#twoquickdeaths

Ummm… let me see. Debating if I should go for what I know of your tastes or my own. :)   (But for both, Civil War is horrrrrrible, avoid Millar at all costs, avoid later Bendis too.)  A big caveat is that I grew up with mostly X-Men, rather than main Marvel, so my favorites tend to be in that direction, but 80s/90s X-Men arcs are probably impenetrable unless you read all of them alas. (And probably “bad” by pure critical considerations, but I don’t care I still love them.) Also Claremont is… um, well, he certainly has a style. I’m not sure it’s a style you’d like, maybe it is. And for the past 15+ years I’ve been avoiding X-Men and going with random Marvel trades that @jimintomystery recced to me or that the internet adores, so my knowledge of modern stuff is pretty scattered. Anyway, these recs may or may not turn out to be anything you like, my apologies:

X-Men:

LifeDeath

God Loves, Man Kills

Days of Future Past

Fall of the Mutants

Inferno

Days of Future Present

Age of Apocalypse

Weapon X

the “Australian era” of Uncanny X-Men (#229-245)  (shush I love it)

X-Factor vol 1, #1-70 (it’s a lot of issues, I’m sorry, it’s hard to pick out faves? some overlap with the crossovers above mind you. some doozys in there also alas)

X-Factor vol 1, #71-87 (88 and 89 also continue that writer and team but IIRC they’re bad, just bad, don’t bother)

Excalibur vol 1, um… almost all of it, pick stuff that appeals to you please

Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix (faaaave)

(also Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix is a completely different style and theme, I don’t recall it nearly as favorably, but if you like post-apocalyptic far future family bonding with Gene Ha’s art maybe you’d like it)

X-Men adjunct, British side:

Captain Britain – um, the publishing order of the TPBs is confusing as hell, but first you want to read the one credited to Alan Moore and Alan Davis (it’s soooo goood), then Alan Davis and Jaime Delano (not quite as thematically brilliant but I still love it)

Knights of Pendragon (this may be a huge pain to find, idk what’s up with early 90s Marvel UK stuff these days)

Wisdom (this is actually a fairly recent book! that I could actually follow along despite not paying attention to Marvel or X-Men for 15 years! Also I love the writer)

Captain Britain and MI13 (same, actually a continuation of Wisdom but with more attempts at sales-friendly characters)

Marvel general (all kinds of random stuff I like, mostly modern):

Alias (unless you didn’t like Jessica Jones, I don’t remember if you’ve said anything, but it’s a big fave for me)

Marvel Boy, the Grant Morrison miniseries (very very weird but I like it)

Nextwave (it’s insane, it’s amazing)

Runaways (I personally would stop before Joss Whedon’s run because uuuuugh Joss tropes, it’s up to you though)

Young Avengers (pretty much all of it, start with the first trade and see how it goes)

Incredible Hercules (lots of trades, lots of fun)

Agents of Atlas

Hawkeye (the new series, idk what volume it is but it’s not hard to find rec lists with details)

Ms. Marvel (ditto)

Captain Marvel (ditto)

i got whiplash going from was was essentially an etta/diana story to DIANA’S BROTHER! who literally everyone forgot about! NOW NAMED PAUL lol who is now dead? i gotta reread it, but the fact that i haven’t reread it at all is… not good. although i always like to give starting arcs a chance. the art was beautiful tho.

So Paul Bunyan is actually Hercules—he of Hippolyta-assaulting and (according to Grant Morrison) Diana-fathering—which isn’t a problem AT ALL, amirite? Also, he’s dead. And this smarmy probate lawyer (who I am *fairly convinced* is actually Jason) is representing his estate.

Since you bring up Etta, this reminds me of one of my concerns about this arc: there needs to be some Etta! Etta serves important roles in the WW story:

She’s the wisecracking sidekick (whereas Steve is the doe-eyed love interest/warrior puppy),

She tempers Steve (too much Steve Trevor in a WW story and people end up hating on him, see: ALL OF THE SILVER AND BRONZE AGE),

If a group of WW fans of whom a writer is wary is criticizing a run for including too many men, Etta is the female BFF who can help counter those accusations. ‘NAW MEAN?

y r u trying to make sense of d+d’s madness THEY CANNOT BE TRUSTED lol

Rhaegar: well at least i have a spare aegon lol what with my other actual child dying

Lyanna: but wait he wouldn’t have died if you hadn’t made the other aegon 

Rhaegar: I’ve played myself

*end scene*

Hi! I have quite a few favourites, but I’ll do my best to condense the list!

With the Old Breed, on Peleliu and Okinawa, by Eugene B. Sledge

An Army at Dawn: The North African Campaign, 1942-43, by Rick Atkinson

Time to Kill: The Soldier’s Experience of War in the West, 1939-1945, edited by Paul Addison and Angus Calder

Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, 1914-1918, by Richard Holmes

Through German Eyes: The British and The Somme, by Christopher Duffy

Europe: A History, by Norman Davies

Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, by Tony Judt

The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary, 1914-1918, by Holger Herwig

Stopping the Panzers: The Untold Story of D-Day, by Marc Milner

Count Belisarius, by Robert Graves

I, Claudius & Claudius the God, by Robert Graves

Victory in Italy: 15th Army Group’s Final Campaign 1945, by Richard Doherty

Three Armies on the Somme: The First Battle of the Twentieth Century, by William Phillpott

Basically all of Max Hastings’ books on WWII

ur posts crack me up i’m still watching the ep rn lol