Comixology's stuff is all DRM'd, on the PC the way to access it is is through their website.
Humm, that worries me a little - but probably only because I had not heard of the site before today. Is them going out of business and you loosing access something to worry about, or are they a big enough player in the market for that to be a non-issue. (I am guessing if they have the backing of players like Marvel that is a good sign). Saying that however, are there any alternatives (other than hard copies)?
And yeah the last thing is a "silly" thing to say, almost all of the NOW! relaunches are great points for a new reader to jump on.
Would it be worth getting the X-Men: Season 1 compilation before All-New X-Men?
ComiXology is not in danger of going out of business. They were the third highest grossing iOS app last year (because they sell comics as IAPs), and the digital comics business is going nowhere but up. The easiest way to explain their DRM is to compare it to Steam, especially if you're on Windows 8 or have a mobile device, as it works the same way. You buy the books from them, and you use their apps to download and read them. When you're done reading them, you can delete them off your device and they're stored on comixology's servers so that you can download them again whenever you want. If you're reading on a non-Windows 8 PC, then you use the web viewer through their website.
I posted this not long ago about where to start with X-Men, and it ought to help you. The 90's X-Men cartoon drew inspiration from and adapted stories from all over the X-Men's history up to that point, so it's a little difficult to pin down an exact era to read for just those stories. Those first 5 Marvel Masterworks volumes of Uncanny X-Men (*important*: make sure you get the Uncanny X-Men MM's and not just "X-Men" as the latter collects the books before the Giant-Sized team became the norm) contain some of the strongest and most beloved X-Men stories and I can't recommend them enough (all of the Phoenix stuff officially starts in volume 2, but there's a build up to it that starts in volume 1).
Can anyone recommend some good cyberpunk comics? Maybe something heavily focused on transhumansim like Battle Angel Alita or Ghost in the Shell, but not necessarily manga?
0
Options
AntimatterDevo Was RightGates of SteelRegistered Userregular
Transmetropolitan maybe? It's almost post cyber punk but has plenty of its elements
0
Options
UnbrokenEvaHIGH ON THE WIREBUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered Userregular
Oh boy, perusing the Comixology site/app after snagging a new Kindle Fire has me in full-on "I'm in some real fucking trouble here" mode.
I am torn between re-reading a bunch of the comics I remember reading during my teens and 20s to see if they still hold up or trying to sample the hip new comics the kids today are into.
I am a bit peeved at how spotty the digital availability of classic Marvel stuff seems to be. Like, I'd snag the original Fantastic Four Galactus story arc in a heartbeat, but the only Lee/Kirby FF available seems to be the first 10 or so issues.
Back in 2010, Sam Worthington announced his work with Full Clip Productions had lead them to teaming with Radical Entertainment. One of the projects he mentioned was a title called "Patriots" where the tagline was (googlefu) "If you had to sacrifice one continent to save the other six, would you do it?"
That line stuck with me and I find myself wondering if they ever got around to publishing it. Amazon fails me and "Patriots" is such an obscenely generic term.
UnbrokenEvaHIGH ON THE WIREBUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered Userregular
I remember seeing an article linked in a thread here a while ago in which someone showed their process for taking multiple floppies or trades and re-binding them into a hardcover omnibus - anyone remember where that was?
The new Iron Man film has given me a push to delving into the comics. Would the following be a good jumping on points with just knowing the basics of the series? (i.e. super rich but "normal" guy builds exo suit, fights evil and looks good doing it)
If I wanted to get into comics, and prefer the Marvel universe/characters to DC, is Marvel Unlimited a good option? Netflix for comics seems like a great thing, but I dunno how it's implementation is.
The new Iron Man film has given me a push to delving into the comics. Would the following be a good jumping on points with just knowing the basics of the series? (i.e. super rich but "normal" guy builds exo suit, fights evil and looks good doing it)
Marvel NOW is just branding Marvel is doing for their comics lately. See, a few months ago they changes writers on almost every series and renumbered the issues back to #1. They didn't change any continuity though, they just focused on starting new stories with their characters that would be accessible to new readers.
What you've got there is good, but I would also recommend checking out The Invincible Iron Man series, which is long, but really good.
