Welcome to Graphic Policy’s First Impressions where we take a look at a handful of comics in order to discern just how accessible they are for new readers, because every comic could be somebody’s first – and that’s the first question that’ll be answered with this feature. The second is whether you should  start there because sometimes a book could be accessible to new readers but the quality could be less than average, and so each comic will receive a score out of ten based upon Graphic Policy’s typical ten point scale.

Where possible we’ll also be providing  recap of sorts for the relevant story beats up until the issue in question in order to help you figure out if the series is something you’re interested in, assuming we’ve read any part of the story thus far. All comics were provided for review purposes unless otherwise noted.

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Old Man Logan #49 (Marvel)
Can you start here? Yes
Recap & Review: Old Man Logan is dying (ironically, since young Logan is returning), and he’s going to fight Old Man Hulk (also known as Meastro). It hasn’t gone well so far.
Score: 8.7

Quantum And Woody! #11 (Valiant)
Can you start here? Yes
Recap & Review: I loved this series (loved because this is the penultimate issue) about a pair of unlucky superheroes. Whilst you can still pick this up and enjoy it quite a bit, I’d highly encourage you going back to around the sixth issue or so for some of the best superhero comics you’ll ever read.
Score: 9.1

Nightwing #51 (DC)
Can you start here? Kinda
Recap & Review: Nightwing was shot. Now he has amnesia, burned his old bunker and is going by Ric. It isn’t great.
Score: 5.8

Daredevil #609 (Marvel)
Can you start here? Yes
Recap & Review: No recap because I only read this comic because of the Netflix show’s premiere. That said, Daredevil is now the mayor – anything after that you’ll be able to puzzle out.
Score: 8.0

Batman #57 (DC)
Can you start here? Kinda
Recap & Review: Nightwing was shot. Batman’s angry. Now he fights some dude in the snow.
Score: 6.2

Shuri #1 (Marvel)
Can you start here? Yup
Recap & Review: Look, I’ll be frank with you; I only picked this up because I recently rewatched Black Panther on Netflix the other day. But I really enjoyed this comic (though the art wasn’t exactly my cup of tea), and found it an excellent jumping on point. Yes, it’s quite text heavy, but that only adds to the ease of the reader slipping into the world.
Score: 8.6