Who Wants to Read Some Comics With Me?

ByPaul Posted on Updated on

These days I’m finding it harder and harder to find new shows, movies and games to watch. I’ve been working my way through the “classics” of each genre, and though I know more are out there to discover, they’re getting harder and harder to find.

That’s why I’m considering dipping into something I never got into growing up, comics. The vast majority of the time, they were deemed to violent for me to read, so I’ve missed pretty much every major storyline in comic book history. That’s a problem considering what I do for a living.

I recently was chatting with our own Ugo Strange, and asked him for a recommended reads list for comics if I was trying to play catch-up. The resulting document was far more than I asked for, and I figured it might be good to share for anyone else out there looking to do something similar. His recs are almost all DC I believe, but if someone out there has a Marvel (or other studio) counterpoint, I’m all ears for those as well. Check his list out below, see if you agree, and pick a few of these up and we can all read together. First up for me? Crisis on Infinite Earths as that seems to be a rather major one.

Ugo:

Thanks to Wikipedia people don’t have to be as clueless as they are about comics and a small touch of research will help you greatly as you explore the world. There is A LOT I could go on and on about but first things first and that’s the basics. Also, I can only recommend titles I’ve read myself, so there are certain teams I follow more so than others, and I only recommend buying trade paperbacks since I can never remember the numbers of individual issues and since comicbooks are sequential stories, trade paperbacks are your best bet let’s dive in.

I started with “Crisis On Infinite Earths”, but for someone just now coming in that would be a little intimidating, because it gives you A LOT of information and A LOT of characters REALLY fast. The background of the story is DC Comics acquired several other comic publishers along with their characters (Blue Beetle, The Question and many others) however these characters weren’t brought into DC continuity. In order to bring them in and have all the stories take place on ONE single Earth, they created “Crisis On Infinite Earths”. You’re a sci-fi fan so I don’t have to explain the concept of a parallel universe to you. “Crisis On Infinite Earths” essentially gets rid of all the other universes and leaves only one. These other universes also retain duplicates of our Heroes, so there is an Earth-S which is a universe where Captain Marvel is the sole hero, there is an Earth where the heroes genders are reversed, you get the idea. If you’re willing to dive in head first into A LOT of mess “Crisis On Infinite Earths” is a GREAT place to start and thanks to things like wikipedia you won’t have to be lost.

If you’re not interested in diving in “Crisis On Infinite Earths” then I recommend Geoff Johns’ run on “Teen Titans”, but I STRONGLY encourage you to pick up “The Judas Contract” before you get to those. Reading list is as followed:

The New Teen Titans” The Judas Contract
Teen Titans: A Kid’s Game
Teen Titans: Family Lost
Teen Titans: Beast Boys & Girls
Teen Titans: The Future Is Now
Teen Titans/ The Outsiders: The Insider
Teen Titans: Life & Death (Hold off reading this one UNTIL you read “Infinite Crisis, because this is a tie-in)
Teen Titans: Titans Around The World
Teen Titans: Titans East

This team of The Teen Titans features a character known as Conner Kent a.k.a Superboy. He was one of the characters introduced after “The Death Of Superman” arc, which if you’re interested I’d suggest that too just to get some background on those characters. I’m telling you this so you won’t be like “Why is Superman dressed like that ?”. As for Batman from what I hear any of his books are good but the ones I’d recommend:

Batman: Knightfall
Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: No Man’s Land
Batman: Hush
Batman: Face The Face
Batman: The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul
Batman: Batman & Son
Batman: The Black Glove
Batman: R.I.P (hold off on this one because it’s a tie in to “Final Crisis”)

Keep in mind I am VERY sketchy on the reading order of these but I am 100% certain of the ordering of the last 6. I also hear “The Night Of Owls” story arc is very good, I plan on picking that up once the trade comes out and if you’re interested I’ll give you my fully assessment. Moving on, if you wanna get a hold of some team books to get introduced to a lot of character without too much stress, check out The Justice League of America and The Justice Society Of America. Although I don’t own any of their books myself (because I’m broke) I am familiar enough with the stories.

