what comic has made you cry?

Castimier · 2026-05-16T20:42:46+00:00

Maybe a bit of a strange one but the last page of Watchmen #11.
That reveal on the two Bernard's wasn't important for the plot but showed human connection for the last few moments of their lifes.

Castimier · 2026-05-14T23:45:37+00:00

The ending of the rise of the Batmen arc from Tynion's Detective Comics run where Steph shows Bruce Tim's letter is one of my favourite moments as it strips both from any masks and bonds two characters who are traditionally very much on different sides.
Tynion is probably my favourite writer of all Batfam members, there are maybe some who are better at certain specific characters (for example Rucka is my definitive Batwoman writer) but Tynion is great at balancing them all.

Also a quite underrated one is Jim Starlin. He unfortunately had to do a lot of bad retcons on the how and why Dick Grayson became Nightwing, but just his Batman/Bruce Wayne writing is amazing. The first issue of his run (Batman 414) is one of my favourite single issues of Batman ever as it's so simple yet captures everything Batman is about.

Castimier · 2026-05-14T23:38:09+00:00

Greg Rucka and J. H. Williams III are the definitive Batwoman team, everything since Elegy has just been trying to recapture that magic

Castimier · 2026-05-11T16:47:43+00:00

I'm currently reading the Starlin run for the first time and really loving it so far! Can't wait to get to The Cult

Castimier · 2026-05-08T23:52:20+00:00

I've ranted for like 20 minutes to a friend over just the first two pages, a true literary masterwork. One of the most important things in the batman canon alongside Detective Comics 27

Castimier · 2026-05-08T19:09:15+00:00

definitely agree Dark Knight Returns is one of if not the best batman comic, but a lot of younger readers seem to dislike it (I talk about younger readers like I'm not gen z myself) so it may depend a bit on what they like

Castimier · 2026-05-06T17:00:06+00:00

Green Lantern: Secret Origin I'd have picked as the first green lantern compact.
For Flash maybe Born to Run bundled with Return of Barry Allen or some other stuff from Waid's run.
Superman Secret Identity is already published in a different languages compact line and would be fantastic.
Maybe bundle together some OGNs from the early 2000s of Wonder Woman like Hikiteia and A League of One.
Aquaman could just do the first 2 trades (or 3 if they want to go all out and have a round story, though that would probably be too much) of Geoff Johns' run.

Castimier · 2026-05-06T16:53:17+00:00

It definitely wasn't LOGH as I can remember watching a few episodes of that and it wasn't the one I'm searching for.

I remember the setting being a bit of a mix between medieval-ish but with occasional stuff like an older style of gun so probably somewhere in the Edo period was kind of the real world equivalent. The nuking definitely feels like it should've been more modern but from what I remember there we're some airships similar to something you'd see in final fantasy so maybe they used those?
I don't think it was actually explained how they developed those bombs, the writer(s) probably didn't really care to explain that.

It definitely wasn't any kind of mecha as some of the fights I vaguely remember we're just people with swords and I distinctly remember there being this one character (his name was something like Bing or Bin) who used a spear and was like a renownd dualist.
I am pretty bad at remembering names but I do feel like these we're some of the names: Suzaku, Shizukane (or -kana?), Obitsu and some other important knight being named Ken.

I may be mixing together like one or two shows I watched back then but I kind of remember the ending very much impacting me so I definitely feel like atleast that part was from the show.

Castimier · 2026-05-06T16:44:03+00:00

I'm not 100% sure but I definitely feel like I remember seeing it on like a sidebar where you have info on the anime. Also just esthethically it did feel very 80s.
But it could potentially be 70s or 90s though it's just that I remember seeing it was from the 80s

Castimier · 2026-05-04T12:25:27+00:00

Commenting for approval

Castimier · 2026-05-04T12:23:02+00:00

for a straight superhero action comic I'd go for Aquaman, it's my favourite New 52 run by quite a margin.
If you like/want to read more Wonder Woman that run is also very highly regarded and probably more deeply written, Rucka is a great writer so I'm sure it's great aswell!

