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Help with a recommendation?

I am looking for something new to get into- my favorite series have been Robinson Starman, Johns JSA and Hickman FF/Avengers/New Avengers- I like big stories, well written and large superhero casts.

Anything else out there people can recommend? Just as an FYI I am looking for something maybe off the beaten path or a little older, I have consumed most of the big and most often mentioned series of the last few years.

Comments

  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,736
    edited December 2017
    You may have already read these, but here are a few I like a lot...

    Astro City
    Avengers Forever (miniseries)
    Excalibur (original series only)
    X-Force/X-Statix (Milligan/Allred)
    JLA: The Nail (miniseries)
    JLA (Morrison/Porter)
    DCU: The New Frontier (miniseries)
  • mwhitt80mwhitt80 Posts: 4,608
    Astro City
    There's a lot of it, but it's really good. Basically anywhere but dark ages is a good starting point.
  • mwhitt80mwhitt80 Posts: 4,608
    Jla by grant Morrison
    The Justice league 'returns to glory' it's fantastic.

    Here's another one by Morrison
    DC One Million - a standalone event in the middle of Morrison's run in which the jla transported to the far future to battle a really cool new Villain.

    While we are here
    Seven Soldiers of victory by Morrison
  • BrackBrack Posts: 868
    Gerry Duggan's Deadpool. This covers all of Volume 3 of Deadpool (1-45), all of Volume 4 of Deadpool (1-36) and the ongoing Volume 5. Plus, Hawkeye vs. Deadpool and Uncanny Avengers Volume 3 issues 1-23 if you need even more Gerry Duggan writing Deadpool.

    He builds a large supporting cast from scratch as well as adding in various figures from Deadpool's past and Marvel history. And once he starts writing it solo (volume 3 was co-written with Brian Posehn) he really leans into the sadness and pathos of the character.

    It's weird case of a run that is clearly working, hence the length, but possibly because of the character being Deadpool, it doesn't get the acclaim it deserves.
  • Evening639Evening639 Posts: 368
    edited December 2017
    Since you mentioned you are looking for "well written", off-beat older super hero books with large ensemble casts, two runs that I would recommend are J.M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen's Justice League material and Chris Claremont's The New Mutants. Neither of these involve what I think of as "big stories" but they most certainly match all of your other criteria. Louise Simonson's run on The New Mutants following Claremont's departure also had it's moments but it's not quite as strong.

    I also very much agree with @nweathington 's suggestion of Excalibur. The Claremont run is fantastic. And while some of the filler material between story arcs is pretty bad, Alan Davis' mostly successful attempt at tying up Claremont's loose ends more than makes up for it. "The Cross-Time Caper" is a particular highlight of the series. And, on a side-note, I have the Excalibur Mojo Mayhem one-shot to thank for introducing me to the band Cats Laughing.

    And, now that I've got those more easily obtainable mainstream recommendations out of my system, let's have some real fun. If you're feeling adventurous and don't mind dumpster diving through the quarter bins at your LCS or any local flea markets, please allow me to recommend two of the most whacked out indie gems from the 80s and 90s that could still loosely be categorized under the "superhero" genre.

    Roger McKenzie's Sun Runners and Jim Shooter and David Lapham's Warriors of Plasm. You can't get much more "off the beaten path" than these. And, since I'm posting this on December 24th, appropriately enough, they both even have Christmas specials!
  • David_DDavid_D Posts: 3,881
    Warriors of Plasm was David Latham???

    Wow. His career took a very different direction once he could do his own thing.
  • David_DDavid_D Posts: 3,881
    Welcome aboard @TommyForever !

    Lots of great suggestions already. To add another off the beaten path one, though One that has gotten easier to find as I believe they did trades and put the issues on the Marvel Unlimitd app— Strikeforce Morituri.

