Recommendations for "older" superhero comic titles.

To better explain myself, I am really enjoying The Twelve and have been looking into other comics that come from the “Golden Age” and other “long running” superhero titles. I’m refering to titles like, The Phantom, The Spectre, The Spirit, etc. Can anyone recommend any to me? I know that Superman and Batman have been around for awhile, but I’m talking comics that are not necessarily popular but still have enough of a following that they continue to be made. The reason I ask is because I’m looking at dropping the Hulk and X-Factor after the next 2-3 issues or so and I would like to try something a little different.

Most of these classic characters come and go. Even Wonder Woman has taken breaks now and then of a few months. Some classics that are currently in print (after breaks) would be the Spirit, Green Arrow and Black Canary, Justice Society of America, and Captain America. Others that come and go would be Uncle Sam & the Freedom Fighters, Plastic Man, Hawkman, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and the Marvel Family/Shazam. Also, you might want to check out the Superpowers Project and the Invaders vs. Avengers miniseries and the Agents of Atlas miniseries (currently in TPB).

If you like The Twelve, you probably wont like Golden Age comics.

The Twelve:
- The characters have flaws and must face them.
- ... is well written. By now, we expect comics to live up to the same writing standards as a book.
- ... follows basic social standards.

Golden Age Comics:
- At this time, comics were still a disposable medium. This allows the writers the freedom for their writing to be trash on a technical level (though you are free to enjoy crap writing, have at it).
- By definition, the change from the Golden Age to the Bronze Age of comics, is the jaded nature of the character, which arguably started with Spiderman, Xmen, ect. You will not find real, rounded characters like in The Twelve in a comic from the Golden Age. Golden Age characters are flat, they face no real life problems and have no real personalities to relate to (see above point about the bad writing).
- As much as feminists whine about comics today, Golden Age Comics give new meaning to the words “sexist” and “racist.” Women in this era get pushed aside and the rare that do get in the lime light (Wonder Woman) are blatant sex idols. Black people in comics apparently need to be anthropomorphized as if they were an animal (The Spirit, thanks Will Eisner) and let’s not get started about Superman and those darn Japs (if the war were an excuse, then we could publish crap about Iraqis right now and get away with it).

So, if you still think you’d like to read something from the Golden Age, you go for it. But make sure you know what you’re gonna read, because you are not going to find writing like The Twelve from that era anywhere. Society just didn’t write that way yet.

Much Luv!

Well, most of the heroes from the Golden Age, except the big guns like Superman and Batman, have not had consistently running series. Most of them go away for a while and then come back, like the three you mentioned. I am enjoying Project Superpowers from Dynamite, which has resurrected numorous Golden Age Heroes (Black Terror, Green Lama, Original Daredevil, Fighting Yank, etc.). A few of them are soon to branch out into individual mini-series. Flash Gordon has a new series starting this summer, if he fits into your view of a super hero. Other borderline super heroes with excellent current series include the Lone Ranger and Zorro. If you want to read the actual Golden Age stories, AC Comics’ Men of Mystery is full of black & white super hero reprints. Marvel has Avengers/Invaders going on right now which has the Golden Age Invaders (Captain America, Namor, Original Human Torch, Bucky, Toro) being brought to the current Marvel U. Then there’s the regular Captain America title. That’s all I can think of off the top of my head, but I’m sure there’s more, or more in the works.

was gonna suggest the current Avengers/invaders maxi series (planned for 12 issues) that Marvel has going but got beat by Beetle and Mikey. Don’t know much about the Twelve, but I’ve seen in quite a few occasions questions raised about how the Avnegers/Invaders series was similar to it in the fact that it was a old style heroes in current time. People even questionned why Marvel didn’t wait that The Twelve was over before starting the Avengers/Invaders series.

As they say, ymmv. :)

FM

Did you pick up The Twelve #0? It’s a collection of the original golden age books, not bad but not amazing either. I would say if you like the Twelve, check out his run on Thor, both titles have great art, both are sticking to their roots with a modern twist, and both have JMS writing it, Yaaaaa!

Darwyn Cooke’s The Spirit is one of my favorite runs ever btw, I really really suggest you pick up the Hardcovers, AMAZING run!!

For more older super hero books, I think MadMikeyD’s got it covered, I keep hearing great things about Lone Ranger and Zorro, haven’t checked them out yet but its definbitely on my MUST READ list.

patk514, I did pick up The Twelve #0 as well as all of the issues up to this point. It was really interesting how characters like the Laughing Mask were written as “vigilantes” and purposely killed bad guys and the cops never did anything to them. That was not what I was expecting from a “Golden Age” comic! Also, the other interesting thing I noticed was that Superman was a jerk in his older comics before he got a sense of morals and became too much of a “goody goody” hero. Do you, or anyone else, like The Phantom? I’m kind of leaning towards that comic as a possibility. The guy who runs the comic store said that he likes him because The Phantom mantle is passed down from father to son, so it has some kind of connection. If anyone has any more info., please keep it coming…all suggestions are welcomed.

I would second patk514 recommendation on The Spirit.

-b.

