I was exclusively a Marvel reader for my entire "formative period," except for Watchmen and Sandman, which don't really count. I think I've bought four Marvel trades in the last four years, and one of them was kind of boring and so Fractiony I stopped halfway through, and The Eternals was readable but basically rather garbage, an upset considering what a success the last Jack Kirby concept worked over by Neil Gaiman had been.
So I'm trying to remember what got me into DC in the first place. It might have been Dark Knight Returns, which would have logically led to Year One, but I can't imagine what the next step would be (it wasn't monthly Batman comics, of which I proudly own exactly three, my final shot at giving Grant Morrison the benefit of the doubt, and in fairness the Irving Frasier issues of Batman and Robin are at least cool to look at).
Wait, I know what it was: Morrison's JLA, specifically New World Order, with the Martian invasion (ha, spoiler). I was taken aback at how Goddamn awesome that was. Still am, really. And you know what, the guy gets hated on in some quarters, but Howard Porter's art was pretty great. And in regards to what Admiral Young was saying, it was probably Wizard that got me into that (and I doubt I ever heard about Watchmen or Sandman--or, for that matter, Joe Sacco or Jason Lutes*--anywhere else). You know, I guess those guys really had a function, before a combination of the Internet and philistinism destroyed them.
My very first comic was a Wolverine from the spinner rack (he fought Lady Deathstrike, I think; she wasn't as dreamy in the comics as in the X-Men sequel). I hope digital gets big enough to replace what the industry lost when they went full-bore into the direct market.
*Berlin: City of Stones, better than all your supermen? Sure, although Berlin: City of Smoke, while certainly decent and ambitious, is also a meandering mess, to the extent that when my ex gave it a less than glowing review, I waited about three months to read it for fear of destroying my profound appreciation for the first book. I didn't wait long enough.
But the point is, I think we forget sometimes in all our comic book threads that there are comics beyond capes. (Literary merit aside, Sandman was a cape book, too, little different from a book about Aquaman except higher quality, fewer fistfights, and more AIDS. So is Hellblazer. And From Hell? Its protagonist is a magical supervillain!)