Do I need to read comics?

I have never once read a comic book.

Anything and everything I know is due to research and internet community.

There is a show Death Battle that provides useful information for cool battles that they creats.

Then there is a guy who explains literally everything about comics on youtube.

Other things I have learned through research.

I just became interested in comics a year ago. People here can recall specific scans from a comic that was released 18 yrs ago.. I cant do that and I dont know if I want to.

Do I need to read comics in order to be considered knowledgeable? Are there things about characters that I cant learn from just research?

Death Battle is trash don't watch it.

Reading/watching something is better than hearing someone tell it to you.

@kgb725: Maybe. But I would rather spend time doing other things:)

Death Batttle is far from a refutable source.

And of course not. Whether or not you like comics is important for obvious reasons, but the community is still awesome and your opinion is still valid.

Read comics cause it's fun. If you enjoy the characters your researching why not step it further and read their stories?

@speedster101: because from what I heard, Thanos doesnt have many comics primarily focused around him.

He actually doesnt have alot at all.

That matters. I like him the best

@morleericks: He's in plenty of great story lines tho. Plus since you haven't really seen the characters personalities you don't really know which character you like for reasons other than powers.

Read some classics I'm sure if you like being around the vine you'll like some classic comics.

I know the Infinity War, his quest to capture the gems, and have obviously researched him the most.. After him, every other comic character is just...there..

Aquaman, Taskmaster and Spiderman are fun to learn about. But you can learn everything about them from research.

I wouldnt even know where to begin if I did read comics. I will probably just guess

... there are many comics centered on Thanos. But since he is usually the villain, no, he isn't usually the protagonist. But he did have a mini series.

He was also a big character in Annihilation and the Thanos Imperative.

To add onto this there is also Thanos Rising, Thanos: The Infinity Revelation, and Thanos: The Infinity Relativity.

You need to read comics. It allows you to better understand and know what the world is like first hand rather than having someone tell you it. Doing research before getting into comics is a good idea as you are able to know the big stuff, but you will miss out on the smaller details that make comics enjoyable. At least thats my opinion towards it.

Why are you on a comic book forum site and have no plans to read comics?

You don't need to, but you should.

@darkdetective27: because its not just comics here. And i like to debate on things I am a fan of.

There is all kinds of topics here. Included:Jason Bourne, John Wick, LOTR, Horror films etc.. Any and all characters can be debated in a battle.

Its cool when you can create a fight between Agent 47 and Michael Myers and get a reaction.

And you can learn new things about comics here as well

This is meant to be a comic book website..... :/

@morleericks: I guess whatever floats your boat. It just seems kind of bizare to hang out on a comic book site and have no plans to even read a comic book.

@comicsrulebutdbzdoes2: @darkdetective27: I do debate comics on here as well.

I honestly dont see why you care so much? Its weird.

You can do your own thing. You dont have to worry yourself with what I do

And I dont "hang out" on this site. I think of something cool that applies to comics, and maybe I post it up here

You don't have to, but it's kinda like declaring yourself a Star Wars fan without ever having watched the movies, or a StarCraft fan without ever having played the games.

@morleericks: Then why even make a thread about it. Did you just want everyone here to know you dont read comics and have no plans to read comics?

To gather opinions on whether or not just researching specific characters will hinder your ability to learn as much about characters as opposed to reading comic books.....

I thought that was made abundantly clear in my OP.

And the initial responses were answering exactly that...

Why did it go off course??

Comics are a great place to enjoy your mind, bub. It ain't like getting answers from your pals or the Internet. Yea, the Internet is full of surprises. You go here, there, and everywhere asking a lift on a highway or somethin'. Probably, you ain't got the time though. That I can understand. But you're missing out the good stuff.

I don't think a reader needs to read comics in order to be posting on a comic-book themed forum. The reader could have watched comic book movies or played comic book-based video games, and that would motivate him/her enough to post on the comic-book themed forum.

There are times when people describe feats/events on the internet community they lacked context which you may misunderstand or misinterpret.

A real fantastic example is Sun Wukong of the 16th Century Chinese novel Journey to the West, many users on this forum thought that he's some galaxy/universe level entity. They never read the novel and misinterpreted his feats that people described online. In reality, he's only mountain-level in terms of the legit feats shown. That's how different things can turn out to be if you did actually read the source itself.

No. Make money instead.

You should read comics because you want to. Not because you feel you have to.

I would say that if you want to become knowledgeable on comics then reading them rather than researching them online is best for a number of reasons. If you've read a comic then you can give your own personal opinion of it and can recommend people towards good and bad series. Respect threads will often only use a character's best feats and, while they can be helpful, if you want a more balanced view of their abilities you should see what they're like in an average issue. Shows like Death Battle can be entertaining (although I don't personally watch it) but they're knowledge is often questionable and we used to have a joke that Superman could defeat anyone as he had no limits according to Death Battle.

it depends...on what actually interest you..If it's about the current situation with all the movies and TV shows and you want to just be up to date then no need....if it's about Battle forums also no need(I think)...but if you are interested about reading good stories with fantastic arts and characters I suggest you should..Most of the comic book readers read comic books not because of using in debates and battle forums but enjoy some good story telling and some fascinating characters and some brilliant artworks...it's 6-7 decades of history out there...If you don't enjoy traditional one there are multiple different graphic novels out there,,can try one or two...

there is no need of course..those who do read do it because it's good fun and enjoyment..

@morleericks: Obviously it is up to you whether or not you read. If you don't think you'd enjoy comics I wouldn't bother but if you like learning about characters you don't really get the full effect until you've read stories yourself and not just researched. Also don't listen to Death battle its very inaccurate at times but can be spot on.

Either way happy to have you on the vine.

Would you like to join Comic Vine's Top 100's if you haven't already?

@morleericks: Trust me, I've seen those shows on YouTube but they're nothing compared to the real thing and not only does it make you more knowledgeable but it gets you connected to the characters and really deep within the universe

@morleericks: You need to read. Scans dont provide the context for stories. There are so many beautiful, personal touches you miss that the author meant for you to read before deciding what really happened in a scan. Also, you miss the debriefing, the explanations for what just happened. You have less credibility than me as a debater because I am a first-hand witness vs. you relying on hearsay. Thats the problem with this sites Battle forum by the way. No one actually reads the comics they post scans for. I cant tell you how many times I have debunked the IMP or corrected cointless misstatements about Thought Robot Superman or had to explain the context behind the same scans over and over, like Superman dodging Flash's punch (but they had switched costumes) or anti-monitor supposedly "destroying" the Spectre, or had the same arguments about Sentry vs. Molecule Man.

There are so many different conclusions you would draw if you actually read the comic yourself.

Also I hate relying on other people. I would never even cheat in school because I figured if I didn't know the answer no one else could know more than me. Draw your own conclusions or else you are living someone else's life.

Also, I have at least 100 comics revolving around Thanos. Not sure where you are getting info from.

You don't need to, but I would highly recommend it.

You're not missing a whole lot. Most comics are more about the art imagery than the actual content. Like 1 cartoon episode adaptation is equal to like 4-8 comics that cover said story. You do fine getting all your hero info from wiki's and online summaries.

but, that said, it is a fun way to kill time if you have nothing better to do. I'm subscribed to marvel.com and it's only 10bucks a month for tons of interesting content to gloss through. I'm not very busy at work and it makes the day go by.