Marvel TPB recommendations

On a similar note, I’m looking for some quality reading that’s out in TPB and am looking for suggestions. As suggestion seed, I’m currently waiting for the last Y book, next Walking Dead, next Powers and next 100 Bullets (although that’s starting to drag a bit).

I’m not averse to DC or Marvel, if they maintain internal consistency at all, but I’m very lost in all the yearly reboots and mass spam that they do (civil wars? secret wars? invasions? unlimiteds?). If there’s a good place to start with some of that, that’d work. My only requirement is that there’d be an actual conclusion :D

Is Civil War worth reading, come to think of it?

Not in light of your desire for conclusions. If you want to keep pace with Marvel in general, it’s worth reading, but if you just want a good story regardless of context, skip it.

Have you read the Astro City books? They’re quite well done, in my opinion.

Oh yes, got them all. I really feel like I have quite a lot of the good stuff, which is why I’m branching to Marvel and DC as I have historically not read a lot there …

I flipped through my trade and couldn’t find the Skrull, where specifically is he?

They’re everywhere…

Here’s what I found with a quick search:

Oh yeah, huh. I was looking in the crowds of civilians at the end of the trade.

Have you tried Diggle’s “Losers”?

And I cannot recommend Sleeper enough.

Because nobody has yet mentioned this : Wolverine: Enemy of the State & Wolverine: Agent of Shield

Paul Jenkin’s The Sentry is amazing. Even though most people know the twist because he’s active in Marvel comics these days, it’s still definitely worth reading.

Haven’t heard of the first, have the second as well as the prequel. Thanks.

Wolverine: Enemy of the State & Wolverine: Agent of Shield

Thanks!

All Killer, no Filler. Great stuff.

“Losers” is quite nice and not that long … 5 or 6 volumes i think.

You might also go searching for the DVD comic collections from GIT corp (most of them are still available through Amazon). They were scanning several Marvel series into PDF format and then releasing them on DVD. You can get 40 years of the Avengers, 40 years of the X-Men, the complete collection of Captain America, the Hulk, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, and Iron Man. Most of these collections run from the start of the series to 2006.

They also had DVD collections of House of M and Civil War. These collections have all of the crossover issues. The Civil War one also has the next five issues of several series after the end of Civil War.

Marvel recently pulled the contract on GIT Corp, canceling the Daredevil and Thor collections. You should still be able to find most of these for about $40 each though.

What’s a TPB?

Trade PaperBack.

Meaning a a collection of issues printed in one volume.

I wanted to say thanks for the many excellent recommendations in this thread. As a result of the posts here, I picked up the Frank Miller Dare Devil Omnibus along with the Ed Brubaker Captain America one. While I already knew I liked Miller’s work, Brubaker just became one of my favorite writers.

I also picked up the Wolverine Enemy of the State and Agent of Shield trades, and thoroughly enjoyed them. Finally, thanks to the really generous gift of a bunch of New Avengers, House of M, and Iron Man singles, I wound up with the equivalent of several trades for those titles, all of which I loved… I really enjoy Bendis as a writer, although it’s funny what a difference the artists can make (I’m not sure if my benefactor wants to be outed lest they be deluged with requests for other books).

I’ve just subscribed for regular delivery of the New Avengers and Captain America, which I’m interested in seeing play out with the latest developments in that storyline.

Since I enjoyed Brubaker’s work with Captain America so much, am I safe in picking up runs of the other titles he’s worked on? I don’t know if I’m having a premature midlife crisis or if the capes-n-tights genre has matured over the years, but this is darned good stuff!

I love Brubaker’s Iron Fist. I was so-so on his Shi’arr empire arc on Uncanny X-Men, but things are looking up two issues into the latest Uncanny arc.

If you like Bendis and like Daredevil, the obvious choice is to start picking up his Daredevil trades, which are marvelous. I think he wrote issues 16-81, with an occasional guest spot mixed in (the ones by David Mack are pretty good). The reason Brubaker caught my attention in the first place was because he takes over with Daredevil 82 (through present) and pulls off the incredible feat of not disappointing in the least after Bendis’s run, so there’s another Brubaker recommendation.

You’re right about what a difference the artist makes, both in the books themselves and in the scheduling. I think New Avengers kicks off with Finch, right? He’s just this side of tolerable for me; he’s how I imagine Rob Leifeld would draw if he was “ok” instead of horrible. Then we have McNiven somewhere in there, who I really dig, but I know his slightly waxy look turns people off sometimes, and he can get behind schedule. I can’t remember who else New Avengers went through before ending up with Lenil Yu, but he’s a fantastic match who delivers on time. Definitely my favorite, and glad to see he’s been given Secret Invasion.

Meanwhile, Frank Cho almost killed Mighty Avengers with his delays, just to deliver his standard T&A.

Oh and I’ve heard good things about Brubaker’s “Criminal” but never read it.

Brubaker just became one of my favorite writers.

It isn’t Marvel, but fuck it: Sleeper is one of my all time favourite comics ever. The whole thing is only 4 TPBs long and it’s absolutely incredible. If you haven’t read it yet, do so as soon as you can.

Seconded and thirded. Also thanks again for all the recommendations in this thread, I went ahead and bought 5 of the first books in multiple arcs from here. :D