I've been reading comics books since I was a little kid. (Yes, another way of reading that is, "Wells still reads comic books.") It's a bit of a ridiculous hobby... or would that be habit? Every Wednesday I go to one of two local stores (Yep, I got two dealers.), get the new arrivals, spend too much money, and walk out with a small pile. Now by "too" much money, I don't mean hundreds of dollars, or even hundred of dollars, but when you add it all up, it's still dumb. (It would be much worse if I didn't have a library card.)
And even dumber, I have a really stupid-dumb amount of comic books in my basement. I've had to schlep around a whole lot of long boxes as I've moved around the past 15 or so years. Dumber still, the piles aren't getting smaller. (It's not stacks of newspapers, shut-in bad, but like I said, it's dumb. Every bit as dumb as my over use of parenthetical asides.)
I just love comics books. I think there's a strong argument to be made that they are one of, if not in fact the, greatest contributions American has ever contributed to pop culture. Ever since Siegel and Shuster gave us Superman in the 30's, they've just gotten better & better & better. The writing, the characters, the art, the variety, all good. Pure escapism. For a kid who loves to get lost in his imagination, what could be better? That's pretty much how it's always been for me.
When I was in third grade, my parents went to my teacher and asked for a reading list in the hopes I would start reading real books, and a lot less comic books. I'm pretty sure I didn't read any, not a one of them. My book reading has dramatically improved, but comic book reading, well, you pretty much know that. These are some of my favorites in no particular order.
JLA
The Justice League of America was and is DC's flagship team, but in the mid-90's, the title and concept had lost significant steam. Grant Morrison was brought on board to revamp/relaunch the title, and got back to basics. "The Big 7." The seven DC characters who originally made-up the team when it was launched in the 60's. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Green Lantern. And the book did what truly great team books should do, made the characters even stronger by contrasting them against each other. Morrison and artist Howard Porter had a great run together. And every threat had end-of-world implications. (It even included Superman's mullet, and Superman Blue... but that one wasn't so bad. He fought an angel when he was blue, and it was kinda' awesome.).
Avengers/New Avengers
In the mid-2000's, Brian Michael Bendis disassembled the Avengers. He ended the the current title at the time by having one of it's core members destroy the team. It wasn't as if the title was in desperate need of a creative shake-up. In fact, it had already recovered from a creative low point in the 90's with The Crossing and Heroes Reborn. But Bendis had a creative vision, and you should never turn down a great story idea. And this was that.
Bendis took a very different, yet equally successful, approach than Morrison when he reformed the team. He used core Avengers characters, top tier Marvel characters who had never been associated with the title, some B squaders, a red herring, and a mentally ill super-hero who wasn't even supposed to exist in the Marvel universe anymore.
Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, Ronin, and The Sentry. (Daredevil was the red herring) This also met the requirement of strengthening characters through contrast, but also elevated characters. Particularly Luke Cage, aka Power Man. Cage had been one of the aforementioned B squaders. He was part of a generation of heroes introduced in the 70's that were very much influenced by pop culture of that time. Unfortunately, as with many of the 70's Marvel characters, he didn't evolve much. During Bendis' run, the character grew, even leading the team at one point, and is now going to have his own place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a Netflix mini-series. And whereas Luke Cage was elevated, Spider-Woman (yet another 70's character) was resurrected. In fact, her character was key for story arcs Bendis had planned out for several years.
The story line Bendis introduced with Avengers: Disassembled, was the basis for House of M, the first company wide mini-series/event he wrote. That was followed by Civil War, which resulted in splitting the Avengers into separate teams/titles. And that brought us to Secret Invasion. There were already Skrulls amongst us, now there were going to be a whole lot more.
Bendis' work on Avengers increased sales on the title, resulted in great stories, and has influenced the MCU, too. And that's just the some of the work he's done at Marvel. Not a bad run.
New Avengers Vol. 1: Breakout
Superior Spider-Man
Exiles Ultimate Collection Vol. 1
Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev Ultimate Collection - Book 1
Kingdom Come
This was Mark Waid and Alex Ross' semi-commentary on the comic industries' excesses of the early 90's. For a time it seemed new characters were being introduced regularly with guns, armor, little substance, action over story, written with little concern for consequences of their actions. The story took place in a possible future of the Post-Crisis, Pre-New 52 DC Universe. Follow? (If you don't, it doesn't matter. The story is good enough to stand on it's own.) In a world that preferred over the top anti-heroes with over the top guns, and even more bullets, was there even a place for an anachronism like Superman?
There's several more themes to be found, security vs freedom, faith, forgiveness, amongst others. And then there's the art. Alex Ross is arguably the gold standard amongst geeks, nerds, and fan boys when it comes to comic art (Jim Lee being the other artist that same group would argue the point with). And he drew and painted this beautifully. New character designs based on classic origins. And Easter eggs galore. When people who've never read comic books before ask what they should check out, this is one that you tell them to get.
There's several more themes to be found, security vs freedom, faith, forgiveness, amongst others. And then there's the art. Alex Ross is arguably the gold standard amongst geeks, nerds, and fan boys when it comes to comic art (Jim Lee being the other artist that same group would argue the point with). And he drew and painted this beautifully. New character designs based on classic origins. And Easter eggs galore. When people who've never read comic books before ask what they should check out, this is one that you tell them to get.
Green Lantern
"In brightest day, in blackest night. No evil shall escape my sight."
