Is it safe to read OYL stuff?

[dancj]

Due to the sporadic nature of buying books on eBay I've got the first to Kurt Busiek Superman books, but I haven't yet read For Tomorrow, Ruin Revealed, any of Gail Simone's run or Infinite Crisis.

Is it safe to read these books or should I wait?

Also - I've just noticed that the first book only has 3 issues of the Busiek stuff and is padded out with 3 issues of old reprints. Cheeky feckers! They should have either been honest and released a 3 issue TPB (like with Transmetropolitan vol 1) or put these issues in with the issues that are in volume 2. I'd be really pissed off if I'd paid full price for the book.

Dan

[Joe Acro]

No! It's not safe! Those books will eat you alive!

...

Seriously speaking, though, the beginning of the OYL stuff (Up, Up, and Away) might be a little confusing without having read Infinite Crisis, but you don't need to have read the stuff before OYL to understand any of it. For the most part, things are straightforward.

I'm not a fan of the stories, but that's just me.

[4thHorseman]

Not too much focuses on any previous events, just his return after Infinite Crisis. Though, around issue 4 of "Up Up and Away", there tends to be a giveaway on how Infinite Crisis ended, so if you don't want to spoil the end of IC, then I probably wouldn't read it....

[Will.S]

While Infinite Crisis is certainly a must, I actually think that reading 52 in it's entirety will make Superman OYL more rewarding and understandable since Lex does a good deal of crap that gets referenced in Up, Up and Away.

During 52 Steel and Natasha become Lex's main enemies in the absence of Superman (which was really well done btw). Still, the vacuum of a Superman'less Metropolis needed to be filled again and you get a proper build up Superman regaining his powers again and taking down Lex in a more satisfactory manner.

If you've been reading 52 I'd say it's definitely safe since it directly follows up from that book, but other than that I still think it's safe to read but just under the assumption that he lost his powers for a whole year due to Infinite Crisis and Lex did some messed up stuff in the meantime.

[dancj]

Thanks for the advice.

I think I'll hold out for now on the offchance a cheap copy of Infinite Crisis comes my way

[jerrymcl89]

It would probably make sense to read Infinite Crisis before the OYL books, if you intend to read it at all. Most of the other pre-OYL titles would not be particularly spoiled by reading the OYL stuff, though - especially "For Tomorrow", which is essentially out of continuity.