My Top 3 Favorite Comic Books
Sometimes comic books don't have to be about super-powered beings fighting other super-powered beings in a context to see who is the most powerful. I enjoy reading comics where the heroes are just regular people with superpowers, the heroes are actually the villains, or the villains have good reasons to be be villains. As someone who finds it challenging to finish a full-length novel but still wants a well-developed story, I find comic books just as invigorating, emotional, and dramatic. This is a list of my top three favorite comic books that I recommend everyone read.
#3 Kick-Ass
Kick-Ass is like Batman, except it's about a high school kid named Dave Lizewski, his family is middle class, he ordered his costume on EBay, he's not an orphan, and he doesn't fit into any group or clique at school, making him a forgettable nobody who simply exists. This series has tons of gratuitous violence and nudity, but is the most grounded and realistic comic I've ever read. Dave, a comic book fanatic, asks the question, "How come nobody dresses up and tries to be a superhero?" When he tries it, he finds himself in bloodbaths with the mafia, gets his dad killed, his girlfriend assaulted, and learns that being a superhero isn't all it's cracked up to be. This story also gives us one of the best female protagonists: Hit Girl, alongside her father Big Daddy, who are "assholes just like Dave" who dress up, workout a lot, and use money from the villains they stop to fill their arsenal of weapons and gadgets. Mark Millar's Kick-Ass shows readers that anyone can put on a costume and act like a hero, but that the real world is much darker than world-threatening aliens and fame and fortune.
#2 The Superior Spider-Man
Everybody knows the story of Spider-Man. Teenage boy Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider, lives with his Aunt May, loses his Uncle Ben who tells him the iconic line, "With great power, comes great responsibility." He fights criminals while juggling school and a romantic relationship. Everyone loves Spider-Man because everyone finds something in common with him. But what if Doctor Otto Octavius (Doctor Octopus) swapped minds with Peter Parker, killed off the piece of Peter's conscious that still lives in Peter's body, and then takes on the role and responsibilities of Spider-Man? You get an incredible story where one hero finally draws the line between beating up and imprisoning criminals, just to have them break out and do it again, and killing them. The Superior Spider-Man continues everything we love about Stan Lee's original recipe, but adds the issue of morality concerning who is judge, jury, and executioner. Doc Oc. as Spider-Man confronts criminals who take bullying too far, use children as henchmen, kill innocent women and children without feeling, and so much more.
#1 Watchmen
"Who watches the Watchmen?" is a terrifying question that asks who is in charge of making sure the "good guys" always protect us.
Watchmen is a story about a group of vigilantes and the most powerful being (arguably) in all of DC Comics: Dr. Manhattan, who investigate the murder of their teammate: The Comedian. This intense, dark drama challenges what we know about who's in charge, what happens when the most powerful being starts to disassociate with human emotion, what true evil looks like, and so much more all during a murder mystery which unravels an even bigger scheme. Alan Moore has written several amazing pieces including
V For Vendetta and
Swamp Thing, but this is a work of art and a piece of literary and pop-culture history.
Watchmen will never let you stop thinking and asking questions, no matter how many times you read it.
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