Moderns soon forgotten...

[revat]

A lot of titles I loved on this list.

 

I'll add my little special book.

 

Uncanny X-Force (vol 1) the 1st 20 issues were amazing!

 

Opena & Ribic art, with fill ins by really good artists as well.

 

Deadpool written as the heart of the team. the only time i liked him as a character. Kid Appoc introduced, Fantomex as a character i don't want to kill.

 

Just an amazing run of comics that will always have a special place for me.

 

+1 great call!

[the authority]

Gotham Central, brilliant series with the most awesome issue being the one where Montoya and Jim Corrigan (not that one!) take it out to the alley to settle business!

 

50 cents an issue on ebay but a great read

 

Chronos was wonderful too, great art. Wonderful wonderful.

 

Waid Captain America just before, but not after, Heroes Reborn.

 

Coventry.

 

 

Gotham Central

[the authority]

...next up...

 

The Authority- this book fit the turn of the century as well an any series. Ellis, Hitch, Neary, and Depuy/Martin were the first to create big screen storytelling and no one has ever done it better. Lots of ideas were stolen from Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Iron Man, Hawkgirl, etc. some new ideas like Century babies and Jack Hawksmoor being a hero created through alien abduction. Batman and Superman are 2 of my favorite character ever but Apollo and Midnighter are a little more grounded in realism. Not angels like the World's Finest are generally portrayed. These guys believe in vengeance and justice in the truest sense and just happen to date each other. Jenny Sparks is one of the coolest characters ever. A 99 year old hot chick with a bad attitude and enough smarts and power to back it up. The Dr. Is a much more powerful version of Dr. Strange...with a heroin addiction. I could go on with the rest of the team but those people and Hawksmoor were the powerhouses.

 

The characters start off as brutally heroic under the storytelling of Ellis. Then, Mark Millar and Frank Quitely show up and the gloves come up. They exposed the darker side of The Authority. They also made them even more powerful while exposing most of their weaknesses to be overconfidence and character flaws. In each of Millar's issues, you learn that just when you thought you'd seen the worst possible people opposing them, you'd really only scratched the surface.

 

Volume 1 of The Authority stands as my favorite series ever in spite of the fact that a few issues were BS fillers. I read the series at least once a year and I certainly miss the fresh ideas and boldness of the storytellers. There is one book that reminds me of the limits of The Authority and that would be Action Comics #775.

 

Action #775 not only demonstrated how easily Superman would handle an Authority like group. It is without a doubt, my favorite Superman story ever followed closely by Kingdom Come. Ever wonder if Superman has doubts about his power level ? He does in this book...

[the authority]

...and now...

 

Planetary - I believe that The Authority was the best superhero comic Ellis could write but Planetary was his masterpiece for the masses. Unlike The Authority and it's bombastic episodes, Planetary was a book of stealth, detective work, history, and precision. I don't want to spoil it but. I'd venture a guess that most collectors consider this Ellis' greatest work. John Cassaday was spectacular with his pencils. The character, Elijah Snow, is probably the greatest new character invented in the last 30 years and another Century baby....

[the authority]

...and what about...

 

Ultimate Spider-man - Marvel's biggest winner of the early 21st century, USM had it all. Marvel's flagship writer at the time, a hugely popular Spidey artist, and almost 50 years of stories to pull from for a mostly new audience. This is the only comic book I can remember my kids asking to borrow in, well, ever. They were pre-teens and loved it. As did their mid 30's( at the time ) dad. My only complaint was that Bendis wrote the stories in TPB form more than individual issue stories.

 

Out of this title and The Authority sprang a little book called The Ultimates. If you want to know what the movie version of the Avengers are derived from, take a look at this series and look no farther. Two of The Authority's former creators collaborated on this series. While I wouldn't say its anywhere near as great as The Authority, it is worth reading...

[the authority]

..and the best hero book in years...

