C3G Comics Guide and Theme Review

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Note of Inspiration -

Spoiler Alert!

Hi everybody! So I read Fresh’s Strategy Discussion all the time and I love checking out what everyone thinks of the units and how they run them. Unfortunately I’m not much of a strategist and usually only play for fun when not testing. However, I have read a good amount of comic books, not currently as much as I used to, but I’ve been getting back into it this past year or so. That said I’ve been curious what runs have inspired the LDs when running these designs and what every C3G member’s favorite comics are.

Seeing how this is a mostly comics-based project, I thought this might be a neat idea and would be great for any new readers. I’ve found out about a lot of these characters through their designs and then started reading their stories. Some characters, I’m sure a lot of us are still pretty unfamiliar with and it’d be cool to get insight from everyone who helped design them. That said I’d figured I’d start with the big ones.

I think it would also be fun to discuss theme, some characters have a lot of designs and I’m curious to know people’s favorites. I know competitiveness will probably factor in, but try to base the choices here more off of how true to the character the designs are, how awesome they are to play, or just on your personal favorites.

C3G’s Comics Recommendations
Best Introduction
(Try to recommend things you might find in a bookstore or comic shop.)
- This’ll be tough, but you only get one vote, pick the story you would recommend to anyone just getting into the character or comics in general.
Iconic/Must Reads
- This time you get up to three votes. Of course some of us might want to list much more, so don’t hold back. After voting, feel free to list why you love the stories and make note of additional fun reads.

Thematic Favorites
Best Design of the Bunch
This will usually be a choice between multiple versions of a character, different members of a smaller team, or however fitting a way there is to break things down.
- Pick the one you like the most and tell us why! Think about what powers best capture a comic book feel, what take encapsules the core of a character, which iteration do you like best, what’s your personal favorite design?
Future Design Ideas
Is there a version of this character or a member of the team you still think we should see? Let us know and share where to read about them!
- Name a to-be-designed version or character that you’d be excited to see.

When all is said and done I’ll tally up the votes for each in a week's time and leave the best Intro and top votegetters for Iconic/Must Reads in the character/team's first post.

Quick Notes:
- Most big heroes will be grouped by SI and Universe/Earth (in parenthesis), since there are many versions of certain heroes (multiverse/Elseworlds will be covered in their own deal, like AoA or Spider-Verse). Try to recommend stuff focusing on whatever version is being discussed.
- Teams/groups/factions are often composed of lesser known characters so feel free to vote for any interpretation.

Index:

CHARACTERS
Aquaman - Arthur Curry (Mainstream)
Batgirl/Oracle - Barbara Gordon (Mainstream)
Batman - Bruce Wayne (Mainstream)
Beast Boy/Changeling - Gar Logan (Mainstream)
Black Panther - T'Challa (Earth-616)
Black Widow - Natalia Romanova (Earth-616)
Captain America - Steve Rogers (Earth-616)
Daredevil - Matt Murdock (Earth-616)
Doctor Doom - Victor von Doom (Earth-616)
Flash - Barry Allen (Mainstream)
Flash - Wally West (Mainstream)
Green Lantern - Hal Jordan (Mainstream)
Green Lantern - John Stewart (Mainstream)
Hawkeye - Clint Barton (Earth-616)
Hulk - Bruce Banner (Earth-616)
Invisible Woman - Susan Richards (Earth-616)
Iron Man - Tony Stark (Earth-616)
Joker - ??? (Mainstream)
Lex Luthor - (Mainstream)
Martian Manhunter - J'onn J'onzz (Mainstream)
Nightwing - Dick Grayson (Mainstream)
Silver Surfer - Norrin Radd (Earth-616)
Spider-Man - Peter Parker (Earth-616)
Superman - Kal-El (Mainstream)
The Thing - Ben Grimm (Earth-616)
Venom - Eddie Brock (Earth-616)
Wolverine - James Howlett (Earth-616)
Wonder Woman - Diana Prince (Mainstream)

GROUPS
Age of Apocalypse
Alpha Flight
Amalgam Universe (Marvel/DC Crossovers)
Arkham Asylum
Blue Lantern Corps
Doom Patrol
Fantastic Four
GCPD
Inhumans
Justice Society of America
Legion of Super-Heroes
New Warriors
Power Pack
Rogues
Runaways
Suicide Squad
Symbiotes
Thunderbolts
Transformers
Watchmen
Wildstorm Universe

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Bruce Wayne aka The Batman (Mainstream DC)


Battle of the Bats!
Batman (200)
Batman (Bat-Family) (270)
Batman (Justice League) (250)
Batman (Justice League - II) (190)
Batman (Occult) (230)
Batman (Outsiders) (220)
Batman (Utility Belt) (250)
Bruce Wayne (100)

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RESULTS

C3G’s Comics Recommendations

BEST INTRODUCTION
- Batman: The Long Halloween
AND
- Batman: Year One

ICONIC/MUST READS
2 Votes
- Batman: Knightfall

~ Justice League/DCAU (TV series)

1 Vote
- Batman #147 (vol. 1)
- Batman: Dark Victory
- Batman: Legacy (& Batman: Contagion)
- Batman: No Man’s Land
- Batman: The Court of Owls
- Batman: The Cult
- Batman: The Killing Joke
- Batman: The War of Jokes and Riddles
- Batman: Venom (Legends of the Dark Knight)
- Batman R.I.P.

~ Batman: Gotham By Gaslight
~ Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

HAPHAZARD CHRONOLOGY READING GUIDE FOR THE BRAVE AND FOOLHARDY

Spoiler Alert!

