You can't beat plotlines like "Superman gets super fucking high, and discovers on the Justice League space station that he can smell brownies cooking. In North Dakota."
You can't beat plotlines like "Superman gets super fucking high, and discovers on the Justice League space station that he can smell brownies cooking. In North Dakota."
You can't beat plotlines like "Superman gets super fucking high, and discovers on the Justice League space station that he can smell brownies cooking. In North Dakota."
The stories already mentioned are pretty much the right ones. The problem is that a lot of these great DC comics make no fucking sense unless you know a lot about the DC Universe already. Kingdom Come is amazing. But if you don't know anything about the history of the DCU, it completely lacks any feeling whatsoever. Infinite Crisis and Crisis on Infinite Earths have the same problem.
The one I would really recommend is Identity Crisis. Even if you don't know the characters, it plays as a quality whodunit.
You can't beat plotlines like "Superman gets super fucking high, and discovers on the Justice League space station that he can smell brownies cooking. In North Dakota."
I think you just sold me, somehow?
The best part it, it's not hyperbole. Except I can't remember if North Dakota is the right place in the US. It might be Oregon or something.
The stories already mentioned are pretty much the right ones. The problem is that a lot of these great DC comics make no fucking sense unless you know a lot about the DC Universe already. Kingdom Come is amazing. But if you don't know anything about the history of the DCU, it completely lacks any feeling whatsoever. Infinite Crisis and Crisis on Infinite Earths have the same problem.
The one I would really recommend is Identity Crisis. Even if you don't know the characters, it plays as a quality whodunit.
So tell me Scott, what would you recommend for me?
Irredeemable, Incorruptible, All-Star Superman, All-Star Batman and Robin (no, really), Hellboy, Brightest Day/Blackest Night (esp. "Tales of the Corps"), Superman: Red Son, Flex Mentallo, Grant Morisson's Doom Patrol, Grant Morrison's New X-Men.
Irredeemable and Incorruptible are a really great crash course in superhero mythologies and criticism.
Yeah, I already read Irredeemable (not gotten around to Incorruptible just yet). It is excellent but it doesn't fit into what I'm asking for: DC Universe/Multiverse comic books that aren't Batman which I should have read.
I also heard that All-Star Batman and Robin is absolute garbage, and it also doesn't fit my "No Batman" request. I don't have anything against Batman, I just want to know more about the rest of the DC Universe/Multiverse.
I know pretty much next to nothing about Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash or anybody else of the big guns in DC beside Batman, outside of what I've seen on the "Comics are Weird" episodes of The Big Picture, but those episodes have also made me somewhat curious that I may be missing something decent. On the other hand I know more about Marvel than I probably should. I just want to see if I'm missing something and what that is.
/me looks at the DC section of the bookshelf for non-Batman...
Uhhhh
The real problem, if you didn't realize it, is that DC overall is just cornier and less accessible than Marvel. Not to say Marvel isn't corny or inaccessible. It's just that I can easily recommend something like certain Spider-Man stories to someone who has never read a comic before. With DC, it's not as easy. The stuff that people say is a good starting point, for example Green Lantern: Rebirth, I have read and consider to be garbage.
I've only read the first issues of the new 52, which we reviewed on the show, but maybe that's the place to start. Just pick one of the ones we liked such as Aquaman, Action Comics, or Animal Man, and see where it goes. Actuall, according to my chart, those were the only three titles that Rym and I both agreed were good, and they were all brought to you by the letter A.
Constantine is apparently pretty decent, though it's more tangentially involved with the DC main universe - it's set in it, but you rarely get superman streaking through in the background as John Constantine kicks the shit out of some supernatural blobby thing and smokes silk cuts. Hellblazer - The Vertigo universe book - is even further removed(Though technically still the same universe - characters meet him, mention him, etc, they just don't really pop up in Hellblazer), so not really what you're looking for.
Also, Sandman, if you haven't read it, the Alan Moore run of Swamp Thing, the Judas Contract arc of Teen Titans, The New Frontier, 52(When it's off, it sucks, but when it's on, it's fucking ON, and it's been on for a while now), Checkmate.
Constantine is apparently pretty decent, though it's more tangentially involved with the DC main universe - it's set in it, but you rarely get superman streaking through in the background as John Constantine kicks the shit out of some supernatural blobby thing and smokes silk cuts. Hellblazer - The Vertigo universe book - is even further removed(Though technically still the same universe - characters meet him, mention him, etc, they just don't really pop up in Hellblazer), so not really what you're looking for.
