Reddit reviews Batman: The Court of Owls Saga (DC Essential Edition)

So, Court of Owls the previous volume 1 print of New 52 Batman contained issues #1-7 of Batman. The arc was continued in volume 2, City of Owls collecting Batman #8-12 and Batman Annual #1. Also, there was the Night of Owls volume, collecting Batman #8-11, Nightwing #8-9, All Star Western #9, Catwoman #9, Batgirl #9, Batman: Dark Knight #9, Batman and Robin #9, Birds of Prey #9, Red Hood and the Outlaws #9. You can see here that there is some overlap with the City of Owls edition, but the rest are tie-ins, that is, not Batman chapters, as written by Scott Snyder. As such, the tie-ins are considered non-essential for understanding the full COurt of Owls stories, more-so considered to be tacked-on additions to better market the event at the time, but are still collected for completionists.

As a comparison to the new edition, making up your post, it collects issues #1-11 of Batman. So, that collects the majority of the material collected between the previous volume 1 and 2 editions of the Owls saga. What is missing is Batman #12, which introduces Harper Row, but is non-essential to understanding the Owls saga (though she does appear in later New 52 arcs), and Batman Annual #1, which is the updated Mr Freeze origin within the New 52, once again not really essential to understanding the Owls saga. This origin was particularly controversial, as well.

If you only wanted to read about Batman's struggles against the Court of Owls, then the new edition contains everything essential. If you wanted to get invested in the New 52 Batman as a whole, then perhaps the previous 10 volumes would be a better investment, but if you don't care what happens after the Owls saga, then you might not need e.g. Harper's introduction. Night of Owls I wouldn't recommend, as most of the tie ins feel over bloated, and not that very well constructed, and aren't really needed to understand the Owls saga.

I hope this explanation helps!

Batman - Year One, the Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Hush , the New 52 era.

Green Lantern - Secret Origin, Green Lanterns, the Green Lantern , Earth One

Stephanie Batgirl - Batgirl: Stephanie Brown, Batman Inc, Tynion's Detective Comics

Arkham Games Based - Year One, Arkham Asylum, Hush, Under the Red Hood

These books, probably in this order, make for a really good intro to Batman comics and also fit with the general feel of the show, either setting up origins or focusing on the city as a character:

Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One - Classic. Big influence on both Gotham and Nolanverse.

Jeph Loeb’s [Long Halloween](Batman: The Long Halloween https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401232590/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_f4FqDbZZ35GEQ) and Dark Victory which are kind of a Year Two and Year Three (don’t read the books called Y2 and Y3 though)

Chuck Dixon’s Robin: Year One - What it sounds like—Robin’s first cases, not his origin. Robin faces off against Mad Hatter, Two Face, and more. The copy I linked also has Batgirl: Year One which is pretty fun.

Jeph Loeb’s Batman: Hush - A great intro to all of the villains as Batman faces off against each one, ultimately revealing a new villain rooted in his past.

Paul Dini’s Heart of Hush and Streets of Gotham (it has 3 volumes—good to know that midway through, Bruce “dies” and is replaced by Dick Grayson as Batman, but it’s still accessible without reading all of that) - HOH is a sequel to Hush and has a lot of Bat/Cat. Streets focuses on the life of the Gotham underbelly, with characters like “the Carpenter” who builds all the booby traps for the villains and the realtor who finds their hideouts. Also acts as a sequel to Heart of Hush.

Scott Snyder’s Gates of Gotham - also has Dick as Batman but delves into cool Gotham history

Scott Snyder’s Black Mirror - again, Dick is Batman. Takes place before Gates but Streets goes into Gates more fluidly. This book is creepy AF and gets into some of the Gordon family history.

Scott Snyder’s Court of Owls - Though this can be read without any of the others as it was designed as an entry point for new readers. It’s also probably the best book on the list. REALLY good.

Peter Tomasi’s Batman and Robin - The issues collected here are a great storyline that are about Bruce and his 12-year-old biological son Damian, whose mother is Talia al Ghul (daughter of Ra’s and sister of Nyssa).