JLA: Tower Of Babel (Excellent read)
JLA: The Tornado’s Path
JLA: The Lightning Saga (although THIS is a tie-in to The Legion Of Superheroes and The JSA, so I’ll recommend those as well below, but you can read this and not be too confused)
JLA: The Injustice League
JLA: Sanctuary

The list goes on and on. As for The Justice Society Of America
JSA: The Next Age
JSA: The Lightning Saga (See what I mean)
JSA: Thy Kingdom Come Parts 1-3 (this is a 3 part series loosely tying to Alex Ross’s one shot, alternate earth story “Kingdom Come”, good read, although it is outside DC continuity)
JSA: Black Adam & Isis (Don’t read this until you read “52” and “Black Adam: the Dark Ages”)
The list goes on and on from there.

Legion Of Superheroes, I mostly followed Mark Waid and Barry Kitson’s Legion (better artwork in my opinion and Brainiac 5 looked perfect) If you keep in mind that there are ALWAYS alternate universes in The DC Universe your head won’t explode as much when you start reading “The Lightning Saga” as it re-introduces the Post-Zero Hour Legion. “Zero Hour” is another story I’ll get into later when we cover MASSIVE cross overs. Anyways for Legion Of Superheroes check out:

Legion of Superheroes: Teenage Revolution
Legion Of Superheroes: Death Of Dream Girl
Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes: Strange Visitor from Another Century (this is sort of an “Infinite Crisis” tie-in but you can read it)
Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes: Adult Education
Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes: The Dominator War
Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes: The Quest for Cosmic Boy
Legion of Super-Heroes: Enemy Rising
Legion of Super-Heroes: Enemy Manifest
JLA: The Lightning Saga
Superman & The Legion Of Superheroes
And the list goes on and on…

And now for MASSIVE cross-overs. As I’ve mentioned before “Crisis On Infinite Earths” gets the ball rolling on that, this is the oldest of all the books on this list and it’s also the beginning of The Crisis trilogy in DC comics. So I’d suggest before picking up “Infinite Crisis” you’d better read “Crisis On Infinite Earths”. The Crisis Trilogy reading list will go like this:

Crisis On Infinite Earths
Zero Hour: Crisis In Time
Identity Crisis (although not the best story, it sets up a few things down the road)
The OMAC Project
Day Of Vengeance
Villains United
Infinite Crisis
52 (NOT the NEW 52, but a comic book series titled “52” it’s 52 issues available in 4 trade paperback books EXCELLENT read!)
World War III
Black Adam: The Dark Ages
Death Of The New Gods
Final Crisis

Exhausted yet ? Hopefully I did what you asked. I would elaborate on these more, but I always find it best for new readers to discover the world for themselves rather than listen to me pontificate on what’s there. Like I said Wikipedia is your friend here and also DC.wikia.com will be a boon to you as well. Happy Hunting, Good Luck and God Bless!

Thanks Ugo, for putting all this together. So, who’s going to rep Marvel out there?

I think I'm a part of the first generation of journalists to skip print media entirely, and I've learned a lot these last few years at Forbes. My work has appeared on TVOvermind, IGN, and most importantly, a segment on The Colbert Report at one point.

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30 Comments

  1. I haven’t been reading much Marvel unfortunately, ALTHOUGH, the original “Secret Wars” is a good place to go. “Birth Of Venom” and given the upcoming Avengers movies about to come out, you might wanna check out “Captain America: The Winter Solider”, “The Infinity War” and “The Infinity Gauntlet” to give you a leg up on Thanos knowledge and back story!

  2. I remember from your comics post yesterday that you’ve dipped into the world of Judge Dredd… Some more for you to try would be:

    The Apocalypse War series
    The Cursed Earth
    Midnight Surfer
    Oz (sort of a sequel to Midnight Surfer)
    Judge Death

    Judgement on Gotham (Dredd / Batman crossover)

    Moving away from 2000AD

    Lobo – The Last Czarnian
    Lobo – Infanticide
    Lobo – Lobocop
    Lobo – Paramilitary Xmas Special

    Sweetmeats

    The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (for your more stoned moments)

    Milk and Cheese (for your more WTF moments)…

    I’ll try to post more when I remember ’em…

    Enjoy,

    Mat

  3. Wow, yeah, these are ALL DC. My personal advice would be to steer clear of a lot of these DC stories if you’re just starting, because most of these arcs (I’ve read about 90% of what’s here) are bogged down in a lot of continuity. ESPECIALLY the JSA and Legion stuff.
    They’re still quite enjoyable, but attempting to barrel through all these would be quite a daunting task, and I think you’d probably get confused or even bored halfway through.

