What's your "DC Comics Fan" Origin Story?

[Kirk Brent]

We've all taken different routes to arrive at the same place: fans of DC's characters and its universe. Some folks have never been fans of comics and/or have never read them. For them, media adaptations are where it all began.

In this thread, I'd like to know how you were first introduced to the wonderful world(s) of DC' comic book universe.

I was born in '76, the threshold for a lot of great science fiction/comic book related film and TV. My brother, seven years my senior, love Star Trek, Star Wars, and comic books in particular. We both enjoyed Super Friends, the reruns of the 60s Marvel animated series, and live action TV and film like Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, the reruns of the 66 Batman series, Spider-Man, the Cap TV movies, and of course, the Christopher Reeve Superman movies.

Because I thought my older brother was cool and wanted to be more like him, I wanted to like what he liked. He kept his stash of comics, usually purchased at the local 7-11 or any other gas station or drug store like Eckerd's and K&B, in cabinets that were built into the headboard of his bed. He never allowed me to breathe next to them, much less touch or read them. My mom, on the other hand, an educator and good mother, brought me into my brother's room when he wasn't home and showed me his comics. She would hold them and carefully page through them so that I could read them and see the artwork.

Though I loved the media adaptations, the comics themselves had a magic like nothing else. My brother collected several titles, including Superman, Action Comics, New Teen Titans, JLA, All-Star Squadron, Detective Comics, and the occasional Spider-Man or X-Men comic. He was also a big fan of the Star Wars and Star Trek comics of the day. The comics that made the biggest impression were those JLA and All-Star Squadron books, specifically "Crisis On Earth-Prime!" Multiple versions of Superman and the rest of the DC heroes, including evil versions? My young mind thrilled at the possibilities of characters so incredible, they couldn't be contained in just one universe!

My interest in video games and movies kept me from buying and reading comics much as a pre-adolescent. Then, seemingly everywhere, was mention of a new Batman movie, starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. I was eleven when the hype began in 1988 and was obsessed. I asked my mother to take me to the comic book shops in the bigger city a half hour from my hometown. My grandfather had passed a year earlier, so I was spending the weekends at my grandmother's and helping her in any way I could. As a result, I got a generous allowance that went much further in the late 80s than it would today.

I began by picking up a ton of Batman comics and graphic novels, but then gravitated toward Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine, and particularly, X-Factor. I loved the original X-Men and still do to this day. The Batman film only fueled my obsession with Batman, but those comics led to a passion for the rest of the DCU. I discovered Wally West, who was special to me as a redhead with green eyes like myself. Though I'd been a big fan of Superman as a kid, I was drawn more to darker stuff at the time. That changed with the Death of Superman, which led to reading more and more DC titles. Though I also read and collected several Marvel books, my love for DC was solidified. Though it has major issues, the post-COIE DCU of the late 80s and early 90s had an excellent sense of interconnectivity that encouraged a reader to keep adding to their pull list.

Though I hardly read new stuff from the Big 2 these days, I still visit my local comic shop, still operated by the same owner for over thirty years. She watched me grow up and eventually bring my own children to her store, even though they never developed an interest in comics themselves.

I'd love to read your "DC Comics Fan Origin Stories," so please share!

[Ascended]

Ascended's secret origin huh? Sure, I'll play.

Born in 81. Was never *not* a Superman fan. Earliest memories include playing with Superman action figures and watching Super Friends reruns. But my superhero fandom died with the rise of the Ninja Turtles. That brand swept into my little life like a flood; one day they were just there, on my Saturday morning cartoons, in the toy aisle, in my happy meal, everywhere. And in the tide of merchandise, I noticed comics for the first time. My mom was a former teacher who encouraged reading anything, as long as you were reading something, and comics were still kinda cheap back then (which was a big selling point, we were pretty poor).

