Thursday, February 12, 2009

Which Essential Next?

As you all know, I am always interested in Marvel comics from the '60s and '70s. So far I have read all the Essential volumes for Captain America, Howard the Duck, Tomb of Dracula, Godzilla, Killraven, Super-Villain Team-Up, and The Defenders.

Furthermore, I have read the first volume only of Essential Thor, Essential Avengers, Essential Doctor Strange, and Essential Spider-Woman (yes, I know).

Therefore, I have two questions:

1. Which new series should I start? Contenders include Iron Man, Hulk, and Marvel Two-In-One, but I welcome all suggestions. (It will, however, take a lot to get me to buy Essential Dazzler Vol. 1; and keep in mind I bought the Spider-Woman book without hesitation.)

2. Which of the series listed above (Thor, Avengers, Doctor Strange, or Spider-Woman) should I pick up next? Again, I'm leaning towards Doctor Strange, but I could be swayed.

Note that Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man (and probably Peter Parker by extension) are not part of the discussion because I am reading the Masterworks (and I have the FF reprints on DVD).

For your convenience, here is Wikipedia's chart of Essential reprints.

Thanks!

2 comments:

Richard said...

Marvel Two-In-One is definitely called for here, to supplement your Defenders and Howard reading with those few but wonderful early Gerber issues.

(And afterward, check out Jim Roeg's stunning analyses of those issues here and here.)

Beyond that...I recently immersed myself in the fifteen issue run of Claremont and Byrne on Iron Fist for a project of my own, and they woke up many fond memories of how much I loved those issues when they came out. I'd have to say it was their best work together or apart. The Essential Iron Fist goes all the way back before they came on board, so you're also getting a good selection of top Marvel talent from that era.

Anonymous said...

For continuation, definitely Thor -- because if you don't get up to Essential Thor #3 as quick as you can, you'll never forgive yourself!

As for what to start...my God, there's some nice stuff in there, I couldn't possibly decide.

Must...visit...comic shop...