If I wanted to get into comics, and prefer the Marvel universe/characters to DC, is Marvel Unlimited a good option? Netflix for comics seems like a great thing, but I dunno how it's implementation is.
Marvel Unlimited is definitely a very cost-effective way to read a shit-load of comics. What I've heard though is that the tablet app is not the best piece of software ever written. If you haven't tried it before, I believe they have a 14 day free trial deal, though.
What I would also recommend is checking your local library. Most libraries in my experience have a pretty good selection of comics.
If I wanted to get into comics, and prefer the Marvel universe/characters to DC, is Marvel Unlimited a good option? Netflix for comics seems like a great thing, but I dunno how it's implementation is.
Marvel Unlimited is definitely a very cost-effective way to read a shit-load of comics. What I've heard though is that the tablet app is not the best piece of software ever written. If you haven't tried it before, I believe they have a 14 day free trial deal, though.
What I would also recommend is checking your local library. Most libraries in my experience have a pretty good selection of comics.
That's putting it kindly. It received an update a couple days ago that actually made it (sort of) usable on my iPad again, and they made some much needed changes to the reader itself, but it's still just barely a passable app. This last update was the first one that didn't actually make the app worse to use. I find the web version of the service completely unusable. Website takes forever to load, and if it does it's just a low-bandwidth version.
If you think you need to try it for yourself, download the app and check it out in free preview mode first. And then only commit to a one month membership for thorough testing. If it works well for you, congrats on being perhaps the only person that it does and I guess feel free to get the cheaper 12 month sub.
The new Iron Man film has given me a push to delving into the comics. Would the following be a good jumping on points with just knowing the basics of the series? (i.e. super rich but "normal" guy builds exo suit, fights evil and looks good doing it)
I believe IM3 incorporates Extremis, and the Extremis comic pretty much rebooted the origin story, so it'd be a fine place to start. You could also just watch the Extremis motion comic on Hulu for free, which is like a sorta-animated voice-acted version of the print comic.
Would also add Johnathan Hickman's Fantastic Four/FF run. I'm not sure I can come up with a more memorable, straight up awe-inspiring example of "super people doing super things" than F4 600-604. Bastard set the bar to nearly unreachable heights by which I've come to judge all other super hero books with that whole run.
I'm not really looking for ongoing titles, I'm more interested in the older stuff. If I can go buy it at the LCS I'd rather get physical copies. I'm talking about stuff like Power Girl ,where the second trade alone will cost $50 but I can pick up each issue on Comixology for $1.99.
Annihilation Book 1 seems to have vanished, so you'd have to buy the components.. Wait, nevermind, I found it. You just need to buy the Drax story separately.
Thanos (2003) #1-12 is not on Comixlogy, which is a bummer since it sets up some stuff in Annihilation.
And that was pretty much the end of that era of Cosmic Marvel. Gets really soggy during the War of Kings, but it's otherwise a fairly easy read. I'll see if I can't dig up a reading order.
But that's a really rough read order.. there's a lot of simultaneously occurring comics during the War of Kings. I'll see if I can dig up a better one. (Put Secret Invasion: Inhumans next to Emperor Vulcan on that)
EDIT2: Like, this was based on reading from trades, but it should still work. I haven't tested this out myself, so if the chronology gets fubared, I apologize ahead of time. If anyone has any adjustments they'd suggest, I'd be all years.
