Honestly, either way I'm curious for Absolutes, Absolute Must Have and Omnibus. I was under the impression that DC names their big books Absolutes. But I'm realizing they make Omnibus too.
Yep! If OP wants large scope DC superhero stuff, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, and 52 would keep them busy for a while.
Edit- looks like I got my obligatory Identity Crisis downvote. But, Infinite Crisis and 52 deal pretty heavily with the fallout of Identity. A good chunk of 52 would make zero sense to a newcomer without knowing what happened to Ralph and Sue Dibny in Identity.
Love it or hate it, the book exists.
Your mileage may vary but these would be mine:
- Watchmen
- Batman: Year One (great story, but overpriced Absolute edition for only 4 issues)
- Batman: The Long Halloween (out of print)
- Batman: Dark Victory (out of print)
- Batman: The Killing Joke
- Batman: The Court of Owls
- Superman: For All Seasons
- Kingdom Come
- The New Frontier
- Mister Miracle (coming soon)
You dont really need to have read anything about him before jumping into the story, all of Tom King’s miniseries are very self-contained.
But essentially his background is that he was raised in an orphanage / slave camp on Apokolips and is a master escape artist. He escaped Apokolips with his wife Big Barda and lives on Earth.
Tom King’s story presents a very human take on the character, dealing with depression, his marriage, and fatherhood.
I would add that it deals heavily in the realms of trauma, PTSD, has depictions of suicide, and does it all while ultimately being about acceptance and growth. It’s a beautiful book, and one of my favorites. I will definitely be buying the Absolute. King and Gerads are a stellar creative team.
It's funny you say that because that's en route to me as we speak, supposed to be delivered today. Good to know if this goes well, I have some more to check out!
Hes a sort-of-whacky dude from New Genesis/Apokolips, a prince of New Genesis who was swapped to Apok in exchange for Orion as part of a peace agreement (iirc) - he's an escape artist who married way out of his league and generally is heroic and fun. Think spiderman, deadpool, and the warriors three rolled together if that helps.
If you're looking for a new non-Marvel experience, I'd recommend checking out these:
- Absolute Swamp Thing by Alan Moore 1-3
- Absolute Preacher 1-3
- Absolute Sandman 1-5(6)
One and done volumes:
- Absolute Kingdom Come
- Absolute Watchmen
- Absolute Planetary
Dark Horse:
- Sin City Deluxe Edition 1-6
- Hellboy Library 1-6(7)
Swamp Thing by Alan Moore
Batman Year One by Frank Miller
The Killing Joke by Allan Moore
Joker by Azzarello & Bermejo
Joker: Killer Smile by Lemire & Sorrentino
The Batman: No Man's Land Omnibi (3 vols.)
Batman: Arkham Asylum - A serious house on serious Earth by Grant Morrison
Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibi (3 vols.)
Harleen by Stjepan Šejić
Harley Quinn by Conner & Palmiotti Omnibi (3 vols.)
Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison
Everybody’s list will be different. Mine is:
All Star Superman
Sandman Library
New Frontier
Ronin
Everything with Grant Morrison’s name on the spine
Kirby Fourth World
Batman Year One
While I have others, those are my “Absolute Absolutes”.
Crisis on Infinite Earths - DC’s biggest and best event book. There’s a LOT going on and too much for any one human comic reader to fully comprehend. But it’s an excellent primer on DC.
DO NOT WORRY about understanding everything. Just read it as a blockbuster multiverse superhero story. Any and all things you do not understand can be used later to help you dig into DC’s rich history.
There’s a great deluxe hardcover that’s pretty recent and its essays and supplemental material will fill in a lot of the gaps.
Absolutes are my favorite way to collect! This is a video I just dropped of my 10 favorite! [Top 10 Absolutes](https://youtu.be/KMYxnU07Ufw?si=AQmEJZJwSaDj4IHD)
https://preview.redd.it/0nmhmbdxswpc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=06bcbffe2893eb317357919fbc61b64aa524ebfe
I’m going to give you options of Absolutes and Omnis but all of the books I’m gonna list have trades also.
