Book picks similar to
Reload/MEK by Warren Ellis


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Sleeper, Vol. 1: Out in the Cold


Ed Brubaker - 1999
    As an undercover agent in a complex super-villain organization, Holden Carver has become caught in a web of moral uncertainty. After being forced to kill someone to preserve his cover, the self-loathing operative looks to be pulled out of his assignment, but the only man who knows he is really a secret agent is in a coma. Now with the world believing him a traitor to his country and his cover about to be blown, Carver must find a way to survive his mission and regain his identity. SUGGESTED FOR MATURE READERS.

Ex Machina: The Deluxe Edition, Vol. 1


Brian K. Vaughan - 2008
    Vaughan (PRIDE OF BAGHDAD, Y: THE LAST MAN) uniquely combines big city politics and superheroes in this criticially acclaimed series. Set in our modern-day world, EX MACHINA tells the story of civil engineer Mitchell Hundred, who becomes America's first living, breathing super-hero after a strange accident gives him the power to communicate with machines. Eventually Mitchell tires of risking his life merely to maintain the status quo, retires from masked crime fighting and runs for mayor of New York City, winning by a landslide after the events of 9/11.Illustrated by Tony Harris, EX MACHINA BOOK ONE is the first chapter of one of the finest series ever from Vertigo.Collects Ex Machina issues #1-11.

Marvel Boy


Grant Morrison - 2000
    Fine. Here comes the ultimate adolescent power fantasy!" So speaks Grant Morrison, writer of the runaway hit comic, Marvel Boy, don't let the name fool you; Marvel Boy is no tights-wearing pushover. He is Noh-Varr, the youngest member of a diplomatic team of the alien Kree. After voyaging for years, these alien super heroes reach Earth, only to be blown out of the sky. Only Noh-Varr survives, and is captured and tortured by the mysterious Midas Organization. Escaping, he vows vengeance on all mankind. But with Morrison weaving this tale, don't expect cliche superheroics or a squeaky clean protagonist. Instead, get ready for Dr. Midas, a criminal billionaire who's so obsessed with Cosmic Rays that he bathes in them, Exterminatrix, who arrives in issue #3 to make life heaven and hell for Marvel Boy, Hexus, the Living Corporation, Bannermen, a trio of U.N. super soldiers whose bodies are laced with adamantium and enhanced by gamma-rays -- and have we talked about our ticked off protagonist yet? "The Marvel Style began with the Sub-Mariner", says Morrison. "And like Bill Everett's Prince Namor, I wanted my hero to be an outcast, a fiery rebel with an appetite for righteous mass destruction". Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Rising Stars: Visitations


J. Michael Straczynski - 2002
    In the late Sixties a fireball struck the town of Pederson, Illnois granting fantastic powers to the 113 children who were in utero at the time of impact. They grew up as the world watched. Labeled the Specials by the Media, their powers were monitored and catalogued by the United States Government. Public perception of them changed often. Were they the future of mankind? A scourge? A random occurrence? Heroes? Villains? Role models or simply caricatures? What would be their impact on culture and society? They were a waried as kids and adults ever are; some were more powerful, some less. As adults they became many things: a policeman, a corporate symbol, a singer, an assassin, a writer, a painter, a thief, a preacher. Some found celebrity, some notoriety, while others simply went to work and raised families like everyone else. But they all carried inside them a seed of something great. Something special. Something that made them stars. As their epic stories unfolded, there were other stories as well...of their lives and the lives of those around them. This book is about those stories. Collected here are the short stories about the Specials, a bit about their beginnings, a bit about their middles and just a little bit about their end.

Thanos: Cosmic Powers


Ron Marz - 2015
    Who will join Thanos' cause? Legacy? Terrax the Tamer? Jack of Hearts? What about Ganymede, last of the Spinsterhood and sworn enemy of Tyrant? And where do the loyalties of Morg, Herald of Galactus lie? COLLECTING: SECRET DEFENDERS 12-14, COSMIC POWERS 1-6

Saucer Country Vol. 1: Run


Paul Cornell - 2012
    She's about to toss her hat into the ring as a candidate for President in the most volatile political climate ever. But then...a lonely road and a nightmarish encounter have left her with terrible, half-glimpsed memories. And now she has to become President. To expose the truth--and maybe, to save the world.Arcadia's quest is at the heart of this new title from writer Paul Cornell (DEMON KNIGHTS, ACTION COMICS, Doctor Who) and artist Ryan Kelly (NEW YORK FIVE, NORTHLANDERS, Local). With the help of her quirky staff, Arcadia will pursue the truth of her abduction into danger, mystery and awe.Saucer Country is a dark thriller that blends UFO lore and alien abduction with political intrigue, all set in the hauntingly beautiful Southwest.

Terra Obscura: Volume 1


Alan Moore - 2004
    But now a threat unlike anything they've seen before is spreading - a mysterious plague, making all technology useless and reverting mankind back to the Stone Age. Ages 13+.

