Where should I start with Marvel and DC comics?

I've never read DC/Marvel comics before. Where should I start? What should I read after that? I want to read both DC and Marvel comics.

Well...what characters interest you?

It depends on what characters you like.

@debelindzo: A lot interest me. Superman, Deadpool, Spiderman, Iron man, Thor, Batman, The Flash, etc.

For Superman:Birthright,All Star Superman,Red Son,The Death of Superman,The Return of Superman

For Deadpool....Killustrated i guess?

Spiderman:Kraven's Last Hunt,Ultimate Comics and you should get the Silver Age omnibus if you have extra money

Iron Man:Invincible Iron Man,Ultimate Iron Man,Extremis

Thor:Tales of Asgard,Death of Odin,Thor by Jay Michael Straczynski

Batman:Year One,Dark Knight Returns,Dennis O'Neill's 70's Batman run,Zero Year,Death in the Family,Knightfall,Batman:Venom,Death of the Family,Batman New 52 run

Flash:Flashpoint(it isn't centered just around the Flash but it's a pretty good story),The Human Race,Silver Age Omnibus if you have extra cash,Flash Rebirth by Geoff Johns,Blitz,Crisis on Infinite Earths

I hope this helps

@deathbomb: Here is what I generaly recommand:

I will give 1 essential read from each hero, and once you'de read thoses you can get more in depth with the hero/team you prefered:

• Batman: Hush - A good overview of Batman's rogue and relationships
• Daredevil: The man without fear - An awsome origin story by Frank Miller (Sin city, 300, the dark knight returns)
• Spider-man: Blue - A great retelling of spider-man's origins
• Superman: Kindom Come - An exelent elseworld story, meaning that it doens't fit in any continuity
• Green Lantern: Rebirth (2005) - the start of Geoff John's incredible run
• Justice League: Identity Crisis - A Major DC event
• Captain America: Man Out of Time - His orign story

For further reading on Batman (which I know well), skipping a few good ones to have a shorter list (in Chronological order):

1. The Dark Knight Returns - Elsworld Story by Frank Miller the imagines Bruce Wayne at retirment age. Inspired the Batman vs Superman movie.
2. Batman: Year One - Batman's origns by Frank Miller
3. The Man Who Laughts - First modern encounter with the Joker
4. The Long Halloween / Dark Victory - Epic story about Harvey Dent and Two-Face
5. Birth of the Demon (collected) - All you need to know about Ra's Al Ghul
6. A Death in the Family - A trajedy amongs Robins
7. The Killing Joke - Joker's origin story and a sad Batgirl fait
8. A Lonely Place of Dying - Here comes Robin 3
9. Sword of Azrael (prequel to Knightfall that should be read) - Origin story of Azrael
10. Vengence of Ban - The excellent story about Bane's origin and hatred for Batman
11. Knightfall (Knightfall/Knightquest/KnightsEnd) - An epic saga in which Bane distroys Batman and gets replaced by Azrael
12. No Man's Land - Another Epic saga where after multiple virus attacks and earthquake Gotham is declared a No Man's Land by the Government
13. Hush
14. Under The Hood - The return of Jason Todd
15. Batman & Son - Batman discovers he has a Son Damyan
16. Final Crisis - a Justice League event where Batman disapears in time after Darkseid final asault
17. Batle for the Cowl / Batman & Robin: Batman Reborn - Who will the next "Batman" be after his disapearance ?
18. The return of Bruce Wayne / Batman Incorporated - Bruce Wayne jumps through time to the present and reveals he's been funding the Batman. While Batman travels the world to build a Bat-Franchise.
19. Court of Owls / Night of the Owls - Batman will discover dark secrets about Gotham - New 52

Further Superman readings:

1. What Happened to the Man of Tomorrow ?
2. The Man of Steel - Superman's origin
3. The Death of Superman
4. Kingdom Come
5. Red Son - What if Superman had fallen in Russia ?
6. For All Seasons
7. Emperor Joker
8. Birthright
9. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
10. Godfall

DC main events (in chronological order):

