Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day. Each year there’s kind of a mixed bag of free selections, often reaching a little young in hopes of grabbing the kids and getting them hooked for life. Of course, retailers don’t just want you to come in, paw some merchandise, and then walk out with just the freebies. Here are my current five top picks, along with some suggested further reading if you like what you find:
- Ultimate Spider-Man: Constistently good for 90+ issues now. An “ultimate” book, meaning that it’s part of a small group of Marvel books that basically reset the story to day one. Instead of having been Spider-Man for years now, Peter is just starting out, trying to learn the superhero game while juggling high school and girl troubles. Further reading: all the Ultimate Spider-Man back issues are out in trade paperback, Invincible, Powers.
- Civil War: A seven part mini-series that just started this week, and issue one was great. It’s gotten some mainstream press, but if you haven’t heard, the basic premise is this: a group of amateur superheroes botches an attempt to stop some escaped villains, leading to an explosion resulting in the death of hundreds of school children. This event moves forward a bill already in Congress to require all heroes to register and reveal their identities. Iron Man backs the plan, Captain America opposes it. Further reading: The Ultimates, New Avengers.
- Y: The Last Man: not a superhero book. Tells the story of Yorick who, along with his pet monkey, are the only two males of any species left alive on the planet, after something killed them all in the exact same moment, worldwide. Further reading: Fables.
- Batman: Currently doing an 8-issue crossover with Detective Comics, the back issues should be easy to find. Once that story is over, one of my favorite comics authors, Grant Morrison, will be writing Batman. DC Comics is doing a line-wide “One Year Later” event, where all the stories jumped forward one year, so most of their books are pretty easy to get into, with easy jumping-on points starting with the first OYL issue. Further reading: Robin, 52, All-Star Superman.
- Astonishing X-Men: penned by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly writer Joss Whedon and pencilled by superstar John Cassiday, this is the best X-book out there (and probably the only one worth reading). The new movie is based partly on the plot of the first few issues. The current team is Cyclops, Emma Frost, Kitty Pryde, Colosus, Wolverine, and Beast. Further reading: New X-Men trade paperbacks, Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine.
Hmm, I’m surprised that I only ended up putting one DC book on there. I read more DC than Marvel, but in a top five list I think Marvel has the edge right now.