The Comic Book Thread (spoilers)

[=BK=]

This is the start of the description of Justice League United:Futures End that just came out

In the concluding chapter of the epic story that began in this month’s JUSTICE LEAGUE: FUTURES END #1

Began in Justice League:Futures End? Justice League:Futures End doesn't come out till next week. Did they just release these backwards or am I missing something?

Edited September 13, 2014 by Kirkland

[Johnny Latino Heat]

Justice League 3000 will be getting some Blue and Gold, pre-New 52 style (somewhat).

I'm up for it. Loved those guys.

[Benjamin]

Has anyone read Maus? I kinda' want to read it, but am scared it'll be too sad.

[Skummy]

It's very sad, but it's brilliant, an absolute classic.

[Colly]

Still doing my Marvel marathon and my current conclusion is Ant-man is terrible. To start with he's a dick, but otherwise its so inconsistent (sometimes he's only as strong as his normal size and sometimes he isn't, he has a secret identity but he appears unmasked in front of people regularly) and he's never actually in any peril, he just grows and shrinks half a dozen times then wins. Thankfully he gets dropped shortly.

[ZJ Penn]

Yeah he's awful. I'm around 1970 in my read through and the Avengers is pretty shitty at the moment with Ant Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket and Goliath II. That said Ultron is great and I was surprised the character was that old.

Also Marvel Unlimited stops running Daredevil from #56 for a good few years worth of issues. Just in time to avoid showing you his unmasking

[Jimmy]

Finally reading Whedon's run on X-Men. So good.

[HailtotheYo]

Ditko's art is still one of my early era favorites.

Hey guys, my non-Astro City DC Comics ban is over.

^ This got me thinking ..... I think I've got #1 from the original series. Gonna have to look.

[Jimmy]

Finished Whedon's run. Oh man, I enjoyed that. Is the rest of it worth reading after he's gone?

Also,

Kitty

[TKz]

It's written by Warren Ellis, so yeah, it's a pretty good read. I wasn't keen on the art at all, though.

If you're looking for something X-Men to read, I'd suggest picking up Uncanny X-Force. Arguably the greatest X-Book of the decade.

[HailtotheYo]

Uncanny X-Force was fucking great. GREAT.

[GhostMachine]

How is the All-New Invaders series, if anyone's been reading it?

[Johnny Latino Heat]

I'm liking it so far. The first story was good, the Original Sin wasn't bad and the current story has potential. It's very Human Torch-centric, so if you like Jim Hammond, you'll probably like the series as well.

[Avenged Probably]

I'll second Uncanny X-Force. My favourite X-Men run ever (Whedon's was until I read it).

Messiah Complex and Second coming are both pretty good events that fill that gap between those runs though.

[TKz]

How is the All-New Invaders series, if anyone's been reading it?

I have the first 7 or so issues, it's okay. I don't think it's anything too special, but then I think a big part of the appeal of those characters teaming for me was the setting. Which was usually WW2, so it all feels a bit bland in the modern day.

[Jimmy]

As I'd never considered it as much before, I'd love for more suggestions for specific Marvel runs. I've read a lot of Spiderman, so probably not that. But I loved Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men, I'll read the rest soon. And I'll also do Uncanny X-Force. But yeah any suggestions on any of the other Marvel stuff would be great!

[TKz]

What're you looking for, any heroes in particular? Me and the Mrs. have pretty much devoted ourselves to reading everything Marvel has put out in the last decade, so I could probably find a few decent suggestions based on heroes.

Except Dr. Strange. Don't ask for Dr. Strange, because I know you will Jimmy and sadly they've barely focused on him in a solo capacity for ages. >_>

[Jimmy]

Well, obviously Dr. Strange. So get suggesting

Uh, The Avengers, Captain America, Thor, Deadpool, Moon Knight, Silver Surfer and anything in general you really like. I'd also quite like to do one big event or something, like Civil War or House of M, but better.