Hal Jordan, the silver age Green Lantern, went nuts, killed a bunch of Green Lanterns, destroyed the Green Lantern Corps, became the all powerful Parallax, then became the Spectre, and then... they brought him back as a plain ol' Green Lantern. DC had to some extent given up on the concept of the Green Lantern Corps. It was too broad, unwieldy, they wanted to simplify. Take all the rings, and pared them down to one single ring, ditched the "vulnerability to yellow", and made it the most powerful weapon in the universe, and gave it to the proverbial fish out of water, Kyle Rayner.
It was a great creative choice, but fans long remained divided on the matter. Many wanted to see Hal Jordan brought back, while others believed that the character of Kyle Rayner should remain the featured GL in the DC universe, fearing that the Jordan character's return meant Rayner's demise. Mind you, the Alan Scott, John Stewart, and Guy Gardner characters also shared the Green Lantern mantle, but nobody worried about them being written off. And neither did writer Geoff Johns. He brought back Hal Jordan, kept the Kyle Rayner character, made the entire Corps relevant again, and knew there were exciting cosmic stories to tell in the DC universe.
Johns not only brought the Green Lantern Corps back to prominence as an entity, he created the Sinestro Corps (yellow/fear), the Red Lanterns (rage), Star Sapphires (violet/love), Blue Lanterns (hope), Orange Lanterns (greed), Indigo Tribe (compassion) and Black Lanterns (death). And it made for some rip roarin' good times.
The Amazing Spider-Man
There's an argument to be made that the only person who should ever draw Spider-Man is John Romita Jr. Romita had drawn Spidey many times before, but this run with J. Michael Straczynski really knocked it out of the park. They got back to the core basics of the character; hard luck Peter Parker, who despite every obstacle thrown in his way, facing insurmountable odds, a struggling marriage, still epitomized, "With great power, comes great responsibility." Straczynski introduced Ezekiel, who somehow had the exact same abilities as Spider-Man, the idea that Spidey's powers perhaps were not the result of a random act of science, but something more super-natural, and Morlun, the deadliest adversary he ever faced.
Unfortunately, when this arc ended, Romita moved on, while Straczynski continued as the writer, and the quality dropped. But while they were together, it was fantastic. (Romita is also part of that Jim Lee and Alex Ross debate).
The Amazing/Superior/Amazing Spider-Man
Peter Parker and Mary Jane got married in 1987. Jump ahead to Civil War, and Peter reveals to the world that he's Spider-Man. That seemed like an exciting, bold direction to go with the character. And while Civil War was a great story, revealing Spidey's identity to the world turned out to be more of a stunt, as they quickly put that genie back in the bottle by having him make a deal with "the devil" (Mephisto), who makes the whole world forget the identity reveal ever happened, all at the cost of Spidey's marriage to Mary Jane. Apparently because they wanted to get him back to "his roots." Which, in the words of the "Apparently Kid", apparently meant being single... and having unprecedented professional/financial success (more on that in a sec).
Writer Dan Slott sent Spidey on some fun adventures, and gave him a great job making real money. But he really shot for the moon, as he approached issue #700, and had him square off with his old, and dying, enemy Doctor Octopus. Doc Ock, in final act of vengeance, appeared to switch bodies with Spidey, leaving him to whither and die in Doc Ock's body. But lo & behold, Doc Ock retained all of Spidey's memories, along with his sense of, yep, "responsibility." But because he still had to feel like he "won", he vowed to be a "Superior Spider-Man!"
And Spidey-Ock soon finished his PhD, started his own multi-million dollar tech firm, hooked up with a little person, and yeah, was lookin' pretty superior. But of course Spidey-Spidey wasn't gone forever and... well, you can figure it out. I realized I was buying ASM regularly ever since Slott took over, and it's a lot of fun.
Ultimate Spider-Man
In 2000, Marvel wondered what it would be like if their core characters had been introduced in modern times, instead of the 60's. They started with Spider-Man, putting him back in high school as a 15 year old. This is Brian Michael Bendis' return to this list as a writer. Mark Bagley joined him as the artist. They had a 130+ issue run together, setting a record for a writer/artist duo on a series. Spidey as a teenager, filled with angst, doubt, hormones, and no grasp of how the world around him actually works. Re-interpreting classic characters, stories, while introducing new concepts, yet still showing what makes this one of the all time great comic book characters.
The Ultimates
Two years after Ultimate Spider-Man, we got The Ultimates. Writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch gave us their take on what the Avengers would like if they came together in a post 9/11 world. Some heavy socio-political themes, bio-medical ethics, co-dependent relationships, and pretty kick ass action.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Exiles
This was part of the X-men family of titles. The Blink character was originally introduced in Uncanny X-men, but was killed off pretty quickly. The character was reintroduced and gained a following during Age of Apocalypse. Exiles brought together a cast of "X" characters from various alternate realities, and set them on adventures through the Marvel multiverse. This had the added benefit of bringing back the AoA Blink. The series overall was a bit inconsistent, but the initial run with Judd Winick as the writer, and artists Mike McKone and Jim Calafiore, was pretty cool.
Daredevil
Bendis, there's that name again. The Bendis/Maleev run on Daredevil is considered one of the great critical successes that has been seen in modern comic books. Before Spider-Man revealed his identity to the world, Daredevil's was outed to the world by his enemies, which then put the FBI on his back, and, well, things pretty much fell apart. And probably due in no small part to Matt Murdock being a good Catholic boy, there would be no deal with the Devil in this case to fix that. This series was very much in the streets, alleys, and gutters of Marvel's New York. And that's where the consequences and solutions would be found, too. And Maleev's art... how do you describe it? Definitely dark, and unique to say the least, but it absolutely worked.
Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev Ultimate Collection - Book 1
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