Comic Books

Age of Apocalypse is a story of an alternate reality where Professor Xavier gets whacked before he can form the X-Men, so it's one of the very few "jump right in" friendly X-Men sagas out there. If you've seen the cartoon series or movies and know who the characters are, you're pretty much good to go with it, and there are great online databases out there if anything goes over your head.

Required Reading:
Batman - The Dark Knight Returns - A story about Batman coming out of retirement in a dark future. It's by Frank Miller of Sin City and 300 fame, so if you liked those you'll LOVE this. He also did a followup titled The Dark Knight Strikes Again, but it wasn't as warmly recieved as the original.

Miller also updated Batman's origin in Batman: Year One. It's a more realistic take, and many elements from the story were used in Batman Begins. No supervillains, but a great gritty tale of police corruption, etc.

Others will no doubt mention Watchmen. I haven't managed to read it yet, but it's widely considered to be one of the greatest comics of all time.

Despite pimping their stuff, I'm not really a big DC fan, but I love some of their Elseworlds tales that explore what could happen to their characters in different dimensions. Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar is an excellent read and deals with Baby Supes landing in the old Soviet Union instead of Smallville.

 

Dark Knight returns I liked, the sequel.... eh not so good.

100 Bullets is the best series I've ever read.

If you like some of the more light hearted stuff, invincible and runaways are also something I might check out.

Lastly, Wolverine Origins is a beautiful book.

 

What? No Richie Rich lovas in hea?

 

Ok, take from me since I'm in the industry.

If you liked V for Vendetta, The Watchmen is a must read.

For Image Publishing:
Invincible is my favorite book on this line. The trades are easily available, start from the first one and you'll get hooked.

Top Cow:
If you are watching "Heroes" you might be interested in Rising Stars

For Marvel:
Marvel Zombies was a big hit this year, the trade should be out. Very fun book.
Age of Apocalypse is a good read. The volumes can be found almost anywhere.
The best X-men book I can recommend is Astonishing X-men, the first two trades are available.
The Ultimates is also very good as well as Ultimates 2
Ultimate X-men started off very strong, the first trades are worth reading.
Also, Morrison's New X-men run is both loved and hated, but it is a great read. The trades are out for it, but there is also a volume out there with all of them, but I don't know if its out yet.

 

I've always been partial to X-Men annual 10 . . .X-men circa 193 - 220
The Mutant Massacre was the X-men at their best

Rocket River

 

No "Watchmen" love?! Gee, it's only the most literary superhero story of all time. Makes "Dark Knight Returns" look like just another funnybook, in my opinion.

 

Agree, Whedon did an excellent run.

 

I was never a Batman fan,

but I once had a graphic novel called Gotham by Gaslight.

Pretty cool... Batman in the time of Jack the Ripper.

 

Co-signed. I also liked the X-Men run of Chris Claremont/Jim Lee. I don't know if that coincides w/ Rocket River's recommendation, it's been awhile.

 

Y: The Last Man (Vertigo)
The Walking Dead (Image Comics)

are a couple that I'm currently enjoying

 

Slightly after. Jim Lee joined up a little after the Inferno saga (my personal fav) and carried them through X-tinction Agenda and started up the X-Men (as opposed to the "Uncanny") title. Mutant Massacre and the following year's Fall of the Mutants were big turning points for the X books.

An extremely good one is Batman: Death in the Family. That was a really strong and bold Batman versus Joker story back in the day.

I recommend any of the Essential Marvel books for checking out major stories that you missed out on from the 70s. Spiderman-Gwen Stacey-Green Goblin, Dardevil-Elektra-Bullseye, the major X-Men stuff, etc. The Fantastic Four may be the only big ones to skip out on. That title was like B-movie sci-fi material until the mid-80s, IMO.

A comic that I only in retrospect realize how good it was, was GI Joe Special Missions. Much more gritty and mature than the main title (cartoon esque). A lot of Vietnam influence and military/political commentary while still being a fun read.

Evan

 

What do you do?

 

I like "The Walking Dead" by Robert Kirkman.

 

I used to read, but it's been a while. I did pick up a few graphic novels/trades here recently, both Ys The Last Man and The Walking Dead.

Very, very good. I could probably still get into the classic 'superhero' stuff, but this is a nice change of pace.

I believe they are making Ys into a movie.

 

The Sandman by Neil Gainman.

The Maxx by Sam Keith.

 

You can't go past Astonishing X-Men by Joss Wheldon.

One of the best reads you will find at the moment.

 

There is some speculation among fans that the pirate storyline in The Watchmen inspired the reavers in Whedon's Firefly. I don't know why, I just wanted to geek out for a moment and point that out.

 

They need to make World War Z into a graphic novel. That book rocks.