Need help with comic books

[TheRaySays]

Which is the new cowboy comic? I've been meaning to get that....It's from one of the team that do 100 Bullets... Is it Lawless? Anyone been reading it?

[Yaheardme]

Invincible produced by Image comics is entertaining and pretty accessible. There's been about 35 issues with I think the first 30 collected into two hardcover collections.

---

[gunnar hendershow]

Oh, I'm in the midst of reading Desolation Jones right now. You should totally check that out, all of you.

[Heel Turn]

Hey, Boulder. Few suggestions:

Right now, most mainstream comics are sub-par. Batman's weak, Spider-Man's mediocre, and Superman's just boring. If you really want some Superman, though, pick up All-Star Superman. There's only four issues out, but everything about it is classic Superman updated for a modern audience.

I also recommend the following in addition to All-Star Superman:

Astonishing X-Men. Best X-Men ever. It's written by Joss Whedon, the same guy who did Buffy and Angel. It's highly character driven, succint, and memorable. Very accessible as well.

Planetary. It's written by a guy named Warren Ellis, who uses this book to riff on pop-culture throughout the ages while still telling an incredible story about a team of "mystery archaeologists". It's set to end soon, but you can pick up the trades and any issues not already collected. Must be read to believed.

Ex Machina. It's about a guy who can talk to machines who's elected mayor of New York. Very relevant and intelligent, it juxtaposes his previous superhero exploits alongside his mayoral duties.

The Walking Dead. Like a long-term Romero flick in comic book form. Probably the best zombie story ever told.

The Eternals. Written by Neil Gaiman who is one of the two best writers in comics today, it deals with an elder race of superpowered beings adapting and living in the modern world. Only one issue out, so you can jump on.

Y - The Last Man. The best written comic book today, it deals with a man named Yorick, who, due to a virus which has killed all human males except for him, is literally the last man on Earth. Very feminist, but incredibly poignant.

Edited July 13, 2006 by Heel Turn

[Maxx]

First, you should try and get into Civil War, as its the main story line in the Marvel universe right now and thanks to Mark Millar, its amazing. Easy to jump right into as well.

The Ultimates, is also an excellent read, as is Young Avengers as previously stated.

Batman wise, if you're looking for a good book to get started on I suggest The Long Halloween.

And if you're looking for something funny, look no further than Marvel Zombies.

[king_k4life]

Invincable

Think of it as Supes VS Kal El his dad as a teen today.

[TMM]

First, you should try and get into Civil War, as its the main story line in the Marvel universe right now and thanks to Mark Millar, its amazing. Easy to jump right into as well.

The Ultimates, is also an excellent read, as is Young Avengers as previously stated.

Batman wise, if you're looking for a good book to get started on I suggest The Long Halloween.

And if you're looking for something funny, look no further than Marvel Zombies.

Civil War looks nice and all...but I can't help thinking it's all gonna end up pointless. I've lost nearly all faith with Marvel when they try and do big uber-crossover story arcs thanks to the debacle that was House of M. It does look good, but House of M sounded really good as well, so...

[Guest JoeJurevicius83]

Right now, I'm too tired to read the thread, but the I just read the graphic novel, "The Death of Superman." It was jaw dropping and it obviously proved why it's the highest selling graphic novel of all time.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Getting back into comic books lately, due to a couple of mates. Recommend Preacher and the earlier Fables books to anyone. I'm more for graphic novels than buying a single comic each month.

Not sure where to start with Spider-man and Batman though, which are the two main superhero franchises I'd prefer to get into.

Just brought the first Punisher Graphic Novel that Gareth Ennis worked on (Welcome Back, Frank)/ Haven't read enough to form an opinion yet.

But anyway, I'm reading through Preacher, I'm almost at the end of book three and it's awesome (though I didn't really like the first part of book two TBH). Like I said, the first few Fables books are great too.

[Rashid]

With Batman I have "The Dark Knight Returns". It's a great book. It's about 200 pages in length, and split into 4 chapters/books, each about 50 pages each. I also own the sequel "The Dark Knght Strikes Again". I recommend anyone to read both of them.

If you're into Marvel comics, a personal favorite of mine is the series "Secret Wars". It was originally a 12 issue short series, but was later compiled in 1 book. It features all of Marvel's biggest names. All the good guys team up to take on all the bad guys.

There's also something like a DC version of that called "Crisis on Infinite Earths" or something like that, but I didn't like it all that much.

[GhostMachine]

One thing you need to know:

Avoid ANYTHING written by J. Michael Strazynski for Marvel. He may have done great with the Babylon 5 tv series, but his work as a comic writer....for Marvel, anyway......is CRAP!