At this point in time, I have chosen The Lone Ranger and The Spirit comic book titles, but will probably add more at a later time. I still would like to get The Phantom at some point. I’m not a real big fan of the $3.99 comics, especially when they are an ongoing series price. Any other recommendations?

While not quite Golden Age, some great nolstalgic Silver Age stuff that’s come back in vogue the last couple years includes Sgt Rock and Jonah Hex.

Sgt Rock had a couple limited series returns now in TPB, “Sgt Rock: Between Hell and A Hard Place” and “Sgt Rock: The Prophecy”. Before you read those, you can get all the old stories & art into your system thanks to D.C.’s “Showcase” compendiums, such as “Showcase Presents: Sgt Rock Vol 1”.

Here’s the crazy awesome thing, it’s still Joe Kubert as the artist. Then and now. Yay! My Dad’s a big fan of Sgt Rock and nearly flipped when I told him there was “newer” stuff. heh.

You can get old school Jonah Hex with “Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex Vol 1” and these days, the regular title is gritty and great. Stories are rarely more than one issue, so you get a self-contained satisfying tale each go with “Jonah Hex”.

There are several TPBs of the modern title that you can pre-order from HI now!

I’m not against Silver Age comics, so thanks for the recommendations. Isn’t there a Showcase Presents: The Phantom Stranger or something like that? Does anyone have any thoughts on that?

Lee & Kirby era Fantastic Four is a psychedelic dream. Make sure you got good weed, good wine, and an open mind.

I never smoked weed (and never will), I’m not a huge fan of wine, but I try to keep an open mind about most things so…..thanks for the recommendation MA$$APPEAL. :)

Amen to that brother. If you never have, DON’T. It’s another NWO attempt to dumb us all down. I’ve since killed the habbit, but c’mon, I’m from Kelowna, BC – weed & wine are the two most profitable industries out here.

I recently read a book called “Give Our Regards To The Atom Smashers”. It’s writer’s writing about what comics they read growing up and how they were influenced etc. A lot of the older era comics you may be seeking were written about in this book, and that’s what indicated me to some of them. It’s a great read anyways. Short chapters – one or two poops each.

I didn’t know Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were trying to dumb us down.

(inside joke for wrestling fans)

hahaha. wrestling is also another way they dumb us down.

I would like to recommend 2 books that Alan Moore wrote that had a “Golden Age Superhero” flavor to them. In both cases the stories turned into great comics with excellent storylines and wonderful art. “Watchmen” and “Miracleman”. The titles are now available as collections and I believe if you enjoy “Twelve” you would enjoy them as well.

O.M.A.C by Jack Kirby, a great sci-fi comic also anything EC such as Tales from the Crypt, Haunt of Fear, Vault of Horror, Detective comics and Strange Science. :O

MA$$APPEAL: I added “Give Our Regards To The Atomsmashers” to my wish list on Amazon.com. Thanks.
Alex: I have the tradepaperback of” Watchmen”, but I still need to read it. I will check into “Miracleman”.
Wolfy: I really like EC comics, do you have a favorite out of the ones you listed? I recieved an EC comic (I think) that was for Free Comic Day and thoroughly enjoyed it. It had multiple short stories and had the feel of Alfred Hitchcock stories…which one would that be? What is O.M.A.C like?

Hey Groo I also got the EC sampler on Free Comic day, the first story was from Weird Science vol 1, 2nd Two fisted tales vol 1, 3rd Tales from the cyrpt Vol 1 and the last story was from Shock Suspence Stories Vol 1.
They are seperate Hardover volumes you can buy the whole set of for example a tales from the crypt box set for 100 bux or so. Single volumes are like 30-40 I think. Check out my lists on my profile for info on EC and OMAC under my graphic novels.

My fav EC titles are Crime Suspence Comics, Haunt of Fear, Vault of Horror and Tales from The Crypt.
Tales From the Crypt was a turned into a TV adaptation of the comics. It was one of my Fav shows,
you should really check out the tv show before you read the comics, check online somewhere for episodes.

Wolfy, I do remember Tales from the Crypt on TV when I was younger. I watched it here and there and I believe it was on Saturday nights? Or maybe it was Friday nights? Anyway, I will check your profile for recommendations. Thanks a lot!

Ever see the one where Joe Pesci dates a set of twins, pretending to be 2 different people? I love that one.

Groo, I think it was on Saturday Nights but it used to be on the space channel here in canada weeknights at 1:00am.

Massappeal, I loved that episode but my favourite was the episode with Christopher Reeves, Meatloaf and Judd Nelson Its called What’s Cookin’ it was about a restaurant who serves its victims to their customers.
My 2nd Favourite was Yellow with Kirk Duglas and Dan Ackroyd, takes place on the WW1 Battlefield.

I’m with Alex – Miracleman was outstanding (Watchmen was good, too, but I thought MM was better). I wasn’t aware of it having been collected, though.

Dan, where can I get a trade paperback of Miracleman? I tried Amazon.com and all they had was what people were selling and they were wanting hundreds of dollars for them and that was for the paperbacks as well as the hardbacks!!!! Granted, I didn’t check the list for the cheapest offers, but I was hoping to find some for more reasonable prices that that?! Any suggestions as to where to get more reasonable copies of Miracleman?