Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Any recommendations

I have recently returned to comic collecting within the last year. I am finding it a bit disheartening. I does not seem to be what it was, and not in a positive way. So I need a few shout outs on what to take a look at. I of course have the Legion , or did, and will. Teen Titans , but that is starting to lose some of it's luster for me lately. Looking forward to the cross over though. Fables . JSA . Recently dropped Robin, JLA, all X titles, Amazing Fantasty(too slow moving). Liked Captain Marvell but the last issue sucked!
So any helpful hints? Thanks.

I'm liking Bite Club so far. Sounds like you dropped it, but Astonishing X-Men is really quite good. Runaways was good. Ex-Machina is cool. She-Hulk is fun.

A few that I enjoy and reccomend to everyone:

Birds of Prey
She-Hulk
Astonishing X-Men
Ultimate Spider-Man
Amazing Spider-Man
Marvel Knights Spider-Man
Daredevil
the Pulse
Catwoman (although the current writer is leaving)
Gotham Central
Flash (the best comic book on the market right now IMO)
Hawkman
Outsiders

And you're already collecting Legion, JSA and Fables, which are all great reads. These are the best in the biz right now IMO, even though I do collect a whole lot more.

SHE-HULK is my fave comic of all right now. Highest possible recommendation.

BIRDS OF PREY is darn good too.

OUTSIDERS rocks.

HAWKMAN is making me take notice lately. The new creative team is faboo.

FLASH under Geoff Johns has been steadily good.

The new creative team on Hawkman is pretty awesome! It has it's own distinct 'feel', and both Hawkman and Hawkgirl have their own distinct personalities (and both very likeable). And the art is totally amazing.

I recommend:

Birds of Prey
Hawkman
Outsiders
Astonishing X-Men
Thor:Son of Asgard

My 5 fave titles right now!!!!

I'm going to ring in my 2 cents worth for Birds of Prey - hubba hubba art and excellent characterization.

I dropped all X books too, but recently started with Astonishing XMen #1. I believe #4 just came out. The Kitty-Emma dichotomy is delicious.

Thanks fellow wanna be Legionnaires! I will look into some of those books. I am surprised by the She Hulk one. I have never thought she was handled very well in the Marvel universe, and that had me staying away from the new run out. Now I have to find the money to buy them. And I remember reading somewhere in some thread that it was commented Sandman was overrated. For the record, completely disagree. One of the best written series ever. I wish it were still around...Thanks again. Keep the suggestions coming if any more come top mind.

I totally agree about the Sandman. One of the best comic book series ever, and one that would be perfect for a good re-read.

Same goes for Preacher.

Yet another recommendation for Birds Of Prey, simply put one of the best comics you can buy these days (potentially even ever).

Hellblazer and Lucifer are also both absolutely excellent, but maybe not the best for just jumping on. Actually Hellblazer #200 I think is out next month with a new art team which is meant to be accesible to new readers, so it could be a good place to start. *Lots* of back story involved, but I only started reading it when Mike Carey came on board which was about #180 I think and I've not been lost at all. I'm sure I've missed some things, but nothing major.

Lucifer isn't so good for just jumping on with the monthly comic but there are four trades out (might be five now, not sure) and if you enjoyed Sandman then you should love Lucifer too. Mike Carey has taken Sandman as a starting point and created something unique but equally as good.

Planetary is also worth a look, but again start with the trades. *Very* erratic publishing schedule but a genius book for all that.

Queen & Country is very good if you like 'real life' spy stories. Any Hopless Savages of Blue Monday comics (both are done as mini-series rather than regular issues) also from Oni are well worth a look too.

I've read some of the Lucifer trades and agree that they're excellent. I reccomend those as well.

I agree with a lot of choices here, especially She-Hulk and Bite Club (although BC is just a 6 issue mini). But one missing that you should pick up is The Walking Dead. The best zombie book ever written. I believe the first trade just came out and the second one will be soon. They should be up to issue #9 or #10 now.

The first trade was priced under $10, more than worth the price of admission, even for a black and white comic.

here's my 2 cents, if you get a chance to try Negation from crossgen for a non superhero comic IMO i thought that it was one of Crossgen's strongest books. great characters, an emence and epic story through out the whole book that kept me eagerly awaiting the next issue ,great art, etc. to bad Crossgen folded before they finished the Negation War.
anyway go check the back issue bin at the comic shop you frequient, if they're not too pricey deffinately try Negation you might be suprised, you just might like it.

Thor:

Birds of Prey is indeed excellent. Also, if you want to pick up a deceased Crossgen title, definitely pick up some back issues of Sojourn. (Sadly, the book simply stopped when Crossgen self-destructed, but it has great characters and maybe the best artwork in any comic ever.)