Also, Sandman, if you haven't read it, the Alan Moore run of Swamp Thing, the Judas Contract arc of Teen Titans, The New Frontier, 52(When it's off, it sucks, but when it's on, it's fucking ON, and it's been on for a while now), Checkmate.
Yes, Vertigo stuff is Amazing. Here is the Vertigo list:
Fables Sandman Preacher Y: The Last Man Sweet tooth House of Mystery The Exterminators V for Vendetta The Unwritten Alan Moore Swamp Thing Books of Magick
DMZ and 100 Bullets are maybe on the borderline of the list.
I am currently reading: Action Comics (issues), Animal Man (trade),Wonder Woman (trade), Green Lantern (trade), and Batman (trade). I want to read The Flash, Batgirl, and Aquaman but I do not have time.
I know pretty much next to nothing about Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash or anybody else of the big guns in DC beside Batman, outside of what I've seen on the "Comics are Weird" episodes of The Big Picture, but those episodes have also made me somewhat curious that I may be missing something decent. On the other hand I know more about Marvel than I probably should. I just want to see if I'm missing something and what that is.
If you read one of those suggestions from WUB, read Hellboy. If you read two, read Hellboy and All-Star Superman.
All-Star Supes is amazing, but it trades heavily on Silver Age references. You'll still get a lot out of it, and you'll be shocked that Super Man can be so fun and compelling, but you won't get 100% out of it.
Hellboy suffers from no such weakness. It is air tight.
Constantine is apparently pretty decent, though it's more tangentially involved with the DC main universe - it's set in it, but you rarely get superman streaking through in the background as John Constantine kicks the shit out of some supernatural blobby thing and smokes silk cuts. Hellblazer - The Vertigo universe book - is even further removed(Though technically still the same universe - characters meet him, mention him, etc, they just don't really pop up in Hellblazer), so not really what you're looking for.
Also, Sandman, if you haven't read it, the Alan Moore run of Swamp Thing, the Judas Contract arc of Teen Titans, The New Frontier, 52(When it's off, it sucks, but when it's on, it's fucking ON, and it's been on for a while now), Checkmate.
Yes, Vertigo stuff is Amazing. Here is the Vertigo list:
Fables Sandman Preacher Y: The Last Man Sweet tooth House of Mystery The Exterminators V for Vendetta The Unwritten Alan Moore Swamp Thing Books of Magick
DMZ and 100 Bullets are maybe on the borderline of the list.
No list of Vertigo books can be complete without mentioning Transmetropolitan.
Yes, Vertigo stuff is Amazing. Here is the Vertigo list:
Fables Sandman Preacher Y: The Last Man Sweet tooth House of Mystery The Exterminators V for Vendetta The Unwritten Alan Moore Swamp Thing Books of Magick
DMZ and 100 Bullets are maybe on the borderline of the list.
No list of Vertigo books can be complete without mentioning Transmetropolitan.
This is all true, but for reference's sake, only Swamp thing and Sandman - at least within that list - are part of the DC main comic universe. The rest are really, really good, but do note that they're separate works.
If you're looking for Wonder Woman, Gail Simone's run with her might be good to try. The first trade of that run is called Wonder Woman: The Circle.
Or just about anything by Gail Simone, really. I can't recall anything of hers so far that's actually been awful.
Oh, forgot Transmet. It was not intentionally excluded.
What about Northlanders? I've only read the first trade, which I really enjoyed, but I can't comment on the rest of the series.
Also, if you liked Sandman and Unwritten, you owe it to yourself to check out Lucifer. The pseudo-sequel to Sandman written by the guy who writes the Unwritten. I'm not sure of its availability since DC stopped publishing the individual volumes and is switching over to more condensed collections. Definitely worth checking out though!
I just finished reading issue 17 of Action Comics. "Damn Grant Morrison, why do you like to mess with my head?" I had to go back to previous issues to connect all the stories together, the dialogue is pretty great, and this is my kind of Superman. The B story at the end complements nicely with the main story arc. I would definitely recommend that has an interest in Superman to get the first 3 trades of Action Comics. Here is to hoping that at least one of the trades comes with issue 0, because after issue 17, it becomes intrinsic to the main story arc.
