Since I've been embroiled in a massive Avengers discussion over in the movie forum, I thought I'd ask what some of you have read and list a few of my favorites:
1. Bone - a pinnacle of the medium. Think of the best Pixar film and then cram it into 1300 comic pages. A truly breath-taking work.
2. Frank Miller - I can't decide what to list and the dude changed the entire landscape of the medium so I'm splitting it between his run on Daredevil (where he took what had become an also-ran book and created the character we now identify as Daredevil), Batman Year One (he did the same thing for Batman), and The Dark Knight Returns (a completely revolutionary take on an alternate universe Batman in the future).
3. Watchmen - There's no point in even defending this decision. It's obvious.
4. Preacher - The book went into a tailspin later in the series but the first 40 or so issues are pure gold. An original character, original ideas, and very well executed. It's just too bad that Ennis descended into writing cliched torture porn after this book.
5. All-Star Superman - Grant Morrisson deserves to be on this list and this is probably his finest mainstream attempt at a Marvel or DC character.
Honorable mentions: Superman Red Son, Scott Pilgrim, The Walking Dead (first 40 issues), Batman: The Killing Joke, The Dark Phoenix Saga, and a bunch of shit I'm sure I'll remember after I hit Submit.
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