5 Marvel Comics You Should Be Reading

If you aren’t reading them already, here are five of our favorite Marvel comics that you should pick up and add to your collection.

For the last while Marvel has been building something special with their new Marvel NOW! campaign; they have ensured that the entire Marvel Universe is unified more than ever and that characters can pretty much cross their way over into other books and storylines, and that what happens in the Marvel Universe can reverberate across books and change storylines for the better (most of the time). This plot device had been in effect for quite some time at the company, but it wasn’t until recently that their writers have been taking full advantage of it, taking out the walls that separated the ongoing comics.

Most of the beginnings of the Marvel NOW! campaign spiraled out of the events of the fantastic Avengers vs. X-Men series and have since been making their way into other comics. If you haven’t been picking them up already, we’re suggesting five comics you should be reading.

The Punisher

Frank Castle was one of the mainstay characters of the Marvel Universe who primarily prowled the streets of New York or the East Coast until the Marvel NOW! campaign rebooted the comic. Now the Punisher has moved to Los Angeles, taking his war on crime to the west coast. Nathan Edmondson, the writer of the new storylines for Punisher said that, “Los Angeles offers all kinds of fun opportunities. There are mountains, skyscrapers, beaches and slums all in a sprawl big enough to host a variety of villainous antagonists.” This new look at The Punisher is fantastic and Nathan Edmondson has the perfect pitch and writing style to compliment the necessary grit and grim war that Frank Castle is waging on crime. One great line from his new book is, ‘too big for the police, not big enough for the heroes.’ which is the perfect way to describe The Punisher as a whole. He can’t necessarily go tangling with big time super villains but he can take on entire cartels, AIM, and other villains with less power. It is great to see The Punisher being written so well and Edmondson makes sure that he stays true to Frank’s military background and the tactics he employs.

The art style of Mitch Gerads is very slick and really makes Franks’ war on crime and his battles pop off the page. This book is not quite as dark as past Punisher comics with previous art styles being incredibly bloody and rainy all the time being that it was set in New York. This time around with it being set in California and south of the border there is a lot of sun which creates great backdrops for Frank having fierce fire fights in the streets of L.A.

This is probably one of the most worthwhile comics to get into reading over at Marvel right now, as it reflects what is going on in the larger Marvel Universe; Frank’s L.A contact puts it quite well in a scene asking Frank why he doesn’t just call in The Avengers or Captain America. Frank succinctly responds by saying Captain America will just come and hit people with his shield and make speeches about how great he is. This perfectly embodies the man’s cynicism with the bigger superheroes and his need to solve problems on his own.

The art style is refreshing and paired with fantastic writing making for the perfect match and a great comic to get into.

Guardians of the Galaxy

People are just beginning to flock to the new Guardians of the Galaxy, wanting to know more about the team before the film hits theatres in August. Brought into the Marvel NOW! campaign last year, it can really be the benchmark of how accessible and great this campaign has been for Marvel as a whole, especially with Marvel NOW! being created to bring in new readers, lapsed readers, and old readers to old characters and new. Old series that did not fare so well have now become smash hits and Guardians is certainly one of the biggest hits running right now for Marvel.

Guardians has brought in some big names as far as writers and artists go, such as X-Men writer Brian Michael Bendis penning the first issue, and best-selling artist Steve McNiven bringing the Guardians to life. They work together well to bring new readers into a vast universe of alien cultures, heroes and villains. This is Marvel‘s space opera, sprawling across the cosmos in grand style. It seems like Marvel editor Stephen Wacker does a great job of pairing writers with artists under the Marvel NOW! campaign. The pairings have resulted in some wonderful results like Mark Waid and Chris Samnee on Daredevil, Matt Fraction and David Aja on Hawkeye, Rick Remender and John Romita Jr. on Captain America, etc.

While this series does not tie into the forthcoming movie from Marvel Studios, this roster of Guardians is fairly close to the one you will see on the big screen. Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord is their leader and he’s joined by Drax, Groot, Gamora, Rocket, Captain Marvel and, in a nice tie in to the Earth based Marvel Universe, Iron Man makes cameo appearances, and there is of course, the newest addition to the Guardians team: Venom. Flash Thompson has taken to space with the alien-symbiote, which left some fans were a little perplexed at first as to his addition. Regardless, this has probably been one of Venom’s best story arcs since Maximum Carnage; Venom and The Guardians are battling an invading army of symbiotes, and if that’s not enough to make you go out and buy this comic, I don’t know what is.

All of these elements combined makes for one of the best team based comics running right now and with the Guardians clashing with some major heavy hitting Marvel villains, the storylines only keep getting better.

Uncanny X-Men

Another Bendis-written comic series that is running at Marvel is Uncanny X-Men. This comic has had some wide-reaching effects on the Marvel Universe and has changed the view of the X-Men and mutants in general. While the Avengers take the spotlight being the moral center of the Marvel Universe, The X-Men are currently the total opposite. The team is in disarray and Cyclops (who in previous storylines typically came off as a cocky jerk) is now a fugitive from justice and the Avengers are looking for him to answer for the murder of Professor X. He has moved the Xavier School for Mutants to a secret location and with the help of Emma Frost and Magneto, they are trying to build a new army of mutants and are seen as outlaws, primarily by S.H.I.E.L.D. (side note; Phil Coulson appears in cameos in Uncanny X-Men).

