Comic Must Reads
 

Whether from a storyline angle or just because it's such a great story, what comic story arcs do you consider the must reads? the best ofs?

These days I'm partial to DC, but I've got a pretty hefty list of picks from just about everybody. Definitely read them if you can find them.

DC:

All-Star Superman
Birthright
Superman for All Seasons
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
For the Man Who Has Everything
Lex Luthor: Man of Steel
For Tomorrow
Red Son
Batman: Year One
The Killing Joke
The Man Who Laughs
The Long Halloween
Hush
Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals (and Gail Simone's current run)
The Flash: Born to Run
Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn
Emerald Twilight
Rebirth
Sinestro Corps
The Legend of Aquaman (laugh all you want, it's actually good)
JLA Year One (and all of Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, and Joe Kelly's runs)
Identity Crisis
The New Frontier
Kingdom Come

Marvel:

Spider-Man: The Death of Captain Stacy
Return of the Goblin
Kraven's Last Hunt
The Hunger
Ultimate Spider-Man: Legacy
Captain America (anything on Ed Brubaker's run)
X-Men: Days of the Future Past
Dark Phoenix Saga
Daredevil: The Man Without Fear
The Punisher: Welcome Back Frank
Marvel Zombies

Vertigo:

Watchmen
Sandman
Fables
Y the Last Man
Transmetropolitan
Preacher

Dark Horse:

Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom
Conqueror Worm
Wake the Devil
Star Wars: Legacy
Aliens: Salvation
Usagi Yojimbo
Concrete

Image:

Invincible (my personal favorite comic at the moment)
Brit
CAPES
The Walking Dead

Other/Don't remember which company they're from:

Miracleman
Supreme: Story of the Year
The Rocketeer
The Lone Ranger (the new version from Top Cow)
Sonic the Hedgehog: Endgame (for a kid's book, this was pretty fucking dark)
The Tick: The Naked City

Didn't you just make this thread a few weeks ago?

I too am partial to DC:

Try out... in no particular order...

Starman v2
The Spectre v3
Animal Man #1-26 (Grant Morrison, weird stuff goes on)
JSA: The Golden Age (Maybe check out All-Star Squadron first)
Gotham Central was pretty good
Batman: Year One
Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: The Killing Joke
The Justice Society Returns
Chase
Martian Manhunter (Don't know which volume, but I think its the one with the most issues)
The New Frontier
Superman: Secret Identity
Superman: Red Son
Superman: Birthright
Superman: Up, Up, and Away (This is an actual story arc, and not a special.)
All-Star Superman
Kingdom Come
Green Lantern: Rebirth
Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War
Young Justice
Checkmate
Suicide Squad

Vertigo:

Pretty much the same recommendations...

Watchmen
Sandman
Fables
Y the Last Man
Swamp Thing (Whichever issues Alan Moore wrote)

Marvel:

I know very little...

Runaways v1 at least
Annihilation (Much better than Civil War and Infinite Crisis, which were going on around the same time)

Others:

Bone. Its fantastic stuff, and you can get the whole series in one volume.

The Onslaught Saga (Mostly X-Men)
Age of Apocalypse (X-Men)
War Games (Batman)
Marvel Zombies

There are hundreds, can't think of any right now thought, and I've just got back from work so can't be bothered to think too much.

reading all of war games now.

Freddy vs Jason vs Ash

which of these should i read?

Avengers Disassembled 2004 Scarlet Witch goes insane and kills or incapacitates the current Avenger-roster, bringing to an end the Avengers as we knew them.

Secret War 2004 - 2005 Nick Fury brainwashes several heroes in secret to start a secret war against Latveria, who he believes has been selling high-tech weaponry to super villains.

Spider-Man: The Other 2005 Spider-Man goes through a mysterious, life changing event after facing the super villain Morlun.

House of M 2005 Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver alter reality, creating a world in which mutants are in charge, resulting in M-day, and the near extinction of their race.
Planet Hulk 2006 Hulk is exiled to a far-off planet of Sakaar by the mysterious Illuminati.

Annihilation 2006 - 2007 Silver Surfer, Super-Skrull, Nova, and Ronan face the Annihilation Wave.

