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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Bloodshot: Rising Spirit #1 (Valiant)
Can you start here? Yes
Recap & Review:Bloodshot: Rising Spirit  is a very pretty comic. There’s a hell of an art team on the book, and not once in the issue does the imagery suffer because of all the hands involved. If you’ve ever heard the old “too many cooks” phrase, then it doesn’t ring true with this issue. It is an astonishingly wonderful comic to read from start to finish, and an ideal place for new readers to start.
Score: 9.4

Uncanny X-Men #1 (Marvel)
Can you start here? Yup
Recap & Review: Technically you should be able to, but there’s a lot going on here with only minimal context for those reading about the X-Men for the first time in years, which makes it a little difficult to follow along with.
Score: 8.6

Nightwing #52 (DC)
Can you start here? More or less.
Recap & Review: Nightwing was shot in the head and lot his memory, and now goes by the name Ric Grayson. While Ric tries to discover who he is, there’s another man trying to realize why he needs to become someone else…
Score: 8

Life Is Strange #1 (Titan)
Can you start here? More or less.
Recap & Review: So this is a videogame comic, based on a game that I have never played. That said, the comic picks up after the game and deals with the effects of time travel and altering the the timeline. The premise is interesting, and the characters are probably far more realized than you’d expect – it’s worth checking out if you get chance. 
Score: 6.8

Batman #58 (DC)
Can you start here? More or less.
Recap & Review: Bane has pushed Batman to the brink. But can he push him any further? 
Score: 7.9