good comic books and grahic novels for a "newbie"

heretoinformheretoinform __BANNED USERS regular
edited October 2007 in Graphic Violence
Hey all, I've been thinking about getting into some comic books/graphic novels lately. I'm not really into them as of now, so I was wondering what story arcs or issues I should be buying.

Things/Superheroes I like:

Spiderman
Superman (I liked that version where it takes place in Russia, I think its called Red Son)
Hulk is cool
Marvel stuff
Flash is one of my favorite super heroes


Thanks.

PS: I do not like Japanese style drawing in the slightest.

Socialism is the concrete foundation of America. Capitalism is the flimsy tin shack that sits upon it.
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Posts

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    If Hulk is cool, then by all means get the Planet Hulk hardcover. You can get it for like $25 on Amazon. It's 400+ pages of Hulk goodness.

    DarkPrimus on
  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Off the top of my head, these would all be good places to start.

    Spider-Man
    Spider-Man: Blue
    Ultimate Spider-Man
    Kraven's Last Hunt
    Coming Home
    Revelations

    Superman
    Birthright
    Secret Identity
    Superman For All Seasons
    Up, Up, and Away

    Hulk
    Hulk: Grey
    Planet Hulk
    World War Hulk (not yet released as a trade paperback)

    Marvel Stuff
    Marvel Team Up: League of Losers
    New Avengers
    Captain America (by Ed Brubaker)
    Punisher War Journal (by Matt Fraction)
    The Immortal Iron Fist
    Fantastic Four (by Mark Waid)
    New X-Men (by Grant Morrison)
    New X-Men: Academy X
    Gravity

    Flash
    Born to Run
    The Return of Barry Allen
    Terminal Velocity
    Dead Heat
    Race Against Time
    Wonderland
    Blood Will Run
    The Rogues
    Crossfire
    Blitz
    Ignition
    The Secret of Barry Allen
    Rogue War

    Munch on
  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Superman: Red Son was an entertaining read.
    I also recomend Kingdom Come if you haven't read it. (Note: There was a sequel, of sorts, called "The Kingdom". Don't pick it up.)

    Obligatory "Watchmen" vote as well.

    see317 on
  • BlankspaceBlankspace __BANNED USERS regular
    edited October 2007
    This would probably go best in the Ask Whippy Thread.

    Blankspace on
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  • BlankspaceBlankspace __BANNED USERS regular
    edited October 2007
    see317 wrote: »
    Superman: Red Son was an entertaining read.
    I also recomend Kingdom Come if you haven't read it. (Note: There was a sequel, of sorts, called "The Kingdom". Don't pick it up.)

    Obligatory "Watchmen" vote as well.
    No, Kingdom Come is a terrible comic for people new to comics.

    It is so heavily involved in DC History that they would be totally lost.

    Blankspace on
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  • LibrarianThorneLibrarianThorne Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Kingdom Come is what got me into comics after a several year hiatus, and it was what got me really into DC. Kingdom Come is just fine for a new Marvel reader. Piggybacking onto that, Marvels is an absolutely goddamned fantastic read and it has painted art by the same guy that did Kingdom Come, Alex Ross.

    Flash: The Return of Barry Allen is arguably the best Flash story ever. It takes place after the second Flash, Barry Allen, died saving God, the Universe, and everything in the mega-event Crisis on Infinite Earths. His sidekick, Kid Flash, took up the mantle of the Flash but sturggled in the shoes of his mentor and never felt like he was doing as good a job as he needed to.

    I'd also highly recommend the first 6 volumes of JLA by Grant Morrison. There's no better introduction to the wider mythos of the DC Universe than those 6 amazing collections. All the big superheroes are in the League, but there's plent of characters most people are unfamiliar with like Oracle, Huntress, and Zauriel. JLA is flat out the biggest, most epic superhero stories ever.

