10. Lois Lane: A Celebration Of 75 Years
Lois Lane: A Celebration Of 75 Years features a huge collection and reprintings of classic Superman stories that focus on the journalist's side of the story. Such as the classic
Action Comics #1-2, Superman: Lois Lane #1, Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #5, 16, 23, 42 and much, much more, this book will give you a huge insight into Lois Lane that you may not have known about before.
Lois Lane: A Celebration OF 75 Years is one of the best collections to get for a Superman fan.
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9. Justice League Of America Vol 1: World's Most Dangerous.
Justice League Of America: World's Most Dangerous is one of the most unique books by Geoff Johns and David Finch in the New 52 so far. Featuring a very diverse and unique roster, this book is moreso a psychological thriller about the characters involved and mostly leaves the action behind. It plants some very interesting seeds for current event
Forever Evil but manages to stand alone with some very unique shockers. The only problem? It too quickly jumps into the Trinity War event. Other than that, this book is very solid. It's a great introduction to Vibe, who'll be a series regular in CW's
The Flash.
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8. Batman Incorporated Vol 2: Gotham's Most Wanted
Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham's finale to
Batman: Incorporated is truly amazing and one worthy of being on this list. It culminates almost all of a decade's worth of Batman stories from Grant Morrison and truly closes the door on the corporation. You can read my full review
HERE, but in short, Grant's book is absolutely fantastic and one of his sensical storylines as opposed to his garbage
Action Comics run.
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7. Fables Encyclopedia
Admittedly, I didn't get into
Fables until late this year. And christ, it's one of the most fantastic comic books I have ever read. It took a video game,
The Wolf Among Us, to finally take that leap and purchase first volume of
Fables,
Legends In Exile. After finally reading fifty issues, I decided to read some of the Encyclopedia. This book is absolutely fantastic, it's huge and filled with wonderful information. It has almost every character from
Fables lore with a paragraph explaining the original fairy tale they come from, along with their reimagined version from Willingham's comic. It has select pages from the comic book with each character blown up to full-page HD quality. The back of the book also has some "annotations", or commentary, for the first 100 or so issues of
Fables. If you're a fan of the comic series, this book is NOT one to miss at all.
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6. Superman: A Celebration Of 75 Years
Just like the Lois Lane book mentioned earlier,
Superman: A Celebration of 75 Years wraps up some of the greatest stories of Superman and covers every single era. Now, this book sort of paints a "definitive" version of the character that DC wants us to see, but that doesn't mean that the purchase isn't worthy. This book contains over 300 pages of the greatest Superman stories regardless of how they're collected. Including the first meeting between Batman and Superman, as well as The Death of Superman, this is definitely one for the collector or someone new to the Superman mythos.
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5. Justice League Volume 3: Throne Of Atlantis
This book features one of the most standalone and cinematic adventures in New 52 comics yet.
Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis pits all of the surface world against the underwater kingdom, forcing Aquaman to choose a side and fight for what's right. However, there's plenty of powerful twists and turns that make for a very, very interesting read. Geoff Johns is a mastermind and this is one of the books that prove it.
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4. Batman Vol 3: Death Of The Family
This intriguing storyline by Scott Snyder takes The Joker and Batman's relationship to a whole new level and is much, much better read in trade format. It's a very suspenseful story that lives up to it's name, and even though I'm not a fan of the climax, that doesn't mean I can't appreciate Scott Snyder's fantastic writing. Even if you're new to comics, this book is not one to miss.
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3. Green Lantern Volume 3: The End
Holy shit, where do I start?
Green Lantern: Vol 3 The End is exactly what the title implies; the end of Geoff Johns' decade long run on Green Lantern. He has truly revived everything there is to know about the
Green Lantern mythos and every plotline he has ever opened is has been closed with this book and tied up with a nice, neat bow. It also has a "flash-forward" into the future, showing what happens to each character, including newcomer Simon Baz. Even though Johns leaves some space open for new
Green Lantern writers, this book is all you need. Seriously, reading this ensures that you never have to read another Lantern book again (and please, don't. Lights Out was garbage)
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2. Fairest In All The Land
Fairest In All The Land is a standalone graphic novel set within the
Fables universe. It's easily accesible for those who haven't read the original comic book, but for those who have, it contains plenty of interesting easter eggs about the universe to find in each read, as well as bringing back a character long-thought to be dead. The plot of the story is that women in the
Fables universe are slowly being killed off, and Cinderella has to use her spy-work to figure out who is doing it. The book is split up into several miniature chapters featuring artwork by well-over a dozen artists (including the great Adam Hughes.) This book is some of Bill Willingham's best work, and definitely deserves a top spot on this list.
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1. Injustice: Gods Among Us Volume 1
Oh boy, half of you that disagree with this spot probably haven't even read this book, because it's one of the greatest comics out this year, regardless of company or genre. Tom Taylor has crafted a name for himself with this book.
Injustice packs a punch with an incredibly controversial and emotional start that only flips the tables on themes such as loyalty and trust. This book makes you question Superman's god-like complex along with the rest of the world. This book is full of surprises, fantastic writing and very unique story arcs. The changing artists in this book can be a little jarring, but overall it's absolutely fantastic. A MUST-BUY.
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