What are your favorite underappreciated comic book runs?

[Lightning Strike]

DC's Orion by Walt Simonson

DC's Fallen Angel by PAD

DC's Aquaman (1994) by PAD

DC's Supergirl by PAD

Malibu's Ultraforce

Marvel's Alpha Flight v1 #1-28 by John Byrne

Marvel's Exiles v1 (2001)

Marvel's Rom

Marvel's Captain Britain run by Alan Moore and Alan Davis (if you want to read this entire run, buy the Omnibus)

Marvel's Excalibur v1

Wildstorm's Steampunk by Chris Bachalo

CrossGen's Negation

[Burrito Boy]

Marvel's Rom

I only have one issue of Rom and it's awesome. I'm a big fan of Bill Mantlo.

[erwinrafael]

DC's Orion by Walt Simonson

DC's Fallen Angel by PAD

DC's Aquaman (1994) by PAD

DC's Supergirl by PAD

Malibu's Ultraforce

Marvel's Alpha Flight v1 #1-28 by John Byrne

Marvel's Exiles v1 (2001)

Marvel's Rom

Marvel's Captain Britain run by Alan Moore and Alan Davis (if you want to read this entire run, buy the Omnibus)

Marvel's Excalibur v1

Wildstorm's Steampunk by Chris Bachalo

CrossGen's Negation

Nice list!

Last weekend, I just read through Wildcats Version 3.0 by Joe Casey and Dustin Nguyen. Definitely one of the best titles of the last decade. Never received the accolades it deserves. As Comics Alliance said in a retrospective, it's just a comic book too far ahead of its time.

[Spylocke]

I agree with you on Wildcats 3.0. I loved that the driving force behind it was a concept that most comic book writers wave away. That super heroes could do more good with their resources than fighting off super villains.
On paper (that's a weird thing to say about a comic book character) Spartan would have been a good super villain. An android running a powerful corporation and using super powered operatives to subvert the government and upset the status quo.

The original Hard Corps and post-Tohru Nakadai Rai didn't get enough love in my opinion.

[erwinrafael]

And the covers of Wildcats Version 3.0. Jaw-dropping with the design elements. Some of my favorite covers.

The cover that started it all:



The cover that is the mimicking the cardboard cutout style and which looks like the character design covers we have right now.



And the amazing use of white contrasted with single color which is currently being done by David Aja in Iron Fist:

[Xtianhardy]

And the covers of Wildcats Version 3.0. Jaw-dropping with the design elements. Some of my favorite covers.

The cover that started it all:



The cover that is the mimicking the cardboard cutout style and which looks like the character design covers we have right now.



And the amazing use of white contrasted with single color which is currently being done by David Aja in Iron Fist:

WildC.A.T.S. 3.0 was better than 90% of the books currently being published by DC today. Sad that such a great series was so short-lived. Also unfortunate that Joe Casey has NEVER really been able to make a book of his stick around despite being a pretty good writer with plenty of innovative and fun ideas.

[erwinrafael]

WildC.A.T.S. 3.0 was better than 90% of the books currently being published by DC today. Sad that such a great series was so short-lived. Also unfortunate that Joe Casey has NEVER really been able to make a book of his stick around despite being a pretty good writer with plenty of innovative and fun ideas.

Yes. He also wrote one of the most underappreciated X-Men stories. No, not his Uncanny X-Men which was really a mixed bag in terms of quality. I am talking about X-Men: Children of the Atom.

If only Steve Rude was able to draw the whole series. Sigh.

[Brother Darque]

Batman: Haunted Gotham.

Batman re-imagined as a investigator of the supernatural & monster hunter.

[grendeljd]

Marvel's Rom

I only have one issue of Rom and it's awesome. I'm a big fan of Bill Mantlo.

Haha, Rom is a great old book... I have a decent chunk of them, and always liked the concept of the character. I'll always nab an issue or two from quarter bins if I see them.

Dare I say, I'd like to see a modern take on the idea, and see Rom return to the Marvel universe?

I dare.

Marvel's Alpha Flight v1 #1-28 by John Byrne

Is this under-appreciated these days? I love the Byrne issues of Alpha Flight.

