Comic Books Need Help
- Thread starter clint g
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^I agree with that. That's how I get 90% of my comic fix.
I'll recommend Prelude to Planet Hulk, Planet Hulk (which is an absolutely fantastic Trade) and then the 7 or 8 World War Hulk trades. Besides the main World War Hulk trade, I 'd recommend WWH:Gamma Corps and WWH:X-men (aka Marvel Universe). I also like the continuation of the story in The Incredible Hercules (the main Hulk comics was changed from The Incredible Hulk to The Incredible Hercules). I think there are two or three trades in Incredible Hercules.
Here's a link to an Amazon list containing most of the related material.
I myself didn't like Heroes for Hire or Frontline that much but the whole arc is great - it's very enjoyable reading.
I'll recommend Prelude to Planet Hulk, Planet Hulk (which is an absolutely fantastic Trade) and then the 7 or 8 World War Hulk trades. Besides the main World War Hulk trade, I 'd recommend WWH:Gamma Corps and WWH:X-men (aka Marvel Universe). I also like the continuation of the story in The Incredible Hercules (the main Hulk comics was changed from The Incredible Hulk to The Incredible Hercules). I think there are two or three trades in Incredible Hercules.
Here's a link to an Amazon list containing most of the related material.
I myself didn't like Heroes for Hire or Frontline that much but the whole arc is great - it's very enjoyable reading.
SI was Superheroes and Skrulls beating each other up with almost no plot development for 8 issues straight. And then the Skrulls lost somehow...
Out of House of M, Civil War, Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis, Secret Invasion for me ranks as the worst of the bunch by a large margin.
I'd recommend X-Men: First Class as one to check out if you don't care if the series is still ongoing. It's got a great sense of humor, and it's fun to see the classic team in modern times.
I'm looking forward to the Blackest Night event this summer. The background in the free #0 issue was enough to intrigue me, and the number of tie-ins is not too high.
I'm looking forward to the Blackest Night event this summer. The background in the free #0 issue was enough to intrigue me, and the number of tie-ins is not too high.
I'll echo than Final Crisis was incoherent and, even worse, derivative nonsense. Remember Grant Morrison's awesome JLA run? Remember "Rock of Ages"? It's like that. Remember "World War III"? Oh, yeah, it's like that too. Except it's not as good as either. Just buy those trades.
And as for its incoherence, it makes less sense than the Invisibles or the Filth, with little of the entertainment value of those series.
Maybe it's because I didn't read Seven Soldiers or Countdown?
Even so, I'm sure it's not tremendously cogent on its own terms.
Now, I liked Infinite Crisis. It had its flaws, and suffered from compression into 7 issues (how come the far less complex, and indeed far less good Crisis on Infinite Earths got 12 issues, and IC only 7?).
Civil War in and of itself was good, with the biggest criticism I can make being Tony Stark and Reed Richards turning into more and more mustache-twirling Snidley Whiplashes as the series went on. I gather they fucked up everything in the aftermath, however.
Sinestro Corps is supposed to be awesome, and yet I have read none of it. I feel as if I am missing out.
And as for its incoherence, it makes less sense than the Invisibles or the Filth, with little of the entertainment value of those series.
Maybe it's because I didn't read Seven Soldiers or Countdown?
Even so, I'm sure it's not tremendously cogent on its own terms.Now, I liked Infinite Crisis. It had its flaws, and suffered from compression into 7 issues (how come the far less complex, and indeed far less good Crisis on Infinite Earths got 12 issues, and IC only 7?).
Civil War in and of itself was good, with the biggest criticism I can make being Tony Stark and Reed Richards turning into more and more mustache-twirling Snidley Whiplashes as the series went on. I gather they fucked up everything in the aftermath, however.
Sinestro Corps is supposed to be awesome, and yet I have read none of it. I feel as if I am missing out.
Im gladly willing to check anything out
The main reason why I'm looking at more recent marvel comics is because they are easy to come by and I figure since there are easily obtained collections out there, it would serve as a decent jumping in point. Any and all suggestions are welcome though
Well, given that you know my tastes from that anime thread - I thought I'd recommend the old volumes of Spider-man Loves Mary Jane (McKeever) and Runaways (Vaughn) and also Young Avengers (Heinberg).
The first doesn't fit into the continuity in any way at all and the focus is primarily on teen angst than on any superhero stuff. It's the weird love triangle with two characters dealie that is the hallmark of Superman.
The other two do peripherally fit into the greater Marvel continuity - they sort of took part in the Civil War - but they feel mostly self contained as well.
In retrospect, these are probably the closest superhero comic book equivalents to shounen manga, with the last two having a bit of shoujo-ai and shounen-ai thrown in respectively.
Oh yeah, almost forgot X-men: First Class. It's good if you want to get into X-men without any continuity bogging you down.
I'd recommend this as well (although I guess my stance is softer on Marvel/DC now than it was maybe a year or so ago). Scott Pilgrim is probably the closest equivalent to American (or Canadian to be precise) manga that exists today - to the point where it's only printed in manga form (no single issues).
I could probably recommend so many indie books it'd make collecting an entire run of a manga series seem simple.
Eh, I was never as big a fan of that as many. After the first arc, it rapidly spiralled into really irrelevant stuff, including doing serious damage to Professor X (Whedon, for all his talent, can't portray male parental figures with any variation); I did love the start of "Torn", the third arc, though.
I concur. Great, great book. Immortal Iron Fist is also wonderful, and so is the current Exiles. Deadpool, Thor, Punisher and Secret Warriors are also winners.
I'd recommend DEAD-POOL classics volume one & two!
