Recommendations for a reader who started in the 60s and stopped in the early 90s

[beewinged]

I started reading comics 20 years ago. I was 13 years old, X2 had just come out, and Borders had these big comic book displays with a mix of contemporary comics and volumes and volumes of Marvel Essentials.

I can't remember what would have been new in trades at that time (Ultimate Spider-Man would have been hot, I think... and I remember frowningly flipping through Phoneix Endsong a few years later). Doesn't matter: I was utterly uninterested in contemporary comics. To me the art of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, the theatrical (and in Claremont's case, positively overwrought) prose packed with dated slang-- that stuff was "real comics". The Essentials volumes were life-changing-- at that age, I thought you had to buy old comics on eBay or something, actually getting my hands on those stories was thrilling. Reading Silver Age comics felt like time travel: I was watching the very concept of "superhero" solidify, then be deconstructed and evolve even more through the Silver and Bronze Age. Characters changed and grew.

So much of what I loved about Marvel is kind of... gone, by the early 90s. I've TRIED to get into modern comics, but I haven't been very successful. Manga?-- Yes! Indie comics?-- Yes! But modern Marvel comics feel stuck in an interminable phase of self-adaptation. The problem has always been lurking (was reading a Claremont Reddit AMA, and it sure seems like being forced to write Scott Summers leaving his wife and infant son is still his own, personal "One More Day", and that was 80s drama), I get that it's enmeshed with how the big two handle their IP, but these days it feels like the problem has eaten the books.

However! I know that there are people who started reading and loving comics in the 2000s or 2010s (or, somehow, in the mid/late 90s). I know that most online answers to the question, "where should I start reading X" don't necessarily recommend the Silver Age stories at all! So I want to know what you guys would recommend as the greatest Marvel stories of the past 25 years or so. Any character or team. Good stories on their own merits-- I don't care about lore or character continuity. I'm interested in quality storytelling with some degree of completeness, and I'm open-minded.

There are a few post-millennium stories I have read:

- Cullen Bunn's Magneto (was enjoying it until a bunch of crossover stuff started happening)

- Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force (the only post-Claremont X-team story that I've read in full and enjoyed)

- Original run of Old Man Logan (I thought it was... dumb. LOL. Fun in a teenage edgelord kind of way, but I prefer my Wolverine equal parts gory and thinky)

- Greg Rucka's Wolverine (quite enjoyed it-- anthology story-telling is never a downside for me, I think it really requires a character to be interesting on their own terms)

- Ultimate Spiderman (up to Death of Spider-Man-- not quite my thing, but I totally understand why people love it)

Modern Spider-Man and X-Men recommendations would be great, but I would also love suggestions for characters and teams I'm less familiar with. Best Venom and Deadpool stories would also be much appreciated. I've read Spider-Man comics from the beginning until the (technically 2nd) Clone Saga, and I know Venom has changed a lot, since then. Ooh, also whether any of the Miles Morales comics are actually good. I love him in the movies so much that I've been kind of afraid to read the comics. Thank you in advance-- your suggestions are not only good for me, but good for our local library!

[Alex_Of_X]

hell yea, dude, welcome back!

Since you liked Remender's Uncanny X-Force, check out Uncanny Avengers (vol 1, books 1-5)., it's a direct sequel. Read AXIS if you love it. Read Uncanny Avengers vol 2, book 1 if you really like it.

For X-Men:
House of X\Powers of X, if you want sci-fi
Astonishing X-Men (vol 1, books 1-4), for the X-Men in school Claremon vibe
New X-Men by Grant Morrison, for weird freaky stuff

Venom:
Venom by Rick Remender, for the Flash Thompson as soldier Venom goodness
Venom by Donny Cates, for the neo-classic Eddie Brock anti-hero Venom revival

Deadpool:
Gerry Duggan\Brian Posehn's run. It's like 100 issues and it's grand. Lots of crossover stuff after the halfway point tho

Miles Morales:
I like the Ultimate period the most, so it'll be Ultimate Comics Spider-Man. Should be ~5-6 trades

Peter Parker:
ASM by JMS\JRJR
ASM by Dan Slott
Superior Spider-Man
(If you're a bad enough dude you can check out Zeb Wells's current run, but beware, it's divisive stuff)

Hall of the Greats (XXI century)
Immortal Hulk (for the horror)
Thor by Jason Aaron (for the grandeur)
Invincible Iron Man by Matt Fraction (for the spi-fi)
Captain America by Nick Spencer (for the thrill)
Squirrel Girl (for the hyucks)
Ms. Marvel by G.Willow Wilson (for the teen drama)
Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen (for the YA drama)
Silver Surfer by Dan Slott (for the Dr. Whovian sci-fi)
Ultimates an Ultimates^2 by Al Ewing (for cerebral, Ditko-esque Sci-Fi)
Defenders and Defenders: Beyond by Al Ewing (for pulpy, Kirby-esque Sci-Fi)

Can't go wrong with any of the above. Happy reading, true believer!