Civil War 2006 - 2007 Heroes are divided when the U.S. government passes the Super-human Registration Act. Captain America seeks freedom, while Iron Man seeks to institute The 50 State Initiative.

Death of Captain America 2007 In the Aftermath of Civil War, Captain America is murdered by henchmen of the Red Skull.

Annihilation: Conquest 2007 - 2008 Nova, Starlord, Wraith, & a new Quasar (Phyla-Vell) lead a group of cosmic heroes against the Phalanx, who threaten to conquer and annihilate all of Kree space.

World War Hulk 2007 The Hulk returns to Earth to exact revenge on those who exiled him.

Endangered Species 2007 Beast searches for a cure to the mutant race's looming extinction.

Messiah Complex 2007 - 2008 The first new mutant since M-Day is suddenly born and the X-Men, Purifiers, and Mr Sinister go after it.

One More Day 2007 - 2008 Spider-Man accepts a devilish choice to rewrite his own history in order to save the greatest love of his life while sacrificing his other great love forever in the process.

Secret Invasion 2008 A stealthy invasion by the Skrull race has gone unnoticed for years, but there is an even more secret purpose behind it.

Haven't read Avengers: Disassembled or Secret War...

Spider-Man: The Other was pretty crappy and they pretty much dropped the whole thing even before they rewrote Spider-Man's reality.

House of M is good. Though it kinda continues off of Avengers Disassembled (But like I said, I didn't read that one and I got this one fine)

Planet Hulk and World War Hulk were good.

Annihilation was amazing. Annihilation Conquest is decent, but not amazing.

Civil War was honestly kinda "meh" as a series, but as an event that effected all the books, it should probably be read.

Captain America stuff is also very good. Read the whole current volume.

Endangered Species was kinda crappy and pointless.

Messiah Complex I actually enjoyed. Might be confusing if you don't know who any of the chcracters are.

One More Day is crappy.

Secret Invasion looks to be Awesome.

Not really one particular story, but I seriously recommend ALL of the Ultimate Spider-Man stuff... the dialogue in those comics is fantastic and makes for some great/entertaining reading. Some issue don't even have any action in them, but the dialogue along will keep you hooked. Amazing stuff. :y:

yeah i like them

loved ultimate spiderman

what of these

Our Worlds at War 2001 Imperiex threatens the universe.
JLA/Avengers 2004 Krona seeks to destroy the universe, and a game by The Grandmaster is put in place.
Identity Crisis 2004 Sue Dibny is mysteriously murdered; the Justice League of America is revealed to have performed "mindwipes" on various supervillains.
Countdown to Infinite Crisis 2004 Consists of the one-shot Countdown to Infinite Crisis and four miniseries which spin out of this comic: Day of Vengeance, in which Shadowpact is formed to defend magic from the Spectre; Rann-Thanagar War; Villains United, in which the Secret Six is formed to fight the Secret Society of Supervillains; and The OMAC Project, in which Batman's mistrust of his fellow heroes leads to the creation of an army of cyborgs.
Infinite Crisis 2005 Kal-L, the Superman of Earth-Two, and several other characters return to attempt to change the universe for the better. History is altered at the end of the series.
52 2006 The "missing year" between Infinite Crisis & One Year Later where the world is without Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The series establishes the existence of a new Multiverse.
One Year Later 2006 All DC comics jump forward in time to one year after the end of Infinite Crisis. Diana has a secret identity of Diana Prince and reclaims the Wonder Woman mantle, Bruce Wayne resumes as Batman, and Clark Kent gets his powers back and returns as Superman.
Amazons Attack 2007 Lead up with Wonder Woman v3 #6-8, Circe manipulates the Department of Metahuman Affairs and the Amazons after bringing Queen Hippolyta, Wonder Woman's mother, back from the dead that leads the Amazons to fight America and the country's heroes. The only way Wonder Woman could end this war, besides defeating Circe, is fighting her own mother.
Sinestro Corps War 2007 The Sinestro Corps gather strength by freeing Superboy-Prime and reactivating Warworld.
Countdown (to Final Crisis) 2007 A new weekly series that started a week following the end of 52, Countdown acts as the "spine" to the DC Universe that, as the name suggests, counts down to a new event for 2008. The series crosses over with certain titles and deals with Jimmy Olsen getting super powers, Mary Marvel trying to get her powers back, and a plot with the Monitors that involves the new Multiverse and the three characters that were supposed to die in Infinite Crisis: Jason Todd, Donna Troy, & Kyle Rayner.
Final Crisis 2008 The upcoming event coming at the conclusion of Countdown. Starts May 2008.
Trinity 2008 A third weekly series starting in June, starring Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. It is set aside from events in the DC Universe as 52 was.

