The great comic read of 2009, part 2

OK folks, here's part two of my adventures in nerdery.

The Ultimates - If you like comic book movies, you'll like The Ultimates. Thumbs up.

Marvels - I really liked this one. My only complaint is how abruptly the book ended, but maybe that's the point.

Death of the Stacys - This is where the events covered in Spider-Man: Blue actually happened. These old comics... they're great, but I sure am glad that superheroes don't explain their every move anymore. Borrow, don't buy.

Wolverine by Claremont and Miller - I had a pog with the cover of the first issue of this mini-series on it. I think I even bought a special hard plastic pog case to put it in because even then I'd heard how great this story was. And it is great, if you don't mind the two hokey X-Men issues they added to the end of it.

Longshot - So bizzare. This is a really strange mini-series. Fun in many ways, and I do like the character once he joined the X-Men, but the dialogue in this one is a bit too spacey even for me.

God Loves, Man Kills - Short, to the point, and excellently illustrated, this graphic novel is a pretty dang good read. Pretty classic X-Men themes (alienation, bigotry, etc). Recommended.

All Star Superman, Vol. 1 - Oh man. This title is so good. The dialogue can be a bit too sparse, but it pretty much sums up everything about Superman that made me smile as a kid.

The Dark Knight Returns - The classic. I hadn't read it before now. I'm not going to lie, some of this is really brutal, to the point where I had to take breaks when reading it, but it's so well crafted that after a brief respite I was back in to it again. A seriously well told story.

Batman: Hush - Interesting read. Not too much of a mystery, really, but I'm a sucker for Jim Lee artwork. Have been since I was a kid. Worth a read, but there are better Batman stories out there (Dark Knight Returns, The Long Halloween, Year One).

Batman: The Killing Joke - Interesting book. Read it as a kid, but forgot a ton of it. Worth a borrow.

Don't worry, there's a gripping finale to this trio of posts still to come. Excited, aren't you?