What Collected Edition are you reading now?

[Hive]

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World books deal with Apokalips and New Genesis, Darkseid, etc. You may know some of the characters from Superman or Justice League books.

Yeah I'm familiar with Darkseid, Apokolips, New Gods and such - mostly in connection with Superman stories.

I remember I first tried Final Crisis when all I really knew were Batman comics and boy was it a mess for me. Years (and thousands of comics) later, I tried again and yowza. I love it. Thankfully, most editions include the more necessary tie-in books now (Superman Beyond, Submit, a couple of Batman issues) as part of the collections. If nothing else, maybe it and IC will inspire you to get deeper into DC lore

I've mostly delved into "known territory" in regards to DC, starting by getting the full Death of Superman/Reign of Supermen story arc which I held very fondly growing up - but lately, I've sampled some newer DC as well (newer than the 90's, at least). Hush was pretty good and I got the first 3 volumes of the New 52 Justice League series as well, which was enjoyable as well (though I would have preferred Jim Lee to stay on).

The Crisis events do tend to rely heavily on knowledge of the DCU, whereas other events, such as Flashpoint or Blackest Night, are more localized to certain characters. Blackest Night (which really needs the Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps books too, fair warning!) is all about the Lantern Corps for example, and the tie-ins tend to be unnecessary but can be fun depending on the creators and how they handle the premise, so I bet you dig that one.

Perhaps I should look into getting the Green Lantern tie ins before reading it, then. Green Lantern was always one of my favorite DC characters as a child, though I've actually only ever read one solo story with him (mostly because in my country, it was rare to see anything but Superman and Batman released from DC).

Everything what Dick said and also...
I've read Infinite Crisis fairly early into my DC dive (like a good 10-11 years ago) but I've read all the tie ins too.
I completely agree with you that tie ins and any other necessary extra reading material kills big events (and superhero comics in general) BUUUUUT.... Infinite crisis is the one where I would argue it was constructed really well, and if you just read the material collected in the omnibus (don't need to own the omnibus, just follow the reading order) it feels like a coordinated effort and it's one of the best examples of big events.

I only had the event itself, not the omnibus - so I felt I was missing out on a great deal. Some characters are briefly seen at one point, only to disappear and re-emerge near the end - where you get the impression that a lot has happened with them. And the stuff with the Flashes and Superboy in particular confused me.

I would absolutely DO NOT recommend Final crisis right now, I think you need more DC knowledge and maybe read some wackier Grant Morrison books to see if you like that style, otherwise you will end up absolutely hating it.

Instead I would recommend the follow up series to Infinite crisis: 52. It was a weekly series, running for a year, dealing with the aftermath of IC and I think it's an easier read than IC was. Also it's very good.

Thanks for the advice, I'll hold off on Final Crisis a bit then.