I'm 40 and I've been collecting comic books since I was about 9. My favorite characters are Spider-Man, Superman, and Batman. I like a lot more but when it came to modern day comic books I got to the point where I only read those three, but I've reached a point where I have decided with Marvel and DC to just read back issues and luckily there are a ton of back issues that I haven't even touched yet. For instance I recently found a bunch of 70s Conan comic books in a bargain bin.
My question is does anyone have any indie/Manga recommendations? It seems like Marvel and DC for the most part want to hire people who are clueless about or hate comic books (the lady doing the She-Hulk show as well as the guy hired to do the Superman movie come to mind). I think I may start supporting Alterna Comics as well.
Thanks in advance.
Manga recommendations?!
I'd love to help, but I definitely have trash taste.
So instead I'll go through the other replies, and echo ones I thought are good recommendations, with a short spoiler-free comment.
Goblin Slayer: They keep just enough realism in a high-fantasy adventure setting to keep things tense and to keep tactics interesting.
Gundam: Find a guide as to how to get into it, if you like comics I'm sure you're familiar with "100 multiverses, here's a guide as to how to introduce yourself to the franchise", but many of them are very good, and it's the keystone of the "giant mecha" genre.
Battle Angel Alita: Not just a semi-successful and bizarrely-hated-by-SJWs movie, it's a whole big story! Definitely one of the older works on here, though, so take a gander at if the art style is alright with you.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Probably as close to a western superhero manga as you'll get theme and tone-wise, even if no one is going out to save innocents. You got buff super men (and women) beating the shit out of other buff super men (and women), where the good guys pick posies by the riverside and the bad guys rape puppies, but they still include occasional morality dilemmas and whatnot. Very western comic style: The villains are villains, the heroes are heroes, every two dozen issues the hero changes.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
For my own suggestions... If you can get past the shojo ("girly comic") art style, Code Geass is an excellent modern-ish era mastermind/war/superpowers/giant-mecha/romance story. The genres shouldn't mix, but they do quite well.
And then ONLY AFTER BEING WELL-ACQUAINTED WITH MANGA... "Kill la Kill." It uses a lot of Japanese anime/manga tropes and plays with them, so there wouldn't be as much enjoyment of it without that background knowledge.