Rolling Marvel Cinematic Universe thread (+ a poll: Classic or Dud?)

(and also qualifies under the same criteria! xp)

Marvel universe, with a sense of colour and fun and silliness that gels with the Spider-Verse movie, and requiring no continuity knowledge: Peter Milligan and Mike Allred's run on X-Force, followed by X-Statix and several spinoffs.

(X-Force collected in three paperbacks or one hardcover that turned into a $150 ebay item a few months after it came out in 2004; X-Statix, but not the spin-offs, was collected in a huge hardcover at some point. The main series and one of the spin-offs were collected in five paperbacks.)


good self-contained DC GNs - Red Son (Soviet Superman), All-Star Superman

agree, this one should work for you.


She-Hulk by Soule & Pulido

can't speak to this, but the first year-long run of She-Hulk by Dan Slott, with Juan Bobillo & others on art, is a legal sitcom with superhero fights and space gods: two paperbacks, Single Green Female and Superhuman Law. (There was a longer second run that wasn't as good, nor as self-contained.)

Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye series — particularly the L.A. Woman volume, focusing on Kate Bishop

yeah, from what I've read this is like the tone of the good bits of the decent Marvel movies, except better

which reminds me - Keith Giffen, JM DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire's Defenders miniseries is like a goofy, sillier version of Thor: Ragnarok or the first Guardians Of The Galaxy movie. Collected in one paperback.

Animal Man and Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison
Swamp Thing by Alan Moore

...are pretty much the gold standard for that kind of thing

True.

They're all somewhat deconstructive (each in different ways) of the tropes and principles of superhero comics, too, not just the characters, if that's a point either in favour or against.)

(Though nb that nearly every reprint of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing ever has dropped out significant captions and artwork.) (Plus as far as I know, there's never been a reprint of the Frank Miller Daredevil which Andrew recommends that doesn't have hideous garish "re"colouring, though this also applies to nearly any current editions of 1940s-1990s Marvel.)

All Star Superman is a great rec too

Has a similar sense of fun to Spider-Verse, beautiful art, and is self-contained and doesn't require any knowledge of continuity

and I'd say Batman: Year One over Dark Knight Returns

I would not read X-Force/X-Statix to a five-year-old if that is part of the selection criteria.

FYI, if you're willing to wait a bit, they're recollecting all of Milligan's X-Force/X-Statix run starting early next year. It's worth the wait.

None of these suggestions, bar the all-ages omnibi, are suitable for five-year-olds.

Except Garth Ennis’ Punisher, where he cuts thumbs off of Russian heroin smugglers who are human-trafficking prostitutes in shipping crates and whatnot.

One last pipe bomb thrown at the thread's remit before I suggest moving the conversation elsewhere, but if you're looking for a (non-Marvel) comic five-year-olds will enjoy, you could do much worse than Axe Cop (a comic written by a five-year-old and which is, thusly, amazing).

Perhaps going forward, we can use this thraed: Recommend me some essential graphic novels to acquire!

Also linked from there and with more recent recommendations: recommend me some essential graphic novels to acquire

Ah, I knew there was a fresher thread. I've posted some stuff in Andrew's link.

sic — does this volume contain all the good Dan Slott material you mentioned?

Ah, NM, I guess that’s the first one you linked to

Slott's entire run is encompassed by the two complete collections.

slott's long run on amazing spider-man is also really, really good fyi

But okay so see the problem with recommending that one is that, although they started doing comprehensive reprints just a couple years ago, at least one of the collections is already out of print and fetching ridiculous prices.

Probably the best bet is for newbies to sign up for Marvel Unlimited and poke around until they find something they like. Trying to deal with Perlmutter's printing policies is more hassle than it's worth (which is specifically why I recommended stuff that was recently reprinted and thusly still in print in the other thread).

ahh see marvel unlimited is where i do all my reading nowadays so thankfully i don't have to worry about negotiating the insane world of marvel's reprints

Reasonable approach. I'm living proof of the toll those negotiations can take upon the fragile human mind.

(Plus as far as I know, there's never been a reprint of the Frank Miller Daredevil which Andrew recommends that doesn't have hideous garish "re"colouring, though this also applies to nearly any current editions of 1940s-1990s Marvel.)

ugh, I hate this re-coloring so much

Axe Cop is hilarious, second that rec for kids

sic — does this volume contain all the good Dan Slott material you mentioned?

Ah, NM, I guess that’s the first one you linked to

It isn't, it just has the same cover, because Marvel always want to make it as hard as possible for people to figure out what they're trying to read.

But okay so see the problem with recommending that one is that, although they started doing comprehensive reprints just a couple years ago, at least one of the collections is already out of print and fetching ridiculous prices.

Yes, I was keeping in mind what joygoat's library is most likely to have with my specific book references.

