Comics - Newbie Needing Some Direction

[Leashedragon]

So, I've always wanted to get into comics since my wee days. Social stigma, phobia, etc aside.. it never happened. It was hard enough entering a comic shop just to buy Magic/Pokemon cards.

I asked a shop owner about a year ago for some guidance, and honestly he wasn't much help and when you start off with something like, "Oh, don't get that comic they killed him off" you're kind of not winning my favorite. Spoiler much? He also said I could just pick any comic up and start reading and be fine...

Basically, I don't want to pick something up right in the middle of a story, or anywhere that I'm going to have no idea what is going on, who the characters are.. or any backstory really. I'd like to start at a nice fresh point. I know there are reboots out there, the old original 60-80's, alternate storylines, spin offs.. etc. It's all quiet intimidating when you don't know where to begin because of all there is.

I just recently bought Deadpool Hardcover not realizing at the time it was vol 4. My bad. I had a gift card, I saw a hardcover collection.. I grabbed because it's one I've been wanting to read. Despite it being the fourth, I read it anyway. I was a little lost as to some of the characters, although some quick little explanations given here and there throughout it did give a better idea for them, but this is what I wanted to avoid. Not to mention it gave some spoilers for other things as well.

I do plan to grab the first three to catch up. I was also looking at grabbing the Classic Omnibus as well when it released.

Other than Deadpool, I was interested in several others.

For X-Men, where/what would be the best to start with if anyone has any suggestions?
I have Giant-Size X-Men 40th Ann on my list as well as X-Men Season 1. Someone in the comments for S1 said it was a good place to start if you were new to X-Men. While I'm not completely new, figured I'd take the advice. Would those be a good starting point, or would you suggest something else?

I didn't get much further than X-Men in looking for hardcover collections/omnibus. I'd also love starting suggestions for: Avengers (this?, Iron Man this?, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America, and any other suggestions.

Sorry to sound so completely noobish and helpless. I just honestly don't know where to begin and that is what has stopped me for the longest time. If I don't have a starting point, I won't start.

They don't -have- to be hardcover, but I do love me some hardcover.

[TheDirtyHobo]

Every character has good arcs and bad arcs. From the sound of it, you definitely prefer Marvel, but past that, I would focus on finding a character you've heard of that sounds interesting and use that as a jumping on point, and then people can recommend the good arcs involving that character.

I wouldn't worry too much about whether a potentially interesting character gets killed off, anyways. Comic book deaths very rarely last longer than a year or two.

[Zealot]

Fortunately for you, Marvel just relaunched its entire line. You should be able to go into a local comic shop and still find a lot of #1s, which will give you a decent amount of explanation as to what's going on.

I'd love to recommend Daredevil but I'm not sold on the new creative team yet. Invincible Iron Man and Totally Awesome Hulk are starting off well. The newest line-up of Uncanny X-Men also just started, so you can get in on that right from the ground floor.

[Xno Kappa]

Is there any kind of manga equivalent website where you can read the comics?

[Gredival]

For X-Men, where/what would be the best to start with if anyone has any suggestions?
I have Giant-Size X-Men 40th Ann on my list as well as X-Men Season 1. Someone in the comments for S1 said it was a good place to start if you were new to X-Men. While I'm not completely new, figured I'd take the advice. Would those be a good starting point, or would you suggest something else?

If you have a grasp on the basics of X-Men, I'd recommend starting at Astonishing X-Men. It was a "fresh start" for the series with a new generation running the Xavier Institute and with a new class being taught by the characters you probably recognize. There's use of some history to set up different arcs, but nothing that you won't be able to piece together from context while reading.

There's a hardcover with the entirety of the run while it was helmed by Joss Whedon, not sure about after that.

I'd also love starting suggestions for: Avengers (this?, Iron Man this?, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America, and any other suggestions.

Classic Avengers (the current comics roster is an affirmative action revamp)? Given the way the movies are shaping up I'd highly recommend looking into Civil War. There's a hard cover with the core story, but almost anyone you are interested in probably also has their own Civil War collection that focuses on them.

The House of M line and Avengers vs. X-Men after that (they are related, but there's a time gap between)

[Zealot]

Absolutely second that Astonishing X-Men recommendation. Joss Whedon's run is pretty phenomenal. I'd also get Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men if you can find it, it immediately precedes Whedon's story and they tie together in a few places.

[Delirium]

So, I've always wanted to get into comics since my wee days. Social stigma, phobia, etc aside.. it never happened. It was hard enough entering a comic shop just to buy Magic/Pokemon cards.

