I've been making attempts to get back into DC, but I'm having problems. I started at 2004s Identity Crisis, it seemed like a good place to start. I've read a lot of older DC stuff, pre and post crisis on infinite earths, and am having a tough time figuring out exactly whats going on. I think partially the DC cartoons that I've seen, super friends included, are to blame. Wikipedia isn't helping me out much either, especially in the green latern/flash stuff. So if you've got any kind of answer at all about the DC universe stuff, please help me out.

First off wasn't Supermans father dead? He appears in Identity Crisis alive and well. I was under the impression he died around the Death of Superman stuff years ago? Did he come back too?

Who is the main green lantern now? I'm not sure if its the air force pilot who got the ring from a dying alien or the artist one? Maybe he's someone completely different from them. I also don't know the secret identity name differences. Guy Gardener, Kyle Raynor, and the others. Whose who?

What are Green Arrows powers/abilities and how did he come to get them? According to wikipedia, he's just a former billionaire. It doesn't explain why he uses bows or trick arrows or his detective skills. It especially avoids the reason for that goatee.

Who is the previous Flash? I thought Wally West had always been The Flash?

Superman/Batman is it canon at all? I thought it was going good until I saw a giant half superman and half batman robot. Theres over the top comic book action and then theres just plain out stupid.

Who is in the Justice League currently? And why are their so many of them? Also when did Batman reveal his secret identity to everyone? Thats not the Batman that I know and love, assuming its the Batman from Year One, Knightfall/Knightsend. Long Halloween, etc. It sure does seem to be that Batman, but I'm still confused.

How did superman get his real powers back after the electricity powers stuff? It looks like that whole section of Supermans life has been retconned away, and subsequently no one wants to talk about it. I'm curious.

Hawkman, is he from the alien planet or Egyptian stuff? I can't figure it out.

Tim Drake is the third robin, correct? Jason Todds the one who died in the explosion and Dick Grayson became Nightwing. Right? Also the Orcale is the paralyzed original Batgirl from the killing joke, correct?

Which books are the main books worth reading? I've got tie in stuff to Identity Crisis, infinite Crisis, and I'm looking for 52. I'm curious what Batman and Supermans main book is. Batman/Superman surely couldn't be it, could it?

and of course, Aqua Man still sucks, right? Even after the anti-hero golden mullet and trident arm stuff, he's still lame. I think I read in wizard they were going to try and give him more mystical powers, but even that seems really lame. I can only hope he still sucks.

If I can think of anything else, I'll add it in another post. Hopefully someone can help me figure all this crap out. I know a lot about Marvel, so if you've got questions there I'll answer them or if you've got stuff your wondering about comic books, go ahead and start a list. Somebody has to know all this stuff.

"First off wasn't Supermans father dead? He appears in Identity Crisis alive and well. I was under the impression he died around the Death of Superman stuff years ago? Did he come back too?"

Standard "Coma" excuse.

"Who is the main green lantern now? I'm not sure if its the air force pilot who got the ring from a dying alien or the artist one? Maybe he's someone completely different from them. I also don't know the secret identity name differences. Guy Gardener, Kyle Raynor, and the others. Whose who?"

There isn't really a "Main" green lantern, though Hal Jordan (the second Green Lantern; the one from the Superfriends) tends to get more screen time. Anyway, Guy Gardener's the asshole with the Moe haircut, Kyle Raynor's the artist, John Stewart is the architect/black one, Kilowog's the pig-monster one who is awesome.

"What are Green Arrows powers/abilities and how did he come to get them? According to wikipedia, he's just a former billionaire. It doesn't explain why he uses bows or trick arrows or his detective skills. It especially avoids the reason for that goatee."

Green Arrow is essentially Batman with a sense of humor and an arrow fetish. He got lost on an island one day and got himself a bow and arrow and practiced with it until he was some kinda arrow badass.

"Who is the previous Flash? I thought Wally West had always been The Flash?"

First there was Jay Garrick (the Golden Age flash) who wore a salad bowl on his head. He's still around. Then there was Barry Allen, Wally West's uncle, who was a lot faster than Wally but he died in Infinite Crisis.

"Superman/Batman is it canon at all? I thought it was going good until I saw a giant half superman and half batman robot. Theres over the top comic book action and then theres just plain out stupid."

Not really, no. Basically they purposely write stories that are interesting but can be ignored if the rest of the DC universe doesn't want to deal with it.