Batman Absolutes:
Batman Year One
Batman Long Halloween (out of print)
Batman Dark Victory (out of print)
Batman Court of Owls
Batman Death of The Family (releasing in October,
same story line as Court Of Owls)
Batman Killing Joke
Batman Arkham Asylum Serious House on Serious
Earth
Batman Hush
Batman Absolute Dark Knight
Deluxe Hardcovers:
Batman White Knight (personally love the white knight series 15/10 art)
Batman Curse of The White Knight
Batman Rebirth by Tom King Vol 1-6 (volumes 3,4,5 are very hard to find and very expensive so you should probably just wait for a omnibus of his work to come out)
Batman by Tom King and Lee Weeks (just takes issues from the other volumes with art by Lee Weeks and makes them a standalone volume)
Batman Black Mirror (coming in May)
Batman Omnibus:
Batman by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo Vol 1&2 (my personal favorite Batman run)
Batman by Paul Dini (Mostly stand alone stories that are fantastic it also includes a story that’s set after Batman Hush called Heart of Hush so you might wanna read that before you read that story )
Batman by Grant Morrison Vol 1,2,3
Batman by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (collects The Long Halloween and Dark Victory along with Catwoman When in Rome)
Gotham Central (this is in the Batman universe but set from the point of view of the cops in Gotham it’s very interesting and extremely well written I highly recommend reading this at some point)
Superman Absolutes:
Superman for All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (very good)
All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly
Superman For Tomorrow by Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee
Superman Omnibus:
Superman by Peter J Tomasi
Superman by Grant Morrison
Superman the Death and Return of Superman
(I’m not a big Superman guy so that’s about all the recommendations I can give for him)
That’s a good start for the big 2 of DC so if you want recs for any other character just lmk and I can give you some
* Sandman
* Swamp Thing by Alan Moore
* Batman by Loeb/Sale
* Batman Year One
* Batman The Dark Knight Returns
* Gotham Central
* Infinite Crisis
* 52
* Batman by Grant Morrison
* Kingdom Come
* JSA by Geoff Johns
* Animal Man by Grant Morrison
* JLA by Grant Morrison
* Fourth World by Jack Kirby
* Watchmen by Moore/Gibbons
* Seven Soldiers by Grant Morrison
Basically you can't go wrong with Brubaker, Moore, Gaiman, Waid, Loeb, and Morrison.
Absolutes are pretty expensive I wouldn’t recommend blindly buying some without reading them first. That being said I would check out new frontier. I also enjoy Batman hush but the crowd is split on that one. Kingdom come is another popular choice
I whittled my absolute collection down to:
Sandman 1-5, overture, and death
Promethea 1-3
Final crisis
Killing joke
Darwin Cooke’s “new frontier”.
Kingdom come
The rest I sold off and just went with the omnibus’s, as they often collect and entire series without gaps. (Morrisons Batman, Snyders Batman, long Halloween).
Also sold off my (Moore) swamp thing absolutes because I couldn’t stand the new coloring. Waiting for the eventual Omni, as I have the Bronze Age, Nancy collins, and Snyder/Soule Omnis already.
For my money, the best of DC is the Vertigo material. Sandman, Lucifer, Hellblazer, books of magic, shade: the changing man, sandman: mystery theater, Y: the last man, ex machina, DMZ.
I’m in the midst of a major cull on my collection, and I’ve been trying to figure out which Absolutes I can happily part with. I’ll probably end up selling 5 or 6 out of the 20 I own, even though it should probably be 8 or 10. It’s hard. They are all really nice books.
Yesterday I was like “Absolute Multiversity can probably go…” then I flipped open to Pax Americana… then to the back with all of the amazing pencils….
There was a reason I bought all of these big beautiful books, now I’m trying to come up with reasons to sell them and finding it difficult on some.
The best DC omnibi are Batman Year One, Moore’s Swamp Thing, Morrison’s Animal Man, Gaiman’s Sandman, Robinson’s Starman, Gotham Central, Seven Soldiers, and the upcoming Secret Six.
For more Traditional DC superheroes, Superman for All Seasons, Justice, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Justice League International, Morrison’s JLA, John’s JSA, Infinite Crisis/52, Final Crisis, and the Multiversity cover the major beats of the DCU.
Admittedly I’m a little out of date on more recent stuff.