I asked a shop owner about a year ago for some guidance, and honestly he wasn't much help and when you start off with something like, "Oh, don't get that comic they killed him off" you're kind of not winning my favorite. Spoiler much? He also said I could just pick any comic up and start reading and be fine...

Basically, I don't want to pick something up right in the middle of a story, or anywhere that I'm going to have no idea what is going on, who the characters are.. or any backstory really. I'd like to start at a nice fresh point. I know there are reboots out there, the old original 60-80's, alternate storylines, spin offs.. etc. It's all quiet intimidating when you don't know where to begin because of all there is.

I just recently bought Deadpool Hardcover not realizing at the time it was vol 4. My bad. I had a gift card, I saw a hardcover collection.. I grabbed because it's one I've been wanting to read. Despite it being the fourth, I read it anyway. I was a little lost as to some of the characters, although some quick little explanations given here and there throughout it did give a better idea for them, but this is what I wanted to avoid. Not to mention it gave some spoilers for other things as well.

I do plan to grab the first three to catch up. I was also looking at grabbing the Classic Omnibus as well when it released.

Other than Deadpool, I was interested in several others.

For X-Men, where/what would be the best to start with if anyone has any suggestions?
I have Giant-Size X-Men 40th Ann on my list as well as X-Men Season 1. Someone in the comments for S1 said it was a good place to start if you were new to X-Men. While I'm not completely new, figured I'd take the advice. Would those be a good starting point, or would you suggest something else?

I didn't get much further than X-Men in looking for hardcover collections/omnibus. I'd also love starting suggestions for: Avengers (this?, Iron Man this?, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America, and any other suggestions.

Sorry to sound so completely noobish and helpless. I just honestly don't know where to begin and that is what has stopped me for the longest time. If I don't have a starting point, I won't start.

They don't -have- to be hardcover, but I do love me some hardcover.

I feel like we need a sticky for this question, seems to get asked a lot :D

If you want to read beginnings, big events, etc. Marvel has a subscription service called Marvel Unlimited. It is a digital platform where you can read back issues dating back to first appearances, as well as newer stuff(it is like 6 months behind print). It groups by series title, creators, characters, and major arcs.

Comixology is a digital service where you can buy and read comics from most publishers(Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, Boom, etc). They often have great sales as well. Comixology is part of the Amazon family, so it unlikely to go anywhere. You can also get backups for most comics(cbr/cbz/pdf), just not Marvel/DC.

There is also Scribd for comics, but I have no knowledge about it. Maybe someone else does. It does seem to have a good variety of stuff however.

As mentioned, Marvel recently started with all #1 issues as a good jumping on point. Things still happened before, but you don't absolutely need to know what in order to enjoy the stories.

DC is a little harder. They keep their big stories(including Vertigo titles like Sandman and Watchmen) in trade paperback forever, but a lot of their stuff that I would consider a good jumping on point is harder to get physically.

Image does really well with trades and they are easily found everywhere. They often discount the first trade to 9.99(regularly 12.99 or something).

Dark Horse usually has tons of collections for their bigger titles(Hellboy probably being the most known).

Boom, IDW, and Valiant are good about trades as well. Although they are a little more niche and so getting them off Amazon might be the way to go.

[tyven]

if you want more deadpool you can't do better than the cable and deadpool series. which of course as been renamed to deadpool and cable because MOVIES. The oversaturation of Deadpool in comics starting around 2010 or so has been almost unbearable but Cable and Deadpool is very funny and pretty endearing. http://www.amazon.com/Deadpool-Cable...adpool+omnibus

for my money the single best run in comics is Hickman's fantastic four. unfortunately the omnibuses (there are 2) are absurdly expensive but there are trade paper backs that collects 4 or so issues at a time. I thought fantastic 4 was prob the lamest shit ever before i read this run and wow it is just incredible. Really proves that the writer is far more important than the characters. http://www.amazon.com/Fantastic-Four...fantastic+four

After that is Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force which is super baller http://www.amazon.com/Uncanny-X-Forc...-force+omnibus

and I also can't recommend saga enough which is a creator owned work published by image so it won't feature any characters you have ever heard of. its probably the best ongoing series right now. They take a break every 6 months but it is truly incredible and wins all the awards every year. Volume 1 (which is issues 1-6) is 6 bucks on prime http://www.amazon.com/Saga-Vol-Brian...rds=saga+comic

[Zealot]

Oh Tyrannosaurus Christ, how could I forget Hickman's Fantastic Four. Forget comic books, Hickman's FF is one of the best story's I've ever read, in any medium.

