Comic book question: Best introductions to these characters

Cafe Society
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Most of the stuff I know about comic book characters comes from the animated versions and not from the comics themselves. I never really got into a phase where I collected a lot of super-hero books, so all the comic book versions were either “special event” things or references in Sandman and Swamp Thing and such.

But a lot of the characters sound really cool and I’d like to actually read some stories that use them well. Not necessarily the “secret origins” or “first appearance,” but a complete story arc that gives a feel for more of the character and doesn’t require a ton of history just to be able to keep up. At least, enough so that I can say, “hey, cool!” if they’re ever featured on “Justice League Unlimited.” And preferably, they would be in TPB format instead of single issues.

Green Lantern
The current “Rebirth” story keeps making all these references that I’m just not getting. Hal Jordan is the “official” GL (from the Superfriends and all), and Alan Scott was the original from the JSA? And what about the Green Lantern Corps and Kilowogg and the ball-guy and all that? And the Guardians?

Legion of Super-Heroes
I got about 6 or so issues of the first series of this as a kid (they were already in the 300’s or so, IIRC) and really liked them although I couldn’t follow what was going on. Years later, I got the Birnbaum/Giffen reboot issues and loved them, although I couldn’t follow what was going on. Recently I started getting issues of “Legion” until it ended and liked it well enough, although I couldn’t follow what was going on.

Doctor Fate
I really liked J.M. DeMatteis and Shawn McManus’ version of the character, but that series didn’t last very long. Was he always just a JSA member, or did he have his own series?

Etrigan/Jason Blood
Again, I liked the standalone series by Alan Grant that ran for a while, but it didn’t last very long and it implied a bigger history to the character.

Zatanna
Always seems to be a character that’s referenced by other things (JLA, the cartoon series, I think Sandman used her) but I have no idea where she’s actually from.

Solomon Grundy
Yes, I admit it, I named myself after the version from “Superfriends” and have only read one comic book with Solomon Grundy in it. (It was that “Long Halloween” Batman story). I’ve heard various versions of his origin story (it even got involved with Swamp Thing at one point, right?) but want to see the earlier version, before they tried to “re-invent” him in a vain attempt to make him genuinely cool.

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Green Lantern - Hm. There are lots of TPBs for GL out there, and I honestly don’t know which are in print, or which to recommend. Basically, a long time ago (3 Billion years) the Guardians (a race of tiny blue men with super-science powers) created the Green Lantern Corps to police the universe. Alan Scott’s ring is a result of the merging of a Corps-standard ring with a concentrated source of magical energy. Every other Green Lantern, except Kyle, was a Corps member at one point - assigned to guard a particular sector of the universe. Kyle’s special - only having received his ring after the dissolution of the Corps.

I can expand on this if you need me to.

Legion - Forget all that’s gone before, the Legion relaunches this month or next month under the watchful eye of Mark Waid. Because of their lamentable position a thousand years ahead of DC continuity, every time the timeline gets screwed up, the Legion gets rearranged.

Dr. Fate - Founding member of the JSA. Been around for ages… debuted in More Fun comics, I think. His original origin is available in the recently-printed ‘Weird Secret Origins’ 80pg Giant. In current continuity, it hasn’t been changed much, except the timetable shifted a bit.

Don’t know any good sources for Demon, Grundy, or Zatanna - I can tell you a bit about each, though.

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Go HERE

All {or most} shall be revealed!

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Or, the quick way–

http://www.dcuguide.com/Who/Grundy_Bio.php

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For the recently removed from continuity Legion - the one in the Legion - there are a couple good start points.

The best - albeit most expensive - would, of course, be Legion of Superheroes and Legionnaires #0. Unfortunately, neither LSH or Legionaires started renumbering when they rebooted, and I can’t remember which number they were on. It was late 1994. checks Legion of Superheroes v4 #62, Legionnaires #19.

Another - where I came back into it after several years of not buying, 'cuz I couldn’r afford it - would be the Legion of the Damned arc. (Actually, I came back at The Legion #33, and started grabbing older books, going back to LotD.) It’s not the best, but it’s passable. It’s main advantage is that it sets up the next possibility:

Legion Lost (and its followup Legion Worlds) explains some of the back story of the Legion as part of the story, and introduces several important parts of The Legion - Shikari, the Progeny, Credo, the Threshold transport system, etc.

The Legion #1 is marginally better than Legion of the Damned, but not as good as the other two options.

There might be other good jump-on points between Zero Hour and Legion of the Damned, but, like I said, I don’t have those books.

Also, if you want to get the full history of the Legion, you have to go back to Superboy (first series) #147.

And, as was said, the Legion is rebooting. LSH v5 #1 is coming out on the 29th. The Legion/Teen Titans special that set up the reboot came out in October.

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For Green Lantern, you might want to check out the GL: Emerald Dawn 1 and 2 TPBs that came out a year or two ago. They’re basically retellings of Hal Jordan’s origin, so they’ll give you plenty of background on GL.

For Zatanna, you an check out the JLA: Zatanna’s Search TPB that collects what I believe are her first apperances in JLA. The story concerns the search for her father, Zatarra (a golden age magician-hero; basically a Mandrake ripoff). It’ll tell you all you need to know about her origins. For a more modern take, you might want to pick up the Zatanna: Everyday Magic one-shot that came out a year or so ago. Both of these things have great Brian Bolland covers, btw.

A couple years ago, an Alan Scott one-shot that focused on a battle with Solomon Grundy (who was Scott’s main villain – or at least one of them – in the golden age) that you might want to check out. I can’t remember what it was called. It did have nice, painted artwork, though.

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This site has much of what you’re looking for, including a primer for people who want to know who the JLU characters are (Scroll down about a third of the way to “Who’s who in the JLU”.

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Cool, thanks for the info and links, everybody. Both of the sites listed look like they have exactly the kind of info I was looking for.