NEW READERS: Where are you coming from?

[theflyingfrogunderdog]

I've been reading comics for almost 40 years and while during that time I've sampled books from just about every publisher I've always been primarily a Marvel Zombie.

I would say that during the last 2 to 3 years my dissatisfaction with Marvel's output has reached an all time low. The DC relaunch so far has been a lot of fun and has generated a sense of excitement that Marvel has failed to deliver in quite some time.

I'm a lifetime Marvel comic reader but have really grown frustrated with them the last few years over $3.99 pricing and the utter crappiness that the X-men franchise has been delivering. I dabbled in Flash and Green Lantern books starting about ten years ago and have been reading all those books the last few years. I read JLA when Morrison wrote it but dropped it when he left. Beyond that I only know DC event books. I decided to try some of the new 52 books and its hit or miss for me. Animal Man was fantastic while JLI was crap.

This does not sound good for Marvel. IMO Quesada has been the reason why Marvel has been sucking so much the last few years. Marvel could be so much better, and i agree, X-Men has sucked so bad. I haven't actually bought an X-title in years [correction: I did buy one issue of Uncanny and regretted it], but from what i've checked out on the shelves the last few years, the X-Men have never looked worse. From the boring looking storylines, to the boring looking covers, to the boring costumes, to Wolverine's ugly blue and gold costume (the brown and tan was so much better), to some nice, but very strange artistic depictions, such as this:



Can someone tell me what the heck that is...is that supposed to be Storm??

This is Storm:



From a fellow long time comics fan (one of my first comics being Defenders #10 when i was 4 way back in 1973), i agree completely, about how Marvel has been putting out boring, lackluster comics, for the most part. Where is the FUN these days?! I had loads of comics as a kid in the '70s and collected lots of titles every month from 1980-1987 (still have much of my collection). Always had way more Marvel than DC.

Nowadays, i've been looking at what's new and occasionally buy one or two comics that look good. Marvel was getting my very meager sales up until now, but DC's New 52 has drawn me back into actually collecting a few titles for the first time in years. As long as they're not too gory, i'm on board. Not into "blood 'n guts" in my comics. So far, i've bought Swamp Thing, OMAC and Frankenstein, and intend to collect these three titles in the months to come.

[joneddy]

I have been collecting mostly marvel comics off and on for the past 30 years. I have tried in the past to get into DC comics but it the continuity and history kept me from reading any of there comics on a regular basis. I thought with the reboot I would try getting into a few titles in the DC universe. So far I am liking most of the comics I have read but I will probably only be able to subscribe to 5-6 titles.
Jon

[Dark-Flux]

I've been an avid fan of comics for a few years now but had until recently consigned myself to trades.
I then started getting a few titles from Image comics (long term Spawn fan) and started up with Marvel when Big Shots was announced.

The New 52 just seemed the perfect opportunity to go monthly with DC, much to the disdain of my wallet.

[horshbox]

Been a comic fan for as long as I can remember, but I've mostly been a Marvel fan.

With DC I'd only read Batman, Green Lantern and some Superman. Read more of DCs Vertigo line then their main comics. So with the new 52 I've been happy picking up titles that I would never try before and I'm really enjoying the books that I've read.

[brandnewfan]

Hi everyone. I just registered and this is my first post.

I grew up reading comics but had sort of an on/off relationship with them in my late teens/early 20s. I've come back to them in more recent years. From the start I was soley an X-Men/Marvel fan; I was never interested in DC. That changed only slightly a couple years ago when The Dark Knight was released in theaters and I tried to get into the Batman books a little but that was only very shortlived because I found the extensive continuity overwhelming and I quickly went back to the X-Men books, which I had invested countless *years* of my life to learning the histories and backstories of the characters.

My interest in comic books hit a standstill about a year ago when I simply couldn't get into anything at all about the X-books. I hated the writing, I hated the fact that the same handfull of characters were overused over and over in the dozens of books being released, I hated buying tons of X-books when only maybe 1 or 2 had decent stories...so I gave up on them. The X-franchise as a whole was and is dead to me and I stopped buying comics altogether.

...until now. I always liked comics and was looking for a good reason to get back into them, but not through Marvel, as I didn't want to just be let down again. I've ordered *all* of the new 52 DC books and have so far not been let down by any that I've read. The writing, the artwork, the characters all seem fresh and new and I'm loving every second of being able to read awesome stories again. I now count myself as soley a DC guy now. Suck it, Marvel.

[SuperKdon]

Hello all,

I first started reading comics when I was around 7 or 8. I would always pick up a Spider-Man comic every-time we went to the grocery store. I think I got around 50 or so issues before I stopped. I can't give any real reason for why I stopped.

I'm 21 now, and I've always been interested in getting into comics, but have strayed from it just because of how convoluted it all seemed. I've always been big on continuity, so I could never see myself just jumping into it. However, with the DC relaunch, it seemed like the best possible point if I was ever going to do so. Things like having four main Batman comics still irk me, since I'm not sure where one ends and the other begins in terms of continuity, but luckily I think that's going to be the biggest problem I have and not having the obsessive urge of wanting to read back all the issues that have come before.

I'm hoping I'll be able to get into Marvel eventually, from what I understand, the Ultimate line is doing some sort of reboot, so hopefully I'll be able to jump in there. Other than that though, all those high issue numbers intimidate me.