Modern Marvel Cosmic Reading Order
Annihilation Classic
Thanos #1-6 (Thanos: Ephiphany)
Thanos #7-12 (Thanos: Samaritan)
Annihilation Books 1-3
Nova #1-3 (Nova 1: Annihilation - Conquest)
Annihilation: Conquest 1
Nova #4-7 (Nova 1: Annihilation – Conquest)
Nova #8-10 & Nova Annual #1 (Nova 2: Knowhere)
Wraith #1-4 (Annihilation: Conquest 2)
Annihilation: Conquest #1 (Annihilation: Conquest 2)
Nova #11-12 (Nova 2: Knowhere)
Annihilation: Conquest #2-6 (Annihilation: Conquest 2)
Guardians of the Galaxy #1-6 (Guardians of the Galaxy 1: Legacy)
Nova #13-18 (Nova 3: Secret Invasion)
Nova #19-22 (Nova 4: Nova Corps)
Secret Invasion: Inhumans (Secret Invasion: Inhumans)
War of Kings: Darkhawk #1-2 (War of Kings: Warriors)
Emperor Vulcan (Emperor Vulcan)
War of Kings Saga (Road to the War of Kings)
“The Hole” from X-Men: Divided We Stand #2 (Road to the War of Kings)
X-Men Kingbreaker #1 (Road to the War of Kings)
War of Kings: Warriors #1 (War of Kings: Warriors)
Guardians of the Galaxy #7 - #10 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2: War of Kings Book 1)
Secret Invasion: War of Kings (Road to the War of Kings or War of Kings)
War of Kings: Warriors #2 – Crystal (War of Kings: Warriors)
X-Men: Kingbreaker #2 - #4 (Road to the War of Kings)
War of Kings: Warriors #2 – Lilandra (War of Kings: Warriors)
Guardians of the Galaxy #11 - #12 (Road to the War of Kings)
War of Kings #1 (War of Kings)
Nova #23 - #24 (Nova 5: War of Kings)
War of Kings #2 (War of Kings)
War of Kings Savage World of Sakaar (War of Kings: Warriors)
War of Kings Ascension #1 (War of Kings: Warriors)
Guardians of the Galaxy #13 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2: War of Kings Book 2)
War of Kings #3 (War of Kings)
War of Kings Ascension #2 (War of Kings: Warriors)
Nova #25 (Nova 5: War of Kings)
Guardians of the Galaxy #14 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2: War of Kings Book 2)
Nova #26 (Nova 5: War of Kings)
War of Kings #4 (War of Kings)
War of Kings Ascension #3 (War of Kings: Warriors)
Guardians of the Galaxy #15 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2: War of Kings Book 2)
War of Kings #5 (War of Kings)
War of Kings Ascension #4 (War of Kings: Warriors)
Nova #27 (Nova 5: War of Kings)
Guardians of the Galaxy #16 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2: War of Kings Book 2)
War of Kings #6 (War of Kings)
Guardians of the Galaxy #17 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2: War of Kings Book 2)
Nova #28 (Nova 5: War of Kings)
War of Kings: Who Will Rule? (War of Kings)
Guardians of the Galaxy #18-19 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2: War of Kings Book 2)
Nova #29-30 (Nova 6: Realm of Kings)
Realm of Kings (Realm of Kings)
Realm of Kings: Inhumans #1-5 (Realm of Kings)
Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard #1-5 (Realm of Kings)
Nova #31-35 (Nova 6: Realm of Kings)
Guardians of the Galaxy #20-25 (Guardians of the Galaxy 4: Realm of Kings)
The Thanos Imperative
Annihilators
Annihilators: Earthfall
What's the good stuff on comixology? I like superheros doing super stuff and not being bogged down with angst and shit.
Sci-fi and fantasy is cool, too.
I'd ad Matt Fraction's FF run for super heroes and the reboot of Prophet (which starts with issue 21) for sci fi. Prophet 21 is free so no harm in giving it a spin.
So I'm thinking of starting to read Hickman's run on either Fantastic Four or the Ultimates. Which would you guys recommend more highly? I know that the FF run has been going on for awhile and I've heard great things about it. On the other hand, I really enjoyed Millar's Ultimates run and I hear Hickman does a great job with the series. Thoughts?
Now this is just the first omnibus volume, but it has Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #1-5 and the Dark Reign : The Cabal one-shot that wasn't collected anywhere else, along with Fantastic Four #570-588 and FF #1-5. If you pre-order now you can get it for 25% off.
If I wanted to get into comics, and prefer the Marvel universe/characters to DC, is Marvel Unlimited a good option? Netflix for comics seems like a great thing, but I dunno how it's implementation is.
Marvel Unlimited is definitely a very cost-effective way to read a shit-load of comics. What I've heard though is that the tablet app is not the best piece of software ever written. If you haven't tried it before, I believe they have a 14 day free trial deal, though.
What I would also recommend is checking your local library. Most libraries in my experience have a pretty good selection of comics.
That's putting it kindly. It received an update a couple days ago that actually made it (sort of) usable on my iPad again, and they made some much needed changes to the reader itself, but it's still just barely a passable app. This last update was the first one that didn't actually make the app worse to use. I find the web version of the service completely unusable. Website takes forever to load, and if it does it's just a low-bandwidth version.
