Hey everyone.

I have been a Smallville fan from the beginning and have always loved the Superman movies and the Lois & Clark series. My entire exposure to Superman mythos has been through the celluloid. I am intending to 'dip my toe in the water' and start reading/watching other Superman mediums. Anyone got any suggestions of where a good place to start may be? Can be anything - comics, cartoons, etc

I have been advised to watch Justice League Unlimited - was this good advice? The advisee was mad keen on this one.

Lastly - is it sad that my first exposure to Superman is through the Supergirl movie?

That's great that you want to know more about Superman. I was the exact same way after watching Smallville. My only exposure to Superman growing up were the Superman 1, 2 and 4 movies. But after watching Smallville I wanted to know more about this character in Mythology, Lore and Pop Culture.

I can't give you any advice on comics, because I've only read "New Frontier" and "Kingdom Come", but if you're going to watch JLU you need to watch Superman: The Animated Series (1996) and the original Justice League without the Unlimited. It's great because it is all in the same continuity universe created by Bruce Timm. Things in JLU will be referenced in Superman: TAS and vice versa. If you're a fan of batman I suggest you start with Batman: The Animated Series and work your way, all the way to JLU, but there's alot of ground to cover.

Batman: TAS
Superman: TAS
Justice League
Batman Beyond
Justice League Unlimited

These shows really sold me on the idea of superheros.

Whew - oh my gosh there is some work to do then. Obviously ebay is going to be my friend this summer. (No I am not confused about the seasons, I am Aussie). Hawkeye - thanks for all the hints, you've given me direction. Others please feel free to add your two cents worth.

I am a Batman fan in terms of having seen all the movies but I don't really think that counts. I love reading the 'Many Faces of..." at Kryptonsite as it provides me with so much history on some of these characters. I have no idea when some people are referencing more comic orientated characters in the boards though. Is there a place/site that is ideal on getting a good background of a lot of the characters? eg Zatanna (I don't even think I spelt that right and the recent mention of Metalo or something. If you hadn't spotted a newbie the light and horn is currently blaring above my head now )

At the moment I am a bit of a superheroes groupie in that I will watch anything derived from the comic book universe. However my favourite thing ever is the Superman/Lois having sex and the krytonite condum conversation in Mallrats.

I have read some Wolverine - but he had more organic claws rather than the metallic ones. So long ago I cannot remember the name of it. Does that earn me some points? Or did the Supergirl movie completely make me unreachable?

The first thing I would do is use wikipedia to really get the story behind the character that I'm interested in. That will give you any background you want, but to really sink your teeth into this stuff, there's no better place to go than the source. This can be scary, but I would encourage you to either just get to a place where they sell comics and pick up the comics of characters you're interested in or get to a book store and look into some trades. Trades are collections of storylines or limited series or what have you.

This way, you begin to get an understanding of the characters that you've been introduced to on tv in a much deeper way.

However, don't feel like you have to get into the comics. Your experience is your experience and if you love the characters then that's cool.

As far as the Supergirl thing goes, that movie wasn't all bad. So that's a pretty cool way for you to be introduced to the world of Superman if it didn't run you off.

Thanks Steve

You are an absolute gem and sweetheart. Will check those things out, your advice makes it seem less of a scary and overwhelming task. Listened to your podcasts last night and this morning after hearing you on the houseofel. I have only really done the whole podcast thing in the past month and its great to find out about other knowledgeable geeks on the air waves. If anything the houseofel has increased my desire for comic knowledge. I have always been a geek but I have staryed into new territory

Don't worry about the whole "negativity" on the JLA movie, I don't think you were all that bad to be honest. Would love Adrianna Palicki to be cast, she definietly has the acting chops, gams and the whole shebang. She is the closest actress to being an actual amazon anyway. Minka Kelly would be dead annoying with her voice, yowser. Scott Porter I can't really see for some reason. I love FNL though and its good to see these actors being considered.

If you want stuff that isn't in continuity, you can check out Kingdom Come or Red Son. You can also check out Birthright, which isn't in continuity anymore(*shakes fist* at Multiverse).

EDIT: Almost forgot, Superman/Batman is quite good as well.

Thank you Adele.

I appreciate the kind sentiments.

I also forgot to mention Superhero database which is a pretty good website for history on the characters.
http://www.superherodb.com/

There's also the DC Database
http://en.dcdatabaseproject.com/Main_Page

Thanks kii and bighonkin

I know my weekend is going to be chockers full of internet lurking. Pity my student's reports are due soon, yikes! I love that you've taken me under your wings to fill me with the ultimate knowledge of DC and Marvel.

Ta

i agree. especially the first 3 or 4 hardcovers of Superman/Batman are phenomenal! the new justice league series is great and most of the last justice league series was wow.

anything you need to know, just ask any of us. i'm sure we're all well versed in it. hope you enjoy!

Will....I knew we would meet in the forums at some point....

That's your Chloe rival, Will - use the hand grenades!

Okay so I have done some reading about Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Black Canary. I could follow the basic history of the first two okay but I must admit the Dinah Laurel/Dinah Drake stuff and the daughter's body housing the mother and everything was so confusing. Can anyone summarise it in a sentence or two? I feel like such a dumb ass. I am loving reading all this stuff though. Unfortunately I live in a small regional town in inland Australia and there is no comic store. The book store only has the Phantom.

I have a curly Smallville question, although you guys probably caught it when it flew past me. How is Lois Chloe's cousin? Is Moira related to Sam or is there some other link. Is Gabe brother to Lois' Mum? I cannot recall if this was ever mentioned. It probably doesn't even matter but the question has been plaguing me.

Things that made me squeal with happiness today -

I now know who Hal Jordan is, previously just made a perplexed face if I heard it in a podcast.
Love the idea of Green Arrow and Green Lantern as a duo - correct me if I am wrong
Am really excited about seeing Black Canary on Smallville.
I know who Zantanna (who sounds so cool) and Metallo (love the Aussie link) are
Will and Bighonkin met on the forums, glad that I was the one to bring you two together. Are you going to fight over Chloe now? To the death?

Are there any Aussie DC Comic superheroes?

Thanks Kii, Bighonkin and Will - I am so much "smarter" now that I was a couple of day ago. However now I have a new obsession so the positive probably invalidates the new negative.

Well, I have two warnings that I am obligated to give Will...

1. My hands qualify as deadly weapons. I have to renew a license every year so that they aren't cut off.

2. I'm pretty big...I could sit on you and it would be over.

Adele, I'm glad you're getting into this superhero thing. You'll find that the more you know the more you enjoy it and the more you have to have.

See, this is the confusing part about comics, it's hard for an outsider to figure out what the heck is in continuity and what's not.

Golden Age:
There was only one Black Canary, and that was Dinah Drake.

Silver Age:
This is where things start to get iffy, all Golden Age characters lived on a parallel Earth named, Earth-Two. Apparently, the revived Black Canary wasn't really BC, she was the daughter of the original. Then there was some nonsense about memory transfer? To be honest, it really doesn't matter anymore.

Currently:
Nowadays, there's two distinct characters, Dinah Drake Lance(Mom) and her daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance, the current Black Canary.

EDIT: I shouldn't have said currently, since I don't know what the heck is going on right now. The last comic I read was Week #19 of 52, so all this Post-Crisis stuff is o_O