[GTMerciless]

I used to read comics prob 15 years ago. Fairly recently I got back into some vertigo and image stuff...thanks mostly to the walking dead. I was always a marvel guy but the stuff going on in GL got me interested in checking out super-hero stuff again but this complete relaunch and most importantly the digital initiative has me going strong...I went from the odd GL trade to catch up on to now looking at trying around half the DC books and hoping to continue on with 10-15 a month, all digitally of course.

[Capsizing Heart]

I've read comics my whole life, I grew up with them and yet somehow, I've never really gotten into them. Continuity 70 years long, with mixups, retcons, screw ups, change ups and other ups. And reboots and so on. I know nowadays this is less of a problem thanks to Wiki and Forums and stuff but the dense continuity is still rather intimidating. So something like this is the perfect entry point for me.

[worm831]

I mainly stuck to the few and far between trade, and this is the first time I am actually considering buying floppies on a monthly basis. Its nice to be a enter a new title fresh, and not feel like a total newby

[GavinR]

I started reading comics back in the 70's. I went through Marvel phase, my DC phase, and my indie phase. Then the 90's killed it for me with constant crossover mega-events, killing off character for media attention just to bring them back, too many retcons and other continuity problems, high prices, and art styles that I just didn't care for. I started reading just trades from the old days and various volumes of series that weren't bogged down by all the B.S. that I mentioned before. Got hooked on reading Comics Should Be Good! a few years back so I decided to join the forum. I was a frequent poster on another online forum for years and years but it started to die off and the only posters still around seemed to be adolescent jerks using thinly veiled racial and sexual slang to insult people pointlessly so recently I decided to just leave it completely. This place seems more like the type of forum I can now feel comfortable in.

[indygamer21]

I am kind of new to comics. I have never really collected comics. I started off reading Japanese Manga as a teen things such as One Piece, Naruto, and some Ruroni Kenshin. I also read SOME of the first Ultimate Spider-man series. This is my first time buying the floppy like comics. The New 52 actually got me started reading comics on a weekly basis. I like the New 52 because it gives me a place to start from and for DC it must be good for business. Since the relaunch I have picked up 2-3 comics every Wednesday. I never really got into comics as a child because I grew up in the 90s and got my superhero fix from shows like Spiderman, X-men, and Batman not to mention what is the chances a kid is gonna wonder in a comic book shop when there aren't tons of them around.

[antsomarching]

Back in the early 90's I used to read Amazing Spiderman. A couple years back I was interested in picking up some graphic novels after reading Watchmen. Since then I moved into Fables and Walking Dead trades. Only recently have I started reading monthly comics and it was brought on by the new 52.

So far I have really enjoyed Action Comics, Batman, Detective Comics. Frankenstein, Demon Knights, Animal Man, Swamp Thing and Resurrection Man. The only non-DC title on my pull list is the new run of Daredevil.

[elaniel]

I'll just post what I posted in another thread:

I have always been a Marvel guy for years and years. I did try out Teen Titans issue 1 back when the previous series had started due to a recommendation from a comic shop owner when I was trying to be more diverse in my reading and thought it was okay, but just never stuck around for some reason. I also tried Red Robin as I am a huge fan of Christopher Yost and tried other Batman books but I was too confused and dropped them all.

I decided this week to try and jump on to some DC titles as I'm getting slightly annoyed at Marvel's pricing as well as I have realized their stories don't seem to be going anywhere (at least in the books I'm reading). Pretty much a last minute decision even though I've had 3 months to order some I just didn't for some reason.

The titles I'm picking up are based on what I feel would resonate with me. Some of my choices are probably based on other interpretations of characters I've seen (IE: Smallville) and I could be making some bad choices, but it's worth taking a shot I guess.

Action Comics
Aquaman - I really like the art.
Batman
Birds of Prey
Green Arrow
Justice League
Nightwing - I remember enjoying the couple issues I read when I tried to jump on previously.
Superman
Teen Titans - as I miss a good teen book since Marvel cancelled NXM.

I guess I'll post my opinions when I get the issues and read them (as some I'm having to wait on second printings for)

[Mr.Logan]

Well I have been a die hard Marvel fan for most of my life and started collecting comicbooks based solo off the fact of the early 90's X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons that ran on FOX.So those shows got me into reading marvel comicbooks.But the little bit of DC that I would read on and off was just Batman due to again the early cartoon series.But hardly if ever got any issues.


The first time I really stated to collect DC comics was when Grant Morrison came over to the Batman titles.Pretty much just pick up the enter run of Batman and Robin.

But with this restart of sorts and due to the fact that most of the Marvel titles aren't that good and the fact that worst of all the X-Men line has falling so badly I thought it would be a good jump on put to collect even more DC comics.

At this point I keeping it a bit low and only going with 10 out of the 52 new comics in Action Comics,Batman,Batman and Robin,Batman The Dark Knight,Detective Comics,Flash,Justice League,Justice League International,Nightwing and Superman.

[le_rooster]

Hello all -

I'm returning to comics, finally getting back up to new releases due to DC 52 available on the ipad. I started reading digital comics last year and wanted to try out the new DC reboot. I used to read "real" comics back in my teen and younger days and am happy to be back.