Comic Book Suggestions

[Shinken]

My fiancee wants to get more into comics so she asked to get her some stuff to read. From my collection, I got Alias, Immortal Iron Fist, Kingdom Come, Grant Morrison's JLA, Runaways and Young Avengers set aside - I think she will like those. She reads a lot of shoujo manga and is reading the current Ms. Marvel series.
I'm not sure what else I should recommend/buy so she could read, though. I'm considerind JMS' Thor run, since she likes the Thor movies, but it's an aborted arc, isn't it?
Can you guys help me with some suggesitons?

[Ranxerox]

Saga, Coffin Hill, Rat Queens, Lazarus

[BWR]

David Mack's Kabuki series. Starts with the excellent "Circle of Blood" and only gets better. It's a bit of a demanding read. CoB starts fairly normally, but well-written, but the books after CoB become far more detailed and surreal, requiring a lot of attention to detail to get, but it's well worth the effort.

[Zrak]

I really can't recommend Matt Fraction's run on Hawkeye enough. It's a really fresh series with great characterization and stylish art. Some people find the storytelling a little hard to follow, but I haven't really had a problem.

[Shinken]

I really can't recommend Matt Fraction's run on Hawkeye enough. It's a really fresh series with great characterization and stylish art. Some people find the storytelling a little hard to follow, but I haven't really had a problem.

The better part is that I already have it, so I can just lend it to her. :smallbiggrin:

[Man on Fire]

My fiancee wants to get more into comics so she asked to get her some stuff to read. From my collection, I got Alias, Immortal Iron Fist, Kingdom Come, Grant Morrison's JLA, Runaways and Young Avengers set aside - I think she will like those. She reads a lot of shoujo manga and is reading the current Ms. Marvel series.
I'm not sure what else I should recommend/buy so she could read, though. I'm considerind JMS' Thor run, since she likes the Thor movies, but it's an aborted arc, isn't it?
Can you guys help me with some suggesitons?

Runaways is an excellent choice.

As for Thor, here is my suggestion - see if she'll like Young Avengers and Hawkeye. If she does, give her JMS' Thor and what follows - Kieron Gillen's run, Siege and first story by Matt Fraction - tale of Loki's death and ressurection as a kid. Then give her Journey Into Mystery - Gillen's saga of Kid Loki, followed by shorter saga of Sif by Kathrynn Immoen. Then try giving her Gillen's Young Avengers, which picks up on Loki where JiM left him.
If she likes Ms. Marvel and end up liking Runaways, you might try giving her Avengers Academy, it's also very nice (but for the love of Hastur, avoid Avengers Arena and Avengers Undercover, they are absolutely awful).

[Dienekes]

Sandman, always Sandman.

If she likes gritty, Watchmen is really good, as is V for Vendetta, and League of Extraordinary Gentleman
Maus is great, but it might not be what she's interested in.
Transmetropolitan is weird and awesome.

Looking at what she likes, she might like Scott Pilgrim, but that's just a gut feeling on my part, I've never read it.

Fables is pretty good as well.

I'm a Batman fan myself, if she likes Batman I would suggest:
Year One
The Man Who Laughs
Long Halloween
Dark Victory
Arkham Asylum
The Killing Joke
Going Sane
The Dark Knight Returns
Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

Some Superman:
All-Star Superman
Red Son
Lex Luthor: Man of Steel (Possibly my favorite Superman story)
What's so funny about Truth, Justice, and the American Way?
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

Other Superheroes:
Bendis' run on Daredevil
Man Out of Time
Kraven's Last Hunt
Simonson's run on Mighty Thor (I'm not much of a Thor guy, but this run has the stand on Gjallerbru, and that is reason enough)
Ultimate Spider-man (honestly the only Ultimate storyline worth a damn in my opinion)

[Kitten Champion]

Kiyohiko's Yotsubato and Azumanga Daioh are delightful, if you haven't tried them yet.

Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind manga is excellent, the art is beautiful and the story unfolds more gracefully within the comic medium with the substantially longer narrative.

