Of the major comics, which is a good series to pick up now?

[Jakub]

(majors: ie, recognizable characters. Spider-Man, Superman, X-Men, Iron Man.)

[Chris]

I would go to a local comic book store and pick up a trade paperback or two of a character you are interested in. Marvel has been putting out collections of most of their major characters, especially their movie properties. Most of Marvel's series are now written in 4-6 issue story arcs which is usually collected within a few months of the stories completion.

Anyway, try one of the Amazing Spider-Man collections written by J. Michael Straczynski or the Ultimate Spider-Man books by Brian Michael Bendis.

[Bub, Andrew]

Bruce Jones on The Hulk. Start with this TPB
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0785110224/qid=1052426044/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/104-4563478-5897511

[Thierry Nguyen]

Since you liked X2, you should pick up Ultimate X-Men, the one comic that Desslock, Brett Todd, and I all agree on in saying it's a pretty bad-ass, fun, modern revision of the X-Men mythos.

The story arcs (each collected in a handy trade paperback) are The Tomorrow People, Return To Weapon X, World Tour, Hellfire & Brimstone, Ultimate War, and soon to be collected, Return Of The King. Each preceded by "Ultimate X-Men: Volume #", if you're searching for these on Amazon or asking for them at the store.

[Jakub]

So uh... all comics are like short, non-continuous series? :(

God that sucks.

I don't want to collect 6-12 issues of a great thing and then they say "oops, sorry, it's over. no more. bye bye."

[Toddy]

One caveat is that all of the Marvel books are decidedly different than they used to be. Daredevil doesn't show up in costume much any more. The Hulk is barely a supporting character in his own mag. Spider-Man still swings around in the red-and-blue suit, but there is no supporting cast aside from the odd appearance of Aunt May (though she's been AWOL for months now after learning Peter's secret identity) and the recent return of Mary Jane.

The soap opera thing is pretty much dead in all Marvel books. You get isolated adventures that go a few issues, then that storyline is never referred to again. They're like anthology stories, or old radio shows like The Shadow. Meaning that they can be fun to read, and are often well written with better dialogue and art than comics have ever had in the past, but get repetitive fast. They aren't as involving as they used to be, because there isn't a lot of time spent on character development, the supporting cast, and so on. I find that some of the Marvel books read a lot like the DC ones used to, in that there isn't anything happening beyond the story that you're presently reading.

But if you're still interested...

Amazing Spider-Man has been pretty good the past couple of years under Strasczynski, an okay compromise between old-school Marvel and NuMarvel. Avoid Peter Parker like the plague. It's horrible.

New X-Men has been good since Morrison took over, though again, this ain't the old X-Men. There isn't much holdover soap opera and a huge supporting cast of mutant kiddies has been introduced, presumably because Morrison is allowed free reign with them where he's not allowed to touch the core characters. Uncanny was brutal until I dropped it last year and I hear it ain't much better now. I dropped Xtreme too, though some people like it.

Hulk and Daredevil are unrecognizable. I tried both comics and gave up after just a couple of issues. They're dark, I didn't like the art at all, very little story happens each issue, and the main characters are like afterthoughts now. Each is sort of a gritty crime drama, though the grit isn't very pronounced because they're intended for general readers.

Ultimate Spidey, Ultimate X-Men, and The Ultimates are all over the place. At times, you get an old-school Marvel vibe, at others the stories seem derivative and annoying. You've got Hollywood name-dropping and blatant movie ripoffs in The Ultimates. One issue was essentially a fight scene from The Matrix. Ultimate Spidey is sort of compelling, but Brian Michael Bendis scripts each issue so virtually nothing happens. The new one, for instance, features something like three pages of Peter and MJ passing notes to one another in class. I read the issue in about two minutes. Ultimate X-Men has been the best of the titles thus far, for me, though the emphasis on character development seems to mean making everybody dislikable.

Avengers and Captain America aren't even worth talking about. Fantastic Four might get better with the new Doom arc, but Waid's run started poorly thanks to this childish reboot of the team (Johnny acts like he's 15 again). Alias is good, but has the same Bendis scripting where you can blitz through an issue in a couple of minutes.

I wouldn't recommend starting in on any Marvel books at the moment. Though if you're really set on it, I'd check out Amazing Spidey and the Ultimate books to see what you think. There are trades available of pretty much all the recent books, and complete Ultimate Spidey collections that aren't bad at all. If you read four or five Bendis issues at a shot, you'll get more out of it than reading the individual issues.

[DennyA]

Just to show you how opinions can differ, I think the new Daredevil is superb from both story and art standpoints.

Of course, my only exposure to older DDs is are some TPBs. Never read it as a kid.

One title I really enjoy is Alias (Marvel, no relation to the show). You'd probably want to pick up the first TBP to get an intro to the character/situation. But a new storyline is starting now so you won't be coming in in the middle on the monthlies.

Captain America's getting pretty interesting, too, after a dull start.

[Dave Long]

Wow, you just depressed me mightily with that tirade, Brett. I read Marvel books up til about 1994. I loved the soap opera aspects of comics so much. To get away from that is kinda dumb IMO. I want that kind of development. I used to hate one-shot stories because you just didn't feel any attachment to anyone in them.

--Dave

[Bub, Andrew]

Crazy!
Brett is crazy.



You get isolated adventures that go a few issues, then that storyline is never referred to again.

Except in The Hulk.



Hulk and Daredevil are unrecognizable. I tried both comics and gave up after just a couple of issues. They're dark, I didn't like the art at all, very little story happens each issue, and the main characters are like afterthoughts now. Each is sort of a gritty crime drama, though the grit isn't very pronounced because they're intended for general readers.