[TKz]

Oh fuck me man, I don't know if there's a TPB of the current run of Moon Knight by Warren Ellis, but if there is, GET THAT SHIT. It's probably one of the best comics running today. (I checked, there is) Definitely check that out man, it's just amazing, some gorgeous art and an amazing take on the character.

Captain America, it's got to be the run by Ed Brubaker. It's what Winter Soldier was based on and the story gets even better. It's pretty cheap on amazon and arguably one of the best runs of all time.

For Thor, you're going to want to check out the current run by Jason Aaron, Thor: God of Thunder, The God Butcher story specifically. It follows Thor in the current day, Thor as a young man before he was worthy and Old Thor, thousands of years after the death of earth. Godbutcher is the start of the run, so it's a great jumping on point. Pretty much everything I list in this post will be jumping on points for the characters, because it's all based on certain runs.

For Avengers, there's three really good Avengers comics going on right now. If you check out Uncanny X-Force and love it, you should definitely pick up Uncanny Avengers, which is a direct follow on from X-Force in a lot of ways and features the X-Men and Avengers forming a new Avengers squad - The Unity Group - and naturally, it's utter chaos. Also features The Red Skull as a villain who steals the brain of Charles Xavier. Yeah.

If you want to jump into Avengers before checking out Uncanny X-Force, go for the current run of Avengers with Johnathon Hickman in charge. It's fantastic and some seriously great sci-fi stuff. If you like that, you should also check out New Avengers, also by Johnathon Hickman. This one might appeal more to your tastes as it features Doctor Strange and is basically the story of the Illuminati going fairly dark side to save the world. Stars Iron Man, Black Panther, Namor, Beast, Dr. Strange, Black Bolt and Mr. Fantastic. You can read either without reading the other, but they compliment one another pretty well despite that.

I'm not a big Deadpool fan myself, I think he works better in a team than on his own. Mrs. TKz quite likes his current run by Gerry Duggan. Personally, I prefer him in a team... like Uncanny X-Force, if you get what I'm saying Jimmy. He also shows up in the current run of Thunderbolts, but there's like four books of boring stuff before that gets entertaining, I'd give it a miss unless your hurting for more Deadpool.

Silver Surfer, again, I'm not a big fan of him solo, I especially don't like his current book which reads like a Dr. Who fanfic (probably because Dan Slott is a huge Dr. Who nerd, though I excuse that because he's an amazing writer and his Amazing Spider-Man run is great), but he did have one great story I read called Silver Surfer: Requiem, so that's worth checking out. But if you want some Silver Surfer fun, you should check out the next paragraph...

As for big crossovers, it really depends what you want from them. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest the same thing I suggest every damn time, though. Fuck the Earth Heroes if you want a proper great crossover, you need to read Annihilation and all the cosmic Marvel Crossovers. Now I realize that's quite an expensive crossover, but it features the main roles of Guardians of the Galaxy (and their in comic formation), Nova (who's awesome), Silver Surfer, Ronan the Accuser, Thanos, Galactus and so many other great characters.

If you don't want to spend £40 on it, I understand, in which case you should just torrent the entire crossover. You can find it on most sites, usually as "6 Marvel Cosmic", which covers everything from Annihilation through Thanos Imperative. Which also features a pretty great Ultron story, so you know, that'll be nice too.

Otherwise, for crossovers outside of Civil War or House of M, you could check out Infinity which'll give you a taste of Hickman and his glory. Otherwise, in terms of crossovers, there's not been that many high profile ones that're really all that great. Personally I quite liked Siege, but that's a bit wasted if you've never read any of the "Dark Reign" stuff that's not really a crossover. If you just stick to the main story and ignore tie ins, Avengers Vs. X-Men is pretty fun. Really sets up the Marvel World for any of the titles listed above that take place afterwards, like Thor, Avengers and so on.

As you can tell, it's a slow day at work.

[Jimmy]

Sweet, that's very handy. I've started by trying to continue with Astonishing X-Men, but I really don't like the change in art for Ellis' run. It's also quite noticeably different from Whedon's, which I'd obviously grown fond of. Will see what I think, but pretty intrigued by X-Force now.