Recently,
a friend of mine decided that she wanted, at long last, to get into superhero
comics. Just because she hadn’t grown up with them, she told me, was no reason
to discard an entire genre. Where would I suggest that she start?
About
five minutes later, when I came around from my faint …
Where
should she start? Where should she start?
The first thing to pop into my head was, “Oh, God, don’t let anyone say Watchmen.” I’ve heard way too many comic
fans sing the praises of Alan Moore’s admittedly seminal graphic novel, and
seen way too many copies thrust into the hands of unsuspecting neophytes. Those
are the neophytes who don’t come back. No matter how many bestseller lists Watchmen makes, no matter how many
awards it wins, Watchmen is a
terrible place to start reading superhero comics. Watchmen is about taking all the tropes and devices of superhero
comics and turning them upside down and inside out. It is, in a very real way,
the destruction of superhero comics. I’ve long believed that Alan Moore
actually hates his own genre, and that Watchmen
is a major proof of this.
So
after some thought, I decided to write this blog entry—for her, and for anyone
else who eventually decides they need a starting point that isn’t Watchmen.
There
are, as I see it, three major approaches. You can begin with the basics of the
genre—something that will teach you the rules of the game and why the fans love
it. Or you can pick a character you already like, or think you might like, and
use that character as a guide to comicdom. Or you can just jump into any story that
strikes your fancy. Any of these approaches will do. For the record, I entered
comics by method two—I saw Daredevil on the Fantastic
Four cartoon, liked him, found some of his old comics in a box in the back
of a used bookstore, and never looked back. I got deeper into comics by using
method three on my local library’s collection of graphic novels. But your
results may vary, so do as you please. What follows is a list of likely titles
for anyone wanting to use one of those three methods.
Method One: Begin with the basics. For this approach, you want a story that
will give you a strong sense of how superhero stories work—what you can expect
of heroes and villains and everything else. To my mind, there’s no better
primer for this method than Astro City. Kurt
Busiek’s multi-award-winning series, published most regularly in the 1990s but
still coming out now from time to time, is a love letter to superhero comics
and everything we love about them. Using a cast of strange yet familiar
heroes—the Superman-like Samaritan, the Batmanesque Confessor, even the Spider-Man-like
Crackerjack and Jack-in-the-Box—the series explores “what else happens” while
those familiar adventures are going on.
In the
very first story, “In Dreams,” Samaritan goes about his usual day, switching
between his secret and superheroic identities, fighting bad guys, accepting
awards from a grateful citizenry … all while harboring a secret. You don’t find
out until the end of the story what that secret is, and how it informs his life
as a superpowered crimefighter, but I dare you to read the ending without a
smile. The story covers every major superhero trope while remaining
surprisingly original.
Similarly,
the second volume in the series, Confession
(one of my favorite graphic novels of all time and a major influence on Masks), follows a boy who comes to the
big city to become a hero and gets more than he bargains for. This book does a
great job of subtly teaching the lessons of the superhero genre, this time from
a sidekick’s point of view (the boy learns things like how street-level heroes
actually investigate crimes, what sidekicks really do, and what motivates the
typical supervillain) while keeping its focus on the relationship between the
boy and his mentor. I dare you to read this
story without crying. That’s how Astro
City works—it relies on your knowledge of superhero tropes, and reminds you
how they work as it goes along, so that it can tell real, moving, human
stories. Superhero comics at their finest.
Method two: Follow a character. The trick here is to find a good story
featuring a character you like. Sometimes you can luck out by walking into a
comic-book store and asking a friendly employee, “Can you point me to a good
beginner story about ____?” But if you haven’t got a comic-book store, or the
employees aren’t friendly, here are some starting points.
DC
Comics does a pretty good job with its origin stories, and that’s always a good
place to jump on with a beloved character. The recent Superman: Earth One by J. Michael Straczynski, which portrays a
young Clark Kent arriving in Metropolis and trying to figure out what he’s
going to do with his life (luckily an alien invasion comes along to help him
with that), is a terrific jumping-on point for readers who want a 21st-century
approach to that hero. It introduces the central characters (Clark, Lois,
Perry, Jimmy, Ma and Pa, etc.) and the fundamentals of their relationships, and
still leaves time for smashing alien death machines. (I also recommend Mark
Waid’s Superman: Birthright, for
similar reasons.)
