Comic fans, help me out

[WayneLigon]

Hopefully, you have a friendly and helpful comic store owner. He may be able to show you lists of trade paperbacks or recommend runs of a particular book to serve as a jumping on point.

Failing that, I'd recommend the following as particularly good fodder for a Mutants and Masterminds campaign AND good comics research at the same time.

All of these titles should be good for someone just beginning to read comics, since they themselves deal with beginnings and as such have explanations and such.

X-Men: Children of the Atom. Retells the early lives of the original X-men.

Ultimate Spider-Man. Ultimate Spider-Man is, like is mentioned above, a reboot of the Spider-Man series. All of the Ultimate titles are meant for people that have only just started reading comics and, like you, are daunted by the enormous back history. (Indeed, this is one of the most common complaints by critics of the medium). Collected in four paperbacks or two large hardcovers, this is probably the best of the various Ultimate series.

X-Men Legends Vol 2: The Dark Phoenix Saga. Possibly the best storyline in the Marvel Universe. This one storyline is what made the X-Men the giant they are today.

X-Men: Evolution. Collects issues 1-6 (and there weren't many more than that) of the comic. This is the comics version of the current cartoon show, and an interesting take on the X-Men. A lot of good gaming ideas in here.

Avengers Legends Vol 2: George Perez Book 1. One of the golden ages of recent Avengers runs.

Avengers: Clear and Present Danger. Another good series.

Many of Marvels 'Essential' books are good looks at older issues.

DC's retrospective volumes: Batman/Superman in the Fifties/Sixties/Seventies.

Green Arrow: Quiver. Rebirth of Green Arrow.

JLA Vol 1: New World Order. Any of the JLA books are good, and it is the ultimate team book.

JLA: Year One
Batman: Year One
Robin: Year One

Any of the Year One books are good, since they detail a person or group just starting out as a hero.

JSA: Justice Be Done -- Restart of the Justice Society of America (The previous generation of heroes and their modern namesakes)

Nightwing: 'A Knight in BLudhaven' and 'Love and Bullets' -- The start of the Nightwing series.

 

[Holy Bovine]

X-Men Legends Vol 2: The Dark Phoenix Saga. Possibly the best storyline in the Marvel Universe. This one storyline is what made the X-Men the giant they are today.

I would strongly second this recommendation. The Dark Phoenix saga is what started my rabid collecting of X-Men so many years ago. I had bought comics here and there for years before that but I got every issue of X-Men from 129 to about 230. My interest has waned over the years as comics prices have soared and the stories seem a little duller and the characters a little smaller.

Trade paperbacks are a godsend though as I would never have read the Dark Knight Returns (DO NOT get Dark Knight Returns 2 - it is bad, bad, BAD), Preacher (Gone to Texas is the first one followed by Until the End of the World there are several more that I can't remember right now. These are very violent and full of mature content), Sandman (very goth and angst ridden but there are still some gems there - check out A Game of You, World's End and Seasons of Mists for the cream of the crop IMO).

I do still buy (on occasion) Black Panther by Marvel. It is not your typical men-in-tights superhero book but is well drawn and very well written.

I am also a long-time Jim Starlin fan and loved his 70's work on Captain Mar-Vell and Adam Warlock. His Dreadstar series (from Epic Illustrated and later First Comics) in the 80's was very good too but did suffer from some 'superheroizing' about halfway through its run. In the 90's he returned to Adam Warlock with the Infinity Gaunlet series of books (this spawned many cross-over titles as well as Adam Warlock's own book Infinity Watch). The development of Adam Warlock and Thanos (the main villian who actually gets a personality outside of mad universe conquerer) are the core of the Infinity Gaunlet series and made them very enjoyable. Few writers can do 'cosmic entities' like Starlin.

 

[nHammer]

So, I've seen the cartoons and the movies based off of comic books for years (sometimes without realizing it- Blade was a comic book character?). I never really started reading them though, probably living 20+ miles from the nearest comic shop saved my wallet some grief when I was younger.

It wasn't until I started playing Mutants and Masterminds that I really got interested in the things, and I'm realizing I have no idea where to start. There are literally hundreds of series, many of which have been running for decades, but seem to jink around, reboot occasionally, contradict each other or wipe out previous canon altogether.

I got ahold of the paperback of the first collection of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. That was great. Last week I saw some recommendations for the various Ultimate series from Marvels, which are kind of restarting the series and using them from the ground up. I read the Ultimates paperback, with the Hulk and the team forming and all, that was cool too.

