enjoy being a fat fuck in the golden sun while you still can

He won't kill because he doesn't trust himself to do so. He knows he's not stable enough to stop himself from doing it again and again once he crosses that line. He's an animal. A thing.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Absolute Superman (DC Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Lara Lor-Van & Kal-El Characters: Lara Lor-Van, Kal-El (Absolute DCU) Additional Tags: Nightmares, Poetic, Vignette, Horror, Symbolism, Hopeful Ending, Emotional Whump, Angst and Tragedy, soft toward the very end. i promise, Mother-Son Relationship, Stream of Consciousness Summary:

No, Jimmy. I don't think the Parasite ever had evil intent. Since I've been keeping it fed on controlled doses of my own energy, it seems as docile as a puppy.

Panel redraw :) original under the cut!

Does anyone have a hard time, like I did, knowing where to start with comics? And the advice, "just pick a character and any comic and you're good to go," doesn't quite work for you? Does seeing that advice make you anxious and discourage you from trying to get into comics? I see people asking where to start and what order to follow, or some starting point comics, and the general recommendation is to just go for it. That held me back for years, until I finally spent time searching for a proper reading order.

When I decided to read Superman comics, I scoured the internet trying to find a story to follow. I have to have a starting point and a cohesive narrative to follow. I don't do well at all jumping around to different canons/interpretations, and if I know I'm missing parts of the story, it drives me nuts. I wanted a comprehensive reading list for one iteration, not going from one interpretation to another with chunks of the narrative missing. I found a Superman list on the app Comic Geeks that spans from 1986 to 2018, where the person left off. I've literally read 1,400 Superman comics, and I've gotten to know all the lore from 1986 to 2007, which is where I'm currently at in the order. Some people might say that's too much, but it's been perfect for my brain. It actually helped me understand how comic runs function for characters, and this was the kind of deep dive I wanted to get into for Superman.

This is for anyone, but it's geared towards people like me who need something more concrete.

To begin with, this is all geared towards DC, because I've never read any Marvel comics. Some of the information I provide might be helpful, namely on where to find reading orders, but keep in mind this is all in the context of DC.

Which character do you read about?

If you already have a character in mind, go with that one. Seriously. You're not obligated to get into all of the characters, or the popular ones. I happened to get into Superman because of the movie last year. If you don't know what character to start with, then your best bet is to start with the famous characters, and go from there. I wish I had better advice, but this is all down to complete personal preference. I do provide a starting point later in the post if you don't know which character you want to read about.

Let's jump into the DC timeline.

With a character in mind, where do you go from here? An important thing to know is that there are "periods" for DC comics:

Pre-Crisis (1938-1986, Earth 1 and Earth 2. Don't ask me the difference because I never had to deal with this headache)

Post-Crisis (1986-2011, New Earth)

Post-Flashpoint/New 52 (2011-now, Earth-0)

Rebirth (2016-now. It's technically still New 52/Earth-0, but its canon alterations are confusing, and the Rebirth period is rejected by many readers)

What this essentially means is that the start of each period is a hard reset for the universe, barring Rebirth. Every period has a continuous storyline. There are soft reboots in at least Post-Crisis, where they alter the origins, but continue the storyline. Each period has eras. Post-Crisis is well known for having the Triangle Era, and Pre-Crisis has the famous Golden Age and Silver Age. I find people recommending these subcategories extremely unhelpful, personally. The Triangle Era just sort of starts and ends arbitrarily, but it's not connected with any origins or soft reboots as far as I'm aware. I recommend sticking with periods, not eras. If you start with Post-Flashpoint and you read all the comics of your selected character from 2011 to 2016, you will get that full catalogue.

THAT BEING SAID, DC went through a period in the early 2000s where their chronological stories didn't follow publication order... at least for Superman comics, because that's all I've read. From 1986 to about 2002, the chronological story followed the publication order across all runs, even crossovers with other characters. Starting in 2003 to 2007, which is the year I'm in now, the chronological order coinciding with publication dates got fucked. I don't understand it anymore. It doesn't follow any sensible order. Basically, if the list I'm following gets the chronology order wrong, I just have to accept it and get the context as I keep reading. Outside of events, there's no way to verify I'm on the right track because total comprehensive lists like are extremely difficult to find. If you start with Post-Crisis, you're pretty much solid following publication order until about 2002. I'm working my way towards Post-Flashpoint, and I'm hoping DC figured out their chronological storytelling.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that Elseworld or alternate timeline stories will not be a part of those periods. The Absolute runs, Superman Red Son, Superman Secret Identity, etc. are totally separate.

You have a character. Where do you start, and where do you go from there? How do you navigate wonky publication orders?