Then Superman died. And it made the national news, which my family and I were watching over dinner one night. I thought to myself that the death of Superman might be worth some money one day. Never found a copy of #75 on a spinner rack, but weeks later my cousin got the debut issues of the four new Supermen and let me read those. And those comics....they were on an entirely different level from the Turtles comics, which I was already losing interest in. But Reign of the Supermen? Lois' heartache and that d-bag cowboy trying to take advantage of her? The question of which Superman was the real one (I never believed any of them were, and was half surprised to find out I was right)? And Superboy! The Kid was cool, far removed from the sidekick that Super Friend's Robin had taught me to expect of a young hero. I was riveted. And proceeded to buy every Superman comic I could get my hands on for the next ten years, never missing a single issue until the triangle era ended and the quality finally dropped to a point I couldn't justify the growing expense.

Hal showed up during the battle of Engine City, then started showing up in house ads for Emerald Twilight. Batman showed up for Coast City's funeral, and soon house ads were announcing the new Batman's ultra-90's-cool armor for Knightfall. I jumped into GL with Kyle and Batman with Jean-Paul, then my first crisis Event, Zero Hour, hit, along with stuff like PAD's Aquaman, Waid's Flash, Dixon's Robin, the Milestone line, etc. And that was it; I was hooked for life.

Pull list has changed a lot over the years, sometimes I've only been reading two books a month, sometimes I was picking up a couple dozen every week, plus trades. Sometimes it's almost all DC, or almost all Marvel, or all indie, or any kind of mix depending on who's publishing what, but DC has always been my favorite setting, with most of my favorite characters, even when the comics themselves haven't been.

[sifighter]

Alright but I’m gonna assume my origin story isn’t that interesting. Unless there’s a retcon I was unaware of until now or some kind of crisis.

Anyway I was born in 1996 and I grew up a nerd basically. I watched and played Pokémon, Yugioh, was into Digimon, Power Rangers, Sonic the hedgehog and many other products of the 90’s and early 00’s. Obviously I watched Batman the animated series, The Batman, Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans Animated series and Static Shock, also had some love for th3 Legion of Superheroes and Krypto the super dog cartoons.

Bonafide nerd at a young age, I would bring my games to school and pretend that I was racing dragons like a cartoon series I watched (Dragon Booster, maybe you heard of it). But I didn’t get into comics until I moved to a new state when I was 10/ the fourth grade, where at a school book fair I purchased an x-men encyclopedia that had a few issues in the back (giant sized x-men if you were wondering). When I got into comics I definitely snuck them into school to read, got a few locked up in teachers desks for the school day but nothing too serious. Most teachers were pretty okay given that it was standard superhero fair.

Unfortunately as I was younger back then DC was harder to get into compared to Marvel, not because stories were bad but remember that period in time was after COIE, had Zero Hour, and then went and did Infinite Crisis. Let’s just say continuity made it a bit hard for my small brain. But I managed to get through after reading trades of characters I liked, some new some old. I read Nightwing, JSA, Young Justice, some Justice League, and definitely the Teen Titans. I think I read Green Lantern Rebirth either just as it finished or as it was coming out, so that really got me into the Green Lantern Corps. I got in through newer younger characters, legacy books, and some classic characters who made their returns which no doubt had an effect on my interests to this day.

Oh yeah currently I’m a law graduate working on becoming a lawyer as I work in a law firm as a paralegal…not sure if that’s relevant but hey it’s in my storyline of how I go from unassuming childhood nerd to hopefully successful lawyer. Some of my former teachers are still trying to figure out how I pulled it off given the kind of child I was. And if you are wondering yes I brought some comics to law classes, easier now that they are available to me digitally but hey somethings don’t change.

[a moment closer]

Being born in 1980 came with a lot of pop culture perks. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were household names. Just like Spider-Man, Captain America, and the Hulk were. If there wasn't a cartoon, movie, or t.v. show there were plenty of toys, clothes, and household items with these characters on them. Even if you didn't know all of the other characters in the DC and Marvel universes, you knew these.

