   I want to get into comics..
  The comic-verse has always been of interest to me, although I've never read any real comics, I've always been a fan of Batman, Superman, X-Men & Spiderman. I've always been a fan of the tv shows, and especially like the darker or more serious elements of some of them. I also want to start at the beginning of each story if I can, what would you guys recommend starting with? I know that they all have a bunch of different timelines so to speak. I've also heard of the "Ultimate Editions" which is a modern version. Which would you guys recommend, and where should I start?Thanks   
  That's awesome!!  If you'd posted this at a place like Newsarama.com, they'd have been all over you in about five seconds flat.  ^_^It's really really hard to "start at the beginning" with comics...  A lot of the really old stuff just isn't that fun to read, IMHO.  That's what Marvel's Essentials collections are, the beginnings of the most popular Marvel characters (Spidey and the X-Men and so on).  I don't know what the more recent great Marvel books would be, although I like the "Ultimate Universe", which basically reinvents the whole Marvel Universe in the current day. As for DC Comics... read The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller (creator of Sin City).  Right now.  Turn off the computer and head for the nearest bookstore and buy it.  It's AWESOME.  Again, not the first Batman story, but many people believe it's the very best.  Batman: Year One (again, Frank Miller) is also terrific.  EDIT: Also, since you're interested in the darker side of superheroes, try The Watchmen by Alan Moore, a true classic.  It's pretty much what started the whole trend towards darker superheroes.Yeah, the only superhero I'm a big fan of is Batman.  ^_^  But that's natural, as he is the BEST. EVER.Anyway, just find yourself a comic book store (http://csls.diamondcomics.com/) and ask around there.  They'll have better suggestions, probably.  ^_^  (But really, read The Dark Knight Returns.  It's great.)   ;  If you're just looking for the comics versions of the characters you're familiar with from other media, I would start with:Superman: "Strength", "A Superman For All Seasons", and Hitman #34. Spidey: "The Death Of Jean DeWolff", "Kraven's Last Hunt"Batman: "Prey", "Faces"X-Men: Grant Morrison's entire run, from New X-Men 114 through 154, and "The Dark Phoenix Saga"Daredevil: Anything by Miller or Bendis.Hulk: Pretty much anything by Peter David, but the best of the best would be issues 369 through 400. Most stories that get printed in the regular monthlies these days end up getting reprinted in single-volume editions which collect the individual issues the story appeared in. And the more popular stories from days gone by are also collected this way. I would highly recommend these collections over trying to hunt down the individual back issues. It's the same story, but the collections, which tend to stay in print, are so much easier to track down than the individual issues which are printed once and then that's it.Because of this trend, stories in comics are now written with the collection in mind, and you tend to get a cohesive, relatively stand-alone story every six issues or so. This was not true until fairly recently, and this makes recommending individual issues, or range of issues, printed before the turn of the century a little tricky. Quality could vary wildly from one issue to the next, and subplots would take priority in a very haphazard fashion. With this in mind, I present to you my geekiness laid bare, and here's one guy's opinions on the essential issues for various comics characters/titles;Quote:Original post by LibbyYeah, the only superhero I'm a big fan of is Batman.  ^_^  But that's natural, as he is the BEST. EVER.Batman is by far the coolest, and the comics that do it in a very dark manner are awesome (ie. Frank 'holy fucking hell is this man human' Miller). This also gives me an excuse to post my favourite cover:;Quote:Original post by booleanQuote:Original post by LibbyYeah, the only superhero I'm a big fan of is Batman.  ^_^  But that's natural, as he is the BEST. EVER.Batman is by far the coolest, and the comics that do it in a very dark manner are awesome (ie. Frank 'holy fucking hell is this man human' Miller). I believe a good portion of fandom would prefer to refer to him as Frank "I'm the God-damned Batman!" Miller these days. I'm not denying that Year One and TDKR were great, but he phoned in Spawn/Batman and his current Batman is... well, it needs to be seen to be believed.   ;  ^^ [lol]   ;  Nice, I'll definitely look into those frank miller ones. I think I'm going to take a look at Marvel's Essentials as well   ;  Check out Spawn. Especially in the beginning, it was a pretty cool comic.Also, look into a lot of the smaller publishers. Marvel, DC, Image, and such produce some definately high quality stuff, but they very rarely get as nitty gritty in their comics as a lot of the smaller publishers will.   ;  you will need one each of the following items:- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns- Batman: Year One- Batman: The Killing Joke- Watchmen- V for Vendetta- The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes- Lucifer- Marvels (if you're heavily into superheroes)[Edited by - Shai on December 7, 2005 9:09:46 AM];  Wasn't Constantine based on a comic?   