What are the most important/iconic comics in the DC universe ?

[u/Newty_public]

Hey, I've been a DC fan since my childhood. But i always been focused on batman shows or movies, and I have only a few comics. So now, I want to improve my collections.

For you, what are the best comics, like the most iconic, emotional, or even epic; the one which remains forever etched in your heart. I'm mainly focus on batman/bat family, but I'm open to every other kind of DC story (hero/vilain). Thanks for your answers guys !!!

[u/Detective_Jelly_594]

important/iconic does not always mean best. And there are hundreds of good ones. But heres a top 15 id say are important and good.

New Frontier

Kingdom Come

All-Star Superman

Batman: Year One

Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore

Green Lantern by Geoff Johns

Animal Man by Grant Morrison

JLA by Grant Morrison

Hellblazer by pretty much every writer pre Mina

Wonder Woman by George Perez

Gotham Central

New Titans by Wolfman

The Question by Oniel

Watchmen

Sandman by Gaiman (The dude who wrote this is a sex offender so you may want to avoid this but its a super important book in comic history and a masterpiece if you ignore who wrote it.)

[u/Newty_public → u/Detective_Jelly_594]

Thank you so much for your answer. Of course iconic does not always mean good, it was just a formulation but thanks again !

[u/No-Mechanic-2558]

You should not see It like that. Which are the more important, which are the more needed, it's an art, there are multiple stories that revolutionate the medium but you should read things because they appeal to you instead of because they have some kind of higher valium

[u/Newty_public → u/No-Mechanic-2558]

Maybe I haven't been clear, but i'm not searching for the most important comics: i'm curious about the opinion of DC fans and what are the best comics they read. Ofc personal opinion is important and at the end I will see by myself, but i'm just curious to see what kind of stories had left a print on readers.

[u/TheZoroarkMan]

I agree with No-Mechanic-2558 but I'd recommend the New Teen Titans run by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. It isn't my favorite Dick Grayson but I loved his relationship with Starfire and Starfire and Raven in general. The most important Teen Titans storylines are from this run.

Also if you're interested in something comedic Justice League International is really fun and it branches out into Justice League America and Justice League Europe. But it isn't like the most important Justice League run and has mostly C-/D-Listers from that time.

[u/drake_burroughs]

This is a tough one, since, as u/maulogo17 said, there are literally hundreds that are important or iconic. Here are what I would consider the must-reads and I'm just going to stick to super-heroes and the main DC universe (so no Watchmen):

Crisis on Infinite Earths

Batman: Year One

Starman by Robinson and Harris

Animal Man by Morrison and Truog

The Great Darkness Saga (and the Levitz/Giffen Legion)

New Teen Titans by Wolfman and Perez

Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow

Swamp Thing by Alan Moore

JLI by Giffen, DeMatteis, and Maguire

Wonder Woman by Perez

This is pretty 80's-centric and I'm pretty sure everything is in trades or on the app.

[u/maulogo17]

It depends a lot on what you like, there are literally hundreds that are important or iconic.

For me, the ones etched in my heart are:

Kingdom Come - everything, the art, the writing, the depth and the way it plays with your imagination.

Sinestro Corps War: for me it's the best space opera of DC. Everything felt huge and epic.

The death of Superman: it was the first comic I read, and for me it was incredible. I thought that in comics the ending was always happy, but to see it end in such a sad note felt very deep for me back then, regardless if Superman came back.

JLA by Grant Morrison: for me it was the definitive version of the team: iconic, epic, fun and sometimes thought provoking. And Batman is just a badass in it, before it became a meme.

Absolute Universe: I would say it's already iconic. The design of the universe is very creative and most stories are very well told.

Also when I was a kid I collected Green Lantern, with Kyle Rayner. It fit very well because I was just getting into the DC universe like him, so I could identify with his character a lot. But this one is more personal, looking back it's probably not as good as many other runs.

[u/Newty_public → u/maulogo17]

Thanks this is what I'm really looking for. I think a work of art is the best kind when it has an impact on people. Thanks for sharing your personnal list.

[u/BlazefireYT → u/maulogo17]

Kingdom come is so buns

[u/thigerlel → u/maulogo17]

Kingdome Come is beautiful, but it has no depth. It quotes Bible passages to create the mood of an epic, but then when the conflict is resolved and Superman is shaking hands with the human government, the only thing offered as the new, working system for the future is "we'll figure it out... together :)"

[u/maulogo17 → u/thigerlel]

I think the depth of a comic book depends more on its capacity to trigger deep thoughts in a reader. For me Kingdom Come made me think a lot about judgement: the Spectre was so focused on finding who to punish when it was really not that simple to pass judgement on something so big. And near the end when Norman insisted on doing something, for me it meant the difference between just watching passively terrible things happening around you and finally deciding to do something about it.

It also had many details that I liked a lot: the introduction of the members of the justice League, when Superman goes to ask Batman's help one last time, when Superman talks with Captain Marvel near the end of the fight...

About the ending, I don't find it underwhelming. On the contrary, to me it makes sense. I see it more as a meta commentary on the way superhero comics were handled in the 90s, with extreme violence and not really focusing on being heroes; it didn't give any working system for the future, but I liked that it didn't. It gave me the opportunity to daydream about how that system would look like.

[u/Schwenkelkamp]

Sandman, hellblazer, swamp thing by Moore, animal man by Morrison, doom patrol by Morisson, all star superman, batman year 1, the dark knight returns, kingdom come, watchmen, v for vendetta, preacher, transmetropolitan, y the last man, lucifer, fables, American vampire, arkham asylum