Comic Books

[Siege]

So who reads comics?

Currently I'm reading:

New Avengers (Marvel)
Daredevil (Marvel Knights)
Hellblazer (Vertigo/DC)
Ultimate Iron Man (Ultimate/Marvel)
Marvel Knights Spider-Man (Marvel Knights)
The Punisher (MAX/Marvel)
Toxin (Marvel)

MK Spider-Man has really gone downhill though since Millar and Dodson left, I'm considering dropping the title. Toxin is also a series that flat out, well, sucks. Fortunately it's only a 6 issue limited series.

Because of the House of M event, I'm going to be reading the House of M core series, Spider-Man House of M, Iron Man House of M, Mutopia X, Incredible Hulk, and Uncanny X-Men. I'm also going to start reading Green Latern.

[Lord Borg]

I was getting several simpsons comics monthly, untill mom got a diff job at a diff store. I havent gotton any in some time Im way behind in the collection

[ACDC Girl]

I might get my brother to order me the AC/DC comic that i saw on one of their websites. It does look pretty cool.

[Superman]

I don't really have the time to read comics now but I dip in occasionally. From the late 70s to the 90s, I read loads.

Spider-Man
Web of Spider-Man
Spectacular Spider-Man
Fantastic Four
Captain America
Iron Man
Batman
Detective Comics
Justice League of America/International
Superman
Action Comics
Adventures of Superman
Superboy
Supergirl
Wonder Woman
The Incredible Hulk
Daredevil
The Avengers

^Those were my favourites. They had great stories, great art for their time and things weren't too confusing. Things became confusing in the 90s (remember the Spider-Man clone story) but I think the best time for comics was from the 1930s to the early 1990s - you'll find the best tales from those eras.

Superman is definitely my all-time favourite. He's remained relatively unchanged over time but he's still the altruistic superhero always ready to fight evil. I think his stories are the best.

[Siege]

When did you stop reading exactly?

(and did you read Miller's Daredevil in the 80's?)

[Superman]

Miller's Daredevil, I did read. It was DD's finest hour or two. I loved everything, the writers made good use of all the characters, particularly Kingpin, Bullseye and Elektra. And DD was dealing with down-to-earth criminals each issue. Fantastic.

I don't know when I stopped reading. Around 1991, I was moving on from it. I still enjoyed it but work got in the way and I had a limited budget to spend on entertainment. I still dipped in but I stopped collecting on a regular basis.

I'm ready to start reading again.

[Siege]

DC seems to be the more popular company these days, though New Avengers is a great title (but quite late, it's almost as bad as an Image title for delays). Ultimate Iron Man is written by Orson Scott Card but I have mixed feelings on the book, it started off great but it's quickly declining. I'm going to be moving more into DC, by reading Green Lantern, I'm gonna start reading Batman, and I'm not sure what else yet.

[Alucard]

DC is good. I'm probably going to start reading some of their comics soon. I was really into Spiderman a while back. I might start reading those again.

[lionhead]

Currently i'm reading:

X-Force
The uncanny X-men
Dragonball manga
Dragonballz manga

[Superman]

In the 70s, Marvel was better than DC Comics in my opinion, although obviously that does simplify things. Some DC Comics characters were better, some Marvel characters were better.

In the 80s, I definitely thought DC Comics was much, much better than Marvel. Marvel seemed to be in a bit of a rut and continuity could often be complicated. DC also rebooted their universe with Crisis On Infinite Earths which led to fresh interpretations of Superman, Batman and other heroes.

In the 90s, things were mediocre at times with both DC and Marvel. Now, I don't know what they're like.

Are comics accessible to casual fans today? Years ago, you could pick up a comic such a Action Comics or Detective Comics and soon get into the universe quickly. In the 90s, there was far too much continuity and complexity, which put casual readers off.

[Siege]

There's still alot of continuity there, but I'm finding they don't really reference anything that happend more than a couple years ago now. Marvel's Ultimate line is designed for casual readers, and frankly I don't like the books that much, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man. It's basically restarting the character from scratch, and updating the events that happend in their lives for a new generation (namely, people who know nothing about comic books, but liked the X-Men and Spider-Man films), this may sound like a good idea, but they just change too much. I mean the Hobgoblin is now Harry Osborn (wtf?), and he's not even a costumed criminal anymore, he's basically an orange, evil version of The Hulk. Nick Fury is bald, and black, he looks exactly like Samuel L. Jackson. The opinions on the Ultimate universe seem to be quite mixed, some people love them, others hate them. I'm part of the readers who hate the Ultimate universe. Only reason I haven't dropped Ultimate Iron Man is because #1 was the first Ultimate book I read, and it was actually pretty good, it's only a 6 issue limited series and it's bi-monthly so I don't have to worry about the title much.

