Honestly, unless I was someone who'd never read a comic before in his or her life, I'd be going TL:DR with most of these.

I guess I'm a little more old school. Even though I frequently find them tremendously annoying, the in-story recaps that were a feature of the Bronze age worked best for me.

Regarding whether comics are less new-reader friendly, I think that ever since the trend of multi-issue stories became the norm, they have become less new-reader friendly. At the same time, I think that's changing in some respects, particularly with television. Look at TV shows like Lost or 24. When the hook for your show depends heavily on what's happened before, you're going to lose people who don't want to invest the time or energy in catching up. I know if I wanted to watch and enjoy those shows, I'd pretty much have to start at the beginning and watch the whole thing, rather than be able to pick it up mid-stream. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it can be daunting (of course, soap operas have done this for years, so it's entirely possible if someone finds the show appealing enough).