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Underground > Comic Books >

I need to get a fat new superhero tpbk by the weekend - please help

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12:50 / 31.01.06

Background: there’s a chap, let’s call him ‘Spiro’, whose birthday present needs buying. (I’ve kind of decided against the samurai jack DVD.)

Challenge: I want to get him a good honest action superhero comic. Something slick, something with muscles, and something that a grown man can read without feeling his intelligence is having hot sticks pushed into its genitals. The obvious answer to this plea for good recommendations is ‘The Ultimates’, but he’s got all them. It has to be something accessible, that doesn’t rely on too much ubergeek knowledge of characters’ histories.

Ideas: At the moment I’m thinking about those recent batman trades where he wrestles with amazo and black mask - they looked alright to me on the flick – but do they feel at all meaty when you get down to reading them? I’ve heard mark waid’s superman origin story was good – Spiro likes superman so this might be the one, but I’d like some reassurance that it’s a good book for just a casual comic reader to dig.

Other notions floating in the head: astonishing x men, a standout trade or two from bendis’ ulty spidey (examples please...), even considering that bloody ‘hush’ thing. EVEN something non superheroey as long as it has big-bangs for the bucks. Not horror, walking dead fans.

Please help me by Friday. Cheers chaps and chapesses and non-specifying chyps.

12:56 / 31.01.06

Any of the Invincible trades. Starting with the first, predictably. Good, tightly-written superheroes.

12:59 / 31.01.06

Wanted

Might be an idea? It's not the best thing ever. A good read though, and self-contained.

13:00 / 31.01.06

I'd recommend the big n' pulpy Jack Staff trade Everything used to be Black and White, but you said you wanted slick...

13:04 / 31.01.06

Any of the Invincible trades. Starting with the first, predictably. Good, tightly-written superheroes.

The invisibles is fun and all, but tightly written? Are you sure? It's all over the place - Morrison even had to tweak his writing and relaunch it twice...

13:09 / 31.01.06

oh sleaze you are a one. thanks for the tips gang, keep it up.

Keith, like a scientist

13:20 / 31.01.06

Powers!
If you don't care about going in order, THE SELLOUTS one is pretty mindbogglingly good.

14:00 / 31.01.06

Ok, it did sort of indirectly lead to 'Wifegate' the last time it was discussed, but even so, and if only for the great scene where our hero's consumed by a fit of sexual jealousy while attempting to kill Matt Murdock, ('he's not that rich, he's not that good-looking - how does he get so much of something that I've had so little of, over the years?' or words to that effect anyway - the killer inside's him been done to death, pretty much, the inner sex pest less so - you're invited to contemplate, horrendously, what he'd get up to, alone or in company, when the lights are off,) how about 'Wolverine: Enemy Of The State'?

14:08 / 31.01.06

SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT is an excellent idea, as is ASTONISHING or NEW X-MEN. Morrison's JLA is also a phenomenal idea -- NEW WORLD ORDER and AMERICAN DREAMS (vols. 1 and 2) are thin as individual books but satisfying when read together. If you want a really dense experience, toss in ROCK OF AGES too, which is hyper-satisfying.

14:20 / 31.01.06

Hi, my suggestion seems to have inexplicably been modded earlier up.
It is actually called "wanted": look it even has a wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanted_%28comic_book%29

I'm not sure what "the Pro" means.... perhaps I'll never know.

I'd second Powers as well; it's one of the best comics out there.

14:39 / 31.01.06

Yeah, I think y'can get JLA vol.1+2 for £6 or so each. They are everything you've asked for; I mean the art's a bit wonky, but it tries to be slick, it has Superman, it is brilliant. I'm sure you know all this, but it mayn't have occurred.

15:04 / 31.01.06

That way my fault - HTMLising a link to The Pro - it was the first thing that came up when I pasted the link and, in the absence of anything explicitly saying what you were recommending in yr post, I went with the Pro because it is also self-contained... had i stuck around on that page a bit longer it would have taken me to wanted...

Ah well, no harm intended and have now put in a moderation request to fix it...

15:12 / 31.01.06

Nae bother; leave it be.

There's an anchor in the address that should've jumped your browser down the page to the Wanted book.

15:30 / 31.01.06

Any of the Invincible trades. Starting with the first, predictably. Good, tightly-written superheroes.

The invisibles is fun and all, but tightly written? Are you sure? It's all over the place - Morrison even had to tweak his writing and relaunch it twice...

Umm I think you guys are talking about different things.

There's Invincible and The Invisibles

15:36 / 31.01.06

sleaze was being a 'card', I think.

15:36 / 31.01.06

A birthday card.

15:38 / 31.01.06

or any early AUTHORITY, BATMAN YEAR ONE, ANIMAL MAN [too meta?]...

15:41 / 31.01.06

If only I was being 'a card', unfortunately I just misread Invincible as Invisibles...

15:42 / 31.01.06

Ooh, actually, that'd probably be my second choice. I'm a whirl at the old 'original thought' today. Or perhaps some of Frank 'racist?' Miller's oeuvre.

21:16 / 31.01.06

New Frontier is a nice read. Two volumes makes it a pricier option than some though

Red Seas is a slim hardback volume but it's a fantastic romp.

Modesty Blaise is up to volume 8 of the reprints and are so highly recommended that they're in danger of birdstrike.