Urasawa & Tezuka's Pluto is a suspense-mystery written into an atomic age Astro Boy-esque world. The writing grips you and the art conveys the story perfectly. It's particularly interesting when you have a good sense of that golden age SF.

Asano's What A Wonderful World is my favourite manga. It's a series of memorable vignettes with people whose lives had been put on hold by circumstances, apathy, or bad decisions and how they were galvanized to move forward. It encapsulates the experience of aimless youth and the regrets of reaching adulthood without really maturing or knowing what the hell you're doing.

[inexorabletruth]

My wife really loved:

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
Gloom Cookie
Scott Pilgrim
Kick Ass
Empowered*


They're off the beaten path comics, but worth mentioning. I read them as well and was really impressed.

*She kind of got tired of the constant objectification of the main character by the time she got to book 4, though.

[Ravens_cry]

The Power Girl solo series was really good. A superhero who genuinely likes helping people and having powers. None of that "Brood, brood, I have the emotional depth of wet cardboard, brood brood brood" crap.

[Shinken]

Runaways is an excellent choice.

As for Thor, here is my suggestion - see if she'll like Young Avengers and Hawkeye. If she does, give her JMS' Thor and what follows - Kieron Gillen's run, Siege and first story by Matt Fraction - tale of Loki's death and ressurection as a kid. Then give her Journey Into Mystery - Gillen's saga of Kid Loki, followed by shorter saga of Sif by Kathrynn Immoen. Then try giving her Gillen's Young Avengers, which picks up on Loki where JiM left him.
That's a very good idea. Thanks.


If she likes Ms. Marvel and end up liking Runaways, you might try giving her Avengers Academy, it's also very nice (but for the love of Hastur, avoid Avengers Arena and Avengers Undercover, they are absolutely awful).
She is liking Ms. Marvel a lot so far - it's what made her become interested in other superhero comics and she is planning to cosplay as her for São Paulo's ComicCon later this year. I'm kind of ashamed I didn't think about Academy. I have to figure out where my paperbacks are, but it's a solid suggestion. Thanks. :smallsmile:

[Metahuman1]

The Power Girl solo series was really good. A superhero who genuinely likes helping people and having powers. None of that "Brood, brood, I have the emotional depth of wet cardboard, brood brood brood" crap.

I will STRONGLY second this. What's not to like about a character who goes "Ok, I can juggle sky scrapers, take a nuke to the face and not even have my hair messed up, move so fast bullets are standing still by comparison, and fly, among other things. This is freaking AWESOME!

Now, I'm going to go make some utterly horrible people's lives harder, not than they need to be but BECAUSE they should be. And then maybe after that I'll go for coffee."


In a similar Vein, the more recent but not New 52 Solo Series for Blue Beetle was also quite good.



Also, if you take that Batman list, and she likes Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, warn her not to read anything else about Batman written by Frank Miller. If she wants to know why, tell her he kinda lost his mind some time between writing these too and his other batman works, and that as a result the other batman stuff he's done is an insult to comic books, batman and comic books about batman.



From DC's New 52, I like Supergirl, Wonder Woman, for the most part Batwoman, Batgirl, Aqua Man, Animal Man, Worlds Finest (the one about Powergirl and Huntress as a team.), Batman and Nightwing. Some more then others on that list. Advise her to avoid Justice League and Teen Titans as these books are horrible.


On the Marvel end, Guardians of the Galaxy is getting a movie, that might interest her if she likes the Movie. And the current captain Marvel run is good I hear. I presently can't recommend much of anything beyond that that's not already been suggested such as Kid Loki's story arc cause Marvel has a lot of horrible things it's characters have been doing in more recent years, (Civil War, One More Day, Superior Spiderman and yes I know it's ending but one more day is still a thing so it's irrelevant, Avengers Vs. X-men, few others.) as Canon in universe hanging over it.

