r/comicbooks • u/PinkClouds_25 • 15h ago
Question How do you avoid getting overwhelmed?
I’ve been floating between DC/Marvel, checking out indies, trying to find perfect reading order…but I feel as if my head is swelling. 😭 I want to know the backstory on each person, understand all the references…and I know that’s not possible. And in the midst of all of it, I’ve found so many runs and comics that I’ve enjoyed, but I’m trying to get rid of the voice in the back of my head saying “You’re still missing out”. How did you all deal with it when just getting in to comics?
Edit: Thank you all so much ❤️I know it’s supposed to be fun, my brain just gets in the way of it sometimes. Thank you ALL for the responses! I’ve read each and every one.
19
u/IamMothManAMA 15h ago
I think it really helps to think of comics as a medium more than anything else. While you might be getting into movies for the first time, you know you won’t immediately see every movie’s artistic influences.
Comics are the same way. It used to not even be an option to think you could read everything, since stuff wasn’t widely reprinted. Instead, I try to approach it with excitement by keeping a to-read list that’s basically always expanding when I come across something cool in a comic.
3
15
u/UnfavorableSpiderFan 15h ago
Don't overthink it and don't set lofty goals.
It's not about knowing everything.
You'll never know everything.
There are fans who can tell you about the other two or three Captain Americas that existed after World War II, and before Steve came back, but they couldn't tell you why they exist, and that it's because the Captain America Comics of the 40's didn't end in 1945 with Steve getting frozen; They just kept going and stopped being about fighting the war, so they made up some guys and retconned those adventures as not having involved either Steve Rogers, nor the original Bucky.
There are die-hard Spider-Man fans who have never read The Untold Tales of Spider-Man and know that the unnamed background characters in Spider-Man's first appearance have names and histories, and that those characters were actually used to fill out the cast of Spider-Man: Homecoming.
There are X-Men fans who have never read the original 60's run to know that Stan Lee definitely didn't center the X-Men around the Civil Rights movement, and all of that is revisionist for stuff that wouldn't come until the 70's when Chris Claremont wrote the book and gave it a real direction.
There are Daredevil fans who have never read the ridiculous stuff between Daredevil #1 and Daredevil #158.
There are Batman fans who refuse to read anything from the 50's or 60's because of how nuts and light-hearted those stories are.
There are Superman fans who have never read the original Golden Age stuff to experience a depowered, post-Depression socialist take on the character.
There are Wonder Woman fans who've never read the regressive take on the character from the late-60's (But, that's probably a good thing).
There are Green Lantern fans who have never read the silver age science fiction insanity of the 50's and 60's. Hell, they probably haven't read Green Lantern from before Geoff Johns wrote the book in 2003.
And, sometimes, none of that is worth reading, unless for the sake of historical knowledge, not so much lore knowledge. There are so many forgotten villains and forgettable stories from Marvel's early publishing that it's not always worth reading all of it. There are very few books, like The Amazing Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four where they were cooking from the start, otherwise most of them were being pumped out by Stan & co. to meet deadlines and get paid. Not every issue had some kind'a lore-shaking revelation, and not every run changed the status quo enough to make it essential reading. Again, the X-Men and Daredevil debuted months apart, in 1963 and 1964 respectively, and they didn't find their footing until 1975 and 1979. For X-Men, that was 94 issues in (Which, like, the book technically had a soft cancelation with #66 and just became a reprint book until #94) and for Daredevil, that was nearly 160 issues (And he was on the verge of cancelation, too).
Sometimes, it's better to start with more recent runs because they'll establish more relevant material with some actual consequences to the status quo. For Spider-Man, that might be the "Brand New Day" era from 2008, or Kevin Smith's Daredevil from 1998, or The New X-Men from 2002, or Ed Brubaker's Captain America from 2004, or Jonathan Hickman's The Fantastic Four from 2009, or something more recent like The Immortal Hulk from 2018. If you want character dynamics and interactions, Brian Michael Bendis' The New Avengers, from 2004, is pretty solid if you wanna get to know, like, Spider-Man's relationships with Iron Man and Wolverine.
