Trouble Reading Back Issues?

[TC88]

I recently got back into comics after an abscence from about age 8 (I'm 21 now).

I always loved Marvel as a kid, so I picked up a subscription to Marvel's digital reader. My problem is I simply cannot read anything published before 2004 (with the exceptions of the Ultimate Universe and Runaways)

I find it all incredibly dated and too corny.

Does anyone else have this problem, or is it simply because I started with Bendis-era Avengers?

What stories would you recommend that won't feel as kid friendly and cheesy?

I'd appreciate it if you didn't give me generic popular storylines too.

Thanks

[ArachnidAvenger]

Try Busiek's run on Avengers. It's pretty fun to read and it doesn't feel too dated. It started in '98 I think.

[bebopeva88]

Originally Posted by TC88

I recently got back into comics after an abscence from about age 8 (I'm 21 now).

I always loved Marvel as a kid, so I picked up a subscription to Marvel's digital reader. My problem is I simply cannot read anything published before 2004 (with the exceptions of the Ultimate Universe and Runaways)

I find it all incredibly dated and too corny.

Does anyone else have this problem, or is it simply because I started with Bendis-era Avengers?

What stories would you recommend that won't feel as kid friendly and cheesy?

I'd appreciate it if you didn't give me generic popular storylines too.

Thanks

I would think the vast majority of things from the late 90's, and especially from 2000-2004 would be fine, as far as not seeming/reading dated, outside of something by someone like Claremont, where he's largely still using his same writing style.

[jlmoor]

What characters did you follow/are you interested in?

[TC88]

I've been reading a little of everything.

The ones I'm not a fan of are:
Thor
Fantastic Four
Hulk
Cosmic
and I find X-Men to be too sprawling

[jlmoor]

Originally Posted by TC88

I've been reading a little of everything.

The ones I'm not a fan of are:
Thor
Fantastic Four
Hulk
Cosmic
and I find X-Men to be too sprawling

I think it depends how die-hard of a fan you are. I recently had to make up for a 15 year absence. I insisted on reading everything, which was painful and some of the stories were really really bad. It seems like there was big turn around in how stuff was written early 2000's, but I thought some of the stuff in the 90's was pretty good. Looking back I probably would think it was pretty kiddish, but that's back when I was reading. You might want to look at whose writting and follow them if you don't feel the need to read every issue of a certain book. I only followed X-titles till recently then I picked up Bru's Cap, and Bendis' stuff. Morrison and Whedon's X-runs are pretty self-contained and very well written.

[Adam K]

Originally Posted by TC88

I've been reading a little of everything.

The ones I'm not a fan of are:
Thor
Fantastic Four
Hulk
Cosmic
and I find X-Men to be too sprawling

So what do you like?

[TC88]

Probably a better question...

I loved early Ultimate Marvel, Runaways, Young Avengers, I AM a Bendis fan and read all of his work, stuff that seems slightly more grounded in a more reality-based characterization (ridiculous statement on a comic book website, i know). Really just trying to spread my tastes.

I checked out the Avengers renumbering through Disassembled, and that all felt too "Saturday Morning Cartoony" for me.

The hard part is trying to figure out what my niche is, I haven't found that one character or story.

[Shellhead]

I don't know if it's available in digital form, but you might enjoy these classic runs from the '70s, which were all ahead of their time in terms of style and content:

Deathlok, in Astonishing Tales #25-36

Black Panther, in Jungle Action #6-24 (yes, the name of the comic was unfortunate)

Killraven, in Amazing Adventures #18-39 (it gets better after the first few issues)

Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu (the whole series)

[ArachnidAvenger]

Try West Coast Avengers, it's the series that first got me interested in comics.

[FanboyStranger]

Daredevil: Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli. The best story Marvel has ever published.

[remoteman]

Frank Millers Daredevil run and Roger Stern on Amazing Spider-Man are the two I would recommend. I have re-read both recently and neither seemed particularly dated to me.

[Anxy]

Sometimes my biggest problem with reading back issues, particularly from mid-90s and earlier, is simply the quality of paper the comics were printed on, and the way they've deteriorated over time. I think with trade paperbacks and the quality of comics today, my eye has become spoiled and I need to have the bright, vivid, clear colors and the super-clear lettering to which we've become accustomed in this day and age.

I do know what you mean about the relative "corniness" of older comics, but try checking out a trade paperback collection of one of those old comics you're having a hard time revisiting - I read the whole John Byrne run of FF by way of Marvel's "Visionaries" TPs, and I had a great time going back to those old stories, cheesy as most of them are. Part of the fun was that they look so much better than I ever remember.