elements of continuity that TPTB at DC felt needed "fixing" and decided to remove with the New 52. Superman, Pre-Flashpoint, wasn't in dire straits because he was married to Lois or because he wore shorts on the outside of his costume or because he was over the age of 30. New 52 Superman, however, started off on the wrong foot with fans because so many of the hallmark elements and continuity that defined Superman were removed. That is actually what eventially led to his downfall.

[Sacred Knight]

It didn't start on the wrong foot, actually. It stormed out of the gate. Tangibly, the marriage being gone, the costume being different, him being 20-something instead of 40-something, they're all negligible. That's not something some Superman fans like to admit, but the proof is in the sales. You can have them or you can not have them and you can do Superman successfully. It only comes down to fan preference after that but by and large either mold will sell. That's been beyond proven at this point. Certain details are not as mandatory as some like to think. Neither thing led to its downfall. Poor direction as time went on did. Just like poor direction led to the pre-FP downfall. Just like a poor direction could easily lead to this current Superman's downfall if they're not careful.

But to answer the OP's question, its a good starting point if you don't mind going in knowing that a lot of it will be retconned. Its basically a five year continuity that ended. If you look at it that way and that's cool by you, its a great place to start. If you'd rather go with something that matters more to what's going on currently, you'd probably be better off starting with Rebirth. It all depends on your personal preference. A clear yes or no answer otherwise would be based on my bias and the bias of others which doesn't really help you yourself.

[SiegePerilous02]

Again, except the "sorry shape" he was in had little to do with the elements of continuity that TPTB at DC felt needed "fixing" and decided to remove with the New 52. Superman, Pre-Flashpoint, wasn't in dire straits because he was married to Lois or because he wore shorts on the outside of his costume or because he was over the age of 30. New 52 Superman, however, started off on the wrong foot with fans because so many of the hallmark elements and continuity that defined Superman were removed. That is actually what eventially led to his downfall.

What eventually lead to his downfall was lack of editorial direction and crappy stories, same as the pre-Flashpoint Superman, and TPTB of course overreacted as they did before in their attempt to course correct. They'll reboot the current version again if things get so bad and they feel the need to. These TPTB are not good at long term planning as we've repeatedly seen.

He started off on the wrong foot with some specific fans, but not all of them. Even some fans of the pre-Flashpoint Superman and the marriage liked that run, they post here. Both he and Rebirth Superman aren't any different in that they got a sales boost from an attention getting reboot. And I'm not an advocate for the New 52 era as a whole, the Morrison run is pretty much the only thing I liked from it, but that's one more thing than Rebirth and the few years Pre-Flashpoint for me at least. So I'd recommend the run over many others because it feels like Superman for me. An older, married Superman can work for me too if the writers voice for the character rings true for me, but it doesn't happen often. But that's not Lois's fault.

At the end of the day, good comics are good comics. It doesn't matter which era they are a part of, because every era has shit and there is no coherent long term narrative for new fans to follow. We are long past that. You're better off recommending self contained graphic novels or where a specific run starts and ends, but since there is no long term planning, what's the point of having a "jumping on and sticking with it" point?

[Dark-Jacket]

I pretty much skipped new 52 after the past couple of months. One of the big letdown for me was the more angsty Superman and the state of his relationship with Lois. But I do like more iconic versions of the characters rather than updated ones. I don't mind Clark doing some old cliche reporting rather than owning a blog. Or Jimmy to have an old school camera and so on. But I think new52 was popular with a share of the reader or else DC would have shut down.

[SiegePerilous02]

I pretty much skipped new 52 after the past couple of months. One of the big letdown for me was the more angsty Superman and the state of his relationship with Lois. But I do like more iconic versions of the characters rather than updated ones. I don't mind Clark doing some old cliche reporting rather than owning a blog. Or Jimmy to have an old school camera and so on. But I think new52 was popular with a share of the reader or else DC would have shut down.

Clark wasn't angsty, at least in Action Comics. If he was, it was for like a page at most.

[Sacred Knight]

Yeah, angsty I've always felt was the wrong term. Angsty is nervousness, brooding, lamenting, distressed, and he was never any of those things regularly. He was actually portrayed as a pretty darn happy individual (until he lost his powers but that was a storyline, albeit not a good one). While I think this word gets overplayed too, its more accurate to say he had more of an edge. Since he was younger he was quicker to anger in the face of crime, and he wore those feelings more on his sleeve. But he was never lamenting his lot or anything like that nor particularly tortured by anything (he missed his parents, but that's normal), and that's really more what being angsty is. Some didn't like that "edge" though and that's fine. If anything though, angsty is what the pre-FP Superman turned into around the time of OWAR to Flashpoint.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

What eventually lead to his downfall was lack of editorial direction and crappy stories, same as the pre-Flashpoint Superman, and TPTB of course overreacted as they did before in their attempt to course correct. They'll reboot the current version again if things get so bad and they feel the need to. These TPTB are not good at long term planning as we've repeatedly seen.

Oh no doubt they're not and they likely will. But the New 52 failed because it was such an aggressive reboot that cut ties with almost everything that defined the DCU for decades. Don't take my word for it. Take the word of almost every major site that pointed that out as being a major problem with the New 52. And Superman was a prime example of a character that people looked at as being "ruined" by the reboot.

He started off on the wrong foot with some specific fans, but not all of them.

It was a significant majority of them and, I'm sorry, but those who liked New 52 Superman were definitely in the minority. People were very vocal about their dislike for New 52 Superman.

[Sacred Knight]

The fact is actually that those who were vocal didn't really translate in any tangible measure. Again, sales dropped significantly only when direction and general writing faltered, and that was only about a year before the end of the era. If it was as universally hated as claimed it would have dropped like a stone after the tried and true "new initiative" honeymoon period wore off. It didn't. It featured general ebbs and flows. Thus its highly nebulous to truly say it was a significant majority who hated it right off the bat, nor is it provable to say the majority hated it altogether. People online railing really mean jack when it can't be backed up tangibly. The reality is always going to be that there were plenty consuming the material, and I don't buy into the hate-reading excuse.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

What's also a fact is that those who were vocal didn't really translate in any tangible measure. Again, sales dropped when direction and general writing faltered. Thus its highly nebulous to truly say it was a significant majority who hated it right off the bat.

If a majority of fans liked New 52 Superman, the whole idea of bringing back Pre-Flashpoint Superman wouldn't have gone anywhere and DC could have just brushed off the detractors as just that. You can try and make the argument that New 52 Superman was secretly beloved before 2015, but the evidence says otherwise. They literally had to do a miniature "de-boot" to get Superman back to his Pre-Flashpoint status quo.

DC obviously saw widespread discontent with the New 52. Otherwise, we would never have had Rebirth. Though that seems like a lesson that DC's going to have to learn all over again.