If you think you need to try it for yourself, download the app and check it out in free preview mode first. And then only commit to a one month membership for thorough testing. If it works well for you, congrats on being perhaps the only person that it does and I guess feel free to get the cheaper 12 month sub.
Sadly it must be too late, as I am apparently the person that it works well for.
Seriously though, I love MDCU. Aside from very rare graphic novel pickups like Kingdom Come, I hadn't touched comics in about 20 years. A year ago I gave MDCU a try and have read through so much stuff since then. I think I started with Daredevil #1 from 1998, and read through every issue up to the most recent available online. Along the way I would branch out periodically to keep up with a crossover or whatever. When I was done I went through some Heroes for Hire and the Immortal Iron Fist. Then I think I moved on to the first couple of Ultimates, and some Avengers runs since I hadn't really ever read them before. Then some Iron Man bits like Extremis.
I went through a ton of other stories that were related in one way or another to the current MCU, and branched off whenever a particular character or team intrigued me. Every so often I'd come back to the recommendations from this forum to try something different.
Lately I've taken to just scrolling down the series list and clicking on something I'm not familiar with to see if it looks interesting. Sometimes I find some total crap, and other times it works out really well. Like last week, I found myself wondering who Madrox was. Read his little series and then went straight into X-Factor, which I loved. Read all the way through issue 240, and decided to go ahead and order Breaking Points from Amazon since they don't have all of the issues on MDCU.
I've never tried it on a tablet, but MDCU works just fine for me on my PC. The website is slow at times, but it works normally more often than not. Every once in a while the site seems to be totally down. C'est la vie. In the months where I have more time and inclination I go through hundreds of issues for $5 - I cannot beat that deal. My only complaint is that sometimes you get text that is impossible to read (most black text on dark backgrounds). That can be annoying. Other times you get speech bubbles that appear to have been intentionally blocked out for no apparent reason, and that's even more annoying. It's a small enough percentage of the overall content that I just shrug and move on though.
If I were wanting to check out the Dragon Ball/Z mangas, what would be the best way to do so? There seems to be a mess of different versions available and I know absolutely nothing about the medium. Is the only way to get them on an iPad via the VIZ Media app?
I'd say the way to go is hard copy manga. The ones that are in the thick A5 (?) format and printed from right to left.
I know that for a while tere comic publishers were trying to sell manga in comic issue formats and often they used mirrored art and stuff. Avoid that, it ruins the experience!
As for digital I'm not sure. I know that manga is really behind on that front. Also be aware that DBZ and Dragonball are part of a continuous arc but are very different in feel.
Oh, I'm very aware of the differences between DB and Z. I spent a few good years of my teens watching it and being a general psycho for it. I've just never checked out the manga and was thinking about that fact the other day.
The VizBig 3-in-1's were what I was originally thinking of looking into, though it looks like volumes 4 and 5 are hard to find (in that they're not in stock on Amazon) and 3rd party copies go for stupid amounts of money. But I see Viz is releasing new, cheaper 3-in-1's that are supposedly uncensored versions of the whole shebang starting next month, so I guess I'm going to wait and see what the verdict is on this new edition before deciding what to do.
Posts
ComiXology is not in danger of going out of business. They were the third highest grossing iOS app last year (because they sell comics as IAPs), and the digital comics business is going nowhere but up. The easiest way to explain their DRM is to compare it to Steam, especially if you're on Windows 8 or have a mobile device, as it works the same way. You buy the books from them, and you use their apps to download and read them. When you're done reading them, you can delete them off your device and they're stored on comixology's servers so that you can download them again whenever you want. If you're reading on a non-Windows 8 PC, then you use the web viewer through their website.
I posted this not long ago about where to start with X-Men, and it ought to help you. The 90's X-Men cartoon drew inspiration from and adapted stories from all over the X-Men's history up to that point, so it's a little difficult to pin down an exact era to read for just those stories. Those first 5 Marvel Masterworks volumes of Uncanny X-Men (*important*: make sure you get the Uncanny X-Men MM's and not just "X-Men" as the latter collects the books before the Giant-Sized team became the norm) contain some of the strongest and most beloved X-Men stories and I can't recommend them enough (all of the Phoenix stuff officially starts in volume 2, but there's a build up to it that starts in volume 1).
it's also got a lot more of the -punk than most examples of the genre.
