That's rather ludicrous, if you ask me. Classics may be classics, but they are never a necessary reading for anyone. One doesn't need to read LotR to enjoy fantasy, nor does he needs to do that if he wants to talk about it. Archeology is also a science, which usually refrain from expressing judgments of valor on the societies they study compared to the ones we live in.
Meanwhile, comics - at least those which interest me, the DC comics- seems to have an awful lot of fans clamoring that to not have learnt this book, or this series, or this one prevent you from being a true fan. There is also a large consensus that anything after the 2000's vary from average to bad, or mediocre. And especially after 2011, which has basically driven this kind of behavior into overdrive, as far as I could tell.
I personally will take anything from the NEW 52's Superman (and Action Comics) and Wonder Woman series over what I read in the main continuity of those two characters and even some elseworlds (depending where one place All-Star Superman, mainly) because I really find those stories either boring or utterly infuriating to read because I find the character unlikable. Meanwhile, recent DC published Electric Warriors, The Silencer, New Superman, Deathstroke, Sideways, Naomi, The Terrifics, Justice League Dark, Snyder's Justice League, Red Hood and the Outlaws... Probably other I'm forgetting, also. And where was the love for those ?
Nowhere, because DC Comic fans are so utterly stuck in the fervent love of the older books and series that almost all those new ones never met the audiences they deserved, because "they are new characters/teams so DC will cancell" and where obviously proven right when almost no-one supported the books. And then the same will lose their temper if older books and teams, which have often lost a lot of lustre and have only ancient but real successes are changed in any way, shape or form, because it's Heresy to have them modernized so new readers can discover them without having to deal with outdated visions and art styles.