When I started truly dipping my toes into the Marvel and DC Universes, I began with the Best Of lists. While those lists were invaluable, they also tended to feature titles that were very dark and serious, and sometimes I like some lightness and humor in my reading material. So, this is a list of my five favorite titles so far -- which may not stack up with the "greats", but also might feature just a little bit more fun.
I'd been dipping my toe into the comic book/graphic novel pool for about a year when I picked up "The Long Halloween" at the library. For the first time, I truly understood why the DC and Marvel titles deserved to be called graphic novels, rather than comic books. The tale was twisted, the characters leaped off the page, and the end left me breathless. Pretty much: I put this book down and never looked back.
I hadn't been much of a fan of the compilations of early comics that I'd tried reading in the past. They were fun for an issue or two, but then my mind would wander. So, I didn't have high hopes for this book. However--and maybe it's because I'm more into comics than I was the last time I tried reading something from the silver age--this one grabbed me. I found myself totally charmed and enjoyed seeing the origins of the villains that The Flash is still fighting to this day.
This was the first "event" book that I ever read, and it remains one of my favorites. I love alternate history stories, and I love stories where the characters try to fix history, and this just combined pretty much everything I loved into one book.
I haven't yet finished reading the No Man's Land saga, but this initial story was tense and moving and well put together, giving all of the Bat-family characters a chance to shine.
I read Marvel's "The Runaways" first, but this ended up being my favorite of the two teenage superhero teams. Possibly because they aren't actually all that good at being superheroes. I just wish that Marvel would start regularly releasing books featuring these characters again!
select one here...