James Gunn teases five DC Comics fans you should read to prepare yourself for the DC universe

Big changes are coming to the DC universe in film and television. Earlier this week, DC Studios directors James Gunn and Peter Safran announced five films and five TV shows planned for what’s being called Chapter 1, aka “Gods and Monsters.” It will be some time before the first drafts of this soft reboot of the DC Extended Universe franchise are made public, but up until then Gunn has shared five DC comics that fans should read so they can prepare for what’s to come in the universe. A.D.

With one of DC’s upcoming films titled Supergirl: the woman of tomorrowJames Gunn admitted Chirping that there have already been many reading proposals of the homonymous comic miniseries written by Tom King and illustrated by Bilquis Evely. Gunn then suggested four other comics that inspire some of the upcoming projects:

Initially we have superman all starspreviously believed to be an inspiration for the now titled Superman: Legacy. Written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Frank Quitely, this miniseries was set outside of DC Comics’ main continuity and followed Superman performing all the heroic feats he could before dying of overexposure to the sun. This story has already been adapted into an animated film starring James Denton, Christina Hendricks and Anthony LaPaglia, and Russell Crowe’s Jor-El offers a monologue in Man of Steel it’s almost literally what the superhero’s Kryptonian father said in this comic.

Then, there is authority, with writer Warren Ellis and artist Bryan Hitch writing the team’s 12-issue introduction in the late 1990s under the Wildstorm imprint, later succeeded by writer Mark Millar and Frank Quitely (writer Tom Peyer and artist Dustin Nguyen tackled a four-issue arc during this period). As James Gunn mentioned in the DC Universe Whiteboard announcement, the Authority are superheroes who have “basically good intentions” but are willing to do things like kill people and topple government buildings to make the world better. Notable members include Jenny Sparks, Midnight and Apollo.

Then there’s Grant Morrison’s run on Batman, which has played out in the mainline series of Batman comics as well as titles like Batman & Robin and Batman Incorporated. From The brave and the brave will introduce Damian Wayne as Robin (which will hopefully not prevent the Batman franchise to include The Boy Wonder), Morrison’s run is definitely worth checking out if you’ve been interested in the character since Morrison created Damian with artist Andy Kubert. This Batman run also featured villains like Professor Pyg and Simon Hurt.

Finally, we have the Swamp Thing run that writer Alan Moore tackled with illustrators Stephen R. Bissette and John Totleben, the latter handling the inking. Although Swamp Thing was created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson in 1971, Moore’s era redefined the character and introduced new elements to his mythology that remain to this day, such as the Parliament of Trees and John Constantine, which could arguably have become an even more important matter in itself. James Mangold is in talks to direct the new one swamp thing movie.

So if you’re looking for reading material to prepare you for what the DC Universe has to offer, these five comics are a good place to start. In addition to being available in physical collections, they can also be read digitally by subscribing to DC Infinite Universe. You can also pass the time by streaming many DC movies and TV shows with an HBO Max subscription.