Need help with comic books

[Boulder]

So for the past few days, I've been thinking about getting into comic books. I've mostly been considering Superman, Batman, or Spiderman, but I'm definitely open to suggestions. The problem is, I've got no clue where to start. I'm not thrilled with the idea of just buying the latest issue and trying to jump in headfirst, but at the same time, I realize I'm not going to be able to pick up Spiderman #1 and read my way through to today. I guess I'm wondering if there any compilation books out there with many issues, or if there is a particularly good place to start that someone can recommend. Failing that, any sort of books/website that really lays out the history and can give a good backstory, so to speak?

Thanks for the help, because when it comes to comic books my experience is limited to Married with Children, The Undertaker, and one clone saga-era issue of Spiderman.

[gunnar hendershow]

With Batman read "Hush" and "The Dark Knight Returns". Trust me. I actually had this similar question a few weeks ago and there are compilation books for some, Marvel does a great job of compiling all sorts of history about their universe on their website. For DC, just go to Wikipedia to research about past.

There are other ways to read back issues without going around to look for them. But, you know, they're illegal.

EDIT- To save you at least one search. http://www.marvel.com/universe/Main_Page

Edited July 12, 2006 by damshow

[TheRaySays]

I second the recommendation for "Hush" if you're in the mood for Batman. It has stellar art, a gauntlet of classic Batman villains, and some cool twists. It might not resonate AS deeply if you're not familiar with the Batman history, but that's true with anything that has that much longevity.

For Superman, it's a little harder. Superman/Batman's sorta decent, but it's too... for lack of a better term... smarky for someone new to the books. Instead, I'd recommend "JLA: New World Order" by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter. Aside from being a cool wrestling coincidence, it's a great story featuring all the big guns of DC (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, etc.) The trade paperback collects the first 4 issues and that story arc, but I can recommend the book up thru about issue # 15 (or the 3rd collected paperback volume).

Spider-Man, you can go the Ultimate Spider-Man route which starts from the beginning and tries to give a sort of modern retelling of his classic stories. As a long-time comic goob, I'm not a fan, but it's made purposefully accessible to new readers. Alternatively, if you have even a minor familiarity with the character from the movies or cartoons or whatnot, I'd recommend the first 12 issues of Marvel Knights: Spider-Man. Now called SENSATIONAL Spider-Man, the first year (or 3 collected volumes) are top notch Spidey from Mark Millar and have gorgeous, almost animated (not anime, but like cell-shaded) style art from Terry Dodson.

It starts with Aunt May being kidnapped by a mystery foe, runs through an underground criminal auction of the Venom symbiote, sees Spidey blackmailed into breaking the Green Goblin out of prison, and ends up pitting Spider-Man against The Sinister 12, an unholy alliance of a dozen of his classic foes.

After the first 12 issues, the series gets a new writer and goes all pear-shaped, struggling to fit into a big multi-title crossover called "The Other" that was unbelievably ass. Aunty May and Mary Jane should not don Iron Man armor to save Spider-Man. Ever.

[Gabriel]

How far did you fly? I've always wanted to get hit by a moving vehicle and not die.

[Vilge Duin]

If you have no clue what to get into Marvel is excellent at trading their comics. Almost everything they put out is released as a trade eventually. Most bookstores and especially comic shops have them.

If you actually want to get into Marvel's history dating back to the first issues of certain comics, they've been issuing DVDs lately. X-Men, Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-man... I'm sure there's more. 500+ issues for $40. Best value you can find.

Spider-man though... Depends on what you are willing to do. If you want a completely fresh experience without dealing with a lot of backstory, go with Ultimate Spider-man. It's a reimagining of Spider-man from the "beginning" but for modern times and quite a few changes. Easy to get into since Marvel has every issue traded along with hard covers (that comprise of usually two trades, and maybe another couple issues).

But if you want to get into mainstream 616 (the main Marvel universe) Spider-man than the DVD would be perfect. Although problems crop up starting in the 80s with too man cross overs and different comics (Amazing, Spectacular, Web Of, etc.). Otherwise I absolutely say you should start with "Coming Home". Most people consider it a new fresh start for the main series and a lot of it leads into the current events. That and it's not too old.

Although with Ultimate, Bendis has a shitty as fuck habit of stretching storylines that would fit in an issue or two, so they wind up being 6 in length. To conveniently fit in trades as a "story arc". Also the middle parts of the series (Starting off once they hit the Venom shit) were garbage. And what they're done with Deadpool.... is just... too horrible.

Superman is hard to get into anything specific. He's more defined by particular arcs than anything else. Much like the rest of DC really. Red Son was a good story, albeit is an Elseworlds (DC's equivalent to a What If?) and wouldn't be suggestable if you want to get into "real" Superman. Ugh, my mind is drawing a blank for some reason. But the absolute best place to start would be at the beginning (at least of current continuity) and read John Byrne's The Man of Steel miniseries. It's his origin and first stuff, so where better to begin?

Batman's pretty easy. Hush is good, but you may want to hold off on that. You seriously get more out of it if you understand the characters better. And considering just about everyone and their momma shows up, it may be confusing if you don't have an understanding of Batman and DC in general. Most people suggest it (in this very thread even) but Dark Knight Returns is shit. May be my utter distaste for Frank Miller but meh. Long Halloween and Dark Victory should be good places to begin as they slowly introduce characters and such and most Batman fans consider them to be definitive Batman stories.

DC in general though may be hard for a non comic fan to get into. If you try to follow current stories you WILL be lost. Mainly considering every ten years DC seemingly has done a "Crisis" which can be mind boggling for someone without prior knowledge. Alternate Earths, different versions of heroes, galactic destruction, outright confusion... Can be a bit much. But general DC can also be easier to get into than Marvel since it has less back story at present than Marvel. While Spider-man, X-men, etc. date back to the '60s, DC continuity was rebooted in the mid 80s after the Crisis of Infinite Earths. Effectively starting off fresh with a clean slate.