[madlilnerd]

My form tutor at school LOVES comics, he has more than 3000!!!

Me, I have two:
One from world free comic day called Courtney and The Night Things (I think!). It was good...but I can't find it now.
Blood Legacy: The Young Ones Part 1... it's about vampires and is okay.

[Superman]

Siege, I've looked at those Ultimate Titles. Some of them are okay but hardly likely to set the world alight.

Read ten issues of "The Amazing Spider-Man" from the 60s. You'll find entertaining and well-written stories which you'll want to read again and again and will remember for a long time. Now, read ten issues of "Ultimate Spider-Man". You'll find some of the stories entertaining but I, personally, would never have a reason to go back to them or treasure them for years.

"Amazing Spider-Man #3" (1963) is one of my favourite tales, featuring the first appearance of Doctor Octopus. The tale just flows so well, you find yourself immersed in the fantasy world of comics, the way Stan Lee intended his readers to be. I've read this many time overs the years.

But with the Ultimate Titles, I just don't get that. I could never imagine coming back to them in 10 or 15 years time and re-reading them. Some of them are good but they're not going to set the world alight and I doubt that the next generation will be seeking them out. Of course, that's just my opinion, so I could be wrong.

[nadia]

I dont have any

[Siege]

I've never read any of the classic Lee-era Spider-Man, but that's still never stopped me from being such a large fan of the character.

[Superman]

[Siege]

I'm not that interested in scifi, in fact that's always been a big problem I've had with alot of DC titles, too much science fiction, not enough reality.

Titles I'm jumping on to within the next month:

Green Lantern (DC)
House of M (Mavel limited series)
Incredible Hulk (Marvel)
Iron Man: House of M (Marvel limited series)
Majestic (Wildstorm/DC)
Mutopia X (Marvel limited series)
Spider-Man: House of M (Marvel limited series)
Uncanny X-Men (Marvel)

[Superman]

Sounds good, Siege.

I was never a big fan of the X-Men, only in small doses. The convoluted plotlines throughout it's run made the stories hard to follow. I do like Wolverine, though, and used to pick up his solo comic.

I liked The Punisher too. Some say he was a one-dimensional character but he did have depth and he was firmly grounded in reality. Rarely did he face super-powered villains from other corners of the Marvel Universe, he was usually taking on The Kingpin, other crimelords and terrorists. Some of his tales were very powerful indeed.

Superman is still my favourite, though. Since 1938, he's remained relatively unchanged. There have been a few superficial changes over time and in the 1980s "rebooted" DC Universe, more effort was made to make Superman more "human" but he's still pretty much the same Man of Steel he's been since 1938.

[Leo Wyatt]

I love the Spiderman comic books.

[Superman]

[Leo Wyatt]

Because I am a kid at heart. Basicly fun to read while you on the toilet Cause I am fan of spiderman. Since I was a little girl. My last comic book, my sister stole from me

[Superman]

I hope you've read the two Superman/Spider-Man team ups that DC and Marvel collaborated on. In the first team-up (1976), Superman took on Spider-Man, they fought, they made up, they talked and then went on to battle Lex Luthor and Dr. Octopus.

In the second team-up, Superman and Spider-Man took on Dr. Doom and The Parasite. The Hulk and Wonder Woman were also involved. Both this and the original Superman/Spider-Man team-up were very good. It was quite a feat to bring the DC and Marvel Universes together.

I'd also recommend the 1981 Batman VS Hulk story. Batman took on The Hulk in a believable encounter before they teamed up to take on The Shaper of Worlds and The Joker.

Whenever DC Comics and Marvel have collaborated on stories, they've always been very believable stories which have played to the character's strengths.

[Leo Wyatt]

That's the one my sister stole

[mayxlh]

i have watched lots of comic books when i was younger which are all the way from Japan .i didnt understand english well at that time so what i have readed were translated in to chinese.

[Superman]

Any favourites, mayxlh?