"Who is in the Justice League currently? And why are their so many of them? Also when did Batman reveal his secret identity to everyone? Thats not the Batman that I know and love, assuming its the Batman from Year One, Knightfall/Knightsend. Long Halloween, etc. It sure does seem to be that Batman, but I'm still confused."

No idea and No Idea.

"How did superman get his real powers back after the electricity powers stuff? It looks like that whole section of Supermans life has been retconned away, and subsequently no one wants to talk about it. I'm curious."

He was overloading with them, so he eventually just discharged them from his body. The energy then recombobulated itself into a sentient being that nobody liked so after being defeated no one bothered to bring it back.

"Hawkman, is he from the alien planet or Egyptian stuff? I can't figure it out."

He's from an alien race who had come to Earth thousands of years ago and ruled Egypt.

"Tim Drake is the third robin, correct? Jason Todds the one who died in the explosion and Dick Grayson became Nightwing. Right? Also the Orcale is the paralyzed original Batgirl from the killing joke, correct?"

Yes.

"Which books are the main books worth reading? I've got tie in stuff to Identity Crisis, infinite Crisis, and I'm looking for 52. I'm curious what Batman and Supermans main book is. Batman/Superman surely couldn't be it, could it?"

Not sure. I haven't read any in a while.

"and of course, Aqua Man still sucks, right? Even after the anti-hero golden mullet and trident arm stuff, he's still lame. I think I read in wizard they were going to try and give him more mystical powers, but even that seems really lame. I can only hope he still sucks."

They've got a new Aquaman now. The old Aquaman has merged with the sea, or something like that. Anyway, the new Aquaman looks more like the "Superfriends" Aquaman than the "Salty Sea Biker" Aquaman.

I think with DC titles these days, you can forget about trying to make all the pieces fit together.

The whole Infinite Crisis "event" was supposed to streamline the mess created by the fanatical adherence to continuity so that new readers could understand it more easily. Instead, all it's done is to make the DCU completely incomprehensible to both old and new readers. The stated aim of streamlining the character roster has actually resulted in introducing new ones (and bringing previously dead ones back to life). The stated intention of reconciling various loose ends and inconsistencies has actually created new ones. We again have more than one dimension/universe. Some characters are who they always were, but with different back stories. Others have been replaced with newcomers bearing the same name.

My advice would be to pick the titles you think you might like, enjoy them (or not!) on their own merits on a stand-alone basis (like the excellent Identity Crisis) and just ignore the bits that seem to fly in the face of everything you thought you knew. After all, if you ever do sort it out, they'll only change it again!

I'm leaning towards agreeing with DAJB. Its looking more and more like its just impossible to figure out whats going on, whats canon, what isn't, so now I'm just going to go through this crisis stuff, and then just get into one of the Batman books. It seems silly to try and get into all of them, so I'm just going to randomly pick one and hope its the dark brooding, and now extremely paranoid, Batman.

Is it just me or does most of DCs heroes have loose and ill defined origins? Batman & Superman have a definite origin, parents died and kyrpton destroyed, but Green Arrow washed up on an island and practiced with a bow? The Flash was exposed to chemicals and lighting? I think Green Laterns is that a dying alien picked him (Hal Jordan?) because he was a pure of heart noble guy to pass the ring on to. Wonder Woman is an amazonian with an invisible jet and weakness to being bound or tied up.

What do you guys recommend thats DC and current? I don't want to get into the countdown or one year later stuff until I've gotten all caught up with the Infinite Crisis and 52 stuff.

Seriously though, why not do a complete reboot? Take the core characters that have clearly established origins, and just forget about everybody whose on the C list. B list would be guys like Green Latern and The Flash, C list would be guys like The Atom or Elongated Man. I never knew Elongated Man existed before Identity Crisis, I thought he was called plastic man. At this rate I'm thinking elseworlds titles continuity is more consistent.

Thanks Inkmonkey, information really helps ease my mind. I don't know why, but that Green Lantern stuff was really bothering me. To the point of me researching it all across the internet, and getting myself even more confused. So to clear it up perfectly: Hal Jordan is /was parallax the spirit of vengeance or whatever, and Kyle Raynor is the one that was hanging out with The Flash in Identity Crisis?

