Friday, September 11, 2009

Comic books I found on my own

There are lots of great comic books out there. I've been a fan for years. I've read most of the best, or what most people consider to be the best. I've seen many lists of "Best Comic Stories Ever", best graphic novels, "Best Spider-Man or Batman Stories", lists which often times I used to develop my own reading list. So basically, most things, and I guess it goes for books and movies as well, I read because someone else said it was good. So when you happen about something you discover for yourself, you take a little ownership in it, and like it even a little more. And this is also connected to the previous post, you go into it with no expectation or idea of what may happen.
So here is my list of favorite comics I found on my own. Obviously things like Watchmen and Batman: Year One won't be on the list.

Inhumans - I can't believe this isn't more popular. I'm talking about the Marvel Knights 12 issues series. Great writing, amazing art. It humanized the Inhumans, created a new group of characters, and new dimensions for existing characters. One of my all-time favorites, pick it up if you got the chance.

Nightcrawler - 2002 Icons miniseries - A pretty simple, non-superhero story about the international slave trade. Pretty wild. Also lots of great stuff about Nightcrawler being a Roman Catholic Priest. Good stuff.

Daredevil #268 -
Just look at the cover. Man, Daredevil should be in a wife beater holding a bottle of Jim Beam. And the story was pretty great too, a simple stand alone story about a child murderer. Grimey, tells a lot about the character and where he is at the time.

Fantastic Four #276,277 - Part of the great John Byrne run I mentioned in the previous post. This short two issue story arc is often overlooked. It's about witches and hell, and 277 has this great double, simultaneous story with Reed and Sue trying to free Franklin from Hell and Johnny and Ben meeting after Johnny and Alicia got together. It is great stuff for FF fans, Great stuff!

Fantastic Four: Unthinkable - issues 67-70 of the third series, right where it resumes the old numbering, if that makes sense. Great Dr. Doom story. Shedding new light on a 40 -year old character and the FF as a family.

JLA #43-46 - "The Tower of Babel" I am not a huge JLA or even DC reader. I picked this up because it was a Ra's Al Ghul story, but it ended up being a great, genius Batman story. Check it out.

Nightwing #30 - I wouldn't say this is a classic, as some of the others are, but it is interesting juxtaposition of Nightwing next to Superman, first because of the obvious Superman/human difference, and second due to the Nightwing/Batman, Superman/Batman dynamic. Good subtle stuff.


There you go, a short list of comics I found on my own, kind of ironic that I am telling you stuff I found on my own and suggesting it to read, so you then can't really discover it and are checking it out because someone told you to.
Anyway, add your own comics/books/movies/athletes you discovered on your own.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Donnie Darko. I saw it the weekend it came out when it was being screened at UWM. Interesting show, strange crowd. There was a big thug with bigger dreads a few rows in front of me talking the whole time. A small guy who looked like your typical TA politely asked him to be quiet. The thug did not take kindly to being shushed, and he turned the next five minutes or so into an extravaganza of intimidation and threats. Small guy went and got the manager, who cooly kicked out the thug.

As it turned out, thug never learned the true history of "Grandma Death."

Lesson learned: Be quiet at the movies. That's my discovery.