Comic Book Herald

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Best of Lists

The Best Green Lantern Comics of All Time!

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Origins

The Silver Age taught fans and creators at least one message: “heroes” are more important than the characters who play them. Counting only main continuity appearances, there are at there have been thirteen Thors, six Captains Marvel, maybe three or four Wolverines, and around a solar system’s worth of Spider-People.

The Green Lantern title is a perfect example of this message because Green Lantern isn’t a destiny, it’s a job title. It does away with the “destined” aspect, and goes a long way towards helping character transitions. But it also gives the stories ease and efficiency.

Green Lantern stories are vehicles that bring a new hero into adventure more quickly through smart use of the preexisting, easily comprehensible Lantern Corps. This craftsmanship makes the hero’s origin important, but not so heavy that it’s hard to progress beyond. Additionally, it means their start isn’t really a transformation. The moment the Fantastic Four are hit by cosmic rays, they change fundamentally and forever. Lanterns, on the other hand, feel more like the same people they always were, only with a new job. [Read more…] about The Best Green Lantern Comics of All Time!

Best of the Martian Manhunter!

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Martian Manhunter #1 variant cover by Joshua Middleton

Among DC’s many great heroes, the Martian Manhunter stands out for being especially underrated. His early appearances are difficult to track down in trade; he is the “Big 7” League member with the very least in the way of solo stories, and he has long been used primarily as a supporting character with few chances to truly shine on his own. Making his debut in a back-up feature in Detective Comics #225, Martian Manhunter joined the League more or less as a substitute for Superman back when DC feared that overusing the son of Krypton would weaken sales. Eventually, interest in MM waned, and he vanished almost entirely when writers had him return to Mars to be with his people once more. But let’s face it, that was never going to be the end of the road for this rad telepathic shape-shifting Martian.

Truly, you can’t keep a good Manhunter down, and after years of sporadic appearances, he finally returned to regular continuity in 1984, rejoining the Justice League in 1987. Since then, he’s been considered a mainstay of the team, but his versatility and effectiveness as a team member cuts way down on the time we spend looking deeper into his inner world. That’s all the more reason why Martian Manhunter’s greatest moments deserve celebration, because he has been with the League for a long time and he deserves the recognition!

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The 10 Best European Comics!

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Corto Maltese

Writer/Artist: Hugo Pratt

Corto Maltese was Indiana Jones and Han Solo before Harrison Ford was even invented. He’s Lupin III and Spike Spiegel and yes, even Carmen Sandiego. The character and his title are true classics, capturing and even defining not just a style, but the entire tradition of “action books.”

So it’s hilariously perfect that he shows up late to his own book for the same reason Star Wars doesn’t start at the Cantina.

Instead, it begins with a hilarious ruse. We start with an eighteen-year-old Serbian deserter named Rasputin, a boy having faced such hardship that only the internationally renowned adventurer, scoundrel, and bon vivant Maltese can help—a man so famous, it takes real-world literary master Jack London to bring the two together.

This is a bit like saying that if you want Spider-Man’s help, you have to go through Hemingway first.

The Corto Maltese books feel somehow both dated and contemporary. The tropes they invented are still very much in use, and Pratt’s style can still be seen in Moebius, Paul Pope, and more manga than I can count. It’s also behind the creation of Benedict Cumberbatch. [Read more…] about The 10 Best European Comics!

10 Great Comics Featuring the Marvel Multiverse!

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Now that the Marvel Multiverse has come to the MCU and we’re getting an Into the Spider-Verse sequel, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and a What If…? series, it’s safe to say that we’re about to start seeing a lot of Marvel’s zany alternate realities playing out on the big screen. These wild new additions probably won’t make Marvel’s continuity less confusing, but the Multiverse has long been one of Marvel Comics’ greatest features. Imagining what could have become of our favorite characters is a beloved pastime of the Marvel Maniac, and indeed, some of Marvel’s Greatest Hits come straight out of the Multiverse.

Read 7 Best Marvel What If Comics for more multiverse picks! [Read more…] about 10 Great Comics Featuring the Marvel Multiverse!

The Best Loki Comics!

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If there’s anything I love more than a good villain, it’s a good redemption story. Throughout their comic book history, Loki has had some of the Marvel Universe’s best moments of villainy and treachery, plotting behind the scenes in most of Thor’s adventures, as well as in events such as Acts of Vengeance and Dark Reign. But more recently, since the 2010s and the character’s introduction to the MCU, the God of Lies has been reborn as a more heroic figure (or at least, trying to be) in stories written by acclaimed creators like Kieron Gillen and Al Ewing.

Because Loki comes from the world of Thor and Asgard, their stories are obviously driven by their mythological inspiration. But that notion of gods being myths and stories is all the more crucial for the God of Lies, as although they are a trickster and a magician, supposedly unpredictable and chaotic, in truth, they play the role they’ve always been assigned. They are the God of Evil, eternal enemy of Asgard, and they never seem to be able to break away from that old story… which makes it very interesting to see what happens when they do manage to change and become something new. [Read more…] about The Best Loki Comics!