Cyclops and his freedom fighter view of protecting mutants from the world comes into conflict with the other competing school for mutants like the Jean Grey School for Mutants, which has most of the X-Men on her side but some will inevitably change as the two schools struggle over the right approach to safeguarding mutants and their rights. There is also the cool miniseries that has just began called Uncanny X-Men: No End in Sight, which is a three part comic, and definitely worth a read.

Now these are not some of the classic X-Men we are used to as some of the new additions have just discovered they have powers and are being trained at the hands of Emma Frost, Cyclops, and Magik (Illyana Rasputin – Colossus’ sister). This is almost like a cool reboot where the X-Men are starting from scratch and are learning as they go in a world full of other heroes and villains. In the first issue there is a scene which greatly impacts one of the mutants; she has idolized Captain America her whole life and the first time he meets her, he wants to arrest the entire team for working with Cyclops and almost looks down on her because she is a mutant.

This is quite the ‘racially charged’ comic with mutants and humans in conflict, fighting for rights and power. While those expecting to see a lot of the mainstays of the old X-Men roster will be a little disappointed, there are a lot of the old guard who do make cameos throughout. The action is heavy and some of the villains are great such as a re-imagined Dormammu seeking vengeance on Magik.

Fans of X-Men will love this run, and those who want to read something that is not ‘Avengers-centric’ will love this as it paints them in a darker light. Nevertheless, this is another title worth the price of admission.

New Avengers

This is likely the best team up of Avengers ever seen in a comic book, or at least pretty close to it. The current line up of New Avengers includes The Black Panther, who is forced to assemble a new team of Avengers; he brings in Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, Mister Fantastic, Namor, and The Beast, who must take on legions of parallel realities and the villains and issues that arise out of that, all to prevent the collision of our universe with another.

With Black Panther and Doctor Strange getting the big screen treatment in the very near future, this is the easiest and most fun way to get in touch with these characters and love them for who they are until they reach the theater. This is also about as close as we will get to a Doctor Strange solo comic as well, since he is one of the main characters and a driving force behind the newly formed team.

This version of Doctor Strange is the most interesting he has ever been as well, as he has no qualms about how much power he possesses and is nothing short of supremely confident in his abilities. Also a great buy that ties into New Avengers is the Annual, which is a Doctor Strange solo effort. It’s extremely entertaining and depending on how well it does, could solidify him even more in having the ability to carry his own title.

The artwork and writing much like the other titles found on this list is phenomenal, and the storylines in it are quite high stakes as they are working together to stop the extinction of the entire universe. The team have also been fighting to stop a cold war between Wakanda and Atlantis which clearly causes issues within the team as Black Panther is from Wakanda and Namor of course is from Atlantis.

New Avengers is another must read and it’s a wonderful addition to anyone’s pull list at their local comic book shop.

Hawkeye

If someone had told me that one of the best comic books on shelves in the past year would be about Hawkeye, I would have asked them to check their sanity. I mean, he is the third string Avenger with a bow and arrow and identity issues. But, its true; this compulsive, “big mouth first, super hero second” is fantastic.

Matt Fraction and David Aja are responsible for what would seem like one of the most obscure additions to this list. Trust me; this is probably one of the best gems of the Marvel crown. Fraction and Aja have taken the breakout star of The Avengers film and have given the self-made hero Clint Barton his own comic, and has him fighting for justice with ex-Young Avenger Kate Bishop by his side. Clint is out to prove himself as one of Earth’s mightiest as S.H.I.E.L.D. has tasked him with intercepting a packet of incriminating evidence before he becomes the most wanted man in the world.

The stories found in Hawkeye are a worldwide thriller that spans the globe as Barton and Bishop are on the run and feels more like an international spy thriller than a comic book superhero. Fraction really plays up the angle that Barton doesn’t actually have any powers and is more often than not in over his head with his adventures. For example, in one of the first panels he crashes through a high window on the run and the fall that occurs puts him out of action for six weeks. Clint takes vicious beatings in the fights he gets into, but the series is all done with a lot of humour and heart placed in it. This comic is not actually just one Hawkeye either; Kate Bishop also took up the mantle of Hawkeye when Clint suffered a minor case of death, so this series is basically Hawkeye and Hawkeye because neither Barton nor Bishop have dropped the identity, which adds a funny dynamic, since most other characters would see fit to return the original namesake their title.

Hawkeye is a well written, expertly done artistically, and has some of the best looking cover art in comic books. This is one gem that I highly recommend to check out.

These are just five of the awesome works coming out of Marvel Comics these days but there are even more great comics that we couldn’t add to the list. With Amazing Spider-Man having just been rebooted, Fantastic Four riding high on Leonard Kirk’s stellar art, Uncanny Avengers and more, there are so many great titles coming out of Marvel it’s truly a great time to be a comic book fan.

What comics from Marvel are you reading right now? Leave a comment and let us know.