Top 5 favorite Marvel books of the moment

[Prof. Warren]

Just five is real tough as I'm loving a lot of Marvel titles right now but I'd go with:

5. Wolverine & The X-Men - AvX has derailed the book momentarily but prior to being sucked into tie-ins (which have been fine, but they've just interuppted the previous flow of the book), W&TXM was pure comic book heaven. AvX is fine and all but here's hoping that Aaron and co. can get back to their own thing once it's done.

4. Venom - This book has been brilliant from the start, basically presenting the early years of Peter Parker's crimefighting career as through a very dark and warped mirror. Like early Lee/Ditko Spidey, Flash is trying to juggle a love life with Betty Brant while keeping his heroic ID a secret. And, like those early Spidey's, each issue usually ends with Flash brooding in solitude over his myriad of troubles - which only seem to mount each issue. Unlike Peter, though, Flash's problems are a whole lot more intense than not getting Aunt May her medicine in time.

3. Winter Solider - I hope this title can continue for a long, long time as it's outstanding. Brubaker's Cap run is trickling to an end but he's on fire with this book. Like Brubaker's best work, it has impeccable pulp flavor and a welcome sense of grit.

2. Daredevil - all the accolades are completely deserved. DD has had more than its share of great talent and classic runs so it's saying something to say that Waid and co. are making this book as good or better than it's ever been.

1. Amazing Spider-Man - just so consistently good and Slott fits so much storytelling into each issue. Even moreso than the outstanding Daredevil, this is the model of what superhero comics should be.

[crossbones]

Hulk
Winter Soldier
Uncanny X-Force
Dark Avengers
Secret Avengers

[Green Griffin]

1.) Journey into Mystery
2.) Daredevil
3.) Defenders
4.) Wolverine and the X-Men (when its not a tie in for some shitty event)
5.) Amazing Spider-Man

[Dog]

1. Punisher
2. Avengers Academy
3. X-Force
4. Uncanny X-Men
5. Secret Avengers

Secret would be higher if it had just finished the first Remender arc. The Kree/Phoenix bit is doing nothing for me.

[Rock69]

Journey into Mystery
AvX
Avenging Spider-Man
X-Men Legacy
The Defenders

X-Men Legacy?? Really? Rogue fan arent ya?

[Rock69]

Well one thing we can conclude is....the Avengers are in a bad situation right now. Only 2 people picked Avengers I think and NO ONE picked New Avengers. And no one picked Mighty Thor and Captain America as well.

It's just as well that Bendis is leaving the Avengers for good. I think he ran out of ideas after almost 10 years on those titles. I think a new writer (as long as it's not Matt Fraction, the guy is doing a lot of things as it is) will be a very welcome change.

The problem with Captain America is that, for me personally, I really dislike Alan Davis. I know he's considered a great artist but never did it for me. He's perfect for a silly series like the old Excalibur, but he really is not right for Brubaker's Cap.

And Thor, well...did I mention Fraction is doing a lot of comics at the same time?

[rolacka]

Well one thing we can conclude is....the Avengers are in a bad situation right now. Only 2 people picked Avengers I think and NO ONE picked New Avengers. And no one picked Mighty Thor and Captain America as well.

It's just as well that Bendis is leaving the Avengers for good. I think he ran out of ideas after almost 10 years on those titles. I think a new writer (as long as it's not Matt Fraction, the guy is doing a lot of things as it is) will be a very welcome change.

The problem with Captain America is that, for me personally, I really dislike Alan Davis. I know he's considered a great artist but never did it for me. He's perfect for a silly series like the old Excalibur, but he really is not right for Brubaker's Cap.

And Thor, well...did I mention Fraction is doing a lot of comics at the same time?

You are correct that two people have picked Avengers, and nobody picked Mighty Thor. However, three have picked New Avengers and one has picked Captain America.

Not great I know, but I suspect that people into Avengers might be less likely to be on this board - they will mostly comment on the Avengers one so it is not a 100% fair poll.

55 people have now responded and these are the current rankings:



Uncanny X-Force has moved up to take second place from Journey into Mystery.

Winter Soldier has also moved up to take fourth place from Fantastic Four.

[Rock69]

You are correct that two people have picked Avengers, and nobody picked Mighty Thor. However, three have picked New Avengers and one has picked Captain America.

Not great I know, but I suspect that people into Avengers might be less likely to be on this board - they will mostly comment on the Avengers one so it is not a 100% fair poll.

55 people have now responded and these are the current rankings:



Uncanny X-Force has moved up to take second place from Journey into Mystery.

Winter Soldier has also moved up to take fourth place from Fantastic Four.

Well overall its nice to see that people have good taste in comics. At least people in this forum.

If only Journey and X-Factor were also high on the sales department...

[Dog]

Well one thing we can conclude is....the Avengers are in a bad situation right now. Only 2 people picked Avengers I think and NO ONE picked New Avengers.

That really just shows that people posting on this board are not an accurate, representative sample of the greater comic-buying public. Avengers and New Avengers are still in Marvel's top five sellers every month. Or maybe people like them, but just not as much as other stuff...

[Rock69]

That really just shows that people posting on this board are not an accurate, representative sample of the greater comic-buying public. Avengers and New Avengers are still in Marvel's top five sellers every month. Or maybe people like them, but just not as much as other stuff...

It's just like Spider-Man...no matter how bad the comics might suck people will always buy it because of his uber-popularity.

[rolacka]

Okay - I got carried away on excel and have made a title recommendation tool based on the data and correlations between which titles people buy.



The bottom left table has the three titles that my formula suggests are the best match for me based on my favourite titles. The higher the number in the 'Correlated?' column the better. Below them are the top three voted titles that I don't get.

The tables on the right show the percentage of people who get both (the formula is based on weighted versions of these), so I can see what makes that up and whether I agree.

So looking at Secret Avengers (the best match) and one of my titles (Winter Soldier) we can see in the top left field of the top right table 33% of people who get Winter Soldier get Secret Avengers - this compares to 16% of people who get Secret Avengers generally.

We can also see from the bottom right table 67% of people who get Secret Avengers also get Winter Soldier. This compares to 33% of people who generally get Winter Soldier.

I would love to post the 'results' from other peoples lists (I only have to change one cell so it is really easy), so please let me know if you are okay for me to post them - and then let me know if you agree with them or not.

[Dog]

It's just like Spider-Man...no matter how bad the comics might suck people will always buy it because of his uber-popularity.

So people are buying up stuff they don't like to be more like the dork at the other end of the long box?

[USERNAME TAKEN]

At the moment

1. AVX
2. Uncanny X-men
3. X-men Legacy
4. Uncanny X-force
5. Ultimate Comics Spider-man

[USERNAME TAKEN]

That really just shows that people posting on this board are not an accurate, representative sample of the greater comic-buying public. Avengers and New Avengers are still in Marvel's top five sellers every month. Or maybe people like them, but just not as much as other stuff...

It's quite obvious that message board posters are the minority.

A very vocal minority though.

That or people are not honest about their buying habits.

[Rock69]

So people are buying up stuff they don't like to be more like the dork at the other end of the long box?

You have to remember that 12 year old kids don't know what a "good comic" is because they have yet to develop a proper criticism towards it, which only comes after reading many many comics.

And Avengers and Spider-Man have a great appeal amongst casual readers.