Comic Books Comic Book • Page 222

If we're doing general recommendations, Hawkeye by Matt Fraction is a must read.

 

I'm in love with this.

 

Exclusive: DC Comics' Geoff Johns reveals teaser, details on Watchmen/Rebirth title Doomsday Clock

"With Rebirth, I opened the door to Manhattan. Part of that was I loved the real-world influence Watchmen has. I put Manhattan out there, and always thought there was a Manhattan/Superman story to be told, but then ... it grew. And grew. It took my heart and soul over. Still, at the core of it, there’s a being who has lost his humanity, and distanced himself from it, and an alien who embodies humanity more than most humans. I love the idea that Watchmen influenced DC, but what would that look like in reverse? And it goes well beyond that."



This looks really cool.

 

That's a really good interview, he also mentions that Batman Earth One Vol 3 is almost done.

 

Are all the Earth One books worth giving a shot?

 

question that i hope to clearly articulate...

looking at some Batman trade paperback collections (is this the correct term? i heard this a lot on youtube to describe these collections) and i'm wondering if there's a certain order they need to be read in?

for example, looking at: Hush, Long Halloween, Killing Joke and A Celebration of 75 Years.

A Celebration contains Batman 1, 49, 181, 497.
Hush contains Batman 609-619.
Unable (so far) to find what Long Halloween contains and i believe Killing Joke is a stand alone story?

so my question is: would it make most sense to read the stories from A Celebration before reading Hush? and let's say Long Halloween is before the Hush stories it would be best to read that beforehand? and does it matter at all where i read Killing Joke (guessing not since it's a stand alone story).

is there a website that lists all the comics contained in these types of collections? busy first day of stumbling around the internet with comics.

 

So don't worry about reading order or anything like that unless you are going into specific runs such as the ones from Brubaker, Morrison, or Snyder.

If a book is self contained such as Hush, don't pay too much mind. Hush is perfect as a standalone book.

The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, and The Haunted Knight (And When in Rome if you like Catwoman) can be read together, though The Long Halloween is the most important.

Most of us here don't like The Killing Joke, but it looks nice on a shelf. lol

 

I talked so much shit about Superior Spider-Man because I thought the concept was absurd and I was like, just give me Peter Parker. then I read it... brilliant.

 

I am so stoked about all of this. Geoff Johns Rebirth is one of the best comics I've read in years. can't wait to see where the story goes. Loved The Button so far.

 

As Henry said, all these books work well as standalone so you shouldn't be too last as they are all fairly self contained.

If you enjoy those I'd definitely recommend Scott Snyder's run on Batman, starting with New 52 at least. The Black Mirror is great but you'd likely need to know a few things about it before jumping in cold turkey but I'm not gonna spoil it for you.


I will say though that I think most of us in here kinda just started reading something from a character that we had interest in and went from there. So if you read something that doesn't make sense or makes reference to something you aren't familiar with don't feel too bad, there are ALOT of comics to sift through! Haha

Good luck and happy reading!

 

Once I get caught up on Archie and Riverdale I'm going back and re-reading Nailbiter now that the final trade is out.

Real excited about that!

 

I read Black Mirror before Morrison's run and was so confused by who was who. lol. It was a great story though once I got it all sorted.

 

Stan Lee and John Romita doing ridiculous 60s young adult hangs will never get old for me. Like, why the heck do we keep revisiting Peter's teen years when we could have a series dedicated to him as part of a group of vibrant college students who are all in love with life and really into each other? But modernized so they could be constantly listening to Carly Rae Jepsen, The 1975, and The National. And binging Master of None.

 

Just as soon as we give the book to younger artists. I think if someone like Gerard Way or Max Landis (UGH) were given a Spidey book, we'd have something much different than what we are constantly rehashed. I'm not saying it should be either of those guys, but there are certainly people up to the task of modernizing and not giving us the Spider-Car.

 

Gerard's Spider-Verse issue was cool.

On that note I couldn't wait for the trade to read Doom Patrol so I read the six issues online and I love it so much. So much fun.

 

I read the first issue and was beyond confused. I know that is kinda the point with Doom Patrol though. I'll probably pick up the trade though. Maybe I'll pick up the classic stuff for some educating first.

 

Yeah, the first issue is super weird but what I love about it so much is how almost all the things that seem random and weird in that first issue have an explanation and get resolved within the arc. It stays weird but by issue 3 it's definitely easier to follow and makes more sense. I'm very excited to see where he goes next with it.

 

Doomsday Clock sounds awesome, I'm in on that.

