Underrated comics

[trashcanman]

So we've whined about all of these big crossover events in big comics and DC's constant bouts with insanity, but how about the little guys? The comics nobody talks about (and probably aren't even in circulation anymore) that kick the crap out of the big mainstream titles and the other comics that are being constantly adapted into big-budget films? Here are my personal favorites that need to be adapted with a quickness.


Marvel's California kids, The Runaways, are arguably the most underrated superhero team out there, and for a good long while they were probably the best thing happening in the Marvel U. After the writing in their series took a turn for the worse, the title was cancelled and we were left with nothing but endless film rumors (it'd work MUCH better as a tv show) and a background cameo in Marvel Zombies. The premise of a group of young friends who find out their parents are undercover supervillains intent on world destruction who go on the lam and discover they each have had hidden powers bequeathed to them (including a telepathic link with a velociraptor) is just awesome and the characters are all fantastic. Make this show happen! Whedon took a turn at the comic, can't imagine he wouldn't make it the best thing on tv.



The Secret Six was the most critically acclaimed book on DC's roster. So naturally, it had to be abruptly cancelled. But if any title should be adapted into a new DCAU series, this would be right behind Birds of Prey on my list. Take some D-list villains who had become jokes along with a couple of genius writer Gail Simone's original characters, put them together on a freelance mercenary team and let the asskicking commence. The thought of a DC Universe without Jeanette and Scandal Savage does not appeal to me.



Another proposed film currently in development hell, Vertigo's "Y: The Last Man" is on my short list of greatest comics ever. It's like The Stand if only men were affected by the superflu. Only one man left on Earth to bumble through a chaotic world full of frightened (and occasionally insanely badass) women trying to rebuild society and cope with the possible extinction of the human race. This is deep stuff.


If Aspen knows how to do anything, it's make sexy-ass heroines. Executive Assistant Iris is about a woman who appears to be an assistant to a successful businessman, but is in fact a deadly assassin/bodyguard. To tell the truth, the story is pretty hackneyed -what with the school where young girls are raised and trained to be killing machines and all- but on the other hand, who doesn't love that premise? This would make an AWESOME R-rated action flick if it wasn't toned down.



Three words: Lesbian. Samurai. Vampire.
That shit is like Batman fighting a shark with a lightsaber to me. Image published Drain, this six-issue miniseries that features the absolute bar-none best art I have ever seen in a comic. The fact that that art is used to portray a sexy vampire woman slicing through motherfuckers with a katana and making remarks about getting some head after decapitating a dude pretty much makes this the best thing ever. It's almost too beautiful to even hope to adapt, but if done by a great anime studio, it'd be better than Vampire Hunter D.

All right, so there are my picks. What have you to enter into this discussion?

[The Curmudgeon]

The Runaways was fantastic. Some of the best writing I've seen in a comic, on par if not better than some of the best Ultimate Spider-Man issues. A film wouldn't work, but a TV show, with a great script-writing team, would be this generation's Buffy.

Please.. PLEASE tell me that's not Bane in that "loser villain group".

I'd heard of Y the Last Man before, and that movie rumour has been around for years. I think with the success of lesser known comic book series though, now is the time for stuff like this to come forward.

That vampire lesbian thing sounds fantastic. How does stuff like that just go with such a small run?

There was a great series of comics that came out in the early nineties that I loved. The horribly titled Tekno Comix (how VERY 90's) had a series of titles that I tried to buy all of. The two most notable series were Leonard Nimoy's Primortals, about a group of super intelligent alien monsters coming to earth.



The real pick of the bunch though, was a series called Mr Hero: The Newmatic Man, by Neil Gaimen. A robot warrior invented in the 1800's by Henry Phage, an evil, super intelligent alien scientist dinosaur(!) He gets sent to earth as an "agent" to scout the earth waiting on Phage's arrival. He gets discovered by a farmer, who teaches him to box (Queensbury Rules, of course!) and smoke a pipe. He gets re-discovered centuries later by a young street magician, they team up, Mr Hero now actually is a hero, and Henry Phage (who also got his own comic) is coming to earth..

The whole bunch of comics sadly folded after their initial runs, and most galling of all, Mr Hero ended on the first issue of the second series. A real shame.

One of my very favourite line of stories was from the UK comic series 2000 AD, responsible for Judge Dredd. This involved a, hmmm, Dinosaur Theme Park (before JP, by the way) that goes wrong when a dinosaur that becomes known as Satanus goes on the rampage.



He would also be joined by his mother, Old One Eye.



These comics were just absurdly grim and gruesome and I fucking loved them.

With CGI etc now.. man, WHAT a film that would make.

[trashcanman]

FLESH!!!! That looks goddamn awesome. That Primortals dude looks like that red fucker from Ghouls and Ghosts. Drain left an opening for a definite continuation, but it's so obscure that I was the very first to post a review of it on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Drain-v-C-B-Cebulski/product-reviews/1582407525/ref=sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1) and it has garnered exactly two votes -both probably from my Amazon friends- in nearly three years since and the comic has only picked up one other review. That is a major shame. I can't believe that artist doesn't get more work (although she did a stint on Ms. Marvel) Speaking of obscure comics I reviewed, check this baby out: www.amazon.com/review/R2O3IB4UTC5E84/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1929998317&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=#wasThisHelpful Goddamn, that would be the world's funniest cartoon.

Oh, and yeah that is Bane with the SS. He wasn't an original member, but he ended up joining them after he gave up on Venom and fell into depression. He literally took them over. He even got himself a little girlfriend. Spoiler alert if plan on reading SS (and you SHOULD), but it was also Bane who ended the team as part of his as yet undisclosed master plan to get back to the pinnacle of villainous awesome. I'm guessing that will culminate around the time of the next movie.