Super Friends and Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends were the two popular cartoons that were rerun quite a lot when I was really young. I liked how old a lot of the Hana-Barbera shows looked compared to some of the other popular cartoons I watched. The '80s were the best for kid's animation. Anyway, I simply don't remember a time when DC characters weren't popular yet I hadn't looked at a comic book until I was 11 or 12. A friend of mine collected quite a bit and I remember him showing me Batman and Sword of Azrael, Green Lantern, and Superman. The Death of Superman was wild and the Supermen were cool. Batman and Azrael were so cool. I was hooked. The comics were so dark and adult compared to the cartoons. For the next year or so, I visited often just to read what he had and we played a lot of Street Fighter on the weekends. X-Men and Batman, the now-famous animated series came out around that time. Surprisingly, my Dad was the one who was the most excited to sit down and watch those with me. He'd get home from work and I'd get home from school in a rush to catch them. Again, another cool time in my childhood.

In September/October of '94, we moved a couple of towns south from where we were. I lost touch with my friends and didn't make new ones. I became depressed and stay home all the time unless I went somewhere with my family. My sister and her new friends would start to hang out and we'd smoke pot and drink, and listen to music. I was 13/14 and I was going thru puberty so I lost interest in a lot of the things I felt were childish. I started liking sports, outdoor activities, going to the beach, hanging out at the mall, and going to the movies.

It wasn't until my early twenties when a couple of my close friends reintroduced me to comics that I started reading and eventually buying them. Mostly Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, and other Indie publishers. Never DC. It felt deeply interconnected and too rich with history to ever jump into. I was 28 when I got my first library card as an adult, I started reading all the trades I could find and really explored DC as much as I could. Then the New 52 initiative was introduced at my LCS and I bought every issue #1. I was that guy. I continued to buy all the titles for the first five issues and then kept buying what I really liked. Been buying DC ever since and collecting trades of the stuff prior to the New 52 that interests me now that I am not intimidated to just dive in. It took me a long time to become an avid comic book fan and even longer to become a DC Comics fan but I'm happy with the way it happened.

[Restingvoice]

Grew up with The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, Burton-Schumacher Batman, BTAS, Batman 66 TV series and movie, and the video games adaptations.
Read Hush, found out that DCU is connected through Infinite Crisis event and thought that was the coolest thing.
Watched Nolan movies, played Arkham games.
Knowing DCU titles is connected I made a timetable of timeline for Post Crisis as I want to read it chronologically.
New 52 came out and jumped in.
One year later I noticed these titles are inconsistent for a shared universe and stopped buying.
Asked a veteran comic fans (as in someone who read since the bronze age was in publication) who said that DC continuity is always in flux every time they changed writers, and if you just happen to read during consistent continuity (read: Byrne-Jurgens-Dixon era) then you were just lucky.
Angry I swore off comics because what's the point in buying if writers will just make things up, I can do that.
So I do that.
Bought comics chronologically from Golden Age (the one that's available) for research.
Bought the first issues of Rebirth because I heard they're fixing continuity.
They didn't.
I waited.
Well that was five years.
Everything is canon. So they gave up. Probably a good thing. These comics were supposed to be news stand magazines anyway.
Back to making my own continuity.
Still keeps up with the lore for continuity changes just in case.
Here we are.

[Kirk Brent]

Ascended's secret origin huh? Sure, I'll play.

I was a huge Turtles fan as well, though "Turtle Fever" hit me earlier with the Mirage comics. That iteration remains my favorite, with the 1990 film a close second. I remember not caring too much for the animated series when it came out but I bought quite a few of the figures. I still have the bros, Splinter, Shredder, and a Foot soldier. Since I was older at that point, they're in better condition than my Transformers.

We have similar mothers; mine always encouraged me to read and took me to the library every summer for the reading program. She encouraged my comics hobby and still does today. It was a great hobby back in the day, especially considering how affordable comics were. I think I was reading around twenty monthly titles from DC and Marvel and the occasional indie like The Mask and the Dark Horse Alien and Predator books. I also loved how interconnected the DCU was at the time. It was so easy to jump in as a new reader and get caught up with back issues. I also read Comics Scene religiously.

