How much Marvel and DC have you read?

[Markness]

Even though I have read a lot of both Marvel and DC comics, I haven't read anything before the 90's by either company. This is partly due to finances as well as starting late in getting into comics and the amount of back stories are daunting so I've mostly stuck to what I wish I read back when I was a kid. I haven't read the original Stan Lee and Jack Kirby runs of Fantastic Four, Avengers, and X-Men but I've read a lot of their runs from the 90's up to the mid 00's. Is anyone else in the same boat or am I the only one?

[Dr. Insomniac]

You're not alone. Finding old comics to read often means piracy and finding someone who can recommend which specific issues to read.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I have read some older stuff, but I'm still mostly a novice in that regard. I've read a few dozen issues of old Spider-Man comics as well as the first several issues of The Fantastic Four and Nova. I've also read a good chunk of Doctor Strange comics written by Frank Brunner, Steve Englehart, and Roy Thomas. In fact the stuff from the late 60's to mid-70's leaned heavily into horror-esque elements with some genuinely trippy visuals and dealing with demonic entities and cults, which I assume was an inspiration for what Scott Derrickson may have wanted to explore in the sequel (and I am still a bit disappointed that he and Feige couldn't see eye-to-eye on the project).

Oh, and I've read the entire 18-issue original run of Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby. I've also had his entire run of The Demon sitting on my shelf for nearly three years now, but just haven't gotten around to reading it.

As far as the 80's I've read Frank Miller's Daredevil run in it's entirety (including his standalone reboot of the origin, "The Man Without Fear") and quite frankly I find it far superior to any of his work on Batman (and I say that as someone who genuinely likes TDKR and really loves Year One....and we'll just pretend that he never returned to the character after that). I've also read the entire Walt Simonson run of Thor, which genuinely made me a fan of the character, who I admittedly considered to be my least favorite Avenger before reading that take on him. Definitely one of my favorite comic books of all time in that regard. The fact that he did his own artwork as well for roughly more than half of that run just blows my mind.

Also, Giffen's run on Justice League International, running between the 80's and 90's, has been terrific, and surprisingly funny yet topical. That said, I haven't technically finished it since I took a break from comics a few months ago, but I will definitely get back to it at some point. This run in particular has really made me a fan of Booster Gold and Blue Beetle (Ted Kord, specifically), as well as Maxwell Lord who is a surprisingly nuanced character. And on top of that it brings back Mister Miracle, Oberon, and Big Barda, and you can tell Giffen is a big fan given how many great scenes and lines of dialogue they have in this run.

The 90's is a polarizing decade in Superhero comics for obvious reasons, but I'll just say that I really like Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol run as well as Flex Mentallo. James Robinson's Starman run is my all time favorite DC series to date (whereas The New Frontier is my favorite overall comic from the publication), and super underrated, and I like what I've read of Mark Waid's run on The Flash, but again this is a case in which I haven't finished it. I'll also get back to that one eventually, though.

[Avaitor]

I was really into Marvel comics back in the day, especially silver and bronze age. A big part of that comes from having a family friend who collected Thor comics get me into them. He let me borrow a few trades he had, and I went hunting for more, either buying some trades and comics of my own, or reading whatever I could from my library. I got a lot of 90's books for cheap, and a lot of them aren't very good, but there are some interesting ideas around.

I'm less familiar/interested in DC from the same period, but I would still read through a lot of those, and found some favorites of my own.

I haven't caught up with either company as much over the past few years, partly due to me catching up on manga instead, and partly due to a lack of interest in what Marvel and DC have been up to comicswise. But there are some things I've been hoping to get to, like Warren Ellis' Moon Knight and Mark Weid's Black Widow. And like many, I do recommend Fraction's Hawkeye run.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Warren Ellis's Moon Knight run is pretty great; I can definitely recommend it. Granted, it's less of a "run" and more of a 6-issue collection of episodic short stories. The ball is then picked up by two other writers who each tell a different story arc and kept that serialization going for a good 17-issues. Both provide good follow-ups and the whole series could be read in a single day quite easily if you had one to spare.

