I don't even know if these kinds of threads are allowed on here, I read the FAQ, but didn't see anything specific about content of threads, so I'm jumping in feet first.

I'm a 31 year old man who has very limited experience with comic books, that weren't meant to be funny. I had read The Walking Dead, and really that's about it. I enjoyed the Marvel movies, they were certainly entertaining. But, what I enjoyed more than the individual stories (which varied in quality), was the continuity between it all. That these things were building off of one another or even happening simultaneously, and then it begins to feel less like individual movies, but rather one large entity. But, frankly, I'm just not a movie guy. I much prefer reading and art, so it makes sense why the medium of comic books appeals to me. But, it's always been cost prohibitive and overwhelming, and the only thing that seemed cost efficient were omnibuses, which is why I've read The Walking Dead! But, then about a month ago I discovered the subscription service for DC Comics, and suddenly it wasn't cost prohibitive (though still overwhelming), and with a nice iPad to look at, enjoyable and easy to read.

But, where to start? I chose DC over Marvel (since they obviously have a subscription model of their own), because I like Batman and Superman, and I'm over Marvel characters for now. I fell down the rabbit hole of research, trying to find the perfect starting point (which I now realize is a fool's errand) to get into DC comics and their universe (which I also now realize is not full of continuity and requires suspending disbelief as well as timelines) and despite the polarizing sentiments about it, I've decided to start with the New 52. Apparently, there are some real duds floating around in there, but that's fine! I really, really expect this to be a marathon and not a race, and have zero plans of ever being able to catch up to the present. This is likely a project that will take up years. But, I figure I can knock out a storyline or two a week (more in the summer, since I'm a school teacher), and really make some progress through the DC universe. I've been compiling various reading lists all over the internet, and I think I have a decent idea of my plan to approaching it, since I don't think there is a 'perfect' order out there. And I'll certainly take suggestions on my reading order as well.


My plan to get started has been about two weeks in the making (if that gives you any idea on what kind of person I am...I'm also one that likes using parentheticals if you can't tell), and I'm rearing to go. There are a handful of 'main' DC super heroes that I really don't know much about, besides surface information that any half-way nerd knows (Green Arrow, Aquaman), and there are a handful out there that I've never heard of up until now (O.M.A.C., Blue Beetle). I don't have much optimism for the ones that lasted 5 issues before getting axed, but the goal is to get through them anyways. I get the sense that it would be beneficial to read at least a few comics leading up to the New 52 for some important context and information, but I've got to put a limit somewhere or I'm going to end up following the crumb trail all the way back to 80 year old comics. So, New 52 it is, I'm sure I'll be doing plenty of googling anyways, so I'll pick up any information I need along the ways from wiki's, board members and the such.

I ask for no spoilers, I'm sure I'll accidentally spoil things for myself by being overzealous with the googling, but I'll do my best. I'm going to try to maintain a rough map of my plan to get through the comics, again by using an amalgamation of several website's reading orders (of which I'll credit in due time) and wherever my interest seems to take me.

I'm going to try to roughly follow publication orders, I thought about trying it chronologically, but I don't think I'd enjoy reading it as much, I also don't know if I trust that anyone who puts reading orders together could truly, accurately do such a colossal task. I don't want to just bounce around haphazardly as I know there is no way to perfectly line anything up. So my goal is to keep characters that make sense to be read together, together. If a character appears in a story and they have a arc out there in roughly the same publication period they are going to be moved up the list and be more likely to be read sooner. I expect this to be pretty interesting and a very long term project. I hope CBR is paying their server bill because I'm hoping this thread is around for awhile.

From the reading order sites I've used (comicbookreadingorders.com, comicbooktreasury.com, mythbank.com, readingorders.net, collectededitions.blogspot.com (probably my favorite) as well as the Patreon user ComicBookOrderly, who I paid a few bucks to access his order (which has a few issues, but it has an excellent checklist).

It seems I'm supposed to start out with the opening arc for Justice League.


After that, it will be Action Comics:


Then, after that? I'm really not sure. I'll have to see where it takes me and/or take suggestions from the community. Looking forward to it and I'll take any suggestions you have.