Best Marvel comics of the past 10 years

[JD]

I just downloaded the digital comics program for my PSP, and they have alot of the Marvel comics from the past 10 years or so. They have comics from at least 2 or 3 different series each for X-Men, Spider-Man, Hulk, Blade, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Iron Fist, Eternals, Avengers, and Runaways. So I was wondering what some of the best comics for a newcomer would be in those series during that period?

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Joss Whedon on Astonishing X-Men (issues 1-24 plus Giant Size #1), and anything you can find with Spider-Girl (Mayday Parker, not the pretender SGs)are about the only ones I can recommend.

The problem is that around 2000 is when Joey "I hate traditional comics" Q's editorial reign of terror really took off and the 616 MU turned into crap mirroring the Ultimate-verse.

 

[Hound of UIster]

I just downloaded the digital comics program for my PSP, and they have alot of the Marvel comics from the past 10 years or so. They have comics from at least 2 or 3 different series each for X-Men, Spider-Man, Hulk, Blade, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Iron Fist, Eternals, Avengers, and Runaways. So I was wondering what some of the best comics for a newcomer would be in those series during that period?

Grant Morrison's New X-Men 114-154
Bendis's Daredevil 26-50, 56-81
Brubaker's Captain America v5 1-50
Ellis's Thunderbolts 110-121
Millar's Ultimates v1 & v2 & Civil War 1-7
JMS's Thor v3 1-12, 600-603
Fraction's Iron Fist 1-16 & Invincible Iron Man 1-current
Amazing Spider-man 546-current

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Grant Morrison's New X-Men 114-154

Morrison is a frakking hack. Avoid his run like the plague.

Millar's Ultimates v1 & v2

Only if you enjoy (implied) incest and cannibalism. Oh, and let us not forget Cap kicking a man in the face while he's down.

Civil War 1-7

More hackwork. Avoid if you have ANY love or respect for Marvel's characters. I wouldn't use Civil War for toilet paper for fear of offending what I was wiping off with it.

 

[captcalhoun]

Ultimate Spider-Man, The Ultimates and The Ultimates 2, Ultimate Fantastic 4, Ultimate Power, the Ultimate Galactus trilogy, Ultimate Origins.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Ultimate Spider-Man, The Ultimates and The Ultimates 2, Ultimate Fantastic 4, Ultimate Power, the Ultimate Galactus trilogy, Ultimate Origins.

I thought the purpose was to recommend GOOD reading. MAYBE Ult Spidey could count there (they didn't frak that one up too badly). The rest of what you listed is just garbage.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men and Ed Brubaker's Captain America. Speaking just for myself, I never have really cared for the Ultimate line, and from what I have read on-line, the latest Ultimate "event" was so bad that it actually turned a lot of long-time readers away.

 

[byron lomax]

The first "season" of Runaways (issues 1-18) is definitely worth the read. It's a series that takes place in the Marvel universe, but has very little to do with its' popular characters. It's just a great series in its own right, based on a great idea.

Also, I'm not sure if this is available to you, but Peter Milligan's satirical run on X-Force is a good read. He basically portrayed them as a fame-hungry, back-stabbing, totally dysfunctional team that threated to fall apart at least every five minutes.

The early issues of Spider-Man's Tangled Web are pretty great. Enjoyable and imaginative stories free from continuity.

 

[FPAlpha]

Gart Ennis' run on Punisher

Awesome from beginning to the end and what the Punisher is really about and definitely not the watered down mainstream Punisher (plus appearances from Nick Fury how he should be written! )

 

[Starbreaker]

Astonishing X-Men is great. My favorite is probably Cable, though.

 

[JD]

They don't have any of the Ultimate comics, but they do have the Brubaker Cap, and Whedon X-Men, so it sounds like those might be a good place to start. I've actually read a couple of Whedon's Astonishing X-Men (I've been a Whedon fan since I first saw Buffy during it's fourth season), so that I already know I like. Are the Brubaker CAs the ones that lead into Civil War?

 

[Cicero]

^ Civil War takes place about a third of the way through his tenure to date.

I'd recommend X-23: Innocence Lost and (especially) X-23: Target X.

The series are much better than the concept suggests. X-23 is a female near-clone of Wolverine (technically, she's his sister, though all of her DNA is his) created by a program trying to replicate the original Weapon X experiment. It's a much less niche story than it sounds. Her personal struggles - very different from Wolverine's are the heart of the story; hers is the story of a damaged child, not someone resisting a feral nature.

