Which Series Should I Be Reading Right Now?

[Supermallet]

Well, I'm still going to finish Ex Machina, but imo Y had a ton of third act problems.

[dishpan]

Originally Posted by Strapped4Cash

I like All-Star Western, but only if you think you might enjoy western stories starring Jonah Hex.

YES

even the backup stories are good

[dishpan]

Originally Posted by TheBigDave

Ended up grabbing the New 52 Batman. I'm 5 issues in, and it's really good. I'll probably pickup a few issues from a couple other New 52 series and see what I like.

good choice with batman, although i like batman & robin more it is probably more confusing to a new reader. those are the best batman titles in my opinion.

are you looking for more superhero stuff or just the big two, or are you into other types too?

for superheroes you cant really go wrong with invincible, as someone said earlier. fair warning, at first you may think 'what makes this so special, or any different from any generic tights title?' but once you get into it and see kirkmans world building scope, as well as become comfortable with his storytelling style, youll prolly love it.

if you like vertigo and anthologies i recommend northlanders by brian wood, which i think is better than his more popular dmz series. it has the benefit of every few issues switching to a new timeframe and new characters so you dont really have to begin at the start to follow it. its ending soon so there wont be too many for you to collect, like 75 issues maybe.

i think the only xmen series that is consistently good is xfactor by peter david. but its great and features a lot of characters youll recognize from when you read before. this one youll have to start from the first volume but once you catch up its still going and you could switch to singles if you wanted.

i havent seen any recommendations yet for stuff by johnathan hickman -- he has a lot of titles to choose from and some can be hit or miss but overall its worth checking out. if you are looking for something recent that you can pickup at your lcs starting with #1, check out "secret" from image.

if you want to give more opinions \ reactions we can try to personalize this more too. enjoy!

[BobO'Link]

Originally Posted by TheBigDave

...Are there any other good New 52 series? That would probably be a good place to start. I can easily go back to the first issue and get caught up.

I *highly* recommend Aquaman. IMHO it's the best of the New 52. I'm also enjoying Batgirl, but I'm partial to the character and current writer. That's *all* The New 52 I've kept on my file. I also tried Action, Birds of Prey, and Supergirl dropping all three after the first arc.

Originally Posted by TheBigDave

I loved Marvel back in the 80s. I was thinking about getting back into the X-Men. But there's so many X-Men series, I have no idea where to start.

The manager of the store here would tell you "All current Marvel Books are crap, especially the "X" books." He's a Marvel reader from way back and used to read *all* the "X" books. He's pretty much converted to DC over the past 5-10 years because "they are telling better stories at DC than at Marvel these days."

I used to be a heavy DC reader but the stories, constant crossovers, and certain creators have pretty much driven me away. I read a few Marvel books over the past 10 years or so but they, too, drove me away with poor story telling and constant crossovers (even more than DC). I also grew tired of so called "superstar" type creators being bounced from book to book/publisher to publisher. I like it when creators stay on a book for *years* rather than "story arcs". Because of this my file is currently about 95% "indies", most of which are creator owned or controlled. I've pretty much stopped the "super hero" books for the reasons stated and that they've mostly become somewhat stale with story telling/plots/etc. - even with The New 52.

In addition to Aquaman, of what's currently on my file I'd recommend:

Rachel Rising (Terry Moore)
Frankenstein Alive Alive!
Lord of the Jungle (Tarzan)
Flash Gordon Zeitgeist
Warlord of Mars (Graphic retelling of the ERB Barsoom novels. Avoid the spin off/side series though.)
Mind the Gap (I'm still somewhat on the fence with this one but it has an interesting setup. #1 was recently released and #2 is not out yet.)

I'd also recommend TPB for the following:

Echo (Terry Moore)
Y: The Last Man (In spite of "3rd act issues" it's still a solid read)
Ex Machina (Same comment as "Y")
Fables (Still ongoing, but you'll need trades to get started. It's one where I've stopped monthlies in favor of just getting the trades.)

