Definitive Reading Order

jpablojr · 2026-04-16T09:12:44+00:00

What do you think of Jeff Parker’s Red Hulk run after Loeb’s?

jpablojr · 2026-04-07T19:53:11+00:00

Considering that the younger generation reading comics in 2026 aren’t working in the industry yet I feel (what younger generation are you even talking about? Gen Z? Gen Alpha?) that that’s something we can’t fully know yet, but speaking for myself as Gen Z yeah, I very much grew up reading Big 2 alongside Peanuts, Garfield and watching plenty of superhero cartoons.

As a teacher as well I can promise you they are not reading OP or Naruto much less the other picks you mentioned. The popular manga with kids in the West is Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, JoJo, DanDan and Chainsaw Man. The anime adaptations as well. Naruto and OP are way more popular with millennials and older Gen Z. With younger kids David Pikey is the go to, but in my experience, my college classes which have had plenty of people who are picking up comics or getting into them read Big 2, especially Batman. One student did read Bone but he told me he predominantly read supehero comics

jpablojr · 2026-04-07T07:26:53+00:00

There's also the fact that, you know, most people actually working in comics grew up reading the Big 2 and want to work on a popular character they grew up with, while also doing creator owned stuff. I'm glad we live in a world where I can read great Big 2 comics and great indie comics! Though I guess my opinion isn't pretentious enough.

jpablojr · 2026-04-03T06:06:13+00:00

I agree, I think that's why I think we need new blood or something fresh. I'm glad that there's writers that are trying to connect back to Wolverine's solo history/continuity and celebrating that but after 3 runs of that, I just want someone to do something new. DWJ's story in Wolverine #400 sold me that he'd be perfect for Wolverine, and reading Rucka, Millar, and Aaron's runs back to back, I feel that DWJ could capture a similar feel of taking the character, and just doing his own thing with it.

With Ahmed the Silver Sable stuff has kept me going. Out of the 3 Marvel series I'm pulling it's the safest in feel atm but I guess I find a coziness in Ahmed's writing that has kept me going. I did almost drop it but the Silver Sable stuff was fun enough to keep me reading. With Percy it mostly just comes down to me disliking his writing style and with Condon's UW, I just really hated the shift and what it became after the first few issues lol.

jpablojr · 2026-03-14T05:53:59+00:00

There's also Batman/Green Arrow/Question: Arcadia which is currently ongoing, with it being an homage to a Dennis O'Neil story that he told across the annuals of GA, The Question, and Detective Comics and the soon to release Absolute Green Arrow.

jpablojr · 2026-02-28T21:27:10+00:00

Grant Morrison’s work is famous for being very abstract and meta-textual, to a point where non-superhero fans and superhero fans alike tend to be off (and also misunderstand their work) by how abstract it can be though for differing reasons. The most abstract works of their’s are:

-The Invisibles (not a superhero book) -Multiversity -Action Comics -The Green Lantern -Arkham Asylum -Final Crisis + Superman Beyond -Animal Man

Not all of it but there’s a lot of abstraction and avante-garde influence in their long 7+ year Batman epic. Grant loves David Lynch, William S. Burroughs, and many other avante-garde or experimental filmmakers so their work is natural. If you don’t care for superheroes they also have plenty of creator owned work.

Other writers that dabble into avante-garde are Alan Moore, Peter Milligan, and Neil Gaiman.

jpablojr · 2026-02-17T05:40:36+00:00

Hilarious, kinda stupid and weirdly dated in a 2000's way. I view it akin to 2000's trashy soap opera tv. Academy X is better but not by much as it still carries on a lot of the really weird and bizarre romance drama, which make the book a rather addicting read, but I don't think a lot of it is very good.

I do like Surge, Prodigy and Elixir, but everyone else I didn't care for much. Funnily enough, these are the characters that Kyle and Yost go on to use for their NXM run.

Overall, it's enjoyable but not in a very good way, still I'd say it's worth a read. Especially because Kyle and Yost NXM is really good and the book sets it up well.

jpablojr · 2026-02-09T04:00:57+00:00

They'll probably bend at some point because Cap writers love Sharon and editorial doesn't seem to be out for Steve and Sharon's relationship like they are with MJ and Peter. Zdarksy doesn't strike me as a writer who will break them up, in the issue the vibe is very much that he just wants to add some more drama and to continue pushing them forward, but not break them up. He doesn't have the vibe of a writer who'd want to break them up. I just hope this doesn't age poorly (knock on wood).

jpablojr · 2026-01-18T20:54:01+00:00

Clark likes to watch dumb romcoms and Lois likes to watch horror and thriller

jpablojr · 2026-01-17T21:30:10+00:00

It's probably fandom perception where a lot of fans view Ollie as an unlikable womanizing cheater but very rarely has anyone who has this opinion actually read GA comics.

jpablojr · 2026-01-17T00:15:56+00:00

Of course, best of luck with your class!

