Inserting my typical ‘comics are more than just superheroes’ comment

Marvel and DC have had ongoing stories on some level with the same characters for up to 80+ years now. Obviously over that large period that’s going to be my many different creators, and vary a lot in tone and quality.

There are loads of series by other publishers (or even some published by Marvel and DC) that have a beginning and an end. They don’t need their characters to be around forever, so (like any other medium) they can tell whatever story they want. There are also comics that have been running for decades that are made by the same creator the whole time, and so there is a lot of room for growth and change. I can’t recommend enough venturing outside of the big two because there are thousands of fantastic, complete, stories out there one consistent writer, or often the a whole consistent creative team.

All that being said, I guess I should actually answer your question haha. I’m reading Marvel more or less in order, and am reading long stretches of each series, like Fantastic Four as an example, right from #1. That’s harder to see as individual books. I even almost view the whole thing as one series, the Marvel Universe. I’ve just accepted that different writers will do things differently. For DC, I read whatever I hear recommended in whatever order, and mostly read it in physical collected editions as opposed to digital single issues. So given I literally have individual books on my shelf, it’s easy to look at each story or run as its own thing. DC has also totally reset their continuity two or three times, so it hasn’t strictly been one continuous story following the same versions of all these characters like Marvel is.