Now I'm reading some of the Ultimate X-men books, and there's all kinds of bizzare characters in there. Magneto has children? And Xavier too? When I was at the comic store tonight, there were all these other xmen titles, who is Cable? The New Mutants (or something like that)? How can anyone possibly get a grip on all these characters? The Ultimates and the X-men are in the same universe, right? Have they always been that way, or did they start off on their own? All this stuff that's happening in the X-Men movies has happened in a comic in some form or another before, right, or are they writing new plots for the films?

So basically, what are good sets or series to read? What do you read regularly? (Apparently the comic shop I was at has lists of titles they pull out for people when the shipment comes in. That's commitment.)

Where can I find out about some of this history, without buying every comic ever printed and reading them all? I've discovered I like the books about teams, there's a lot of variety in there that it doesn't seem you would get from a book all about Superman or Captain America. Also, I'm getting a grip on the Marvel guys, but I know much less about the DC comics (though I can properly place several characters in each set now, I couldn't before), what should I see there?

I'm asking, because these are fun to read, and also, I think it will be more fun playing MnM if I know about comic-type settings.

If you are new to X-Men comics, your best bet is to just read Ultimate X-Men. All the other X-Men books take place in the reguler Marvel Universe and are so convaluted with characters, storylines and history you may never figure out what's going on.

Ultimate X-men (along with Ultimate Spider-Man and The Ultimates) takes place in Marvel's New Universe and has nothing to do with the reguler Marvel Universe.

 

[Silver Moon]

I cannot recommend Astro City enough

Same recommendation from me. The first six-issue mini-series is available as a trade paperback, and there are three other trade paperbacks with most of the twenty-two issues of the regular run. You should also be able to find the first two issues of the current five-issue mini-series on the stands.

My other suggestions would be:

The "X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills" graphic novel

Uncanny X-Men: Dark Pheonix Saga trade paperback

Hulk & the Thing: The Big Change graphic novel (silly but fun)

The Frank Miller Batman (includes both Batman: Year One and Dark Knight Returns)

Watchmen trade paperback

The trade paperback reprinting the Daredevil 226-233 run by Frank Miller.

 

[Tsyr]

ELFQUEST!

Sorry I can't be of any real help... Superhero comics were never my thing.

But I do recomend Elfquest, none the less.

 

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Why has nobody mentioned Neil Gaiman? What is wrong with you people? Go and read the Sandman and be fulfilled.

 

[Villano]

I've been out of the loop with comics for a couple of years now (not living near a comic shop does that), but I'd recommend checking out the various Hellboy collections. Especially since there's a new movie that's going to be coming out directed by Blade 2's del Toro and starring Ron Pearlman.

Also, if you want to get into the history, there are these great collected reprints of Marvel comics called Marvel Masterworks. They started these things a few years ago as $50 hardcover books. Now Barnes & Nobles bookstores are selling softcovers for (brace yourself) $12.95! They are B & N exclusives (the Barnes & Noble logo is printed on the spine), so you'll need to buy them at one of their stores or online.

They just started these things, so only the first volumes are out, so it's a good place to jump on. I bought myself Spider-Man (issues #1-10 and Amazing Fantasy #15) and Hulk (issues 1-6). I know that X-Men, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, and Silver Surfer are out. Avengers is also due soon and I'm defintely picking that up. I'm pretty sure Thor is supposed to be out in the near future, too. I'll probably also get that one.

The Spidey book is an especially good history lesson. You get to see the 1st appearances of Chameleon, Vulture, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Lizard, and Electro, as well as The Enforcers (3rd string bad guys that some people have some pretty fond memories of). Oh, and he also meets the Fantastic Four for the 1st time and fights Dr. Doom.

Not bad for $12.95.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm really hyping these things...because I am! I was so burned out on the whole "dark and gritty" thing going on in 90% of the books out there that it was really energizing to read some of the more innocent stuff. I'm jazzed about comics again.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Why has nobody mentioned Neil Gaiman? What is wrong with you people? Go and read the Sandman and be fulfilled.

Quite possibly because I mentioned the Sandman books in my previous post.

This proves my theory that everyone has me on ignore - even people I've never met before!

 

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Please accept my most sincere apologies. This is what happens when I don't actually read through other people's posts, more just skim throught them. There are ignore lists? Oh wonders, of wonders.

 

[Welverin]

Also, if you want to get into the history, there are these great collected reprints of Marvel comics called Marvel Masterworks.

Any one know if these are the same books from a decade or so ago, or are they something new using the same name?