If there’s a particular character or aspect of the show you like, there may be others as well but these are a good core starting set.

(You can also check your library for these—many have graphic novels on the shelves but some also have a subscription to something called Hoopla which lets you “check out” digital versions of comics/graphic novels.)

For Flash:

Barry Allen started his carrier in the comics in 1959 until 1985 and then he was absent on until 2009. His modern-age series called The Flash: Rebirth when he returned. After that 2 trades came (In comics, a trade paperback (often shortened to trade) is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme.) called The Flash Vol. 1: The Dastardly Death of the Rogues and The Flash Vol. 2: The Road to Flashpoint.

After these, a HUGE event came that changed everything called Flashpont that "reset" the continuity and started the New 52 age and it's first story-line called The Flash, Vol. 1: Move Forward . This series (New52) lasted till Spring 2016 and collected 9 trades (the show you watched is based on this era). In early 2016 DC Rebirth came (only name change, everything is continued from New52) but a huge exception: a long missing character came back to the grand scene who was missing for so long. Rebirth's first trade is The Flash Vol. 1: Lightning Strikes Twice

So if you are interested in Barry (overall) start with The Flash: Rebirth and move onward to Flashpont, but you can just start with The Flash, Vol. 1: Move Forward or DC Rebirth and The Flash Vol. 1: Lightning Strikes Twice, then read everything up to today. (there was a Flash event called Flash War which ended a few months ago)

(there is an omnibus on sale at the moment (a collection of multiple trades) called The Flash By Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato Omnibus that collects the first 4 trades of the New 52 era.





For Superman:


His New 52 story wasn't that great (if you ask 10 people, almost 9 of them will tell you that you should skip that era), but there are 3 "essential" TPBs in that period of time:

Superman: The Men of Tomorrow by Geoff Johns

Lois Lane and Clark

Superman: The Final Days of Superman


After these, you can start with Superman Vol. 1: Son Of Superman and move forward with the volumes until a strange storyline called Superman:Reborn that ends the Final Days of Superman story. Rebirth's final TPB called Superman Vol. 7: Bizarroverse (not out yet), which is followed by a fresh new start called The Man of Steel that kicks out Superman #1 (remember, we started from New 52, yet Superman: Reborn came along)

(but if you want a full reading, you can easily start with Superman Vol. 1: What Price Tomorrow? New 52 TPB.)

About Action Comics: compared to Superman solo series, Action Comics is more about Metropolis and things happening NOT JUST with Superman, but with his friends and family etc. The first 3 volumes of New 52 were fantastic, written by Grant Morrison (starting with [Action Comics Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel] (https://www.amazon.com/Superman-Action-Comics-Vol-Steel/dp/1401235476/ ) but overall the whole New 52 was a decent run.

After New 52, Rebirth's first volume's called Action Comics Vol. 1: Path Of Doom



For Aquaman:

I highly recommend starting with New 52 and move forward to Rebirth and more, as it is a great adventure seeing Aquaman in action during that period of time, lots of fun and interesting stories.

New 52 first volume/TPB called Aquaman Vol. 1: The Trench

Rebirth first volume called Aquaman Vol. 1: The Drowning

Also have to mention that the new movie coming out soon is LOOSLY (not entirely, but still) based on the story-line called Aquaman Vol. 3: Throne of Atlantis (new52)


For Batman:

There is a new kind of book format coming out just now called "Essential Edition" which is basically pack of 2 (or more) volumes/TPBs in 1 book.

Batman's story starts WAY before New 52 (his and Green Lantern's history wasn't "deleted", so everything happened in the past, is still here with us), so it is advisable to start at least Year One, then jump into New 52 via Batman: The Court of Owls Saga (DC Essential Edition) , which is followed by a great arc called Batman Vol. 3: Death of the Family and others as well. It is highly recommend to read through the whole New 52 series, as it is a MASTERPIECE!