[your_name_here]

Brubakers run on Captain America is a pure classic and demands to be read.
I second Astonishing X-Men as a modern Claremont-inspired X-Story
Planet/World War Hulk
Immortal Hulk
Immortal Iron Fist by Brubaker/Fraction/Aja
Hawkeye by Fraction/Aja

[clonegeek]

I started reading comics 20 years ago. I was 13 years old, X2 had just come out, and Borders had these big comic book displays with a mix of contemporary comics and volumes and volumes of Marvel Essentials.

I can't remember what would have been new in trades at that time (Ultimate Spider-Man would have been hot, I think... and I remember frowningly flipping through Phoneix Endsong a few years later). Doesn't matter: I was utterly uninterested in contemporary comics. To me the art of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, the theatrical (and in Claremont's case, positively overwrought) prose packed with dated slang-- that stuff was "real comics". The Essentials volumes were life-changing-- at that age, I thought you had to buy old comics on eBay, or something, actually getting my hands on those stories was thrilling. Reading Silver Age comics felt like time travel: I was watching the very concept of "superhero" solidify, then be deconstructed and evolve even more through the Silver and Bronze Age. Characters changed and grew.

So much of what I loved about Marvel is kind of... gone, by the early 90s. I've TRIED to get into modern comics, but I haven't been very successful. Manga?-- Yes! Indie comics?-- Yes! But modern Marvel comics feel stuck in an interminable phase of self-adaptation. The problem has always been lurking (was reading a Claremont Reddit AMA, and it sure seems like being forced to write Scott Summers leaving his wife and infant son is still his own, personal "One More Day", and that was 80s drama), I get that it's enmeshed with how the big two handle their IP, but these days it feels like the problem has eaten the books.

However! I know that there are people who started reading and loving comics in the 2000s or 2010s (or, somehow, in the mid/late 90s). I know that most online answers to the question, "where should I start reading X" don't necessarily recommend the Silver Age stories at all! So I want to know what you guys would recommend as the greatest Marvel or DC stories of the past 25 years or so. Any character or team. Good stories on their own merits-- I don't care about lore or character continuity. I'm interested in quality storytelling with some degree of completeness, and I'm open-minded.

There are a few post-millennium stories I have read:

- Cullen Bunn's Magneto (was enjoying it until a bunch of crossover stuff started happening)

- Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force (the only post-Claremont X-team story that I've read in full and enjoyed)

- Original run of Old Man Logan (I thought it was... dumb. LOL. Fun in a teenage edgelord kind of way, but I prefer my Wolverine equal parts gory and thinky)

- Greg Rucka's Wolverine (quite enjoyed it-- anthology story-telling is never a downside for me, I think it really requires a character to be interesting on their own terms)

- Ultimate Spiderman (up to Death of Spider-Man-- not quite my thing, but I totally understand why people love it)

Modern Spider-Man and X-Men recommendations would be great, but I would also love suggestions for characters and teams I'm less familiar with. Best Venom and Deadpool stories would also be much appreciated. I've read Spider-Man comics from the beginning until the (technically 2nd) Clone Saga, and I know Venom has changed a lot, since then. Ooh, also whether any of the Miles Morales comics are actually good. I love him in the movies so much that I've been kind of afraid to read the comics. Thank you in advance-- your suggestions are not only good for me, but good for our local library!

Don't read the Dan Slott run or the current Zeb Wells run on the title

[beewinged]

Can't go wrong with any of the above. Happy reading, true believer!

Awesome! Thanks so much for the reply! Lots of recommendations that weren't on my list-- I'm excited to check them out.

- HOX/POX has been on my radar and summaries of the storyline did really intrigue me-- would you say it has a somewhat satisfying conclusion? My impression as an outsider was that Hickman's departure was unexpected, so I was hesitant to start reading this arc.