Civil War was thematically inconsistent with all of Marvel history. Marvel has always used prejudice against superpowered individuals as allegory and metaphor for prejudice against real world minorities, and registration of such individuals has always been presented as equivilant to registration of Jews under the Nazi regime, a represenhible thing one step removed from genocide.
For Marvel then to do what it did in Civil War is equivilant for Joe Q and Mark Miller to create a comic book retelling of WWII in which the Nazis are misunderstood heroic protagnists fighting for the greater good of humanity.
Many other writers understood this, as a result the vast majority of the Civil War tie-ins are decidedly anti-registration, and present the pro-registration side as evil Nazi analogs who all deserve horrific death. This results in heavy morality whiplash, as how evil one side or the other is depends entirely on who is writing the issue.
Either Captain America is a dangerous insane anarchist who doesn't watch Nascar and Iron Man is visionary prophet leading mankind into a golden age or Iron Man is a villainous megalomaniac on such a scale as to make Hitler look like a saint by comparison and Captain America is a paragon embodying the ideals enshried in the Constitution, ideals that countless soldiers fought and died for, ideals that Dr. King died for. Freedom, Equality, Justice.
The extreme inconsistantcy of it all made Civil War very headace inducing. It was also incredibly controversial and stirred up sales. As a general rule, the more people hate something the more it sells, so it's better for the business to write polarizing charater-assasinations that everyone will hate than it is for them to write good quality stories that make sense. At least, that's the case in the short term.
For Marvel then to do what it did in Civil War is equivilant for Joe Q and Mark Miller to create a comic book retelling of WWII in which the Nazis are misunderstood heroic protagnists fighting for the greater good of humanity.
Many other writers understood this, as a result the vast majority of the Civil War tie-ins are decidedly anti-registration, and present the pro-registration side as evil Nazi analogs who all deserve horrific death. This results in heavy morality whiplash, as how evil one side or the other is depends entirely on who is writing the issue.
Either Captain America is a dangerous insane anarchist who doesn't watch Nascar and Iron Man is visionary prophet leading mankind into a golden age or Iron Man is a villainous megalomaniac on such a scale as to make Hitler look like a saint by comparison and Captain America is a paragon embodying the ideals enshried in the Constitution, ideals that countless soldiers fought and died for, ideals that Dr. King died for. Freedom, Equality, Justice.
The extreme inconsistantcy of it all made Civil War very headace inducing. It was also incredibly controversial and stirred up sales. As a general rule, the more people hate something the more it sells, so it's better for the business to write polarizing charater-assasinations that everyone will hate than it is for them to write good quality stories that make sense. At least, that's the case in the short term.
I used to collect about 40 titles a month, but I gave up comics cold turkey not long after DC One Million. I finally realized that I could write all of it myself - and probably do a better job, in a lot of cases - and it would be just as valid. Comic book series, with few exceptions, are soap operas for guys - with just about as much thought and care put into the writing, it seems. What I have been told about recent events related to Spider-Man and the golden age Superman has done nothing to change my opinion. I almost wanted to read the Sinestro Corp issues - but what I've heard about what is going on in Green Lantern since then makes me glad I didn't give in. Even when you get a good writer or writers for a run, it isn't long before they get replaced, or it turns out they only had one really good idea and no idea what to follow it with.
One comic series I have picked up recently is the Buffy Season 8 run. The idea that tv series creators can use the comic medium to finish out what they had planned when their series gets prematurely cancelled is one use of comics that still has my interest.
One comic series I have picked up recently is the Buffy Season 8 run. The idea that tv series creators can use the comic medium to finish out what they had planned when their series gets prematurely cancelled is one use of comics that still has my interest.
Precisely why I left ''mainstream'' comics!
As die-hard of a DC fan I am, I have to disagree. I recently started reading Nova with the first trade and am loving it! I didn't read the Annihilation War "event" that lead to the new series, but I heard it is awesome and I intend to pick up the three trades that cover it.
I found Nova to be fairly accessible to someone who had very little idea of who he was. The second and third issues deal with the Civil War fall-out, but since Nova was in space during it, it's all explained to him without coming off as useless exposition. Then, the rest of the trade is an adventure in space that is pretty kick ass (only surpassed by the issues after it in the next trade).
I haven't read the sequel to Annihilation War, Annihilation: Conquest, yet, but the issues of Nova lead into it. I mention it, because in checking, it appears that while the first Nova trade covers issues #1-7, the second Annihilation: Conquest trade has, among other series related to it, Nova issues 4-7, bypassing the Civil war related stuff.
What's your problem with the current run on GL? It's been fantastic, for the most part (the long stretch in 2008 that they spent on an update of Hal's origin was rather dull).
I've only read some of the Civil War tie-ins but I didn't find the tone as radically different as I'd heard. About the worst thing I can think of is Iron Man in ASM telling Spidey that the anti-reg heroes will be put the Negative Zone indefinitely until they sign. But it was also in ASM (which I just read yesterday by coincidence!) that shows Iron Man being browbeat by warhawk politicians looking for harsher regulation and this is BEFORE Stamford.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
I can think of a LOT of trades we were promised that never materialized.
Basically, the only things I see traded are key arcs of the "big books" (Avengers, Spider-Man, some X-Men).
No, Marvel trades everything. Every issue of every ongoing title being published, miniseries, generally they group one-shots together by "theme" or stick them in some related collection.
If you're referring to going back and collecting old comics, that's more haphazard, obviously, based on what demand there is for them.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
All this started with Ultimates, which Joey Q has publicly said that he feels is the superior Marvel universe (being "relevent" and "edgy" as opposed to "stale" and "confusing" [re 616 Marvel]).
For every new reader they bring in with this tripe, I submit they LOSE at least one reader, ususally Old School fans. That's why sales are in the crapper, compared to 15 years ago (even if you allow for the "bubble" that hadn't burst yet).
