New to Comics, Have a Stupid Question

[jedimind7]

Ok my question is say said superhero has a comic that runs for x number of years and x number of issues. Then Vol. 2 starts and runs for x number years and x number of issues, etc etc. So if I start a comic(im thinking of checking out Moon Knight Vol. 4) will I be lost on whats going on without having read the past volumes or do they "start over" and revamp the origins, story etc?

[carabas]

This wildly varies from case to case.
Moon Knight, Iron Fist, and Captain America were pretty good introductions.
Invincible Iron Man and most books with an X in the title, not so much.

There is always Wikipedia to provide background on various characters.

[RBishop]

You probably could pick up the current Moon Knight run and understand 90% of it without going back to previous volumes, although there will be some things that are confusing without the backstory.

For characters with longer histories, like Captain America, going back and reading previous volumes is necessary only to the extent that you want to understand all of the details of the character; it shouldn't affect your enjoyment of the current run of the book as long as you accept that you won't understand every reference or how the relationships with some of the supporting characters have developed.

...and most books with an X in the title, not so much.
Agreed, although you could pick up the current run of X-Factor and enjoy it, with the same caveat I gave for Captain America above. Stay far away from Uncanny X-Men or X-Men: Legacy unless you want to try to decipher nearly 50 years of time-travel, alternate realities, retcons and character relationships that provide challenging to long-time readers at times.

There is always Wikipedia to provide background on various characters.
This is a great resource, and Marvel is currently putting out a monthly Index, in floppy form, that gives synopses of each issue of certain books; I think they are currently doing Amazing Spider-Man, v1 and Iron Man, v1 along with one other.

[jedimind7]

Thanks guys for the information.

[jbuonacc]

... Marvel is currently putting out a monthly Index, in floppy form, that gives synopses of each issue of certain books; I think they are currently doing Amazing Spider-Man, v1 and Iron Man, v1 along with one other.

yep - Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the X-Men are currently all covered from the beginning in 'The Official Index to the Marvel Universe' (i think there's maybe 5 or 6 issues of this so far?). each covers a good amount of back issue summaries for the three titles. i had a great time reading through the first two (so far), even Iron Man and X-Men which i'm not so interested in overall.

[rawhidekid]

Ok my question is say said superhero has a comic that runs for x number of years and x number of issues. Then Vol. 2 starts and runs for x number years and x number of issues, etc etc. So if I start a comic(im thinking of checking out Moon Knight Vol. 4) will I be lost on whats going on without having read the past volumes or do they "start over" and revamp the origins, story etc?

Best advice is consult your local comic book store. I never read Moon Knight.

I can't speak for all comic book stores but in Mesa Arizona Atomic Comics are very helpful. My friend wanted to get some comics for his son. His son saw Ironman the movie and liked it. So went to Atomic and they picked out some age appropriate Ironman comics for his 12 year old son. Also they knew where would have been a good jumping on point.

I haven't read much DC but I hear they tend to do the "start over". Its been my experience that Marvel doesn't do that except with Spiderman with his identity reveal.

[Kylun123]

im thinking of checking out Moon Knight Vol. 4

Moon Knight was always a character who piqued my interest even though I don't believe I had ever read a comic in which he appeared.

When they started his new series I was picking it up monthly. Liked what I saw and wanted to know more about the history.

I got the Essential Moon Knight Vol. 1, which collects dozens of issues from his first appearance through his original series.

With this background I had an even greater insight into the various players of the current series.

So to recap. I jumped on with the new Volume. Enjoyed it. Went back and read the original history of the character and enjoyed that too. You can get by without all that.