Looking for trade/graphic novel recommendations

[WayneLigon]

Invincible. There are currently four or five trades and 2 large hardcover collections (I think each hardcover collects two trades). It's a great teen hero story that would not be out of place in the DC universe.

Powers. For street-level supers, nothing really beats this. Nine trades out so far. Who Killed Retro Girl and Roleplay are the first two, and could be easily read without reference to what comes later. THey set up a couple things but really could be considered stand-alone.

Top Ten. Collected stand alone series in two volumes. Cops of Precinct 10 of a multi-dimensional police force guarding a city where almost everyone has some special power or gadget. There are numerous plot threads throughout the two books, all brought together and tied up. Two other one-shots exist: Beyond the Furthest Precinct is the newest volume. Top Ten: the Forty-Niners shows how Neopolis was created, and the formation of it's police force.

Firebreather. A boy with a human mother and a 400-foot-tall Godzilla analog as his father.

Other great DC trades:
Robin: Year One
Outsiders
Any of the JSA trades

 

[mhacdebhandia]

If you like alternate takes on classic characters - both DC's Elseworlds titles and books from other companies - I can recommend a few.

First, for me, is Supreme Power. There are three trades out now that form the bulk of the main story, and three collections of self-contained stories set before, during, and after that main story.

The three trades are "Contact" (#1-#6), "Powers and Principalities (#7-#12), and "High Command (#13-#18). The three standalone tales are "Supreme Power: Hyperion", "Supreme Power: Nighthawk", and "Doctor Spectrum: Full Spectrum". I have read the main trades but not any of the standalone stories.

Supreme Power is essentially a DC Elseworlds story about the Justice League of America, but based on Marvel's thinly-veiled homage to the JLA, Squadron Supreme. It takes place in its own universe - neither the regular "616" Marvel universe nor the Ultimate universe - and tells the story of Hyperion, a.k.a. Mark Milton, who crashed to Earth in a rocketship as a baby and was found by a childless couple . . . then taken away by the U.S. government and raised by government agents who pretended to be his parents in an environment completely controlled so as to instill complete loyalty to the U.S. and a willingness to use his powers in the government's interest.

The other superpowered people in the story are based on JLA characters through the lens of the Squadron Supreme - Nighthawk (Batman), the Blur (based on the Whizzer, and obviously on the Flash), Zarda (based on Power Princess, and obviously on Wonder Woman), Kingsley Rice (based on Amphibian, and obviously on Aquaman), and Doctor Spectrum (Green Lantern).

Supreme Power's first "volume", the first eighteen issues in the three trades named above, was published under Marvel's "adult" MAX imprint. There's nudity and sex and some nasty killing, but in my opinion it's all in the service of the "realistic" look at how the characters would be treated by the world and how they'd react to it. I don't know whether the second "volume", which is called Squadron Supreme and published as a Marvel Knights title, is toned down in this regard.

Some of my favourite "true" Elseworlds titles are Superman: Red Son (Kal-El lands in Soviet Russia and becomes the champion of Communism), Batman: Nine Lives (a noir tale told from the perspective of Private Detective Dick Grayson investigating the murder of Selina Kyle and its effect on the lives of nine men in Gotham City), and of course Kingdom Come.

I also really like at least the first three trades' worth of The Ultimates, but again you need a high tolerance for "nasty" interpretations of classic characters to really get into it.

 

[ByteRynn]

As far as you interest in Ultimate X-men goes, don't let Vol. 1 turn you off to the series, it isn't that great.

Return to Weapon X is where Ulimate X-men first hits its stride, Millar's pain and suffering at that time of his life really come through. Vol. 3 has continuity problems out the wazoo, and some of the art is horrible.. Vol. 4 is pretty cool, and lead well into volume 5, Ultimate War, which has some really good fights, and some pretty decent character development leading into Vol. 6, Return of the King, one of my favorites.

If you liked Ultimate Spider-man, read UXM Vol. 7, BMB wrote it, and he forgot which comic he was supposed to be writing. He thought he was writing issues of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up or Ultiate Spider-man, UXM 8 is pretty par for the course, but UXM 9., The Tempest is hands down, my favorite so far. I havn't read UXM past this one, but this one was probably the most original retelling of UXM villains (Mr. Sinister and Apocalypse) up to this point. I hear the Ultimization of Mojo in The MOst Dangerous Game is really cool as well.

I know little about DC, but I second the reccomendation of the Supreme Power books. They are a great read.

 

[sniffles]

I second any recommendations for The Watchmen and Powers.

I'd recommend:

Superman - Peace on Earth
Batman - War on Crime
Shazam! - Power of Hope
(all by Paul Dini and art by Alex Ross)

And for some non-superhero variety:

Age of Bronze, by Eric Shanower
anything by P. Craig Russell
Promethea, by Alan Moore
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, by Alan Moore (ignore the movie)

 

[KenM]

No one has mentioned Watchmen yet?

 

[Filby]

Two people have, actually.

 

[Mallus]

I really liked James Robinson's run of Starman for DC in the 90's.

If you feel like branching out a bit, Alan Moore's Miracleman is my absolute favorite take on superhero mytholgy (and the coda written by Neil Gaiman is pretty damn good, too).

If you can find the old Flex Mentallo miniseries by Grant Morrison, that's another lovely ode to superheroics.

If you're feeling sinister, or just plain gin-drunk mean, I heartily recommend the Warren Ellis/Mark Millar issues of The Authority, which is simultaneously a celebration of and cynical atack on superhero comics.

 

[KenM]

Two people have, actually.

Ah, my fault for just skimming the posts and not reading them.

 

[Morrus]

If you're feeling sinister, or just plain gin-drunk mean, I heartily recommend the Warren Ellis/Mark Millar issues of The Authority, which is simultaneously a celebration of and cynical atack on superhero comics.

I'm interested in getting into The Authority, but don't know where to start. A search on eBay revealed a whole lotta books. What comes first in the series?

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Technically?

StormWatch: Force of Nature. This collects the first six issues of Warren Ellis' run on StormWatch, which leads up to The Authority.

However, since there are four more trades' worth of this story:

• StormWatch Vol. 2: Lightning Strikes
• Storm Watch Vol. 3: Change or Die
• StormWatch Vol. 4: A Finer World
• StormWatch Vol. 5: Final Orbit

. . . you might want to start with Warren Ellis' first trade The Authority Vol. 1: Relentless, which tells the story of The Authority (the successor supergroup to StormWatch). The next trade, The Authority Vol. 2: Under New Management, collects the remainder of Ellis' work on the title. After this point, the book was written by Mark Millar, starting with The Authority Vol 3: Earth Inferno and Other Stories.