Jumping On

[mattk]

After hearing the good review of JLA #20, i went to my LCS yesterday to pick up a copy since there was nothing else i was planning on getting. The art looked good, i want to get into some DC characters, it was sort of a single issue story - it felt like a good fit. But then i see an issue of #17 on the previous issue racks and pick up that and thumb through and it makes me start wondering what happened before #20, and how i hate just picking up something and reading it in the middle. I ended up not buying it because i simply couldn't handle the feeling of wondering what happened before it.

Now i'm pretty new to monthly concepts and i'm not sure if this is something i just need to get over or what, but i think it is a problem the medium has with trying to get new readership in. I'm currently only picking up 2 main Marvel books - Cap and FF. I read through the Cap Omnibus, death HC, and found the other issues and am now monthly on it. FF i picked up at the begginning of the Millar and Hitch arc as that made it easier. Oh and i tried out Titans that i might be continuing on based on the next issue...

I'm left trying to figure out which main series that doesn't have a lot of issues to go after and either buy a lot of back issues on e-bay or try to catch up by trades - which is not easy as they are so far behind. I'm thinking of series like JSA or Mighty Avengers... But that would never allow me to jump on a series like Batman...

Does that make sense, or should i just get over it and jump on a book - Or maybe not worry about anything and just start looking for new series, expansions and reboots...

This is a subject i've been struggling with for weeks now and would love others thoughts/past experiences. Thanks.

[labor_days]

Does that make sense, or should i just get over it and jump on a book - Or maybe not worry about anything and just start looking for new series, expansions and reboots...

Do this.

Unless a series is a mini or is relatively new, there will always be catching up involved. Most folks do so via trade. If you don't want to go that route you have to just jump in. Hit wikipedia for the stuff you don't know about and get over it.

Mighty Avengers is pretty terrible. The series started off strong but is all over the place. With the last issue being heavily tied to Marvel continuity going back years.

I'd say the superior Avengers book is New Avengers. There are many cheap trades to be had beginning with Bendis' Breakout arc.

Same goes for the new JSA. The best team book on the racks hand down. Get a few of the first trades or the hardcover, Next Age, and go forward from there.

Hard to go wrong wth New Avengers and JSA. JLA is good, but if you are not too knowledgeable of the thigns going on I'm not sure the book will scratch that itch for you.

Also, we have a new to comics and recommendation thread sticky at the top of the forum. This should have been posted there.

[mikegraham6]

it all comes down to the fact that DC needs a recap page. Why DC? WHY? Do you hate new readers or something?

[labor_days]

Every comic book should have a recap page. Sometimes I forget what happened in the last Walking Dead, Buffy or Dan Dare as well.

[mikegraham6]

Originally Posted by Labor_days

Mighty Avengers is pretty terrible. The series started off strong but is all over the place. With the last issue being heavily tied to Marvel continuity going back years.

the same could be said of JSA's current story arc (except for the terrible part)

[labor_days]

Um, no. You can not say that at all. The Kingdom Come stuff is explained flatly in a page and never touched on again till those two guys show up. The specific events of KC are not necessary to understand what is going on within JSA. You have to know of the events that led up to this Skrull thing.

The Mighty Avengers stuff with Fury is very continuity heavy. With no explanation of the Secret War, who the Skrull reveal is, why Fury is on the run, the Spider-Woman connection, etc. None of which is explained succinctly. I had to go to Wikipedia and the forums. And I read those issues and Secret War.

There will always be a bit of continuity in Marvel/DC hero books. But its the degree to which the reader has to work to figure things out that matters most.

To that end, I'm going to say Johns set up the Kingdom Come stuff very simply. Whereas Bendis is doing something a little more complex.

[mikegraham6]

alright labor, you've shown me up, you're right

[labor_days]

It is a common fallacy DC is more complex than Marvel. Especially so given Marvel is the more popular brand. Therefore more readers are likely to have a frame of reference w/r/t the Marvel books & characters. But really, they're both a mess of continuity and minutia.




"Continuity means the best writer at a company is stifled by the worst writer at that company." - Paul Levitz

[xebix]

Originally Posted by Labor_Days

It is a common fallacy DC is more complex than Marvel. Especially so given Marvel is the more popular brand. Therefore more readers are likely to have a frame of reference w/r/t the Marvel books & characters. But really, they're both a mess of continuity and minutia.




"Continuity means the best writer at a company is stifled by the worst writer at that company." - Paul Levitz

I like that quote. It is so true.

[xyzzy]

Originally Posted by Labor_Days

It is a common fallacy DC is more complex than Marvel. Especially so given Marvel is the more popular brand. Therefore more readers are likely to have a frame of reference w/r/t the Marvel books & characters. But really, they're both a mess of continuity and minutia.

I think that part of the reason DC has a bad rep is that they keep pointing at their continuity and all of its problems with big neon signs (Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, etc.), whereas Marvel just kind of ignores it.