My local (very small) library continues to suprise me with new graphic novels. As I've mentioned here before, I grew up reading 2000AD, and the US comics seemed expensive, hard to get hold of and a little weird (there were strange adverts for sea-monkeys). So, I'm enjoying catching up on a few characters that I never really read.
Firstly Ultimate Fantastic Four, is another reboot in the style of the Spiderman one, taking the core story and updating the details a bit. My only real exposure previously to the FF4 has been that really bad cartoon, which put me off completely from seeing the recent film. I was pleasantly suprised by both volume one and volume two (I think that takes it up to about issue 12 of the comic). Good story, good characters and nice artwork. I liked finding out about Doom as well, never reallly got him. I recommend both volumes.
Next up DC:The New Frontier. I never really been into DC comics at all, so I have even less knowledge of their mythos. However I really loved The New Frontier (which comes in two volumes). Most of volume one is setting the scene, building up the characters of the heroes. Then in volume two the action kicks in explosively. I really loved how the story focuses on the heroes that aren't Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Real people, being heroic, failing, hiding, fighting the government. It all seems very relevant to now, although the message is much open to interpretation. It reminded me a bit of Watchmen, which is no bad thing.
All in all an enjoyable few hours of comic reading!