 

Invincible - If you really want proof that A. Superheroes are nearly a done deal and that B. Great stories lose out to slick marketing, here it is. If someone asked me to name the single best superhero ever created, I'd have to throw Invincible in the mix. A character with Superman like powers and armed with the wit of early Spider-man/Peter Parker. He faces threats on Earth equal or greater than anything Marvel or DC characters have ever had to battle. How about aliens ? The Avengers and the Fantastic Four would be hard pressed to find better ones. Want love, hate, betrayal, and battles ?

 

There is no better superhero book on the market. Period. Yet, the most recent available sales data available from Comichron.com lets us know that around 12,500 care enough to buy an issue. Almost no speculators support the series so the number is readers but how sad is it that what is arguably the best cape book on the market almost 2 to 1 by books that Marvel and DC are ready to cancel ? In fact, Invincible was beaten by 171 other comics in June is terms of orders. Since we like to speculate here, I'd bet over 50 of those books were driven by covers and not content. Just a guess.

 

Written by the creator of The Walking Dead, Mark Grayson is today's Peter Parker coming up in a much more vicious world. This book is as good as it gets....

[SquareChaos]

..and the best hero book in years...

 

Invincible - If you really want proof that A. Superheroes are nearly a done deal and that B. Great stories lose out to slick marketing, here it is. If someone asked me to name the single best superhero ever created, I'd have to throw Invincible in the mix. A character with Superman like powers and armed with the wit of early Spider-man/Peter Parker. He faces threats on Earth equal or greater than anything Marvel or DC characters have ever had to battle. How about aliens ? The Avengers and the Fantastic Four would be hard pressed to find better ones. Want love, hate, betrayal, and battles ?

 

There is no better superhero book on the market. Period. Yet, the most recent available sales data available from Comichron.com lets us know that around 12,500 care enough to buy an issue. Almost no speculators support the series so the number is readers but how sad is it that what is arguably the best cape book on the market almost 2 to 1 by books that Marvel and DC are ready to cancel ? In fact, Invincible was beaten by 171 other comics in June is terms of orders. Since we like to speculate here, I'd bet over 50 of those books were driven by covers and not content. Just a guess.

 

Written by the creator of The Walking Dead, Mark Grayson is today's Peter Parker coming up in a much more vicious world. This book is as good as it gets....

 

Invincible also borrows more than a little from DragonBall - most of its strengths come from how well Kirkman understands the superhero genre in all of it's various flavors.

[followtheleader]

Gotham Central, brilliant series with the most awesome issue being the one where Montoya and Jim Corrigan (not that one!) take it out to the alley to settle business!

 

50 cents an issue on ebay but a great read

 

Chronos was wonderful too, great art. Wonderful wonderful.

 

Waid Captain America just before, but not after, Heroes Reborn.

 

Coventry.

 

 

Gotham Central

 

Gotham Central was so right. Great creative team switches that kept it top notch.

 

Patrick

[divad]

So why oh why aren't these books worth anything as back issues?

[delt569]

It seems I read or have read everything the Authority likes except for ironically enough The Authority.

 

Love Rat Queens, Invincible, Walking Dead, BEK, Todd, Enormous

[the authority]

So why oh why aren't these books worth anything as back issues?

 

Like most comics, they had their moment in the sun. I think TPBs and a glut of new books with pretty covers from the big 2 keep prices down. How much were individual issues of Ultimate Spidey 1,2,3,4,5 ? Anywhere from $20 to $100 each. The Authority brought over $200 a set before it hit issue #20. Remember Origin and Captain America #25 ? If you missed out on that dough, at least you can still read them and get more than your money's worth now.

[the authority]

It seems I read or have read everything the Authority likes except for ironically enough The Authority.

 

Love Rat Queens, Invincible, Walking Dead, BEK, Todd, Enormous

 

Haha ! The Authority isn't the groundbreaking book it was at it's inception as it's been copied even by the books it borrowed from originally. Still, a great read.

[the authority]

...next...

