JSA: The Golden Age. One of the ABSOLUTE best Justice Society stories ever told. More specifically, it's one of the best Paul Kirk Manhunter stories. The twist is one of the best things about it, to me atleast. It's Prime James Robinson writing with absolutely sumptuous artwork by Paul Smith. It's a book incredibly endearing to the subject matter, and for me, does more for the JSA than Johns did.
Starman. James Robinson's masterwork. It's a lightning in a bottle series that DC has rarely ever been able to recapture. Like with The Golden Age, it piles on respect for those characters of old while celebrating better than any book barring the Flash the legacy aspect of DC's characters. Jack Knight is such a great character. A true working man's hero with so much personality. Seriously, the nuances Robinson imbues Jack with is a rarity in superhero comics. I've always considered this book a superhero reconstruction story. Robinson breaks down what a hero is and gradually rebuilds, and dare I say, rehabilitates the concept. It's such a great book and I'm happy that DC released the whole series across two compendiums after being out of print for so long.
Sandman Mystery Theatre. Matt Wagner, Guy Davis, and Steven T. Seagle telling profoundly lurid pulp stories about the Golden Age Sandman? You can't go wrong. The artwork is brilliant. The stories themselves reflect the world's seedy underbelly, all it's vices and sins, right back in its face to pretty astounding results. If you read and enjoyed (or even didn't) the recent Wesley Dodds: Sandman mini series, Sandman Mystery Theatre is all that and more, and a thousand times better.
Jonah Hex vol. 2. Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray with a rotating stable of some of the medium's best artists telling done-in-one Western comics with the best Western hero of them all. It's 70 issues, along with a graphic novel and another 35 issues under the All-Star Western title during the New52. I'm in the middle of re-reading the whole series, and I gotta say: this run never misses. The stories range from typical revenge stories, grittier Spaghetti Western style rampages, and some moving romances. We get art from the likes of Luke Ross, Jordi Bernet, Moritat, and Daryn Cooke amongst others. Well worth the deep dive.
Hawkworld. Timothy Truman writes and illustrates this supremely intelligent and a-typical reboot of the Katar Hall Hawkman. I loved it almost immediately. The story's politics go pretty hard and feel relevant even today. The artwork is a masterclass in storytelling. The story is pretty moving. This book really joins the ranks of fellow 80s reboot stories like Batman: Year One, Blackhawk and The Long Bow Hunters as a story that feels like anything but a superhero comic. By breaking free of those shackles, it becomes so much more and so much better. Nerds will get up in arms about what it, and the subsequent ongoing that stemmed out of this book, did to continuity. Put those people on mute. The ongoing is just as good, and just as intelligent as the mini series, because John Ostrander is a great writer and Graham Nolan is a great artist.
This last one goes without saying: Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. 45 issues of pure brilliance. For the first year and a half that Moore is on that book, he, Bissette, Totleben and Veitch are firing on cylinders the medium has never seen since. I own this run in floppy, TPB, HC and absolute. It's my favorite comic book run of all time.