I am torn between re-reading a bunch of the comics I remember reading during my teens and 20s to see if they still hold up or trying to sample the hip new comics the kids today are into.
I am a bit peeved at how spotty the digital availability of classic Marvel stuff seems to be. Like, I'd snag the original Fantastic Four Galactus story arc in a heartbeat, but the only Lee/Kirby FF available seems to be the first 10 or so issues.
Back in 2010, Sam Worthington announced his work with Full Clip Productions had lead them to teaming with Radical Entertainment. One of the projects he mentioned was a title called "Patriots" where the tagline was (googlefu) "If you had to sacrifice one continent to save the other six, would you do it?"
That line stuck with me and I find myself wondering if they ever got around to publishing it. Amazon fails me and "Patriots" is such an obscenely generic term.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
I have a project in mind.
http://www.comicbookbinding.com/
Gonna have the classiest JIM Omnibus
I don't think they work like regular arrows
What's the good stuff on comixology? I like superheros doing super stuff and not being bogged down with angst and shit.
Sci-fi and fantasy is cool, too.
Iron Man: Extremis
Iron Man: Execute Program
Iron Man: Believe (Marvel NOW is the same continuity, right?)
Well, aside from the Ultimate Universe.. and the 2099 universe.. and you know what, just yet. Yes Marvel Now is in the same continuity.
Dude, there is a lot of good stuff on Comixology. As far as currently ongoing series, I think you'll like:
Superheroes:
Daredevil by Mark Waid
Hawkeye by Matt Fraction
Captain Marvel by Kelly Sue DeConnick
Indestructible Hulk by Mark Waid
The Flash by Francis Manapul
Any one of those you can jump right on with issue #1 and have fun.
For sci-fi and fantasy:
Atomic Robo
Fables
The Manhattan Projects
Saga
Skullkickers
Marvel NOW is just branding Marvel is doing for their comics lately. See, a few months ago they changes writers on almost every series and renumbered the issues back to #1. They didn't change any continuity though, they just focused on starting new stories with their characters that would be accessible to new readers.
What you've got there is good, but I would also recommend checking out The Invincible Iron Man series, which is long, but really good.
Marvel Unlimited is definitely a very cost-effective way to read a shit-load of comics. What I've heard though is that the tablet app is not the best piece of software ever written. If you haven't tried it before, I believe they have a 14 day free trial deal, though.
What I would also recommend is checking your local library. Most libraries in my experience have a pretty good selection of comics.
That's putting it kindly. It received an update a couple days ago that actually made it (sort of) usable on my iPad again, and they made some much needed changes to the reader itself, but it's still just barely a passable app. This last update was the first one that didn't actually make the app worse to use. I find the web version of the service completely unusable. Website takes forever to load, and if it does it's just a low-bandwidth version.
If you think you need to try it for yourself, download the app and check it out in free preview mode first. And then only commit to a one month membership for thorough testing. If it works well for you, congrats on being perhaps the only person that it does and I guess feel free to get the cheaper 12 month sub.
I believe IM3 incorporates Extremis, and the Extremis comic pretty much rebooted the origin story, so it'd be a fine place to start. You could also just watch the Extremis motion comic on Hulu for free, which is like a sorta-animated voice-acted version of the print comic.
Would also add Johnathan Hickman's Fantastic Four/FF run. I'm not sure I can come up with a more memorable, straight up awe-inspiring example of "super people doing super things" than F4 600-604. Bastard set the bar to nearly unreachable heights by which I've come to judge all other super hero books with that whole run.
Annihilation Book 1 seems to have vanished, so you'd have to buy the components.. Wait, nevermind, I found it. You just need to buy the Drax story separately.
Thanos (2003) #1-12 is not on Comixlogy, which is a bummer since it sets up some stuff in Annihilation.
Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest
Drax the Destroyer
Annihilation Book 1
Annihilation Book 2
Annihilation Book 3
Annihilation Conquest Book 1
Annihilation Conquest Book 2
Ongoings
Nova (2007) #1-36 + Annual (Issues 4-7 are included in Annihilation: Conquest Book 2, issues #29-36 aren't in a collection
Guardians of the Galaxy (2008) #1-25 Issues 13-25 aren't in a collection
Now it's gets messy
War of Kings
Emperor Vulcan (Not Available)
Secret Invasions: Inhumans #1-4
War of Kings: Warriors #1-2
War of Kings; Darkhawk #1-2
War of Kings: Ascension #1-4
War of Kings (Includes Secret Invasion: War of Kings and War of Kings: Who Will Rule?)
Realm of Kings
Realm of Kings One-Shot
Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard #1-5
Realm of Kings: Inhumans #1-5
There's also a Realm of Kings: Son of Hulk story, but dear christ is it skippable.
Everything Else
The Thanos Imperative
Annihilators #1-4
Annihilators: Earthfall is not up on Comixology, but it wasn't a great story to begin with.
And that was pretty much the end of that era of Cosmic Marvel. Gets really soggy during the War of Kings, but it's otherwise a fairly easy read. I'll see if I can't dig up a reading order.
EDIT: There is this: http://i.imgur.com/tarIC.jpg
But that's a really rough read order.. there's a lot of simultaneously occurring comics during the War of Kings. I'll see if I can dig up a better one. (Put Secret Invasion: Inhumans next to Emperor Vulcan on that)
EDIT2: Like, this was based on reading from trades, but it should still work. I haven't tested this out myself, so if the chronology gets fubared, I apologize ahead of time. If anyone has any adjustments they'd suggest, I'd be all years.
Annihilation Classic
Thanos #1-6 (Thanos: Ephiphany)
Thanos #7-12 (Thanos: Samaritan)
Annihilation Books 1-3
Nova #1-3 (Nova 1: Annihilation - Conquest)
Annihilation: Conquest 1
Nova #4-7 (Nova 1: Annihilation – Conquest)
Nova #8-10 & Nova Annual #1 (Nova 2: Knowhere)
Wraith #1-4 (Annihilation: Conquest 2)
Annihilation: Conquest #1 (Annihilation: Conquest 2)
Nova #11-12 (Nova 2: Knowhere)
Annihilation: Conquest #2-6 (Annihilation: Conquest 2)
Guardians of the Galaxy #1-6 (Guardians of the Galaxy 1: Legacy)
Nova #13-18 (Nova 3: Secret Invasion)
Nova #19-22 (Nova 4: Nova Corps)
Secret Invasion: Inhumans (Secret Invasion: Inhumans)
War of Kings: Darkhawk #1-2 (War of Kings: Warriors)
Emperor Vulcan (Emperor Vulcan)
War of Kings Saga (Road to the War of Kings)
“The Hole” from X-Men: Divided We Stand #2 (Road to the War of Kings)
X-Men Kingbreaker #1 (Road to the War of Kings)
War of Kings: Warriors #1 (War of Kings: Warriors)
Guardians of the Galaxy #7 - #10 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2: War of Kings Book 1)
Secret Invasion: War of Kings (Road to the War of Kings or War of Kings)
War of Kings: Warriors #2 – Crystal (War of Kings: Warriors)
X-Men: Kingbreaker #2 - #4 (Road to the War of Kings)
War of Kings: Warriors #2 – Lilandra (War of Kings: Warriors)
Guardians of the Galaxy #11 - #12 (Road to the War of Kings)
War of Kings #1 (War of Kings)
Nova #23 - #24 (Nova 5: War of Kings)
War of Kings #2 (War of Kings)
War of Kings Savage World of Sakaar (War of Kings: Warriors)
War of Kings Ascension #1 (War of Kings: Warriors)
Guardians of the Galaxy #13 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2: War of Kings Book 2)
War of Kings #3 (War of Kings)
War of Kings Ascension #2 (War of Kings: Warriors)
Nova #25 (Nova 5: War of Kings)
Guardians of the Galaxy #14 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2: War of Kings Book 2)
Nova #26 (Nova 5: War of Kings)
War of Kings #4 (War of Kings)
War of Kings Ascension #3 (War of Kings: Warriors)
Guardians of the Galaxy #15 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2: War of Kings Book 2)
War of Kings #5 (War of Kings)
War of Kings Ascension #4 (War of Kings: Warriors)
Nova #27 (Nova 5: War of Kings)
Guardians of the Galaxy #16 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2: War of Kings Book 2)
War of Kings #6 (War of Kings)
Guardians of the Galaxy #17 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2: War of Kings Book 2)
Nova #28 (Nova 5: War of Kings)
War of Kings: Who Will Rule? (War of Kings)
Guardians of the Galaxy #18-19 (Guardians of the Galaxy 2: War of Kings Book 2)
Nova #29-30 (Nova 6: Realm of Kings)
Realm of Kings (Realm of Kings)
Realm of Kings: Inhumans #1-5 (Realm of Kings)
Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard #1-5 (Realm of Kings)
Nova #31-35 (Nova 6: Realm of Kings)
Guardians of the Galaxy #20-25 (Guardians of the Galaxy 4: Realm of Kings)
The Thanos Imperative
Annihilators
Annihilators: Earthfall
I'd ad Matt Fraction's FF run for super heroes and the reboot of Prophet (which starts with issue 21) for sci fi. Prophet 21 is free so no harm in giving it a spin.