Another question I got, why is it such a mess? Marvels got some iffy stuff like Hawkeyes sudden return and a few parallel worlds characters in the main universe, but every other guy in DC has some major confusion going on. If someone asked me where to start reading in marvel, I could clearly tell them some places to start at. I can tell you more about Wolverine who I've been following since I was a kid, and still don't really know everything about his origin because of its inconsistency, but no matter how confusing it is with the Weapon X or Weapons Plus stuff, its got nothing on their being five current Green Lanterns. I always thought Green Lantern was a popular character, who let all this mess happen? Whose fault is it? Rob Liefield strikes again or someone else?

marine
Another question I got, why is it such a mess?

Oooh, ask a hundred different people, you'll get a hundred different answers. And they'll all be right!

Personally, I think the problem is more editorial than due to any one particular creator. Back in them thar olden days, if a writer wanted to do a story in which, say, it was revealed that Superman was really a chipmunk, they'd do it but label it a "what if" title. Since the 1970s, however, it seems that absolutely everything has had to be crammed into continuity, no matter how absurd. Then, because that creates an unsustainable bunch of loose plot threads, they're forced to periodically retcon/reimagine/reboot everything.

Except they don't.

Even when they say they're re-booting everything, there's always a handful of characters who remember everything. Result? The previous junk doesn't go away but simply becomes part of an even larger and more bewildering continuity.

Anyway, for Batman, go read the Gotham Central books. He's hardly in them but they are sooo well written.

For GA, try Quiver. It's not great and you do have to buy into the idea that characters can return from the dead (pretty standard for a DC character these days, anyway!) but it does re-introduce GA from a kind of new start point. Oh, and it sets things up for a possible return of the Hal Jordan GL, so if that's where your heart lies ...

I've recently gotten into 52 via the trade paperbacks, and I honestly haven't had any problems following what's happening. I don't know all of the backstory but its generally not vital to understanding the story.

The Green Lantern thing, though, I can explain. There are multiple Green Lanterns because DC has started to shift focus to the Green Lantern Corps as opposed to just whoever is Earth's Green Lantern, which results in several different Green Lanters getting "screen" time. And Kilawog is, in fact, freakin' awesome.

I've made it halfway through the Countdown To Infinite Crisis #1, and I've seen Hal Jordan as Green Latern. He just shows up and says "Yeah, I'm Green Lantern, again."

Interestingly Blue Beetle and Booster Gold are getting a lot of focus in this 80ish page monster. I can only speculate as to where its going, as the last issue of the JLA I read said that Blue Beetle was dead. And then the watchtower blowed up, assumingly killing the bad guys Zatanna was re-mind whiping, and possibly her mesh legging. As well as killing Martian Manhunter.

One thing that is more than abundantly clear to me reading Blue Beetle, written properly as he is here, is that he was the basis for the Nite Owl II from the Watchmen. He's got all the qaulities that made Nite Wol interesting to read, and it makes me want to read the furthering adventures of Rosachs DC equivalent, The Question. Although something tells me he doesn't go around just beating people up or is in nearly the same mental state as one of my favorite characters. What books does The Question appear in?

I'm finding more and more that its going to be impossible to figure out whose who and whats what in DC.

Also interestinginly in the JLA story I had, Crisis of Conscious, Despero was the major villain. I always liked him in his pumped up form as a villain becuase he was just so vile and unbeatable that he made for an interesting villain. Not as awesome as Darkseid, but still kinda cool. Who do you guys like as DC villains? I always thought Braniac was particularly menacing as well. Even if he can't find a decent pair of pants.

DC Villains I like:

The Riddler. I love the concept of the Riddler.

Brainiac. He can be very menacing when done right.

Mordu can be a lot of fun.

I like the golden age Dr. Fate villains Wotan and Mr. Who a lot.

Sinestro and Brainstorm have really large heads so I always dug them. And Charybdis was awesome until he got ruined by Erik Larsen.

The Question showed up in Batman for a while, but where he really grabs the spotlight is in 52.

Is Identity Crisis that awful book with Ray Palmer's ex wife going crazy? That was just a nasty unpleasant book. Great art but a cruel storyline just to be gritty and dark.

