Your favorite/Must read before you die DC Stories

[gadzooks]

im looking for new stories to read, hit me with your favorite epic must read stories!

[Assam]

Batgirl "Death Wish": The best ongoing storyline I've ever read in a comic. Takes place in Batgirl Vol 1. #1-#25, collected in the trades, "Silent Knight" and "To the Death". A bunch of amazing standalones are mixed in there too.

Superman Red Son: The best Superman story ever told IMO.

Anarky (1-4): A mini-series focused on the anti-hero Anarky. In addition to having great moments such as a philosophical debate with Darkseid, this is the book that inspired most of my political beliefs.

The Saga of Booster Gold- Not so much a single story, but possibly more than any other character who was around at the time, Booster Gold, from his debut in the 80's, all the way up Convergence, has had one long, consistent character arc, and it is a thing of beauty. Essential books are Booster Gold Vol 1., Justice League International, Justice League America, Countdown to Infinite Crisis, 52, Booster Gold Vol 2, and Convergence: Booster Gold.

Legion Lost: While getting into the Legion of Superheroes is difficult for many, there are some very good jumping on points. One of these is the 12 issue mini-series, Legion Lost (Don't confuse it with the Nu52 book of the same name), which is not only one of the best Legion stories ever made, but pretty much everything you need to know going into it is explained well.

These are just some of the ones off the top of my head. Believe me, I've got a lot more that I love!

[manduck37]

John Constantine: Hellblazer (the original series)
Planetary (pick up The Planetary Omnibus for the whole series)
All-Star Superman
Grant Morrison's Justice League of America run
Superman: For the Man Who Has Everything
Batman: Year One by Frank Miller

[Lightning Rider]

Kingdom Come is at the top for sure.
Red Son closely follows.
My favorite Flash comics are Born to Run, The Return of Barry Allen, The Secret of Barry Allen, and Rogue War. Those are must-read for the character and personal favorites.
All-Star Superman is up there.
Dark Knight Returns is (obviously) an amazing story.
I love Identity Crisis, despite the controversy, because of the "family" dynamic and character interactions within the League.
Long Halloween no doubt.
The World's Greatest Superheroes is beautiful.

Should probably stop there.

[Assam]

Kingdom Come is at the top for sure.
Red Son closely follows.
My favorite Flash comics are Born to Run, The Return of Barry Allen, The Secret of Barry Allen, and Rogue War. Those are must-read for the character and personal favorites.
All-Star Superman is up there.
Dark Knight Returns is (obviously) an amazing story.
I love Identity Crisis, despite the controversy, because of the "family" dynamic and character interactions within the League.
Long Halloween no doubt.
The World's Greatest Superheroes is beautiful.

Should probably stop there.

I'll second their recommendations of Return of Barry Allen and All-Star Superman, BUT, I'm also gonna tell you to avoid Identity Crisis. If you like the DCU at all, and care about the people in it, you should avoid the piece of trash.

I also personally don't care for Dark Knight Returns, but I know a lot of people do.

[Lightning Rider]

I'll second their recommendations of Return of Barry Allen and All-Star Superman, BUT, I'm also gonna tell you to avoid Identity Crisis. If you like the DCU at all, and care about the people in it, you should avoid the piece of trash.

I also personally don't care for Dark Knight Returns, but I know a lot of people do.

Fan opinion is divided enough that someone should at least give it a shot.

[DebkoX]

Killing Joke
Death in the Family
Court of Owls
Death of Superman
Alan Moore on Swamp Thing

[CRaymond]

Grant Morrison on Animal Man.

[scribbleMind]

All of Animal Man. All of it. All of it.
All-Star Superman
Multiversity
Morrison's Doom Patrol
Kingdom Come
China Mieville's Dial H
Azzerello's Wonder Woman
Jeff Lemire's Green Arrow
Max Landis' American Alien
Fialkov's I, Vampire

[Orujo-man]

-Transmetropolitan
-Hellblazer
-Watchmen
-Hitman
-A History of Violence
-V for Vendetta
-Preacher
-100 Bullets
-Sandman
-Batman:The Killing Joke
-Batman: A Death in The Family
-Batman: Hush
-Batman: Under The Hood

For me, the worst thing that DC did in all its history was to close Vertigo line (yeah technically it's not closed but it's not the same anymore)

[FluffySheep]

One that hasn't been mentioned yet that I absolutely loved is Sleeper.

[Marvell2100]

Kingdom Come
JLA: Tower of Babel
LoSH: Giffen's run after the Magic Wars
Batman Year One
Hawkworld
Teen Titans: The Judas Contract
Batman: The Cult
Suicide Squad by Ostrander
Throne of Atlantis
Batman Year Two

[EmeraldGladiator]

Sinestro Corps War
Green Lantern Rebirth
Great Darkness Saga (Legion of Super-Heroes)
All Star Superman
G. John's JSA from Robinson/Goyer thru about half of the Justice Society of America
Morrison's Justice League
Wolfman's New Teen Titans
Perez' Wonder Woman
then on the Vertigo tip:
Preacher the whole run
Fables most of the run
American Vampire at least up until the last arc which was meh
Planetary
Sandman

[HandofPrometheus]

Jeph Loeb's Superman/Batman
Peter David's Supergirl
Snyder's Batman
JLA/JLA:Earth 2
Batgirl: Year One
Wolfman's New Teen Titans

Can't think of any at them moment but I have yet to read the obvious ones, All-Star Superman, Superman Red Son, Long Halloween etc.

[Assam]

Since people are listing full runs now, I'm gonna add some more:

Peter David's Young Justice.

Kelley Puckett's ENTIRE Batgirl.

Gail Simone's Secret Six

Devin Grayson's Titans

John Rogers' Blue Beetle

James Robinson's Starman

Geoff Johns and Jeff Parker's Aquaman

Geoff Johns' JSA

Tom Peyer's Legion of Sueprheroes and Legionnaires.