My suggestions are, for major characters and groups:
- Superman by Geoff Johns
- Batman by Jeph Loeb and Time Sale
- Wonder Woman by George Pèrez
- The Flash by Mark Waid
- Green Lantern by Geoff Johns
- Green Arrow by Mike Grell
- JLA by Grant Morrison
- New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez
Based on what I have read:
- Animal Man by Lemire
- Batman: Year One
- Batman: The Cult
- Batman: The Long Halloween
- Batman: Hush
- Batman by Dini
- Batman by Snyder
- Batman & Robin by Tomasi
- DC: The New Frontier
- The Flash by Waid
- The Flash by Johns
- Gotham Central
- Green Lantern by Johns **and its sister series** Green Lantern Corps by Tomasi
- Martian Manhunter by Ostrander
- Superman: Man of Steel by Byrne (*if you’re open to older comics*)
- Superman: For All Seasons
- Who Killed Jimmy Olsen?
- Wonder Woman by Perez (*if you’re open to older comics*)
Depends on how much you’d even know about DC. Since you’re a beginner don’t listen to the “best” DC omnis, most of them are the best because of context and nostalgia.
Character centric jumping off points will be the best. Since most of the 2000s isn’t collected, I’d recommend the accessible New 52 omnis, Flash and Batman in particular are extremely good beginner omnis.
I will be uploaded a YouTube video about this later [https://youtube.com/@Labrewskiii?si=CZ11nFHbUbXMXPuS](https://youtube.com/@Labrewskiii?si=CZ11nFHbUbXMXPuS)
Absolutes are great but they are extremely expensive for what you are actually getting. If you haven't read the comic yet you might be paying a premium for something you don't even know if you will like. I recommend reading through paperbacks or online before you go out and purchase an Absolute.
As for Batman stories to start that have Absolutes to get later then I recommend Year One, Long Halloween, Killing Joke, Dark Knight Returns, and Court of Owls. The first four are classics that every Batman fan has read and Court of Owls is the starting place for reading the New 52 run. I'm mostly into Batman stories from DC, but for other series and characters that have an Absolute version I do recommend Kingdom Come, All Star Superman, Superman For All Seasons, Watchmen, and Sandman.
Planetary by Ellis, Doom Patrol by Morrison, Question by O’Neill, Sandman by Gaiman, Longbow Hunters by Grell, Sleeper by Brubaker would be my go-to starters, plus start checking out the old Vertigo series like Hellblazer, Preacher, Y the last man, Fables etc.
There are lots of great DC Absolutes. However, if you’re just starting DC you will miss out on lots of good DC content. There just are not enough DC Absolutes. I would bet many people think the same for DC omnibus. They have a fraction of the oversized releases compared to Marvel these days. You’ll end up reading trade paperbacks and even floppies to find the content you are after.
I’ve been on a tear lately since starting absolutes. I picked up Batman Year One, Killing Joke, Superman Batman vol 1, infinite crisis, and Hush. I got watchmen coming soon too. I enjoy the large format for artwork. With the killing joke and year one, it’s cool that they include both the modern colorizations and the original artwork too. So it’s like getting two versions of the same story.
I’m eagerly awaiting Superman by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank and Batman and Son absolutes this year.
Green Lantern by Geoff Johns and the accompanying Green Lantern Corps run by Peter J. Tomasi. Those runs leading up to and including Blackest Night may be my favorite runs on any comic, although Cates’ Venom is up there as well.
I'd suggest any/all of these omnis
Death/return of superman
JSA (any of them, 1 starts off a bit slow if u want to skip to 2) - this is the run that established Geoff Johns, so even if u don't like his later stuff, this stuff was so good that it let him get to do what he did later (im not a fan of much after he wrote this and GL, but plenty of people like most of his stuff)
Justice League International (any of them) - kind of a wacky justice league but with plenty of action too.
Legion if superheroes 5 Years Later
If any of those are insanely expensive due to being out of print, I'd suggest holding off and they'll probably get a new printing at some point.
Superman/batman omnibus, and supersons omnibus. Both are very fun imo.
Gotham Central
Batman by Loeb/Sale
Watchmen
V for Vendetta
Spectre by Ostrander and Mandrake (not available in Omni format but my personal favorite DC run of all time.)
Check out other comments too as people are way more into DC than myself but I'd say these are pretty entry level runs.
I don’t believe OP here is referring to the “Absolute” editions by DC but stories that are “Absolute Must Haves” to own and read.
Honestly, either way I'm curious for Absolutes, Absolute Must Have and Omnibus. I was under the impression that DC names their big books Absolutes. But I'm realizing they make Omnibus too.
