Your superhero origin

[Lunar_Wolf]

I was just thinking about how I got into comics and what I first started reading them.

Now I was going to post this thread in the comic book section, but, as a community, I wanted to see how our comic book origins began.

I'm not quite sure what age I began reading comics, I must of been 9 or younger. First comic book I bought was The Mask: Marshal Law. It was a strange and exciting experience reading it because The Mask was so violent. I was confused by some panels where nude women would show up, because they had no nipples. Later on I decided to draw them on because my young self at the time felt it was needed for realism.

Then I hit up some light stuff like the Beano. Had over 800 issues. Then I read some TMNT, and finally I jumped aboard the Marvel train. Started with Spider-Man. I read mostly DC nowadays.

When did you first begin to read comics and what comics were they?

 

[Secret Fawful]

Well, the only superhero I saw much of as a young child was Batman. I grew up from 8-13 living with my grandparents, who were fleamarketers and antiques dealers. So, one of the biggest things you find at such places are comics. I grew up on newspaper comics mostly, but I had a real soft spot for older comics. One of my earliest favorites was Dennis the Menace goes to Hawaii, Dennis the Menace goes to Mexico, and Dennis the Menace goes to Washington DC. I also loved The Phantom, and Batman. I grew up listening to old radio shows, so of course I also had the Shadow. When I got around television more as I got into my early teens, I latched onto Spider-Man and Batman the Animated Series. Funnily enough, my earliest memory of superheroes was as a toddler watching X-Men. I was born in 1991, and that came out in 1992, so I must've been 2 or 3 at the time. Yet I can clearly remember Wolverine from back then on an old TV.

I remember when I watched Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker for the first time, and how entranced I was by that. I couldn't watch Mask of the Phantasm for years because it terrified me. I always loved the Batman-Superman movie as a kid too.

 

[Lunar_Wolf]

Well, the only superhero I saw much of as a young child was Batman. I grew up from 8-13 living with my grandparents, who were fleamarketers and antiques dealers. So, one of the biggest things you find at such places are comics. I grew up on newspaper comics mostly, but I had a real soft spot for older comics. One of my earliest favorites was Dennis the Menace goes to Hawaii, Dennis the Menace goes to Mexico, and Dennis the Menace goes to Washington DC. I also loved The Phantom, and Batman. I grew up listening to old radio shows, so of course I also had the Shadow. When I got around television more as I got into my early teens, I latched onto Spider-Man and Batman the Animated Series. Funnily enough, my earliest memory of superheroes was as a toddler watching X-Men. I was born in 1991, and that came out in 1992, so I must've been 2 or 3 at the time. Yet I can clearly remember Wolverine from back then on an old TV.

I remember when I watched Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker for the first time, and how entranced I was by that. I couldn't watch Mask of the Phantasm for years because it terrified me. I always loved the Batman-Superman movie as a kid too.

Dang, where hasn't that kid been!

 

[Godzilla2000]

My first exposure to comic books was oddly enough the Superfriends, first with generic teenagers Wendy and Marvin with Wonder Dog and then the fantabulous Wonder Twins. Even now when I hear people who like Glee referring to themselves as Gleeks I think of that dern monkey sidekick they had. I'd moved on to reading most Spider-man and X-Men with a bit of Batman here and there.

Dang, where hasn't that kid been!

I could tell you, but I'd get myself banned.

 

[bullets]

I started reading comics when I was 9. My mother would drag me around to flea markets and yard sales on the weekend , so I'd ask for them to pass the time. I read a lot of independent lesser known comics but it got me into a comic store. Then I started reading all the popular characters and it was one of my favorite pastimes. The Death of Superman was my first comic event and from then I started to take good care of them.

 

[SpideyVille]

I never liked comics or thought any character was cool. But then I saw the HBO preview for the first Spider-Man movie when I was 12 and I was intrigued. After watching the movie I was suddenly hooked. I was still an exclusive Spidey fan for many years until I started to watch Smallville and that showed me that all of the impressions I had of Superman being this "perfect" hero were wrong. After that, I started to open up to more Marvel and DC characters.

I didn't buy my first comic until 2008, but even then, I don't have that many comics or TPBs. I appreciate the medium, but I just get more excited about films and shows.