    For this DC list, if you want to dive in, I’d recommend:

    Johns’ Teen Titans run: Vol. 1-4
    Batman: Knightfall
    Batman: Hush (it’s just fun!)
    JLA: Tower of Babel
    Identity Crisis
    Crisis on Infinite Earths (though this is probaly the most polarizing)

    But my picks for starters would DEFINITELY be,

    Batman: The Long Halloween
    Batman: Dark Victory (LH sequel)
    Year One
    The Dark Knight Returns
    Superman for All Seasons
    The New Frontier

    My advice to most new readers, however, is to start with Vertigo stuff. All the self-contained, short-arc, awesome-non-superhero stuff:

    Fables (!!!!)
    Y: The Last Man
    Planetary (one of my favorites, but it even took me 3 complete read throughs to REALLT love it)
    Ex Machina
    Pride of Baghdad
    WE3
    Mouse Guard
    Scalped

    I find that these help get you into the actual medium, and then it’s easier to jump into the superhero stuff and all it’s crazy history.

    But that’s just my opinion. I can also recommend some great Marvel and other company reads if you’re really interested, Pauly T. I’ve been collecting from about the age of 7, so, 21 years in all. I just didn’t want to throw so much out at once.

  4. I recently started reading American comics too. I was always a big fan of Green Lantern so I started off with the Sinestro Corps War followed by the Blackest Night crossover series (ZOMBIE Lantern)

  5. I’m with DocDoom up there. Self-contained stories are the way to go. His start list is a solid one, though I’d like to highlight and add the works of Grant Morrison, who is simply one of the best writers I’ve encountered in any medium to date:

    All-Star Superman
    Animal Man
    Arkham Asylum
    Batman Gothic

    I need to read We3 badly.

    I’d also recommend checking out V for Vendetta and/or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore, or Swamp Thing if that sounds more interesting to you. He’s a great writer… not QUITE the god people make him out to be but well worth exploring.

    And Paul, this is a bit more of a curiosity than essential reading, but I dug Marvel 1602 and think you might like it, too. It’s the Marvel universe, but set in medieval times. Fun stuff.

  6. Yeah, David mentioned some good ones. I’ve yet to collect the Grant Morrison Animal Man run, but I hear great things.

    Defnintely read All-Star Superman, though. It’s AMAZING. I also highly recommend V for Vendetta and League.

    But, whether I recommend more or not, I felt the need to say that, without question, the greatest thing I’ve ever read, novel, comic, or anything, is Neil Gaiman’s Sandman.

  7. The greatest comic of all time is Watchmen, period. You should read Transmetropolitan and Grendel too (Grendel is like an evil Batman).
    Marvel:
    If you want the Avengers: Secret Wars followed by Civil War.
    If you want the “Cosmic world”: Annihilation Wave
    If you want the X-men: House of M

  8. If you like the adventures of Aang and company in A:TLA, check out “The Promise” storyline from Dark Horse Comics. It’s a fun read, takes place immediately after A:TLA, and bridges the gap between Korra.

    It’s just nice to revisit these characters again.

  9. Take a break from the DC/Marvel staples and check out what else is out there.

    One of my favorite comic series of all time: Preacher.

    You should check out Invincible, which is a really fun Robert Kirkman comic before Walking Dead.

    I started reading Fables and that’s pretty good.

  10. I think some of this stuff is a little heavy handed, and maybe jumping in with some lighter fare that is compelling, but doesn’t bog down the reader with back stories or needed follow-ups, would be a better way to ease someone into comics. If I started with Crisis, I would have NEVER kept reading comics. Some Deadpool, maybe? Or even We3? And maybe a few books that reflect that depth of the field? Black Hole or The Alcoholic? I dunno, maybe I am just not a DC guy.

