Originally posted by m.ramius
Hi all, I'm just recently getting back into reading comic books. But there's something I've been wondering for a while now....
Why are there like 5 or 6 different "titles" for the same character or characters? Like if I wanted to start reading Batman again which line is like the official one? Dark Knight, Detective etc??
I would like to also read XMen, but there are like 10 different comics out on the shelf and it's pretty Confusing. The same goes for Spiderman.
So...
1.) Why are there so many different kinds?
2.) Is one more important or "the official" line?
It really does depend on the character. Like for example in the case of Spider-man there used to be several titles at once and you could read and enjoy any of them. However the main title where all the major stuff happened was Amazing Spider-man and that still continues like that.
Batman has a couple of titles. More recently the more important title is arguably Batman and not Detective comics as all the major changes were taking place there. However VERY recently Batman's titles have had a huge tone shift and pretty much all the titles are important and even the Final Crisis series is important to the character.
As for team books, the problem gets even worse. Take the Avengers for example. You have New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Avengers the Initiative and the upcoming Dark Avengers. Which one is the main title? Well I'd argue that New Avengers is but this is very subjective as the titles each deal with different characters, different teams and deal with different aspects of the Marvel universe. Dark Avengers hasn't even been released yet so it could be infinitely important to the Avenger's franchise or not at all. The upside of this is that whilst it may be hard to prioritise titles, you just simply have to read the ones you like the look of.
Another big problem that comes with ordering comics in terms of importance is the events that occur. A major storyline can affect almost every title the company is publishing and this can completely upset the comics you are read or it could improve them. Two examples of recent events doing this.
Final Crisis affects many DC titles. If you are reading Batman and not Detective comics you might be thinking you are reading the more important storyline that supposedly ties in to the big event. However many fans preferred Detective Comic's storyline even if it was less relevant. AND on top of that to confuse us even more, which was the most important title for reading Batman? No, not Batman but reading the main Final Crisis comic!!!! Confusing I know.
The positive effect events can have with the issue of prioritising titles is shown in the last big X-men event, Messiah Complex. The storyline ran over several X-comics and each part of the story wasn't continued consecutively in the same comic. So to read the whole story you'd have to pick up what you might consider a really important X-men comic one week and what you consider the least important title the next week to get the next chapter in the story. This was good because after the event there was more cohesion in the titles. "Important" characters in the main book are also regular character's in the "lesser books" and vice versa.
Sorry if that's more Confusing than helpful but it's a subjective topic with no straight answer