1. Crisis on Infinite Earths - Event that concludes the Silver Age and is the beginning of the Modern Age for DC
2. Legends - First Moderne Age event and creation of the Justice League International and Suicid Squad
3. Zero Hour - Epic story with Extent and Parallax rewritting universes
4. Identity Crisis / Tower of Babel - The Justice League learns frightning secrets about Dr. Light and The Batman
5. Countdown to / Infinite Crisis - The JLA vs Evil versions from Earth-2
6. 52 - Transition from Indentity Crisis and Final Crisis with the establishement of the DC Multiverse
7. Countdown / Final Crisis - Epic Event
8. Flashpoint - Excellent event caused by The Falsh that will end the Modern Age and start the New 52
9. Throne of Atlantis
10. Trinity War / Forever Evil
11. Darkseid War
12. DC Univers Rebirth

Justice League - appart from DC main events:

• DC: The New Frontier - A great Elsworld event - a must read
• Justice League: A New Beginning
• JLA: New World Order
• Justice League of America: Tornado's Path
• JLA: Earth-2
• JLA: Tower of Babel

Further reading for Green Lantern:

1. GL: Secret Origin - also in Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Omnibus
2. GL: Emerald Dawn
3. GL: Emerald Twiligth / GL: New Dawn
4. GL: Baptism of Fire
5. Green Lantern omnibus by Geoff Johns Omnibus (3 books or the following tpb)
   1. GL: Rebirth - a must
   2. GL: No Fear
   3. GLC: Recharge
   4. (GLC: Revenge of the Green Lanterns) - optional
   5. (GLC: To be a Green Lantern) - optional
   6. GL: Wanted - Hal Jordan
   7. (GLC: The Dark Side of Green) - optional
   8. GL: The Sinestro War Corps - a must
   9. GL: Ring Quest
   10. GL: Secret Origin
   11. GL: Rage of the Red Lanterns
   12. GLC: Sins of the Start Sapphire
   13. GL: Agent Orange
   14. (GLC: Emeral Eclipse) - optional
   15. Blackest Knight - a must
   16. Brightest Day
   17. (GLC: The Weaponer) - optional
   18. GL: War of the Green Lanterns
   19. GL: Sinestro - New 52
   20. GL: Revenge of the Black Hand - New 52
   21. GL: The End - New 52
   22. (GL: Larfleeze Christmas Special) - optional
6. To read between "To be a Green Lantern" and "Wanted - Hal Jordan"
   1. Final Crisis
7. (Red Lanterns: Blood and Rage) - optional
8. (Red Lanterns: Death of the Red Lanterns) - optional
9. (Rise of the Third Army) - optional
10. (Wrath of the First Lantern) - optional
11. (Lights Out) - optional
12. (GodHead) - optional

Further reading for Dardevil (in reading order):

1. The Man Who Fears
2. Yellow
3. Born Again (or the Whole Frank Miller Omnibus)

Further reading for Spiderman (in reading order):

1. The Very Best of Sipder-Man
   1. Amazin Fantasy #15 - first Siper-Man appearance
   2. If This Be My Destiny...
   3. Spider-Man no more
   4. The Night Gwen Stacy Died
   5. The Kid Who Collects Spiderman
   6. Whatever Happened to Crusher Hogan?
   7. The Sand and the Fury - reprinted in "Birth of Venom"
   8. Fathers and Sins
   9. The Osborn Legacy
2. Spider-Man: Wizard Masterpiece Edition
   1. Nothing Stops the Juggernaut
   2. Hyde in Plain Sight
   3. The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man
   4. Venom Strikes Back
   5. The Death of Jean DeWolff
3. Origin of the Hobgoblin
4. Kraven's Last Hunt - concidered the best Spider-man story ever
5. Venom
6. The Hary Osborn Saga
7. Blue
8. Coming Home
9. The Gauntlet (or at least:)
   1. Keemia's Castle
   2. Endangered Species
   3. Shed
10. Big Time
11. Spider-Island
12. Superior Spider-Man - current ongoing title

Reading for Wonder Woman:

• Wonder Woman: Blood
• Wonder Woman: The Circle
• Wonder Woman: Down to Earth
• Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals
• Wonder Woman: Odyssey
• Wonder Woman: Who is Wonder Woman?

