13 Comic Stories You Should Read Be4 You Die! List by: David del Real.
13 Comic Stories You Should Read Be4 You Die!
List by: David del Real.
First: Easy! With the title I don´t mean you or me are going to die anytime soon!!!
Second: Yes, some stories I will talk about are a bit terrifying, but I promise all of them are terrific!!!
Third: This list is not arranged from "lesser good to greatest good" . To decide which one is the best is your job. I´m arranging more or less from the most approachable (both because maybe it´s a famous character and easy storyline) to the most intricate and difficult, but ok, I admit numbers one and two are my favorite.
Fourth: I am not going to tell you so many spoilers that you don´t want to read the stories, I will tell you only what you need to know to help you find your next great read in the closest comics or convenience store near you.
ENJOY!!!
Number 13:
Superman, Peace on Earth.
Story by: Alex Ross and Paul Dini
Text by: Paul Dini
Art by: Alex Ross.
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
Superman stands in front of the US Congress with an idea: To stop hunger in the world for one day. He will take all the unharvested food and share it with anyone with hunger in the world. It´s one of the simplest story-lines ever but also one of the few that has made my eyes feel wet. A great choice for parents and uncles that are searching for a good old inspiring tale to read to the young.
Number 12
And They Shall Call Him Champion.
Written by: Tom DeFalco.
Artist: Ron Wilson.
Colorist: George Roussos.
An intergalactic villain wants to fight the most awesome fighters in the Universe to see if someone can defeat him, will any of Earth´s champions will be able to defeat this villain and thus, save the Earth from being destroyed? Trust me, this is a classic fable of our time that you will want to read once a year for inspiration
Number 11
The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix
Writer: Scott Lobdell
Artist: Gene Ha.
Colourist: Kevin Somers.
Published by MARVEL comics.
Cyclops and Phoenix are taken to the future with a very singular mission: to raise Nathan, the one who will become Cable and will save the future and that is actually their son from another reality (or could he be from this one?). One condition for the success of the mission is that they can´t reveal him that they are his real parents. They will take care of Nathan using bodies made somehow alike the ones they have in the 20th Century and the nicknames of Redd and Slim.
TRIVIA: The mysterious character called "Mother Askani" appears in this comic, is actually she who sends Cyclops and Phoenix to their distant future. You can see, actually, in this post, one of the two panels where her identity is revealed.
Number 10:
Superman: World Without A Superman
Writers: Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, Roger Stern, etc...
Artists: Walter Simonson, Tom Grummett. Jon Bogdanove, etc...
Colorists: Dennis Janke, Walter Simonson, Doug Hazlewood, etc..
Superman created by: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
Published by: DC Comics.
Death of Superman was a comic that broke many sales records, nevertheless, in terms of story-telling I prefer the next story: World Without A Superman.
Superman is dead and now the world has to deal with it. How will his most beloved react? Which will be the reaction of the different Superheroes to this demise?
We see a very complete gathering of Superheroes remembering Superman and agreeing to put a black piece of fabric in everybody´s arm as a way of remembering him. We see everybody from Louis Lane to every member of the JLA trying to cope with the demise...and we see the Linear Men, who are dedicated to fix time paradoxes considering if they should bring Superman back to life by preventing his death!!!
Number 9
Fantastic Four vs. The X-Men.
Writers: Chris Claremont.
Artists: Jon Bogdanove.
Colorists: Terry Austin.
Published by: MARVEL COMICS.
My main reason to set this comic in the list is the fact that it shows something that happens to people who have had a diary once in their lives. If they read it some years later, they can feel surprised of having written those words for one reason or another, this story exploits well that surprise.
Kitty Pride from the X-Men is terribly ill. The Fantastic Four go to X-Men´s Muir Island in order to help but some misunderstandings make the two teams fight each other and make the X-Men search desperately for someone else´s help.
Dr. Doom offers his aid and the X-Men accept it even when , obviously, they don´t trust him. This is a story for both the life of Kitty Pride and the very soul of the Fantastic Four.
Number 8
Batman: A Death In The Family
Writer: Jim Starlin
Art: Jim Aparo
Colorist: Mike De Carlo
Published by: DC Comics.
This was the first comic ever that made me cry. I remember myself crying over the bed and could not believe my eyes watching an also-crying Batman with the corpse of a Boy Wonder on his arms...Also notice that this is the only triad of creators (Starlin, Aparo and De Carlo) that appears twice in this list.
Robin (Jason Todd) and Batman have had a lot of discussions lately. Robin begins to investigate and arrives to the realization that he is not really an orphan, his mother is alive and maybe willing to see him as much as he wants to see her. Betrayed to the Joker by his own mother, Robin gets beaten to death and this event will ever remain a burden in the soul of the dark protector of Gotham.
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NUMBER 7
Witchblade, any issue.
Main writers: David Wohl, Cristina Z, Marc Silvestri, etc...
Main artists: Michael Turner, Dan Kemp, Keu Cha, ,Marco Galli, Marc Silvestri,etc...
Main colorists: Jonathan D. Smith, Peter Steigerwald, etc...
Published by: Top Cow Productions from Image Comics.