Happy about this:
"We’re not going to do a story like this unless we one-thousand percent believe in it. It is all about the story; it is only about the story. There are no crossovers. No watered down one-shots or mini-series on top of this one. This is a standalone story. There is only Doomsday Clock. We had no interest in doing a crossover with this. We didn’t want to see Doctor Manhattan facing off against Superman in Action Comics, with all due respect. That is not what this is about. It is about something different … It will have an impact on the entire DC Universe. It will affect everything moving forward and everything that has come before. It will touch the thematic and literal essence of DC."

 

DON'T YOU DARE SUGGEST THAT MAX LANDIS PUT HIS GRIMEY HANDS ON MY SPIDER-MAN. lol.

What I'm suggesting is something set either earlier in continuity or outside of it, not necessarily an approach to the main ASM series. We've gotten Untold Tales, Chapter One, Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Season One, With Great Power, Learning to Crawl, Spidey, and probably more that I'm forgetting. So much material over the past couple decades rehashing Peter's high school years. In that same amount of time, how often have we revisited Peter and company's college years? I can only think of Spider-Man: Blue... which happens to be one of the best Spider-Man comics around.

Get Kate Leth, Kelly Thompson, even Brian Michael Bendis (in spite of his age, he'd probably do a good job) on a series, either set during the Romita era or re-imagining it within its own continuity, that focuses on college-aged Peter and his friend group, with a heavy emphasis on dialogue and romance and a much lighter focus on superheroics. Maybe even set it from someone else's perspective, like Gwen Stacy. Have Sara Pichelli or someone similar bring a strong sense of expression, fashion, and charm to the art. It'd be awesome and would totally strike a chord with modern audiences.

In terms of rehashing, as much hate as he gets, Dan Slott is honestly doing a wonderful job of balancing reverence for the character's past with a genuinely new take. We got that with Superior and are getting it again with the whole Parker Industries angle. His Peter isn't as charming as I'd like, but as for progressing status quo while respecting the past, I think he's doing better than anyone else would besides maybe Mark Waid. I think if you got someone else to script Slott's plots, you'd have a really strong series. Though, I feel like we're about to tumble into another reset of Peter's status quo into something more traditional, lol.

 

To answer the first part of your question, yes trade paperback is the correct term. Trade paperbacks contain a number of individually released comics. Typically one story arc, or one run from a writer/artist team. A graphic novel would be a book that is released all at once in book (novel) form, something like this, because it was never released as individual issues.

As for the second part of your question, others have already answered it but yeah, don't worry at all about numbering. When a new writer takes over a book, he usually does his own thing with it. Of course things from the past will be brought up, but you'd drive yourself crazy (and never get to some of the best stuff) it you worried about reading everything in order. Pick something that sounds interesting to you, and jump in! For Batman, Year One is a great place to start. Also Snyder's run in the new 52 is also a great place to start, and there are 10 volumes of it. Start here.

Good luck and keep us updated on what you read!

 

I like that he's kinda throwing shade at event tie-ins at the same time that DC is promoting an upcoming event that has a couple one-shot prelude issues and multiple series spinning out of it, lol. But, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how big event stories are handled going forward into 2018. Lots of strong opinions all over the place lately.

 

I like events a lot more when you don't need a ton of tie in issues. I think that helps keep other books from going into a slump because they need to tie into a bigger story too.

 

Needing tie-ins is such a common myth. Every event I've ever read has worked fine on its own, and most tie-in arcs in ongoings I've read work fine on their own. Reading multiple pieces together is purely supplemental and not necessary.

Still, since that misconception continues to persist, and ongoings that tie into events continue to take hits as people jump off, we're definitely going to see a lot less of that going forward. Secret Empire is probably the last example of that we'll see from the Big 2 for a little while. We'll still see crossovers like The Button, and we'll also see more of the tie-in one-shot formula of Monsters Unleashed and Dark Days: Metal, but the more traditional big event that Marvel's done a lot lately probably won't happen anywhere in 2018.

 

thanks for all the insight and information! greatly appreciated!

when i was a kid i loved drawing and cartoons and the reason i never started on comics (and back then we even had an actual comic shop in my town) was because of the numbering thing and think that everything before said number had to be read. so i'd go and look at some covers and see things like "Vol. 5 #116" and think, "damn, i have to read at least 115 comics before this one, i'll never catch up" and then shrug, put the comic back and spend my money on other things.

 

Funny enough, companies started launching renumbering with new #1 issues more often to combat this, but then old fans got annoyed with the constant relaunches. As a result, DC returned two of their oldest series to original numbering (both now in the 900s), and Marvel will be doing the same with some series in the fall. When you have decades of history and fans who love that history, balancing those old fans with bringing in new ones is always tricky, lol.

For those ongoing titles, it's normally easiest to find out where a particular writer's run started, and start there, regardless of numbering. Though, even easier is being able to ask someone (like us!) "Hey, this comic looks cool; where should I start if I wanna read it?" Thankfully, there are also a lot of standalone stories that are great for new readers.