    If you like Superman stories, pick up The DC Universe Stories of Alan Moore. Alan Moore wrote two of the absolute greatest Superman stories of all time in "For the Man who has Everything" and "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?". Since me describing how great the stories are would do no good to you, I'll post the introduction from the first page of Whatever Happened:

    This is an imaginary story (which may never happen, but then again may) about a perfect man who came from the sky and did only good. It tells of his twilight, when the great battles were over and the great miracles long since performed; of how his enemies conspired against him and of that final war in the snowblind wastes beneath the Northern Lights; of the two women he loved and of the choice he made between them; and how finally all the things he had were taken from him save one. It ends with a wink. It begins in a quiet midwestern town, one summer afternoon in the quiet midwestern future. Away in the big city, people still sometimes glance up hopefully from the sidewalks, glimpsing a distant speck in the sky... but no: it's only a bird, only a plane. Superman died ten years ago. This is an imaginary story...

    Aren't they all?

    LibrarianThorne on
  • augustaugust where you come from is gone Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    I agree on Kingdom Come. I didn't know shit about DC and it made me want to find out more.

    august on
  • deadonthestreetdeadonthestreet Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Buy the first Runaways hardcover because you will love it.

    deadonthestreet on
  • TavTav Irish Minister for DefenceRegistered User regular
    edited October 2007
    I have not bought comics in over a year due to financial constraints, but I recommend The Goon with all my <3 if its still going. The Walking Dead was awesome too.

    Tav on
  • KVWKVW Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    All-Star Superman is spectacular, but plagued by delays. I'd still recommend picking it up though as it is the best Superman book in decades.

    Hulk - Planet Hulk was my favourite Hulk related story in years. It was far from perfect, but still remained highly entertaining for me. Would lead you into World War Hulk, which is finishing up next month.

    Spider-Man - Just ignore it until Brand New Day comes in December, which is when Amazing Spider-Man goes 3 times a month. Feel free to pick up Ultimate Spider-Man trades though. That is a great read and has been consistently good since it came out. It's an re-imagining of Spider-Man and features a still-teenagned Peter Parker without the years of continuity and baggage the current titles possess.



    Not on your list, but Green Lantern is probably the best comic running these days with the Sinestro Corps War going on. It is easily the best story in years from either Marvel or DC and you can easily jump in with the Sinestro Corps War Special, which started this current storyline.

    Also, grab Annihilation and its related titles. It was another space epic that came out of Marvel last year and reinvigorated many of the cosmic characters and set the stage for the upcoming Annihilation: Conquest sequel, which is sure to be just as entertaining.

    KVW on
  • jkylefultonjkylefulton Squid...or Kid? NNID - majpellRegistered User regular
    edited October 2007
    NEW FRONTIER
    The second or third FABLES trade (note: not superheroes)
    The first TOM STRONG trade
    TOP TEN
    GOLDEN AGE (Robinson and Smith doing the JSA - I'm not sure if it's collected in a trade or not)
    The first few HELLBOY trades
    All of the ASTRO CITY trades

    jkylefulton on
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  • secondserkissecondserkis Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Y:THE LAST MAN is one of the best pieces of literature I've ever read.

    secondserkis on
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  • AlgertmanAlgertman Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Runaways vol 1-3 Hard Cover. Drop it after that cause Whedon jumps on and his run is terrible.

    Planet Hulk HC is an easy pick

    Kingdom Come

    Watchmen

    All-Star Superman

    Algertman on
  • BlackjackBlackjack Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Algertman wrote: »
    Runaways vol 1-3 Hard Cover. Drop it after that cause Whedon jumps on and his run is terrible.
    I would add that you should still pay attention to what's going on, because Terry Moore is picking it up after Whedon (Whedon's on for six issues which, taking into consideration the amount of time it's taken for the first few to come out, should end his run sometime in 2015) and it could get good again.

    If you ignore the sure to be horrible art.

    Blackjack on
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  • OlivawOlivaw good name, isn't it? the foot of mt fujiRegistered User regular
    edited October 2007
    The Spirit is a great comic, probably my favorite right now

    Thor is a great comic, because Thor himself is great, and it just got a relaunch so now is a good time to start reading

    New Frontier is a great graphic novel, though I guess it's pretty steeped in DC history

    All-Star Superman is a great comic because it is funny as all get out

    Olivaw on
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  • KilljoyKilljoy __BANNED USERS regular
    edited October 2007
    SCOTT PILGRIM!

