Comics Worth Another Look
LibraryBoy
Posts: 1,803
So what title(s) out there, past or present, are ones you think people dismissed out of hand that you think folks should give another shot? Or what titles did you dismiss at first only to go back and realize that they were actually pretty good?
My big example is Paul Tobin's run on Marvel Adventures Spider-Man. Actually, most of this series was pretty good (particularly the issues Mike Norton worked on with folks like Sean McKeever and Peter David), but it was continuity-lite (bordering on continuity-free), which some people don't like, so it rarely built to anything and the stories seemed largely free of stakes. Decent, but very Saturday morning, so it was often dismissed as the kids' book.
Tobin turned all that around, though. It was a very familiar setting (Peter in high school) and we saw some familiar characters (Aunt May, the Stacys, JJJ), but he also threw in a bunch of new characters (love interest Sophia "Chat" Sanduval, a mutant who could talk to animals, and recurring villains the Torino crime family) and pre-existing Marvel characters who typically have no connection to Spidey (like Emma Frost or the Blonde Phantom). It was familiar and new at the same time, storylines continued, subplots played out over time... it was great, a sort of alternate take on Ultimate Spider-Man that didn't just feel like "And here's the Ultimate version of Character/Situation ________" and without being so damn grim all the time (though stories did have consequences). The Marvel Adventures always had the stigma with some fans of being the kids' line, but this book was truly all ages.
Admittedly it fell off a bit at the end as stories were shortened so they could squeeze in 2 per issue, plotlines continued less frequently, and we all learned a little something about teamwork or whatever too often, but at its height it was a damn fine Spider-Man series, and well worth tracking down in the digest format.
My big example is Paul Tobin's run on Marvel Adventures Spider-Man. Actually, most of this series was pretty good (particularly the issues Mike Norton worked on with folks like Sean McKeever and Peter David), but it was continuity-lite (bordering on continuity-free), which some people don't like, so it rarely built to anything and the stories seemed largely free of stakes. Decent, but very Saturday morning, so it was often dismissed as the kids' book.
Tobin turned all that around, though. It was a very familiar setting (Peter in high school) and we saw some familiar characters (Aunt May, the Stacys, JJJ), but he also threw in a bunch of new characters (love interest Sophia "Chat" Sanduval, a mutant who could talk to animals, and recurring villains the Torino crime family) and pre-existing Marvel characters who typically have no connection to Spidey (like Emma Frost or the Blonde Phantom). It was familiar and new at the same time, storylines continued, subplots played out over time... it was great, a sort of alternate take on Ultimate Spider-Man that didn't just feel like "And here's the Ultimate version of Character/Situation ________" and without being so damn grim all the time (though stories did have consequences). The Marvel Adventures always had the stigma with some fans of being the kids' line, but this book was truly all ages.
Admittedly it fell off a bit at the end as stories were shortened so they could squeeze in 2 per issue, plotlines continued less frequently, and we all learned a little something about teamwork or whatever too often, but at its height it was a damn fine Spider-Man series, and well worth tracking down in the digest format.
Comments
As for my second look, I really enjoyed Hypernaturals from Abnett and Lanning from BOOM. It had a similar feel to their Marvel cosmic work, unfettered by continuity. 12 issues +1 FCBD prequel.
All of PAD's usual hallmarks are there - the wordplay and puns (oh god, the puns), the snappy patter, the playful flirtation between all of the various inter-team attractions (Alex and Lorna, Alex and Rahne, Lorna and Guido), prolonged sight gags, etc. - and while sometimes I think they can distract from his stories, here it all works really well. And Larry Stroman's artwork is fantastic, and so unlike most of what the Big 2 were putting out there in 1991. Maybe that was what scared me away at the time? I don't think I connected with his style then, but I love it now. I'm definitely going to go bin diving for the rest of this run, and maybe dip my toes into the waters of the most recent series, too.