Brett needs to pick up a couple more issues of The Hulk. It's a self-contained sort of "non-continuity" story. Yes. But it's been going on the same storyline for 27 issues in a row now. It's also as gritty as anything Vertigo has done and reads like a cross between the old Hulk TV show (like Kung Fu, wandering hero solves problems and wrestles with inner demons) crossed with the X-Files.

I've paged through the Ultimate stuff but it just doesn't grab me. I'm nt interested in seeing anything relaunched. Ugh. I'd be more curious if they'd just stuck with telling new stories. I'm pretty much done with Spider-Man and the X-Men anyway. Just not interested in seeing anything new done with those characters.

[DennyA]

As someone who came into Marvel for the first time in a decade and a half a few years ago, let me add that Brett overstates the "capsulized stories" phenomenon. There was plenty of continuitiy I had to catch up to fully understand what was going on in the Marvel books I read.

The problem is worse in some titles than others. As Brett says, the Spider-books aren't referring back much. But when you have crap like the clone saga and Venom in the history, that's not a bad thing. And relaunched titles like Captain America do tend to avoid a lot of the references to previous story arcs. But other series, like The Avengers, are still chock full of continuity.

[Toddy]

Avengers? No continuity there at all now. Since Busiek left, the series has been very bland. I dunno about the Hulk, Andrew. Just seems so far from the character that I don't even see it as the Hulk anymore. And so little happens in each issue. Maybe it works as trades, but I'm old-school enough that I don't want trades of ongoing series. If I can't get them and enjoy them every month, I'm not interested.

I don't mind so much dumping the hardcore continuity stuff, as so much of it is so old now that it seems ridiculous to reference it. But I hate how they've gotten rid of the supporting cast in Marvel books. This was an editorial decision about three years ago. Virtually all the supporting casts in all Marvel hero books just vanish over the course of a few months. You really saw evidence of this in the Spider-Man books, where everyone was dropped but Peter and Aunt May for something like a year. I'm not saying the supporting cast was good or anything -- the Stacy cousins or whatever were obvious retreads -- but at least it was there and you got the sense of Spidey having a life beyond punching guys in outlandish getups.

Where I first saw the Ultimate reboots as sacrilege, I'm now thinking that Marvel should just do this with the whole MU and kill the old books. The old books have little in common with what they used to be, anyhow, so it's not like this would be much of a stretch.

As an aside, the most fun I've had with comics since I got back into them in was with Untold Tales of Spider-Man. It was one of Marvel's 99-cent titles back in 1997-98. It looked back to the first ASMs and filled in the blanks between issues. There was even a timeline that showed where Untold issues fit into classic ASM issues. And it really worked well. They expanded the roles of bit players from ASM, like some of Peter's classmates barely seen in the old Ditko tales, added some villains, etc. I bought the whole series -- it only lasted 24 issues or so with an annual and concluded with an appearance of the Green Goblin -- on eBay for a few bucks.

[Bub, Andrew]

I like Bruce Jone's Hulk because... when I was growing up the Hulk was a profoundly silly character that, for some reason, I liked. I can't explain it really. It's one book I consider to be the most difficult to write and keep interesting. I enjoyed Peter David's run, but it was cartoony. So I'm enjoying this run simply because he's found such a mature way to deal with what I consider to be such an interesting character.


Untold Tales of Spider-Man.

Heh... Busiek, again. Astro City is the only book I'd really recommend. Great stuff.

[AlexxKay]

Mark Waid's been doing good work on Fantastic Four lately. That is, it *started* good, but the current storyline ("Unthinkable") has ratcheted up into "excellent" (IMHO, of course). Doctor Doom has become interesting again, for the first time in at least a decade. There's a trade out of the beginning of Waid's run, titled _Imaginauts_. But see if you can pick up last month's issue (with the flaming Doctor Doom on the cover). I can't say too much without spoilers, but it shows a side of Doom that hans't often been seen before, besides being an extremely well-written story.

[DennyA]

I actually dropped Avengers when Busiek left (ironically, Marvel deciding to put the entire first post-Busiek issue in Wizard caused it -- I wasn't going to buy an issue I had already read, so it was a good "stopping point."). But Busiek's issues were chock full o' continuity; that's what I based my comments on.

Alexx,

While I agree with you 100%, expect a thorough thrashing from Bub any moment now. :)

[Desslock]

(majors: ie, recognizable characters. Spider-Man, Superman, X-Men, Iron Man.)

If I had to narrow my selections, I'd recommend any of these:

- New X-men (the best current x-men book)
- Ultimates (if you want an Iron Man book)
- Ultimate Spider-man (if you want a spidey book)
- Ultimate X-men (as Thierry said, an excellent book - new author in the next issue, which might be a good jumping on point)
- Xtreme X-men (if you're looking for traditional X-men, as it's written by Chris Claremont).

[Bub, Andrew]

While I agree with you 100%, expect a thorough thrashing from Bub any moment now. :)

Nah. Live and let live. Try and pick up the Byrne FF Visionaries TPB. It isn't his complete run, but I think it has some of his better Doom stuff in it.

[Jakub]

So... it sounds like Ultimate X-Men it is.

[Matthew Gallant]

Unfortunately, I don't believe this comic is still published, otherwise it would be my recommendation:
http://truemeaningoflife.com/images/rifleman.jpg

[Dirt]

Justice Society of America. Superheroics without the Soap Opera.