This is the entirety of his Ultimates run, plus the Bendis story that sets it up:
Ultimate Doomsday #1-5
Ultimate Comics Ultimates #1-12
Whereas his FF run looks like this:
Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #1-5
Fantastic Four #570-588
FF #1-11
Fantastic Four #600-608
FF #12-19
There's an omnibus of Hickman's Fantastic Four stuff coming out in October, you might want to wait for that.
http://amzn.com/0785165665
Now this is just the first omnibus volume, but it has Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #1-5 and the Dark Reign : The Cabal one-shot that wasn't collected anywhere else, along with Fantastic Four #570-588 and FF #1-5. If you pre-order now you can get it for 25% off.
Sadly it must be too late, as I am apparently the person that it works well for.
Seriously though, I love MDCU. Aside from very rare graphic novel pickups like Kingdom Come, I hadn't touched comics in about 20 years. A year ago I gave MDCU a try and have read through so much stuff since then. I think I started with Daredevil #1 from 1998, and read through every issue up to the most recent available online. Along the way I would branch out periodically to keep up with a crossover or whatever. When I was done I went through some Heroes for Hire and the Immortal Iron Fist. Then I think I moved on to the first couple of Ultimates, and some Avengers runs since I hadn't really ever read them before. Then some Iron Man bits like Extremis.
I went through a ton of other stories that were related in one way or another to the current MCU, and branched off whenever a particular character or team intrigued me. Every so often I'd come back to the recommendations from this forum to try something different.
Lately I've taken to just scrolling down the series list and clicking on something I'm not familiar with to see if it looks interesting. Sometimes I find some total crap, and other times it works out really well. Like last week, I found myself wondering who Madrox was. Read his little series and then went straight into X-Factor, which I loved. Read all the way through issue 240, and decided to go ahead and order Breaking Points from Amazon since they don't have all of the issues on MDCU.
I've never tried it on a tablet, but MDCU works just fine for me on my PC. The website is slow at times, but it works normally more often than not. Every once in a while the site seems to be totally down. C'est la vie. In the months where I have more time and inclination I go through hundreds of issues for $5 - I cannot beat that deal. My only complaint is that sometimes you get text that is impossible to read (most black text on dark backgrounds). That can be annoying. Other times you get speech bubbles that appear to have been intentionally blocked out for no apparent reason, and that's even more annoying. It's a small enough percentage of the overall content that I just shrug and move on though.
I know that for a while tere comic publishers were trying to sell manga in comic issue formats and often they used mirrored art and stuff. Avoid that, it ruins the experience!
As for digital I'm not sure. I know that manga is really behind on that front. Also be aware that DBZ and Dragonball are part of a continuous arc but are very different in feel.
The VizBig 3-in-1's were what I was originally thinking of looking into, though it looks like volumes 4 and 5 are hard to find (in that they're not in stock on Amazon) and 3rd party copies go for stupid amounts of money. But I see Viz is releasing new, cheaper 3-in-1's that are supposedly uncensored versions of the whole shebang starting next month, so I guess I'm going to wait and see what the verdict is on this new edition before deciding what to do.
Bloodshot
East of West
Manhattan Projects
Bravest Warriors
maybe Hellboy in Hell?