Origin Stories

The structure of this blog is finally coming together in my mind and I thought I'd share it with you. I'm going to (try) to post a blog every Wednesday and Sunday. Sunday's are a review of whichever trade of whichever character I am reading that week, which means I might post more than once. And Wednesday's will be other comic book related blogging, like this one!

The first five trades I am going to review on a Sunday are all origin stories, of each of the named superheroes or superhero groups named at the top of this blog. They are as followed:

Spider-Man - Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1: Power and Responsibility
Batman - Batman: Year One
Superman - Superman for All Seasons
X-Men - Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 (not strictly an origin story but certainly a reworking)
The Avengers - The Ultimates Vol. 1: Superhuman

Not only are all the above titles origin stories, but they are all modern retellings of the origin stories of these superheroes. There are a couple of reasons why I choose to start this way. I do intend to go back to some of the early, original comics (I am currently investigating the Marvel Essentials series to go right to the start) but I thought it might be better to start from a more modern angle. I am sure the early work is good, but it is likely to have dated a little, and I think it is far more likely I will read them and find them charming if I have a least a little knowledge of what the characters evolve into.

The second reason is I have taken the advice of more knowledgeable people than myself: these are the books I have seen most often recommended for first timers into these characters, and who am I to argue? My specific reason for starting which each trade is how I will start each review so I won't go into too much detail here. But they are all now making there way to my front door so there's no going back now!

Where to start is possibly one of the most difficult aspects of this whole project: I could have agonised forever and never found the perfect trade to bring me into the fold. In the end I have jumped in here. All beginnings, I guess, are relatively arbitrary so it probably won't make a great difference in the grand scheme of things. If it's wrong, though, I'm not going to give up. I think that might be the key to a good comic book reading career: even if you hate one incarnation, there is always another.

This is one of the reasons the top of this blog looks the way it does: the 'big five' of the movie world are there because they're the characters I am most excited to follow. As they become a bigger part of popular culture, it becomes more important to educate yourself about where they come from and what the ideas at the heart of them are. Hollywood movies are great, some of the recent superhero ones have even been awesome, but they are not always credited for the strength of their ideas. In the same way I always try and read a novel before seeing the film, I am pleased to be able to read some of the sources of these huge movies.

This does not mean, however, that I only intend reading the 'big five'. Expect that top line to grow a lot over the coming months: I have very big plans for how wide ranging I want my knowledge to be. But I don't think you can start by reading everything: in fact, even five is a bit ambitious. I guess some will fall by the wayside and some will become my all time favourites. I'm going to read these five and decide which take priority and go from there.

So the first one to arrive will be the first one I read, and the first one I review on Sunday. See you then for my first ever review here on Starting From Splash.

- Grace

Welcome to Starting From Splash!

Hello! 

The world of comic books is an intimidating one, at least from the outside. 

Having never read a comic book, all my knowledge of the major players has come from television and movies. I know, then, what most people know: Superman with his kryptonite, Lois Lane and fortress of solitude, Batman with his Robin, Gotham City and bat cave, Spider-Man with his radioactive spider bite, Mary Jane Watson and Spider-Sense. And what I know, I love: the adventures of these superheroes are epics of our time, with characters as flawed and varied as the inhabitants of the cities they save. From the camp and ridiculous to the dark and edgy, comic books are playing on ground that I have always enjoyed. So why has it taken me so long to try reading one?

Unlike almost any other form of media, the world of comic books is a maze of differing continuities, writers, canons, time periods and crossovers. With no simple place to begin, and often no ending in sight, it can feel a bit like dipping your toe in the Pacific ocean when you really want to be swimming out in the middle. The television box-set outlook plays a role in this confusion too: not only is there no simple place to start but even if you find one, and follow it to its natural end, that is only a fraction of what there is to read. You can't buy one book and know everything about Captain America, you can't even buy twenty and know everything. There isn't even, necessarily, a set order to read things in; writers reboot characters, re-write their back-stories and even in some cases their powers. Even if you brave the world of comic book blogs, the whole page is filled with words you have to Google! And that's only the obvious characters from movies that you *think* you know something about: what about all the other, more obscure titles and writers? The ones that haven't been turned into Hollywood franchises are even harder to reach out to: not only do I know nothing about their mythos, but sometimes they rely on your knowledge of comic book convention to work effectively.

So with no obvious place to start, no reachable ending, no definitive list of set texts or a logical order to read them in, a vast and diverse range of titles most of which you haven't heard of that can only be explained in terms you don't understand, it is a pretty scary thing to attempt as a newbie.

Maybe that is why so many diehard comic book fans are (or find comics as) children: children jump headfirst into anything and everything without fear. They have no preconceptions about coming in at the start and following timelines. They're used to being confused, to constantly catching up and most actively enjoy it. As a adult (or, at least, a twenty-something English student from London), these things terrify me. Why aren't there just five X-Men books with the same characters, the same back-story and the order number printed on the spine? 

Alas, that is not the world I am about to venture into. And I'm sure, once I get there, all these problems will seem like assets. The world won't be complicated anymore but vast and waiting to be explored. The language won't be alien but second nature. The timelines will fall into place, until you hardly remember not understanding them. The obscure titles will become cult classics.

However, that is just conjecture: what is more important is where I stand now, right at the shore's edge. I want to jump in: I want to complain about where the films got it wrong, I want to understand every joke on The Big Bang Theory, I want to have stacks of comic books and trades on my desk as pure escapism from the real world...

And that is where this blog comes in. Consider me the guinea pig, blazing the trial for all the people out there who would read comic books if only they knew where to start. I'm going to be venturing off into the world, one trade at a time (I'll save ongoings until I've got a bit of backstory) and reporting back on the joys and pitfalls that lay ahead.

So if you're a newbie yourself, follow along with me: always better to get lost with a friend. If you're a seasoned fan, do you agree with my assessment of the books I buy and read? Am I making the right decisions and what would you recommend? And if you have no interest in this world at all... well, I'll probably make a fool of myself at some point, that has to count for something!

So watch this space! My first trade is already on its way to me in the post (and, to whet your appetite, it's a Spider-Man one) so expect (semi-) regular updates. And welcome to Starting From Splash - I think we're going to have a lot of fun!

- Grace