 

The Flash- Geoff Johns followed a Hall of Fame writers, Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, and Mark Millar all of the previous writers made Flash a book that ran from good to near great but Johns brought the Flash to the peak of the entire run. His early issues were noteworthy but Zoom pushed the story over the edge. Throw in a few covers by Michael Turner featuring the red and yellow and this was a must read run....

[SquareChaos]

So why oh why aren't these books worth anything as back issues?

 

Some of them are... maybe roughly the same ratio (when age is taken into account) as the number of books from any other age that are worth anything? :shrug: Maybe also put it down to the death of the run collector and the rise of the key-only purchaser.

 

Also, most of these books don't have Batman in them.

[the authority]

...speaking of Batman...

 

Superman Batman emblem style - Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness ( a super stylized artist ) brought the World's Finest back in a big, big way. Much in the fashion that Bendis and Bagley did for Ultimate Spider-man. This duo and their fictional counterparts had secret weapons that made the books really stand out on the shelves. Michael Turner and Supergirl. Thats right, after before thrown on the woodpile that is history, Supergirl was back and modernized to fit the times. This was a super fun series and super expensive for a time. Another permanent run in my PC...

[the authority]

...I've also run across...

 

JSA #1-87 - Geoff Johns made Flash great but this run was legendary. Who else could take a bunch of formerly popular characters and have them run right below DC's JLA in popularity ? Not only were the stories better than any other books featuring these old superheroes, and a few very interesting new ones, they were the best JSA ever. So what could make it even better ? How about Rag Morales and later issues featuring some of the coolest covers that Alex Ross ever did. Amazing...

[the authority]

...plus we have...

 

 

Cla$$war - this book fit perfectly in style and attitude with stuff like The Authority and Miracleman that you just couldn't get from Marvel or DC. Early Trevor Hairsine and Travel Foreman art carried the book but the story was cool too. What if superheroes were controlled by someone other than themselves ? What if the most powerful one got tired of being controlled and saw the puppet masters for what they truly were. You'll be able to find this set very easily and it probably won't cost a ton if you do. Whatever it cost, it's worth reading if you want an early post 9/11 view of indie comics...

[SquareChaos]

...plus we have...

 

 

Cla$$war - this book fit perfectly in style and attitude with stuff like The Authority and Miracleman that you just couldn't get from Marvel or DC. Early Trevor Hairsine and Travel Foreman art carried the book but the story was cool too. What if superheroes were controlled by someone other than themselves ? What if the most powerful one got tired of being controlled and saw the puppet masters for what they truly were. You'll be able to find this set very easily and it probably won't cost a ton if you do. Whatever it cost, it's worth reading if you want an early post 9/11 view of indie comics...

 

Speaking of Rob Williams, if you missed his Royals: Masters of War, it was worth a read. Certainly if you liked Cla$$war.

[the authority]

...plus we have...

 

 

Cla$$war - this book fit perfectly in style and attitude with stuff like The Authority and Miracleman that you just couldn't get from Marvel or DC. Early Trevor Hairsine and Travel Foreman art carried the book but the story was cool too. What if superheroes were controlled by someone other than themselves ? What if the most powerful one got tired of being controlled and saw the puppet masters for what they truly were. You'll be able to find this set very easily and it probably won't cost a ton if you do. Whatever it cost, it's worth reading if you want an early post 9/11 view of indie comics...

 

Speaking of Rob Williams, if you missed his Royals: Masters of War, it was worth a read. Certainly if you liked Cla$$war.

 

I'll give it a shot. Really enjoyed his writing.

[the authority]

..and for something a little newer...

 

Southern Bastards - This book is amazing and the initial hysteria it caused is hilarious based on the ending of issue #4. I love this story. It isn't hard to describe if you grew up watching shows about crooked dealings in southern towns or the original Walking Tall/Buford Pusser movies...except, there is a LOT more to it than that. Jason Aaron pulls from his own early surroundings and Jason LaTour gets the "dirty" art down to a science. I wish this was a monthly but always worth the wait as long as you don't like predictable stories...