Sup, Sup Forums

Sup, Sup Forums
Lurker here but haven't really read any comic books and would like to start, though it seems like you just shit on everything without discussing something you can agree on is "good", so I'm wondering, what run(s) do you consider good and would recommend someone who never read a comic?

In asking this question, if you want serious responses, it helps to say a few things:

What do you want to read - do you consider comic books all about super-heroes, for example, or are you interested in any thing.

If you're interested in anything, what kinds of things. Do you like art and would you want recommendations for books with really great art even if the story was only so-so, or do you want a good story more than anything else.

Etc. etc. You get the picture.


Asking the way you did it is like saying, 'Wassup. I've never had any food before but I'd really like to start eating.'

And then continuing with: 'So what are good foods you would recommend to someone who's only been starving so far?'

There are some free comics on CMX that you can download to your iPhone or Android phone, check some of them out. If you live in a country with free public libraries, check them out for a YA/Graphic Novels section and check some out.

Or do you know what you might want to be recommended as far as genre, types, etc. etc.

From Marvel, I would suggest Chris Claremont's run on X-Men.

Start with Giant Size X-Men issue 1, a one-off that introduces a new team of characters
following that, read X-Men issue 94 onwards and see if you like it.

transmetropolitan
the last musketeer

Kurt Busiek's Superman: Secret Identity
Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman
Dennis O'Neil's The Question
Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Grey's Jonah Hex
Jeff Smith's Bone, and Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil
Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck

Thanks, I forgot how vague such a question is.
What I'm interested in is superhero comics, more specifically canon runs of each big one. I want to know what the bare-minimum or the must-reads of for example Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern and so on are that everybody would expect you to know.
Also, no graphic novels please, (like dark Knight returns or red son) that are so removed from the canon that I have no way of knowing where to go from there.

Someone told me the Garth Ellis run of Punisher is the best; can anyone confirm this and explain? Like what does he do different and is it good to start with if I don't know anything about the character?

There are only about two good threads on Sup Forums at any time. The rest is flame wars and capeshit kino. But those two threads can be really fucking good.

I would say start with Watchmen. Then probably Y The Last Man, go to Sandman from there (the first two trades can be somewhat hard on the eyes for new readers) and if you liked one of those, I guess you'll know what to search for. If you're more of an indie guy try Charles Burns Black Hole, the Megg Mogg and Owl comics by Simon Hanselmann or maybe American Splendor by Harvey Pekar.

These recommendations are a bit random, but those were the first things I read and they kept me reading.

Hellboy.

Oh, you wanted superhero stuff. I guess Geoff Johns Green Lantern run is good, Mark Waids Flash run, John Byrnes 80s Superman stuff (that was a modernizing reboot, mostly defined Superman for the decades to come), Frank Millers Batman Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween, Alan Moores Batman: The Killing Joke, and then I'd throw in some James Robinson JSA.

I have no idea about Marvel.

For starters, stay away from capes.
Second, good starting places are Tintin and Asterix.
My recomendation is then to go for authors, not series, like norwegian author Jason (Low moon, I killed Adolph Hitler, ect.)
Then, it depends on what you want/knowledage of languages. Go for Eddie Campbell´s Alec? Hector Oesterheld-Alberto Breccia´s Mort Cinder? Paolo Pinocho?

For starters, don't listen to this guy
Read whatever interests you

Kid Loki- Journey Into Mystery
Agent of Asgard
Marvel Knights: Spider-Man
Long Halloween
Doom Patrol
Shade, the Changing Man
Hellblazer
Claremont's X-Men
Triumph & Torment
Kree-Skrull War
Avengers Forever
Exiles
52
Morrison Bat-Epic
Prez
Flintstones
Sandman
Locke & Key

just to rattle off a few

Geoff John's and Kurt Busiek's Action Comics, particularly the Up, Up and Away, Last Son of Krypton and Brainiac arcs.

All-Star Superman is it's own thing in it's own continuity but it's a must read for Superman.

Also from this list ignore Distant Fires, it's actually kinda bad.

Also add For All Seasons by Loeb and the Cooke issues of Superman Confidential

Thanks a lot! Now I've got some reading to do

>check Archive
>Ctrl + F Storytime
>read something that catches your eye
You haven't been lurking hard enough.

Garth Ennis, user. You want Punisher MAX 1-60.

It's well written in it's entirety. It's removed from cape Marvel, it's just Frank doing what he does best.