    It is a self-contained superhero/SF story, not set in a superhero universe. Earth has suffered an alien invasion. An experimental process exists that can waken a latent superpower within you, but:

    1. You don’t know what power you will get and
    2. The process will kill you within a year

    I have not reread it since it first came out in the 1980s but I loved it as a kid and a lot of moments from it have vividly stuck with me. The story is big and high stakes. A lot of characters to meet (and lose). And it is got to be a superhero book, SF action, and war book all at once.
  • Another Marvel book I just thought of from the 80s that is among my favorites is Alpha Flight. John Byrne's run is unparalleled in quality. When he leaves the book, however, is when it becomes one of the most epic, entertaining train wrecks of all time.

    I've heard many people describe super hero comics as soap operas for men. Continuing that analogy, post-Byrne Alpha Flight is the Passions of super hero comics.
  • bats00bats00 Posts: 275
    edited December 2017
    Allow me to jump on in agreement to recommending Avengers Forvever, Morrison's JLA and Claremont's New Mutants.

    If you want a big cast how about the Legion of Super-Heroes. I would say either start with the 80's with Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen's Great Darkness Saga or jump ahead to the mid 90's and the Keith Giffen/Bierbaum's Five Years Later run.
  • BrackBrack Posts: 868
    I'm a massive Excalibur fan, but I would not recommend The Cross-Time Caper unless you get a thrill from seeing a great comic and once great creator circle the drain (they both go down the drain in Girls School From Heck, the Claremontiest Claremont Comics Ever Claremonted).

    The fill-in artists in that arc really drive home that Davis was the draw on the comic, not Claremont. Without him there you are literally reading Claremont's Dirty Pair fanfic at one point.

    Davis' return and fixing of the comic is a miracle.
  • Seconding STRIKEFORCE MORITURI. I read those first 20 issues every few years and they're great. With #21 the premise and creative team changes and it only lasts another nine issues. Read them all if you like but those first twenty issues are gold.
  • bralinatorbralinator Posts: 5,967

    Seconding STRIKEFORCE MORITURI. I read those first 20 issues every few years and they're great. With #21 the premise and creative team changes and it only lasts another nine issues. Read them all if you like but those first twenty issues are gold.

    Agree with this 100%
    Brack said:

    I'm a massive Excalibur fan, but I would not recommend The Cross-Time Caper unless you get a thrill from seeing a great comic and once great creator circle the drain (they both go down the drain in Girls School From Heck, the Claremontiest Claremont Comics Ever Claremonted).

    The fill-in artists in that arc really drive home that Davis was the draw on the comic, not Claremont. Without him there you are literally reading Claremont's Dirty Pair fanfic at one point.

    Davis' return and fixing of the comic is a miracle.

    Seconded. My Excalibur collection is 1-24, then 40-68. A few stinkers still in there whenever Davis wasn't on the issue, but on the whole, a great, great run. (Volume 1 only)
  • Another book I would highly recommend is John Ostrander's SUICIDE SQUAD. It's another 80s comic I regularly revisit that doesn't disappoint. Supervillains, along with some "lower-tier" heroes are given the most dangerous and politically sensitive operations, with the understanding that if they survive they can possibly get a commutation of their prison sentence.
    It's an exciting concept that has the added drama that comes from questioning whether a character will survive, and it infused a number of characters with a vigor they hadn't previously enjoyed, like Captain Boomerang, Bronze Tiger, and Deadshot.
    I love this series!
  • dubbat138dubbat138 Posts: 3,200

    I am looking for something new to get into- my favorite series have been Robinson Starman, Johns JSA and Hickman FF/Avengers/New Avengers- I like big stories, well written and large superhero casts.

    Anything else out there people can recommend? Just as an FYI I am looking for something maybe off the beaten path or a little older, I have consumed most of the big and most often mentioned series of the last few years.

    the Defenders,the original series. Great off beat stories with a fun cast of heroes.

  • PeterPeter Posts: 470
    Black Panther by Christopher Priest. Which Marvel has entirely collected in trades. Smart, ensemble cast of characters (supporting and guest-stars), great use of various villains and tells a large story similar to Robinson's Starman, where you can read it as a whole but also as smaller storylines.
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