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What Are the Best Current Marvel Books?


NerdyTrev

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Hey all.

After the discussion from the 2017 new year thread and the Bendis discussion in the wave 69 thread, it became apparent that Marvel isn't necessarily doing too hot today. I though this would be a good place to discuss what people should and shouldn't read. I'll start with some recommendations and some anti-recommendations (DE-commendations?)

I know Kostis and I share opposing views of the latest Black Panther run by Ta-Nehisi Coates, but I personally think it's an interesting take on the character's Mythos. I think that BP has some very cool mythology behind him that is often neglected and while I don't think that Coates has been doing the best job with it, I still think it's a fun read. 

The latest volume of Hellcat labeled as "Patsy Walker aka Hellcat!" is very fun in my opinion. I think the snappy, dynamic art style really works for the character as well as how much fun the character can be. The dialogue is also really great. It's almost like each issue is a separate soliloquy delivered by Patsy in the most fun way possible. I won't delve into the story too much because, honestly, I feel it's a little contrived and cliche. She doesn't want to be a hero so she helps other heroes become heroes. That's what I got out of the first few issues at least. It's still a fun book to get into. I feel that Hellcat is a character that needs more attention like this book has given her.

The Young Avengers reemerge from the ashes of Civil War II as the Champions! and to be quite honest, I think it's pretty good. It has three awesome characters at the helm (Kamala, Miles and Nova) and while I think Chulk is honestly one of the worst decisions in Marvel's history, the book does a good job of using him only when they need to. He's a nice leadership foil for Kamala, though. As I've said, I still don't completely understand young Cyclops, so I just go with it. There is a love story subplot that see,s a Little forced, but again I just roll with it. Perhaps I'm biased to the writing of MARK WAID (seriously I neve would've expected him to do a book like this), but I'll keep up with the misadventures of the Champions.

Finally, the resurrection of the Great Lakes Avengers is quite simply lackluster. I don't like it at all. Perhaps it's coming out of the most uninteresting point in the Marvel Universe, but nevertheless I don't think anyone cares about these characters enough to put them in the spotlight for their own monthly title. Don't get me wrong, I think that these characters can be a lot of fun........ when their in the background. Their first appearance in the latter half of WCA/AWC is a great issue because these characters were brand new and in the background. When you put a cast of characters that are ALL comic relief, it doesn't work very well. They try to establish some conflict between Flat Man and Big Berthe, but it is uninteresting and falls flat (pun intended). I don't think I'll pick up another issue of GLA unless something amazing happens.

Those are my opinions of the few Marvel titles I had picked up. What else have you people been reading? What should we read? What should we throw away?

 

 
 
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My current Marvel are basically characters I fell in love with in the 90s, not following much new anymore.

Spider-Man 2099.  A small pile of Deadpool books monthly, I still find them fun.  Possibly dipping my toe back in with Nova, but the art isn't the style that I like.  Try to avoid getting sucked in to the main marvel universe, have done that plenty in the past.

 

 

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Siiiiiiilver Surfer, ladies and gents. Easily among the best books I've ever read. Dan slott is a damn genius with this character as he makes it like a more lighthearted and stranger version of Doctor Who. Every issue I've read is an absolute delight. Must read. No doubt it's a must read. 

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Like Nervous, art is make or break for me and while I enjoy the character of the Silver Surfer the last book I saw the art was not to my liking. I do like the new Thor, I like the OML books although only after he came to 616. The origin book was eh imo. I also really like Moon Knight. Aside from that I don't really know if there's anything else I'd see worth reading. I hate the "let's give everyone a symbiotie" gimmick. I know I've said it before but I can't say it enough. I get Deadpool is their cash cow right now and they have to keep moving his books but bleh. Speaking of gimmicks Doom as Iron Man looks... interesting? As he's my favorite character I guess I'm gonna pick up the trade of Ben Reilly'a return/Clone Conspiracy when it comes out. 

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Moon Knight is amazing. the best art teams imaginable, plus supe compelling storytelling that isn't bogged down by marvel's insipid events. Jeff Lemire is writing, and if you enjoyed his Animal Man, you'll love this.

