I read western comics when I could find them as a kid, it really wasn't that hard to keep up. When a character showed up who wasn't around for a million issues, there was usually an author's note explaining. I read most of the green lantern blackest night comics as a kid without any knowledge of what was going on, and mostly followed it fine. It made more sense as I got access to more of the comics that set it up, but I still knew bright green guys need to fight grey and black guys with help of the rest of the rainbow, simple enough.