Alright but I’m gonna assume my origin story isn’t that interesting. Unless there’s a retcon I was unaware of until now or some kind of crisis.

It's definitely interesting! Thanks for sharing, especially about your pursuit of a career in law. I can't think of a better influence on those who work in law than comic books. You'll make an excellent lawyer with a strong moral compass. I can also understand bringing comics to class. I did that myself as a grad student because there was always that one student who would take up twenty or so minutes of class with irrelevant questions. Kept me awake many times!

Being born in 1980 came with a lot of pop culture perks.

They really were fantastic times. I'm not sure there was any other era quite like the 80s when it came to comic book character cross-pollination, even today. It was possible to never read a comic or watch a movie or cartoon and still know who Batman or Superman was. If you did want to watch a cartoon or TV series, there were tons of options. Also, thanks for sharing about the "ritual" you shared with your dad. My parents never cared much for the TV shows or movies I watched, so I rushed home to watch toons by myself. You've got some priceless memories there.

Grew up with The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, Burton-Schumacher Batman, BTAS, Batman 66 TV series and movie, and the video games adaptations.
.

Those "Greatest" collections were excellent. They were affordable and provided a new reader with a pretty expansive background on the spotlighted character. The "Secret Origins" comics were also great, especially the trade put out around the same time with Superman, Batman, Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, and the JLA's origin stories. I stared at the Brian Bolland cover for so long. Just seeing those heroes sitting together in plainclothes and sharing stories fired the imagination.

sootwgsh_000-fc.jpg

Please keep sharing your working continuity with us!

[krazijoe]

Ya'll make me feel old.
Born in 1970. Raised during Super Friends. LOVED Green Lantern. Read some Spider-Man comics in 1980, picked up Justice League of America Annual 1 in 83? And became a HUGE JLA fan based on that one comic and Super Friends. Still a HUGE GL Fan and comics fan in general. I loved to read and read just about anything I got my hands on as a kid. Read all 29 volumes of the Encyclopedias my mother bought and their accompanied Dictionary, Had a spinner in the store below me and that's where I grabbed JLA Annual 1 and a bunch others. Some I paid for, some seemed to slip into my shirt. Read the Original Crisis and was in AWE of all the history right in front of me and all the different heroes. Unfortunately I just sold my original Crisis books as well as all 17 long boxes I had a few months ago during my divorce. Sold 10 more in my first divorce. Regret it? Kinda as I had those books since I was 13 or so and now I am 51...Yep, lots of memories there even though they were in a box the last 30+ years...
Now I go electronic as I don't have the space for floppies and I don't have to sell them if I get married/divorced again, lol...

[Noodle]

I was 8 when Batman: The Animated Series started, so I was right in the target age group for it. My dad was a comic nerd so it was "our show." When Robin #1 came out my dad bought it for me as he thought it would be a good starting point to get me into comics, and I've been reading them ever since. The combination of a number of jumping on points around that time with things like Conner's Superboy series starting and Kyle becoming Green Lantern gave my dad a bunch of new stuff to introduce me to and it all just clicked with me. I also fell in love with the Zero Hour-era Legion of Super Heroes.

[CellarDweller]

I was born in 1969, and at age 7 (1976) found season 1 of The Super Friends on reruns. I was the right age for Saturday morning cartoons, so the following season, I watched The All New Super Friends, which introduced the Hanna-Barbera diversity characters, and the Wonder Twins.

Not long after that season aired, my family went on a camping trip, and we spent a day at a farmers market / flea market. One of the booths had a comic carousel, and as I spun it around, I found Super Friends #14, which had the original origin of Zan & Jayna. I had no idea this comic existed, and I grabbed it. I subscribed, and it was the first comic I collected.