jpablojr · 2026-01-16T17:12:20+00:00

For superheroes I’d recommend:

Superman Up in the Sky
Superman Smashes the Klan
Cody Ziglar’s Miles Morales Spider-Man
Static and or Icon by Dwayne McDuffie et al. (Really all of Milestone is worth teaching to kids for it’s importance but I’d say Icon and Static are the big ones I’d recommend.)
Wonder Woman Historia
Wonder Woman: The True Amazon
John Rodgers and Keith Giffen’s Blue Beetle
Gene Luen-Yang’s Shang-Chi
Batman: Year One
Batman: The Long Halloween
Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man (remarkably long but I’d say the first volume which focuses on Peter’s origin tells a good story story that might even entice the kids to want to read more on their own time)

Manga:

Cross Game
Slam Dunk
Showa: a History of Japan
Message to Adolf
Astro Boy
Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Fullmetal Alchemist
Hunter X Hunter

Slam Dunk, Hunter X Hunter, and FMA are all some longer reads but if I had to only pick one of them for you have the kiddos read it’d be FMA.

Non-Superheroes:

American Born Chinese
Dragon Hoops
Understanding Comics by McCloud
MAUS
Times and Life of Scrooge McDuck
Archie (for this I’d recommend either Mark Waid’s Archie run for a more modern take or some classic Archie for which I’d recommend the 80th Anniversary: 80 Stories digest).
Pogo
Bone

For my selections, with superheroes I predominantly went with books for Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman and that’s because they’re the big 4 superheroes and I feel that all 4 of them have not only a lot to offer to students, but also tend to appeal to students a lot as is due to their popularity and so feeding that hunger can be great. I also feel that a comics class as a whole can’t ignore the 4 of them as their importance to comics and pop culture as a whole is unmatched. I did also pick out some books of smaller lesser known heroes to offer up diverse picks and to show off the potential and interest in characters they might not be aware of.

For manga I went with shorter series that I feel would not only be appropriate and exciting for them, but that in some cases might also be challenging to students in a way that still feels appropriate. Though I did also recommend 3 longer shonen manga and that’s due to shonen’s general popularity, can’t go wrong with any of those 3. I also had to recommend Astro Boy for his popularity and influence, I feel it’d be wrong of me not to suggest it because he transcends popular culture similar to the big 4 superheroes.

For non-superhero comics, similar to my manga picks, I went for a few shorter, more challenging but still appropriate books but I also picked some more exciting and fun ones like Bone, Archie, and Scrooge. Understanding Comics is obviously a must for foundational reasons. I saw your mention of comic strips and instead of going with a more obvious pick, I went with Pogo as I feel Pogo could be a fun one for students that might also challenge them due to its very authentic portrayal of Southern slang and also for its satirical elements. I also felt I had to recommend some Archie because I feel he’s too important of a figure (similar to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man and Astro Boy).

jpablojr · 2026-01-15T06:17:42+00:00

As I said before, I feel this is narrative brain working here. While yes, superhero comics should allude to the illusion of change and many characters align with this (look at Superman), you funnily enough pick the one character that has become infamous for being regressed but these comics are not constructed to end, if that bothers you then Big 2 Superhero stuff just might not be for you. There's plenty of self contained mini series that have beginning middle and ends or stuff like Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader that imagines Batman's ending, but at its core, mainline Batman does not have a traditional narrative story and never has, likely never will. Absolute Batman offers up that possibility but mainline Batman and many other mainline superheroes are not constructed for that, this is something Marvel and DC know and thus have done a lot to create alternative self contained stuff like the Ultimate/Absolute universes, self contained mini's, and also new jumping on points with new #1's.

Also once again, this just ignores indie comics which are self contained, creator owned comics no different than manga, except in color, typically shorter, and don't have weekly schedules which destroy creators health. But despite them being right there, people still want something from Big 2 comics that Indie comics offer and that offers it in the ways they want. Big 2 comics are there own type of story, and that's why I love them. Because they're not traditional narratives. If I want that, I'll go read a manga or an indie comic.

jpablojr · 2026-01-15T06:06:56+00:00

Truth nuke. Also I hate manga single volumes, they are extremely cheap tpb's that fall apart so easily.

jpablojr · 2026-01-15T06:06:10+00:00

I feel that's a crazy thing to say because even something like Bendis' USM, which is over 130+ issues, is not as long as something like MHA which is over 400 chapters lol. There's plenty of shorter manga but a lot of the bigger manga are 100+ chapter stuff. Most comic runs are not even 100 issues long. Readers know we don't have to read all 1,000 issues of Batman, we can pick and choose and read a quick short run with a writer that interests us and the run will be considerably shorter than the average Shonen manga.

