Preserved: After the rescue of the 107th, Steve Rogers cashes in all of his favors and makes what deals he can to get Bucky a medical discharge from the Army, sending him home to Brooklyn and far from enemies and curious scientists both. But Steve’s war goes on until it ends badly, in an…
If you aren’t reading this, you should be. Excellent Cap genfic. Only one more part to go in this story – and a huge back catalog of completed stuff while you wait.
- The Eternity Saga (Strange Tales #130-146, by Steve Ditko & Stan Lee)
- Triumph & Torment (By Roger Stern & Mike Mignola)
- Into The Dark Dimension (Dr. Strange Vol.2, #68-74, by Paul Smith & Roger Stern)
- The Oath (By Brian K. Vaughan & Marcos Martin)
- Dormammu Saga (Strange Tales #126 & 127 by Ditko & Lee)
- The Origin (Strange Tales #115 by Ditko & Lee)
- To Have Loved And Lost (Dr. Strange #55 by Roger Stern, Michael Golden & Terry Austin)
- Flight Of Bones (Dr. Strange Vol.3 by Dan Jolley & Paul Chadwick)
- To Steal The Sorcerer’s Soul (Marvel Fanfare #5 by Chris Claremont & Marshall Rogers)
- Final Curtain (Dr. Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts #10-13 by Steve Englehart & Gene Colan)
- Strange vs. Dracula (Tomb of Dracula #44 & Dr. Strange Vol.2 #14 by Englehart & Colan)
- Strange Matters (Incredible Hulk #370 & 371 by Peter David & Dale Keown)
- Time Doom (Marvel Premiere #11-14 by Steve Englehart & Frank Brunner)
The most controversial story on this list. So much so that Englehart & Brunner had to write a fake letter from a priest to Stan Lee so Lee would not apologize for it. Why? Strange just happens to be present at the creation of the universe. He’s also the sorcerer supreme for the first time in this issue.Also:
Dr. Strange – Strange (2009 #1-4)
Also!
Dr. Strange Season One by Greg Pak and Emma Rios (2012)
Avengers Annual 2014 by Frank J. Barbiere and Marco Rudy
(and Fear Itself: The Deep by Cullen Bunn and Lee Garbett 2011 if you want to know where my Namor/Strange feelings started)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Frank Darabont
ahhh okay so I am going to give you the advice that Emily gave to me!
if you’re interested in the modern era I would start with the Blindspot limited run (you can buy it in trade here) and then go into Fraction’s Hawkeye book (there are two trades out so far ‘My Life as a Weapon’ and ’Little Hits’ and the third ’L.A. Woman’ will be out in August or if you want to get the individual issues they’re up to 18 now and there’s an annual that comes between 11 and 12).
If you love it, which you should, I highly recommend you read the Ronin arc (which was way too short) which is the arc after Clint comes back to life (basically Wanda accidentally kills him then he’s brought back for House of M and then after House of M ends up alive again because comics but he’s not comfortable being Hawkeye anymore).
That consists of in order (and sorry I don’t have links to where you can buy individual issues though I’m sure you can find stuff online if you google around):
- Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America
- The New Avengers (26)
- The New Avengers (30)
- Secret Invasion (02)
- New Avengers: The Reunion (Suspicion) from the Dark Reign book
- New Avengers: The Reunion (01-03)
- Dark Reign: The List Avengers (01)
- New Avengers Annual (03)
And also Young Avengers Presents: Hawkeye but I’ll get to that in a second
I also recommend the two shortlived series ‘Hawkeye & Mockingbird: Ghosts’ and ’Widowmaker’ which is Hawkeye, Mockingbird and Black Widow. Those are all set in between the Ronin arc and Blindspot and are super great.
Finally, if you read Hawkeye and love Kate Bishop, which you will because she’s perfect, you should read the Young Avengers series. That is, in order:
- Young Avengers Volume 1
- Young Avengers Volume 2: Family Matters
- Civil War: Young Avengers and Runaways
- Young Avengers Presents
- Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers
- Dark Reign: Young Avengers
- Avengers: The Children’s Crusade
- Gillen & Mckelvie’s Young Avengers (Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3)
I know that’s a lot of information but I think that’s a pretty good start. Clint’s in some other books as well. He was in quite a few issues of Kelly Sue’s Avengers Assemble, and I know he’s in Secret Avengers though I’ve heard some messed up shit about the old book, the new one’s okay so far. I can give you Emily’s recs for all the important times he interacts with Bucky as well because Clint/Bucky is great. Comics are inconsistent at times because so much of the character depends on who’s writing them, but most of the list I’ve given you I really enjoyed, so.
I hope that was helpful and not scary!
YES! THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD WAYS TO DO THAT
- Mark Waid’s Captain America: Man Out of Time is Steve Rogers 101, nobody nails Steve like Mark Waid does, and this miniseries is a perfect introduction to 616 Steve’s character, it’s self-contained, and it’s all around just a great, great read.
- Captain America: Theatre of War by Paul Jenkins is a series of one-shot issues featuring stories of Captain America’s influence on soldiers in many different global conflicts. A great, emotional read that gives you awesome insight into Soldier Steve.
- Captain America & Bucky: The Life Story of Bucky Barnes by Ed Brubaker is really Bucky Barnes 101, a great abridged version of Bucky’s life story (including his time in WWII, as the Winter Soldier, with Natasha, and a peek at his life as Cap).