Our Worlds at War: It was decent enough.

JLA/Avengers: Pretty good. Probably the best DC/Marvel crossover that I've read

Identity Crisis: It was alright.

Day of Vengeance: I liked it.

Rann-Thanagar War: Pretty crappy.

Villains United: I liked it.

The OMAC Project: I liked it. The best of the four minis, if you read one, make it this one.

Infinite Crisis: I liked it good enough. You pretty much have to read Crisis on Infinite Earths first though.

52: This was pretty good as well.

One Year Later: This wasn't really an event, but more of an "easy jumping on point" for any series you'd want to read. By far the best One Year Later story was in the Superman comics. Basically he spent the missing year without powers, and now he gets them back and "Superman Returns". In fact, the plot is much like the plot of Superman Returns, only instead of trying to do evil real estate with the kryptonian crystals, Luthor tries to destory Metropolis and Superman.

Amazons Attack: Not horrible, but just "meh".

Sinestro Corps War: This was absolute awesome. Read it. But read Green Lantern: Rebirth first.

Countdown (to Final Crisis): Still haven't finished reading this, but it has been pretty damn crappy. 52 as a weekly series was pretty good, this as a weekly series mostly fell flat.

Final Crisis: First issue comes out in a few weeks, but it looks promising.

Trinity: Not out yet, but I guess it could go either the 52 way or the Countdown way.

God Countdown was god awful.


Yeah but pretty much recommend everything that's been mentioned.

Out of all of those, Identity Crisis is by far my favorite. It doesn't have a whole lot by way of big-fight action that you usually see in those kinds of events, but it's got an awesome story.

Countdown and Amazons Attack are hideous. Avoid them like the plague.

I loved Annihilation. I don't usually go for "cosmic" stories but I heard great things and was not disappointed.

I didn't dig Identity Crisis that much.

I think for all the criticism Bendis gets from people, it's stuff like USM (and his Daredevil run) which kind of redeems him.

Just have to wonder how much longer he can manage to churn out USM, two Avengers books, Powers and whatever minis Marvel get him to work on...

Ed Brubaker FTW

Punisher MAX by Garth Ennis is awesome.

Watchmen. Even if you've never read a single fucking comic in your life, Watchmen.

read watchmen

why would you bump that?


also with green lantern's powers and his apparent conservative leanings (as seen in green arrow and green lantern) why doesn't he just go back to 9/11 and stop the terrorist attacks and anytime a crime is commited just go back in time and stop it ala minority report. I think it'd make for a great retelling at least.

Green Lantern can't go back in time... and I don't think 9/11 ever happened in the DC Universe. Although obviously they are going to draw the WTC as not there now.

In Ex Machina, which is also a brilliant series, one of the planes was stopped and thus one of the towers still stands.

Plus going back in time opens up a whole can of worms of time paradoxes and stuff. Actually, for time travel heroes stuff, see the current Booster Gold, which is excellent.

I thought green lantern could travel faster than the speed of light and according to superman's continuity he could therefore go back in time by simply flying around the earth backwards or something.

I've read red son and Demon in a bottle

Is secret wars really that awesome? because I was just gonna start with planet hulk otherwise.

*shrug* Superman doesn't go back in time anymore either. His whole back-in time thing ended after the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

when does the next secret invasion come out?

