After over a decade of being too cool for superhero comics, I've come around in a big, big way. If you're feeling kind of lost and you don't know where to start with all this marvel crap, you're not alone. It's really the only reasonable way to feel about it. I suggest Grant Morrison's run on NEW X-MEN. It's great because it's self-contained, super engaging, and it kicks off just a little after we all stopped following capes and started reading Vertigo in 2000. If you've ever seen the X-Men movies or (better) cartoon, you need no extra knowledge of these characters and situations for it to be a genius re-examination of the essentials of the X-Men concept for the 21st century. If you only care about Wolverine, New X-Men breathes new life into Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, and creates new characters that go on to do interesting things.

I started out reading NEW X-MEN after the Days of Future Past movie came out, and since then I've read

  • A significant amount of Chris Claremont's run on UNCANNY X-MEN including The Dark Phoenix Saga (best), Days of Future Past, Brood Saga (second best), From the Ashes, and I plan on going back at least for Mutant Massacre and Inferno
  • Joss Whedon's ASTONISHING X-MEN (It's great but read Claremont first)
  • Grant Morrison's JLA run (an intentional retort to Alan Moore's WATCHMEN?)
  • Jack Kirby's Fourth World series (might be my favorite of this list)
  • Morrison's SEVEN SOLDIERS (read everything else on this list first)

The best advice I can give you besides Read New X-Men is to click on this thread, select an appropriate Amazon affiliate and purchase SUPERGODS by Grant Morrison. SUPERGODS is a non-fiction history of the superhero genre going back to Action Comics #1. It brought some crucial context to my media world: Marvel and DC Comics are almost unique in the world of art in that they're a collective fantasy that no one creator can have control over. It's a true collaboration between artist, writer, editor, and reader, and it's been going on for seventy years and it's amazing.

EDIT: The important thing is to have fun, and everything on my list is at least that. Some of it is genuinely mindblowing, heartbreaking, actual genius (New X-Men).

EDIT2: I read text-based books too I have a degree in Englishhhhhhh