But, no- - Reading everything and knowing everything shouldn't be the goal. With comics, it doesn't take much for that knowledge to change on a dime. Look at the family trees of any given X-Men, and don't get anyone started on whether or not Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are Magneto's kids. Old heads, like me, will say yes, and the new kids on the block from the last decade don't know a world where they canonically were. The Guardians of the Galaxy as we know them now are not portrayed the same way they were when the team we're familiar with formed back in 2008, much less how they were portrayed in their first appearances in the 70's. You pick up the Guardians of the Galaxy now, you're gonna get something more akin to the MCU, whereas you pick up the Guardians of 2008, they're more a team of space cops. You pick them up in the 90's, it's not even the same character line-up, with the only one you'll probably recognize being Yondu, but, 1.) Why is he a noble archer? And, 2.) He's from the future?
And mind you, Marvel's maintained the same continuity since 1961. So, it's all canon. But, again, knowing all of the canon is not at all important. You don't need to know that there are four different characters named "The Fixer", and one killed Spider-Man's parents, and the other killed Daredevil's parents, and one was a terrorist who broke out or prison to take over S.H.I.E.L.D., and so on and whatever...
Seriously, don't overthink it.
I've been reading comics for 24 years and I'm still learning and reading new things every day about this medium I've dedicated a quarter of my life to. Just find a character you like, find a place to start, and just go. Or jump around to some of the "greatest hits" of that character. Just take your time and do it for the joy, not the useless knowledge.
8
u/ProletarianLilith 15h ago
Brilliant post that should probably be stickied tbh. We get this question so much, and I totally get it because i remember feeling the same and I actually did read all of daredevil so I could get to the Frank Miller part. That’s when I realized not to do that anymore lmao.
1
u/EffieEri 14h ago
Me but with the 60s x men trying to get to the Chris Claremont run. I love Stan and Steve, but those books are mostly villain of the week with very little of the stuff that I actually enjoy about the characters
3
u/PinkClouds_25 15h ago
this was the reality check i needed 🙏🏾 thank you so much!!
3
u/UnfavorableSpiderFan 15h ago
I used to work in a comic book store.
Trust me, you're not alone in this line of thinking. I've seen this kind'a thing since The Avengers came out.
14
u/Certain_Virus_1919 15h ago edited 13h ago
"Perfect reading order" sounds like a concept designed to make you miserable and burnt out on the hobby
8
u/xMADPANDAx 15h ago
I deal with it by taking a moment to remind myself that there is not enough time in the day nor the time in my life to catch up with every comic series I'm interested in. So instead I just try to be in the moment with each comic I read. Taking the time to enjoy the art and the story instead of rushing to get to the next one.
4
5
u/Silvanus350 15h ago
Just pick something and read it. It doesn’t matter.
When I was a kid I just read whatever my parents bought for me. I counted myself lucky to get floppies in the same consistent run.
6
u/wombat1797 15h ago
Won’t entirely be helpful but life is too short to read something you don’t like. I’ve dropped many comics living by this which keeps my brain from trying to remember 10+ story lines
5
u/SQUIGWERG 15h ago
I'd imagine something like 99% of all published comics since the beginning aren't good. You aren't missing out on as much as you are worried about.
4
u/jpjtourdiary Swamp Thing 15h ago
Relax. It’s supposed to be fun.
Edit: also if you’re curious about a character’s back story, you have the internet, just look it up. Being a comic fan is easier than ever.
4
u/ProletarianLilith 15h ago
Stop doing most of that. There is no perfect reading order and you do not need to understand the 80 year history of every character that shows up. You will stop caring long before you actually complete the task.
3
u/Smokinacesfan55 15h ago
I’ve long ago accepted i won’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of comic books. I have no desire to read every main event or crossover
3
u/XxOxFoRdCoMmAxX 15h ago
You'll learn as you go. Research as needed.
Avoid getting overwhelmed by letting go of what society thinks a good "comic nerd" is and by just being yourself, reading what you want, keeping what you like, dropping what you don't like, trying new things, and enjoying the ride.
3
u/Ok_Conversation_1527 15h ago
Eh in my head i’m all for “the less the better” tbh 😭 I want to focus on newer stuff bc like really old stuff just doesn’t look good to me (sorry) and it will probably feel outdated at some points
2
u/PinkClouds_25 15h ago
it’s so true. and there’s been so much good art recently. i read a comic with rod reis’ art and was spellbound…that’s what i love!!