[dishpan]

Originally Posted by BobO'Link

I *highly* recommend Aquaman. IMHO it's the best of the New 52. I'm also enjoying Batgirl, but I'm partial to the character and current writer. That's *all* The New 52 I've kept on my file. I also tried Action, Birds of Prey, and Supergirl dropping all three after the first arc.

good call on aquaman and batgirl. i am enjoying those as well.

i tried the first issue of mind the gap but it didnt grab me enough to continue.

[Supermallet]

Originally Posted by bluetoast

Yeah Y was weird as shit reading month to month, especially with all the delays in the last few years, so you end up forgetting the details of some events. However, I later read the whole series in one sitting (yeah it took a couple hours) and it made way more sense that way, and worked pretty well.

Ex Machina....that just broke down, in that there's no way to come back from what was done, although I might re-visit it down the line.

I finally got around to reading the last issues of Ex Machina. What's the problem? It's not a happy ending but it's definitely better than Y.

[pezsoup]

Check out Vaughn's new book Saga. It's pretty great thus far.

[bluetoast]

Originally Posted by Supermallet

I finally got around to reading the last issues of Ex Machina. What's the problem? It's not a happy ending but it's definitely better than Y.

Like with Y, I read them monthly as they came out, so I guess I wound up forgetting many threads, and after all the delays it just got weird. The stuff with Kremlin, Bradbury, shit. It's been a while, maybe if I approached it like I re-visited Y, read them all in one go, then it would make more sense. I will say that I thought the first half was awesome, so it's kind of weird that I remember that and not the latter half (aside from the negatives).

Saga is really good so far though. I'm torn between getting the digital issues or the singles. I have #1 of both at least. I've been trying to get everything Vaughan has done (yeah, even the random one shots of Wolverine, etc), and I have pretty much most of his stuff except for Mystique.

From what I've read of the above I'd say his best work is:

Y, The Escapists, Runaways (first arc especially), and Saga looks like it'll be up there.

[Supermallet]

I've read the first two issues of Saga. Like it a lot. I think I have the first Runaways trade tucked away.

The stuff with Bradbury and Kremlin was dark, but I think it was showing that Hundred had changed since the whole thing started. It certainly wasn't a bad ending, and it didn't drag like Y.

[LorenzoL]

Usagi Yojimbo if you don't mind talking animals and Samurai stories.

You can catch up with the trades available since the series is in its third volume and issue 144 right now.

[shadowhawk2020]

I have been out of comics for a while, I started up with some of the New 52, but lost interest in most of those. Valiant just started up again, so I picked up X-O Manowar #1, I enjoyed it, but X-O was never my favorite. I am looking forward to Harbinger and Bloodshot.

[xmiyux]

Out of the new 52 I am caught up on:

Swamp Thing
Animal Man
Catwoman

And I absolutely love all three. Catwoman is definitely the lightest of those three with lots of cheescake art so it might not be everyone's cuppa, but I am enjoying it.

edit: Just started reading Firestorm and it is a little light and silly compared to the other three books but it has been a reasonably fun read. Though I may not keep up with it.

[TheBigDave]

So far I'm caught up on:

Animal Man - I can understand why people like it, but it's not my kinda thing.
Batman - My favorite so far.
Nightwing - Enjoyed the first arc. Probably my 2nd favorite.
The Flash - This is the first time I've read Flash. It's good so far. I'll keep reading.
Uncanny X-Men (new series) - I'm not crazy about it. Maybe I'd enjoy it more if I was famoliar with the current Marvel universe. So much has changed in the past 20 years.
Young Justice - I like the TV cartoon, so I'm reading the book too.

I plan on checking out All Star Western, Aquaman, Batgirl, Birds Of Prey, Uncanny X-Force, Wolvernine & The X-Men.

[BobO'Link]

Originally Posted by pezsoup

Check out Vaughn's new book Saga. It's pretty great thus far.

Somehow I totally missed Vaughn had a new book out (yes, I read Previews so I have zero excuse!) and gave the LCS manager a bit of grief over that as he knows I like Vaughn's work and didn't put it in my file "just because" (normal practice for him). I did a quick read of #1 this past Wednesday and liked what I read. I'll read it again next week as well as #2 but have already committed to it being on my file - the decision now is whether to do floppies or trades. I'm somewhat leaning towards trades as his work seems to read better that way.