Noob question

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?

1) They sell a lot.
2) Yes.

That doesn't really help me out.

For team books like the X-Men, I would assume that different titles split up different groups of characters.

I sat out buying comics during the nineties. I got back in a few years ago buying paperback collections, and I had to understand what Marvel's Ultimate line meant. That Ultimate Spider Man wasn't just another Spidey title, like Amazing or Spectacular; it was set in an alternate dimension, and every title that carried Ultimate in it's title was part of it. That's just an example.

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?

They exist to capitalize on the market... more people buy books about Wolverine or Batman, even if those books are nowhere near as good as books no one buys... Blue Beetle or Captain Britain and MI13 are perfect examples: books far better than almost anything else from the Big 2 on the shelves, but on the verge of cancellation because people like reading about the big names... hence Superman's three titles (Action, Superman, and Classified) Batman's like... ten (All-Star, Detective, Batman, Batman and the Outsider's, Classified, and the fifty or so mini's that are always around) or Wolverine appearing in New Avengers, Astonishing, Wolverine, First Class, and so on....

The trick is simple... just like any other media, figure out what you like and stick with it. If you want to read X-Men, I recommend Astonishing (Warren Ellis) or Uncanny (Matt Fraction). Both feature a cast of some of the more well-known X-Men: Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm, so on, and both are smart, slick, and fun books.

With Batman, it's a matter of taste. Comic readers are EXTREMELY divided about Grant Morrison- some people think he's a literary god who singlehandedly saved comics, others think he's an insane and drug-addled show-off. He's the writer on "Batman," but his run is set to end pretty soon, so it might be a good jumping on point with the new writer coming. "Detective," with Paul Dini, is always decent (if never particularly awesome), and it's also a worthy read.

People on this forum trip out WAY too much about what's canon, what's important, and what's not. It doesn't really matter- figure out which writers and titles you like, and buy those. No title is any more "important" than what you put into it... if you're not interested in a particular event or storyline, regardless of how SENSES-SHATTERING AND CHARACTER-CHANGING it is, it's simply not going to matter to you.

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 😄

That did clear it up a little bit. I'll just have to pick one up and dive in!

http://www.killermovies.com/forums/f95/t346614.html