- Ed Brubaker’s run on Winter Soldier (out in three trades: The Longest Winter, Broken Arrow, and Black Widow Hunt),as well as Jason LaTour’s follow-up (out in trade as The Electric Ghost). These are twin efforts on the first volume of Bucky’s solo book – Brubaker’s gets a little problematic toward the end (BWH), but it’s almost worth it read it to get to LaTour’s run, which was an outstanding five issues of characterization.
- Finally, of course, is Brubaker’s work on Captain America, Volume 5. You can get a trade of the entire Winter Soldier arc (including his original introduction of Bucky as the Winter Soldier) here for astonishingly cheap. This has all of the backstory and origin of the Winter Soldier, as well as the comics version of how Steve’s search for Bucky went down.
Carry on, my friend, rock on and read good comics.
As the joke goes, there are many readers out there but this one is mine.
What I look for in ebook reader software – 1. an easy to use interface when I’m actually reading the text. It absolutely must let me control the reading experience as far as font and color. My eyes aren’t as good as they used to be and I often read at night so I need to be able to pick the font and I love to read text reversed colors, especially at night (so white text on black background). 2. A method/style to cataloging books that makes sense to be and isn’t a pain in the ass to use on the device as well as on the mothership (my laptop).
Marvin is great at 1 and moderately sucky at 2 so I keep using it because I lot of what I download on the fly is from AO3 which has oh so easy to use download links that just drop it right into the app. I originally would bookmark links and then load them in with Calibre but drifted away from that over time which means my Calibre library doesn’t have everything (annoying).
Anyway, if you are a voracious AO3 reader like myself and have an ipad/iphone I recommend Marvin as a reader app. The default theme is decent, you can build out your own color scheme and the interface really works as a book reader.
It has features I don’t use much (for fic reading) like bookmarks, annotations, defining words etc. It really is a feature rich reader that I use 10% of the functionality.
Marvin lets you grab files from dropbox, calibre, web, etc so it makes it super easy to suck stuff into your ios device. Promise!
The unforgettable story of three innocent pets converted into deadly cyborgs by the military. They’re prototypes, slated to be permanently de-commissioned–until they make a desperate run for freedom. Relentlessly pursued, the WE3 team navigates a frightening world, seeking something called home.
Another recommendation – this one by Grant Morrison under the Vertigo imprint. It came out in 2004 and digitally in 2013. Disturbingly beautiful (it’s got animals and pet gore in it, skip this rec if that is a trigger for you) we carried it in the bookstore I was working in and I’d recommend it to folks who were looking for near future with a dystopian twist and were open to a graphic novel.
It’s heart rending in places.
Clint/Natasha (requested by captain1awesome)
A different sort of recommendation – Avengers Assemble – animated series. It is male-centric but when Natasha does show up it is to solve the dudes’ stupid. Good plot lines, snarky smart characters. Falcon is part of the team (he’s younger than the dude you see in CA:TWS).
It plays on Disney and Netflix in the US.
I don’t know about the rest of the world. I imagine it is available from the usual suspects but please do support the creators as best as you are able.
Welcome to the World of Two Moons – Elfquest is the longest-running independent fantasy series, with more than 15 million comics, graphic novels and other publications in print. The story of Cutter, chief of the Wolfriders, and his quest to find others of their own kind on the World of Two Moons, Elfquest was first published in 1978 by creators Wendy and Richard Pini.
Another rec, this time a ‘classic’ that started in 1978 as an independent. My LCS in the mid-eighties carried all the usual Big Two suspects, including the Dark Knight stuff that was just coming out (Arkham Asylum anyone?) but the guy behind the counter was a friend and pointed me at this oversized black and white comic. They only had two issues in stock and it came out quarterly I think so it was super slow. I fell in love even though it was issue 16. The original arc ran through issue 20 and was part of what hooked me on comics. Over the years it’s been an independent, a Marvel re-release, digital, collections, a few novels, anthologies and a few aborted attempts at movies.
Here is a link to a forthcoming collection of the original for $125 that was the black and white line art. Yes, it’s a bit dated in the style but I still have love for it.
And if I needed another copy of it, this is what I’d buy to give to someone today. A trade paperback of the first 20 issues from Dark Horse that is due out in August. It’s 720 pages for $25. It does have mature content (on screen violence, character death, sex, bigotry, polyamory – most of those I would consider enticements, not warnings fyi) so if you have kids I’d pre-screen it before handing it over or be prepared for questions. It may look cutesy but it really isn’t. It opens with a character being tortured and subsequent rescue.
Nota Bene: Sometimes the labeling can be confusing. If you haven’t read Elfquest before I do recommend starting with First Quest [if you can’t wait until August the first quarter of First Quest was collected under the name Fire and Flight or Volume 1 originally and stops in at a great point if you want to dip a toe in. Yes, this is what happens when the same series is collected and re-collected under different sets over this many years.]
You’ve seen Black Widow as an Avenger and even an Agent of Shield. But on her own time she searches for atonement for her past as a KGB assassin–in ways of which those teams just wouldn’t approve.
Another rec in the ongoing series. Black Widow with amazing art by Phil Noto. So far it’s been loosely linked stories so you can start with any issue. The last few (as of this posting #8 was getting ready to come out) are starting to lean on big names to draw you to the book which makes me a little sad but I do love seeing how she holds her own (and lightly makes fun of) the Winter Soldier and Hawkeye.
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