Reading for Green Arrow (in reading order):

1. Year One
2. The Longbow Hunters
3. Quiver
4. Green Lantern / Green Arrow
5. Sounds of Violence
6. The Archers Quest
7. One Year Later
8. The Kill Machine
9. The Outsider War
10. Broken
11. Kingdom
12. Nightbirds

Reading for Swamp Thing (in reading order):

1. The Saga of Swamp Thing - 5 books by the great Alan Moore
2. Rotworld - a nice event that has to be read along with Animal Man
   1. Animal Man: Rotworld - The Red Kingdom
   2. Swamp Thing: Rotworld - The Green Kingdom
3. Charles Soule's run - a mind blowing run
   1. The Seeder
   2. The Killing field
   3. The Sureen
   4. Season's End

Other must read (not all DC or Marvel):

• Teenage Mutan Nija Turtles: The Works - 4 volumes with the original dark comics in color
• Spawn Compendium - 1 volume so far with the 50 first issues
• The Walking Dead Compendum - 3 massive books with everything
• Jack Kirby's 4th world Omnibus - 4 volumes - DC
• Lobo: Portrait of a Bastich - DC
• Sin City - 7 books
• 100 bullets - concidered by some the best Crime Fiction in any medium - 5 books - Vertigo (owned by DC)
• Y:The Last Man - 10 books - Vertigo (owned by DC)
• I kill Giants
• From Hell - The Masterpiece form Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, The Watchmen, The Killing Joke, ...)
• Maus - A many awards wining book
• Batlling Boy - By the Great Paul Pope
• Some of Mark Millar's work
  • Wanted - adpated to movie with Angelina Jolie
  • Kick-Ass - was turned into 2 movies
  • The Secret Service - adapted as Kingsman (a Kingsman 2 comming in 2017)
  • Nemesis
• Transformers: 30th Anniversary Collection
• Hellblazer (the collected edition) - 16 books so far - Vertigo (owned by DC)
• The Sandman (library edition) - 10 books - Vertigo (owned by DC)
• European comics:
  • Tintin - Belgian series of comics that have inspired many - A trilogy of film is being made by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson - An animated serie exists retelling all stories (was published on HBO)
  • Lucky Luke - French comics about a solitary cowboy (issues #1-31 are must read) - Has spawned multiple movies and tv-series
  • XIII - A amnesic is found almost dead on a beach with only a XIII tatooed on him - Has a 2 season tv-show XIII: the series
  • The Adventures of Asterix - Another french comics. The series follows the exploits of a village of indomitable Gauls as they resist Roman occupation.

@deathbomb: If you want to read Iron-man start with these...

http://comicvine.gamespot.com/profile/krleavenger/lists/what-to-read-iron-man-part-1-read-op/63957/

@jb681131: Holy sh**. I was just mentioning from the top of my head lol.

I don't know Marvel that well. But there are probably very good Fantastic 4, Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider and Hulk stories.

If you'd like a short list, tell me what type of things appeals to you most:

• Detective / Mystery
• Fights
• SciFi
• Robots
• Animals
• Fantastic
• Parallel Univers
• Cosmic Stories
• Crime
• Magic and Dark arts
• Jokes and Fun
• Dark Humor
• Zombies
• Vampires
• Gods
• Superpowers
• Brutality
• WTF things
• Teams
• Team-ups
• Quick to read stories
• Epic stories
• Scary things
• Creapy stories
• Aliens
• War
• Survival
• Sex
• ...

@jb681131: I don't know if the offer was too me but I really like detective/mystery stories. I've read the Long Halloween and a lot of Batman classics but I'm not sure what else to try. I was thinking about Fables recently if I'm being honest but if you could recommend some stuff that would be very much appreciated.

I honestly haven't read all what I'm suggesting, but a big chunk of it. Some suggestions are based on general opinion. But it happens I also like detective/mystery stories.