21:37 / 31.01.06

Oh yeah if he hasn't read the first two Authority TP's then it doesn't get any more widescreen movie style than that. It's got action and has some very nice ideas in it along with lots of explosions and a spaceship that looks like a dogs nose.
They ramp up the property damage with each of the 3 stories in that run, they go up against the creator of the Earth in the last one

.

22:28 / 31.01.06

The ULTIMATES vol.1 HC makes a nice gift,

or the X-FORCE HC by Milligan & Allred. Actually, that's my best bet.

Though KINGDOM COME is cool too.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

01:33 / 01.02.06

I'd go with the third Fantastic Four Essential myself. It's pure super-hero fun and it's Kirby and Lee at their peak. There are probably better books, but for sheer super-hero thickness and all out action, you can't do much better.

not-so-deadly netshade

01:54 / 01.02.06

Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier made me happy to be alive when I read it. It's a completely self-contained superhero tale, with loads of nods to stuff if you get the jokes...but it's not essential that you do.

Also, (as stated above as well), Brubaker's "Winter Soldier" arc in Captain America is, without question, the FINEST Captain America stuff I've ever read. Great art, and it reads more like a spy novel than a superhero tale.

If he's a music fan, allow me to throw Mike Allred's "Red Rocket 7" into the mix. A gorgeous, trippy, love letter to rock and roll...and rayguns...and robots...

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

06:45 / 01.02.06

or the X-FORCE HC by Milligan & Allred. Actually, that's my best bet.

Just got that today. It's a lot of fun. Smart and funny and full of violent death. roughly thirty bucks.

09:14 / 01.02.06

And if it doesn't have to be Sueprheroes I've found that Garth Ennis War Stories, or Ian Edgintons and D'israelis Kingdom of the Wicked or their Scarlet Traces make great presents for irregular comics readers.

And if he's got a sense of humour there's always Adventures in the Rifle Brigade.

10:01 / 01.02.06

I'd third "DC: The New Frontier" and Allred's "X-Force" as options.

What about Kingdon Come? It's well written and a pretty book to boot (though some some may dispute that).

How's about the Supreme Power Vol.1 tpb? I thoroughly enjoyed that.

To be even more obvious have you considered DKR, Watchmen or V for Vendetta? Or would he already have those?

Haus of Mystery

10:03 / 01.02.06

That's debatable.

I'd go with Brubaker's 'Captain America' - looks and feels like exactly what tEH Doctor ordered!

You goin' visiting then Gumby?

Haus of Mystery

10:04 / 01.02.06

The debatable thing was aimed at XBrunt's post, not Froglet's BTW....

10:24 / 01.02.06

...And this is assuming that they've read the 'classics' like Watchmen (or anything else Alan Moore), Doom Patrol, JLA...

Seconding what was mentioned at the top of the thread, I've found the Batman/Black Mask/Red Hood story in Batman quite fun, especially if the read knows who Jason Todd was. It's a pretty good yarn, and the issues where Bats and Nightwing team up (may be the second TPB, it's the one with Amazo, as was mentioned) are great, although I'm a sucker for the Bats/'wing relationship.

Also, another Alan Moore book, Top 10 was awesome, really accessable and a neat spin on super-heroics. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.

12:02 / 01.02.06

thanks again everyone - the thing is, with books that i own myself, xforce, top10, jla, and the oldies like watchmen dkr etc. is that spiro's possibly, probably or definitely read them from the days when he used to raid my collection to amuse himself.

thanks for reminding me that the batman ones rely on knowing who jason todd is.

current favourites are that cap am jobbie, i can imagine that going down a storm, and the waid supes because i think that's probably a lot of fun and currently rather 'seasonal'.

(they're coming here to clean-out the old house once and for all. not sure if they're about for partying, if so we may well have a wee thing at ours on saturday, but will let ye know.)

14:29 / 01.02.06

I'd be interested to know if that Superman Birthright jobby is any good, too. As a present for me. Anyone?

14:55 / 01.02.06

It helps if you like Smallville, Superman comics generally, and Mark Waid in particular but it's a pretty good comic in and of itself. Feet up, Pot of tea, nothing to do on a Saturday and it's a nice enough read. It's nothing superduper but nor is it awful.

Hmmm. Waffle free version. Good read.

18:08 / 01.02.06

I'm going to third Captain America - Spirodon's probably into the guy after reading the Ultimates - or if your feeling especially friendly you could fork out for a couple of Bendis's DD trades.
Both characters are well characterised, the arcs feel nice and self-contained (no expert knowledge needed), and best of all they're proper, well paced stories.

When's his Birthday? I should get him a card.

not-so-deadly netshade

00:10 / 02.02.06

I have to say, I was NOT a fan of Birthright. Strange seeing as how I am a HUGE fan of Mark Waid, Leinil Yu, and Superman. I found the whole book to be awkward. It wasn't so much the changes that I objected to, as it was that I felt that the entire series was poorly thought out.

I found it to be poorly paced, for starters. I also found the dialogue to be out of character for Waid. It felt like he was trying VERY hard to "Do Bendis"...which simply doesn't work for Superman.

Sure did love Yu's new Krypton designs, though...and the comics finally accepting the Superman: The Movie notion that the "S" isn't an "S" at all, but rather a Kryptonian seal. Other things that made me smile were Waid's integrating some of Elliot S! Maggin's thoughts on how somebody with the vision powers of Superman actually SEES the world...and how that affects his decision to protect living things.

erm...sorry...lapsed into a dork coma there....

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