Many of you have been asking for a Brightest Day reading list. I’ve done a little research and come up with this so far – but I bet it will change as books come out and we have a chance to check the continuity.
I’ve put the issues of the main miniseries in bold.
Historical Reading:
Justice League International
Crisis On Infinite Earths
Preludes:
Cry For Justice
Blackest Night
Fall Of Green Arrow
Rise of Arsenal
Brightest Day:
1. Green Lantern Corps 47
2. Justice League: Generation Lost 1
3. Power Girl 13
4. Justice League: Generation Lost 2
5. Brightest Day 0
6. Green Lantern 53
7. Green Lantern Corps 48
8. Brightest Day 1
9. Green Lantern 54
10. Green Lantern 55
11. Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors 1
12. Brightest Day 2
13. Brightest Day 3
14. Green Lantern Corps 49
15. Green Lantern Corps 50
16. Green Lantern Corps 51
17. Green Lantern Corps 52
18. Justice League: Generation Lost 3
19. Justice League: Generation Lost 4
20. Justice League: Generation Lost 5
21. Booster Gold 33
22. Booster Gold 34
23. Justice Society of America 40 (Ends right before JLA 44)
24. Justice League of America 44
25. Justice League of America 45
26. Titans: Villains for Hire Special 1
27. Justice League of America 46
28. Justice Society of America 41
29. Brightest Day 4
30. Brightest Day 5 (July 8)
31. Brightest Day: The Atom Special 1
32. Flash Secret Files 2010
33. Flash 1
34. Flash 2
35. Flash 3
36. Flash 4
37. Action Comics 890 (Non-essential – not sure where to place 891-894, none marketed as crossovers)
38. Justice League of America 47
39. Justice Society of America 42
40. Titans 24
41. Titans 25
42. Justice League: Generation Lost 6
43. Brightest Day 6 (July 21)
44. Brightest Day 7 (August 4)
45. Birds Of Prey 1
46. Birds Of Prey 2
47. Birds Of Prey 3
48. Birds Of Prey 4
49. Birds Of Prey 5
50. Flash 5
51. Justice League of America 48
52. Justice League: Generation Lost 7
53. Justice League: Generation Lost 8
54. Justice League: Generation Lost 9
55. Green Arrow 1
56. Green Arrow 2
57. Green Arrow 3
58. Brightest Day 8 (August 18)
59. Brightest Day 9 (September 1)
60. Green Arrow 4
61. Green Lantern 56
62. Green Lantern 57
63. Green Lantern 58
64. Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors 2
65. Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors 3
66. Untold Tales of Blackest Night 1
67. Brightest Day 10 (September 15)
68. Brightest Day 11 (October 06)
69. Titans 26
70. Titans 27
Unplaced as of yet:
Brightest Day 12 (October 20)
Brightest Day 13 (November 3)
Brightest Day 14 (November 17)
Brightest Day 15 (December 1)
Brightest Day 16 (December 15)
Brightest Day 17 (January 5, 2011)
Brightest Day 18 (January 19, 2011)
Action Comics 891
Action Comics 892
Action Comics 893
Action Comics 894
The series will go on till at least until Brightest Day 18 – so obviously we’ve got a lot to go before this list is complete. I’ll update it as I can.
Forum threads on this topic are available at The Green Lantern Corps Message Board and the DC Comics Message Boards. I highly recommend checking them out, as forum users Blue Lantern Superman and Munkeypunk have gone through a lot of very interesting reasoning in compiling their lists. Thanks to Munkeypunk especially for the idea of listing good prerequisite reading.
Neither list is fully up to date or complete, unfortunately – and they conflict in a couple key places. Of course, the comics themselves conflict in a couple places. I’ve done my best to sort them out, along with my own feelings about the continuity. I also found these checklists at Third Eye, which tell us what month each set of issues comes in – not too helpful, unfortunately, since the reading order ends up quite different.
If you have any advice, please let us know! I’ll make the appropriate edits after getting your comment.
Hopefully this helps those of you who are having trouble with this one!
Hey Ian, kinda off-topic, but I was curious if you were going to separate the Earth One Series of DC Comics starting with Superman: Earth One since it’s going to be an ongoing series similar to Ultimate Marvel’s and set up it’s own separate continuity.
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I think I was just talking about this with someone somewhere on this site.
As it stands now, since it’s only one trade, it’s not a big enough continuity to get its own list. There have been other alternate universe before (all the elseworlds, DC Animated, some all ages titles, and a few other offshoots) and most of them are small enough to be read inline. If it ends up being as big as the ultimate line, it will totally get its own list.
But honestly, I don’t expect the Earth One universe to end up that large. So for now it will probably be placed as any other Elseworlds type title – just by release date and sometimes clumped into a group (like the DC Animated stuff).
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I can’t tell you how helpful this site is. My son is very excited about this series and it is very hard to keep up with it and make sure I am getting him all his books. Many times you have saved the say for me. Just one question – why is Green Arrow #1-3 on here twice – #42-44 and #58-60?
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Why is it on there twice? Major editorial oversight, that’s why! haha
I was debating between two placements and hadn’t figured them out yet – I must have forgot to delete one set. Let me double check and I’ll fix it.
Thanks for pointing it out! Let me know if (as he or you are reading it) you run into anything that seems flat out wrong. These lists are usually a community effort, what with one person’s general inability to notice every continuity mis-match.
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The set after titans is the wrong one, I think. The main thing is that I wanted it after Green Lantern 55, but before Brightest Day 8. I think making it closer to Green Arrow 4 makes more sense, until someone tells me otherwise. Fixed! :D
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Thanks for the updates! Looking forward to more. DC was so good about putting out checklists for Blackest Night, this has just been brutal.
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Maybe some will turn up (and let us know if they do! I don’t get Previews myself, unfortunately.)
I’m sure we’ll have more updates though. I’ve only recently started doing the issue lists, so usually I don’t have to figure out an event until it’s all over, haha
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Hey Ian,
Thanks for this, very helpful. Any chance of an update?
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I’ll try and hit it up soon – I’ve been spending most of my time on the upcoming marvel trade list.
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Hi I was wondering where the DC Comics Presents: Brightest Day issues go?
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I was wondering if you could update that reading order I need to update My list of comics to buy
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Hey, where exactly would YOU put the Brightest Day Atom Special?? I cant find where to put it on any site and i havent started reading Brightest Day at all until i know where everything goes…….im OCD when it comes to ORDER….. :/
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nevermind…….i see it
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Hey any chance for an update?
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Perhaps soon. I just finished putting together the entire Marvel trade list (which took a few solid months) and I’m finishing up some tweaks on it right now. It might be a few more days at the soonest, but probably longer before I can get my head in DC issues again.
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any chance of an update soon
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not by me for a bit, unfortunately – I’ve been behind the scenes starting a company and stuff so we can really move forward with the site. Maybe one of the other guys is up for tackling it?
I will come back to it eventually otherwise.
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