 

[SuperFerret]

I was a normal, mild-mannered ferret that was bitten by a radioactive superintendent that came to this planet as an infant and murdered my parents. After that, I inherited my Dad's small comic collection (mostly early 90's Spider-Man and Marvel stuff).

 

[Kane52630]

Superhero wise, it was watching Batman, Superman, Spider-man, and X-men The Animated Series on tv when I was 5 (maybe younger).

Comic wise, it was a month or two after I watched the trailer for Watchmen during The Dark Knight. I went to Barns & Nobel and bought Watchmen and thus began my adventure to comics.

 

[BizarroAids]

I was about 5 or 6 when I was given my first Superman comic. Shortly after that I went to my first con. Before my grandpa died he left me a lot of his collection, including early Cap, Avengers, and Spidey comics. I owe my love for Cap to him. He showed me how to really appreciate what Steve was all about.

 

[Pink Ranger]

I first got into comics when I was around 5, when my parents gave me these DC and Marvel superhero stamp books. From that point, I actually wanted to see the comics behind these colorful characters. I still remember the first comic I ever owned at that age was an Incredible Hulk TPB.

Then I more or less stopped between the ages of 14-24 for a variety of reasons. Then around 25, I started collection action figures and comic books again, mostly inspired to do so by Grant Morrisson's JLA run.

Damn that Scottish bastard, if I hadn't been spending all my money for the past 10+ years I'd be living in a bigger house.

 

[Immortalfire]

I recall seeing the 80's Spider-Man cartoon on occasion, so that was the beginnings. But I think my life as a fan really began with the release of...

It made quite an impact on my 8 year old self, and here I am today.

 

[Wolfwood]

My dad unknowingly got me into comics. He was a huge fan of Micheal Keaton, so he made me watch Batman. Then when I realized how awesome Batman was, he bought me my first Batman comic.

 

[ThDWgeek]

I grew up watching the Spider-man and X-men cartoon series from the 90s, and gradually I was bought some comics based on these. After that, I moved on to other stuff based on the characters, and ended up liking a whole host of comics.

 

[Gwendolyn Stacy]

It was almost a year ago. Sometime after I became a spidey fangirl after seeing The Spectacular Spider-Man and the movies, I wanted to read the comics, but I didn't think I'd be able to since they're worth a lot of money now. Luckily, I discovered the Marvel Masterworks books which has reprints of the comics. The older ones are more expensive, but the newer ones are affordable. I love being able to read the original Spider-Man stories and plan on reading Ultimate sometime in addition to reading more of the original stories. I haven't read any comics outiside of Spider-Man though. I might one day, though.

 

[Lunar_Wolf]

I recall seeing the 80's Spider-Man cartoon on occasion, so that was the beginnings. But I think my life as a fan really began with the release of...

It made quite an impact on my 8 year old self, and here I am today.

When I first saw 89, I started crying...Not in joy, but because I was so scared. I believe it was the scene Batman crashes in on Joker ruining all the paintings and Batman spreads his cape that did it.

 

[Immortalfire]

The scene where Batman opens his cape to the two thugs on the roof "There ain't no Bat!".. and they run...scared me as a kid. But in a good way, lol.

 

[Lunar_Wolf]

I ran to my room and cried like a little *****. I feared The Bat.

 

[Dark Carnage]

I had a Spider-Man costume as a child. And watched the 70's Spider-Man with Nicholas Hammond (I also share that surname).

Though I guess I always liked superheroes, I don't remember there being a comic franchise that was consistently on TV as I growing up in the 80's. Maybe 60's Batman.

So, most of my hero fix came from Thundercats, He-Man and TMNT. (There is camcorder footage of me about 5 or 6, on the beach with a t-shirt on and the Sword of Omens down my back, with the handle popping out of the collar.) But if we're talking Marvel/DC, I didn't really get in either of those until Spider-Man 90's came along, which I watched about 12/13. The. I started on comics.

Kind of lost my way, I read a few issues here and there now and again.

 

[NHawk19]

As for comics it was 3rd grade. My teacher had a bunch of Archie Comics in the back of the class for us to read on our on time. After i finished what she had I started reading Archie cause I could find them at the local newstand then I started goingto the comics shops where I discovered Batman.