The current Captain America is mindblowing. Thor is also very good at the moment

I will attempt them both once I have finished what I am currently reading which is

War Crimes
long halloween
Planet Hulk
anihilation
civil war
the death of captain america
World War hulk

The whole fly-around-the-world-backwards thing was something they made up for the first Christopher Reeve movie. It counts in the movie continuity, but not in the comics.

For a while pre-Crisis, there were a couple of guys (mostly the Flash and occasionally Superman--I'm not sure if GL ever did it) who could do go back in time by going faster than the speed of light, according to a loose interpretation of Einstein's theory. Once the Crisis retconned everything, one of the big limitations was tacking on the other part of Einstein's theory--namely the part that says it's impossible to go faster than the speed of light. So from that point on, time-travel was limited to people who specifically have a time-travel gimmick (Booster Gold, Rip Hunter, etc)

i know this is a unreliable source

but wikipedia lists one of GL's powers as time travel

"The Twelve" coming out from Marvel right now is pretty amazing. About 12 heroes from WWII who find themselves in the present day world overnight (Well... over 60 years).

Oh yeah Fryza is right! Totally forgot about "Marvels".

I also echo the recommendation of Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth.

I finally managed to get my hands on it, and it is mind blowingly good. Its so dark. There's so much interesting symbolism and character bits in it. Two Face was wonderful as was the interpretation of The Joker.

ok I am really loving War crimes/ games/ drums whatever right now.

here:
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...arths5/war.jpg

In order for me to read these you guys are gonna have to give me reasons like a few of you have. Booster Gold, Arkham Asylum, The Twelve, Ex Machina (i keep forgetting), are now on my list

I'm big on Vertigo. So I've read a lot of that stuff. Love it. Anything that's a little more gritty dark and real I love.

Is there anything where super heroes with MAX content? I mean not just the max label but batman getting really pissed and being really really uber violent and disgusting or saying fuck or something? just wondering.

Find Batman issue 666. Bloodfest par excelance

If you're gonna check out Booster Gold, it kind of continues directly off of 52, so you may or may not want to check that out too.

I started reading 52 a while back but didn't really get what was going on. Can someone give me a lead in to that?

Just got back from the comic store. Picked up:

Daredevil: Hell to Pay Vol.2 by Ed Brubaker
Catwoman vol.3: Relentless by Ed Brubaker
Blue Beetle vol.3: Reach for the Stars by John Rogers
Ultimate Spiderman Vol. 19: Death of a Goblin by Brian Michael Bendis
Secret Invasion #2 of 8


WOOOOOOOO Comics. Prolly shouldn't have bought those since I still have a ton to read but oh well.

secret invasion 2 is out!!!!!

oh snap

should i read mighty avengers 12 and new avengers 40 before i read this?

actually should I read all this

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="tone_2_pad">01 The New Avengers 31</td><td class="tone_2_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_3_pad">02 The New Avengers 32</td><td class="tone_3_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_2_pad">03 Illuminati 05</td><td class="tone_2_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_3_pad">04 Avengers - The Initiative Annual 01</td><td class="tone_3_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_2_pad">05 Mighty Avengers 07</td><td class="tone_2_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_3_pad">06 Captain Marvel 04</td><td class="tone_3_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_2_pad">07 The New Avengers 38</td><td class="tone_2_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_3_pad">08 Captain Marvel 05</td><td class="tone_3_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_2_pad">09 Ms. Marvel 25</td><td class="tone_2_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_3_pad">10 The New Avengers 39</td><td class="tone_3_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_2_pad">11 Secret Invasion Saga</td><td class="tone_2_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_3_pad">12 Secret Invasion Prologue</td><td class="tone_3_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_2_pad">13 Secret Invasion 01</td><td class="tone_2_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_3_pad">14 Mighty Avengers 12</td><td class="tone_3_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_2_pad">15 New Avengers 40</td><td class="tone_2_pad" align="right">
</td></tr><tr><td class="tone_3_pad">16 Secret_Invasion 02</td></tr></tbody></table>

I primarily stuff in trades so I've yet to read any Mighty Avengers or the latest New Avengers. But I'm following Secret INvasion just fine.