Batman #147 {1962} - Year One {1987} - The Killing Joke {1988} - The Cult {1988} - Venom {1991} - Knightfall (The Broken Bat & Who Rules the Night) {1993} - Contagion {1996} - Legacy {1996} - The Long Halloween {1996-97} - No Man’s Land {1999-00} - Dark Victory {1999-00} - Batman R.I.P. {2008} - The Court of Owls {2011-12} - The War of Jokes and Riddles {2017}

Batman #147 (Y5)
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Year One (Y1) - The Long Halloween (Y2-3) - Venom (Y3) - Dark Victory (Y4-5) - The Cult (Y11) - The Killing Joke (Y12, Y1 flashback) - Knightfall (The Broken Bat & Who Rules the Night) (Y14) - Contagion (Y15) - Legacy (Y15) - No Man’s Land (Y16) - Batman R.I.P. (Y22)
Flashpoint/New 52
The Court of Owls (Y5)
Convergence/DC Rebirth
The War of Jokes and Riddles (Y2 flashback, Y16)

Y = years fighting crime

Note: You could just slot the other stuff in with the rest, DC's timeline is a mess anyway.

[Ronin]

Who?

[Ronin]

Cool idea for a thread!

I'm a big fan of Dark Victory.

[Arch-vile]

Cool thread idea! C3G has widened my comic scope and I'd love to branch out further.

C3G’s Comics Recommendations
Best Introduction:
- Batman: Year One

Iconic/Must Reads:
- The Long Halloween
- Gotham By Gaslight
- Knightfall


Thematic Favorites
Best Design of the Bunch:
- Utility Belt is the coolest. Just a neat idea, thematically spot-on, and has opened up a ton of design space using those Utility Glyphs. But honestly, I use all the Bruce Batmen pretty often.

Future Design Ideas
- I'd love to see a Flashpoint (Thomas Wayne) Batman at some point.

[Tornado]

[Splash]

C3G’s Comics Recommendations

Best Introduction:
Year One, kind of a shoe-in.

Iconic/Must Reads:
- The Long Halloween
- The Killing Joke
- The War of Jokes and Riddles
This might be all I've read (part of why I started this thread lol), I need to tackle more. They were all great though in different ways.
edit: honorable mention to Batman/Aliens, my first Batman comic.

Thematic Favorites

Best Design of the Bunch:
Utility Belt
I started with the OG low cost Batman for awhile, but the Utility glyph system has since completely and entirely won me over. 250 is a perfect price point as well, you can roll out with Batgirl and Robin or the Batmobile for 500. My go-to Batman.

Played JLII recently, that's a fun one, I like how he's cheap and Assess Weakness feels perfect and pairs well with Nerve Punch.

Future Design Ideas:
Old Man Bruce support figure from Batman Beyond would be pretty cool.
Yellow Lantern Batman

[Soundwarp SG-1]

The first Court of Owls story was pretty good, especially for a new52 thing. That might be the only non-elseworld Batman story I've read that was made in the last like 30 years though (discounting random single issues hunting for weird Soundwarp characters).

[IAmBatman]

Oooh, man, make me pick between my children!! (Wait, am I Martha then?)

Best Introduction:
I'm going to do a swerve here, partially because it was my own introduction, and partially just because I think there's something to be said about being launched right into a story arc that shows Batman in action, at his finest, running a gauntlet of most of his most iconic villains. So I'm going to switch it up, and for best introduction, go Knightfall

Iconic/Must Reads:
Now I'm not crazy, though. Once you've read Knightfall, absolutely circle back and read Year One. It's just the best origin there is for Batman. A lot of other really good ones have been named, so I'm going to shout out to some that are not quite as iconic, but that I feel deserve appreciation. Contagion and the follow-up Legacy have Batman dealing with a deadly virus pandemic and villainous machinations (pretty relatable in this day and age). No Man's Land is a bit of a mess at times, but if you can find it distilled in a collection, the core of the story is really good, and I love how it creates a universe where a Batman really makes sense.

Thematic Favorites
This one is really tough for me, especially since I was at least involved with all of these and LDed a few of them. My true favorite right now is probably an unreleased Batman that some of you say in playtesting not too long agao.
I have to note that Batman ('66), a wonderful design, is missing from your list.
For released stuff, though, I really like how Batman (Outsiders) brings discipline and strategy to the unruly Outsiders, but if he falls early, they rally without him and in some ways get even more powerful.
As for future Batman designs I want to see? I like both the ones mentioned (Old Man Bruce and Thomas Wayne. My biggest bucket-lister would be a Bat-Man Mystery Man, though, possibly with guns.

[Tornado]

[IAmBatman]

Hard to go wrong with Batman and dinosaurs.

I'm feeling bad now that I didn't mention my favorite Batman creators. Writers are probably Paul Dini, Devin Grayson, and Doug Moench. Artists are probably Norm Breyfogle, Neal Adams, and Kelley Jones.

[FreshFoods]

Love this thread idea Splash! I'll preface my post by saying I don't read a lot of comics, most of my comic book character knowledge is through other media.

Best Introduction:
I'd probably say The Long Halloween. It's got plenty of Batman being a detective, which is my favorite aspect of him. Great art too.

Iconic/Must Reads:
I usually read short runs - The Cult is a great one. I think it gets pretty overlooked. The Dark Knight Returns and Batman R.I.P. are probably two more for me. Less iconic, more "people don't really talk about these runs and they're good".

Thematic Favorites
Ah geez. They're all solid. Gonna go Utility Belt. Lots of options with him.

Future ideas - A Green, Yellow, and Black Lantern Batman would be cool. And I think they all have clix.