If you're interested in anything that isn't superhero bullshit (I've become extremely disillusioned with men in tights), you can look no further to DC's Vertigo line. Neil Gaiman's Sandman is usually touted as a triumph (I found it dull personally), and you can't you wrong with Garth Ennis' Preacher, Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan, Brian K Vaugn's Y: The Last Man and Bill Willingham's Fables are all extremely fantastic series. Sandman, Preacher and Transmet are all traded (about 10 volumes each) and complete series. Just start from the beginning and away you go. Fables and Y are still ongoing (albeit Y only has a little over 10 issues left).

I can't express enough how well written and enjoyable they are. Plus there's tonnes of other stuff like 100 Bullets and Losers. Vertigo is the way to go in my opinion.

Also you must read Bone. It is a must. Although you'll be hardpressed to find the older black & white trades since they've been discontinued so Scholastics can reissue colour ones now (very slowly at that). I got the one volume edition. $50 and ten years of comic goodness comprising of about 10 complete trades.

EDIT: Forgot to mention... Stay away from anything "All Star" in DC. Its their horrid attempt at creating their equivalent to Marvel's Ultimate line. Albeit a whole lot shittier. And also, you can pick up Marvel Essential collections. Just re-issues of old comics in black & white on cheap newsprint. But you can get 20-30 issues for anything from $10-20. Good way to read up on past stuff if that's what you want.

Newsrama is also perhaps the best place to check out if you want comic news and stuff. IGN's new comic section isn't too shabby either. They have plenty of "Best ofs" and "Top tens" for different things, good for someone getting into comics.

Oh, Walking Dead from Robert Kirkman is great if you like anything zombies. Dan Slott's She-Hulk is great for... just about everyone.

I shall silence myself now...

Edited July 12, 2006 by Vilge Duin

[MalaCloudy Black]

Aunty May and Mary Jane should not don Iron Man armor to save Spider-Man. Ever.

Must. read.

[TMM]

Aunty May and Mary Jane should not don Iron Man armor to save Spider-Man. Ever.

Must. read.

Ah yes...that series is easily the most pointless series in comic book history. Ever. Anyone who has read it will know what I mean.

[DFF]

I'm currently reading Preacher by Garth Ennis after a friend was good enough to lend me the first seven books (I'm onto book six at the moment). I don't really want to give the plot away or anything, just trust me, go and buy a copy of book 1...

As for other notable mentions, check out Punisher - specifically "Welcome Back, Frank". Read that the other day and I was highly entertained. "Splat-fu..." **giggles**

[Gongsun Zan]

I'm currently reading Preacher by Garth Ennis after a friend was good enough to lend me the first seven books (I'm onto book six at the moment). I don't really want to give the plot away or anything, just trust me, go and buy a copy of book 1...

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Yeah I collect 100 Bullets. Started with number 50 (there's gonna be 100 in the series aptly enough) and, while collecting every month, I've also been searching out pre-50s and have most of them now.

There's always a few back issues in shops and on ebay and you can buy individual comics AND the 6-9 comic compilations...

Great story too.

[Buford Ripley]

I too have been trying to get some earlier 100 Bullets issues but my current favourites at the moment are Ex Machina, Y: The Last Man and Runaways. I pretty much suggest getting anything written by Brian K Vaughan.

[TMM]

Young Avengers is really good, it's 12 issues in right now and just finished the first run, but it's one of the best books I've read in ages.

Moon Knight is also something I've started to read after a "re-launch" of sorts, and I'm really, really into it.

[Guest Fran]

Aunty May and Mary Jane should not don Iron Man armor to save Spider-Man. Ever.

Must. read.

[TMM]

Aunty May and Mary Jane should not don Iron Man armor to save Spider-Man. Ever.

Must. read.

Ah yes...that series is easily the most pointless series in comic book history. Ever. Anyone who has read it will know what I mean.

Didn't Marvel at one point run a series about a comic book publishing company?

They did? :blink:

Anyway, still not as pointless as this.

[Guest Fran]

Yeah, I'm positive I once had an issue, where they hired Steve Rogers as an artist.

[TMM]

I knew there was a reason I stopped reading comics for a while...

[The Chief]

can i ask something as well, why do they do so many different versions of comic books?

like with X-Men, theres the plain Xmen, uncanny, astonishing, new. what is up with that?

are the stories told at different points in history? im going through astonishing xmen now, but the characters are different from the other xmen comics.

spiderman also does the same.

[TMM]

can i ask something as well, why do they do so many different versions of comic books?

like with X-Men, theres the plain Xmen, uncanny, astonishing, new. what is up with that?

are the stories told at different points in history? im going through astonishing xmen now, but the characters are different from the other xmen comics.

spiderman also does the same.

Money.

It's all suppose to be set at roughly the same time...although that brings up problems when you've got Wolverine in the Wolverine comic off searching for his past in other countries, yet in New Avengers he's helping the team with one problem or the other, in Astonishing X-Men he's fighting the Hellfire Club, and then in one of the other two X-Men comics he's a part of that team. At one point he's been in about six comics at once. At the moment he's a regular in New Avengers, Astonishing X-Men and his own comic, which is really, REALLY annoying because you don't know quite what's going on.

[Guest Fran]

Using the Spider-Man example, they can make money off of having weekly Spidey comics, but can't have the same people writing it every week, so they just have a number of monthly series.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Which is the new cowboy comic? I've been meaning to get that....It's from one of the team that do 100 Bullets... Is it Lawless? Anyone been reading it?