Now that the New 52 is a concept of the past, we are looking back at some of the major events from its few years on the stands and creating comprehensive reading orders for them.  For this we looked at Forever Evil, which draws heavily from Batman and the rest of the Justice League to tell an epic story that reminds of crossovers like Final Crisis. With the way that it crosses over to so many titles, mixes with other events, and depends on characterizations unique to the New 52, Forever Evil may be the defining event of this period of the DC Universe.  We followed the reading order outline presented at HubPages, and we embellished to make it just the order we think it should be.  Check it out, and check out the occasional link of you are looking to read those books.

But what if you are a trade reader and drop single issues all together? This reading order is easy to transfer over to trades, but you will still need to follow the numbers since many of the tie-ins will require you to not read the trade cover to cover, but to switch around. The below reading order is going to approximate reading them straight through as much as possible. We have taken much of this reading list directly from the Centre Cannot Hold, which breaks it down to the trades with the issues below.  This is not as complete as the above single issue run, so you can choose how detailed you want to be.  This reading order creates a strong distinction between Trinity War and Forever Evil, so we have only included the Forever Evil section

Forever Evil

Reprints Forever Evil #1-7 (November 2013 – July 2014).
This is the sole volume of this title.

Justice League, vol.5: Forever HeroesReprints Justice League #24-29 (December 2013 – May 2014).

Justice League of America, vol.2: Survivors of EvilReprints Justice League of America #8-14 (December 2013 – July 2014).
This is the final volume of this title.Suicide Squad, vol.5: Walled In Reprints Suicide Squad #24-30 (December 2013 – July 2014).

Forever Evil: Arkham War (The New 52)

Batman #23.4 (November 2013); & Forever Evil Aftermath: Batman Vs. Bane #1 (June 2014).

Forever Evil: Arkham War (The New 52)

Forever Evil: A.R.G.U.S. (The New 52)

Forever Evil: Blight

Reprints Justice League Darkk #24-29 (February 2014 – May 2014); Trinity of Sin: Phantom Stranger #14-17 (February 2014 – May 2014); Constantine #9-12 (February 2014 – May 2014); & Trinity of Sin: Pandora #6-9 (February 2014 – May 2014).

Constantine, vol.2: BlightReprints Constantine #7-12 (December 2013 – May 2014).Trinity of Sin – Phantom Stranger, vol.3: The Crack in CreationReprints Trinity of Sin – Phantom Stranger #12-22 (December 2013 – October 2014); & Trinity of Sin: The Phantom Stranger: Futures End #1 (November 2014).
This is the final volume of this series.Trinity of Sin: Pandora, vol.2: ChoicesReprints Trinity of Sin: Pandora #6-14 (February 2014 – October 2014); & Trinity of Sin: Pandora: Future’s End (November 2014).

Batman and Robin Vol. 5: The Big Burn (The New 52)
The first issue in this collection takes place during Forever Evil, and the rest follow it directly.

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