[grendeljd]

Now here's one of my favorite all-time underappreciated runs

JMS and Gary Frank's run on Supreme Power, the early 2000s Marvel MAX reboot of Squadron Supreme. Easily my favorite MAX series and one of my favorite series ever. Such a fantastic deconstruction of many of the core characters of the DCU. I especially love the revamped versions of Nighthawk and Doctor Spectrum. I loved everything about this run until Marvel decided to move it from the MAX line and relaunch it as Squadron Supreme under the Marvel Knights banner, which really limited with JMS could do with these characters, and ultimately, watered down the book until the Ultimate Power miniseries just *SQUEE* it over completely.

Again, I must say - is this an under-appreciated run? I was a massive fan of this title up until they ruined it, as you say Xtian. I loved everything JMS & GF did with it, even after it switched back to Squadron Supreme. It was one of those rare titles that I would actually consistently look forward to and had to read immediately once the latest issue was out.

Once they dropped off the book at #6(?) and it sat in limbo for a bit, I was less than thrilled with it. I did not like the direction Chaykin took it in at all, and the art tanked, IMHO.

[Lightning Strike]

Marvel's Alpha Flight v1 #1-28 by John Byrne

Is this under-appreciated these days? I love the Byrne issues of Alpha Flight.

I think so. When you ask people what are some great comic book runs, this doesn't get mentioned as much as others. Plus, there isn't that many AF fans out there. Ask how many people here have actually read this run and I'd bet most haven't.

[erwinrafael]

Marvel's Alpha Flight v1 #1-28 by John Byrne

Is this under-appreciated these days? I love the Byrne issues of Alpha Flight.

I think so. When you ask people what are some great comic book runs, this doesn't get mentioned as much as others. Plus, there isn't that many AF fans out there. Ask how many people here have actually read this run and I'd bet most haven't.

Yes, I think it is underappreciated. I just saw the landmark snowstorm issue in a bargain bin.

[MarkRoseHFX]

Those Wildcats covers are AWESOME. i'm gonna have to check that series out.

[Paul Nolan]

The entirety of Power Company



The entirety of Stormwatch PHD. (I can not wait for Gage to be at Valiant)



28 Days Later was heavily, HEAVILY over shadowed by the Walking Dead but Michael Allen Nelson wrote a tremendously solid book and i'm pretty sure Declan Shelveys Marvel career began because of his awesome work on this (plus the issue 6 cover is one of my favourite ever comics)

[Phantom]

28 days latter comic cover above is fantastic!

amazing.

I looked atit and thought ~ sums up the film brilliantly

[Sting]

I always thought the Ostrander/Mandrake run on the Spectre was really great and very under appreciated.

[Cyberstrike]

DC's Chase she's a regular now in Batwoman but before then she had a short lived series and it really did try to make the DEO the DC version of S.H.I.E.L.D. only a lot more darker and more shadowy. I liked that Chase while had understandable distrust/hatred of superheroes she didn't come off as a such cold-blooded b****h as she is now in the pages of Batwoman. This series also features some Williams' earlier artwork. It has been reprinted into TPB.

Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. IMHO this is Geoff Johns's best work and the first couple of issues you really don't like Countey's attitude but she grows on you and eventually she's becomes a hero in her own right.

[Sven the Returned]

Northlanders, i would love it if Brian Woood could do a mongol anthology.

[xodacia81]

I liked Steven Grant's X, Eric Luke's Ghost, DG Chichester's Motorhead and Tom Veitch's Star Wars.

[erwinrafael]

The entirety of Power Company

I did not like it that much. I was a big Kurt Busiek fan then and I eagerly anticipated this but was let down. Personally, I think it is his weakest work.

[lorddunlow]

The entirety of Power Company


I did not like it that much. I was a big Kurt Busiek fan then and I eagerly anticipated this but was let down. Personally, I think it is his weakest work.

Bull$#!t

[Baramos]

The entirety of Gotham Central.



by the indomitable team of Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka.



Batman + The Wire. A police procedural set in Gotham City, showing how the cops and detectives of the GCPD survive in a city filled with supervillains, and their love/hate relationship with the Batman.



The series featured a very interesting "two-story dynamic", as it would often move back and forth between the day shift and night shift of the GCPD between story arcs, featuring two teams of detectives and police officers over the course of the series.



I think more and more people have gotten around to reading it but it seriously does have the best story arc for a character I have read in the DC universe (Renee Montoya), and actually has a real beginning, middle, and end, to the extent that a 40+ issue comic book series can.