Marvel Recommendations Megathread

[T Hedge Coke]

Attuma was put to good use in the Larsen/Busiek Defenders series, about halfway in.

His early appearances in Fantastic Four (around the mid-30s to 40s, I think) are good comics.

[Hindsight lad]

There are two stories that stick out to me, and they both involve Jean Grey from the X-Men.

In Bizarre Adventures #27,
Jean (or the Phoenix pretending to be Jean, or whatever) and her sister are out on a boat ride when they are attacked by Attuma. This story also features the origins of Jean's psychic powers and whey Prof. X shut them off.

Then in X-Factor Annual #4,
which is a sequel of sorts to the above story, Beast has to rescue a stunned Jean from Attuma's clutches. It features a nice turn from Andromeda, Attuma's heroic daughter, and the rare treat of Walter Simonson inking John Byrne's pencils.

Hindsight lad

[Tupiaz]

Looking for a older series to read, I'm current catching up on Ruckas Punisher and Waids DD but after that I have nothing to catch up on, I'm getting 90% of the Now titles so I'm looking for sown thing that's either ended or higher up in issues.

I've read: secret warriors, Bendis, Brubakers, Diggle DD, Jason Aaron's Woverine and Ghost Rider. Remenders Punisher, Venom and Uncanny Xforce. Currently reading Amazing Spidey, I was thinking of Bendiss New Avengers, pre civil war since the Omni just came out, other then that I really don't know what else to read

If you are into more DD check out The Man without fear, Frank Millers vol 1-3, born again, Guardian Devil, Daredevil: Yellow. You can put in some Ann Nocenti, O'Niel and Joe Quesada in there as well after that. Old spidey stories like Torment and Kraven's Last Hunt worth checking out.

[marshal99]

One good Attuma story i remember (which was also a good Dr. Doom story) was the 4 part crossover storyline between Super-villain team-up issue 9 & Avengers issue 154 , 155 & 156. Early George Perez art. Attuma enslaved the avengers and send them to attack Namor only to find Dr. Doom there instead and defeat.
"The private war of Dr. Doom"

[Elric of Grans]

I have little exposure to American comics. I grew up reading Brittish comics (eg Buster, Beano, etc), then got into manga in my teens (which I continue to read in my adult life). I have just discovered Comixology and, with great prices and the convenience of digital distribution, I am looking to try out the American offerings.

The only exposure I have is from TV/Cinema. I saw Christopher Reeve as Superman (though that was a long time ago, so my memories are sketchy). I have seen all Batman movies other than the most recent, and Adam West of cause ;) I saw the X-Men cartoon and most of the movies. Also saw the first Spiderman movie, but did not like it. I have heard of the others, but never seen them. I have looked at some of the free comics on Comixology, and believe I have some faint grasp on my interests. There seemed to be two kinds of comics I came across. Some were heavy on action with great art and little text; others let art slide to more text and focused more on narrative and character exploration than action. I found the former really confusing and dull, but liked the look of the latter. Hopefully that is something useful here :)

I see no particularly obvious starting points in the Marvel universe. I am not sure if Ultimate Marvel is simply a current, major story line, or if it is intended as a reboot of the universe. I am not sure what the current major serials are in the universe and where they begin. Can the major serials be split into different demographics that are easily explained? If, say, there is one X-Men series aimed at teens and another running parallel aimed at adults, I would be more interested in the latter. I could use a lot of help here in working out where to even begin looking at Marvel comics, as I am completely lost.

Thank you!

[Dark-Flux]

Hi and welcome!

A books tone and demographic tends to change depending upon the creative team. But in generall, comics from the big 2 are aimed at early teens-adults.

Ultimate Marvel is an entirly seperate universe fom the regular Marvel U (known as Marvel 616). It launched in 2000 (iirc) as a new reader friendly initiative free from convulted continuity and overall has been pretty great.
It currently consists of three core titles;
Ultimate Comics: Spider-man
Ultimate Comics: X-Men
Ultimate Comics: Ultimates.

And theres usually a mini alongside these. Ultimate: Iron Man currently.


As for 616, you picked a great time to jump in. Marvel are currently in the midst of their Marvel NOW! Initiative. A bunch of renumbered new reader friendly titles with creative team switch ups. Theres at least one new #1 each week until March.
Take a browse at previews or on Comixology to see if theres something that appeals.

My personal favourites so far are Thor, Indestructible Hulk, and Fantastic Four.

I also highly recommend Daredevil and Hawkeye, though neither were part of Marvel now. Hawkeyes only 5 issues in, Darevil has 2 trades out. Both series are fantastic!

Then theres the Marvel MAX line which are mature series for adults only.
Current titles are Wolverine MAX and Fury MAX.
Worth checking out Garth Ennis' Punisher MAX run. Its awesome.

