I want to get into superheroes! But...

[Honest_Fia]

Hey, 

So I have always loved superheroes since I was a little girl, but I was always deterred by a lack of money to go buy comics, and then the fact that there's SO MUCH MATERIAL. Where does one begin? 

YiS,

Fia 

 

[RedPandaOne]

I can't help you with Marvel, but DC just recently rebooted pretty much everything! They are only around issue #32/33, so while you'd be a couple years behind at this point, it's still easier to catch up on two years than 20!

 

If you're a fan of TMNT, they also rebooted about 2-3 years ago.

 

And, it is possible to catch up. I was a good two years behind on Turtles, but in about a month/month and a half I completely caught up.

 

Some of the reboots are horrible. Some start out horrible, but get better. Green Arrow I hear is one that gets better. I read it in the beginning but gave up on it. Now I'm hearing it's one of the best.

 

I hope this helps!

[kaelvan]

If you have about $10 to spare each month, you could get Marvel Unlimited. Might jump start you off. Also,
Comixology and Dark Horse (not as much superhero comics, but worth shoot) has free comics and samples.

[Maj. Bloodnok]

Have you tried the public library?  Maybe mine is unusually well stocked, but I can find all sorts of comics anthologies there, including the weird stuff like 'Hellboy' and 'Constantine'. If they don't have them, there's always interlibrary loan.

[Raxie]

I recently went through the same thing, I wanted to start reading stuff but had no idea where to start.  There's this amazing blog that basically has a "where to start" page for a lot of them!  I followed their recommendations for Batman and Dick Grayson and I can attest to them being basically perfect.

 

I would definitely recommend checking their posts out

[TheMarvelPrincess]

I recently went through the same thing, I wanted to start reading stuff but had no idea where to start.  There's this amazing blog that basically has a "where to start" page for a lot of them!  I followed their recommendations for Batman and Dick Grayson and I can attest to them being basically perfect.

 

I would definitely recommend checking their posts out

^Ditto to this! 

 

I'm more of a Marvel person than a DC person (if you can't tell from my name lol) so I know more about that.  Here are a couple helpful links I've found for friends before: 

The complete Marvel order reading guide (so you know what order they go in).

Where to start with Marvel 

 

I also absolutely agree that Marvel Unlimited is wonderful for folks just starting out in comics.  If you can afford it, it's worth it. 

 

Might be a good idea to check out the Marvel Ultimates universe (Ultimate Spider-Man, etc).  Back in 2000, Marvel wanted to make their familiar characters more accessible to people who hadn't been reading comics for years and might be intimidated by the intricate storyline. So they created the Ultimate universe so they could start new stories with the same characters while still keeping the original stories canon and continuing.  They're more modern and easily accessible, so they're often a good place to start for newbies.

 

#1 thing to remember when getting into comics:  It's super convoluted.  Characters have been taken on countless times by different writers, and they've been going on for so many years that the backstory has been written and re-written to death.  You can't go into it thinking you'll read it like a series of books.  It's not.  

 

Think of it as the real world - it is vast. It ranges from wonderful to terrible, beautiful to ugly, intelligent to embarrassing.  And there are hundreds, even thousands of "people" in it.  You'll never be able to understand every single facet of it...so just enjoy the adventure of exploring and discovering!