If you’re looking for Batman, I’m afraid he hasn’t fared as
well in recent years, but Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman:
Dark Victory do a good job of picking up just after Batman’s origin and setting up his relationships with
most of his supporting cast. They’re also part of the source material for
Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, so if you enjoyed those movies, you could
do a lot worse.
Marvel
Comics isn’t as origin-focused, but you can still find good entry-level stuff
for most of their popular characters. If you enjoyed Thor, I recommend Langridge and Samnee’s Thor: The Mighty Avenger. It’s a terrific collection of
lighthearted adventures set during Thor’s early days on earth, and has a great
balance of humor, domestic drama, and smashing frost giants in the face. Likewise,
Brian Michael Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man
does a great job of retelling a lot of classic Spidey tales with a modern
sensibility, and it heavily informed the Sam Raimi movies (including the early
ones that sucked less).
Going
back to the Avengers, if you enjoyed the Black Widow in The Avengers, you could do worse than pick up Paul Cornell’s Black Widow: Deadly Origin, which
handily covers the character’s complicated history (both as a hero/villain and
in a series of romances with other heroes). The best Hawkeye stories, by far,
are those currently coming out of Matt Fraction and David Aja in their Hawkeye monthly series. Alas, I don’t
have a lot to recommend on the Hulk and Iron Man fronts—not because there
aren’t any good stories out there but because I don’t follow those characters
closely and therefore don’t have any good recommendations.
There’s a lot of
good stuff on Captain America, of course, but the best of it will show up in
the next section. For now, I recommend Captain
America: Red White and Blue, a collection of short comic stories by various
artists. You should find something in there to suit almost any taste. And if
you’re a fan of the X-Men movies, try the various X-Men: First Class titles, including Wolverine: First Class, which has nothing to do with the recent
stupid film. (It’s actually a hilarious buddy comedy featuring Wolverine and
his sidekick—a 13-year-old mutant girl named Shadowcat. Weirdly, it’s still a
great jumping-on point.)
I’d
also be remiss if I didn’t mention Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Daredevil: Yellow, about the first year
of that character’s career (during which he wore a yellow costume, hence the
title). It’s the most lighthearted and touching treatment of Daredevil’s
origins I’ve ever read, not least because it’s written as a love letter to the
hero’s first love interest, now dead at the hands of a supervillain. There’s a
sweetness and an innocence to Yellow
that makes it a perennial favorite of Daredevil fans, and popular with anyone
who enjoys a good romantic comedy with superhero trappings.
Method three: Jump into a story. If you’re not too worried about getting
all the previous continuity straight, you might try just jumping into any story
that looks good. Superhero comics actually cover a lot of ground,
genre-wise—you can easily find good mystery, fantasy, science-fiction and
romance stories, to say nothing of the occasional Western and lots of
thrillers. A useful guide here is either that friendly comic-shop employee or,
sometimes, a list of awards. Usually each year’s Eisner Awards (comicdom’s
equivalent of the Oscars) include at least one story worth reading. Check out
the awards for best limited or continuing series, best writer, and so on for
your best candidates. Then hit up Amazon and read a few descriptions until you
find something intriguing. Or just see the list below.
If
mystery’s your thing, you might try Peter David’s excellent X-Factor series, about a detective
agency staffed by mutants, including former X-Men. Its narrator, a mutant with
the ability to create duplicates of himself (and therefore a man with a chronic
identity crisis), has a serious case of Raymond Chandler envy, and the results
are well worth it as the series covers everything from alternate universes to
Norse gods to the question of which duplicate fathered a certain female cast
member’s baby. With wacky volume titles like The Invisible Woman Has Vanished, you know you’re in for something
strange and wonderful. Start with the first volume, The Longest Night, and watch for Layla Miller, a troubled
13-year-old girl whose mutant power appears to be that she “knows stuff” …
which sounds stupid until you find out why she unscrewed the taps from the
upstairs bathroom and ordered from three pizzerias at once.