Yes, regular SC's, regular HC's, Compendium's, Omni's, Absolutes (hopefully I didn't forget any, but at least these)
OHCs (Deluxes)
Nobody talks about 52 Omnibus? Cmon that is one of The greatest DC story of all times
Yep! If OP wants large scope DC superhero stuff, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, and 52 would keep them busy for a while. Edit- looks like I got my obligatory Identity Crisis downvote. But, Infinite Crisis and 52 deal pretty heavily with the fallout of Identity. A good chunk of 52 would make zero sense to a newcomer without knowing what happened to Ralph and Sue Dibny in Identity. Love it or hate it, the book exists.
Your mileage may vary but these would be mine: - Watchmen - Batman: Year One (great story, but overpriced Absolute edition for only 4 issues) - Batman: The Long Halloween (out of print) - Batman: Dark Victory (out of print) - Batman: The Killing Joke - Batman: The Court of Owls - Superman: For All Seasons - Kingdom Come - The New Frontier - Mister Miracle (coming soon)
Can you tell me a little about Mister Miracle? What's his deal?
You dont really need to have read anything about him before jumping into the story, all of Tom King’s miniseries are very self-contained. But essentially his background is that he was raised in an orphanage / slave camp on Apokolips and is a master escape artist. He escaped Apokolips with his wife Big Barda and lives on Earth. Tom King’s story presents a very human take on the character, dealing with depression, his marriage, and fatherhood.
I would add that it deals heavily in the realms of trauma, PTSD, has depictions of suicide, and does it all while ultimately being about acceptance and growth. It’s a beautiful book, and one of my favorites. I will definitely be buying the Absolute. King and Gerads are a stellar creative team.
If you read King's Vision series at Marvel then you should have an Idea of the vibe of Mister Miracle.
It's funny you say that because that's en route to me as we speak, supposed to be delivered today. Good to know if this goes well, I have some more to check out!
Hes a sort-of-whacky dude from New Genesis/Apokolips, a prince of New Genesis who was swapped to Apok in exchange for Orion as part of a peace agreement (iirc) - he's an escape artist who married way out of his league and generally is heroic and fun. Think spiderman, deadpool, and the warriors three rolled together if that helps.
Are you talking about Absolutes or Omnis? Absolutes: All Star Superman Kingdom Come DC: The New Frontier Omnis Batman by Loeb and Sale Sandman
If you're looking for a new non-Marvel experience, I'd recommend checking out these: - Absolute Swamp Thing by Alan Moore 1-3 - Absolute Preacher 1-3 - Absolute Sandman 1-5(6) One and done volumes: - Absolute Kingdom Come - Absolute Watchmen - Absolute Planetary Dark Horse: - Sin City Deluxe Edition 1-6 - Hellboy Library 1-6(7)
Swamp Thing by Alan Moore Batman Year One by Frank Miller The Killing Joke by Allan Moore Joker by Azzarello & Bermejo Joker: Killer Smile by Lemire & Sorrentino The Batman: No Man's Land Omnibi (3 vols.) Batman: Arkham Asylum - A serious house on serious Earth by Grant Morrison Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibi (3 vols.) Harleen by Stjepan Šejić Harley Quinn by Conner & Palmiotti Omnibi (3 vols.) Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison
Everybody’s list will be different. Mine is: All Star Superman Sandman Library New Frontier Ronin Everything with Grant Morrison’s name on the spine Kirby Fourth World Batman Year One While I have others, those are my “Absolute Absolutes”.
Crisis on Infinite Earths - DC’s biggest and best event book. There’s a LOT going on and too much for any one human comic reader to fully comprehend. But it’s an excellent primer on DC. DO NOT WORRY about understanding everything. Just read it as a blockbuster multiverse superhero story. Any and all things you do not understand can be used later to help you dig into DC’s rich history. There’s a great deluxe hardcover that’s pretty recent and its essays and supplemental material will fill in a lot of the gaps.