Did the stories end up connecting together appropriately? Grant Morrison has a bad problem in long running stories of making something up, having it seem like it was always there and then completely dropping it as if it never existed. I really like him for a single arc/story but I have come to loath him when he works on something that is ongoing.
Read Deadpool: Suicide Kings recently. It was a very fun ride and so far it's the best and most distilled Deadpool comic book I've read, though it somewhat heavily relies on cameos on other Marvel hero characters.
Read Deadpool: Suicide Kings recently. It was a very fun ride and so far it's the best and most distilled Deadpool comic book I've read, though it somewhat heavily relies on cameos on other Marvel hero characters.
Is that the Dr McNinja or Battlepug Deadpool? I know that both of them worked on Deadpool, but I don't remember when.
Read Deadpool: Suicide Kings recently. It was a very fun ride and so far it's the best and most distilled Deadpool comic book I've read, though it somewhat heavily relies on cameos on other Marvel hero characters.
Is that the Dr McNinja or Battlepug Deadpool? I know that both of them worked on Deadpool, but I don't remember when.
I don't think it's from either. Here you can see the staff on it.
OK, I remember reading a series a long time ago, I think it was the JLA, one of the heroes girlfriends appears dead at the headquarters, and they have to figure out who did it.
Comments
The one I would really recommend is Identity Crisis. Even if you don't know the characters, it plays as a quality whodunit.
Irredeemable, Incorruptible, All-Star Superman, All-Star Batman and Robin (no, really), Hellboy, Brightest Day/Blackest Night (esp. "Tales of the Corps"), Superman: Red Son, Flex Mentallo, Grant Morisson's Doom Patrol, Grant Morrison's New X-Men.
Irredeemable and Incorruptible are a really great crash course in superhero mythologies and criticism.
I also heard that All-Star Batman and Robin is absolute garbage, and it also doesn't fit my "No Batman" request. I don't have anything against Batman, I just want to know more about the rest of the DC Universe/Multiverse.
I know pretty much next to nothing about Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash or anybody else of the big guns in DC beside Batman, outside of what I've seen on the "Comics are Weird" episodes of The Big Picture, but those episodes have also made me somewhat curious that I may be missing something decent. On the other hand I know more about Marvel than I probably should. I just want to see if I'm missing something and what that is.
Uhhhh
The real problem, if you didn't realize it, is that DC overall is just cornier and less accessible than Marvel. Not to say Marvel isn't corny or inaccessible. It's just that I can easily recommend something like certain Spider-Man stories to someone who has never read a comic before. With DC, it's not as easy. The stuff that people say is a good starting point, for example Green Lantern: Rebirth, I have read and consider to be garbage.
I've only read the first issues of the new 52, which we reviewed on the show, but maybe that's the place to start. Just pick one of the ones we liked such as Aquaman, Action Comics, or Animal Man, and see where it goes. Actuall, according to my chart, those were the only three titles that Rym and I both agreed were good, and they were all brought to you by the letter A.
Also, Sandman, if you haven't read it, the Alan Moore run of Swamp Thing, the Judas Contract arc of Teen Titans, The New Frontier, 52(When it's off, it sucks, but when it's on, it's fucking ON, and it's been on for a while now), Checkmate.
Fables
Sandman
Preacher
Y: The Last Man
Sweet tooth
House of Mystery
The Exterminators
V for Vendetta
The Unwritten
Alan Moore Swamp Thing
Books of Magick
DMZ and 100 Bullets are maybe on the borderline of the list.
I want to read The Flash, Batgirl, and Aquaman but I do not have time.
All-Star Supes is amazing, but it trades heavily on Silver Age references. You'll still get a lot out of it, and you'll be shocked that Super Man can be so fun and compelling, but you won't get 100% out of it.
Hellboy suffers from no such weakness. It is air tight.
Also, if you liked Sandman and Unwritten, you owe it to yourself to check out Lucifer. The pseudo-sequel to Sandman written by the guy who writes the Unwritten. I'm not sure of its availability since DC stopped publishing the individual volumes and is switching over to more condensed collections. Definitely worth checking out though!
spoilers:
In the end it's someone like ant-man that shrunk and got in her head to spy on someone or her and caused a stroke or something like that
Scratch that, it was Identity Crisis.