Comics every REAL collector must read
Lets face it, every genre has this.
Music you must listen to, football games you must watch, video games you must play, movies you must see...
So comics. What are THE must reads? I'll start with:
Crisis on Infinite Earths
"The Dark Phoenix Saga" X-Men 129-138
The Dark Knight Returns
Fantastic Four 51 "This Man, This Monster"
Watchmen
Secret Wars
The Judas Contract Tales of the Teen Titans 42-44, TotTT 1984 annual
"Demon in a Bottle" Iron Man 120-128
Flash (Wally):
Terminal Velocity (Flash 95-100)
Flash (Barry):
Flash vs Flash + subsequent trial (Flash 323-328)
Superman:
Ending Battle (Superman 186-187, Adventures of Superman 608-609,
Man of Steel 130-131, Action comics 795-796)
Green Lantern (Hal):
Emerald Twilight (Green Lantern v3 48-50)
Green Lantern (Kyle):
Circle of Fire (Green Lantern: Circle of Fire 1-2)
Green Lantern (Guy):
This guy, this gardner (JLA Classified 4-9)
Batman (Bruce):
Black Glove+Batman RIP (Batman 667-675, 676-681)
Batman (Nightwing):
Batman and Robin (1-12)
Fables
Y The Last Man
First 2 volumes of The Ultimates
Garth Ennis' Punisher
Rising Stars
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Grant Morrison's Animal Man
I read Watchmen, V for Vendetta and Dark Knight Returns for the first time not long ago. The last one was awesome,but the first two? I honestly don't get what all the fuss is about.
Originally posted by abhilegendI'd agree with these.
All Star Superman.Infinity Gauntlet.
Sandman.
Lucifer.
Invisibles/Flex Mentallo.
Planetary
Batman Year One.
etc.
For DC/Marvel I would also add:
Kingdom Come, Sinestro Corps War, The Long Halloween, The Judas Contract, Secret Wars I, Daredevil: Born Again, The Ultimates(I-II), Annihilation.
I was going to name some Indie must-reads, but the list is vast(moreso than I realized), so I'll just mention a few notable titles I've not yet seen mentioned:
Preacher, The Walking Dead, Grendel: Behold The Devil
Originally posted by riv6672
Honestly any list we make will be huge regardless!Indie wise, Powers "Who killed Retro Girl?" Was great. The original run of Miracle Man. Sooo many...
There are a lot of good ones here.
But I disagree with Infinity Gauntlet. It didn't introduce any new characters, villains etc, it didn't even deal with the resurrection of Thanos or Warlock after a long hiatus of being dead - that was handled in earlier issues. It didn't introduce the soul gems or their rebranding as the Infinity Gems, or the unification of the gems. It didn't really change anything or have lasting effects, it was another one of those stories where a whole lot of crap went down and was all reset at the end with hardly anyone remembering. It didn't really have any sort of original story (it was quite derivative of Starlin's earlier work,), any clever plot turns, or surprises. Characterisation and real drama took a back seat to cosmic pyrotechnics and temporary hero deaths.
A fun story? Yes. Entertaining, interesting? Yes. Worth reading? Yes. But a brilliant comic for the must read list of classics? Not really. I would recommend Starlin's earlier Thanos/Warlock arcs as candidates ahead of Infinity Gauntlet.
I think there is a difference. There are stories which I liked and I thought were worth reading but wouldn't put on a "must read" list. There are also a few which I wasn't a big fan of that I might still consider for the list.
To me, "must reads" would include some "classic" stories, but also stories that defined genres or had a big influence on what came after, perhaps some that introduced great characters or concepts.
I wouldn't put Infinity Gauntlet on, not just because I thought the story and characters were a bit weak in parts, but also because it doesn't really do anything new. It's light entertainment if you like that sort of thing.
On the other hand, whether people like Watchmen and Dark Knight or not, a lot of them would probably agree that they belong on the list if only because of their influence. Like novels and films, there are various reasons for being on the list.