Transmetropolitan, Vol. 0: Tales of Human Waste


Warren EllisGlenn Fabry - 2004
    Written by Warren Ellis, this collection features a host of one and two-page pieces from comics' finest artists illustrating excerpts from the Word columns of crazed outlaw journalist Spider Jerusalem.

Batman: Hush, Vol. 1


Jeph Loeb - 2002
    What is she plotting? No one quite knows, but by manipulating both Batman and his enemies Killer Croc and Catwoman tensions are high and no one is to be trusted in Gotham City tonight!Originally published in BATMAN #608-612.

MIND MGMT, Volume One: The Manager


Matt Kindt - 2013
    Her ensuing journey involves weaponized psychics, hypnotic advertising, talking dolphins, and seemingly immortal pursuers, as she attempts to find the flight's missing passenger, the man who was MIND MGMT's greatest success - and its most devastating failure. But in a world where people can rewrite reality itself, can she trust anything she sees?Collecting: MIND MGMT 1-6

Super-Villain Team-Up/M.O.D.O.K.'s 11


Fred Van Lente - 2008
    M.O.D.O.K., sick of being hunted & hounded by A.I.M., gathers together an eclectic team of Marvel's most wanted to pull off one last, big score. But news travels fast & pretty soon every bad guy in the Marvel Universe is gunning for M.O.D.O.K.'s powerful prize.

Steampunk, Volume One: Manimatron


Joe Kelly - 2001
    to save the love of your life? England, 1738: Cole Blaquesmith, a simple fisherman, falls in love with Fiona, a beautiful, gentle teacher. However, their blossoming romance is cut short when Fiona falls ill with a terminal disease.Would you sell your soul to a madman? Dr Absinthe, town pariah, a sinister ghoul in his castle on the hill holds the secret to saving Fiona's life... but this 'cure' comes with a terrible, terrible price.Would you trade humanity for strength? The 'experiment' requires a test subject... a Pilot. A young, strong body to endure the arcane rigors of science.Would you undo the course of human history? As Cole loses himself behind a whirling tangle of steel and light and science, he closes his eyes and prays that he has not made a grave mistake. When his eyes open again...He knows with all his heart that his world will NEVER be the same again...Steampunk: Manimatron. Love is eternal. History is not.Enter a world of madness, action, dark science, fiction, and shattered history where one man battles to set right a world torn apart for love. Collecting the first arc of the groundbreaking Cliffhanger series by Chris Bachalo (Death, Generation X) and Joe Kelly (Superman, X-Men) featuring Steampunk: Idiosyncratica, Steampunk: Cathecism and issues 1-5 in one haunting and beautiful volume.

The Batman Who Laughs


Scott Snyder - 2019
    One part Batman one part Joker. The Batman Who Laughs."A Batman who laughs is a Batman who always wins."The mastermind behind Dark Nights: Metal, Scott Snyder, gives you a look inside the most terrifying version of Batman ever! He and superstar artist Jock (Batman: The Black Mirror) kick off a chain of events that makes Dark Nights: Metal seem like child's play.The Batman Who Laughs not only survived his fight with The Joker at the end of Dark Nights: Metal, but is now enacting a sinister plan across the Multiverse--something both terrifying and oddly familiar. When Bruce Wayne realizes the only way to stop this madman is to kill him, he must consider violating the very rule Batman can't ever break ... the rule that created this insatiable villain--the Batman Who Laughs!As Bruce begins to deduce that his current life is somehow wrong and that all the mistakes he's made are somehow connected, the Batman Who Laughs unleashes a brand-new evil. Enter one of the most punishing Batmen of the Dark Multiverse: the Grim Knight!Collects The Batman Who Laughs #1-7 and The Batman Who Laughs: The Grim Knight #1.

Wildcats 3.0: Year One


Joe Casey - 2010
    He uses the god-like Void's powers to access an alien dimension to create never-failing batteries, and sets out to take over the world for the greater good. Meanwhile, others on the team aren't adjusting to the stuffy suit-and-tie lifestyle so well as Grifter begins wishing he could go back to kicking butt. So even though he's a Vice President in the new WildCats endeavor, he routinely disappears to do so until he breaks his back and decides to train a mild-mannered accountant to take his place! The top superteam in the WildStorm Universe continues turning traditional genre tropes on their ears with this exciting new direction that fans have been clamoring for for years!

Global Frequency, Vol. 1: Planet Ablaze


Warren EllisLiam Sharp - 2004
    Unknown to the world at large, this secret society of 1,001 specialty sleeper agents is called upon to prevent the impending threats of Armageddon that were created by careless governments and immoral scientists over the last century. In this hard-hitting first volume, various expert operatives are sent on desperate individual missions to thwart an alien virus invasion, destroy a nuclear-powered cyborg, and deactive a hidden Ebola bomb.Collecting: Global Frequency 1-6