I need help with a convert !!

[ArkhamAsylum]

Allright fellas, I'm in need of some help and theres probably no better people to ask this question.

A friend of mine is into a guy who likes comic books and she wanted to find different ways to create more common ground between them. As a joke i suggested she read some comics and throw around some knowledge, it would definitely be funny/appreciated on his part. She's become game for it. I need suggestions on what i could point out to her. Please keep it stuff that wont turn her off or confuse her (i.e continuity heavy). (trades only !)

My personal thoughts at this point are:

Y: the last man. (first few trades)
Daredevil: Bendis's run
Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: Hush
Alias


any other thoughts?

[sexyjesus]

For cool, cool points, she needs to read Moore's and Veitch's complete works, namely Swampthing, Abraxas and Watchmen. Indie books like Love & Rockets, Blankets, and Black Hole would help as well. SOLO back issues too.

For cool points, Peter Milligan's Good Bye Krool World, Morrison's Animal Man and WE3, Oliver and Moore's Exterminators, and Garth Ennis's Preacher would do nicely.

For nerdy cool points, Kingdom Come, Animal Man, Kirby's Jimmy Olsen, the new JSA series, Supereme Power (MAX), and New Fronteir.

Don't give her Long Halloween. Give her Dark Victory instead. Better art, better writing, better presentation, better story.

[Rampage]

Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: Hush



Don't give her any of these two! Get the two trades of New Frontier, Superman: Secret Identity, Superman: Red Son, The Justice Society Returns and, for good measure, I can't believe it's not the Justice League.

[<sage>]

Don't give her Hush! Give her Long Halloween and Dark Victory instead. Get the two trades of New Frontier, Superman: Secret Identity and, for good measure, I can't believe it's not the Justice League.

Fixed :D <sage>

[Seaguy]

Is the Harley/Ivy story (stories?) in trade? If so, get that (those).
If you want her to appreciate comics as a medium, get her Blankets by Craig Thompson. It's beautiful and touching, and though it's as thick as a phone book, it's a page-turner and something she could read in a weekend. Plus I bet she'd just love it in general.
Watchmen is a classic, but sooo deep and involved. It'd be impressive if she was like, "yeah, I've read Watchmen" but actually getting her to read it... is gonna be a chore.
Also, Crisis on Infinite Earths. I had a girlfriend who read it to impress me, and MAN did it impress me. And it impressed the owner of my local shop, and a few other customers as well. It's about as steeped in continuity as you can get, though, which added to its impressive-ness.

You may want to go a different route. It may be a good idea to get her to browse and pick some things she likes (like, doe she like anime? Faeries? Buffy?) and build from that. That's what I've done with my current girlfriend. I've just kind of hinted toward books about things she likes, and she picked them up and became interested. Like my girl is a history major who especially likes Egyptian history. I showed her the Ibis the Invincible issue of Helmet of Fate. She then wanted to read the other issues, so she became a Detective Chimp and Black Alice fan. So now she likes Shadowpact and I've got her some backissues of Birds of Prey. This made her a Birds of Prey fan, so now she's a genuine fan of the book and gets it monthly, which is, frankly, a huge turn on.

If the chick is a genuine comics fan... that's like crack to a comic geek. Just getting her to read some books to impress a guy is a good idea, sure, but making her an actual fan will likely make it a sure thing.

[rwe1138]

My female friends that I've gotten into comics have enjoyed both Runaways & Fables.

[nolanjwerner]

Vertigo stuff.

[hdlup55]

if she wants to sound knowledgable without reading too much then iwould recommend DKR and Kingdom Come, Any girl who could ever reference thos two i would probably marry

[Floyd Lawton]

Wolverine Origins




Heh

[Tirpen]

Give her some stand alone vertigo books like WE3, V for Vendetta, Y the last man or even Transmetropolitan. It all depends on what kind of stuff she usually likes.

If we're talking DCU titels things are usually trickier for new readers but some great books/arcs/series that can be read without pretty much any prior knowledge are:
The Atlantis Chronicles
Dini's current run of Detective Comics (if she's seen any version of Batman she should be able to follow)
The Legion of Superheroes (current version)
Batman - Year One

There are some nice Elseworlds too:

Superman - Secret Identity
The New Frontier

[<sage>]

Runaways is a definite. No harm in Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane either

[Michael Hawk]

I would figure out what the guy likes first. There's too many types of fanboys and too many crazies for her to be safe. Also, and this is probably more important, point her towards stuff you think she'll like as it sounds like you know her better than the guy. At last if you interest her into stuff like Preacher and Exterminators and the guy's into Johnny DC/ Marvel Adventures stuff she has something new (plus, if she's hot, there's always you).

The picks you have are sound on my opinion.

[drastic_q]

Easy as pie. Have her memorize all of the Robins' names. Throw in Carrie Kelley and Spoiler for bonus points.

[Hellblazer]

Doesn't this depend on what the guy likes ?
If he's a marvel zombie or something, she's not likely to impress him with DC stuff, and vice versa.

So, what does the guy like to read ?

[stiltman6969]

how about just recommending comics the girl would like? god if this broad is dumb enough to read comics just to impress some guy then who cares?

[Moonbeam]

Daredevil Yellow
Spider-Man Blue
Wonder Woman starting with Jodi Piccoult's first issue
All-Star Superman starting with the first issue she can find - OR Up, Up and Away trade
Justice Society of America starting with #1 - have her stick with it through JLA crossover
Identity Crisis
Young Avengers: Sidekicks
Astonishing X-Men trades

Those are all newbie/female friendly and will give her stuff to say to the guy about the current big, main characters at DC and Marvel.

You could recommend Y The Last Man, as it's a good read, but unless he reads Y, he won't know what she's talking about. Another good read for a female is Strangers in Paradise. But again -- that's not so much to talk to a guy, but just a good read for her. And if she's going to read Runaways, just find out if he reads it first -- it won't do her much good if he doesn't, as it rarely crosses over into the rest of the universe. But again - great read.

I would not recommend "Elseworlds" stories. She will be confused enough as it is. Those can come later if she gets into it.

And I would also not recommend anything older than about 10 years. No offense to those of you who lived through it and read it, but most '80s-early '90s stuff doesn't read that well to us newbies.

And you can tell her to also come to Newsarama each day and glance at the front page and read whatever articles interest her. She'll have an interesting news tidbit each day to use on him -- sometimes even stuff he hasn't heard yet. I did when I was first reading, and I often told friends things they didn't know -- they were floored. I got hooked on news that way.

- Vaneta

[Starlord]

My first thought was Fables. The best of the best, really. Also, Y is very good, but I have to agree with V. If he's not reading it, he'll be confused. Also the first set of trades with the last volume of JSA is probably a great super-hero start.