Rebirth starts with Batman Vol. 1: I Am Gotham

Just like Action Comics is connected to Superman, here Detective Comics connected with Batman. Detective Comics is about the Bat-family operating in Gotham City, solving mysteries etc.

New 52 first TPB Detective Comics Vol. 1: Faces of Death

Rebirth first TPB Detective Comics Vol. 1: Rise of the Batmen


For Green Lantern:

Just like Batman, Green Lantern's story wasn't deleted prior New 52, everything that happened BEFORE, is still here with is (even today). Yet you don't have to start at the very beginning, there is a really respectable writer called Geoff Johns (mentioned earlier) who started to write Green Lantern back in 2005 (long time ago) and his work laid down the basics of the mythos around the Lantern Corps, the different rings, lot of intergalactic battles etc.

His first work was Green Lantern: Rebirth, followed by many over the years. I mentioned the Omnibus format back at The Flash, for Green Lantern it is highly recommended to get through his story (as it is a HUGE connected story from the Green Lantern Rebirth) via those books

Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Omnibus Vol. 1

Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Omnibus Vol. 2


Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Omnibus Vol. 3

After these, the overall story continues in the Green Lantern: Rise of the Third Army and Green Lantern: The Wrath of the First Lantern TPBs.

Just like Action Comics and Detective Comics, there is a companion series for the "main" Green Lantern books, called Green Lantern Corps. Before New 52, the old TPBs weren't reprinted, so it is hard to collect that era (starts with Green Lantern Corps Vol. 1: To Be a Lantern ) but the New 52 books are much more widely available. The first one is Green Lantern Corps Vol. 1: Fearsome.

After New 52, the "main" Green Lantern book becomes Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 1: Sinestro's Law and the Green Lantern Corps to Green Lanterns Vol. 1: Rage Planet.


Wow it is a huge list and lot of stuff. I missed a few things, but even if you start reading these, you won't be disappointed for a while. (and when you're not sure how/where to next, just ask me or anyone here on Reddit). For the buying process: there are a few options: local comic shop (LCS), amazon, ebay, https://www.speedyhen.com/ (if you are UK based), http://bookdepository.com/, https://www.instocktrades.com/ for starters.

Hope this helps!

You can start with any of them as they don't tie over, the first Justice League arc is set before everything else though. You can read Batman or Flash without any knowledge of it, since the trades were printed a while ago some might be out of print. You might be able to find off of Ebay or Amazon, it might be easier to get the omnibuses or essentials but neither collect the whole series so far.

You don't need to read the 0 issue before the rest of the series, they were generally used to set up the third arc of there series and are collected in the third trade. I've included some links below to highlight all the trades as well as the omnibus and essentials that are available.

List of all the trades
https://www.goodreads.com/series/130291-batman-2011
https://www.goodreads.com/series/151252-the-flash-2011
https://www.goodreads.com/series/84427-justice-league-2011

Omnibus
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flash-Manapul-Buccellato-Omnibus-HC/dp/1401261035/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=flash+omnibus&qid=1558692972&s=gateway&sr=8-2
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Batman-Scott-Snyder-Capullo-Omnibus/dp/1401298842/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=batman+omnibus&qid=1558692988&s=gateway&sr=8-4

Essentials
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Batman-Court-Owls-Saga-Essential/dp/1401284337/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=batman+essential&qid=1558693162&s=gateway&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flash-Starting-Line-Essential/dp/1401284760/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=flash+essential&qid=1558693169&s=gateway&sr=8-5

Some extra stuff that wasn't mentioned already:

No Man's Land (1-4 + Road to No Man's Land 1 and 2)

Batman Murderer and Fugitive - The art was all over the place, but I really liked the story. Ed Brubaker is amazing!

Batman: Venom

Batman: The Cult

Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Vol. 1 - one of the best Batman runs, and it all starts here!

Batman: Ego and Other Tails mostly for Ego.

Batman: The Court of Owls

Batman: War Games (1 and 2)

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