And you constantly see publishers working in the industry being confused at how comics aren't more popular and cancelling series left and right wondering where it all went wrong.
We like comics, but I hate "the canon" and crossovers. Just let writers do what they want and not have to tie in to vastly different works, it's not that hard.
Publishers aren't confused about anything. The idea that some readers like clear jumping-on points and isolated cannon isn't news to anyone.
Ultimate Spider-Man proved it a long time ago. Graphic novels have been around forever. Both DC and Marvel published and still publish stand alone works all the time.
It's that they choose to serve two different audiences: the readers that like the shared universe, lose cannon, and rotating writership, because those things aren't that big a deal for them. Then there's the readers that want small, self contained, one author experiences. The mainline comics aren't made for the latter, and in fact they would lose the former if they tried to pivot in that direction.
It just never ceases to amaze me how some people can't wrap their head around the idea others have no problem jumping into a series rather than worrying about starting from issue 1. It's not that bizarre.
This is why comics aren't more popular in the west, constant rebooting. I get if it happened once or even twice in all the decades, but the reboots are constant.
Catching up on a manga can be a slog, but at least I know what the chronology is without having to consult a wiki, and they basically never reboot so the catching up is actually worthwhile!
C'mon, this only happens with super hero comics. Even in DC, if you want to read 100 Bullets you start in chapter one. That ain't a manga exclusive feature
This is fair though superhero books do tend to represent the medium more in the west(even though they have and are continuing to steadily decline in popularity)
If you're going to show the Batdick, keep the Batdick. Own that Batdick. Stan it if you must, or pretend you don't know what people are talking about before throwing your Pocket BatSand if someone presses the issue, but don't back down and delete it.
You probably dont want to start with 2011 since the nu52 continuity ended quite a long time ago and Batman year one would be a good starter issue to read. Marvel and DC needs to stop with their relaunching, renumbering, and returning back to legacy numbering nonsense. Its issue one, now issue 345, now issue 1 again, and we figured out if we add up all the relaunches and side series we can get to 400 so back to an inflated legacy numbering!
Manga is written by one person. Any given mainstream comic character has at least 30 years of history with at least a dozen writers. It isn't a problem with comics but with the continuity being reconned every few years.
The real answer is to start where ever you want with comics because stories are self contained and rarely serialized. Crossover characters will revisit the comic and it's fun but usually comics are easy to get into. It's why trades are so cheap - it's open for anyone to pick up and read.