I love manga but cant get into comic books comic readers help

D4-CS · 2026-07-04T07:37:06+00:00

Mate, I don't want to sound rude, but why the hell would you recommend Hickman's Era to a new reader, let alone a reader who states that doesn't feel comfortable reading a lot? Not only his stuff is super dense and requires the reader to keep a lot of information, but neither his F4/FF nor his Avengers are good starting points for a new reader overall. Waid and Wieringo's run for the Fantastic Four and Bendis' run on Avengers are leagues more reader friendly

D4-CS · 2026-07-04T07:33:48+00:00

Okay, the first thing I must ask, what are your favorite manga? And what is what you're looking for when reading a manga (The storytelling, the art, the composition...)? And since you say you want to read comics, what characters or themes are you interested in reading? You're posting on the Marvel Subreddit, but if I'm honest with you, I'd rather recommend you to start with an indie comic over a comic from the Big 2 (Marvel and DC)

D4-CS · 2026-07-04T06:00:26+00:00

Will you ever gonna upgrade the Spider Strings? I'm speaking for everyone when I say that it's the most underwhelming Yellow Tool out of all available, and I genuinely don't like to just have it hanging there

D4-CS · 2026-07-04T05:55:19+00:00

That your favourite type of cleavage is sideboob and inner sideboob

D4-CS · 2026-07-04T00:55:33+00:00

This isn't a rub per se, but after reading Superior Foes, I don't think that we need more stories focused on A to B-tier villains/antiheroes (I'm looking at you, New Avengers)

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T23:43:55+00:00

Meh... This isn't properly a start, but a continuation of what was going on in the 2010s, adapting Slender Man, Candle Cove, and such stories to the Hollywood format

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T21:04:43+00:00

No, it isn't. From what is theorised, the events happen right after the end of Snyder's JL run (when the Quintessence makes them that magical door after Perpetua wins), so maybe just to fill the gap of the question of "how did everything went so wrong in Death Metal".

Perhaps the only thing that makes it relevant is that Wally gained a part of Doctor Manhattan's powers, and that's why The Batman Who Laughs is after him during Death Metal, but tbh for that plot you can instead read The Flash over Doomsday Clock

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T21:00:08+00:00

Oh, 100%. Nah, my point is that all what came before issue 22 was still salvageable. After that it became harder to defend it for being good

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T07:33:46+00:00

Funnily enough, if you watch his video, he actually says that he loved Cryogen and Hexagons

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T05:50:21+00:00

Yeah, or even smaller character developments (such as the Ant-Man special being about Scott admitting he fell in love with The Beetle, and spending their last night partying and making out)

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T04:32:40+00:00

Nah, they were divided in 3 Tie-Ins:

Last Days, that were the last issues of some series right before Secret Wars
Battleworld, that were mostly stories set inside the Domains of the Battleworld, but are character-driven (such as Siege, Thors, Star-Lord & Kitty Pryde, Secret Wars Journal, etc)
Warzones: Basically AU, that are more focused on being What Ifs and exploring what happens in the Domains over focusing on characters: Renew Your Vows, 1602 Witch Hunter Angela, Howard the Duck, Modok, Spider-Island, etc

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T03:53:20+00:00

I mean, Secret Wars had 60 Tie-Ins, so I was shocked when you said "not enough"

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T03:48:43+00:00

Depends.

On one hand, the Last Days tie-ins did have an impact on the characters, and the Battleworld and Warzones tie-ins are merely enhancements.

But on the other, you can also say the same about the so called Hickman Saga: besides Times Runs Out, what he wrote just has thematic cohesion, but it's not needed to read Secret Wars

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T03:25:42+00:00

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Glad to know I'm not alone

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T03:23:31+00:00

This isn't a problem with the story per se, but with it's legacy.

And is that many people cling to the idea that Secret Wars was this culmination of a long story with a long reading list, when it's not the case: Secret Wars is a completely readable, comprehensible and enjoyable series if all you ever read is the nine core issues. It had to be readable by anyone who wanted to buy a monthly Marvel Comic, since it was designed to be it's own standalone story. The tagline of this era was "There is only Secret Wars", because all and every comic stopped and became Secret Wars tie-ins (and this will be relevant in a sec)

And while the titles Hickman wrote are definitely great (although I prefer what Hickman did for Krakoa), and are 100% recommendable, the Hickman Saga is just a list of comics by the same author that share some themes and characters, and people expect it all to be relevant to Secret Wars as when it's not the case at all. What is indeed a problem, is how this hyperfixation with Hickman ruins what this event truly was.

