You know, when I pitched this article last week, I wasn’t expecting DC Studios to commit seppuku for no reason.
After only a year of releases, Skydance removed James Gunn and Peter Safran as the heads of DC Studios. The team that gave us Superman (2025), Lanterns, and the delightfully gruesome Clayface is no longer in charge. Instead, we’ve got Jeremy Latcham, who has gone on record about wanting to make movies with a more…conservative mindset.
So if you find yourself less interested in the DCU post-Man of Tomorrow, or you’re simply curious about the larger Marvel universe, might I suggest the wonderful world of comic books?
I’ve been an avid comic book reader since, well, I learned how to read. While my early years of comic reading relied entirely on whatever my mom would get me, I started collecting comics seriously when I was 17 and finally had my own money to spend.
In all my years of reading comics, the refrain I hear most often is “I really want to get into comics, but I have no idea where to start.” Lucky for you, it’s easier than ever to get into comics. In fact, you don’t even need to spend any money! All you need to do to get started is head down to your local library.
As someone who does marketing for a parks and recreation department and creates quite a bit of content for my local library, I’m something of an evangelist for supporting your local library. There are so many free resources that your local library likely provides that you are sleeping on. In addition to access to the comics in the building, your library card will likely give you access to digital services like Hoopla and Libby.
I cannot stress enough how valuable Hoopla is for getting into comics. I buy the weekly releases at my local comic book shop every Wednesday, but Hoopla has been essential in keeping me current on books I’m curious about but simply can’t afford.
Hoopla’s comics selection is dense. There are plenty of classic bangers, but Hoopla also stays current with ongoing trade releases. I exclusively read Marvel’s Ultimate Universe (RIP) relaunch through trades on Hoopla.
Now there are two ways to read comics: the weekly, single-issue releases, and the trade paperbacks that collect multiple issues into a single book. Trades are generally what you find at a Barnes and Noble or your local bookstore.
If you want to get into the weekly releases, I’m gonna tell you right now that it can get very expensive. I’m currently whittling down my weekly pull list because I’ve had too many books evolve from six-issue miniseries into ongoing titles.
If you want to get into Marvel’s weekly releases, now is actually a fairly good time to start. Marvel recently wrapped Avengers Armageddon, which established a fresh new status quo for the Marvel Universe. Avengers and Maximum X-Men spin out of that event, with Avengers releasing its first issue this month and Maximum X-Men dropping in December.
Marvel also just began its Midnight series, which consists of horror-themed takes on Spider-Man, X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. Issue one for all three titles was released last month, with issue two due out next week.
I’m not gonna lie, it’s a little tougher to get into DC’s weekly releases right now without first catching up on the current runs via trades. They are deep into an ongoing saga that began in 2024 with the release of Absolute Power and the creation of the Absolute universe.
If you want a list of comics I’d recommend to get started, head to NewsOne’s Instagram, where there’s a video of me laying out what I think are some solid entry points. That said, just start, y’all. Pick a superhero you like, find a volume one trade, and dive in. There’s always going to be an event you missed out on, or a book you didn’t read. You’ll learn soon enough to just roll with the punches and keep it pushing.
While movies have always been my deepest, truest love, comic books are a damn close second. When it comes to visually driven, genre storytelling, comic books can do things that no other medium can. Do you know how great it is that every week I can look forward to stories that deliver thrilling spectacle alongside emotional, philosophically complex, thematically dense storytelling?
At a time when corporate overlords are wringing the originality out of movies, comics are some of the most essential genre storytelling we have. So what are you waiting for? Grab that library card and get to reading!
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