The current Avengers book is really well done. classic feeling story, with the contemporary team. Mark waid is teally tapping into what makes the Avengers great, despite the fact that nearly the entire roster is legacy heroes. leagues ahead of his prior ANAD volume, which I wasn't feeling at all.

Black Widow. the best writer/artist synergy in the big two these days. Waid and Samnee were truly meant to work together, and they only continue bringing out the best of each other's respective strengths in storytelling. If you dug em on daredevil, this is a safe bet. 

The Jason Aaron Thor books remain consistent, and have remained at the top of my read pile every month since 2012.

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 Well, from the books I've pulled and read more than 5 issues:

The Bad:

Silver Surfer: Just... no. I get the charm and all, and I stuck with it for all of the All-New Vol plus some ANAD issues,but the whole thing got very boring and predictable, very fast. It stopped being a SS book, and it became "The Quirky Adventures Of Loveable Dawn Greenwood". It was just too much Doctor Who fan-fic for my taste.

Black Panther: Sorry, but I hate this one. I really, truly, do. The characters are nothing but political mouthpieces, the story is something we've seen countless times, the writting is pretentious and over the top, and most importantly, T'Challa is nothing more than a useless punk in this book. Definitely a no-no from me. It doesn't respect what came before, it doesn't expand on the mythos, and all it does is more harm than good.

Steve Rogers: Strangely enough, it's not the twist that bothers me. It's Nick Spencer being a politically biased writer whose writting has really started to suffer from it. I get exploring civil unrest andthe like, because it is a Cap book, politics should play a role, but he's taken a stand and he's not exploring things frommost angles. And I find his meddling of foreign issues quite insulting. He's got no business talking about issues like the refugee crisis since he's not living it, he's not seeing it. All he has are second hand accounts from biased media (from both sides), and so he can't really come to a valid conclusion. If he'd just kindly stay away from such issues and focus on the book, it'd be better. Also, it's leading into another event, so there's that as well.

Doctor Strange: Just like BP, this book is DS only in name. The characterization is awful, the story is just a rehash of his God Butcher arc, and the series is just inspired and mostly boring. It's the only book I've still stuck with because the recent arc has been a tad better, but the book is just your run of the mill superhero title with nothing to really set it apart. It's just another modernized take at an old character that the fans hate but the newcomers like 'cause it's on the MCU. I swear, the MCU is doing more harm than good...

The So-So:

Infamous Iron Man: Eh, it's not that bad. The usual Bendis deccompresion is here, alongside the irritating speech patterns and the OOC versions of most "cast members", but it's not as bad as I was expecting it to be. Doom's motivation and reason for becoming IM makes sense in the context of Secret Wars and his past dealings with Tony. It's just that if it was developed more in the pages of Invincible before we got into this situation, it'd have been better. But ure enough, you can count on event obsessed Marvel to screw it up!

The Good:

Deadpool: Same as the NOW! Vol, Duggan continues the good job... Nothing more to sy, really, it's just... good. The double shipping and constant "oversized" issues should die in a ditch, but the quality is still pretty good. In any case, it's not Waypool, so, yeah...

Moon Knight: It's a good book, just not great. The first arc was an okay opening, but the second one was such.damn.crap. It could've been one, two issues max, but we had to spend four months with essentially fake protagonists and insignificant scenarios, just so that Marc could finally get his shit together (until the next writer comes along that is). It's not as good as Lemire's Bloodshot, but it's good. Definitely heads and shoulders above the crap Marvel is mostly publishing. Honestly, the art is the MVP of this book. Smallwood has really outdone himself.

 That's it, I guess. I also tried stuff like Thanos, the Invincible Bendis Pet, Unstoppable Wasp, Moon Girl and whatnot, but the less said about titles like the latter, the better. Thanos was good, just not 4.5 euros good. It'll end before issue 10, so I'll just get the trades. It could be like Carnage and go a bit longer though.

 

Edited by Kostisfire
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Yeah legit the only thing I read Fromm Marvel is Surfer. I like the retro look to the art a lot. More stylized less on the gritty realism side... yeah art is something I'm not such a stickler on in comics. Unless it's truly absolutely avert my eyes awful I can ignore it for the writing. And I love the writing on Surfer. 

Beyond that I am getting a lot of DC, O'Malley's Snotgirl, and all of Dynamite's Bond series. Marvel just has nothing for me right now. 

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