Sup Forums has plenty of comics that are generally loved, but because there's no discussion in "this was good" "yep it sure was" it doesn't get talked nearly as much the bad.

Garth Ennis' punisher Max is great. Stand alone stuff so you can read the whole run on it's own without needing to know the continuity of other marvel comics. Which doesn't sound like what you're looking for, but it still a good choice if ya change your mind.

If you wanna get into main continuity of the big two, backtrack to when they have large, universe changing events such as DC's Flashpoint which rebooted everything so that new readers could have an easy to find jumping in point thanks to New52.

In general all you need to do to understand comics is to start reading them.
Like a high fantasy story like LOTR, you don't need to know each character's/item's lore to pickup when the narration is mentioning them. You'll pickup naturally that "oh this place is important" or "oh this elf is a big deal, okay".

You just start reading and go "oh I see this Matches Malone is using Batman's narration so he must be Batman in disguise. Then that means this scarred up Zsasz guy hired to kill Matches is gonna kill Batman."

We got an ancient Sup Forums recommend tumblr that used to collect our Recommend Reading lists.

Most haven't been updated in years, but if there is a specific character you wanna read up on that's a good place to at least bookmark.

>canon runs of each big one

This means nothing, because they constantly reboot everything.

This poster is a fucking idiot.

That pic is worthless.

Most of Ennis' Punisher isn't even in continuity.

If you want to read Punisher either read the weekly storytimes that get posted, or read Ennis' run, or both.

>people recommending Punisher MAX

HE SAID HE WANTS STUFF IN CANON. HOW HARD IS THIS TO UNDERSTAND?

>Someone told me the Garth Ellis run of Punisher is the best; can anyone confirm this and explain?
user, go kill yourself.

Dude, if you're reading for "continuity", then you could not have possibly picked a worse hobby than American superhero comics.

If you are interested in the current canon, in spite of some of the recommendations you are getting (at least for the DC heroes), I would stay away from some of the 1980s stuff. You can always go back to read it. You are better off with the 2000 and onward, which is some of the recommendations you are getting.

Waid Flash is excellent but it's also Wally West Flash. There's no real canon stuff for Barry. You can read the first set of New 52 trades, which are excellent on the art, and good to OK on the stories for the first three arcs. Or you can just pick up Barry's current run on the Rebirth books.

I would still go and read Mark Waid's run LATER on.

Batman, same sort of thing for different reasons.

You can read the first 19 issues of Grant Morrison's Action run if you want to read more recent Superman, otherwise avoid all the 2011-2015 stuff, and just start with Rebirth when you are catching up. The 2000s recommendations "Up Up and Away" and so forth are good, just avoid the last 2009 New Krypton stuff, especially the post of that: Grounded. Stick with 2000-2007.

If you'd like to get a good feel for Superman and Batman before the New 52, you can read the 80+ issues of Superman/Batman, which vary, but I think start very strongly.

I can't speak to Green Lantern personally.

Not OP but I figured this would be a good thread. I'm from /m/ and I'm a Marvelfag, mostly the Incredible Hulk but I like Thor, Doctor Strange, and Man-Thing enough to own essentials. I'm thinking of getting into DC stuff but I have no idea what hero would be best suited. I would prefer a hero that goes on over the top adventures and have crossovers with other heroes like with Hulk comics. Candidtaes I've considered are Green Lantern, Flash, Firestorm, Doctor Fate, Hawkman, and Spectre. Bonus points if they have stories ripped out of campy 50s monster movies.

Geoff Johns Green Lantern if you want crossovers.

Spectre is good stuff. Look into Ostrander run from the 90s or Gotham Midnight from recent.
Also look into Phantom Stranger. He has plenty of crossover work. He's in plenty of Vol2 Swamp Thing (the issues before Moore run and a bit in Moore's run as well), and his solo comic in N52 is great with plenty of DC supernatural's big names (including Spectre).

Green Lantern is good. Got real huge from Geoff Johns run which interconnects with Green Lantern Corps and plenty others.

If you're looking for crossovers in general look up Brave and the Bold runs. That was DC's teamup title.

Doctor Fate and Spectre are probably the best bet for what you want. Flash has a fair number of cross-over adventures.

You should check out the Year One Justice League of America run where Flash and Black Canery are the main leads of the team. It's not really going to be monster movies, but it's a good team up book

I agree that the Brave and the Bold v3 run would be good for team ups.