Starting to read comic and "Marvel Now"

[Tulin]

So I was going to come on here and ask if anybody had any ideas for where to begin reading comics - I know, a REALLY big question.

A quick phone call to my local comic shop and I have been told within three weeks, something called "Marvel Now" begins and a lot of their titles start again from issue #1.

I checked DC and they did something similar about a year back. I have to admit, I prefer the tone of Marvel's characters and stories, compared to the hokiness of Superman/Wonder Woman and Aquaman and the whole ponderous emo thing of Batman just annoys me.

Does anybody think this new Marvel Now kick off is a good place to start? What do I need to know before buying a few titles.

 

[Professor Zoom]

First...

I checked DC and they did something similar about a year back. I have to admit, I prefer the tone of Marvel's characters and stories, compared to the hokiness of Superman/Wonder Woman and Aquaman and the whole ponderous emo thing of Batman just annoys me.

Seriously? Like there's NOTHING hokey about Marvel? Or emo? Come on, the X-men are TOTALLY emo.

Does anybody think this new Marvel Now kick off is a good place to start? What do I need to know before buying a few titles.

I would probably say YES. I'm not sure of their plans, but Number 1s are always designed to get new readers. And hopefully there's nothing you need to know before buying (other than what you might like.) In theory, within each issue should be enough information to get you up to speed.

In theory.

But, then, there's always wikipedia later.

Personally, even if you have a passing knowledge of the character, that should be enough. Think of it as jumping onto a show at the season premiere of the 2nd season. You COULD get all continuity specific, but most of it, really, you don't need to know.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Go to your local library.

They will let you borrow thousands of dollars worth of comics a week, until you can make up your own mind about what you like and then you can spend hundreds of dollars a month to buy dozens of comics.

But this is what you have to do if you don't want to be constantly disappointed.

Find a writer you like and then follow her or him.

Or if you're amazing shallow...

Find an artist you like and then follow her or him.

 

[Takeru]

So I was going to come on here and ask if anybody had any ideas for where to begin reading comics - I know, a REALLY big question.

If you say comics, do you mean long running american superhero comics or comics in general?

You could try Maison Ikkoku, it's a romance/comedy hybrid. It's primarily about a student who falls in love with a young widow, there are no superpowers, villains, it's a pretty down to earth story (with some weird supporting characters).

Generally my advice would be to try a comic that actually ends. I used to read both Marvel and DC comics, but I have given up, I still like the characters, but the comics are frustrating. You find something you love, you read it ... and suddenly the creative team changes and with new writers/artists you get not only new looks and slightly different characterizations, storylines are dropped left and right, previous events are retconned because the nbew writer didn't like what the old writer did etc., you are annyoed but you adapt and stat loving the series again and as soon as that happens the next change comes.

Nothing that happens in these comics has any relevance, even great stories like the death of Captain America are ultimately pointless.

Comics are a great medium, but Marvel and DC truly produce nothing but meaningless drivel. They sometimes manage to pretend that they're doing great comics, that events will change things "forever" (which in marvel/DC terms means "a year or two"), in reality they are so afraid of change that nothing will ever happen. Even if they "change" something it's just a return to a previous status quo, usually one that the current guy in charge liked when he started reading the comics.

I have adopted a policy that I will not read a series, if it's more complicated to find a starting point than picking up volume 1 (and no, renumbering doesn't count, a new #1 only an old #458 in disguise)

 

[Nerys Myk]

First...

I checked DC and they did something similar about a year back. I have to admit, I prefer the tone of Marvel's characters and stories, compared to the hokiness of Superman/Wonder Woman and Aquaman and the whole ponderous emo thing of Batman just annoys me.

Yep, the idea that DC and Marvel are so radically different hasn't been true since some time in the late 1980s. Marvel can be every bit as hokey as DC. They practically invented the emo superhero in Spider-man. Most of their characters had a emo hook in their origins.