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

GotG if the trade paper back ever comes out

G for Guardians and Galaxy

Reasons : its got muttnik, better known as Cosmo he is a talking dog with the telepathic powers and speaks heavily accented English
Vis eez how you zpeak viff a Eeenglish Accend.

dumbass Marvel canceled GotG to support crap like the Siege

Some other good ones already mentioned Joss Whedon's run on X-Men, J. Michael Straczynski take on the Marvel Gods and Thor vol I to III
also might be worth checking Warren Ellis Ironman Extremis, War Machine looked good, Ms Marvel and IronFist may have taken off as great titles but Marvel did not give the characters full support....the Planet hulk and World War Hulk arc is a good action packed drama with lots of smashing.
Punisher by Garth Ennis is good but not everyone loves him, the story can be a bit psycho.
Ultimates is ok, some love it some hate it, characters can be exaggerated but that's what Ultimate verse is, its a different view from an alternate reality.
That's about it, I would not recommend much else, Marvel has a few gems these past 10 years but it also wrote a lot of flops.
Oh yeah and if you love the obscure cosmic galaxy spanning stuff check out
Annihilation, apart from not having anything to do with Earth its got everything its got invasions, drama, love, wars, Silver Surfer, Skrulls, Kree, the Titan, robot bugs eating galaxies and GALACTUS Yeah that's right the big man who pimps the galaxies themselves, fuck you short stuff being huge is the shit

Anyway if you've read a lot of modern titles I would say don't bother with much more you may go on overload. Go back to basics and download the Classics or Essentials from old giants like Stan Lee, Jim Starlin, Kurt Busiek, Jack Kirby etc

 

[Hound of UIster]

Are the Brubaker CAs the ones that lead into Civil War?

Absolutely not, they mainly deal with Cap and the Winter Soldier character, but the events of Civil War do spin the book into a new direction.

 

[JD]

Anyway if you've read a lot of modern titles I would say don't bother with much more you may go on overload. Go back to basics and download the Classics or Essentials from old giants like Stan Lee, Jim Starlin, Kurt Busiek, Jack Kirby etc

Oh yeah, I definitely plan on checking out as many of the early issues of as many of the series as possible. They even have the old 1940's Captain America comics, which I'm very intrigued by.

 

[Myasishchev]

Grant Morrison's New X-Men.*
Ultimates 1 and 2.
Civil War.

Also, Alias. I don't know if that's <10 years old, but it was pretty good. More recently, and I can't speak for the whole runs, but what I've read of Brubaker's Iron Fist and Pak's Hercules has been really entertaining, especially Hercules, which reminds me very much of Giffen and DeMatteis' Justice League in tone and style. It's not quite at that level, but it's excellent fun.

Someone mentioned Iron Man Extremis, which is good, and might seem very cool--if you'd never read a Warren Ellis comic before. It hits virtually every note Warren Ellis hits in everything else he's done since Transmet. "DMT is good for you!" We know, Warren. We've known since the Doctor told us ten or fifteen years ago in fucking StormWatch. And the antagonist is no Mandarin, just the same boring Tim McVeigh-clone Ellis uses when he can't think of especially interesting motivations or characterization.

Everyone apparently loves Simone's Deadpool, although I confess I've never read more than a page or two I've seen on the Internet.

*Actually, it's a neat run, but this is pretty skippable, especially once Magneto bites it again. Skippable like every X-Men comic published since X-Men #3, lo so many years ago.

 

[Trent Roman]

Not sure of the timeframe, but borrowing a friends' collection of the "Exiles" run is what got me interested in comics. I'd highly recommend them. (Don't bother with "New Exiles"... I still have no idea how they managed to write something simultaneously over-explicated and confusing as all hell).

Planet Hulk, and the Incredible Hercules that spun from it.

Avengers: the Initiative is a title I've enjoyed, but it relies a lot on the big events in the universe.

The most recent X-Force is another series with consistently good story and art.

X-Factor is generally strong (barring a few rough patches here and there), and it's written by Peter David, whose Trek work I know you like.

Ultimate Spider-Man is an excellent reinvention of the mythology. Be sure to bail out before the astonishing crapfest that is Ultimatum.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Mr Light]

I've really been getting into Marvel comics the past few years. I've been enjoying all of the various Civil War - World War Hulk - Secret Invasion - Dark Reign - Siege stuff. It really is one massive single story spread out over ?8? years. Joss' Astonishing X-Men run was excellent. I think the ones I look forward to the most are the various Bendis Avengers titles (New, Mighty, Dark, Initiative...).

 

[CaptainCanada]

Incredible Hercules - the whole series, but it you were just going to read one it would be "Sacred Invasion", the best event tie-in ever.

Ed Brubaker's Captain America and Daredevil

Brubaker/Fraction Immortal Iron Fist

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I haven't read many of the recent comics, but some I have enjoyed.

The Planet Hulk/World War Hulk story arc.

The Civil War story arc

The new volume of Marvel Team-Up centered around Spider-Man

The new run of Thor

They started in the 90's but Busiek's run on the Avengers and Jurgens run on Thor.

Avengers/Thunderbolts crossover

Marvel: The End(Last three issues only, the first three are pure derivative Starlin).