Going back in time to Final Crisis - need help on order of issues.

[Slimybug]

So here's the deal: Way back in 2005, they had that big, whole epic "Countdown to Infinite Crisis" deal. Officially, it only encompassed 4 mini-series, The OMAC Project, Day of Vengeance, Villains United, and Rann-Thanagar War. In actuality, there were other story arcs that were more or less essential, including Superman: Sacrifice, The Return of Donna Troy, JLA: Crisis of Conscience, and the first four issues of JSA Classfied. I read them all. And it was oh so worth it!

I was in college shortly after that, and had a lot of money saved up to spare. So over the next two years, I bought a lot of comics. All 52 issues of 52, to start with. Then came the countdown to Final Crisis. Again, officially, the there was one thing you had to read, the series Countdown. In actuality, however, there were numerous other storylines that either fit into Final Crisis, or simply were of importance to the DCU in that period of two years. There always seemed to be more and more, and, like a sucker, I bought them all. As I remember, the big ones were...

The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive - Full Throttle (death of Bart Allen)
Amazons Attack!
The Lightning Saga
The Sinestro Corps War
The Trials of Shazam!
Black Adam: The Dark Age

So, when the first issue of Final Crisis was released, I eagerly bought it, and....couldn't understand anything. Apparently, it was linked in to even more series, namely Grant Morrison's "Seven Soldiers." Well, when I tell this story to people, I always end it with "I threw that comic down and I haven't bought a single DC issue since." Not sure about the throwing down part, but it's more or less true.

Since then, a lot has happened. I've missed Blackest Night, Flash: Rebirth, Flashpoint, and the dawn of the New 52. Recently, I finally decided to try it again. I still have a lot of the comics downstairs. I'm also fortunate that I am travelling often now to the Iowa City, which has the best public library for comic books probably in the state. So I've got a lot of them .

In addition to the above stuff, I am also making it a point to read every single issue of Green Lantern (vol 4) and Green Lantern Corps, from #1 to the end. I am also reading a lot of the WW stuff from this era, as I liked that very much, and still own it.

SO....My question is about ordering, and also what else may be important. I knew there was a 12-issue Ion series at that time. I never thought it was very important, and never read it. But recently, I saw the cover to the vol. 2 tpb, and it has Kyle, Donna, and a Monitor on the front, showing it clearly crossing over with Countdown, so now I'm intrigued.

The problem is that the cover-date of comics is often misleading, with comics I THINK coming out about two months prior to it???? Anyway, I don't necessarily ahve to read every issue of GL and WW in tandem with each other. But when I get to countdown, which continually crosses over with the events of the DCU, it would be nice to have some sort of frame of reference.

Based only on cover dates, here's the reading order I have so far.

2006
May
Green Lantern #10

Jun.
Green Lantern #11
Ion #1

Jul.
Green Lantern #12
Ion #2

Aug.
Green Lantern #13
Green Lantern Corps #1
Ion #3
Wonder Woman #1

Sept.
Green Lantern #14
Green Lantern Corps #2
Ion #4
Justice League of America #0
Wonder Woman #2

Oct.
Green Lantern Corps #3
Ion #5
Justice League of America #1
The Trials of Shazam! #1
Wonder Woman #3

Nov.
Green Lantern Corps #4
Ion #5
Justice League of America #2
The Trials of Shazam! #2
Wonder Woman #4

Dec.
Green Lantern #15
Green Lantern Corps #5
Ion #6
Justice League of America #3
The Trials of Shazam! #3
Wonder Woman #5

2007

Jan.
Green Lantern #16
Green Lantern #6
Ion #7
Justice League of America #4
The Trials of Shazam! #4
Wonder Woman #5

Feb.
Green Lantern #16
Green Lantern Corps #7
Ion #9
Justice League of America #5
Justice Society of America #1
Wonder Woman #4

2007 :
Green Lantern Corps #8
Ion #10
The Trials of Shazam! #5


Apr.
Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #9
Green Lantern #17
Green Lantern Corps #9
Ion #11
Justice Society of America #3
The Trials of Shazam! #6

