Are Marvel comics actually the best they've ever been?

[The Cool Thatguy]

In real time they've been around for over two decades now. In Marvel Time, it's been a few years, at best.

They're all young adults who've served on serious teams. Their youth shouldn't be a factor

[Snoop Dogg]

marble comics has not ever and never will be great until I am editor-in-chief, watch it, CB!

[Prof. Warren]

They're all young adults who've served on serious teams. Their youth shouldn't be a factor

But that's not how comics work.

No matter how much time passes and how many stories accumulate in their fictional histories, they're always going to have that function of being junior X-Men.

[The Cool Thatguy]

But that's not how comics work.

No matter how much time passes and how many stories accumulate in their fictional histories, they're always going to have that function of being junior X-Men.

Says who?

There are like, 3 junior teams after the first New Mutants. Sam and Dani have led their own teams. Hell, Sam was an X-Man and Avenger, Wolfsbane held her own on X-Factor and Excalibur. Of all of them, Illyana has technically seen the least amount of action yet gets the most focus because she's a writer's fave.

Time may pass at a much slower rate, but it does pass. Characters do change, or rather, should. There's no reason why they can't be depicted as just as capable as the rest of the team.

[Kurolegacy]

But that's not how comics work.

No matter how much time passes and how many stories accumulate in their fictional histories, they're always going to have that function of being junior X-Men.

Problem there is it doesn’t make sense in light of the developments those characters have had in their span of publication. For example, it would be a crock of bull if Sunspot were to come back to the X-Men and be treated as a junior when he’s at this point been the leader of both the New/USAvengers as well as AIM. It’s even more ridiculous when you basically see X-23 sitting at the adult table being treated as their equal. The developments characters go through are important.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Problem there is it doesn’t make sense in light of the developments those characters have had in their span of publication. For example, it would be a crock of bull if Sunspot were to come back to the X-Men and be treated as a junior when he’s at this point been the leader of both the New/USAvengers as well as AIM. It’s even more ridiculous when you basically see X-23 sitting at the adult table being treated as their equal. The developments characters go through are important.

Exactly.

That's especially important in a franchise like the X-Men. Because I don't think a metaphor built on minority symbolism should automatically be headed by a WASP (and I am a WASP).

If characters don't change, if they don't develop, why should we care? Comics are 2D motionless pictures. As a medium, they need development more than any other, IMO

[WebLurker]

But that's not how comics work.

No matter how much time passes and how many stories accumulate in their fictional histories, they're always going to have that function of being junior X-Men.

I see that compliant a lot on New X-Men-centric threads on other parts of this forum. Since I have more affinity for that team then I do the classic comics, I can relate. Throw a rock in the X-Men movie threads and you'll hit people hoping that future MCU X-Men movies get Cyclops "right," while I could care less about seeing Cyclops again. Let's have Surge get a chance to lead a team on the big screen come five-ish years now.

It’s even more ridiculous when you basically see X-23 sitting at the adult table being treated as their equal. The developments characters go through are important.

In all fairness, X-23 is primarily a solo character (albeit one with a co-star in her younger sister) and did kinda have to grow up faster then the others. While, as my above comment would indicate, I'm not really pleased that that generation has fallen by the wayside, I wouldn't read too much into it.

[GrandEleven]

Ill take the bait: Immortal Hulk is currently as good of a Hulk run as we've ever seen. It's a fantastic book, and yes, all involved deserve props for it. You can try to convince me otherwise ... but you'd be wrong.

That said, not every book falls in that category, but I do think there has been a good upswing in quality in generl from Marvel. That later part is opinion... not Hulk though. Thats objective fact.

[Flash Gordon]

No, but if you're enjoying it and think so don't listen to anybody tell you "no"! Read what you like and enjoy what you read!

Everybody's mileage varies.

Hopefully a solid Silver Surfer book will spring into fruition and my mileage can begin to vary!

[Jekyll]

Marvel truly has something for everyone right now. Personally I have never read much Marvel outside of Daredevil and Spider-Man, that being said my pull list is just about all Marvel these days. I am having a blast! There is a lot of good stuff coming out right now from great creative teams.

[Mike]

I see a lot of people saying that the quality of Marvel comics is going down and that they aren't making good books any more.

Buy and read what you enjoy.
That's what I have been doing.
The only thing that I have been getting from Marvel, in quite some time, has been the Thanos hardcovers by Jim Starlin.
I tried the latest relaunch of the Fantastic Four. Didn't like it. Dropped it after two issues.

[Digifiend]

I see a lot of people saying that the quality of Marvel comics is going down and that they aren't making good books any more.

I bought a subscription to Marvel Unlimited a few months ago though, and so far I have really been enjoying newer stuff and having a hard time getting into stuff that's 10+ years old.

