Recently a certain super hero
movie made big news and big box office bucks. The Avengers has led people to
ask the same question that always crops up during a superhero movie release.
“How do I get in to comics?”
Comics have so many
interconnecting stories and are very much like soap operas in the way that each
comic is simply an episode in one long, never-ending story. I was put off
comics for years because I just had no idea where to begin. I was worried I’d
get confused and things wouldn’t make sense.
However I’m in to comics now.
It’s been a slowly building monster and I still wouldn’t call myself an expert
but I thought I could offer fellow Marvel movie fans some advice. If you think
you might be a DC person I apologise in advance for the lack of references to
their comics. However I’m sure you’ll be able to apply the pointers to their
comic universe too.
I think the best way to do this
would be to tell you how I personally made my way through the murky waters of
comic books. I was a fan of several Marvel cartoons and movies. There were the
X-men movies and X-men evolution, Spider-man and somewhere hidden in my
memories, the 90’s Spider-man cartoon. And more recently Iron Man and the
Marvel movies that followed.
This might sound like odd advice
but if you love the films and TV shows you’re half way there. They help by
already offering to you an origin story or at least a version of that character
and world that you can keep in mind when reading the comics.
Some might argue that the movies
and comics are two very different things and they are but I do believe that it
helps to have some form of basis. For example you can open up a page of New
Avengers and if someone mentions Tony Stark, then hey, you already know who
that is!
Your next step (or first depending
on how you look at it) is to seek out a comic volume. First look for one that
has characters you already like in it. If possible look for something that at
least covers one story arch. Or failing that something that has No.1 printed on
the spine.
My first purchase was the
collected “Civil War” volume. A complex monster of a story line, condensed in
to one volume and looking back there were probably references to people and
events I didn’t know about. This will happen a lot. Unless you reach a point of
reading absolutely everything ever, there will always be something you can’t
quite “get”. Just try not to be put off by it.
Another purchase was X-men first
class volume 1. It might not feature the team you would recognise from the
Bryan Singer films but it’s a great starting point and it’s pretty funny too.
One of my more recent purchases
was The Ultimates. It’s a great read for anyone wanting to get more of the
Avengers. This isn’t technically the Avengers, more of an alternative version
of that. It’s brilliantly written and the artwork is amazing. It’s definitely
one of, if not, the best Marvel comic I’ve read.
Another thing to note is that
both DC and Marvel have several different alternate versions of things. No
character has one definitive origin (although Peter Parker always has problems
with a spider) and you might wonder why some things are different across different
versions. Again, don’t let it bother you, in fact try to embrace it. (I should
point out however that both companies do have a main version of reality and in Marvel the original world is
labelled 616…don’t ask.)
So by now you will hopefully
have a couple of books you like and have an idea of what characters or series
you want to see more of. I started on New Avengers issue 1 and went from there.
This then became Civil War and then split in to two versions, New Avengers and
Mighty Avengers.
Even after reading nearly a
hundred different issues (well okay hundreds
I’ve still been caught out by jumps in the story but it’s nothing a quick
Google search can’t help you with. For example I was wondering why the two
Avengers series seemed to skip an ending, only to find out I should also have
been reading the stand alone “Secret Invasion” issues.
The best way I can help this
make sense is that a selection of the different titles will go through one over
arching story. This story will then spawn a short run of 8 issues(ish) of the
main stuff that will tie all of it together.
Yes, it sounds complex and yes,
it might make you go cross eyed and the truth is, if you can’t be bothered with
it all then maybe your interests lie elsewhere. But please do give them a try,
and who knows, in a few months time, it’ll be you cheering at the Iron Man 3
post credit sequence (or Dark Knight Rises if you swing that way).
Extra advice-
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