Probably the best bet is for newbies to sign up for Marvel Unlimited and poke around until they find something they like.

imo this is an extremely terrible idea for newbies, even newbies who have not specifically expressed a 100% preference for print volumes that they don't have to pay money for.

Look, there are no good options here, just a handful of less bad options. I'm coming from a position of 'just go ahead and read and buy everything' so I'm trying to view the problem through a sane person's eyes, with limited success.

A pal of mine has been buying these $1 priced Marvel 'True Believer' reprints for his nephew, and I think that's a great idea - classic Kirby FF eg for next to nothing. And they're sticking to movie familiar characters and storylines, on the whole, so you couldn't get a better way into the foundational stories of the MU.

If borrowing from the library, you might check out their electronic borrowing systems. Here in WA, Hoopla has been keeping me current with Saga and The Walking Dead. Though less complete/current on the Marvel & DC lines, they do carry a lot of the classic runs.

xpost Yeah, the coolest thing Marvel could do right now is to reinstitute spinner racks in grocery stores et al and fill 'em up with their True Believer one-offs.

For those who aren't aware of what Ward is talking about, every month Marvel puts out an array of about a dozen themed one-issue reprints for a buck. Like a bunch of key single issues featuring the Hulk pulled from throughout the character's publication history. I'm sure they'd be an awesome entrée into the Marvel U for those curious-yet-unfamiliar but I suspect they're only available in comics stores, which seems to undercut that eventuality somewhat.

marvel unlimited is $10 a month; if you or your kids are okay reading on a tablet or desktop, it's an easy and cheap way to riff through the stacks without putting out a ton of money.
https://www.marvel.com/comics/unlimited

Giancarlo Esposito being eyed for a major role, rumors aswirl that it may be Norman Osborn. As rumors that may have zero basis in fact go, this is pretty killer.

Was rewatching Zodiac and realized it stars Iron Man, the Hulk and Mysterio. Wonder Boys stars Ant Man, Spider-Man and Iron Man. Can we think of any other non MCU movies with a similarly large number of MCU actors?

Given that 50% of actors in Hollywood will have soon starred in an MCU flick, it shouldn't be hard.

This was actually a recurring feature at a local movie trivia night: "What non-superhero movie stars (comics character), (comics character), and (comics character)?" They weren't restrictive to Marvel characters, though, which does open things up, e.g. LA Confidential starring Vicki Vale, Lex Luthor, the Penguin, and Jor-El. And I guess Aldrich Killian, but I don't think they mentioned him. The category was fun when you could solve it, but absolutely maddening when you couldn't, mainly due to combinatoric excess re: the number of possible Batmen and Jokers.

Giancarlo Esposito being eyed for a major role, rumors aswirl that it may be Norman Osborn. As rumors that may have zero basis in fact go, this is pretty killer.

he's got the hair for it!

Time for Disney to buy Sony too.

https://deadline.com/2019/08/kevin-feige-spider-man-franchise-exit-disney-sony-dispute-avengers-endgame-captain-america-winter-soldier-tom-rothman-bob-iger-1202672545/

helluva url

Does that mean Spider-Man will no longer appear in any Marvel movies?

Yeah, but thankfully he'll get to costar with Jordan Catalano in the Morbius the Vampire movie instead

I feel as bad for Tom Holland right now as I possibly could for someone half my age who has more money than I'd make in three lifetimes.

He'll still get to be Spidey, he maybe just won't get to drop in on Shang-Chi or whoever? Frankly I wonder what his role would have been in these upcoming Marvel movies, other than shoehorned in somehow. Also, I wouldn't be shocked if Marvel & Sony end up making a new deal in a few years.

He presumably took the job in part so he could play in the cool toybox, not to cameo in like a Chameleon movie starring Jamie Kennedy or whatever dumb shit Sony pulls out of its ass.

But he'll presumably still be starring in big, Sony-produced Spidey movies, am I missing something?

the mcu was clearly setting up a huge, RDJ-like role for spidey/holland. this lack of deal probably hits him in the wallet.

I guess it would be interesting to see how Sony disentangles the MCU elements from future movies (if the deal is truly dead; Variety’s reporting makes the breakdown sound less definitive than Deadline does).

When contacted by io9, a Sony representative said it’s their belief this dispute is simply over a producer credit and negotiations are ongoing. They further clarified that Feige has contributed to other Spider-centric movies that he did not receive a producer credit on. Other sources tell us the Deadline story is completely accurate.

Kamala Khan series coming to Disney+!

Plus Moon Knight and She-Hulk.

Moon Knight! Finally!

I wonder if Angie Harmon will finally get her She-Hulk casting wish.

How many series is this at this point?

More movie news:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/black-panther-2s-release-date-revealed-kit-harington-j-1837539099