Here are some series I have really enjoyed:
-1872
-All-New Doop
-All-New Guardians of the Galaxy
-Astonishing Ant-Man
-Captain Marvel (DeConnick)
-Captain Marvel (Thompson)
-Cloak and Dagger
-Cosmic Ghost Rider
-Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History
-Daredevil (mostly since Kingpin became mayor)
-Death of Inhumans
-Doctor Strange
-Drax
-FF
-Guardians of the Galaxy (Cates)
-Hawkeye (Thompson)
-Hyperion
-Immortal Hulk
-Infinity Countdown/Wars
-Life of Captain Marvel
-M.O.D.O.K. Assassin
-Mighty Thor
-Multiple Man
-Original Sin
-Punisher (the war machine arc)
-Sentry
-Thanos/Thanos Wins
-Thanos vs. Hulk
-Thunderbolts
-Unstoppable Wasp
-Venom (Cates)
-Venom: Space Knight
-Venomized
-Vision
-West Coast Avengers (Thompson)
-X-23
-X-Men Red

If you are having a hard time finding new Marvel comics that are good I would recommend those series to start. I haven't read a lot of more popular series like Spiderman, Avengers, etc. so I'm not sure about them.

Also, what older series would you guys recommend to me? Thanks in advance.

All of the current Champions line are decent books. And you only have one of them, Wasp, in your list. The others are Champions itself, Ms. Marvel, Miles Morales Spider-Man, and Ironheart. You have Vision listed, so you might want to start Champions from the beginning of Waid's run, 2016, as it continues Viv Vision's story. Champions does improve, however, when Jim Zub takes over at issue 19. Ms. Marvel should be started from the beginning of Wilson's run in 2014. It's too soon to judge new writer Saladin Ahmed, whose second issue will be out this week. Ahmed does have a full arc of Miles Morales out (his fifth issue is out this week), though it's not on Unlimited yet due to the six months behind policy. Eve Ewing has done a good job so far on Riri's book. Both hers and Miles' have improved from previous writer Bendis.

Which Thunderbolts run are you talking about there? Zub's? Anyway, check out Uncanny Avengers. Issues 1-23 are by All-New GOTG writer Gerry Duggan, Zub takes over at issue 24.

You list Astonishing Ant-Man - have you read the pre-Secret Wars Ant-Man series where Nick Spencer actually started his run on Scott? You should also try his Superior Foes of Spider-Man.

Also try Avengers No Surrender, by Zub, Al Ewing, and Mark Waid. It actually set up Immortal Hulk.

[DebkoX]

I see a lot of people saying that the quality of Marvel comics is going down and that they aren't making good books any more.

I bought a subscription to Marvel Unlimited a few months ago though, and so far I have really been enjoying newer stuff and having a hard time getting into stuff that's 10+ years old.

Here are some series I have really enjoyed:
-1872
-All-New Doop
-All-New Guardians of the Galaxy
-Astonishing Ant-Man
-Captain Marvel (DeConnick)
-Captain Marvel (Thompson)
-Cloak and Dagger
-Cosmic Ghost Rider
-Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History
-Daredevil (mostly since Kingpin became mayor)
-Death of Inhumans
-Doctor Strange
-Drax
-FF
-Guardians of the Galaxy (Cates)
-Hawkeye (Thompson)
-Hyperion
-Immortal Hulk
-Infinity Countdown/Wars
-Life of Captain Marvel
-M.O.D.O.K. Assassin
-Mighty Thor
-Multiple Man
-Original Sin
-Punisher (the war machine arc)
-Sentry
-Thanos/Thanos Wins
-Thanos vs. Hulk
-Thunderbolts
-Unstoppable Wasp
-Venom (Cates)
-Venom: Space Knight
-Venomized
-Vision
-West Coast Avengers (Thompson)
-X-23
-X-Men Red

If you are having a hard time finding new Marvel comics that are good I would recommend those series to start. I haven't read a lot of more popular series like Spiderman, Avengers, etc. so I'm not sure about them.

Also, what older series would you guys recommend to me? Thanks in advance.

We are in a really good time!

[My Two Cents]

I would say between 1966-1975 is there best years.
They established there characters and really started
To get on a huge roll.
For sure as the decades past the writing got
Better and shows why many can not
Get into these older stories.
But from a creative and growth point
The past few decades have been dead.
Terrific and fun stories to be sure,
But because of copy rights and just
Ignorance to past stories today’s
Stories are only good while the current
Writer is on th book or Marvel
Needs to flex there sales muscles
And create the next event and new
Line of books.

[Raye]

I am loving the books right now, some favorites include Thor, Squirrel Girl, Venom (surprisingly), Immortal Hulk (again surprisingly. never been much of a Hulk or Venom fan)... but there's lots of good stuff. Don't care what anyone else says.

I think people are more prone to voice negative opinions, and then if you DO like it, do you really want to wade in and be put on the defensive by default and have to defend what you like and try and say why you think it doesn't suck, rather than just.... discussing it? It's why I have pulled back a lot, I'm just tired of every thread turning into an argument about whether or not a run sucks or not, when I just want to talk about plot points and stuff. I mean people can like or dislike anything they want, but when it comes to discussion, I just want to discus plot and stuff for the most part. So yeah, I am sure there are plenty of people who are loving things right now, even if they don't speak up a lot. It's just not realistic to think that tens of thousands of people are hate-buying the books.