Best TPB's

[grampy]

I'm looking at getting back into comic books, and am wanting to read some good Justice League and Superman TPB's. Any suggestions?

Also interested in getting into Ironman and Avengers, but I know that this is the DC side of things, but any tips help!

[Skeets]

Identity Crisis

[Alejandro]

What have you read in the past and what would you like to read? and I am not meaning titles but themes, or what kind of flavour do you expect in your comics?

[clownprince01]

Can't go wrong with Kingdom Come, it fits the bill as both a Superman story and a JLA story. Amazing story with amazing art.

For strictly Justice League, I say go with Justice. By no means the greatest story I've ever read, but it's refreshing to read a JLA story where Batman and Superman don't do most of the legwork. Also, like Kingdom Come, art by Alex Ross. Although frustratingly, it only comes in 3 separate TPBs or an Absolute Edition, which while stunning, is expensive.

For a Superman story, I'd recommend Birthright, which in my opinion, should be the definitive origin story. It's a fantastic story, the two subsequent efforts at a Superman origin (Secret Origin and Earth One) pale in comparison. Also check out the fan favourite story, All-Star Superman.

[AaronJ]

SUPERMAN:

-- All Star Superman: Absolutely stunning in pretty much every way. This is comics perfection.

-- Birthright: Not necessarily everyone's cup of tea (if you were a big fan of Byrne's Man of Steele reboot, you will NOT like this). But Waid crafts a great story (IMO) and it has fantastic art by Lenil Francis Yu.

-- I'm going out on a limb here, I know, but I would suggest Superman: Earth One as well. Again, not everyone's cup of tea, but I loved it. It's definitely caused a lot fan arguments, with some loving it and some hating it (not a lot in between). But I thought it was kickass.


JUSTICE LEAGUE:

-- Have you read Morrison's run? It's freakin' brilliant, probably the best the book has ever been. If you haven't, then dig into that. The series had some definite 90s vibe, with the art-work (Howard Porter -- whom I like, but some don't), but the writing is just killer.

-- Again, I'm going to go out on a limb, and risk lynching here, but I think both Meltzer's Identity Crisis and his later re-boot of the JLA were excellent. I know that a lot of people REALLY disagree with that. But I'll stand by my opinion.

-- And although it's more or less a Wonder Woman story, JLA: League of One is one of my favorite stories. It's extremely cool, and involves mostly WW, sure, but everyone else as well.

[grampy]

Thanks for all the tips!
I'm looking mostly to get into like the "best runs" of each character/team. I recently picked up Captain America: Winter Soldier because I've only heard good things about Brubaker's run with the character, and am looking for similar with other characters. I know that might be tough with some of the characters or whatever, but I'm also looking to just broaden my knowledge of the DC and Marvel Universes, but trying to skip through all the not-so-great runs and just focus on what people think of as the best-of-the-best.
From this, I want to possibly pick out a character or two to follow on a more permanent basis.

[mperiolat]

OK, the best runs?

This is all IMHO, of course:

Supes first.

- Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 1-6 cover at least some of the John Byrne run on Superman, revamping the character after the Crisis. It's a good entry level point for the character.

- The Death of Superman/World Without a Superman/Return of Superman cover probably the highlight of the Dan Jurgens/Jerry Ordway/Jon Bogdanovch/Roger Stern era on the Superman books.

- Superman: Lost Son, Escape from Bizzaro World, Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Brainiac and Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds cover the Geoff Johns run on Superman, leading up to the New Krypton stuff. That's a LOT more books than I care to list right now, so just start with those as the lead in and decide for yourself where to go from there.

As for JLA:

- Justice League International Vol. 1-5 cover the Giffen/Demattis era on the books, which is great fun and ties into what's going on in Generation Lost right now. I think a volume 6 is coming later this year so stay tuned for that.

- JLA Deluxe Edition 1-4 cover the Morrison run on Justice League.

Personally, I'd also recommend getting JLA: The Tornado's Path and Lightning Saga since that ties in with Legion of 3 Worlds, plus the Meltzer stuff is pretty good too.

Hope that helps you!

[Alejandro]

- JLA Deluxe Edition 1-4 cover the Morrison run on Justice League.





-- Have you read Morrison's run? It's freakin' brilliant, probably the best the book has ever been. If you haven't, then dig into that. The series had some definite 90s vibe, with the art-work (Howard Porter -- whom I like, but some don't), but the writing is just killer.

I third Morrison´s JLA cause its awesome.

AaronJ, I also loved the artwork, I think it worked really well for that stories :biggrin: