All Star Superman or any other DC graphic novels - worth it?

If you start anywhere, make it All Star Superman. It's great.

Watchmen is great obviously, but I'm sure you've probably read it.

Batman Year One may have been written by Frank Miller, but it's above and beyond anything else he's ever written and the quintessential Batman book.

And Red Son is better than they say.

Kingdom Come is just about the best Elseworlds there is, though.

All Star Supes is totally worth it, just don't expect a lot of action, at least in the way that most people are used to thinking of it. There's big, weird, stuff going on, but Morrison makes the series wear its heart on its sleeve, so the adventure takes a bit of a second seat to character. That said, it's a great read. I think that All Star Supes is more comparable to a Frank Capra film than to other superhero comics, personally.

There's also the DC Universe trade paperback that collects most of Alan Moore's work for stuff like Superman and Green Lantern that's well worth a look, I think it even has "The Killing Joke" in it, but I could be wrong. I never bought it for reading most of those stories elsewhere first.

Green Lantern from "Rebirth" forward has been pretty fun. There's a good deal available in trade format, and it has a very similar feel to JLU in spots with some really big action and solid characters. If you're wondering why Warners is all hot and bothered for a GL movie, a lot of this stuff is pretty much why.

EDIT: It's not a comic, but "It's Superman!" by Tom DeHaven is a really fun novel. The author does a really good job mixing Steinbeck and pulp to tell a fun period version of Supe's origin. Just a funny, smart, and touching read that I can't recommend enough for fans of Superman or superheroes in general. Superman: Birthright is also a rather good modern take on Big Blue's origin, and I think it's quite a bit better than Red Son, personally.

Batman: The Long Halloween amazing, everyone should own Kingdom Come, even just for the art work alone.
Are you wanting to read other stuff that's not superhero related?
Y:The last Man and the Walking Dead are great reads as well.

I really love Year One. But Miller's "Born Again" run on Daredevil took a crap character and gave him an opera. It's pretty cool.

I thought "Birthright" was a decent origin reboot, but it's been a while.

Swamp Thing, while technically a Vertigo book, takes place within the DC universe. The book is great at taking vague and simple characters and making them intriguing, like The Floronic Man.\

JLA, by Grant Morrison, is also very fun, and I'm pretty sure it was Bruce Timm's inspiration for the Justice League show that aired for a few years.

I'd say Red Son is probably one of the best things Mark Millar has done, just for the fact it doesn't get bogged down by shitty pop culture references.

There is an overall arc being played out through the run, but for the most part they were designed as individual story lines due to the predetermined belated shipping schedules. It's a quirky silver age sci-fi book with Superman in the middle, so if those things appeal to you chances are you'll like this book.

All Star Batman is ridiculous, but I find entertaining as hell.

Darwyn Cooke's "DC: The New Frontier". Self-contained, finite story, set in the beginning of the Silver Age, with great writing and art.

And for maybe some non-superhero DC/Vertigo stuff: go with Transmetropolitan. That's one of my favorite series ever.

Gotta second the recommendation for Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing. And the "Across The Universe" collection of Alan Moore's DCU stories.

Yes.

Double YES.

Another one for the non-superhero Vertigo books, I would recommend Scalped.

All Star Superman is fucking fantastic. Got the whole thing if you want to borrow it
And a huge yes to Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run. There is no better thing to read on the trams than that.

All Star Superman is wonderful, and the art's pretty terrific.

I liked Red Son too. The Long Halloween is great too.

Sandman, of course.

All Star Supes is terrific fun.

I thought Greg Rucka's run on Wonder Woman was the best the character's ever had, sadly, considering the history of the character, that's faint praise, but it's still pretty good.

I'm going to give a shout out to Loeb and Sales' Superman: For All Seasons. It's a great story of how Clark comes to accept his role as Superman.

Yeah, that's probably your best bet. especially coming off of PREACHER.
You might also like Ennis' HELLBLAZER trades. It's like PREACHER, but British.

Speaking as someone who has only dabbled in comics since the '80s, here's another vote for Moore's "Across the Universe," and another for All Star Supes.

And a big "NO" to Batman:The Long Halloween which has a few good ideas but is absolute nonsense from a storytelling point of view.

Hellboy still reminds me of the superhero comics I liked as a kid, and I mean that as a complement.

I honestly just don't get the ending to All-Star Superman. It felt completely unsatisfying to me. I was kind of crushed, because ASS Vol. 1 is probably my 6 favorite consecutive issues of anything, ever. Anyone want to take a crack at helping me come to terms with this one?

Yes. and yes.

Agreed on all parts.

For some superheroes done well, check out some of Geoff Johns work on Green Lantern and Flash.

Can't recommend any of Jack Kirby's DC work enough, Grant Morrison has been trying to emulate him for years now with varying degrees of success. The Fourth World omnibuses are amazing. These are stuffed to the gills with big, crazy ideas.

That's a pretty general question. What aspects/story elements of it didn't you get?

Perhaps there is a better thread to discuss the ending to a book that some people haven't read yet.

Good idea.

http://chud.com/forum/showthread.php?t=85153

If you're checking out Ennis' Hellblazer run, grab Carey's run as well. Dark and disturbing.

And grab Ennis' Hitman/JLA 2-shot.

I'll give a vote to Jeff Smith's "Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil". Aimed squarely at kids, as the character should be, but tremendously well done.

It's a little off the beaten path, but Grant Morrison's "Seven Soldiers" does a good job of distilling the kick of a superhero universe into a basically self-contained story. It's like a superhero universe that lasts 30 issues. Some of it is riffing on DC history, but for the most part it stands alone.

I agree on Seven Soldiers. Some interesting takes on the idea of what a superhero can be. The art on that last issue is so f'n great too.

You may be interested in checking out this site, which recommends pretty much every good graphic novel-ized comic that DC has ever created pretty much ever.

All Star Superman is fantastic. As far as "any other DC graphic novels", see the site above :P

Kingdom Come = partial ass. Loved the artwork, hated the story.

The same artist who did Klarion the Witch Boy from that series (Frazer Irving) worked on a series called Gutsville which was really really awesome but doesn't seem to be in publication anymore/has remained unfinished. I don't know that for sure and it's been awhile since I looked it up, I will have to harass my comic dealer and see. I really enjoyed Seven Soldiers, even though overall it was a bit of a failure. Their take on Frankenstein was really fun, as was Klarion.

If you go with Seven Soldiers, try to read them in original printed order and not in the collected order.

I think the collected order is the original printed order. They didn't collect them by title.

TPBs published from 2007 on are in printed order, but anything before that could have them mixed up.

All Star SUpes is great.
All Star Batman is like somebody doing a parody of Frank Miller's take on Batman. Miller blew it bigtime with this one.

Ditto the love for Moore's SWAMP THING. A lot of the "year one" Batman stuff is good, aside from Miller and Loeb, Matt Wagner's MONSTER MEN and THE MAD MONK are fun and pulpy reworkings of early Batman stories.

Top 10 books 1 and 2 are still the graphic novels I read the most frequently. They never lose their charm and the stories are classic.

I second Superman For All Seasons. Excellent book.

I also recommend Secret Identity by Kurt Busiek. A great Elseworlds one-shot. Beautiful ending.

Speaking of Busiek, I'm frankly shocked that nobody has mentioned Astro City in here yet. If you want non-ironic, awesome superhero storytelling combining retro styling with modern sensibilities, Astro City is your ticket.

The escalation of the cat and mouse conflict in Duane's mom's apartment is so great.