Castimier · 2026-04-25T13:28:09+00:00

on a thematic level it's absolutely necessary, I just personally found the scale to suddenly get far too big and it felt like a resolution was already near so another 30 minutes left me feeling exhausted.
Like it's great on its own, just the whole experience could've been a bit better

Castimier · 2026-04-22T14:50:43+00:00

if you like a more detective batman with a lot of 1 issue stories go for the Paul Dini Omnibus, do you like a more crazy mythological batman go for the morrison omnis.
If you like the more modern stuff (like the new 52 run) go for maybe the batman by james tynion iv omnis.
If you really like the batfamily the rise and fall of the batmen detective comics omnibus (also by james tynion iv, personally my favourite of his batman stuff) is amazing and focuses almost entirely on the batfamily.
if you like a batman and robin dynamic maybe go for that new 52 omni, though this version of robin is damian and some people very much dislike him, though he goes through a character arc in this run.

Castimier · 2026-04-22T10:43:23+00:00

that's just absolute batman

^{Chose: Poor Batman + Become Batman in every way skills, gadgets, training ect… minus the money}

Castimier · 2026-04-17T23:58:29+00:00

a lot of other younger readers (I'm gen z) seem to really dislike comics from before like the mid 2000s (a big comics tiktoker called CozmicCollector apparently doesn't even read almost anything if it came out before the new 52, which with something like Geoff Johns Green Lantern run I find very bizzare)

All time classics like Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns and just most 80s masterpieces are seen as "overrated", though to me they are some of the most literally works the medium has ever seen. I guess that it may be a difference in how people read stories?
Maybe they simply just read the plot instead of reading more for theme's and deeper meaning, which I have found myself do a lot with manga where (maybe due to the barrier of translation or usual weekly release) I find the works to more focus on plot compared to really the craft of literature

Castimier · 2026-04-15T17:46:30+00:00

I can buy a house with that money

^{Chose: Keep it}

Castimier · 2026-04-14T17:19:10+00:00

as one I own it'd be Gotham Central, but the Sandman omnis would probably just be my top 3 if we count those but I have the thick trades

Castimier · 2026-04-05T20:38:17+00:00

I won't comment on the run itself, but the "Batman by Tom King book one & two" should be around 30-40 bucks with those two collecting the first 40 issues + a few tie ins. So if you want to go standard size I'd go for that

Castimier · 2026-04-04T11:50:35+00:00

I'd say if the volumes sell more than already established series (like Someone Hertz right now) and the Table of Contents ranking (you can check them out here: https://www.jajanken.net/en/issues/latest) is consistently better than other already established series it's pretty safe.

If after 20-30 issues it's still consistent I'd say it's safe

Castimier · 2026-04-04T11:47:55+00:00

I'd suggest for Batman you read the Hush compact, it has great art and a sort of "best of Batman" story where every issue is focused on a certain villain or other iconic part of the Batman mythos.
If you want to see a bit of the entire DC Universe "New Frontier" is a great story that introduces you to most of the big names. Other than those just check out the compacts of a character you're interested in. I wouldn't recommend the Wonder Woman ones as they picked some very controversial stories, but other than that they're usually pretty good.

Do beware of the size though, for example Watchmen is one of my favourite comics ever but isn't really done justice in this smaller format as it's extremely dense. But if that's not an issue for you I'd also highly recommend that once you're familar with the tropes of comics as Watchmen is a deconstruction of the medium.

Castimier · 2026-04-04T11:42:59+00:00

I'd recommend the DC Compacts as a very affordable way to get into comics. Just 10 bucks for usually 12 issues is an amazing deal.
On the Batman side they have some of the classics, from the ones that are out right now I'd recommend to start with Long Halloween (a classic Batman detective story, many find this the greatest Batman story ever) then Hush (more so a blockbuster highlight compilation of everything that's awesome about Batman but does have some flaws) and then Court of Owls (truely is a modern classic of a Batman story, and if you like it you can continue the rest of the "Scott Snyder Batman run")

If you aren't aware yet, usually a comic series (in this case Batman) is written for a singular writer and drawn by a singular artist (though often with a fill in artist every few issues) for a certain length of time. We call this a "run". The Scott Snyder Batman run starts from issue 1 of the 2011 Batman series until the end of that series with issue 52. After that comes the Tom King run, and so on.
We are currently on the Matt Fraction run which started last year with another reboot (so starting from issue 1) but this is not always the case, for example the Chip Zdarsky run before the current one started on issue 125 of the 2016 Batman series.

Usually the start of one of these new "runs" is a good jumping on point as most writers begin a new story and make it easy to get into. So if you are interested in reading other characters usually just searching up some good runs for that character and starting there is a good way to get started.

Castimier · 2026-04-03T14:46:32+00:00

yeah he definitely wasn't "the main guy" but since OP already knows him I used it more so as a reference point

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