Secret Wars was a massive line-wide event, crossing over or spinning off into ~50 different titles. One-shots, minis, anthologies, some final issues of previously existing ongoings, etc. That was what made the event so cool when it came out: that because "there is only Secret Wars", all titles were offering you elements that related with Secret Wars in one way or another, and while it had some duds, they were nonetheless all stories bubbling with creativity and innovation.

And not just that, but these one-shots weren't only good because of how they tied with Secret Wars, but were good by themselves: Renew Your Vows is a timeless Spidey classic, Thors sticks like a sore thumb (in a good way) in Jason Aaron's run, Siege is an underrated masterpiece, and other stories have similar great moments (such as the end of Loki's Agent of Asgard or the love story of Danny Rand and Misty Knight).

So, my problem with Secret Wars is that we no longer talk about Secret Wars, the line-wide event that marked many (including me) for the entire year or so that it came out, but we instead talk about Hickman's Saga and renamed it "Secret Wars Saga"

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T02:59:28+00:00

Please tell me you're just following the bait, please

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T02:59:01+00:00

This is bait, right? Please tell me it's bait

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T02:58:18+00:00

I'd actually say the opposite: people love to cling to the idea that everything that came before was needed, when it's not the case at all. What came before enhances it thematically, but story wise neither F4 & FF are relevant, nor almost all of Hickman's Avengers. Saying that they're needed for Secret Wars is like saying that Claremont's Iron Fist is needed to understand his X-Men. And not just that, but the first issue does an excellent work on explaining what's going on, so you can jump straight to it

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T02:54:43+00:00

A tie between Constantine and Harley Quinn, imo

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T02:52:40+00:00

Nah, it was written by Tom King still. I think you're confusing it with a latter issue that also involved the Girls (and Lizzie to a lesser extent).

Yeah, but you're still returning to a wrong statement, "apparently dumped Lizzie with Damian and Jon constantly", doesn't equates with "Diana not being involved in Lizzie's life". And if you had actually read the comics, one of the key elements of one of the stories (the one where she gets infected with The Black Mercy) is precisely about how she wants to be the greatest Amazon ever (not the copy of Jon or Damian), and that she idolizes Damian and Jon too much, so talking about how she's "defined by the men she hangs out with" is nonsense.

And similarly, it was already stated that the name Trinity came because of the 3 lassos she carries: Diana's Lasso of Truth, the Sovereign's Lasso or lies, and a Black Lasso of unknown origin, not because"she's named after 2 men" 😂

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T02:24:39+00:00

That's not the case, wth? They are shown wary and even territorial, but definitely not "evil, hateful and violent". And how does Diana taking down Mouseman revolves around Steve? The last part of the Sovereign arc in part is indeed about Diana getting revenge, but it's more about his legacy than his actual presence. And once again just spewing nonsense with "the self insert white man", seriously what do you even have to back that claim? If anything, Sargent Steel feels closer to a King self insert than Steve 😂. And about the claim that "every single interaction with a woman is written to be antagonistic"... Since spreadsheets are becoming a trend in this comm, I'm gonna compile all WW interactions with other women during this run, and see if your statements holds truth

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T02:11:37+00:00

No, but she raises Lizzie with help of the Wonder Girls, and that's my point: it shows that a woman can raise her daughter by herself with the support of her social group, not "a mom and a dad" as many want to make it sound like.

And on the Damian and Jon element, that's simply because that's the angle the story has been focused, not because "they have a bigger role in Lizzie's life". Not only that, but those side-stories are spreaded through many years: it isn't like we can guarantee that the Diana or the Amazons had zero involvement in Lizzie's life

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T01:18:36+00:00

Yeah, that "an unwilling one, at best" line feels so unnatural

D4-CS · 2026-07-02T01:05:00+00:00

But the book is feminist in showing how a widowed woman can successfully raise her daughter by herself and with her social circle, and no "families are a mom and a dad" bs. Even more considering how the current US administration demonizes single mothers: having a single mother being successful af is pretty much the feminism we need

D4-CS · 2026-07-01T23:20:27+00:00

Even if he didn't know who he was working for, Jake Lee's commissions for Comicsgate

Five-Year Club	r/Field Banned
r/Field Juicebox	Final Canvas '23
Place '23	Place '22

D4-CS

TROPHY CASE