SF was cancelled after issue #47, but I was still due issues, so DC randomly sent me Green Lantern to finish out my subscription. After that, I read some JLA, some GL, and LoSH.

After some time, I moved to Marvel, and their X-books, but countless lines and countless crossover events between them became too expensive for me, and I walked away from comics all together.

2019 saw me come back to DC, with the release of the Wonder Twins maxi-series, and the Wonder Comics relaunch of Young Justice. I've read some JLA since then, and loved Naomi season one, currently reading Naomi season two. Also like the Jinny Hex one-shot, I wish DC would do more with her.

I also got the 2021 and 2022 DC Pride books.

[Restingvoice]

Those "Greatest" collections were excellent. They were affordable and provided a new reader with a pretty expansive background on the spotlighted character. The "Secret Origins" comics were also great, especially the trade put out around the same time with Superman, Batman, Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, and the JLA's origin stories. I stared at the Brian Bolland cover for so long. Just seeing those heroes sitting together in plainclothes and sharing stories fired the imagination.

sootwgsh_000-fc.jpg

Please keep sharing your working continuity with us!

I don't know if this came out n my place. They started Batman's Greatest then continue to Year One Year Two (they publish all of those as one series with Greatest being album #1 to 7, Year One #8-9, Year Two #10-11). Superman started with Byrne and Wonder Woman with Perez. Don't remember if there's ever a Green Lantern, Flash or Aquaman series.

[Ascended]

I was a huge Turtles fan as well, though "Turtle Fever" hit me earlier with the Mirage comics. That iteration remains my favorite, with the 1990 film a close second

Yeah, I had no idea there was a previous version of the Turtles until years after the cartoon had hooked me, and I was really surprised at how different the Mirage stuff was.

Some of the newer stuff from....IDW?....looks like it might be good, but I stopped being a TMNT fan a long time ago.

You still have the toys? Damn man, you held onto those a long time. Mine were all destroyed, lost, thrown away or given away decades ago. But I was never one to hold onto things, and for a chunk of my 20's found it best to be able to fit all my belongings in my car (was something of a nomad back then), so I don't really have anything from my childhood.

We have similar mothers; mine always encouraged me to read and took me to the library every summer for the reading program. She encouraged my comics hobby and still does today. It was a great hobby back in the day, especially considering how affordable comics were.

I was thinking the same thing, reading your original post. I was lucky; my mother is a good woman, which helped balance out my father's influence, who isn't exactly a saint if you catch my drift. Did his best, I'm sure, when he was actually around, but fatherhood didn't come naturally to him and he's a self-professed ******* as well. We didn't get along. He did encourage my art though, and to toot my own horn I was *damn* good (despite being 100% self-taught, I was interviewed and accepted into the Kubert art school by Mr. Kubert himself when I was 18, six years younger than the average student at the time. It was the only college I applied to). So my dad gets points for supporting my art...though he supported it on his own terms, never mine.

And looking back, well we were pretty damn poor even for our neighborhood, which was one of the poorest counties in America. I'm sure my parents thought a comic book for $1.50, that I'd read over and over again for months and years, was a better option than a $50 video game I'd finish in a week or two and never touch again.

[KC]

I was born in 1999 and have basically always known about DC from Cartoons like Krypto the Superdog, The Batman and Superman: The Animated series, and from movies like Superman Returns.

I went into Secondary School in the 2010s and my school had a shelf of Comic Book trade paperbacks and Manga. And I started reading comics from my school and my local libraries. This was also around the time of the New 52 and the trade paperbacks of the New 52 books were being put in libraries and so I started reading Batman, Detective Comics, Superman, Action Comics, Aquaman, etc when I could find the trades of them. As well as books from before the New 52. I was lucky to be born and raised in a big city with a ton of libraries with comic book sections.

I was mainly a trade Reader (and buyer for books like Batman, Spider-Man, Avengers, X-Men, and Aquaman) for all this time until 2015 when I started picking up Marvel Comics regularly with All-New All-Different Marvel and the Marvel Star Wars relaunch and I started reading DC Monthly shortly after.