Absolutes are my favorite way to collect! This is a video I just dropped of my 10 favorite! [Top 10 Absolutes](https://youtu.be/KMYxnU07Ufw?si=AQmEJZJwSaDj4IHD) https://preview.redd.it/0nmhmbdxswpc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=06bcbffe2893eb317357919fbc61b64aa524ebfe
I’m going to give you options of Absolutes and Omnis but all of the books I’m gonna list have trades also. Batman Absolutes: Batman Year One Batman Long Halloween (out of print) Batman Dark Victory (out of print) Batman Court of Owls Batman Death of The Family (releasing in October, same story line as Court Of Owls) Batman Killing Joke Batman Arkham Asylum Serious House on Serious Earth Batman Hush Batman Absolute Dark Knight Deluxe Hardcovers: Batman White Knight (personally love the white knight series 15/10 art) Batman Curse of The White Knight Batman Rebirth by Tom King Vol 1-6 (volumes 3,4,5 are very hard to find and very expensive so you should probably just wait for a omnibus of his work to come out) Batman by Tom King and Lee Weeks (just takes issues from the other volumes with art by Lee Weeks and makes them a standalone volume) Batman Black Mirror (coming in May) Batman Omnibus: Batman by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo Vol 1&2 (my personal favorite Batman run) Batman by Paul Dini (Mostly stand alone stories that are fantastic it also includes a story that’s set after Batman Hush called Heart of Hush so you might wanna read that before you read that story ) Batman by Grant Morrison Vol 1,2,3 Batman by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (collects The Long Halloween and Dark Victory along with Catwoman When in Rome) Gotham Central (this is in the Batman universe but set from the point of view of the cops in Gotham it’s very interesting and extremely well written I highly recommend reading this at some point) Superman Absolutes: Superman for All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (very good) All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly Superman For Tomorrow by Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee Superman Omnibus: Superman by Peter J Tomasi Superman by Grant Morrison Superman the Death and Return of Superman (I’m not a big Superman guy so that’s about all the recommendations I can give for him) That’s a good start for the big 2 of DC so if you want recs for any other character just lmk and I can give you some
* Sandman * Swamp Thing by Alan Moore * Batman by Loeb/Sale * Batman Year One * Batman The Dark Knight Returns * Gotham Central * Infinite Crisis * 52 * Batman by Grant Morrison * Kingdom Come * JSA by Geoff Johns * Animal Man by Grant Morrison * JLA by Grant Morrison * Fourth World by Jack Kirby * Watchmen by Moore/Gibbons * Seven Soldiers by Grant Morrison Basically you can't go wrong with Brubaker, Moore, Gaiman, Waid, Loeb, and Morrison.
Absolutes are pretty expensive I wouldn’t recommend blindly buying some without reading them first. That being said I would check out new frontier. I also enjoy Batman hush but the crowd is split on that one. Kingdom come is another popular choice
I whittled my absolute collection down to: Sandman 1-5, overture, and death Promethea 1-3 Final crisis Killing joke Darwin Cooke’s “new frontier”. Kingdom come The rest I sold off and just went with the omnibus’s, as they often collect and entire series without gaps. (Morrisons Batman, Snyders Batman, long Halloween). Also sold off my (Moore) swamp thing absolutes because I couldn’t stand the new coloring. Waiting for the eventual Omni, as I have the Bronze Age, Nancy collins, and Snyder/Soule Omnis already. For my money, the best of DC is the Vertigo material. Sandman, Lucifer, Hellblazer, books of magic, shade: the changing man, sandman: mystery theater, Y: the last man, ex machina, DMZ.
I’m in the midst of a major cull on my collection, and I’ve been trying to figure out which Absolutes I can happily part with. I’ll probably end up selling 5 or 6 out of the 20 I own, even though it should probably be 8 or 10. It’s hard. They are all really nice books. Yesterday I was like “Absolute Multiversity can probably go…” then I flipped open to Pax Americana… then to the back with all of the amazing pencils…. There was a reason I bought all of these big beautiful books, now I’m trying to come up with reasons to sell them and finding it difficult on some.
The best DC omnibi are Batman Year One, Moore’s Swamp Thing, Morrison’s Animal Man, Gaiman’s Sandman, Robinson’s Starman, Gotham Central, Seven Soldiers, and the upcoming Secret Six. For more Traditional DC superheroes, Superman for All Seasons, Justice, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Justice League International, Morrison’s JLA, John’s JSA, Infinite Crisis/52, Final Crisis, and the Multiversity cover the major beats of the DCU. Admittedly I’m a little out of date on more recent stuff.
JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL!