"If there is hope, there is tomorrow, and if tomorrow...then forever."

If you want to delve back into older runs:

Daredevil - starting from Kevin Smith's brief run and going through the Bendis issues into Brubaker. You can stop after the prison story with Kingpin and Punisher if you want. There's more, but the quality starts to dip a little (and then a lot) after issue 150. They relaunched the series later with Mark Waid and it was amazing again, so that's worth checking out as well.

The Amazing Spider-Man - Dan Slott's run, starting from the arc after "One More Day," the worst story they could've told besides, I don't know, some crazy nonsense about Norman Osborn getting Gwen Stacy pregnant. They'd never be that stupid. No one would ever be that stupid. But anyway, check out Slott's run, going from "Big Time" through the Superior Spider-Man comics and into today.

The Incredible Hercules - Can't hype this enough. Hercules took over the Incredible Hulk's title following World War Hulk and it was just a fun, fun adventure, beginning to end, and revitalized a character that hadn't been relevant to comics in over a decade. Speaking of -

Planet Hulk/World War Hulk - There's not a lot to say about these beyond that it's the Hulk at his absolute best.

Outside of the mainstream, check out Locke & Key - An indy comic written by Stephen King's son. Best part about this compared to other recommendations is that it's short, complete, and available. Brilliant stuff.

[Kaslo]

https://www.bluegartr.com/threads/10...-for-greatness

[Delirium]

If you want a bunch of really cool comics on the cheap, $20 for the Humble Bundle from Image

[Brill Weave]

I would definitely suggest the old No Man's Land story arc from Batman

[Siatdiat]

I buy every Marvel comic every month, so I will list what I consider the most fun titles coming out of there right now.

Deadpool and Cable
Dr. Strange
Squadron Supreme
The Ultimates
The Visions
Venom: Space Knight
Nova
Hercules
Contest of Champions (only because it reminds me of Mutant X and Exiles somehow)
Astonishing Ant-man
All of these comics are in low numbers currently.

Silver Surfer starting over at #1 soon, looks like it will be good as well.
I'm also looking forward to Spiderman #1, the Miles Morales Spiderman, also coming soon.

A lot of the flagship titles aren't really interesting me all that much right now. They remade Peter Parker into Tony Stark for some reason. The social justice warrior revamp of Avengers characters is not that great.
The X-teams are a garbled mess. Deadpool is still oversaturated. All new Wolverine isn't bad, but it isn't really good either, and its a book I really thought I would like. I always liked the Inhumans, until recently.
Daredevil seems solid but it has yet to really grab me.

[nicholai]

Just wondering, how much does it cost to buy every marvel comic every month? Seems expensive haha

[Krandor]

I'm gonna rehash some other people's suggestions, but my usual goto list for people looking to get into comics...

Marvel

Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon
Uncanny X-Force by Rick Remender
The Immortal Iron Fist by Matt Fraction/Ed Brubaker
Superior Spider-Man by Dan Slott

DC/Vertigo

Y : The Last Man by Brian K Vaughan
Ex Machina by Brian K Vaughan
Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis
Preacher by Garth Ennis (my personal GOAT)

Most of my current favorites are all from image, which includes..

Saga by Brian K Vaughan
East of West by Jonathan Hickman
Lazarus by Greg Rucka

If you really want to fall down the rabbit hole with much longer runs, I'd strongly recommend Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America, Green Lantern and it's satellite titles while Geoff John's was running the show, and Hickman's astoundingly long run thru Fantastic Four, Avengers, Infinity, and Secret Wars

[Leashedragon]

Thanks so far for the help.

Fortunately for you, Marvel just relaunched its entire line. You should be able to go into a local comic shop and still find a lot of #1s, which will give you a decent amount of explanation as to what's going on.

Is anything labeled "Marvel Now" the newest reboot mentioned? Or is there one newer yet?

If you have a grasp on the basics of X-Men, I'd recommend starting at Astonishing X-Men. It was a "fresh start" for the series with a new generation running the Xavier Institute and with a new class being taught by the characters you probably recognize. There's use of some history to set up different arcs, but nothing that you won't be able to piece together from context while reading.

There's a hardcover with the entirety of the run while it was helmed by Joss Whedon, not sure about after that.

I had seen that one and I am a fan of Joss Whedon's work. I'll definitely throw that on my list of things to grab as you and several others have mentioned it. The hardcover is running for 160$~ on Amazon, so as much as I love those hardcovers I think I'll get the paperback on that.