Another seconding of great books by the recently deceased CrossGen. Negation was one I got into late but it was a great book.

What I would recommend doing is watching eBay for sets of CrossGen's Edge and Forge which reprinted much of their line.

Speaking of Crossgen I saw in the latest previews that Lady Death has been picked up by Avatar!!!!!

I HIGHLY reccomend both Negation and Sojourn. I was a huge fan of the much missed Crossgen, and these were the two best. Negation was probably one of the five best comics in the industry consistently for two years.

I understand they are going to try and continue the Lady Death: A Medieval Tale. And the cartoon movie that has been in production for years will be released this October on DVD.

I just wish we could get to see the George Perez Lady Death/Sojourn crossover.

I've been reading Gotham Central for awhile, and it's been consistently excellent.

Ultimate Fantastic Four has been really good too so far, and it's still early on if you're worried about continuity. I wish the regular Fantastic Four titles were this good.

Holy crap! I'm going to have to rob a bank! I guess I was looking in the wrong direction for new books. Thanks everyone!

Better rob two banks!

A couple of others that I've enjoyed are very much offbeat. To be honest I know one is from Image, the other I'm not sure who puts it out.

The Image one I'm enjoying is "Invincible". Premise is that Mark (Invincible) is the super powered teen age son of the (former) premier super hero on Earth. His father however was actually an alien double agent that has now returned to his home planet. Invincible is trying to fill the void left by his father's desertion.

There is a JLA type super group in the story as well but much of the story is done tongue in cheek. I honestly think that this book is written by EDE and Lasher under pseudonyms! Fun read!

The other one is called "Common Grounds" and has either been canceled or has a bit of trouble in maintaining a schedule, beciase it's haphazard.

The comic typically has two to three shorter stories. Each features a different hero. (You could say it's more of an anthology I guess.) What ties it all together is "Common Grounds" the chain of coffee shops that the heroes (and their super powered enemies) patronize. All dsputes are left at the door and everyone is just an average joe inside swapping "shop" stories. Also a fun read.

As far as mainstream (Marvel & DC) books: I really enjoy the new Teen Titans, Green Lantern, Flash, Ultimate X-Men, JSA, & Ultimate Fantastic Four. I've also been following Outsiders (since #1), Nightwing, & Robin but think I'll drop them soon. They're just not doing it for me. (I may wait to see how the female Robin storyline is wrapped up in the hopes that Tim comes back. If not...sayonara!)

I just started picking up 2 of the new "X" titles. One is the new academy series & the other is the team led by Havok. I haven't a clue which is which of the X books any more so that's the best I can do as far as identifying those two.

Let me know what you think of 'em if you pick any of these up. Enjoy.

New X-Men: Academy X is the new student-orientated X-Men book (And one I HIGHLY recommend picking up. It's fun in a somewhat campy way with interesting characters, powers, & rivalries) while the Havok-led team is the regular X-Men title. X-Men isn't really doing it for me with Austin on the title, but Peter Milligan of X-Statix fame will be taking over writing chores this December I believe. It may be worth checking out then.

Also, if there's any X-Men fan within you from the 70s and 80s, you'll love Uncanny X-Men now that Claremont is back at the helm. He's bringing these characters back to life and is even using some of the 90s characters like Bishop a lot better than they were handled by their creators.

Oh, and another Birds of Prey fan here. You have to check that book out!

I bought Academy X this week and quite enjoyed it! Once you get over the stigma off buying X books it's quite a nice wee read. Some of the powers are a bit ridiculous (Tag?!) but I'll be buying it again.

But the one book everyone should be reading is GOTHAM CENTRAL. It's great! The art, the writing, it's brilliant - the recent Mad Hatter Story was really good.

I would recommend some of those series as trades (cheaper and read better), like OUTSIDERS, LUCIFER, 100 BULLETS, GOTHAM CENTRAL, FABLES, HELLBLAZER, FLASH, JSA, HAWKMAN and GREEN ARROW. If you're just getting back into the swing of comics, it's probably the best/easiest way to do it.

To be honest, I restricted my Marvel purchases to a couple trades a month (ALIAS, Morrison's X-MEN, Waid's FANTASTIC 4, ULTIMATE X-MEN, Geoff Johns' AVENGERS, DAREDEVIL and some of the black & white reprint ESSENTIALS lines have been particularly good). Most of their titles have entered some weird BACK TO THE 90S Movement, and it's difficult to support.

Other good things? In no particular order: HOPELESS SAVAGES, DEMO, BIRDS OF PREY, SCOOTER GIRL, SAINT LEGEND, BLACK LEOPARD, LESS THAN HERO, FALLEN ANGEL, THE FILTH, GLOBAL FREQUENCY, PLANETARY

Millar's Wanted has been pretty entertaining too come to think of it.