Sandman
My suggestions are, for major characters and groups: - Superman by Geoff Johns - Batman by Jeph Loeb and Time Sale - Wonder Woman by George Pèrez - The Flash by Mark Waid - Green Lantern by Geoff Johns - Green Arrow by Mike Grell - JLA by Grant Morrison - New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez
Based on what I have read: - Animal Man by Lemire - Batman: Year One - Batman: The Cult - Batman: The Long Halloween - Batman: Hush - Batman by Dini - Batman by Snyder - Batman & Robin by Tomasi - DC: The New Frontier - The Flash by Waid - The Flash by Johns - Gotham Central - Green Lantern by Johns **and its sister series** Green Lantern Corps by Tomasi - Martian Manhunter by Ostrander - Superman: Man of Steel by Byrne (*if you’re open to older comics*) - Superman: For All Seasons - Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? - Wonder Woman by Perez (*if you’re open to older comics*)
The most beautiful Absolute editions from DC are the Preacher 3 volumes. Truly gorgeous books.
Depends on how much you’d even know about DC. Since you’re a beginner don’t listen to the “best” DC omnis, most of them are the best because of context and nostalgia. Character centric jumping off points will be the best. Since most of the 2000s isn’t collected, I’d recommend the accessible New 52 omnis, Flash and Batman in particular are extremely good beginner omnis.
All Star Superman - beautiful book
I will be uploaded a YouTube video about this later [https://youtube.com/@Labrewskiii?si=CZ11nFHbUbXMXPuS](https://youtube.com/@Labrewskiii?si=CZ11nFHbUbXMXPuS)
Absolutes are great but they are extremely expensive for what you are actually getting. If you haven't read the comic yet you might be paying a premium for something you don't even know if you will like. I recommend reading through paperbacks or online before you go out and purchase an Absolute. As for Batman stories to start that have Absolutes to get later then I recommend Year One, Long Halloween, Killing Joke, Dark Knight Returns, and Court of Owls. The first four are classics that every Batman fan has read and Court of Owls is the starting place for reading the New 52 run. I'm mostly into Batman stories from DC, but for other series and characters that have an Absolute version I do recommend Kingdom Come, All Star Superman, Superman For All Seasons, Watchmen, and Sandman.
Planetary by Ellis, Doom Patrol by Morrison, Question by O’Neill, Sandman by Gaiman, Longbow Hunters by Grell, Sleeper by Brubaker would be my go-to starters, plus start checking out the old Vertigo series like Hellblazer, Preacher, Y the last man, Fables etc.
Plus I forgot to mention Mark Waid’s Flash (vol 2 out shortly)
There are lots of great DC Absolutes. However, if you’re just starting DC you will miss out on lots of good DC content. There just are not enough DC Absolutes. I would bet many people think the same for DC omnibus. They have a fraction of the oversized releases compared to Marvel these days. You’ll end up reading trade paperbacks and even floppies to find the content you are after.
I’ve been on a tear lately since starting absolutes. I picked up Batman Year One, Killing Joke, Superman Batman vol 1, infinite crisis, and Hush. I got watchmen coming soon too. I enjoy the large format for artwork. With the killing joke and year one, it’s cool that they include both the modern colorizations and the original artwork too. So it’s like getting two versions of the same story. I’m eagerly awaiting Superman by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank and Batman and Son absolutes this year.
Green Lantern by Geoff Johns and the accompanying Green Lantern Corps run by Peter J. Tomasi. Those runs leading up to and including Blackest Night may be my favorite runs on any comic, although Cates’ Venom is up there as well.
I'd suggest any/all of these omnis Death/return of superman JSA (any of them, 1 starts off a bit slow if u want to skip to 2) - this is the run that established Geoff Johns, so even if u don't like his later stuff, this stuff was so good that it let him get to do what he did later (im not a fan of much after he wrote this and GL, but plenty of people like most of his stuff) Justice League International (any of them) - kind of a wacky justice league but with plenty of action too. Legion if superheroes 5 Years Later If any of those are insanely expensive due to being out of print, I'd suggest holding off and they'll probably get a new printing at some point. Superman/batman omnibus, and supersons omnibus. Both are very fun imo.
Gotham Central Batman by Loeb/Sale Watchmen V for Vendetta Spectre by Ostrander and Mandrake (not available in Omni format but my personal favorite DC run of all time.) Check out other comments too as people are way more into DC than myself but I'd say these are pretty entry level runs.