RPatrick

If you're into continuity, I'd start with Avengers: Disassembled and then do the first four trades of New Avengers, as well as house of M. If you dig all that, I'd get Brubaker's Captain America hardcovers, and then Millar's Civil War and the next three or so New Avengers trades, and World War Hulk.

Waid's Daredevil is superb, Wolverine and the X-Men is a lot of fun. Aaron's Wolverine and Spider-Man mini from last year was also an excellent, fun read.

Holy God...

Once again, at no point did this article suggest that Iron Man was going to die. At all.

Get a grip.

At what point did they even come close to saying that they were going to kill him?

I'm down with Stark not being Iron Man for a while. I could see why he'd want to take a break and re-align himself for a while. I mean, he'll be back, but maybe Marvel would benefit from someone else wearing the armor for a while...either someone established, or a wholly new character, ala Kyle Rayner. Could be fun.

i don't know...back in the early 2000's Marvel felt "edgier." They were taking waaaay bigger risks (Ultimate line, Morrison on X-Men, Alias and Punisher MAX, Bendis' longform Daredevil, etc.) I don't think that they've lost THEIR edge, I think we've just become accustomed to it.

Wait and see how they handle the Avengers franchise after AvX. I feel like it could be fairly huge, whatever it is. Maybe that'll give them the edge you're all looking for.

That was very well said, Logan. Well thought-out.

@Squares World War Hulk was great. It reads better in collected form. Just slam-bang action from start to finish...sort of like what a Michael Bay movie is, but as though it were written by someone who isn't some kind of vaguely functioning idiot (like most Bay movies...). Great Romita Jr. art, too, and some really great Sentry moments.

Fear Itself, from what I read, was totally over-analyzed by the message-boarders (here and everywhere else.) Seriously...re-read it with Morrisons JLA in mind. It's almost uncanny how similar the two are in terms of scale, storytelling, and accessibility. The hatred for Fraction's writing style is something I seriously don't get at all.

I don't really get the hate for Fear Itself. I mean, I can kind of dig the idea that people got frustrated by the ridiculous number of rather pointless tie-ins. But the miniseries itself was the kind of slam-bang action-oriented stuff that I, as a comic fan, tend to enjoy.

I was in Afghanistan during the summer, so I didn't get to read it in its original monthly form, but rather as a collected hardcover, so that might have contributed to my enjoyment. I can see how it might not have been able to sustain the excitement level when readers had to wait 30 days in between chapters. But, to me, it felt kind of like Morrison's early JLA work...just a huge, epic story that takes place on a planetary-scale. The fight between Thor, Thing and Hulk was absolutely fantastic. The New Avengers and Avengers tie-in issues were really good (actually made me like Squirrel-Girl.)

And yeah, I get people are feeling gypped by the lack of lasting consequences...Bucky-Cap's death and "resurrection" ten minutes later (and Thor's...), but you know what? I let one of my non-comic reading buddies read the hardcover and he dug the hell out of it. He actually asked me if I had anything else similar.

That, and the art was amazing.

It kind of reminded me of World War Hulk. In a good way.

Is marvel losing there edge?

No.

But they might be losing THEIR edge.

Zing.