- I did forget to mention Iron Man: Extremis... that's the only Iron Man story I've read, and I did enjoy it. What flavor of Iron Man does Fraction portray, would you say?

- I also have read quite a bit of Wilson's Ms. Marvel run-- very charming, and a true accomplishment to get a new hero on the pop culture radar. Does her run get to "wrap up" to some degree, or does it disintegrate into crossover storylines?

- I worked very hard to track down Donny Cates' Venom for the library (it's so hard to find complete comic book runs through library vendors), so I'm glad you included it-- and I didn't even know Remender had written Venom stories!

Great list! I'll definitely post a follow-up comment when I've read some.

[Chubistian]

Awesome! Thanks so much for the reply! Lots of recommendations that weren't on my list-- I'm excited to check them out.

- HOX/POX has been on my radar and summaries of the storyline did really intrigue me-- would you say it has a somewhat satisfying conclusion? My impression as an outsider was that Hickman's departure was unexpected, so I was hesitant to start reading this arc.

- I did forget to mention Iron Man: Extremis... that's the only Iron Man story I've read, and I did enjoy it. What flavor of Iron Man does Fraction portray, would you say?

- I also have read quite a bit of Wilson's Ms. Marvel run-- very charming, and a true accomplishment to get a new hero on the pop culture radar. Does her run get to "wrap up" to some degree, or does it disintegrate into crossover storylines?

- I worked very hard to track down Donny Cates' Venom for the library (it's so hard to find complete comic book runs through library vendors), so I'm glad you included it-- and I didn't even know Remender had written Venom stories!

Great list! I'll definitely post a follow-up comment when I've read some.

I think HoX/Pox has a good conclusion in Inferno (named exactly like the 80s crossover, but with no correlation). Some plots are left open, as for other creative teams to play with them, but the core of what Hickman was telling gets wrapped up to a certain extent imo

I would add as a recommendations Hickman's Fantastic Four and the current FF run by North and Coello

[beewinged]

Brubakers run on Captain America is a pure classic and demands to be read.
I second Astonishing X-Men as a modern Claremont-inspired X-Story
Planet/World War Hulk
Immortal Hulk
Immortal Iron Fist by Brubaker/Fraction/Aja
Hawkeye by Fraction/Aja

Planet Hulk and Fraction's Hawkeye are two I made sure we had in the library collection, but I haven't read myself. Awesome! I have liked everything of Pak's that I've read-- I forgot to list his Magneto: Testament and his very short Storm solo as two modern stories that I quite liked. I haven't read any Iron Fist at all (except maybe an appearance he made in a Spider-Man or X-Men comic in the 70s), so that will be fun to try.

I quite enjoy a little body horror, so I think Immortal Hulk is definitely going to be up my alley.

[beewinged]

Don't read the Dan Slott run or the current Zeb Wells run on the title

I think I've had a taste of Slott's ASM, and his writing on Peter might not be my cup of tea-- but I must say the idea of Superior Spider-Man essentially being an in-depth, fanfiction-esque (positive, not derogatory) Doc Ock character study (while also serving as a framework for questioning what makes Spider-Man Spider-man) is really intriguing. Do people count that as part of Slott's run (when they say they don't like Slott's run), or is it kind of a separate thing? He's written a lot of Spidey content!

Haven't heard much of anything about Wells, but I do tend to avoid anything ongoing (I think Court of Owls is the only modern comics story I started and stuck with through its whole run), just on principle. I really have to know a story is going to stick the landing! How would you sum up your dislike of his run?

[clonegeek]

I think I've had a taste of Slott's ASM, and his writing on Peter might not be my cup of tea-- but I must say the idea of Superior Spider-Man essentially being an in-depth, fanfiction-esque (positive, not derogatory) Doc Ock character study (while also serving as a framework for questioning what makes Spider-Man Spider-man) is really intriguing. Do people count that as part of Slott's run (when they say they don't like Slott's run), or is it kind of a separate thing? He's written a lot of Spidey content!

Haven't heard much of anything about Wells, but I do tend to avoid anything ongoing (I think Court of Owls is the only modern comics story I started and stuck with through its whole run), just on principle. I really have to know a story is going to stick the landing! How would you sum up your dislike of his run?

Superior is in that weird expeption that sets the rule. Slott writes a much better Ock then Peter.