[TMM]

One thing you need to know:

Avoid ANYTHING written by J. Michael Strazynski for Marvel. He may have done great with the Babylon 5 tv series, but his work as a comic writer....for Marvel, anyway......is CRAP!

Name rings a bell...what is it he's writing/written recently?

[Heel Turn]

One thing you need to know:

Avoid ANYTHING written by J. Michael Strazynski for Marvel. He may have done great with the Babylon 5 tv series, but his work as a comic writer....for Marvel, anyway......is CRAP!

[TMM]

One thing you need to know:

Avoid ANYTHING written by J. Michael Strazynski for Marvel. He may have done great with the Babylon 5 tv series, but his work as a comic writer....for Marvel, anyway......is CRAP!

You're kidding me, right? His run on Spider-Man was one of the best ever, as long as you ignore that Norman Osborne/Gwen Stacy crap.

When was he writer? Is he still writing or not? Like I said, I can't put the name to a 'book' at the moment.

[GoGo Yubari]

With Batman I have "The Dark Knight Returns". It's a great book. It's about 200 pages in length, and split into 4 chapters/books, each about 50 pages each. I also own the sequel "The Dark Knght Strikes Again". I recommend anyone to read both of them.

If you're into Marvel comics, a personal favorite of mine is the series "Secret Wars". It was originally a 12 issue short series, but was later compiled in 1 book. It features all of Marvel's biggest names. All the good guys team up to take on all the bad guys.

There's also something like a DC version of that called "Crisis on Infinite Earths" or something like that, but I didn't like it all that much.

Um, no. That's really not true at all. Secret Wars definitely helped to popularize the concept of a company-wide crossover, but beyond that and, if you really want to simplify things, the plot of "a lot of superheroes versus a lot of supervillains with an ominous, seemingly omnipotent figure looming over them all," they really don't have much in common.

That being said, Crisis isn't very accessible if you don't know a lot about the DCU, so stay away from that for now.

I'm more in the mood to make counterpoints than anything else right now, so here we go.

J. Michael Strazynski's Marvel work; actually, his Amazing Spider-Man run before "Sins Past" is great. His take on the character is fresh and interesting and he handles the relationship with Mary Jane beautifully. Then "Sins Past" ruins everything.

Astonishing X-Men; read "Gifted." Definitely. Amazing, old-school story with a definite Claremont vibe. "Dangerous" should only be read so you can segue into the new arc, which is fairly interesting thusfar.

[Maxx]

I trust Millar to handle Civil War.

And even if it tanks at some point, it still won't end up feeling as pointless as Infinite Crisis did.

Thank god that was bookended by the excellent mini series leading up to it and the decent stories that have come out of it( Secret Six, Shadowpact, 52)

[GhostMachine]

One thing you need to know:

Avoid ANYTHING written by J. Michael Strazynski for Marvel. He may have done great with the Babylon 5 tv series, but his work as a comic writer....for Marvel, anyway......is CRAP!

You're kidding me, right? His run on Spider-Man was one of the best ever, as long as you ignore that Norman Osborne/Gwen Stacy crap.

[Heel Turn]

One thing you need to know:

Avoid ANYTHING written by J. Michael Strazynski for Marvel. He may have done great with the Babylon 5 tv series, but his work as a comic writer....for Marvel, anyway......is CRAP!

You're kidding me, right? His run on Spider-Man was one of the best ever, as long as you ignore that Norman Osborne/Gwen Stacy crap.

[GoGo Yubari]

Well, The Other just didn't do anything for me. But the earlier stuff along those lines happened to be rather interesting.

And I liked Morlun as a villain. Something about Spider-Man facing a guy who is greatly entertained by the banter as opposed to the usual reaction of "goddamn it, shut the hell up already" is very cool.

As far as Civil War goes, it is interesting but I'm not spending any money whatosever on it. I'm still a bit miffed at the utter plot-induced stupidity of the New Warriors thing, though.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

The civil war thing sounded good when I picked up a comic with 'Civil War #1 of 7' on the front, but then I saw a checklist in the back, and to get the whole story, you'd have to have been reading various marvel comics for months, and continue to do so to get the whole thing.

Did buy 'A Man Called Kev', part 1 of a 5 part series. Written by Garth Ennis, which pretty much guarantee's it to be good.

Anyway, let the Spider-man debate continue. I want some good Spidey graphic novels!

EDIT - Oh, Richard Branson has gone into comics now. Virgin Comics

Edited July 14, 2006 by timmayy