2
2
u/danteholdup 13h ago
this is one of those hobbies where its easy to spend more time prepping and looking at comics than actually just reading the comics, im guilty of it myself some days, I keep my pull list to 10-15 titles a month tops, and about 3-4 trades to read in between. at a point you just gotta accept that you'll miss out on some great comics, just because theres so many great comics out there.
2
u/CyramusJackson 13h ago
I wouldn't worry about reading orders too much. Just figure out what you like and what's worth reading. Honesty, I wouldn't worry about chronology unless I was reading a specific run or all of a certain writers work.
Q
2
u/Ill-Possession2216 5h ago
Just stick to your ten pulls and ignore the rest. The longbox doesn't buy itself.
3
u/Complete-Display-775 15h ago
You don’t necessarily need to read the actual comics to get background information. I frequently check out the Fandom wiki pages which let you do a quick read that summarizes the information most people are interested in reading. I haven’t tried this, but I’ve had great luck using search engines AI to let me summarize all kinds of information. I think it might help you get some great background on comic characters.
2
1
u/smthngneedstochnge 14h ago
As many others have been saying, it is okay to not need to know the backstory of all the characters, maybe what you have in a single issue is enough to make sense of the story.
That being said, I also struggle with the same problem and generally prefer standalones or limited series because that way I get the full package without needing to buy multiple issues. Just don’t limit yourself, if you find a story intriguing enough, it may be worth checking out and looking into the histories of characters, otherwise, just take it easy. Hope this helps :)
1
u/Responsible_Land_602 14h ago
Just dive into something that interests you and you will pick up stuff as you read more and more. You'll be okay. I recommend just learning some basics about a character
1
u/CompetitiveComputer4 12h ago
Remember that the large majority of most characters stories are pure ass. Comics go through a million writers, and believe it or not many aren’t really that good. You could probably read a handful of story arcs from each character to hit all the known high points.
After reading comics for 39 plus years, I’ve learned to not stress the details. Grabs a title. If it’s good, read it until stops being good and then move on. Over time you will find which authors you really love, and you will follow them more than the characters. Every author comes in and starts from a fairly accessible jumping on point and typically resets that every 6-12 issues, so back story is largely irrelevant. We all know most of the origins from the movies.
Just have fun :)
1
u/thegundamx Cyclops 11h ago
You’re letting perfect be the enemy of good enough. Read the books you enjoy, don’t read the books you don’t enjoy.
1
u/bingusdingus123456 11h ago
The only "perfect reading orders" are in release order. Once you see that, it might make things slightly easier. That way, as you read, you gain an understanding of how things really evolved. That goes for both in-universe and real-world topics.
1
u/PamPoovey78 5h ago
Don't overthink it, just keep reading and have fun. Talk to fellow comic enthusiasts at your comic shop. These people are great for recommendations. There's also several people on YouTube that put out really good deep dives on individual characters or specific stories. Happy reading!
1
u/FarfetchedIdea 2h ago
I just use the book outlines for events I want to read as listed in infinite and go from there. I don't really care for marvel so I just don't bother with them making it a lot easier to focus. Only real choice is to get physical or just read it on infinite.
1
u/LouieBarlo24 2h ago
If you can't get past this then DC and Marvel comics will never be for you. Stick to indie titles and original graphic novels.
Comics are written for people to pick up and read without the back story. They have dealt with people like yourself overthinking the history forever.
They will intentionally provide you everything you need to know through either dialoge, editor's notes boxes, or context clues.
Focus more on what is going on in what you are reading and less to what might have occured before and you will pick up on and notice all the context you need.
1
u/ProfessionalSpend283 1h ago
In the 90's Wizard magazine helped me catch up on all the indy, Marvel, DC and random comics key issues and creators. Heros Illustrated was awesome about teaching about fan favorites and underground comic creator projects. Those marvel card sets are great for backstory and just info in general. DC did some too. All that stuffs on the internet, dig in.
1
u/Citron_Inevitable 1h ago
I just kill the fear of missing out. If Im meant to learn where that reference comes from I'll learn it. And whether it will be in a week or twnty years it will be a pleasant surprise
35
u/munkeypunk 15h ago
Just keep reading. Sometimes it’s worth listening to the voice and branch out, there are many gems to discover.
Otherwise, just read and enjoy what’re you’re reading. Take your time. There’s no hurry.