Well, it happens right after Infinite Crisis. Which is why they are all cleaning up wreckage at the beginning, and why Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are not in it... and all the people in space comes from the Rann-Thanagar War... but you don't really need to read either of them to get the story. You just need to know that there was a big crisis and some people got stuck in space.

Ralph Dibney's stuff continues off of Identity Crisis and what happened to him there... Which if you know, is pretty self-explanatory.

Renee Montoya is coming out of Gotham Central, but again you don't really need to read it. You just need to know that she is no longer a cop and is a drunken angry lesbian.

And Black Adam was previously a member of the JSA but left to liberate Kahndaq and became its new dictator who has a zero tolerance policy against crime.

Really, 52 can be read with no lead in at all, though.

spoiler picture warning


http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...etinvasion.jpg

Yeah just read it. Action issue primarily. Good stuff though. Shit hits the fan at the end.
Good stuff with Ronin/Hawkeye and Mockingbird. Can't wait for #3.

Rising Stars as well. Brilliant but under appreciated series.

STARMAN

INDEED

Alright guys, here's what I've got on the computer atm.

Annihilation Conquest
Avengers: The Inititive
Illuminati
Secret Invasion
Secret War
What If: Planet Hulk
World War Hulk
The Avengers; New Avengers, New Avengers Illuminati, The Mighty Avengers

+ I believe I have most of The Ultimate Universe on my portable hardrive, along with the original Punisher series, Some of the Deadpool series, and a couple of others (not sure though)

If anyone wants to give me a couple of must read series I'll start dl'n them tonight, then move onto some others. So any help would be greatly appreciated :y:

oh and in relation to that last pic :love: Ares

Batman? Not really; one of the great ironies about DC is that Batman, the guy most people think of as the "bad" superhero, has by far the strictest no-kill policy of anyone. Bats hasn't killed anyone since getting his own label in 1940 (not counting the movies) If you're looking for him just acting "gritty," there's Frank Miller's All-Star Batman, but to be perfectly honest, it's godawful.

If you're into Vertigo, though, I'd highly recommend Sandman Mystery Theater--particularly the 'Sleep of Reason' arc. Also check out DMZ.

The splash pages in secret invasion 2, should be in galleries.

Yeah, Sandman Mystery Theatre was awesome too. Don't check out Sleep of Reason, though, check out the original series.

I've read everything Sandman (got a huge torrent file bout two years ago) and read those loved em. Gonna read some more DMZ

and not neccesarily just batman. But I don't know why I asked that question I don't really care now.

Has he ever killed anyone on accident? and when will that be a storyline?

There's a scene in The Dark Knight Returns where the Joker breaks his own neck, framing Batman for killing him. And there have been a couple of times where Bats has lost it to the point of almost doing it himself (once in Death in the Family and again in Hush) I'm sure there are a couple of villains here and there who may have accidentally killed themselves while fighting him, but I can't think of any specific examples.

Superman's killed a couple of times, and Wonder Woman isn't above it. But Batman will usually go out of his way to make sure he doesn't kill his villains.

In the very beginning, batman had a gun, and would shoot crooks dead. And he'd make witty quips while doing it.

Those were the days.

Yeah I forgot about Joker in DKR

I don't know why I thought of this, but there was one issue on Superman (or Action Comics or whatever) in the 90s where The Joker had poisoned Lois Lane and claimed that the antidote could only be obtained by killing him, when in fact the poison would just make Lois' health go downwards, appear dead, and then come back to life just fine. Joker just wanted Superman to break his code against killing, when it was absolutely unnecessary.

After finding out this, Superman's just like "That's... that's INSANE!" and Batman was like "I'm Batman." and Joker was all "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!"

That was a hell of an arc. I miss that kind of Joker; the version they have now (or versions, since apparently nobody at DC can agree on how he's supposed to act) really doesn't do it for me.

Freddy vs Jason vs Ash

Happy now D-Mac

He's gonna come to blockbuster and kick your ass in the bathroom now.

who's gonna be laughing then?

not him.. he doesn't laugh.

Clearly you haven't read the Killing Joke.

Reading Thanos 7 right now really digging the art this is where all the shit begins for annihilation