And yeah, Fraction's Hawkeye run is another easy one to recommend.

For modern stuff, I was quite entertained by Superman Smashes the Klan (it's more targeted towards a younger audience, but that's also what's so charming about it compared to a lot of other modern comics), and also really dig what I've read of The Immortal Hulk. That said, yeah, I've also been largely uninterested in a lot of the contemporary offerings by Marvel and DC.

In general, I haven't been reading comics much lately, outside of keeping up with a few weekly WSJ manga serializations. I do plan to pick it up again, but I needed a break, and I've been gaming a lot more recently which has eaten away at most of my free time.

[Mustang]

Unfortunately I haven't read anything but would like to change someday, because I only know your typical heroes and villains in both Marvel and DC. I think that's why I couldn't get into such movies like Guardians of the Galaxy or Antman.

[Avaitor]

I know that you're an X-Men fan, so I'd probably recommend Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run if you ever get a chance to read it. And if you want to get into the Guardians, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's run with the characters is where the movies got a lot of inspiration, and is pretty fun to go through.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Speaking of X-Men, I have Chris Claremont's entire original run on the series owned digitally on Comixology. I just haven't gotten around to reading it yet. When I get back into reading comics I will finish off JLI as well as read through all of Kirby and Lee's original FF4 run. After that I can see myself going through Claremont's X-Men material (I have read Dark Phoenix Saga before, though, but without any of the backstory leading up to it).

[Markness]

Most of my X-book collection is 90's stuff but I only have all the issues for Generation X and X-Man. It helps that they were shorter than the majority of other X-books at the time. I honestly don't know if I'll have complete sets for the other stuff like Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, X-Factor, and Excalibur due to my finances, space, and my mental health has taken a dive recently.

I've collected most of the JLA deluxe edition trades (1-7 to be precise). Anyone else here besides me read it? It's my favorite Justice League title although it starts to get confusing and dense around the Golden Perfect arc. I have the three newer trades for Geoff Johns' Teen Titans but have only read the first one in full. However, even with that, it's still my favorite Teen Titans title.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Anyone else here besides me read it? It's my favorite Justice League title although it starts to get confusing and dense around the Golden Perfect arc.

Yeah, the Morrison parts of the run are some of the best Justice League stories ever. He takes all of the Silver Age-era DC wackiness and makes it even crazier. It's so good, it feels disappointing most JL adaptations usually nerf the League instead of do what Morrison did and intensify the threats they fight.

[Markness]

Good to know I am not the only one who likes it a lot. Then again, I live in an area that's not really a comic reading culture. That also explains why I've never read much older comics and struggle to get the comics I follow.

Am I not a true fan by not reading the older stuff or is that just negative thoughts telling me that? Trust me, I wish I had more comics but my finances and space limit me.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Of course not. The amount of comics you've read shouldn't determine who's a true fan or not. There are plenty of devoted Batman fans who've barely read any Batman comics, for example.

[Avaitor]

I mean, there's over 80 years of history for some characters. It's getting increasingly impossible to read and watch everything involving them. There's nothing wrong with having your preferences on any given take of a character, be it their earliest comics, a favorite run, or a particular film or TV series.

The only person who gets to determine if you're a true fan or not is you.

[Markness]

Would it be the same for reading only English language versions of manga? Not that I wouldn't read manga in its native language but I don't have the money to buy Japanese copies of manga and learning another language is extremely difficult.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

By that logic, very few people outside of Japan would be considered manga, anime, or video game fans for anything produced from there. When you also consider that Japan in general is more conscious of the international market than ever before, I'd say that you're more than allowed to call yourself a fan of a series that you haven't read or watched in it's native language.

I mean, Hideo Kojima is a massive fan of Spider-Man and Pacific Rim, and he isn't exactly known for his fluency in English so he more than likely had to view some kind of locally translated versions of those works, but I'd still say he qualifies as a fan as much as any English-speaking audience.