When I owned a comic shop I would tell people start with the current issue, if it is part of a serial go back a few issues until you are at the start. Or find the most recent TPB.
this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2024
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I got back into Marvel comics because I got into the Marvel By The Month podcast. They read and review every Marvel comic, one month at a time, in chronological order, starting with Fantastic Four #1 in 1961. They talk about what was going on in the world at the time, get into the lives of the creators and the industry, and talk about how well they've aged (or didn't). Plus they've got an absolutely incredible murderers' row of guests. Matt Fraction, Tom Brevoort, Steve Englehart, Mark Waid, Brian Michael Bendis, etc etc. Learning more about the behind the scenes and the people involved reinvigorated my love of the art form.
I was going to ask what else you like but you previously asked about Hellboy and there are Marcel and DC recommendations in there.
I'd definitely start with Mignola's Batman as they are Elseworld titles, so stand alone. If you want more Batman then try Grant Morrison's run or Scott Snyder's. With Superman, GM's All-Star Superman is a classic and is also standalone. Also DC need not all be about the spandex - I'm a fan of Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and the wider British Invasion of Comics, so you'll find great comics from them in the proto-Vertigo titles like Swamp Thing and Animal Man, which inspired the Vertigo imprint that gave use Hellblazer and Sandman (which I also mentioned previously), but also GM's Invisibles and Doom Patrol, which are definitely something else.
Over at Marvel, it's a bit trickier and, as has been suggested, try picking a character you like and dipping in. If we follow the horror angle, then Marvel have always done that well and I suggested Marvel Zombies previously and I'd give that a go. The early runs of Doctor Strange are great as it is peak Steve Ditko art. Beyond that X-Men are always a good suggestion - Claremont's original run is top notch and GM's New X-Men is great (even if it ended controversially). Alan Moore also had a fantastic run on Captain Britain that I recommend as it helped cement the building blocks of the Marvel multiverse. Given the character's popularity at the moment, you should check out Deadpool which is pretty solid once other writers got a go after Liefeld. I also think it'd be rude not to mention Warren Ellis' Nextwave, which is pretty self-contained and a real blast.
Which is a handy way to segue into recommending superheroes beyond The Big Two. There are a lot but Ellis' run on The Authority helped establish the "widescreen" format followed by a lot of modern comics. They are part if a wider Wildstorm Universe that can be explored (try Wildcats). There are plenty of other superhero comics - Jeff Lemire's Black Hammer at Dark Horse, for example.
Anyway, that's enough to get you started. See what takes your fancy and then you can get back to us and we can refine our suggestions.
I asked about other comics in case there might be better titles from Marvel or DC.
Personally, I find Stan Lee in the original Marvel comics to be corny no matter what character you're reading about but those comics had other people working on them as well (Steve Ditko is one of them) that don't get as much credit. Stan Lee pretty much took all the credit for every character created. Todd Macfarlane did create Venom and worked on Spider-Man in the 90s but he gets less credit than Lee; the same goes for the creators of the X-Men...Stan Lee takes all the credit here...you get the idea. I have really bad memories of them taking over film and television with their MCU rewriting the main Marvel Universe by replacing the characters who got their own movies to the lesser and smaller characters they still had the rights to.
DC, however, I read that they seem to be leading the industry despite their small market share compared to Marvel:
MARVEL COMICS - 36%
DC COMICS - 23.3%
Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/438242/comic-direct-market-share/
DC usually has more of their most famous characters taking center stage and they seem to be doing fine, but I suspect that sometimes they mishandle their characters like in Superman: American Alien where Superman's origins are haphazardly refreshed and Pete calls him out for fighting Batman (wow, so clever) or in Injustice 2 (which is a comic book video game, but still) has superheroes doing horrendous things and has Harley Quinn do good things while she lasts, no to mention the Red Sun Prison segment where Firestorm is scapegoated for the plot of releasing Superman without Batman telling him about it. Not to say I haven't read any much more comics from them considering I read the Golden Years of Batman: Volumes 1-4 on Hoopla and they were more innocent. You could chalk it up to Mortal Kombat creators running the show and twisting up the morals and plot points that they think suits their own ideas.
And then we have Dark Horse, which is what I've been reading lately:
DARK HORSE COMICS - 3.9% (same source)
So far, I've been reading Hellboy and I feel like they tell a much better story than the Big Two because even though Hellboy is a devil he was raised by humans and given much character development throughout the series. There's wit, charm, supernatural hijinks, Lovecraftian horror and pulp fiction storytelling at its finest despite the dark occult setting while Hellboy I've read was raised a Catholic despite being a...well...a devil, because Mike Mignola grew up a Catholic and learned things while writing the comic. He isn't religious, and that's okay because he's very talented at what he does...drawing monsters (no really, that's the documentary) and demons and religion and supernatural activity and paranormal evil and Nazis and making it cool.
As far as I know, there are lots of spinoffs by the author and maybe I can read DC Universe by Mike Mignola but I haven't been willing to go back.
Hellboy is more like a piece of graphic literary fiction inspired by history which I believe is right up my alley after all the Big Two comics I could handle.