What you're going to do is pick a period to start reading from. It'll be easier to find recommended reading lists on Comic Geek that has an origin and a chronological story. You'll essentially be reading that canon only. I personally recommend Post-Crisis. I find it to be the best fresh start.

1. The preferred method: find a recommendation reading orders through Comic Geeks, preferably ones that specify which period the list takes place in and provide the origins for that period. I cannot promise lists completely comprehensive community lists will exist for the entirety of the periods, or that they'll contain every single comic that character is in. Very few people have actually sat down and catalogued every single comic for a character. Often times reading orders might just have highlights or major events. How extensive you want to get is up to you, and you're probably going to have the best luck of finding highlight lists. You can read the origins and events, or you can try to read everything. That's honestly up for your judgement and what you can find. I wish I could break this down even more, but origin runs are going to have their own unique names. For example, Superman's Post-Crisis origin is The Man of Steel, which I only know because I followed an order. This is why I recommend finding community lists on Comic Geeks, because other people have generally done the work.

2. This method is not highly recommended because it's confusing and somewhat unreliable for chronological orders. Depending on the period you picked, you can go into Comic Geeks and find your character. You can use the search bar to find your character. Click on the profile, and you'll see a little tab above the description specifying which continuity version you're looking at. Click that, and it'll display a short list of the periods I've talked about, like Earth-0 or New Earth. When you click on the version of the character you want to read about, click on the "Timeline tab." Once there, tap on the symbol that looks like up and down slider bars. Filter out reprints if you're looking for comics in English. Reprints are often translated into other languages. You can also change the filter to show the oldest comics, so you don't have to scroll way down. If everything is working correctly, it should show you the oldest comics of that period. So if you pick Post-Crisis, the oldest comics should be from 1986. The problem with using this system is that you'll get comics that aren't actually canon to the mainline story, they're Elseworlds or alternate storylines, and it's not going to show you the story chronological order, only publication order. That means if you're looking through certain years like the early 2000s, you'll end up reading stories way out of order. It might work for some years, like 1986-2002. This is why I recommend method 1.

Here's a starting point if you're still not confident on how to jump in.

I'm linking the Comic Geek community list from that person who put together the Superman reading order. I can't link the actual profile. When you get to their profile page by clicking on their avatar, NOT their account name, click on the "Lists" tab at the horizontal bar near the top. That will show you all the reading orders they've made. They put together reading orders for: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Aquaman, Green Arrow, Spider-Man (I know he's Marvel), The Flash (Wally West and Barry Allen), and Nightwing.

If you want to read about other characters, unfortunately you'll have to do some digging. What you're going to do is find community lists that specify what period they're from in Comic Geeks. The profile I provided is merely a great way to jump in if you don't even know what character you're interested in, or you happen to want to read about any of those listed.

It's finally time to get to reading.

So, now you have a general idea of where to start, what order you're interested in, and a character in mind. Now it's time to get the comics... only to find that some volumes cost upwards of a $100. Comics are fucking expensive.

If you're adamant about reading physical, I can't help you there other than recommend libraries, comic book stores, online, or thrift stores. You're going to spend a lot of money if you plan on getting a lot of comics. If I'd tried to buy all the 1,400 issues I've read, I probably would've spent between $2,000-5,000. So yea, physical reading is financially rough. I'm only going to buy copies of comics I already know I love and will read again.

If you're willing to read digitally, there are a couple of options. Option 1 is to pirate. This is a totally judgment free zone. If you don't have any funds, this is a perfectly fine way to get into comics, and honestly it's not worth buying everything you'll read, because sometimes there are shitty comics. To pirate, download DuckDuckGo, and you can use readcomicsonline.ru through that search engine. It does in fact work on DuckDuckGo. Option 2 is to get a subscription through DC Infinite or Marvel Unlimited. I have DC Infinite. Here's the downside: the app doesn't have every single comic. They're missing a large chunk of their catalogue, especially from 1938 to probably the 2010s. The reasons are actually valid, but that's its own topic. Option 3 is to pirate and use DC Infinite/Marvel Unlimited. That's what I've been doing for comics I can't find on DC Infinite.

I think that's pretty much it... I hope someone finds this useful, because it has been a pain figuring this out for the last few months. When I get to comics released in 2018 I'm going to have to put my own list together probably. I will in fact be using the first method of tracking down reading orders. It's so much easier than trying to put my own together.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Absolute Superman (DC Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Lara Lor-Van & Kal-El Characters: Lara Lor-Van, Kal-El (Absolute DCU) Additional Tags: Nightmares, Poetic, Vignette, Horror, Symbolism, Hopeful Ending, Emotional Whump, Angst and Tragedy, soft toward the very end. i promise, Mother-Son Relationship, Stream of Consciousness Summary: