Hey hey, it’s MJ,

I have been meaning to write this post for like a week but have been putting it off. I don’t know why, I just didn’t feel like writing it. Sometimes creativity flows and sometimes the drain gets clogged. The beavers are building a dam upstream so nothing gets through and you become an unmotivated mess. 

            I am going to preface this post with some truth, I have not bought a comic book in about a year and a half. I just haven’t, I love them and I used to get single issue comic books almost weekly. I don’t have a local comic book shop, so that makes getting things more difficult. I have a lot of trade paperbacks as well, but I have over 100 single issue comics that I need to really get bagged and boarded because right now, they are just sitting on a shelf and that is not the best for them; oops, my bad. 

            Some of these might be series that I got in single issue and some will be those that I got as trades, they are not just one comic brand, though much of my collection is Marvel. 

            These are my recommendations as of today, they are characters that I enjoy, and I do not have a large comic collection as compared to others. I like what I like and if you don’t, that’s cool, we can agree to disagree on our faves. 

            I only started reading comics in college because I liked the MCU, so don’t come for me I don’t know all of the things . If you want people who know all of the things go and listen to The Wizard and The Bruiser podcast on Spotify, that’s not a plug they just do a lot of research and I have learned a lot from them. 

The Wicked and The Divine

            I only have the first five trades in this series, there are nine trades in the series  and it’s finished so I need to get the rest of the collection. I started reading it on a whim and it’s so good. Every ninety years twelve Gods return to Earth and in two years they are dead (paraphrased from the back of trade one The Faust Act). It’s this cycle and it’s so good, the art is amazing! I need to reread them before I continue the series but it’s so good! If you like modern retellings of mythical God’s this one for sure is for you. 

The Umbrella Academy

            This one should be obvious on why I am reading it, first of all huge My Chem fan, second it has a Netflix series, which is so good. This comic is for sure different than the show, but it’s really good. Ironically the song I Think We’re Alone Now is playing on my Spotify and that’s hilarious. I only have the first two of three trades that are out there currently, I will be getting the third one at some point, but not today. 

Labyrinth Coronation

            It is no secret that my favorite movie is Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, it’s been my favorite movie since the first time I saw it. It’s ridiculous and everyone I have shown it to does not share my enthusiasm to it. I only have the first volume and I need to get the rest, this is a prequel of sorts to the movie and I love it so much. 

Civil War

            And Civil War 2, I have that all in single issues. Civil War the comic is very different from Civil War the movie, I know, I have read the novelization as well, you can see how I felt about that in my books read post number one from last year. I said it there and I will say it again here, if you consider the comic and book as one entity and the MCU film as another they are both amazing, they are not real similar. 

U.S. Avengers

            I have all of the single issues for this one as well, I don’t have any of the trades though I would like to get them some day. I really enjoyed the series when I read it and it sticks in my brain even though I haven’t opened any of them since probably 2018, if not earlier. That is the only Avengers series that I have in single issue and I really enjoyed it. 

The Invincible Iron Man (2008)

            Really any of the Iron Man series that have come out recently but My Five Nightmares was my first trade so it holds a very special place in my heart. It was also the first series that I read from front to back. The art is great, the story is great, and Iron Man is my favorite so of course I liked it. 

Ms. Marvel (2014)

            I loved this iteration of Ms. Marvel, G. Willow Wilson did an amazing job bringing this character into the modern realm and making her believable. I only have the first five trades and need to get the rest, I keep saying that, but it’s true. I loved this series when it came out. I actually may have some single issues of it as well but I don’t remember at the moment and my stack of single issues is large and unmarked because I am an idiot. This series is amazing, there is nothing else to say about it, it’s amazing. 

Harley Quinn (2013)

            Any of them, I have a few different Harley series and I love her. She’s been one of my fave characters since I was a kid, she was a doctor before being manipulated. My favorite crack ship is her and Deadpool because that would be the most chaotic thing ever. She’s a really strong character when she’s not juxtaposed next to The Joker, this series is all about her being on her own, at least the first trade is. I have a lot less DC comics than I do Marvel, though I have a lot of first issues, Titans, Teen Titans, Hellblazer, Superman, Wonder Woman as well as others that I can’t think of off the top of my head at the moment. I grew up on all of the animated Batman series of the 90’s and 2000’s, I loved the old Justice League, but I didn’t start collecting DC comics until after college and I have no single issue DC comics from the current generation. Grab bag comics from the 90’s and 2000’s sure, but I never sought out DC like I did Marvel, Dark Horse, and Image.

            So there it is, some of my fave comic’s all trades except for a few and I bet anything I have in single issue I would get in trade now, I know that there are thousands of series out there and we can all have our favorites, from the most chaotic to the most heroic. I have Captain America, Hawkeye, Thor, Avengers, Guardians, and many other Marvel comics, but if I added more it would just be a list of the around 30 series that I have in my collection, some of those are just the first trade and then I didn’t buy any others. There are other series that I have wanted for a long time and never got, but I have a lot of comics books and giving a small sample is probably for the best. 

            I hope that everyone has a great rest of the week and I will be back on Sunday with another post! 

            -MJ