  12. My head always hurts when I try to get into superhero comics because of all the back stories and parallel stories or whatever. It seems like such a daunting task.

    I second getting into self-contained comics, especially from Vertigo.
    As mentioned above, I highly support the recommendations of Y: The Last Man and Fables but The Sandman is the best.

  13. Some great recommendations in this thread. I have branched off from tights and capes superhero fare into more mature titles from the Vertigo/Wildstorm lines. But if you’re interested in Marvel, Ugo mentioned Infinity Gauntlet and Infinity War which are great crossovers with minimal character background knowledge required. If you can find it, check out Thanos’ Quest. It’s a mini explaining how Thanos acquired the Infinity Gems one by one.
    A couple people mentioned Preacher, which is Garth Ennis at his most f**ked up. It’s def not for everybody, but I really liked it.
    Anything from Warren Ellis is bound to be, at worst very interesting. Planetary was excellent and Transmetropolitan was damn near perfect.
    Gaiman’s The Sandman of course. Watchmen is great, too.
    Mike Carey’s Lucifer was really really good.
    I’ve been meaning to get into Swamp Thing, Silver Surfer and Dr Strange. Does anybody have any recommended jumping off points for any of those titles?

  14. Pretty much all of these recommendations are great, however I think that the previous Justice Society series (simply called JSA) was much better than the one your friend recommended. Honestly, “The Next Age” seemed like a rehash of the first JSA arc “Justice Be Done”

    Also, I’ve gotten several of my friends into reading comics by starting them off with “I Kill Giants,” “Superman for All Seasons,” “Marvels,” (basically a history of the Marvel universe from the begining to the ’70s told from a photographer’s P.O.V.) and “Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane.” Some might dismiss that last one as “too childish” but give it a shot. With the focus on Mary Jane, it makes the book a realy good coming of age story/teen drama that occasionally gets interrupted by superheroes and can be both really funny and really fun.

  15. Bart, I hear Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing is the “one and only”, if you will. I’ve been meaning to read that myself.

    I remember enjoying “Strange” by J. Michael Straczynski back when it came out, which was kind of a re-telling his origin. Beyond that, I only read Dr. Strange as an Avenger/West Coast Avenger/Defender.

    However, I highly recommend picking up JMS’s Surfer book “Requiem”. It’s awesome. Other than that, find one of those “Essential” books for him. That’s the good stuff. He’s lately been used in a supporting fashion, so it’s hard to get anything new.

  16. I’ll definitely back up the Marvel Civil War callls, but World War Hulk is definitely worth a read- fast paced and a really good portrayal of Hulk without it being the mindless ‘Hulk smash’ stuff!

  19. I’ve been winding my way through Deadpool because he’s my all-time favorite character. Hilarity follows that guy like a bad perfume. However, the book is just out of control. My poor hubby had to bring me one issue because the entire page was suddenly in French and he had no idea what was going on, I had to translate it for him. The next book had to be held up to a mirror because it was all written backwards, even though the panel order was still correct!

    After a quick Google, we discovered the point for all this. Apparently, the authors were under the impression that the series was going to be canceled right before every single issue, so they just pulled out all the stops. Wade himself even comments that he has no idea if he’s the real Wade Wilson (yes, he breaks the fourth wall and talks to us) because it all depends on which writer is better liked.

    He and Loki have a very interesting discussion on how nothing going on in the series is real, that there’s a man with a typewriter… And Loki may or may not be Wade’s father, we’re still not entirely certain on that account.

    Either way, you’re in for a wild ride with that series. I’m having a blast, the merc with the mouth is my favorite!

  21. After sifting through all these great suggestions, I think you should just go to a comic store and pick up what catches your eye. If you like it, continue with it. If you like it but you’re confused by back story, Google it. If it’s not for you move on to the next thing that catches your eye.
    I started collecting when I was 12 and was going thru a gas station spinner rack. I saw a Marvel title called Elf Quest. It intrigued me so I bought it and immediately fell in love with it. I’d been reading GI Joe and Transformers before that and thought they were great, but Elf Quest really made me say, “I need to know everything about this thing.”
    I wasn’t even aware there was a comic book store in my town before then. When I found that out, well my parents had to find more chores for me to do to justify my demand for a raise in my allowance.