[PupsOfWar]

What are your tastes, genre and tone-wise, in non-comics media?

[Deep_Sleeper]

I can't really speak to your tastes or preferences, so I'd recommend the following Marvel books (as this is a Marvel comics forum):

Supreme Power (by J. Michael Straczynski & Gary Frank)
Immortal Iron Fist (Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Duane Swierczynski & David Aja and Travel Foreman)
Runaways (Brian K. Vaughn & Adrian Alphona)
Marvel Boy (Grant Morrison & J.G. Jones)
Astonishing X-Men (Joss Whedon & John Cassaday)

I feel these books are fairly self-contained and are great reads, as well.

[punisher97]

Pick up the new FF series and Young Avengers when it comes out. I also recommend you get Punisher: Nightmare when it comes out in January.

[Fast]

Are you looking for new books to read monthly or really good runs recently or stuff in the 80's or what? Does Comixology have trades? I don't honestly know

But yes Immortal Iron Fist that Deep Sleeper recommended is really good and essentially stand alone as is Annihilation for Cosmic stories, Daredevil by Bendis/Maleev for Street Level stuff or as someone said the Ultimate Marvel Universe is really good or at least was in its origination I'm not sure about now. Morrison's X-Men was really good to but it might be kind of continuity heavy IIRC.

[Voss]

I'm not sure if the posters above me took into account the example books you've provided (Buster and Beano). If you enjoy humor based comics then my immediate first recommendation would be Chew. It's easy to read, has great humor, and everyone I've recommended it to walked away with a good experience. I'd also recommend Hawkeye, it's one of Marvels best books right now, also has quirky humor, and is very easy to dive into. If you enjoy that, also check out Mark Waids current Daredevil. It's also one of Marvels better titles in publication.

If you enjoyed the current Batman movies then The Long Halloween and Dark Victory should be right up your alley. The current Batman run written by Scott Snyder is one of DC's best ongoings right now, there are only 15 issues so far so it's easy to jump in.

Although I love the X-Men there aren't a lot of X-Men related books I'd recommend for a new reader. You can try out All New X-Men which is only at issue 3 and is ok so far. If you like don't mind a more serious tone then I'd highly recommend Uncanny X-Force by Rick Remender. I have to also mention Fables and Locke & Key, simply because there are so many people (myself included) that love them both.

As you can tell I recommended a lot of books outside of Marvel. Don't be one of those people that stick to one company otherwise you will miss out on some great stuff. If you gave more examples of comics you enjoy I could probably give you more recommendations but everything above should be a good start.

[Elric of Grans]

Sorry for not giving better information. In terms of American comics I am not really sure what I want. More-so introductory-level than delving deep into 60-year-long back-catalogues (one of the things that I found so off-putting in the past).

As for my manga reading, it has been broad. Extremely broad. Everything from Astro Boy to Mugen no Juunin; BASTARD!! to Yotsuba to!. I would list Urashima Naoki as my favourite artist. His more recent works tend to be deep and psychological (eg MONSTER). I also enjoy slice-of-life, especially AQUA/ARIA and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. I used to love cyberpunk (esp. GUNNM), but have not found anything I like recently (GUNNM Last Order even has felt quite stale). I like fantasy, and have followed the manga Berserk for years. From that genre, I have also read a lot of novels. I typically prefer high fantasy (eg Tolkien), but sometimes enjoy heroic fantasy too (eg Moorcock). I have also read a lot of works where regular characters are transported to other worlds (eg Juuni Kokki, Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori). Never touched too much into Sci-Fi, but I love the original Star Wars trilogy, all Doctor Who and enjoyed Dune.

[Celestial Lord]

It's been a long, long time since I've read any Marvel comic books. The Marvel NOW! initiative seems like a good time to start. My three favorite Marvel characters back in the '70s and '80s were Daredevil, Hulk and Spider-Man. If I understand correctly, Hulk is in:

The Avengers
Avengers Assemble
Indestructible Hulk
Secret Avengers
Thunderbolts

Spider-Man is in:

The Avengers
Avenging Spider-Man
Superior Spider-Man

Outside of those seven comic books and Daredevil, are there any other Marvel titles I should try? I take it that Red She-Hulk is related to the Hulk? Is it any good? How about Scarlet Spider?

[TsaiMeLemoni]

RSH is pretty damn awesome, you should definitely check it out. I have been satisfied with all the Marvel NOW books I've tried with the exception of Iron Man, so I would just recommend dipping your toes in the water and trying anything that even remotely seems like it might be to your taste.

I recently tried All-New X-Men after having written off the premise, and I am actually quite surprised by how much I am enjoying it.

[zarrarzeez]

You didn't list Thor, but you should really give Thor: God of Thunder a try. It's really good!! And you should also try All-New X-Men, another really good read. Dialogue is a little shaky at points but doesn't take too much away from the amazing story!