[TeChameleon]

Nthing Simonson's Thor run- it's a fantastic read. The overarching plot is phenomenal, the villains are actually threatening, Norse mythology is delved into rather more deeply than average for Thor comics (and Thor has rarely looked more badass than when riding through space in a goat-drawn chariot, hurling his hammer at the fire demons of Muspelheim), the art is tight and well-laid-out, and the characterization is phenomenal- I've never before or since seen it handled quite so deftly as the aforementioned Stand at Gjallerbru. Without delving too deeply into spoilers, let's just say that in the space of three pages, Walt Simonson took a minor Thor villain who had all the personality and depth of a dried mud puddle, and proceeded to break him out of his previous mold in a perfectly logical way, give him surprising depth, and an emotionally moving closure to his incredibly brief character arc.

While mowing down hordes of zombies with machinegun fire.

So... yeah. It was a hell of a piece of characterization. There's also some of the most epic battles I've seen in the Thor comics, with the faceoff with Jormungand being a serious standout (and one other one that would unfortunately be spoilery as all get-out to give any details on). There's Hela's curse, the Casket of Ancient Winters, the Forging of the Sword Twilight, the Ballad of Beta Ray Bill... the list goes on.

Oh, and Frog Thor :smallamused:

Ditto the more modern Blue Beetle (the TPBs are Shellshocked, Road Trip, REACH for the Stars, Endgame, and Boundaries- not so sure on Black and Blue, I don't own that one), but it's overall quite good, with the characterization being superb- the supporting cast is a huge portion of what makes it so good.

Kurt Busiek's Astro City is excellent, if a bit hard to explain, at least concisely... 'excellent character studies set in a sprawling superhero universe in which time actually moves', maybe? Superb art and great storytelling, in whatever case.

Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo is phenomenal, if kind of strange... while it is a Western-written and -produced comic (although Stan himself is Japanese by heritage, and a heck of a nice guy from my brief interactions with him), the setting is an exhaustively-researched feudal Japan (the Edo period), with meticulously detailed period clothing, weaponry, architecture, and social interactions, and deviations from period-appropriateness are frequently acknowledged in brief editor's notes. This being said, creatures and items from Japanese folklore and myth make frequent appearances, and the world the series is set in is a fascinating and dangerous one. The series is also unique in that almost painfully mundane things are often just as interesting as the ghouls and goblins that wander through- there's a story about seaweed farming, of all things, that's both fun to read and quite informative. The lead character is a ronin (masterless samurai) who is wandering the land to hone his warrior skills and to try and make ends meet. He's also an anthropomorphic rabbit, and all the characters (with one or two strange exceptions) are funny animal people of some description.

It's a great series, with virtually flawless pacing, fascinating characters and worldbuilding, and austere, delicate, black-and-white art that manages to combine deceptive simplicity and fantastic detail.

Anyhow, there's a few suggestions and a lot of babbling >.>

[BWR]

"Moonshadow" by J.M. deMatteis and J.J. Muth . A beautifully written and beautifully told story of childhood, loss and change. It's also rife with satire and humor. I suggest the "Complete Moonshadow", which has an epilogue to the story, but it's not completely necessary.

My girlfriend's gotten into Nu52 Batgirl. She tried Supergirl and liked the first two collections but has dropped it because following her story requires following a whole bunch of stories featuring her in other runs, and she can't be arsed to do that. The third collection of N52 Supergirl was a complete mess that made very little sense without having read all the other stories, and that's a bad way to tell a story.
She, like me, also adores Warren Ellis' "Transmetropolitan", the story of the not too distant future with all its weird culture and technology and the coolest journalist ever. He's like Indiana Jones is to archeology. (but it's not pulp adventure like IJ).
Also, Aaron Wiliams' "PS238 (http://ps238.nodwick.com/?p=26)", grade school superheroes. You don't need any prior knowledge about superheroes to pick it up and enjoy (though there are tons of Easter Egg references to everything superhero-related).

[Friv]

I'm going to put in a vote for "Chew", by John Layman and Rob Guillory. It's about an FDA agent in a world where chicken was outlawed after a deadly avian flu killed millions, who can see the past of anything that he eats.

It's off-kilter, drama-comedy, brilliance.

[GloatingSwine]

I'm going to put in a vote for "Chew", by John Layman and Rob Guillory. It's about an FDA agent in a world where chicken was outlawed after a deadly avian flu killed millions, who can see the past of anything that he eats.

It's off-kilter, drama-comedy, brilliance.

Can see the past of anything he eats except beets.

He eats a lot of beets.

[Shinken]

I'm going to put in a vote for "Chew", by John Layman and Rob Guillory. It's about an FDA agent in a world where chicken was outlawed after a deadly avian flu killed millions, who can see the past of anything that he eats.

It's off-kilter, drama-comedy, brilliance.

Too gross for my fiancee, but I've reading it and enjoying it from issue 1.

[TeChameleon]

Also, Aaron Wiliams' "PS238 (http://ps238.nodwick.com/?p=26)", grade school superheroes. You don't need any prior knowledge about superheroes to pick it up and enjoy (though there are tons of Easter Egg references to everything superhero-related).

...

*forehead slap*

Can't believe I forgot that one. It's a ton of fun, and, while perfectly kid friendly, has a rather twistier plot than it looks like at first glance, and things are rarely what they seem. And it also manages to be a deconstruction of superheroes without everyone dying in sprays of gore and/or screwing everything that moves. Highly recommended from my end.

Also, on the same site, if you are a gamer geek of any sort (which your presence here makes a fairly safe assumption :smalltongue:), both the Nodwick strips and Full Frontal Nerdity are quite enjoyable (and Nodwick eventually evolves into an entertainingly lunatic fantasy... not-quite-epic).

[BWR]

Also, on the same site, if you are a gamer geek of any sort (which your presence here makes a fairly safe assumption :smalltongue:), both the Nodwick strips and Full Frontal Nerdity are quite enjoyable (and Nodwick eventually evolves into an entertainingly lunatic fantasy... not-quite-epic).

Not epic? They defeat the BBEGod who was just about to pull the "I win everything" card; that's plenty epic to me.

[TeChameleon]

Not epic? They defeat the BBEGod who was just about to pull the "I win everything" card; that's plenty epic to me.

*chuckle*

No argument on the impressive scope, I was more referring to it not being epic in the sense of narrative structure- while it may be 'epic' in the more modern sense of the word, it is not an epic, the way that, say, the Illiad is. That's all I meant.

Still a fun read, though, no matter what it is :smallbiggrin:

[BWR]

Ah, fine. Yeah, the story kind of grew out of a bunch of 4-panel jokes, and I can't really see how you can structure it as an epic with that sort of history.

[Mordar]

Hi -

I'm going to go a bit afield here and instead of recommending something specific, recommend a course of action.

Consider what it was that got the majority, if not all, of the thread responders into comics in the first place. I don't think it was likely cerebral deconstructions of the genre, and I don't think it was heavy novels-with-pictures. It was light, but engaging, stories of heroes fighting bad guys and saving the day (either on the street, city, world or galaxy level). Her affection for Thor seems to suggest that this might be a really good starting point for her as well.

New 52 and Marvel Now were both designed, at least in part, to bring in new readership. There's limited backstory knowledge required and not a whole lot of genre-saviness needed to appreciate some of that material. Maybe consider some of the current stuff out there before (or alongside) showing her the Mona Lisas and such of the comic book world.

Additionally, maybe focus on elements that hero books have that the manga she likes does not (whatever you feel those may be) so that she can see the value in expanding to that medium.

Good luck - though you already have some of that because you've got an SO that wants to share an interest with you!

- M

[Aolbain]

As have already been mentioned, Saga, Fables and Rat Queens are all great reads.

[Metahuman1]

Hi -

I'm going to go a bit afield here and instead of recommending something specific, recommend a course of action.

Consider what it was that got the majority, if not all, of the thread responders into comics in the first place. I don't think it was likely cerebral deconstructions of the genre, and I don't think it was heavy novels-with-pictures. It was light, but engaging, stories of heroes fighting bad guys and saving the day (either on the street, city, world or galaxy level). Her affection for Thor seems to suggest that this might be a really good starting point for her as well.

