Ultimate Central: Cheer me up, with Comix

Gothamite

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Apr 30, 2007
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Location
Dublin, Ireland
Okay, so I have a fair bit of money hitting my bank account this Friday, my first serious girlfriend and I broke up last week for logistical and time management reasons and I need cheering up.

Give me a list of comics to buy. I'm not looking for an Earth-shattering GN or a trippy one-shot. I want old-fashioned, fun-to-follow superhero comics. I'm buying Invincible #59 this week and I want to enjoy an assortment of others along with it.
 
Old-fashioned, fun-to-follow superhero comics?

Good luck. :/

All-Star Superman more or less fits that bill. As do the original Ellis/Millar runs on The Authority. Planetary; Nextwave; Morrison's JLA; Mark Millar's individual issues on Superman Adventures from the 90s (awesome if you can dig them out); old school Lee/Romita Spider-Man; Adam Hughes' Gen 13: Ordinary Heroes (the tpb has a crappy Alan Davis comic but does contain Hughes' "Wham!" back-up story); Adam Warren's Empowered, Gen 13: Grunge The Movie, and Gen 13: Magical Drama Queen Roxy; The Ultimates; Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men; Scott McCloud's Zot!; the first twenty or so issues of Ultimate Spider-Man; Age of Sentry (I've picked them up but not read them yet, they look fun and old-school); Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade...

But honestly... the best 'old-fashioned, fun-to-follow superhero' comic I can think of?

Tom Strong (also, Tom Strong's Terrific Tales).

Unfortunately... all of these have finished. If you want one to add to your pull list... I can't think of any. Neil Gaiman's Batman comic is cool, but only 1 issues is out and there's only 1 issue left. The closest I have to a superhero comic in my pullbox (other than Empowered) is Runaways and I'm not enjoying it much. Other than that, I have Fables, BPRD and Hellboy, Scott Pilgrim, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane (not enjoying that too much either), 100 Bullets (almost finished), Bone, and that's about it.
 
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Unfortunately... all of these have finished. If you want one to add to your pull list... I can't think of any. Neil Gaiman's Batman comic is cool, but only 1 issues is out and there's only 1 issue left. The closest I have to a superhero comic in my pullbox (other than Empowered) is Runaways and I'm not enjoying it much. Other than that, I have Fables, BPRD and Hellboy, Scott Pilgrim, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane (not enjoying that too much either), 100 Bullets (almost finished), Bone, and that's about it.

Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, I must have phrased that wrong.

Give me a pull-list of things I can jump into easily enough. They don't neccessarily have to be superhero comics. Just entertaining and well-written.
 
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But... you said you wanted old-school superhero fare!

Get Tom Strong. It's really, very good and probably what you're after.

If you want new stuff for your pull-list... blerg.
 
You want feel good awesome? Go with Scott Pilgrim. (Although I think Dublin is still sold out of Volume Fives).

Green Lantern is hands down the best superhero comic out there right now, but to properly appreciate it you should go back and grab all the issues since the title rebooted.

Aside from that? I don't know. Most of the comics on my pull-list have been disappointing lately.
 
The best thing to do would be to grab the three TPBs of the Geoff Johns run directly after Rebirth:

Vol. 1 - No Fear
Vol. 2 - Revenge of the Green Lanterns
Vol. 3 - Wanted: Hal Jordan

Followed by the two volumes of Sinestro Corps and Secret Origins.

But honestly... It wouldnt be the worst thing just to skip directly to the Sinestro Corps War, and THEN read the Secret Origins trade. If you then grab all the issues for "Rage of the Red Lanterns" you'll be ready for "Agent Orange" to start next month.
 
The best thing to do would be to grab the three TPBs of the Geoff Johns run directly after Rebirth:

Vol. 1 - No Fear
Vol. 2 - Revenge of the Green Lanterns
Vol. 3 - Wanted: Hal Jordan

Followed by the two volumes of Sinestro Corps and Secret Origins.

But honestly... It wouldnt be the worst thing just to skip directly to the Sinestro Corps War, and THEN read the Secret Origins trade. If you then grab all the issues for "Rage of the Red Lanterns" you'll be ready for "Agent Orange" to start next month.

I was going to suggest this same thing.

Daredevil is really good and easy to jump into.

Northlanders is a good non-superhero comic that is currently on it's 3rd arc I think. None of the arcs have anything to do with that last one.
 
Pick up Scalped, which is the best thing Vertigo has to offer right now. Seriously. Just buy all the trades and gobble them up.

But if you've just broken up with your girlfriend and really want to wallow self-indulgently in angsty feelings, pick up some Adrian Tomine stuff like Summer Blonde. (Though Scalped is pretty damn angsty too).

For just fun superhero fare, I highly recommend the first volume of Mark Waid's run on Fantastic Four, "The Imaginauts." The enjoyment mileage of the rest of his run tends to vary with people, but that trade is definitely the sheer fun volume.

Also, try some anthologies like Popgun, which basically is a "comic book mixtape" of various artists and various writers just having a blast, though a few of the pieces feel like gratification-stymied teasers for whole works.
 
Can I recommend the Bone one volume edition (OVE)? Expensive, and a bit bittersweet in some points, but very worth it and with an overall upbeat tone.

I second most of the previous recommendations, especially Scott Pilgrim, and I've heard good things about Incredible Herc.

If you haven't bought Nextwave yet, now's the time.
 
Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, The Immortal Iron Fist, Incredible Hercules, Captain America, Thor, Invincible Iron Man, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Thunderbolts, and I guess Wolverine: Weapon X

are all great picks, that don't need a whole lot to dive into
 

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