I haven't really read comics since I was young, but Fray made me curious and then 1602 made me very interested (though not in the Marvel-verse oddly enough) and yesterday I started Gotham Central (bought the first TPB) and wow is it addicting. I just have too much backstory to catch up on; it's making me dizzy.

I'm right with you, Mala. A friend has been working on me for a few years, lending Astro City and Powers (Retro Girl) and Planetary and Watchmen, but I still wasn't a regular at the comic store until Fray and 1602. Now I'm back to being hooked again.

I found myself thinking "Maybe I should just skip ahead to something more recent - something darker."

Um. Well, if you really think you want to try reading Batman linearly from "the beginning"... well, I'll try to visit you in the loony bin when your brain implodes from all the crack.

In other words: I'm also an anal-retentive completist, and am quite enjoyably jumping around in canon, content to catch up on major events. Because the other way lies insanity.

Powers (Retro Girl)

That was my very first comic book. Well, probably not technically, but officially. It's what my pusher started me off on.

See, I was a HUGE Batgirl fan, and would buy anything with "Bat" in the title as a kid, just in case she was in it. (Yes, even Man-Bat). Then I dropped comics completely for years and years. My pusher started me out on Astro City; Retro Girl was a bit more experimentation after the gateway comics.

Um. Well, if you really think you want to try reading Batman linearly from "the beginning"... well, I'll try to visit you in the loony bin when your brain implodes from all the crack.

Yes, I do plan to skip around some.

Because you see I don't have enough time to read all the comics I want to read.

...so tired...

Retro Girl was a bit more experimentation after the gateway comics.

Ah, see, Powers was my gateway comic, and since my pusher was a Bendis whore, he also got me on Daredevil (and I made him cry for liking the Kevin Smith arc more than Frank Miller's The Man with No Fear) and Alias (now The Pulse). 100 Bullets, Fables, and Ultimates for good measure, along with some diversions like The Killing Joke and Dark Knight Returns. He gave me Watchmen for graduation.

Yes, I do plan to skip around some.

Oh, good. Because, really, I was worried.

So, this probably should be in lit, but the novelization of No Man's Land is really kind of excellent. Much better than a comic adaptation has any right to be. I was expecting the exposition to be clunky, but it wasn't. For those without the time to pick up the comics to get all the backstory, it's a damn good starting point.

Because, really, I was worried.

No no. I'm a fan of continuity but a) I realize that comic universes rarely have that and b) I know better than to injure myself for it.

For example - I've read all of the Essential X-Men books, but I'm not about to run out and read every X-related book since the 1980s just to be ready for Joss's.