May
Countdown #51
Countdown #50
Countdown #49
Countdown #48
Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #10
Green Lantern #18
Green Lantern Corps #10
Ion #12
Justice League of America #7
Wonder Woman #5
Wonder Woman #6

Jun.
Amazons Attack! #1
Countdown #47
Countdown #46
Countdown #45
Countdown #44
Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1
Green Lantern #19
Green Lantern Corps #11
Justice League of America #8
Justice Society of America #5
Wonder Woman #7
Wonder Woman #8

Jul.
Amazons Attack! #2
Countdown #43
Countdown #42
Countdown #41
Countdown #40
Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #12
Green Lantern #20
Green Lantern Corps #12
Justice League of America #9
Justice Society of America #6
Wonder Woman #9

And so on...

[PyroSikTh]

The only thing important for understanding Final Crisis is Final Crisis. Adding everything else just makes Final Crisis more confusing as it doesn't line up. Countdown was a massive failure, Death of the New Gods was directly contradicted, and all the tie-ins were superfluous and/or hard to place in a cohesive reading order.

[poroto678]

Man there are a thousand books that tie into Countdown: Salvation Run, Death of the new Gods, the Dark Side Club, the Search for Ray Palmer.

Ok i'm gonna as clear as posible.

1. The Lightining Saga and Fastest Man Alive only count if you read 'Legion of three worlds', which has NOTHING to do with the main Final Crisis Story.
2. The Trails and Black Adam ONLY matter if you like the characters. You can perfectly skip them.
3. Nobody liked Amazons Attack haha. Two moths after it was like never happened. it has ZERO influence on FInal Crisis.
4. GL-verse works on it own. If you read the GL books you must read Rage of the Red Lanterns. Otherwise, it doesnt matter, because it doesnt have anything to do with the main final crisis story.
5. I liked that WW run, but it is in no way important for Final Crisis.
6. Ion was cool, I'm a HUGE Kyle fan, but to be fair that maxi-series wasnt even important for the GL-verse, so even less for Final Crisis.
7. About Countdown... IT SUCKS. The Story is not only terrible, even worse, it doesnt have ANYTHING TO DO with Final Crisis, cuz the started it when only FC #1 was done. The 51 issues plus every tie-in (Salvation Run, Death of the new Gods, the Search for Ray Palmer, Lord Havok, Countdown Arena, etc) are the worst thing DC has made in YEARS. I wish i hadnt read it. I recommend you to avoid the terrible experience. Anyway... iy tou still wanna read it, it doesnt tie-in much. So dont worry, you can read the full run without reading a certain order of WW or GL.
8. The only thing Morrison actually did care about was Seven Soldiers. I've heard is really good. I didn't read it but still i read Final Crisis.

My point is: Dont worry about tying things with Countdown. It's not neccesary at all. I mean, you can read The whole GL-verse (including ION) till the Rage of the Red Lanterns arc.
Then you can Read WW til issue 20 or so (Including Amazons Attack). You can skip Countdown and all its terrible tie-ins and then read FInal Crisis and get it all without a problem. If you are like me and like to read it all, check out Seven Soldiers, but dont waste your time with countdown.

Still, I have a excel sheet with everything that I read between May 2006 (After Infinite Crisis) and May 2009 (Before Blackest night) in order of release. I can email it to you if you want.

[PyroSikTh]

If you read the GL books you must read Rage of the Red Lanterns.

Not really. Rage of the Red Lanterns has 0 to do with Final Crisis. It was just released at the same time and marketed as a tie-in. Actually what you might want to read from the Green Lantern line is The Alpha Lanterns. Morrison commissioned it from Johns to give him some elite Green Lanterns to work with.

The only thing Morrison actually did care about was Seven Soldiers. I've heard is really good. I didn't read it but still i read Final Crisis.

Most of Seven Soldiers doesn't really have much relevance to Final Crisis. The only one you might want to read for some background are the four Mister Miracle issues as they act as prelude of sorts to Final Crisis. Absolutely non-essential though.

[krazijoe]

Ow...My Final Crisis headache is back...

[poroto678]

Ow...My Final Crisis headache is back...

hahaha courtesy of DiDio and Co.