Below you’ll find our reading selections for the year of 2008, and once we’re finished reading, I’ll post the winners for hero, villain, issue, artist, and writer.
Feel free to discuss the comics and any related thoughts below in the comments!
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2008 Comic Reading List (Click For Full List With Notes!)
| 2008 | Comic Book Title | Issues |
| 1 | Thunderbolts | #116 to #121 |
| 2 | Hulk (2008) | #1 to #6 |
| 3 | Amazing Spider-Man | #546 to #551, #567 to #573, #574 to #579 |
| 4 | Wolverine / Wolverine: Old Man Logan Giant Size / Wolverine Origins / Logan | #56, #62 to #65, #66 to #72 / #1 / #21 to #25 / #1 to #3 |
| 5 | Captain America | #34 to #45 |
| 6 | Thor | #7 to #12 |
| 7 | Guardians of the Galaxy / Nova | #1 to #3 / #8 to #15 |
| 8 | Invincible Iron Man | #1 to #7 |
| 9 | Secret Invasion | Reading Order |
| 10 | Captain Britain and MI: 13 | #5 to #9 |
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I thought 2008 was solid but not great. Secret Invasion was of course the big highlight, and while I like it in general (especially as a concept), there were just way too many tie-in issues, especially for a main event that only takes place over a very short amount of time. I do think it ended well and of course sets up an “event”, Dark Reign (really most of next year’s main continuity issues from whatI understand), that looks intriguing. The other big highlight is Old Man Logan, which I could write a lot about, but to be brief here, is something that I feel is awesome for its imagination and excellent artwork, but suffers from a main plot that relies so much on old Western movie tropes that it was easy to see where it was going by the middle of the first issue (to be fair, I did not quite predict the way that the ultimate bad guy was going to be defeated).
One thing that 2008 has going for it is that, except for the Ultimate Universe, there weren’t any truly bad issues to be had; the overall editorial and creative quality was quite high. I was underwhelmed by some issues that I had high hopes for (Guardians, Thor, Incredible Hercules, Marvel Zombies 2), but none of them were bad, just kind of uninspiring. I was very pleasantly surprised by Captain Britain and Mi:13, a series that didn’t start off well for me, but as soon as it got away from Secret Invasion, became really entertaining and incredibly creative. I also accepted the challenge and read ALL of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and was mostly very happy; some issues were really great, and others were so-so but still entertaining. It felt like a really long and better than average season of television.
The Ultimate Universe, however, was all over the place quality-wise. Ultimate Spidey continues to be excellent (truly Bendis at his best), Ultimate X-Men was solid (especially 90-93), and I really enjoyed Ultimate Origins, which felt like old-school Ultimate Universe with inventive takes on established characters (in this case, the Watchers). But oh man, The Ultimates 3 was horrible (by far the worst thing I’ve ever read from Loeb), and Ultimate Human was a big letdown considering what it could have been. Ultimate X-Men/FF Annuals were interesting but in the end kind of pointless (though Iron Thing was pretty great). Squadron Supreme also felt incredibly busy to me in a not good way. The cracks in the Ultimate Universe’s armor are definitely showing.
Overall, a strong and mostly consistent year. Onto 2009!
Finished reading 2008.. last few comments..
Magneto Testament was a powerful piece of work which I’d highly recommend, although if you filed “Magneto” off the title and gave it to a non comic reader to read, they’d have know way of knowing it wasn’t a 100% straight account of the Holocaust, there is no actual “Magneto” content in there.
X-Factor continues to be one of the best and #39 was an absolutely colossal “wham!” – my issue of the year. Not sure what was going on with the art for a few issues there, though, when Larry Stroman was penciling. That was grotesque.
Comics I really liked:
Amazing Spider-Man #546, 581
Thor #7-12
Guardians of the Galaxy #1
Nova #8-12
Invincible Iron Man #1-6
Secret Invasion #1-2
Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1-3
Secret Invasion: Front Line #1
Guardians of the Galaxy #5-6
Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #33
Secret Invasion: Inhumans #4
Secret Invasion: War of Kings #1
Uncanny X-Men #495
X-Men: Legacy #208, 210-212, 214-216, 219 (other issues are still worth reading to follow the story)
Cable #6
Other recommendations that I think come down on the 2008 side:
Captain Marvel #1-5
Iron Man: Director of SHIELD Annual #1
Ms. Marvel #21-27
Ms. Marvel #34
Ms. Marvel Annual #1
Ms. Marvel Special: Storyteller #1
X-Factor #28-32
X-Men: Emperor Vulcan #1-5
Guardians of the Galaxy #7-12
Last Defenders #1-6
King-Size Spider-Man Special #1
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #41
Nova #20
X-Factor: The Quick and the Dead #1
X-Men: First Class #4, 9, 11
Secret Invasion was a hit or miss event for me. There was even an issue in the main series that I did not like (#5). The FF tie-in was better because that group has a long history and personal connection to the Skrulls. Most of the rest is decent enough but mostly serves to set up Dark Reign next year.
Wow, three weeks in and only one comment? Too much to read no time to talk!
I’ve been mixing the ongoing X-Men-related titles in with the year-by-year reading list, which makes for a lot of issues! But I’m most of the way through 2008 now.
I thought Secret Invasion was a pretty good event. The core of it was tense and strong, and the numerous flashback and fill-in issues did a great job of fleshing out what exactly had been happening with the infiltration. But I think the full Secret Invasion reading order included a lot of tie-ins that I didn’t particularly care about. And it saddens me to say that I found the Front Line tie-in a bit uninteresting, after enjoying it so much in Civil War and World War Hulk. I probably could have done with just the core book, the New/Mighty/Initiative Avengers, and the Inhumans limited series.
Other high points: Captain America continue to be awesome .. most of the X titles are going great places, X-Men Legacy and X-Force are particularly strong, Young X-Men a little weak maybe .. Thunderbolts is awesome and clearly pretty key to developments leading into Dark Reign .. Nova is on a great run .. and Old Man Logan is everything I hoped it would be, well deserving of its exalted status.
Low points were few: I’m not sure about the relaunched Hulk with various different coloured Hulks .. I honestly can’t get excited about the Wolverine/Daken thing going through Wolverine Origins and the Original Sin crossover .. She-Hulk I don’t mind but I’m certainly not enjoying Peter David’s run as much as Dan Slott’s
It is interesting to revisit an issue that I rated 5 stars previously. Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1 is one such issue. It is a great setup, I love that it has the kids, and the surprise at the end was very well done. That said, I would probably just give that one 4 stars now. That whole tie-in miniseries is far above average, and I recommend it to any person interested in Skrulls, Secret Invasion, and the Fantastic Four.