  22. Here’s a couple good jumping on points for semi-recent stories:
    Batman & Son
    Batman: Court of Owls
    Captain America: Winter Soldier (although the new relaunched Captain America series is a pretty good starting point if you just watched the movie)
    New Avengers: Breakout
    Invincible Iron Man: The Five Nightmares
    Daredevil by Mark Waid
    Green Lantern: Rebirth
    Superboy: The Boy of Steel
    Iron Man: Extremis
    Civil War
    Punisher: War Journal – Civil War
    Batwoman: Elegy
    Madam Xanadu: Disenchanted

    You also might want to check out the ongoing series Invincible (from Image Comics), Hellboy (from Dark Horse), and the short-lived Thor: The Mighty Avenger. Also, Superman: the Black Ring which made Lex Luthor the main character and “hero” for about 12 issues, and Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers, which is from Loki’s perspective.

  24. I recently decided to get into comic books in the last couple of months as well. I decided just to start with the New 52 that DC released in 2011 and I don’t regret it for a second. The New 52 is such an easy way to jump into comic books, and it gives a logical starting point for a lot of it’s characters. Now that I’ve got myself settled in to a habit of reading the New 52 each week, I want to revisit some pre-52 story lines as well. As a beginner the New 52 is a great way to get into and be excited about comic books as this was the intention of the reboot in the first place. A lot of the 1st volumes collecting the first 6 issues are up for sale now.

  25. Some good recent series you could read are Young Justice (original) and Blue Beetle (preboot).

    Also, warning: DO NOT try Legion of Superheroes, at least not as one of your first things. Your head might explode from trying to reconcile the continuity issues.

  27. Yes! @Willie McCoy, I was going to mention Saga but I am quite happy that someone mentioned it before I had too. Saga and Locke and Key are my two favorite ongoing series. I am also happy that you mention Transmet and Invincible.

  28. If you want to read some Marvel, make Spider-man: Blue your first choice. It is hands down my favourite Spider-man story, and presents such an interesting account of the Peter/Gewn/MJ romance. Makes me cry at the end almost every time.

  30. Going to try and bring up stuff nobody has brought up yet, all of it A material and new-reader friendly to get into:

    DC:

    Batman –
    The Killing Joke
    Joker

    Superman –
    Birthright

    Marvel:

    X-Universe –
    Madrox: Multiple Choice
    X-Factor – the longest Night (vol. 1, continue from there if you’re interested)
    New X-Men by Grant Morrison
    Astonishing X-men by Joss Whedon
    Old Man Logan

    Avengers verse:
    Captain America by Ed Brubaker (Start at Winter Soldier vol. 1)
    Thor by J. Michael Stracynski
    Iron Man: Extremis by Warren Ellis
    Iron Man by Matt Fraction
    Ultimates 1 and 2 by Mark Millar
    Planet Hulk
    Black Widow: Homecoming

    Street Level Hereos:
    Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis (Start at Underboss vol. 3), -Daredevil in general is my favorite comic character and anything with his name on it is something I would by but the essential background are Frank Millers Daredevil (vol. 1-3, the Man without Fear, the manwithout fear) Daredevil by Kevin Smith vol.1) and the run after Bendis by Brubaker and then Waid
    Alias by Brian Michael Bendis
    Marvel Knights Spider-man by Mark Millar
    Immortal Iron Fist by Brubaker and Fraction
    Black Panther by David Hine

    I would stay away from events like House of M, Utopia, New Avengers, Secret Invasion, and the like. You get bogged down in continuity too quickly.

    Non Super-heroes:
    100 Bullets
    Criminal by Ed Brubaker
    Sleeper by Ed Brubaker
    Sandman
    Queen & Country by Greg Rucka

    Remember this is just stuff nobody has said yet…

    My favorites of all time are:
    Y the Last Man
    Sleeper
    Criminal
    Daredevil
    X-factor

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