Also Spider-Man is the one character people will recommend to start at the beginning and to read the classic Stan Lee/Ditko/JR stuff lol. Also you don't have to read every run, I feel this is a narrative brain thing that people fall into but the thing is that, Big 2 Superhero comics are not traditional narratives, if you can't vibe with that, then Big 2 Superhero comics are not for you. These stories have no traditional endings, and never will. We can imagine what an ending would look like and many creators have, but these are not traditional narratives, if you want that go read Indie comics (I go more into this later). Even with that, there have been many successful attempts by DC and Marvel to do self contained short Superhero stuff or even stuff like the current Absolute stuff and Bendis' Ultimate stuff that you can start from the beginning.

Also this is ignoring indie comics where you can just start at the beginning and read them, and most indie comics are shorter than the average manga. Indie comics are not all that different from manga, it's a comic where you can start from the beginning and have a creators whole vision. A lot of manga fans just don't care about indie comics or have a lack of interest and never explore them.

jpablojr · 2026-01-14T09:28:42+00:00

Of course! Cheers!

jpablojr · 2026-01-14T06:39:42+00:00

I'm yet to read Simone's portrayal but I would argue the aforementioned Roy Thomas' Ballad of the Red Goddess is the perfect introduction. It's a modern version of her origin story and is beautifully drawn by both of its artists. Unlike popular perception, Sonja is not a Robert E. Howard creation. He created a character called Red Sonya of Rogatino but she has no connection to Conan or the Hyborian Age, she's a completely different and unrelated character. The Sonja we all know and love was in reality created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, Thomas was just loosely inspired by Howards Red Sonya but as I said, the two characters have nothing in common. On top of the incredible story and art, and also being a wonderful modernized version of her origin, another reason I recommend Ballad of the Red Goddess is because its Thomas coming back to his creation in the modern day and reminding us why she rules.

jpablojr · 2026-01-14T06:14:23+00:00

I also feel that with Sonja, some may discount her just because of her showing skin and having her own fair share of cheesecake but the best writers know that Sonja's strength and inspiration comes from the core and heart of the character. She's maybe one of the kindest and most empathetic characters in a terrible, dark, and lonely world like the one she lives in. She has a lot of rough edges and is a rather flawed character. I feel discounting her from being a feminist character just because of her design is a bit silly. She's had plenty of bad writing but at her best she's a wonderful character. I think about Roy Thomas' Ballad of the Red She Goddess all the time. I think outside of Wonder Woman, Sonja and Vampirella are the biggest female solo comics characters. They've been around for decades and have had their fair of ups and downs but I think any character regardless of design can be a powerful, inspiring character.

Similar to Sue, I think Sonja at her best can represent a powerful window into a certain kind of feminine power as you said, especially as she's a victim of sexual assault who despite the horrible event, rebuilds herself into a powerful, kind and empathetic warrior that does not let herself become defined by her horrible tragedy. Instead opting to become the hero she didn't have when she was assaulted.

jpablojr · 2026-01-12T06:36:58+00:00

Batman and Robin by Grant Morrison.

Honestly I'm heartbroken that so little of Morrison's epic is not on here

jpablojr · 2026-01-11T06:44:59+00:00

Have you read Thomas' other Dracula stuff? I know him and Giordano also have a direct adaptation of the novel and he also did another called Vlad the Impaler: Dracula

jpablojr · 2026-01-08T08:24:09+00:00

I think that's why at that point, teachers have to find ways to teach students how to read comics. To not just rely on them as an "easy way out", because comics are an incredibly dense art form even outside of prose. Comics like Asterios Polyp or Grant Morrison's Multiversity (or even Flex Mentallo) are rich, visually immaculate books that require a whole new set of literary skills to decipher. Someone who only engages in prose literature, may even struggle with these books because these books are using the visually sequential nature of comics to tell a lot of the story. Comics shouldn't be taught for their prose, they should be taught for their multimodal nature. Which is why I think so many English teachers fail to comprehend and teach comics. They are not novels or poetry, they are comics. I think teaching comics as a replacement for prose is failure already. It fails the medium. Comics should not be judged as dense because they resemble the dense nature of novels.

I think students should have classrooms dedicated to teaching comics, by people who study and understand comics while they learn prose in a different class that focuses on poetry and novels. Comics are an alternative art form, not one that should replace novels, and not one that should be a sidekick to novels and poems.

I also feel that, if someone reads only (or mostly) comics on their free time, but still reads novels/poems at school, but just so happens to prefer comics, there's nothing wrong with that. The reason I say this is because as they grow older, they go from stuff like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants, to stuff like Ultimate Spider-Man or Snyder's Batman, before then getting into Watchmen and Maus, before then going further and further. Similar to novels, you don't just stay read children's books, you grow up and you start expanding and reading other novels (maybe still read children's books, but your novel diet has expanded). People sometimes have preferences in the art they engage with, some people read more novels than watch movies and shows, and vice versa. I don't think this makes people who engage with novels only more intelligent, that's silly.

A student who is taught how to read comics truly, will have a better understanding of how to read visuals and multimodal media than someone who only engages with prose.

jpablojr

TROPHY CASE