I originally read both classic Marvel and DC before I tried reading indie comics again (Dark Horse, but since starting using Hoopla I read a lot of Spawn from Image Comics) before feeling like switching comics again: I’m vaguely debating over reading the Big Two again.
While I have a Marvel stigma going on because I’m not happy with them in their current form I’m also familiar with DC more because they a have a much better legacy than Marvel in my opinion unless there are comics from both companies that I can read without a stigma.
Overall, I don’t know where to begin with the Big Two now that I changed my mind again.
For DC, I may read Batman or Superman but I don’t know where to begin for either one.
For Marvel, I don’t know where to start and I currently have a stigma for them because of their movies becoming more dominant.
Where should I start rereading the Big Two?
And it’s perfectly fine not to get involved much with the Big Two, it’s a lot to take on and titles change hands so often, with each new writer wanting to make their mark that it just becomes a headache. These days I tend to just follow the creators I like and skirt around the core of the universe picking up their more sci-fi and horror titles.
From what you say about Hellboy it seems like you appreciate that one clear creative voice that you get from such projects staying with the original creator. Although not as long-running you might like Frank Miller’s Sin City or Robert Kirkman’s series, like The Walking Dead and Invincible (one bonus from his work is, like manga, you can just pick up the first volume and work your way through) or various titles from Jeff Lemire or the work of Warren Ellis (like Transmetropolitan or The Authority, that I mentioned, or Planetary) or Kieron Gillen (Wicked + Divine, Once & Future, Die, etc). Others include James Tynion, Scott Snyder, Cullen Bunn, etc. If you sample enough you might find other creators you like and then you can root out their other work.
Or you can try big fictional universes that also happen to be relatively new, so they haven’t had time to get overly convoluted - Saga is a massive hit or you could try Radiant Black.
I think Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead wasn’t a good read: when I last read it, it focused less on the ‘walkers’ and more on how humans are the REAL monsters with so many humans setting bad examples for themselves, and what does that have to do with zombies roaming the earth and all that? I know about Rick Grimes and The Governor the farthest I’ve read into the series and it’s very bleak and violent and it spawned an ongoing franchise to boot.
I used to read Spawn by Todd Macfarlane, but that series played like a serious drama between Spawn (Al SImmons) and Terry Fitzgerald since the latter man married Wanda and I eventually got tired of reading it just because I couldn’t stand all the drama between two guys fighting over one wife.
Invincible (also by Robert Kirkman) is supposedly all the rage, but I find it violent, trendy, subversive, and a composition of superhero tropes and cliches because modernism is popular with the current generation, and although I know who Omni-Man is now I’m afriad of reading it because he outright performed an ultra graphic Fatality on Homelander from Dynamite Entertainment’s The Boys with is pretty much the same thing as Invincible except written by a creator who explicitly hates superheroes and God yet somehow made lots of money with his television series and popular comic book franchise.
Me, I’m willing to read what Dark Horse has because since I like Hellboy for being a good work by a good man in my opinion (we’re both Catholic) and I while I withdrew from the manga communities on Lemmy I’m sort of debating going back to reading manga if only I could handle actually reading it: my last few manga works were Bleach, which going to Hueco Mundo was stupid on everyone’s behalf and yet it advanced the plot; there’s Berserk, which I kind of respect as a fellow Dark Horse published work but I don’t know if I can pick it back up again due to how graphic and intense it was (no offense, Guts); and then there’s Sankarea, which had a dangerous premise of zombifying a girl because the boy has a fetish for zombies (which somehow translates to necromancy…why do so many zombie works involve necromancy yet the zombies are still DEAD? cough cough Zombie Land Saga cough cough And that’s not all…they go to a research facility being run by a psychopathic bad guy who murders people and then Rea bathes with a girl younger than her.
And that’s how I ended up resetting my Fediverse accounts, because I wanted to avoid the stigma I created about the stuff I don’t like.
But generally, I don’t read manga anymore unless I can read something from Dark Horse I can actually handle this time…until then, Hellboy it is: I seem to be handling that series much better in my opinion due to my sensory input as an autistic adult…oh yeah, I’m autistic too: I even switched to Autism Place.
I hope discussing manga doesn’t infringe on discussing comic books, but I did grow up on manga and anime before growing out of it and becoming religious, which is how I ended up enjoying Hellboy so much thanks to Mike Mignola being a creative genius in my book. But that’s my take.
It’s going to be a matter of trying other titles and seeing what works for you. I’ve thrown a lot of options at you, so see if anything takes your fancy from that, but, from what you say, I might suggest Jeff Lemire is a good place to start - his Black Hammer superhero universe is at Dark Horse, his Sweet Tooth was published by Vertigo. His written a lot so have a read around as there’ll be something that takes your fancy. At the Big Two I’d recommend his Animal Man, Frankenstein and Justice League Dark runs.