Here is my detective list choice from stories I've read:

• Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City - a must
• Batman: Broken City - I love Brian Azzarelo
• Blake and Mortimer: The Yellow "M" - but the other titles are great too
• Blacksad - 3 volumes so far - with awsome watercollors
• 100 Bullets - Considered one of the Best Crime fiction in any medium - not so much a detective story
• Gotham Central - focuses on the Gotham Central Police Department - at least vol.2 Half a Life
• Inspector Canardo - But I wouldn't kow which to recommand - if you've played Amerzone or Syberia you can read the comics that inspired those games
• Lucifer - With a bit of Fantastic - it's a spin-off The Sandman, but can be read on its own - or you can watch the tv serie which was a nice discovery.

Fables is in my toread list. But isn't it more Fantasy than Mystery ?

@jb681131: That's a great list, I haven't read anything on it except a bit of Gotham Central and Lucifer. Having read reviews for all of them I decided to go with Blacksad for now and might try 100 Bullets as well when I get a bit of extra money. Broken City sounded really good but it was a fortune on Amazon Uk so I might have to do some digging around the internet or in London one weekend for it.

I discovered Fables through the Wolf Among Us game that I finally picked up for Christmas this year. The game so far is a solid murder mystery and based on the description and reviews so is the first graphic novel at least. Being based on Fables there are a lot of fantasy elements but I think they mix well to be honest.

For Batman: Broken City, it is also available in

• Batman Noir: Eduardo Risso

Fist thing: Don't read comments on forum about an issue before reading it itself. [well, I suggest neither after reading, if you don't wan't to go mad...]

Do : read current DC titles. Now is the time to pick them up. I'd recommend you Superman, such an epic story and John is adorable, 10/10. Well, I dont know if you're interested, but Hal Jordan and the GL corps is also great. Ooh and I dont recommend Batman ....just dont. Deathstroke is cool, Flash is solid.

Don't: Marvel NOW 2.0

@jb681131: Thanks it's added to the wish list and for a much better price! Also if you don't mind me asking, apart from the Vine where do you hear about great comics outside of the DC and Marvel?

@jb681131: Are there any good ones for Shazam?

Unfortunatly I know there are, but I don't know which. But when I don't know, here is where I look:

• comicvine.gamespot.com/billy-batson/4005-2350/guide/
• http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Captain_Marvel_Recommended_Reading

Be carefull, I have a doubt that "Noir" book are only in black and white versions, uncollored.

Well, I've always been reading lots of comics. I am French, so I have a good knowledge of French/Belgian comics. And like every country in the world, we get the american culture brought to us, so I also know about comics.

I also like lists and I like to compare them to get the best of things.

I also like to know stuff. So if something interrest me, I try to find as much info as possible.

The good places to know stuff:

• comicvine - very complete on series and arcs, and has an active forum
• dc.wikia - very detailled on characters
• wikipedia - very generic
• google search - always helps

@jb681131: Thanks a lot. I started a thread asking for advice on finding Legion of Superhero stories but I'll try being less lazy and searching a bit more for myself.

I don't mind helping lazies. It's always good to share what you know.

With current books, the only books I'd recommend is Deathstroke Rebirth by Christopher Priest and Nightwing Rebirth by Tim Seeley

If you want to get into some characters, here's what I'd recommend:

With Batman, I'd read The Dark Knight Returns, Year One, The Killing Joke, Death of the Family, Sword of Azrael, Vengeance of Bane, Knightfall, Prodigal, Vengeance of Bane 2, Batman Legacy, Batman:Bane, Cataclysm, No Man's Land

With Spider-man, I'd start from 1962 (Amazing Fantasy 15) and read everything up until 1998. Skip works by Denny O'Neil.

With X-Men- I'd start from 1963 Uncanny X-Men and read everything until you get bored

With Daredevil, I'd just read everything by Frank Miller

With the Teen Titans, I'd read Marv Wolfman's New Teen Titans.

With the Flash, I'd read everything by Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, and Geoff Johns

With Animal Man, I'd read everything by Grant Morrison

With Swamp Thing, I'd read everything by Alan Moore

With Deathstroke, I'd read everything by Marv Wolfman.

With Punisher... It's all good baby!