For a
good espionage thriller, you’re best off starting with Ed Brubaker’s run on Captain America, which heavily informed
the recent movies. (I didn’t list it in the previous method because it’s just a
bit too complicated at the beginning to make a real primer.) The story centers
on Cap’s work with Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D., but it quickly goes zigzagging
off through his World War II adventures and some very modern arcs involving
espionage and international terrorism. Begin with the first story arc, The Winter Soldier, and see if you’re
hooked by the time it wraps up.
Then
there are stories and runs of issues that just stand alone really well, even if
they’re not designed as jumping-on points. There’s J. Michael Straczynski’s Amazing Spider-Man, which manages to
balance some of the most human Spidey drama ever (including the issue where
Aunt May finally finds out how Peter spends his nights) and some fairly cosmic
bad guys who will completely rearrange what you think you know about
Spider-Man’s origins. The run has some of the best Spidey humor I’ve ever read,
too, including a delightful rant about why Spider-Man doesn’t have pockets in
his costume. To this day, I can’t hear someone pulling Velcro apart without
wanting to giggle.
Brian
K. Vaughan’s Runaways is about a
group of teenagers who run away from home after they discover their parents are
all supervillains. Think The Outsiders crossed
with The X-Files and a heaping dose of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Start with
the first volume, Pride and Joy, and
feel free to steal lines like, “We’re like one of those multiethnic gangs that
only robs people in bad movies!”
Going
back to Straczynski—if you liked the movie Thor,
you’ll probably love his run on the character. Start with Volume 1 (search
Amazon for “Thor volume 1, Straczynski”, and you’ll find it), which picks up
after Thor has been killed during the events of Ragnarok. See if it doesn’t
blow you away. The run gets weaker as it goes on—Volume 2 is excellent, but
wobbles toward the end—but it’s all pretty good stuff.
Likewise,
Mark Waid’s current run on Daredevil is
justly featured among the Comic Books You Should Be Reading. Taking a normally
dark character into what seems like a sunny, happy-go-lucky storyline in which
Matt Murdock tries to take himself less seriously, Waid actually manages to
build a subtle and ultimately disturbing portrait of a hero who might be losing
his mind. And the jokes are first-rate.
Speaking
of jokes, this blog entry wouldn’t be complete without a reference to Joss
Whedon’s terrific run on Astonishing
X-Men. Start with the first volume, Gifted,
or just get one of the omnibus editions. Astonishing
follows the premier mutant superteam after the death of founding member
Jean Grey, and largely eschews the notoriously complicated X-Men continuity for
solid characterization and snarky humor. (My personal favorite moment is when a
psychic villain “devolves” several of the X-Men, turning Beast into a growling
animal and making Wolverine revert to his childhood self … which seems to be a
hilariously naïve and racist Little Lord Fauntleroy. Can a character be
hilariously racist? It turns out that Wolverine can … just look for the line, “AND,
I met an Oriental!”)
You
might notice that DC Comics is conspicuous by its absence from this third
method. That’s not intentional, but it is a bit sad. DC has been a lot better
than Marvel in recent years at tying absolutely everything going on in its
fictional universe to whatever mega-crossover event is being pushed at the
moment. There are major ramifications to this. First, almost any good DC
storyline requires you to read three or four bad ones just to understand what’s
going on. And second, because there’s one of these events every year, the
universe changes dramatically all the time … which means a lot of the really
good stories don’t have a lot of staying power. Good as they are, there’s no
way to explain them to someone who hasn’t been reading DC Comics for years. The
few DC stories I considered for this part of the list—mostly James Robinson’s Starman and Mark Waid and Alex Ross’s Kingdom Come—are at least 15 years old,
and I felt I’d already filled that slot with Astro City. They’re still good stories, though, and I encourage you
to seek them out.
What about you, comic-book readers out there? What books do you recommend to friends who want to
read superhero comics for the first time?
And if you say Watchmen, I will do my
best to punch you through the internet …