I've given up on standard Marvel/DC superheroes. My interests have changed. Besides, after being a Legion of SuperHeroes Fan for 20 years, I was so mad at them for Rebooting them after Crisis of Infinite Earths. I grew up on Legion. Hell, I had a crush on Timberwolf and Element Lad as a lonely 10 year old. (Does that make me a jilted lover?) So when they rebooted them, and destroyed the history I'd grew up with, I drifted away from the legion and all superhero books in general. Guys in spandex, fighting, doesn't interest me anymore. Superheros all seem so futile. For all their amazing powers, they don't get to change anything.

I do like the Astro City books. But they are not about superheroes as much as it's about the fringe people, the sidekick, the girlfriend, the superhero who aged out, the lawyer. I love how Astro city books play up the silly nature of superheros with throw away lines like "Did you know I once pushed Pluto back into orbit", "I went back in time and traded places with the pilot so I could...." he said casually. The heroes are always fighting impossible villains in the background, and the norms are just used to it.

I think I gave up on DC with Superman Red/Blue. That was just too lame...

I try to follow the Green Lantern Corps somewhat. It's a semi-bright green light in an otherwise dim DC Universe.

I remember when I actually paid attention to Batman: after The Dark Knight Returns (the first one) and when Bane "broke" the Batman and his eventual return (the whole Azayael(sp?)/New Batman weirdness). Once the real Slim Shady -- er,*ahem* -- the real Batman came back, it got mundane again, sad to say.

To answer Marine's question about The Question, he's big in 52 which leads into the current mini-series Crime Bible: The Five Lessons of Blood. It seems to me that Crime Bible is going to be leading into a new ongoing Question series, which would be awesome.

I've been loving Green Lantern Corps as well. I've always been more interested in the Green Lantern Corps when they're used as space cops as opposed to just focusing on Earth.

Thats pretty cool.

marine
"Who is the previous Flash? I thought Wally West had always been The Flash?"

Inkmonkey
First there was Jay Garrick (the Golden Age flash) who wore a salad bowl on his head. He's still around. Then there was Barry Allen, Wally West's uncle, who was a lot faster than Wally but he died in Infinite Crisis.

Barry died in Crisis on Infinite Earths, not Infinite Crisis. And Barry WAS faster than Wally (formerly Kid Flash), but has surpassed his speed on many occasions in Mark Waid's original run in Flash, thanks to a little thing he invented called the speed force.

marine
"Who is in the Justice League currently? And why are their so many of them? Also when did Batman reveal his secret identity to everyone? Thats not the Batman that I know and love, assuming its the Batman from Year One, Knightfall/Knightsend. Long Halloween, etc. It sure does seem to be that Batman, but I'm still confused."

Inkmonkey
No idea and No Idea.

I'll take this one... Batman revealed his identity to the JLA during Mark Waid's run on the title (the one started by Morrison about 12 years ago) you can read that in the trade JLA Vol. 8: Divided we Fall. Wonder Woman, Superman, Flash, and Plastic Man, I believe, already knew.

The current JLA roster includes:

Superman
Wonder Woman
Flash (maybe.. hasn't really been in a story since Lightning Saga.. he may just end up being in Titans only)
Batman
Green Lantern (Jon Stewart and Hal Jordan alternating League duties with Lantern duties.. see JLA Wedding Special)
Black Canary (Leader)
Geoforce
Black Lightning
Red Arrow (formerly: Arsenal/Speedy)
Vixen
And from what I hear.. Dwayne McDuffy is going to add Firestorm to the team, and maybe a few others.

DAJB

marine
Another question I got, why is it such a mess?

Oooh, ask a hundred different people, you'll get a hundred different answers. And they'll all be right!

Can I just say.. that I love that response?!

Gavin
lots of stuff

Heres a question that I just thought of, was The Flash even in the super friends? It seemed like he was, but I went to look on wikipedia to see if Barry Allen was the one from it, and then it seems as though he only made some guest appearances.

I guess this is why Kid Flash didn't appear in the Teen Titans anime. Since he doesn't exist. I was never a big teen titans guy either way. Its basically the justice league junior.

I've also yet to read Infinite Crisis, I read about four or five pages into it and had to go do something else. I guess I'll go read it, with only the bare minimum of tie ins.

I'm keeping an eye out for Flash stuff. I always liked super speed as a power. Its such a simple power, and theres so much you can do with it as a writer. Plus Flash always seemed like one of the classic arch types of a superhero. Regular guy with a special ability. No super strength or super detective skills, just a guy who moves fast and fights villains of the month. Add in some personal or relationship drama, and you've got a perfect formula for a comic book.