Perhaps some other Dark Horse titles as well? I trust that they publish what I want to read, and I might even read their manga if I can possibly handle it with my sensory issues in that particular medium (and anime, but I'm not going there anymore: this is why I reset my accounts) and maybe Dark Horse has some lighter titles that I can enjoy too? Maybe not everything at Dark Horse is dark, gloomy and strange? Those would be the titles I would want to read.
Hellboy is more like a piece of graphic literary fiction inspired by history which I believe is right up my alley after all the Big Two comics I could handle.
And it's perfectly fine not to get involved much with the Big Two, it's a lot to take on and titles change hands so often, with each new writer wanting to make their mark that it just becomes a headache. These days I tend to just follow the creators I like and skirt around the core of the universe picking up their more sci-fi and horror titles.
From what you say about Hellboy it seems like you appreciate that one clear creative voice that you get from such projects staying with the original creator. Although not as long-running you might like Frank Miller's Sin City or Robert Kirkman's series, like The Walking Dead and Invincible (one bonus from his work is, like manga, you can just pick up the first volume and work your way through) or various titles from Jeff Lemire or the work of Warren Ellis (like Transmetropolitan or The Authority, that I mentioned, or Planetary) or Kieron Gillen (Wicked + Divine, Once & Future, Die, etc). Others include James Tynion, Scott Snyder, Cullen Bunn, etc. If you sample enough you might find other creators you like and then you can root out their other work.
Or you can try big fictional universes that also happen to be relatively new, so they haven't had time to get overly convoluted - Saga is a massive hit or you could try Radiant Black.
I think Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead wasn't a good read: when I last read it, it focused less on the 'walkers' and more on how humans are the REAL monsters with so many humans setting bad examples for themselves, and what does that have to do with zombies roaming the earth and all that? I know about Rick Grimes and The Governor the farthest I've read into the series and it's very bleak and violent and it spawned an ongoing franchise to boot.
I used to read Spawn by Todd Macfarlane, but that series played like a serious drama between Spawn (Al SImmons) and Terry Fitzgerald since the latter man married Wanda and I eventually got tired of reading it just because I couldn't stand all the drama between two guys fighting over one wife.
Invincible (also by Robert Kirkman) is supposedly all the rage, but I find it violent, trendy, subversive, and a composition of superhero tropes and cliches because modernism is popular with the current generation, and although I know who Omni-Man is now I'm afriad of reading it because he outright performed an ultra graphic Fatality on Homelander from Dynamite Entertainment's The Boys with is pretty much the same thing as Invincible except written by a creator who explicitly hates superheroes and God yet somehow made lots of money with his television series and popular comic book franchise.
Me, I'm willing to read what Dark Horse has because since I like Hellboy for being a good work by a good man in my opinion (we're both Catholic) and I while I withdrew from the manga communities on Lemmy I'm sort of debating going back to reading manga if only I could handle actually reading it: my last few manga works were Bleach, which going to Hueco Mundo was stupid on everyone's behalf and yet it advanced the plot; there's Berserk, which I kind of respect as a fellow Dark Horse published work but I don't know if I can pick it back up again due to how graphic and intense it was (no offense, Guts); and then there's Sankarea, which had a dangerous premise of zombifying a girl because the boy has a fetish for zombies (which somehow translates to necromancy...why do so many zombie works involve necromancy yet the zombies are still DEAD? cough cough Zombie Land Saga cough cough And that's not all...they go to a research facility being run by a psychopathic bad guy who murders people and then Rea bathes with a girl younger than her.
And that's how I ended up resetting my Fediverse accounts, because I wanted to avoid the stigma I created about the stuff I don't like.
But generally, I don't read manga anymore unless I can read something from Dark Horse I can actually handle this time...until then, Hellboy it is: I seem to be handling that series much better in my opinion due to my sensory input as an autistic adult...oh yeah, I'm autistic too: I even switched to Autism Place.
I hope discussing manga doesn't infringe on discussing comic books, but I did grow up on manga and anime before growing out of it and becoming religious, which is how I ended up enjoying Hellboy so much thanks to Mike Mignola being a creative genius in my book. But that's my take.
It's going to be a matter of trying other titles and seeing what works for you. I've thrown a lot of options at you, so see if anything takes your fancy from that, but, from what you say, I might suggest Jeff Lemire is a good place to start - his Black Hammer superhero universe is at Dark Horse, his Sweet Tooth was published by Vertigo. His written a lot so have a read around as there'll be something that takes your fancy. At the Big Two I'd recommend his Animal Man, Frankenstein and Justice League Dark runs.
I would start with a hero that you like. I dont think you have to pick either, just read what you like. So if you want to read Superman, just pick him up.
I did a little research on the best (standalone) stories of the heroes I wanted to follow, for example all star Superman, or Batman year 1. If I liked those, I would look at others, or recent editions.
Sometimes they branch out during runs, which would be reason for me to look at something new. For example there was a Black Panther series where he would have interactions with Xmen and Fantastic Four, causing me to read them and evaluate if I liked them.
Honestly it is all still quite overwhelming with how much stuff there is. Just pick something you like to get into it, and see it from there.
Lastly, this community is quite active and has some really good help, so if you pick it up again and are looking for nexts, come find us!
Thanks.
You can get back into Superman with "The One Who Fell" trade.