    Maybe that's not the sort of comic you're looking for, but I have yet to find anyone that doesn't like it.

    Killjoy on
  • werehippywerehippy Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Invincible. Saying this kind of thing is always a judgment call, but I think that it's legitimately the best superhero book out there and it's all new character's so there's no knowledge required beforehand. Pick up the first hardcover trade, which collects the first 18 issues and the first major arc.

    It's basically (to start) a non-angsty spiderman, about what it would be like to be superman's son and come into your own powers. It does about a dozen issues of this really great light hearted, reveling in being fun, thing and then it goes of on some insane twists while getting continually better. The last few issues have been a bit weaker, but that's because we're in the set up for the big brew ha ha around issue 50.


    The thing I'll say is do NOT read the wiki about the book or look at reviews of later issues, because there are some huge spoilers that it's really better to read the story and get than have be a one or two sentence background throw away.

    werehippy on
  • smokmnkysmokmnky Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Buy the first Runaways hardcover because you will love it.

    I could not recommend this any more. Get the hardcover though since they are full size. For whatever reason Marvel is stupid and only had the trades in those small digests

    Ultimate Spiderman is pretty awesome too.

    smokmnky on
  • HooraydiationHooraydiation Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    We need a recommendation thread.

    Read X-Statix!

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  • BlackjackBlackjack Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Young Avengers is also pretty awesome, and they're coming out with a hardcover that has all twelve issues.

    Blackjack on
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  • Angel177Angel177 Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Invincible. fuckin A, as said great book, also Y the last man fucking rocks.HARD I picked up the full current run and read it over 5 hours...and there makin a film so read it first.
    also since I don't know your age i'm still making the suggestions barry ween boy genuis, think calvin and hoobes on PCP...Transmetropolitain, think futuristic hunter s thompson...The Sandman, great writing about the king of dreams and his adventures cover some DC history but also a lot of great fiction but with slight twists.

    and ones to second or third from the above lists

    Ultimate Spider-Man
    Secret Identity
    Superman For All Seasons
    Planet Hulk
    The Spirit
    FABLES
    The first few HELLBOY trades
    All of the ASTRO CITY trades

    enjoy nearly all the suggestions on here so far are great, theres even some i havent read.

    Angel177 on
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  • JacobkoshJacobkosh Gamble a stamp. I can show you how to be a real man!Moderator mod
    edited October 2007
    We need a recommendation thread.

    Read X-Statix!

    Yes, because X-Statix is a cool book, but like half the shit in this thread, pretty much completely the opposite of something I'd recommend for a newbie.

    Jacobkosh on
  • KalTorakKalTorak One way or another, they all end up in the Undercity.Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Has anyone mentioned Superman: Red Son yet? I'm sure someone has. I finally bought and read it yesterday, and yes, it is indeed fucking amazing. Basic premise: Superman lands in Soviet Russia instead of Kansas. Anyone who doesn't enjoy this book is a dirty commie.

    KalTorak on
  • SatanIsMyMotorSatanIsMyMotor Fuck Warren Ellis Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    KalTorak wrote: »
    Has anyone mentioned Superman: Red Son yet? I'm sure someone has. I finally bought and read it yesterday, and yes, it is indeed fucking amazing. Basic premise: Superman lands in Soviet Russia instead of Kansas. Anyone who doesn't enjoy this book is a dirty commie.

    Reading is hard.

    Just joking, but seriously, read the OP.

    SatanIsMyMotor on
  • HooraydiationHooraydiation Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    jacobkosh wrote: »
    We need a recommendation thread.

    Read X-Statix!

    Yes, because X-Statix is a cool book, but like half the shit in this thread, pretty much completely the opposite of something I'd recommend for a newbie.

    My ex-girlfriend liked it, despite it being only the fifth or so comic book she'd ever read.

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