The Big Five: Marvel Comics Recommendations

[Doctor Know]

If you could recommend only five runs for a character, which would you choose?

I was organizing my collection, and I realized I don't have a diverse collection of Blade and Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) titles. I realized I probably couldn't even name 5 worthwhile runs for either character, despite them being around since the 70s. I also noticed that my Iron Man collection was lacking when measured against my Thor, Captain America and Fantastic Four titles. While Iron Man is certainly a lot more popular than Blade and Jessica Drew, a lot of his volumes aren't collected like other characters in his tier.

It got me thinking, if I or someone else were to recommend just 5 runs for a respective character. Which ones would be picked?

For the X-Men (including ALL their spin-off titles) and Spider-Man, anybody could conjure those up in a heartbeat. Hell, it's even easier for Daredevil now. Start with the 1998 Heroes Return "relaunch" and stay in a straight line: Bendis, Brubaker, Waid, Soule, Zdarsky. That's 5 right there. Same Captain America: Grunewald, Waid, Jurgens, Brubaker, and Remender.


Feel free to list the characters and ensembles for your top five picks. They don't have to be in a row. Just top 5 runs over all that you feel are the best representative.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Claremont's X-Men
Busiek/Perez' Avengers
Nicieza/Bagley's New Warriors

and I'm probably on the minority here:
Liefeld's New Mutants/X-Force
The Clone Saga

[Kurt Busiek]

For SPIDER-WOMAN, ay least, I don't have five runs, but the Gruenwald/Infantino run and the Claremont/Leialoha run are both good reads, and the entire run of the first series has been collected in Epic volumes.

The Wolfman/Infantino run is also decent, and sets up a lot of the foundation for the character.

[charliehustle415]

THOR: JMS, Gillen, Fraction, Aaron, Cates

Luckily you can read them all in order

[Doctor Know]

For SPIDER-WOMAN, ay least, I don't have five runs, but the Gruenwald/Infantino run and the Claremont/Leialoha run are both good reads, and the entire run of the first series has been collected in Epic volumes.

The Wolfman/Infantino run is also decent, and sets up a lot of the foundation for the character.

Thank you. I'll be working my way through classic Jessica soon. It helps knowing which names to follow.

THOR: JMS, Gillen, Fraction, Aaron, Cates

Luckily you can read them all in order

Haha! My man! I noticed that too. Thor and Daredevil fans are eating good! To have 5 solid runs in a row is a massive achievement. Most characters are lucky to even get two in a row.


My big 5 for a start would be:

Avengers:
1. Silver Age beginnings Lee/Kirby/Thomas or Roger Stern 1983-1988
2. West Coast Avengers - Englehart 1985-1988
3. "Heroes Return" Avengers - Buisek and Perez 1998-2002
4. New Avengers Vol 1 - Bendis 2004-2010. Way better than his New Avengers vol 2 during the Heroic Age.
5. Avengers, New Avengers, Avengers World - Hickman 2012-2015

[charliehustle415]

Thank you. I'll be working my way through classic Jessica soon. It helps knowing which names to follow.



Haha! My man! I noticed that too. Thor and Daredevil fans are eating good! To have 5 solid runs in a row is a massive achievement. Most characters are lucky to even get two in a row.


My big 5 for a start would be:

Avengers:
1. Silver Age beginnings Lee/Kirby/Thomas or Roger Stern 1983-1988
2. West Coast Avengers - Englehart 1985-1988
3. "Heroes Return" Avengers - Buisek and Perez 1998-2002
4. New Avengers Vol 1 - Bendis 2004-2010. Way better than his New Avengers vol 2 during the Heroic Age.
5. Avengers, New Avengers, Avengers World - Hickman 2012-2015

Hell yeah, Thor and DD fans had amazing writers.

The difficult thing for choosing a single line is that most writers continue their stories in other titles, for example Ewing's story jumped across multiple titles and is now continuing in Immortal Thor or Hickman going from SHIELD --> Secret Warriors --> Fantastic Four --> Ultimates --> Avengers --> Secret Wars.

But back to the topic another one to add would be:

THUNDERBOLTS: Busiek, Nicieza, Ellis, Gage, and Parker.

I did enjoy Diggle's run but it wasn't that long; nevertheless, another title that could be run from beginning to end

[Mister Mets]

I saw the thread and was thinking it was for all of Marvel...

Lee/ Kirby Fantastic Four
Claremont/ Byrne Uncanny X-Men (if I could also include Dave Cockrum and Paul Smith's work- basically everything up until Uncanny X-Men #175)
Frank Miller Daredevil
Lee/ Ditko/ Romita Sr Amazing Spider-Man (Cheating to combine two runs)
Busiek's Avengers (Rereading it right now)

But five runs for one character...

Spider-Man
Lee/ Ditko
Lee/ Romita Sr
Stern/ Romita Jr/ friends (To include "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man"
Bendis/ Bagley
Dan Slott

Daredevil
Lee/ Wood/ Romita Sr/ Colan
Frank Miller
Bendis/ Maleev
Brubaker
Waid

I do have to read the Zdarsky run.

