All right folks, you’ve seen the pretentiousness that TIME has to offer in my last post, so here I am to bring you back to earth. I’m going to take you on a journey through the top five of more recent, more easily accessible and more enjoyable comic books. I call this a Top 5, but let’s be real here — it’s just a recommendation of five damn good books (or series) that you should look into. No Alan Moore books on this list, folks, so get over it.
First off, Grant Morrison’s "Animal Man." Three trades of pure glory make up this Grant Morrison masterpiece. This book is what put Morrison on the map for his crazy ideas and ability to actually make you care about characters. Buddy Baker is a run-of-the-mill superhero in the DC Universe until crazy crap starts happening to him. In the three books, you will see the complete deconstruction of a character and probably the most complete story. Things from past issues come back and link to each other in ways that good authors can only dream of.
Up next we should go with "Preacher," the epic by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. I don’t even know how to truly explain this one. A devil and an angel have a baby spirit that inhabits the body of a Texas preacher on a mission to kill God. On the way they run into the Catholic Church, vampires, prostitutes and pure insanity. Ennis is his strongest when dealing with character development, and if you can get past the gross out humor, this is definitely one of the best comics ever.
Mark Millar and Brian Hitch’s "The Ultimates" is perhaps one of the best team books to come around in the last 20 years. In the mid '90s to early 2000s, Marvel decided to start a new line called the Ultimate Universe that was accessible to new readers. On top of Ultimate Spider-Man, we were given the Ultimates. It’s a completely different take on the Avengers — mixing politics, drama and anything ridiculous you can think of to get it all together.
For my pretentious pick I have to say "Black Hole." Charles Burns wrote a story that ends up being a parallel to the AIDS virus, before it ever became mainstream news. It’s at times depressing, at times terrifying, but it never stops being interesting. Members of a small town get afflicted by a disease that causes different things to happen to each of them, and while some are exiled, everyone is affected. It’s heavy stuff, but absolutely fantastic.
And finally "Absolute DC: The New Frontier" is a complete analysis of how the DC universe got to be where it is today. The creation of all the new heroes is explored and expanded on. Not to mention it’s freaking beautiful. Darwyn Cooke has established himself as one of the premiere writer/artists of this time, and this story most certainly cements that reputation.
And that’s it! Too opinionated? Not enough Marvel? Leave some comments, tell me what you think.