[LifeIsILL]

I watched Superman Animated Series and I was hooked, I thought it was way more consistent than BTAS.

Superman pretty much became my favorite character instantly.

[Lightning Rider]

There are so many layers to it. Where to begin?

I'm a 90's kid and had an awareness of these characters from whatever was on TV. The Batman movies were always on TV, the various Hanna-Barbera cartoons were on, and of course, BTAS & STAS. I was probably a biggest fan of Lois & Clark, though; Dean Cain was my Superman. Mixed in between these though were Spider-Man and X-Men cartoons, which I also loved; I remember getting a Spider-Man web blaster and being obsessed with it. But on a subconscious level I think I was partial to Batman and Superman; I was Batman for Halloween in the 2nd grade, and was pleased to find my best friend was dressed up as Robin (without having planned it). He helped me put my costume on in the bathroom and on the way back to the classroom, we saw a kid dressed as Two-Face - he looked at us, we looked at him, and didn't know quite what to do. I can't forget that. When I got my tonsils taken out, my parents bought me a bunch of Batman & Robin figures that I played with when I stayed home from school - I actually preferred Robin at the time because of his streamlined look and the fact he rode a motorcycle. The next year I dressed up as Superman for Halloween, but even after the holiday ended, I would get home from school, put the costume on under my clothes, and when I felt like it, tear them off and parade around the house as Superman.

I didn't read too many comics; my dad tried to read me a Batman comic once, but it was probably right in the middle of some multi-part arc, and at the end he looked at my confused face and just burst out laughing. The only other one I had was some Calypso-related Spider-Man comic. I also had an X-Men guide to all the comic book history when the movie came out, which I was really into. I didn't have a lot of brand loyalty at this point; I liked characters, teams, but only had a vague awareness of each having a "universe".

Justice League on Cartoon Network obviously changed a lot; the show was written for someone my age, and I loved the team dynamic. I took a particular interest in the brash, maroon-colored speedster running around with lightning ears. At first I found him quite annoying, and a little redundant; we already had Superman, who was super fast (probably my favorite power of his) - why did we need you? But then I saw him dodge the White Martian blasts and leave behind multiple after-images, and started falling in love with that sound effect when he ran. The carefree personality grew on me, and I soon found myself wanting to know everything about the Flash and his mythos. My local library had a big copy of Alex Ross's "mythology" available, and I took it out. I was astounded by the art, and took the title to heart; these weren't just silly characters meant to entertain, they were larger than life paragons with rich themes that transcended.

My first comic book as a middle schooler was a Silver Age Barry Allen one shot that I saw on sale at the mall. It was an amazing cover, with Flash sliding to a stop as he looked behind him and saw the city in ruins. The book was about how Barry was sick of being late all the time, so he tried to be early - causing him to either miss crimes being committed in the place he was just at, or cause accidental damage with his speed. It was innocent, but I loved the art, and felt like I owned a piece of history. I'll never forget the smell of the paper.

The day before I moved to a different town for high school, I went with all of my best friends to a well known comic book store the next town over. I picked up Flash Vol 2 #211 which was on the rack. It opened with Wally fighting Grodd, and I was blown away at how he described being able to perceive the pain travelling up his spine to his brain. This is another level, I thought. Once I did move, I met a friend who was already very into collecting, and was first and foremost a Green Lantern fan - a Kyle fan, to be more specific. He took me to the store which became my default store for the past 17 years, and I started buying monthlies for the first time - specifically the JLA and JSA series set "one year later" after Infinite Crisis. But I was also buying trades and really discovering comics for the first time. Infinite Crisis, Kingdom Come, Red Son, Waid and Johns' run on Flash, classic after classic. After that, I was hooked. I went to my first local conventions and started getting my hands on everything DC that I could. Here I am still at it, and I suspect I will be until I die.

That's probably more than anyone cares to read about the origins of my obsession but it felt nice to revisit it.