5 Must Read Books!

           I read a lot. I got a kindle in January and have since been reading again every day anytime I get!  But not only do I read books... I read comic books!  Do I do it because I love artwork and want to learn it all? YES. Do I do it for other reasons? YES! I do it because they have great writers out there and these stories are getting so damn good. When adding issues to my tablet I realized this: I read over 40 current stories of comics that come out every month.  So I am going to add my top 5 for right now.  I will warn you: they are mostly Marvel NOW Comics.

5. FLASH (New 52) - I have never really cared for Flash in my life.  Growing up watching Batman Animated Series in the 90's and Adventures of Lois and Clark were the most I ever got out of DC Comics.  Recently I started watching some of the Justice League movies and Flash caught my attention. So I started reading his story in the new 52 department. Francis Manapul is an awesome artist and writer and I immediately fell in love with this current run.  I never really thought super speed would be interesting to read but the way they integrate it in the story and art into the panels is just fantastic!

4. ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN -  Man oh man. I love this series. This, ladies and gentlemen, this is what got me into the art business.  I picked up an issue back in 2004 and loved it so much I went and got the whole collection and that started in 2000 and have kept up ever since.  In this new section, ultimate universe Peter Parker has died and a new spider man has taken over.  Stuart Immonen and Justin Ponsor and really bring this spider man to life and make it an exciting story to read.  Oh yeah, this new spidey is black! Pretty cool stuff.  What I like about this spread is that it is dark and since it is an alternate universe, no one is really safe from death or being twisted.  It is also really interesting to see different versions of villains and costumes.  The only reason this is not at the top of the list is because the next three books are brand new.

3. INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK - In the comic book world, the name Leinil Yu means a lot.  He is one of the most respectable artists in the business.  When you get him and colorist Sunny Gho together, you get a very creamy, vivid lifelike painting of awesomeness.  Bruce Banner is back and has now finally accepted his peace with the Hulk.  He has so much confidence about it now, he has gotten onto S.H.I.E.L.D's payroll and is being used as their personal weapon.  All he asks in return is enough resources to do is own research.  This story has gotten me on my toes and I am so happy the Hulk is not being treated as the brute dumb ass, but finally as the intelligent, brilliant, evil, mischievous scientist with a strong mindless beast side that just needs a direction and a target.  If you want to read something with a lot of "Oh Sh*t" moments and intellectual destruction, this is the book to read.

2.  THE SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN - Ok, my plan was not to add two books of the same story, but man this one is good.  There might be some spoilers here from Amazing Spider-Man, so if you don't want to ruin the end of AMS, don't read this.  Otto Octavius (Doc Ock) was dying and somehow managed to find a way to swap his mind with Peter Parker's brain.  As crazy as that sounds, Peter was stuck with Doc Ock's dying body and right before he dies, he tells Otto that if he is going to be Spider-Man, he needs to take on the responsibilities.  Now with Peter Parker dead, Otto (in Peters' body) is the Superior Spider-Man and it is awesome. When I got to the end of AMS, I thought this was the stupidest idea ever, but after reading the first issue and continuing, this spider man is here to stay.  He is cocky, mean and funny.  It is a new Peter Parker everyone should get a piece of.

1. ALL-NEW X-MEN - Last but not least: the X-men.  My one big problem with the X-Men are all of the teams they have.  Uncanny X-Men, X-Men Legacy, New Mutants, X-Force (which is incredible), X-Treme X-Men, Wolverine and the X-Men and others.  The list just gets longer and longer.  That is why I love this story.  After Cyclops becomes a villain and builds his own villain team, Beast goes back in time to bring back the original X-Men team to stop this madness.  This book has the perfect amount of humor, space time continuum theory, great art, and exciting turnouts.  I have to say it is like Back To The Future meets X-Men First Class.  The new heroes are getting used to the future they so feared and finding out what powers they will be getting 30 years later.  With Xavier dead, these teenagers have no guidance and everything is fresh.  I cannot wait to see what else can happen in this. Also, I will be working on this book soon! Yay.  

There are a lot of books out there that I could recommend, these are the top exciting ones I would recommend right now at the moment.  If you guys ever need some ideas for books to read, just give me a holla and I would be happy to point you in the right direction.