New Comic Book Reader, need help!

Question

i really like spider man, batman, iron man, and the avengers. i have heard the ultimate series is good to start with, but are there some more suggestions? i know batman doesn't have an "ultimate" series since he is dc ha ha. but do i need to read some older issues before jumping in? i know the basics about the heroes i mentioned. im just trying to get an idea of where to start at. thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Actually, try looking into "All-Star Batman & Robin". In a way it's DC's answer to the Ultimate line up. They're re-inventing Batman and Robin with some new twists thanks to Frank Miller.

As for me, I just jumped right into the comic book world and got hooked ever since Jeph Loeb began writing the new Hush arc.

Just know the hero and the villains, his/her origin and start reading. :3 Try some graphic novels to start things off before jumping into the series.

Answer 2

I've got to counter Leonel and say that All-Star Batman is pretty horrible, I wouldn't recommend it.

You should look into trade paperbacks, the square bound collections you can find in Borders and from www.Amazon.com. Generally, you don't need too much outside knowledge to enjoy them as they're usually complete stories.

These are what are universally considered the best Batman stories:

The Killing Joke

The Long Halloween

Dark Victory

Year One

The Dark Knight Returns

Batman Begins borrowed a lot of material from Year One. The Dark Knight takes a lot of elements from The Long Halloween and The Killing Joke. Dark Victory is a sequel to The Long Halloween. The Dark Knight Returns is about an older Batman who comes out of retirement to kick butt again.

Your best bet for reading The Killing Joke is to get a book called DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore. The Killing Joke is included in it, and you can read about a half dozen other fun short stories from Moore, who's considered one of the best writers in comics.

A lot of people will also tell you to get a book called Hush. Hush features art by a guy named Jim Lee, who's extremely popular and has really cool looking art. The story isn't that great, but most people don't notice that because of the art.

For Spider-Man,. I would definitely say start with Ultimate Spider-Man, and from volume 1

For the Avengers, I can think of a whole bunch of good jumping on points. You can start with the George Perez/Kurt Busiek era in the Avengers Assemble line of books, or you can start with Brian Michael Bendis' run which starts with Avengers: Disassembled and continues with New Avengers.

Eventually, you'll want to read Civil War, for Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Avengers, and just about every other character in the Marvel Universe. There might be a lot of characters you won't be familiar with, but it's a good book and I recommend it it. Maybe you should just jump off the deep end and start with that. Maybe read Road to Civil War first for some background.