So how do comics work?

[Omar 382]

Like with continuity and stuff? For example, I'm reading Batman Knightfall Volume One right now. It's pretty bad ass and I understand there are three volumes, but how does this relate to all the other Batman comics that have been made since the 1940s? When you read Harry Potter, you start with the Sorcerer's (or Philosopher's) Stone and read it all the way through until the Deathly Hallows. How does this work for comics that span 50 years? Thanks for the feedback.

[saul_on_the_road_to_damascus]

Like with continuity and stuff? For example, I'm reading Batman Knightfall Volume One right now. It's pretty bad ass and I understand there are three volumes, but how does this relate to all the other Batman comics that have been made since the 1940s? When you read Harry Potter, you start with the Sorcerer's (or Philosopher's) Stone and read it all the way through until the Deathly Hallows. How does this work for comics that span 50 years? Thanks for the feedback.

Your best bet is to pick an event and start there. With dc comics though they have a new continuity so much of the older stuff doesn't matter. For example knightfall may or may not have happened the way you read because tim was never robin in the current continuity (i do believe but as I don't read dc and havent for a while I may be in correct)

I started with War Drums/War Games and Identity Crisis as my gateways to DC Comics back in 2003

[Sans Simian]

For your purpose, think of that story as its own contained 'verse. Don't worry about whether some random even forty years before is going to impact it. (Not that said random event doesn't matter, of course.) I read all of Knightfall last year, and I didn't have a problem sorting it out with say, the current Batman storylines, or even the storylines of the first couple of arcs of New 52 Detective Comics that I was catching up on. At the end of the day, it's all Batman, so it's all good.

But in regards to the whole timeline thing... I think it's best to take Marvel's general approach: it all happened, but if you don't need to worry about it to enjoy the current story, then don't.

[Spike-X]

You'll work it out. And if something doesn't 'fit', as long as it's an enjoyable story, that's all that matters. Continuity should exist to serve the story, not vice versa.

[PwrdOn]

You know, I was going to come in here and make a joke about magnets. But then I realized, the actual mechanism behind magnetism is fairly complicated and goes a lot deeper than "opposites attract, the end." The moral of the story is, approach a comic like a magnet, you basically have an idea of how everything is supposed to be that's good enough for you to use, and it's not necessary to delve into all the details unless that is interesting to you.

[Kirby101]

The continuity of the Big Two publishers is so convoluted at this point that it would take Stephen Hawkins to figure it out. Sometimes it matters, and sometimes it doesn't, But i found all the reboots and big events made it impossible to read a single series without knowing what's going on everywhere else. And then there are writers (Grant Morrison at times) that think the reader has the same encyclopedic knowledge they do.
My suggestion; pass on Marvel and DC and look at other publishers. There are so many great comics from publishers like Image and Darkhorse that don't require a college level course in continuity to follow them. Great self contained titles.

[Xiroteus]

There are so many great comics from publishers like Image and Darkhorse that don't require a college level course in continuity to follow them. Great self contained titles.

Back tracking all the convoluted reboots and chaos of numbering going back years always feels like it takes a course. I need to catch up on about a year to see yet another reboot and huge events. Not sure I feel like bothering aside from a couple select titles and just stick to the other publishers that can maintain stories to their own series and not reboot twice a year. At least some put volume numbers on their story lines.