5 Miniseries That Prove Marvel Can Do Standalone Stories As Well As DC

DC Comics has a certain reputation with critics. The publisher is known for putting out some of the best prestige superhero titles you can imagine, standalone books from the best talent in the comic industry that serves as the perfect showcase for DC’s icons. Books like Watchman, All-Star Superman, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Green Lantern: Rebirth, Camelot 3000, The Dark Knight Returns, and loads more are all stories that show off everything the superhero does well while asking the barest of minimum knowledge about the characters, telling stories with a beginning, middle, and end. This has allowed DC to take all of the critical attention; in my learned opinion, DC is the superior of the two publishers because they put out more best of all-time series than Marvel does.

That doesn’t mean Marvel Comics is chopped liver, though. It’s often said that while DC does standalone stories better, Marvel does its runs and in-universe books better. This means that it can be hard to point at any particular Marvel story and say that, “It’s the greatest comic ever,” like you can with something like Watchmen, for example. However, Marvel does have a lot of amazing standalone stories, ones that you could hand to any fan to show them what Marvel does so well in a nice, bite-size portion. These five Marvel miniseries prove that the House of Ideas can do standalone superhero storytelling like DC, creating some of the best comics ever.

5) Hulk: Future Imperfect

The Hulk has starred in some fantastic stories over the years, but there aren’t many of them that you can drop on a new reader’s lap that shows why Hulk stories are so amazing. Sure, there’s Immortal Hulk, but that’s 50 issues and it helps to know something about the character’s history to really get it. However, there is an amazing Hulk miniseries that you can hand to anyone and they’ll love it – Hulk: Future Imperfect, from the team of Peter David and George Perez, two of the greatest talents in the industry. The story takes the Jade Giant to a future run by the mysterious Maestro, a villain who was able to conquer the world after a massive nuclear war. However, there’s one problem – the Maestro is the future version of the Green Goliath. Hulk: Future Imperfect is a legendary story, one that has been able to stand the tides of time. It digs into the idea that the Hulk’s greatest enemy is himself, all while giving readers that dystopian future goodness that Marvel does so well.

4) Marvel Boy

Grant Morrison is one of the greatest writers in the industry’s history, but they have surprisingly few Marvel credit to their name. However, the ones they do have are fantastic, with Marvel Boy being one of the best stories they’ve ever written. The book, with art by J.G. Jones, follows Noh-Varr, the sole survivor of the Kree multiversal schooner Marvel. Imprisoned by the mysterious Doctor Midas, who shot down his ship, he escapes and decides to take revenge against the primitives aliens who killed his friends, using powerful Kree technology against Midas the forces of SHIELD. This is bratty Morrison at their finest, focusing on a character who hates everything about humanity, and it has the kind of big ideas that make Morrison books so exciting. The third issue, which pits Noh-Varr against Hexus the Living Corporation, is one of the most scathing indictments of modern capitalism every written, as well as being an awesome sci-fi story unlike anything else you’ve ever read (well, unless you’ve read The Invisibles, which Morrison also wrote). This book has it all – an amazing hero, great villains, insane action and ideas and jaw-droppingly great art. Morrison was able to take everything Marvel did well and put it in one book, a timeless classic that has to be seen to be believed.

3) Infinity Gauntlet

Infinity Gauntlet is one of the most important Marvel comics ever. The six-issue series from Jim Starlin, George Perez, and Ron Lim brought back Thanos and made him into the biggest villain in Marvel history. It became the basis for the first three Phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, cementing its place in the annals of pop culture. However, even before that, it was still considered one of the greatest moments in Marvel history. We all know the story by now – Thanos gets the Infinity Gauntlet, forcing the people of the universe to band together to stop him. The first three issues of the book builds up the threat beautifully and the last three pays it off, as issues #4 and #5 are some of the best fight comics you can ever read (Infinity Gauntlet #4 was one of the first comics I’ve ever read; can you imagine that fight scene being your introduction to comics? It’s definitely colored how I look at things in the industry). Infinity Gauntlet may seem like it’s just a comic about big spectacle, but there’s so much more to it than that. It’s a character study on Thanos, digging into who he is and why he does what he does, using the character to inform the events of the story. It’s a clinic in how to do an amazing event comic and deserves every bit of praise it’s gotten over the years and then some.

2) Squadron Supreme

Squadron Supreme is a mid ’80s classic and I’ve made it my mission in life to spread the gospel of the 12 issue series from Mark Gruenwald, Bob Hall, Paul Ryan, and John Buscema. The Squadron was first introduced in Avengers comics to give Earth’s Mightiest Heroes a Justice League pastiche team to fight, hailing from an alternate Earth sometimes battling the Avengers and other times helping them against their enemies. The book sees them decide that the only way to actually save the world is to control it completely, instituting a benevolent dictatorship over the planet. However, not every member of the team thinks that what they’re doing is right, leading the heroes and villains of this world to a bloody confrontation. For my money, Squadron Supreme should be talked about alongside classics like Watchmen. It takes a realistic look at a what would happen if superheroes actually existed in the real world, all while being chock full of the old school comic thrills you could expect from Gruenwald. This book is a classic and the sooner you all read it, the sooner I can move on to talking about why Supreme Power is an underrated gem.

1) The Vision

The Vision is a legitimate masterpiece, one of the best Marvel books you’ll ever read. The 12-issue series from Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walda follows the synthezoid Avenger as he creates a new life for himself. In order to better understand what humans go through, Vision created a family of his own – Virginia, Viv, and Vin – and gets a government liaison job, trying to be a “normal” superhero . However, an attack by the Grim Reaper changes everything for the family, as they now have a dark secret to hide from the world around them. Meanwhile, each of them is dealing with their new lives, trying to understand what it means to be a human in the modern world. This series is brilliant right from the beginning. It sets up this perfect uneasy tone right from the start, taking what could have been a standard superhero murder mystery story and taking it to the next level. One of the fundamental questions of the book is whether the Visions are actually human, and it does a fantastic job of leading you to your answer to that question. It uses the language of superheroes to tell its story, but takes it all in a horror direction that takes it to another level. The way the book combines the human and the inhuman is spectacular and this series will stick with you long after you put it down.

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