New 52 and Marvel Now were both designed, at least in part, to bring in new readership. There's limited backstory knowledge required and not a whole lot of genre-saviness needed to appreciate some of that material. Maybe consider some of the current stuff out there before (or alongside) showing her the Mona Lisas and such of the comic book world.

Additionally, maybe focus on elements that hero books have that the manga she likes does not (whatever you feel those may be) so that she can see the value in expanding to that medium.

Good luck - though you already have some of that because you've got an SO that wants to share an interest with you!

- M
I think everything that can be safely suggested from these two has been suggested already. Tread carefully, cause Marvel Now is deceptive and all the back story applies, One More Day, Avengers Arena, Avengers Vs. X-men, M-Day, Holy War, Civil War, All of it. And while the New 52 mostly got rid of it, some books, like the green lantern books, were exempt form it, and they wanted to target a young male demographic exclusively and push anyone out who didn't fit that in a lot of cases, demonstrated with there little poll at the start of the New 52. Or books like Justice League, Red hood and the Outlaws, Teen Titans, and treatment of characters like Cassandra Sandsmark and Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, StarFire, Harley Quinn, Donna Troy, Zatana, Superman and Captain Marvel/Shazam/whatever is current name is.




Depending on the kinds of Manga she likes, she might like Deadpool for the insane random stuff like Boxing with Zombie Richard Nixon. It's a thought.

[Dr.Epic]

You should check out a comic called "Lumberjanes." Issue one just hit bookshelves a few weeks ago.

[SaintRidley]

If she likes Thor, give her Thor: God of Thunder. Consider also, just on storytelling merit, Hiketeia and Red Son.

[Kitten Champion]

There's a nifty webcomic I've been reading, The Adventures of Superhero Girl (http://superherogirladventures.blogspot.ca/). She fights ninja, monsters from space, poverty, the lethargy induced by living in a city with an extremely low crime rate, her future self, a bear wearing a monocle, etc. It's kind of like Scott Pilgrim but with a protagonist who only kinda sucks at life, ya'know, on her off days. She also has a cat.

I'm thinking of buying the book for my sister's birthday next month.

[darkillumine]

Always have to give a shout out for Sandman. The art is sketchy and weird, but the writing is awesome. For a sense of the tone: Early in the series Dream (the "Sandman") has to deal with one of his nightmares that has gotten loose at a serial killers convention.

Yes.

There's also a great run in which Lucifer gets tired of dealing with all of the bickering demons under his command and surrenders control of hell to Dream.

In a totally different vein:

I recently read a great spy series called Queen & Country. They switched artists several times and I personally preferred the earlier artists (later on the style gets a little over sexy / cartoony), but the writing was great throughout. Think a good James Bond movie with a female protagonist.

[Man on Fire]

I recently read a great spy series called Queen & Country. They switched artists several times and I personally preferred the earlier artists (later on the style gets a little over sexy / cartoony), but the writing was great throughout. Think a good James Bond movie with a female protagonist.

If you mean Craig's Bond of course, because the series is actually (at least three volumes published in my country) very down-to-earth and realistic and main character's job clearly has taken heavy tool on her. There is none of that tukxedo suit anr martini with exploding pens stuff.

[darkillumine]

If you mean Craig's Bond of course.

Well, I did say a good Bond movie ;-)

[CarpeGuitarrem]

There's a nifty webcomic I've been reading, The Adventures of Superhero Girl (http://superherogirladventures.blogspot.ca/). She fights ninja, monsters from space, poverty, the lethargy induced by living in a city with an extremely low crime rate, her future self, a bear wearing a monocle, etc. It's kind of like Scott Pilgrim but with a protagonist who only kinda sucks at life, ya'know, on her off days. She also has a cat.

I'm thinking of buying the book for my sister's birthday next month.
Faith has also done a Last of Us comic and is currently working on an Avatar comic, as I recall.