Fantastic Four
Lee/ Kirby
Byrne
Waid/ Wieringo
Hickman
North

The Avengers
Stern
Busiek
Bendis
Millar/ Hitch (The Ultimates)
Hickman

The best stretch of Avengers comics might be when the Korvac saga occurred at the same time as Jim Starlin's Thanos saga ended, but that had a lot of writers)

[Doctor Know]

Hell yeah, Thor and DD fans had amazing writers.

The difficult thing for choosing a single line is that most writers continue their stories in other titles, for example Ewing's story jumped across multiple titles and is now continuing in Immortal Thor or Hickman going from SHIELD --> Secret Warriors --> Fantastic Four --> Ultimates --> Avengers --> Secret Wars.

Ain’t that the truth. I’m always amazed that writers like Hickman, Bendis and Aaron can keep it all together. With all the titles and storylines they weave.

But back to the topic another one to add would be:

THUNDERBOLTS: Busiek, Nicieza, Ellis, Gage, and Parker.

I did enjoy Diggle's run but it wasn't that long; nevertheless, another title that could be run from beginning to end

Very nice. I read the original Thunderbolts back in the 90s. When it Hawkeye was a main character. I’ll definitely check out other authors runs. Hopefully before the movie.


Big Five Punisher:
1. Marvel Knights - Ennis
2. Punisher Max - Ennis
3. Punisher Max - Hurwitz
4. Punisher Max - Aaron
5. The Punisher - Rucka or Remender. Depends on how people feel about Franken-Castle.

[Babylon23]

Avengers
1. Thomas/Buscema
2. Englehart
3. Shooter/Perez
4. Stern/Buscema
5. Busiek/Perez

Thor
1. Lee/Kirby
2. Wein/Buscema
3. Simonson
4. De Falco/Frenz
5. Jurgens/Romita Jr.

Spider-Man
1. Lee/Ditko/Romita
2. Conway/Andru
3. Stern/Romita Jr.
4. Dematteis/Zeck - only 1 story but absolutely essential
5. Slott

Captain America
1. Steranko
2. Englehart/Buscema/Robbins
3. Byrne/Stern
4. DeMatteis/Zeck
5. Gruenwald

[SturdyMike89]

Let's go:

CAPTAIN AMERICA:

1. Mark Waid/Ron Garney and Andy Kubert (also including Sentinel of Liberty issues written by Waid)
2. Ed Brubaker
3. Mark Gruenwald (particularly during the era that covers his run as The Captain and storylines like Streets of Poison, Acts of Vengeance! and ending before Crapwolf)
4. John Romita Sr. run in the early 70s
5. Steve Englehart

FANTASTIC FOUR:

1. John Byrne
2. John Hickman
3. Jeph Loeb/Carlos Pacheco
4. Matt Fraction
5. Steve Englebert

AVENGERS:

1. Kurt Busiek/George Perez
2. Roger Stern
3. The other George Perez work without Busiek
4. Roy Thomas/John Buscema
5. John Hickman

DAREDEVIL:

1. Karl Kessel
2. Ann Nocenti
3. Mark Waid
4. Frank Miller
5. D.G. Chichester

[Tony Stark]

IRON MAN 5:
Micilinie/Layton (both runs)
O’Neal
Kamanski
Busiek
Fraction

I would rank Cantwell’s run as well.

[Doctor Know]

IRON MAN 5:
Micilinie/Layton (both runs)
O’Neal
Kamanski
Busiek
Fraction

I would rank Cantwell’s run as well.

Thanks for this list. I found my oversized hardcovers for the first half of Fraction's run behind my bookshelf.

Shame that the latter half of the run wasn't collected into a third volume. Bigger shame that the back half of his run was highjacked to support an event that had nothing to do with his story. That being "Fear Itself".

I didn't know Fraction's run won an Eisner Award for Best New Series in 2009. Bigger shame it's been neglected by Marvel.


Big Five Hulk:
1. Bill Mantlo - The Incredible Hulk #245–313
2. Peter David's 12 year run
2. Greg Pak's first run. Planet Hulk and World War Hulk
4. Al Ewing's Immortal Hulk
5. L̶O̶E̶B̶'S̶ R̶U̶L̶K̶!̶!̶!̶ Just kidding. Byrne's She-Hulk

[Babylon23]

IRON MAN 5:
Micilinie/Layton (both runs)
O’Neal
Kamanski
Busiek
Fraction

I would rank Cantwell’s run as well.

I'd add the Archie Goodwin/George Tuska run to any Iron Man list. It's grossly underrated.

[Tony Stark]

I'd add the Archie Goodwin/George Tuska run to any Iron Man list. It's grossly underrated.

I wouldn’t doubt it. It’s been a few years since I’ve read that run.

[DigiCom]

For Moon Knight, it's easy:

Moench
Huston
Ellis/Wood/Bunn (all one run).
Lemire
Mackay.