Classic Avengers (the current comics roster is an affirmative action revamp)? Given the way the movies are shaping up I'd highly recommend looking into Civil War. There's a hard cover with the core story, but almost anyone you are interested in probably also has their own Civil War collection that focuses on them.

So the one I had linked is not the best starting point? Not saying it's bad, just there are better starting points I could go with? Classic Avengers as in the original releases, or is the title actually that? If it's not too much of a bother, could you give me an example? (I'm mostly using Amazon at the moment and wish listing crap to buy later. Also, sorry to be so out of the know with this.)

if you want more deadpool you can't do better than the cable and deadpool series. which of course as been renamed to deadpool and cable because MOVIES. The oversaturation of Deadpool in comics starting around 2010 or so has been almost unbearable but Cable and Deadpool is very funny and pretty endearing. http://www.amazon.com/Deadpool-Cable...adpool+omnibus

for my money the single best run in comics is Hickman's fantastic four. unfortunately the omnibuses (there are 2) are absurdly expensive but there are trade paper backs that collects 4 or so issues at a time. I thought fantastic 4 was prob the lamest shit ever before i read this run and wow it is just incredible. Really proves that the writer is far more important than the characters. http://www.amazon.com/Fantastic-Four...fantastic+four

After that is Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force which is super baller http://www.amazon.com/Uncanny-X-Forc...-force+omnibus

Thanks for the links, that's pretty much exactly what I was hoping for (without really asking people to go out of their way to do that for me)!

I wasn't sure where Deadpool and Cable came into the storyline, so I was going to grab it after I read the other three in the series I bought the fourth volume of. Figured that'd be the best option.

I think I am(was) with you on Fantastic Four. My interest in it is very non-existant. Maybe the terrible movies is what helped turn me off of it. I might have to give it a chance if I can find the cheaper alternative paperbacks.

I would definitely suggest the old No Man's Land story arc from Batman

Ah yes, Batman is probably the biggest one outside of Marvel I'm interested in. Nothing against the other super heroes, but.. Batman. Not to say other suggestions are off limits. Thanks.

[Krandor]

The most recent launch for Marvel is "All New All Different"

Marvel Now! started in late 2012 and ran up until Secret Wars started.

And it's a very long read, but Hickman's entire storyline from Fantastic Four : Dark Reign to Fantastic Four/FF to Avengers/New Avengers/Infinity to Secret Wars (which just concluded today) is absolutely incredible. I would easily recommend anything Hickman writes, his Secret Warriors series was incredible and had a number of plot points borrowed for Captain America : The Winter Soldier

[Siatdiat]

I think I am(was) with you on Fantastic Four. My interest in it is very non-existant. Maybe the terrible movies is what helped turn me off of it. I might have to give it a chance if I can find the cheaper alternative paperbacks.

Hickman run is great, but I would also suggest the entire John Byrne run on FF from the early 80s. Here is the start of that.

http://www.amazon.com/Fantastic-Four...fantastic+four

[Siatdiat]

Just wondering, how much does it cost to buy every marvel comic every month? Seems expensive haha

https://www.dcbservice.com/product/j...ecial-discount

[Zealot]

As mentioned, Marvel is now "All-New, All-Different."

If you want some recommendations for DC, I can vouch for Geoff Johns's entire run on The Flash, and Grant Morrison's JLA for stuff from the 90s.

I really tried to stay interested after the New 52 reboot, but it's been really bad. Fortunately there's some great stuff preceding it:

As for Batman, Grant Morrison also did an incredible run there. Everything from the Batman & Son story through Batman R.I.P., and then Batman & Robin and later Batman Incorporated. The more recent Batman comics from the New 52 relaunch up until Endgame were also worth checking out.

Aside from that, I'd recommend Infinite Crisis followed by 52. Skip Countdown to Final Crisis and just read Final Crisis itself, along with Superman 3D. Older trades of both Infinite and Final Crisis (or the actual comics if you can find them) are better in my eyes - in later volumes they added whole pages and changed dialogue to try and dumb it down or explain things that didn't need explaining.

Booster Gold by Geoff Johns (issues 1-12) in the mid-aughts is also one of the finest stories DC has ever told, but you have to be a little familiar with the character for it to really hit.

However, you can know nothing about comic books whatsoever and still think that All-Star Superman is the best comic story ever written.

The thing to keep in mind with anything pre-dating the Flashpoint storyline in DC though, is that none of it happened anymore (or all of it happened, post-Convergence, but it's just not getting new comics made).