[clonegeek]

Awesome! Thanks so much for the reply! Lots of recommendations that weren't on my list-- I'm excited to check them out.

- HOX/POX has been on my radar and summaries of the storyline did really intrigue me-- would you say it has a somewhat satisfying conclusion? My impression as an outsider was that Hickman's departure was unexpected, so I was hesitant to start reading this arc.

- I did forget to mention Iron Man: Extremis... that's the only Iron Man story I've read, and I did enjoy it. What flavor of Iron Man does Fraction portray, would you say?

- I also have read quite a bit of Wilson's Ms. Marvel run-- very charming, and a true accomplishment to get a new hero on the pop culture radar. Does her run get to "wrap up" to some degree, or does it disintegrate into crossover storylines?

- I worked very hard to track down Donny Cates' Venom for the library (it's so hard to find complete comic book runs through library vendors), so I'm glad you included it-- and I didn't even know Remender had written Venom stories!

Great list! I'll definitely post a follow-up comment when I've read some.

Does your liberary have Hoopla by any chance?

[beewinged]

Does your liberary have Hoopla by any chance?

My local library does, but the library I work/ed for doesn't. Too expensive. And I'm not sure what comes with Hoopla as a sort of baseline collection vs. what books need to be purchased. I'll have to see what my local library has.

[ARkadelphia]

Trying to go with one’s not named yet…

- Avengers: No Surrender (16 issue trade that stands on its own for the most part)

- Avengers: Stand-off (self-contained story that can be had in a single trade)

- Avengers Academy (40+ issues over 3 trades)

- Vision: (Tom King 13-issue self-contained story available in trade)

- Iron Man: Books of Korvac (19 issues across 3 trades)

- Fantastic Four: Waid (Can be had in omnibus form or 4 trades)

- Cosmic characters: Annihilation (Can be had in omnibus form or two trades)

- Silver Surfer: Black (Cates mini available in single trade)

- Inhumans: Paul Jenkins (12-issue self-contained storyline available in trade form)

- Young Inhumans: McKeeber (12 issue self-contained story available in trade form)

- Daredevil: Soule (Imnibus due out soon I think)

- Judgement Day: Gillen (available in 32 trades now; a more complete version on omnibus 2024)

I’ll see if I can think of more

[Digifiend]

Vision was 12 issues, not 13? Anyway, it's good, so do read it - also, if you want to read Champions (a book nobody has mentioned so far, it's a teen team with Ms. Marvel and Miles Morales, originally by Waid and later taken over by Jim Zub), you need to read Vision first since one of the Champions (Viv Vision) debuts there.

[The Invincible Beawulf]

I'd highly recommend Eternals (2021) from Gillen & Ribic + three one-shots: Eternals: Thanos Rises (from Gillen), Eternals: Celestia (from Gillen), and Eternals: The Heretic (also from Gillen).

The three one-shots are collected in Eternals: A History Written in Blood.

[FFJamie94]

Okay

For Fantastic Four, I recommend;

Waid
Mcduffie
Hickman
(in that order)

Venom;
Cates
Ewing/Ram V

Spider-Man (Peter)
Ultimate Spider-Man
JMS (up to and including #500)
Paul Jenkins’ spectcatular
Superior
Fanily Matters OGN
Chip Zdarsky spectacular
Life Story
Spencer

Avengers
Ultimates 1&2 by Millar
Ultimates by Hickman
Bendis New Avengers/Avengers
Hickman New Avengers/Avengers
Uncanny (all of it)
Young Avengers
Savage Avengers by duggan
Mighty Avengers by Ewing

Guardians of the galaxy
Gerry Duggan
Cates
Ewing

Hulk
Planet Hulk/World War Hulk
Inmortal Hulk

X-Men
New X-Men by morrison
Astonishing X-men by Whedon
HOXPOX
Hickman’s X-men
Duggan’s X-Men
(honestky, try out any of the Krakoa X-Men stuff. I recommend X-Men red, Immortal X-Men, way of X, hellions and X-force)

misc
Silver Surfer black by cates
Cosmic Ghost Rider by Cates
Beyond by mcduffie
Shield and secret warriors by Hickman
Zdarsky Daredevil


Events
House of M
Civil War
Secret Invasion
Avengers v X-men (not great, but adds some details for Uncanny Avengers and Hickman’s Avengers)
Infinity
Secret War
Secret Empire
War of realms
King in Black
AXE
Absoulte Carnage