Comic Books You Consider Under-Rated...

[Wesley Dodds]

Like the heading says, this is a thread for comic books you feel are under-rated or don't get the recognition you feel they deserve..

I'll start off with:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandman_Mystery_Theatre

It amazes me this book doesn't get more respect. An intelligently plotted, slow-burning detective series with an emphasis on suspense and deduction rather than guns and explosions.
It also has characters that are some of the most believable and realistic i've ever read. The art is also brilliantly unique, this book doesn't look like a superhero book, every character looks so... Normal. No six packs or square jaws in sight.

For a book like this to get put out in the dumbass 90's comics scene and still complete a 70 issue/five year run is truly a testament to how great it is.

Your turn...

 

[Tron Bonne]

Young Liars, it's pretty recently, just getting canceled with the last issue scheduled to come out this month. Truly a diamond in the rough, almost always reinventing itself and never predictable. I can understand that it probably wouldn't be for everyone, but it's a shame it couldn't find an audience long enough to make it at least 2 years

 

[Gilpesh]

This may not be underrated by the people that actually read it... but...

Atomic Robo. Srsly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_Robo

A robot, built by Tesla, fights crime and does some other sciencey things where pyramids turn out to be huge computers that destroy towns. Did I mention his main enemy is a brain in a jar with a robot body? COME ON!

 

[deathshead2]

Young Liars, it's pretty recently, just getting canceled with the last issue scheduled to come out this month. Truly a diamond in the rough, almost always reinventing itself and never predictable. I can understand that it probably wouldn't be for everyone, but it's a shame it couldn't find an audience long enough to make it at least 2 years

I tried reading that book, I like weird, but it was just to weird.

Yeah, Atomic Robo is awesome.

 

[Tron Bonne]

I tried reading that book, I like weird, but it was just to weird.

Yeah, I do understand that, it probably was too weird for its own good. I loved it though, so sad to see it cut down so early

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Just Wiki'd Young Liars... Sounds interesting, but I dunno... If it's been cancelled so early into it's run is there any point?

Also, I've been meaning to check out Atomic Robo forever... It strikes me as kind of "Big Guy and Rusty The Robot" meets "Hellboy"...

 

[Tron Bonne]

Just Wiki'd Young Liars... Sounds interesting, but I dunno... If it's been cancelled so early into it's run is there any point

I don't know what you mean. If something is good it doesn't really matter when it was canceled. The current Captain Britain series didn't even make it that long, but most people agree it was quite good.

 

[Wesley Dodds]

I don't know what you mean. If something is good it doesn't really matter when it was canceled. The current Captain Britain series didn't even make it that long, but most people agree it was quite good.

I just mean that if it doesn't get a chance to wrap up it's story the way the writer originally intended then surely it'll make for a frustrating reading experience, no?

 

[Gilpesh]

Also, I've been meaning to check out Atomic Robo forever... It strikes me as kind of "Big Guy and Rusty The Robot" meets "Hellboy"...

It is very Hellboy like. That's probably factored into me liking it. But it rocks anyway.

 

[Tron Bonne]

I just mean that if it doesn't get a chance to wrap up it's story the way the writer originally intended then surely it'll make for a frustrating reading experience, no?

Lapham said he had an ending in mind and could end it properly at 18, from my understanding he expected the cancellation for awhile and has been building up to an ending because of that

 

[Gilpesh]

Hell, Irredeemable Ant-Man was great... and it only got twelve issues before CANCELED!

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Lapham said he had an ending in mind and could end it properly at 18, from my understanding he expected the cancellation for awhile and has been building up to an ending because of that

Oh, that's cool. I love it when writers are given enough time to give their books a half decent send-off. It puts me in mind of Robert Kirkman's The Irredeemable Ant-Man... Another seriously under-rated book.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that one

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Hell, Irredeemable Ant-Man was great... and it only got twelve issues before CANCELED!

Damn! That's spooky. I didn't see this post before i said that.
Great minds think alike, Gil...

 

[Gilpesh]

Damn! That's spooky. I didn't see this post before i said that.
Great minds think alike, Gil...

It's great. I enjoy having the small two books and that being the entire story... I don't care about what happens to the character after those twelve issues... because it's Marvel so that means it's not always Kirkman writing him.



Also. The Filth is a pretty weird read... a good one... but still really weird.

 

[Wesley Dodds]

It's great. I enjoy having the small two books and that being the entire story... I don't care about what happens to the character after those twelve issues... because it's Marvel so that means it's not always Kirkman writing him.



Also. The Filth is a pretty weird read... a good one... but still really weird.

Usually, neither would I, but i followed the character anyway because he became a character in the Initiative. And who writes The Initiative? Dan Slott. Talk about the perfect writer to take over the reins...

 

[Gilpesh]

Usually, neither would I, but i followed the character anyway because he became a character in the Initiative. And who writes The Initiative? Dan Slott. Talk about the perfect writer to take over the reins...

Yeah... but for how long. It could just be a matter of issues before some Jeph Loeb drops on the character and just ruins it.

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Just the idea of Loeb getting his hands on O'Grady makes me sad. Or even worse, Stracincsky... I'd really hate for that character to become "the chosen one of the Ant God" or whatever...

 

[[A]]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandman_Mystery_Theatre

It amazes me this book doesn't get more respect

I like it

 

[PaleRider]

Anybody read Dr. Graves? I'll have to pull it out of my boxes to remember the publisher and writer but man I loved it and it was funny as hell. Great thread.

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Speaking of Dan Slott, his She-Hulk book was some seriously under-rated stuff. It was fantastic.

Before i read this book I had no interest in the character, twelve issues later shulky was a firm favourite.

It's like if Ally McBeal was Gamma-irradiated and set in the Marvel Universe.

 

[Dark Victory]

No Hero
Crossed
Ex Machina
Garth Ennis' run on The Darkness

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Yeah, I agree about Ennis' The Darkness. That book began suprisingly well.

"You've seen Star Wars, right? Well, The Darkness is The Force on crack"

If that man has ever done a bad book, i have yet to read it.

 

[Johann Krauss]

 

[Watchman]

Young Liars, it's pretty recently, just getting canceled with the last issue scheduled to come out this month. Truly a diamond in the rough, almost always reinventing itself and never predictable. I can understand that it probably wouldn't be for everyone, but it's a shame it couldn't find an audience long enough to make it at least 2 years

One more issue...

Before Matt Fraction was big at Marvel there was Casanova, a great scifi/spy book that was only 1.99 an issue with great art from Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon and it only ran for 14 issues?! How the hell doesn't it catch on? Well Fraction has promised more Casanova and with him winning Eisner it may be sooner than later but he may be too busy with the X-men, damnit.

Automatic Kafka, by Joe Casey featuring art by Ashley Wood. Only ran for 9 ****ing issues. A great deconstruction of superheroes and what happens after superheroing as the lead character becomes a D-List celebrity and is drawn into a conspriacy. Track down issue 4 which shows what happens when Charlie Brown is all grown up.

Speaking of being underrated Casey is very underrated writer.