What are your favorite types of comic book stories?

[Jekyll]

I like a mix of light hearted adventure, trippy sci fi, And apocalyptic epic. I think it also depends of the character as well but I read a bit of everything. If you forced me to choose one, it would be light hearted adventure. Most of my favorite characters exist in that world: Flash, Spider-Man, etc.

I also am a sucker for s strong family dynamic as well.

[Vakanai]

Voted for all of them. Good stories are good stories.

[Caivu]

"Philosophical Epic" fits what I like best, though I'm not keen on the "epic" part. I like seeing characters I love get pressed and watching how they respond (provided the pressing is something that would actually press them and the response fits them). Hopefully by prevailing and growing.

[Restingvoice]

Mystery. Detective. Good mystery.
I only like light-hearted family moments if I already like the characters.
I learned not to like DC apocalypse because there's not enough focus on the characters as there are so many of them. Everything becomes a blur of color.

[Lightning Rider]

"Philosophical Epic" fits what I like best, though I'm not keen on the "epic" part. I like seeing characters I love get pressed and watching how they respond (provided the pressing is something that would actually press them and the response fits them). Hopefully by prevailing and growing.

Yeah I think the focus on character introspection is more important than the scale, necessarily. TDKR (just as an example) has the feel of an epic without involving much more than an old man battling his demons and a new breed of brutal criminals.

[Sutekh]

I voted for light-hearted and trippy sci-fi, but also for Other, in this case, Other being 'Character-Driven Stories' that flow from the individual characters and / or their dynamic interactions with each other. Characters falling in love and getting married. Ongoing legacies as new people take up the mask or mantle. Changes and growth and development as someone like Dick Grayson stops wearing the 'short pants' and grows into a new costumed identity, now that he's a grown man and long past being anyone's sidekick.

Lots of comics might say 'Everything changes!' or 'Nothing will ever be the same!' and yet, for the most part, the IP is sacred and cannot change. Over at Marvel, Professor Xavier can be cured of his broken legs/spinal damage and walk, briefly. Then it's back in the saddle, again. He can then be cloned and transferred into a clone body, with working legs, and walk again. Briefly. Then it's the chair for you, kid! Spider-Man can get married. But he can't stay married. Etc. Etc. One of the strengths of DC, back in the day, and one that kept me a fan through the Perez/Wolfman era of the Teen Titans, when they were growing up and away from being sidekicks, and 'Kid' Flash was becoming just 'THE Flash,' and Legionnaires were getting married, and Infinity, Inc. was picking up the mantle of the old Justice Society, and Earth had a new Green Lantern (well, a new, NEW, Green Lantern, assuming that Alan Scott was the first...), was a sense of continuing legacy.

I loved that, growing up, because change was happening in the real world, too.

[kjn]

I'll second what Sutekh said, and add something more to the character-driven stories, you also need the slice of life stuff, and the thoughtful personal interactions. They are needed to make the readers care about the characters and about the action scenes, and to give contrast to the action scenes and high-stakes stories.

The scene with Wonder Woman and Batman talking about things they miss in Batman #40 is a wonderful example, or Batman #37 where Batman, Catwoman, Lois, and Superman goes to the theme park which is all about the characters caring about each other. Granted, you don't need entire issues often, but at least once a year? And a page with each issue?

[Lightning Rider]

I'll second what Sutekh said, and add something more to the character-driven stories, you also need the slice of life stuff, and the thoughtful personal interactions. They are needed to make the readers care about the characters and about the action scenes, and to give contrast to the action scenes and high-stakes stories.

The scene with Wonder Woman and Batman talking about things they miss in Batman #40 is a wonderful example, or Batman #37 where Batman, Catwoman, Lois, and Superman goes to the theme park which is all about the characters caring about each other. Granted, you don't need entire issues often, but at least once a year? And a page with each issue?

Totally agreed, these reminders are so necessary. You can't have constant battles and tensions and outlandish adventures without reminding the reader why they should care about the character. That stuff us the icing; the substance is who the character is.

[WonderScott]

I mean, all of the above really.

[married guy]

I love them all if they're written well - and that's the thing for me.
There are some wonderful story ideas that have fallen flat due to writer's shortcomings and there have been some stories that I thought absolutely ridiculous that I loved.

[warzon]

Call me old fashion all I want is super heroes fighting super villians.plain and simple

[Lightning Rider]

Call me old fashion all I want is super heroes fighting super villians.plain and simple

So the fights and not the stories are what appeals to you?

[Crazy Diamond]

All of the above so long as they are well-written. I also would like to add stories about relationships and romance and growth as well. So I voted other.

[scribbleMind]

Well, it really isn't genre specific for me. My favorite comics to read are buddy books. Two people, any genre, putting up with and defending one another as they deal with items bigger than themselves. Like a team book, but with no wallpaper and better characterization- assuming the voices are on point. Genre wise, I have a natural affinity towards Dark Fantasy, but not horror as far as comics are concerned as I find that they tend to be disappointing or flat in big universes like DC or Marvel. That said I have a bigger penchant for Dark Fantasy that uses humor as a means to undercut the darkness, which is often represented by absurd books like Doom Patrol and Dial H.

[Ascended]

Voted for everything except "Origin" and "Apocalyptic." I mean, I have personal favorites from every type of story listed here (including those two), as well as plenty of others that aren't on the list at all (like your various flavors of Fantasy, pulp, etc). But I didn't vote for those two in particular because they're so painfully overplayed.

I think comics (at least the mainstream ones) have become far too obsessed and dependent on origin stories. How many times, in the last ten years, has a story gone back to the formative years of a hero? How many times have we been told "you thought you knew, but really *this* thing happened instead!"? How many times has a hero's origin been completely re-told?

I'm beyond over it. And I fear it's a sign that the industry can't see the future and is just relying on the nostalgia of the past to survive. That's a very meta outlook, but it's also a very depressing one. The best origin story for my money is the Morrison All-Star Superman origin; one page, a few panels, a dozen words, and you move the hell on.

And the "end of the world" Crisis type stuff.....once again I feel like the Big 2 rely on that kind of storytelling too much. Especially Marvel. And I get why; it pulls sales and the big crazy end-of-all-things stuff can be really fun. But there's damn little room for character there, it's all plot.

And this stuff gets rolled out so often there's no time for the impact to set in. I mean, just look at Metal; that was a crazy huge story where the entire planet does actually fall into the dark multiverse and the heroes create a brand new earth. That's huge. That's something to be explored and pondered. And that probably isn't even the biggest thing the story did. But before the dust can settle, No Justice is bringing Galactus' extended family out to eat the world before that "new planet" smell even wears off! What the hell, giant space gods? Take a number and wait your turn, you know? And before the dust of No Justice has settled, now we've got some weird end-of-all-things threat in Justice League! When every issue and every story tie into some massive reality-ending threat, the massive reality-ending threats don't really have any significance left to them; Crisis events are the new bank robbers; heroes deal with them every issue, every week.