Beautiful and very job-committed detective Sara Pezzini inherits the most deathly weapon of all; a mystical object called the "Witchblade" which has passed from one bearer to another for centuries, being all its carriers beautiful, brave and justice oriented women. Very sensitive and overwhelmed by work and the recent decease of her mate ,Sara is the bearer of the Witchblade in our days...but of course it won´t be an easy task as that kind of power is obsessively searched by the forces of evil.
NUMBER 6
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Story by: Frank Miller
Art by: Frank Miller
Colors: Klaus Janson
Published by: DC Comics
This is a story that most comic fans and historians agree that changed the comics forever, giving us a very adult tale written with a character that was part of our childhoods. I will only plot the very beginning of the story and let you people discover the rest. For the ones wanting for more reasons to read this comic, in the last volume we will see a Batman v. Superman fight that pretty much inspired many of the subsequent fights between superheroes, including many of those starring by these two characters.
We are in Gotham City, its the tenth anniversary of the last time the vigilante called as Batman was seen. The city has changed a lot and there is a lot of crime in our new city. There is a group of criminals called "The Mutants" that rule the streets. Batman will have to leave his retirement comfort to save his city once again and in the process he will have to deal with new enemies and with a new self-proclaimed Robin: a little but very intelligent and brave girl who saves his life after an humiliating defeat against the mutants´ leader.
NUMBER 5
Hulk: Future Imperfect.
Written by: Peter David
Art: George Pérez
Colorist: Tom Smith
Published by: MARVEL Comics.
The future is a complete mess with a tyrannic version of our Hulk ruling it with steel-hand. Rick Johns, the one that Dr. Banner once saved from a Gamma Explosion and old Hulk´s best friend, realizes that only Hulk can defeat Hulk and plots a plan to bring his old friend, the heroic Hulk from the past to defeat his tyrannic version of the future.
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NUMBER 4
Preacher, Gone To Texas.
Written by: Garth Ennis.
Artist: Steve Dillon.
Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth.
Foreword by: Joe R. Landsdale.
Published by: DC Comics, Vertigo.
If you are searching for a non-conventional story with a lot of existential crisis and mixed ideologies and mythologies ( Angels, demons, vampires,whatever, etc..) this is the comic you need.
Jesse, a very conscious and responsible preacher gets beaten in the local bar because of telling everybody´s terrible crimes (and believe me, they are!!!) in public and accusing them of going to his church on Sundays and acting like savages the other days of the week (and, indeed!!!) Also, in Heaven there is a great fuss because of a singular creature born from the affairs of an angel with a she-demon and that is said that can be as powerful as God himself. This singular creature merges his essence with Jesse during a Sunday´s speech while setting the church on fire with his entrance into this world........
NUMBER 3:
Batman: The TEN Nights of the Beast
Written by: Jim Starlin
Artist: Jim Aparo
Colorist: Mike De Carlo
Published by: DC Comics
Batman created by: Bob Kane
This is one of the comics I usually recommend to people who has never read a comic and ask for a good story to start with. The reason of this is its enormous realism and credibility. Most comic stories tended to be set in very "black and white" scenarios when this comic first appeared in the eighties, meaning that the good and the bad side are always very clearly defined. In our days, more and more comics, cartoons and movies are made using the "not so clear to define good from bad" approach, and I´m pretty sure this was one of the comics that influenced that change.
A war veteran from the old U.S.S.R. comes to the U.S.A. with one goal: to kill the top ten names of the Defense System of the nation. There are very probably spies inside the C.I.A. and other government agencies that make protect these top ten people difficult. The president of the U.S.A. is "abducted" by Batman by means of his own protection.
TRIVIA: Ronald Reagan, president of the U.S.A. (1981-1989), appears as a character in this comic.
NUMBER 2
Thor: God of Thunder
The God Butcher & GodBomb.
Writer: Jason Aaron.
Art: Nick Klein ,Esad Ribic, Butch Guice.
Colorist: Tom Palmer, Ive Svorcina, etc...
Variant Covers: Olivier Coipel & Laura Martin.
Published by MARVEL Comics.
Terror has been spread around all the gods of all the planets in the Universe as the rumor begins to look closer and closer. There is someone capable of killing gods and has been getting rid of them one by one, city after city, planet after planet. Thor has already had an encounter with him centuries ago but failed in ultimately defeating him. This story, that has the peculiarity of telling us the different adventures from three different times simultaneously gives us both the flavor of being reading an old Greek or Norse tragedy when he tells us about the first adventures of Thor when he was young and his first encounter with the God Butcher, and the bouquet of a futuristic tale when counting us of the present fights of Thor...and the final fight with the Butcher at the end of all times when he has already succeeded in the Throne to his father, Odin and is ready to fight for the sake of all the universe in all the times (past,present and future) possible!!!!!!!!!!!!
NUMBER 1:
The Last Avenger Story
Written by: Peter David.
Art: Ariel Olivetti
Published by: Marvel Comics.
We find ourselves in a possible future, where most of our most known heroes are death, sick or retired. Most of the active superheroes for that future are gathered in the same facility. Easy for the bad guys: they just throw a Nuclear Bomb to the facility and good-bye heroes...well good-bye young heroes. Now, it´s up to the remaining of the Superhero teams you know to defend the Earth with all they´ve got for one last time...united they will fall.
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