Well DC is enormous. There are so many that should be read.
So Here is what I think should be read from DC Comics,
Like all major comics houses, DC is devided into big eras:
- 1938-1956 - Golden Age - Superman appears in Action Comics, Batman appears in Detective Comics
- 1956-70's - Silver Age - Introduction of the Comics Code
- 70's-1985 - Bronze Age - Lightening of the Comics Code, and the comming of darker comics
- 1985-now - The Moderne Age - Abolition of the Comics Code and reboot of the DC Univers
- - 1985-2011 - The Crisis Age - Starts of with Crisis on Infinit Earths
- - 2011-2016 - The New 52 - Starts of with Flashpoint event
- - 2016-2019 - DC Rebirth - Starts of with the DC Univers Rebirth event to finish up with the Doomsday Clock event
- - 2019-ongoing - The New Age - Starts with Dark Knights: Metal and Justice League: No Justice.
Those eras are regrouped and reffered by the following names:
- The Gold/Silver/Bronze age is reffered as Pre-Crisis.
- The Crisis Age si reffered as Pos-Crisis or Pre-Flashpoint.
- The Flashpoint/Rebirth/New Age ages are reffered as Post-Flashpoint or Flashpoint Age
Here would be the main stories to read:
[LIST=1][*]1938 -
Action Comics #1 - 1st appearance of Superman[*]1939 -
Detective Comics #27 - 1st appearance of Batman[*]1940-52 -
The Spirit Archives by Will Eisner - Yes from the one of the awards -
26 vol.[*]1959-85 -
Flash: The Silver Age - The Flash by Carmine Infantino -
4 vol. followed by 2 omnibus (ongoing)[*]1963-82 -
Crisis On Multiple Earths - The JSA and JLA through the ages -
6 vol. + 2 team-ups vol.[*]1966-82 -
The Steve Ditko Omnibus - Charleston Comics by Steve Ditko: Shade, Hawk & Dove, Legion of Superheroes, Starman, The Outsiders, Specter, Desaad, ... -
2 omnibus