Looking to get into comics

Superhero Comics in particular.

Anyone have any advice? What are "the essentials" of the medium?

the Masterworks volumes for Marvel, the Chronicles volumes for DC.

Watchmen is the usual answer people give to that question.

But Watchmen is a deconstruction. You won't be able to enjoy it unless you're already somewhat familiar with superheroes.

(Also, despite comic fandom's Opinion Myopia Watchmen can very easily be the book that makes you never want to read comics again).

Just grab the first issue in a run and wiki anything you don't understand. That's how I did it, and it's worked out pretty well so far.

I saw the Watchmen movie, I hated it.

I will go with Ouro's suggestion for now.

Saying you won't enjoy Watchmen without knowing superheroes is like saying you won't enjoy The Incredibles without knowing the recurring Pixar voice actors.

If you are able to understand a plot, you may or may not enjoy it. You will understand it, but you will miss the subtleties.

Case in point: I enjoyed it, and missed the subtleties.

edited 21st Jun '10 6:13:02 PM by newtonthenewt

Depending on your view, go with Batman: Year One, All Star Superman, Green Lantern: Rebirth, Astonishing X-Men, or Captain Britain and MI:13.

Captain Britain? O_o

It's written by Paul Cornell from Doctor Who and covers a group of superheroes at Britain.

huh.

Watchmen is nice and all, but it doesn't really offer much in the way of branching out like the essential DC or Marvel issues do. That's not to say that it isn't good. Also, don't read Sandman or Swamp Thing. Alan Moore is an excellent author, but he's a very bad first experience with comics.

I agree with Masterworks/Chronicles. Some of the big-name heroes have compendiums of their early issues if you really want to start from the beginning, but (at least for me) you can get a feel for a character/series and enjoy it a lot more without the early issues. Deadpool is an exception though. Wikis are your friends for filling in the details. Batman: The Killing Joke is also good for getting into the modern Batman material.

Watchmen is nice and all, but it doesn't really offer much in the way of branching out like the essential DC or Marvel issues do. That's not to say that it isn't good. Also, don't read Sandman or Swamp Thing. Alan Moore is an excellent author, but he's a very bad first experience with comics.

I agree with Masterworks/Chronicles. Some of the big-name heroes have compendiums of their early issues if you really want to start from the beginning, but (at least for me) you can get a feel for a character/series and enjoy it a lot more without the early issues. Deadpool is an exception though. Wikis are your friends for filling in the details. Batman: The Killing Joke is also good for getting into the modern Batman material.

Really? Watchmen and Sandman were the first comics I read.

Haha, i stand corrected.

Comics to read and introduce you to the genre.

• Fantasic Four: The Galactus Trilogy. If you can find it you'll understand just why Jack "The King of Comics" Kirby and Stan Lee are revered so.

• The Dark Knight Returns. The Omega of the Batman mythos. Written and drawn by Frank Miller.

• Batman: Year One. The Alpha of the Batman Mythos. As oppose to TDKR's operatic and large scale story, this chronicles the very beginnings of the Caped Crusader's career and heavily focuses on Jim Gordon.

• Batman: The Long Halloween. Essentially something of a sequel to Year One, The Long Halloween is Jeph Loeb's finest work as the series focuses not only on the relationship between Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent but also documents the change of Batman's enemies from crime bosses and gangsters to super-villains. Tim Sale's artwork is outstanding.

• Superman For all Seasons. Another Loeb and Sale story, SFAS serves as an origin story for the Man of Steel himself and his first year in action as seen through the perspective of Johnathan Kent, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor and Lana Lang.

• X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills. The inspiration behind X-2, GLMK is a harsh social metaphor of the evils of prejudice that pitches the team against the unliekly but ultimately dangerous and unforgettable villain: the televangical preist Reverend Stryker.

• Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt. The final appearance of Sergei Kravinoff, the orginal Kraven the Hunter. A sad tragic end to one of the great Silver-Age Villains.

• Batman: The Killing Joke. An Alan Moore story which does the impossible: Make the Joker sympathetic.

Next Comics to look up once you know whats going on.

edited 22nd Jun '10 6:05:26 AM by AtomJames

Watchmen is a fucking brilliant comic. It should be read regardless of experience of superheroes.

Also, it may not be essential, but Kick-Ass is well worth picking up. There's a whole lot of references to Marvel Comics, but they aren't necessary to understand the story.

Six Hats said that the likes of Watchmen don't offer the kind of branching continuity to be found in the main Marvel and DC universes. I think this is a factor in their favour, as you don't have to read a bunch of anciliary material to understand the story.

Also, I recently started reading Wolverine and Deadpool; while I can take or leave Wolverine, Deadpool alone is worth the cover price. It seems to exist at the fringes of the Marvel Universe and doesn't have uncomfortably thick continuity, so just pick up a copy at the newsagents' and start reading.

I have another question, I live in the middle of fucking nowhere, there are literally no bookstores nearby so, is any of this available online?

People reccomending Watchmen to someone just getting into comics are insane - a knowledge of classic comic book conventions and tropes is absolutely essential to "getting" it. And for the record, virtually nobody who read the comic thinks the movie did a good job adapting it.

In general, people tend to gravitate towards "things I like" when reccomending anything for any situation at all, even when that isn't very applicable. Someone mentioned The Sandman; that kind of isn't a superhero comic like at all.

In any case, what sort of experience are you looking for in general? Do you want to become an expert, for instance?

^ Nobody mentioned the Sandman. They said to not read the Sandman.

Oh.

Whatever. Personally, what I would do is just binge every issue of a long running series or two to familiarize yourself with the universe, but I'm kind of weird like that. Then again, it only took me a few days to read every issue of Thunderbolts.

Personally I'd recommend finding one character that looks interesting to you (Wikipedia is good for getting some background on a character) and then getting the trade paper back collections of their "definitive" runs and stories.

If you tell us what specific character or group you're interested in, then we can suggest, and provide links to, the stories. For shopping needs,www.amazon.com has a good selection of TPB's if you know what you're looking for. You can also look for local comic and hobby shops, there should be one nearby if you live close to a college town.

One big warning is to try and stay away from Graphic Novels and series that don't fit into main continuity as much as possible. These standalone series are good, but they lose a lot if you don't know the characters. And Alan Moore. The man's a great writer but he should not be your first. It'd be like introducing someone to movies by getting them to watch Kubrick.

Get used to learning what writers are good or bad. Since most series rotate in a new writer every so often people connect more to the creators that the titles. The period that a writer is writing for a book is called his "run", so you'll get people suggesting Walt Simonson's run on Thor, or Stan Lee's run on Fantastic Four. This is the reason why a single title can go from great to crap over a year or two.

edited 22nd Jun '10 6:07:25 PM by WapoleLanguray

How do I get into Superman where should I start? I know There A new story arc starting but wasn't there A New Krypton Plot Before?

Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's run on The Amazing Spider-Man is worth checking out. While the stories do get serious often, they're usually pure fun, and really gives you an idea of what Spidey's all about. The first 22 issues are collected in "Essential Spider-Man Volume 1".

For something more reecent Joss Whedon and his run on Astonishing X-Men was my first introduction to X Men. I thought it was nice how they kept it a bit more independant from the otherX-Men books but also served as a great introduction too.