Watchmen Wednesday: the best comics you're not reading

March 4, 10:42 AMLA Trends ExaminerChris Farnsworth

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Variant cover by Jim Lee

In honor of "Watchmen" finally hitting theaters this week, we here at the Trends, Lifestyles, and Comic Geek Desk have decided to help you discover the next "Watchmen" out there on the comics racks, or at least the next runner-up.

Oh, sure, you think you're all trendy now, with your hardcover Absolute Edition Watchmen, and maybe even one or two other books you snagged on a trip to Hi De Ho. Well, it's easy to get into a comic over 20 years old and already named one of the best novels of the 20th Century.

You still got a long way to go, cowboy. I'll start a list. Here are the best comics you're not reading:

• The Umbrella Academy. Written by My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way, this book stunned even industry professionals with its surreal action, well-developed mythology, and incredible characterization. The story of a family of super-powered orphans raised to save the world (and you thought your parents pressured you) is now into its second miniseries. The first one is available as a trade paperback, but don't wait. Get caught up now.
• Secret Six. It's a cliche that the bad guys are always more interesting than the good guys, but in this case, it happens to be true. Secret Six is the story of six minor-league supervillains trying to make a dishonest buck without crossing their own moral lines. Writer Gail Simone includes some of the best lines in comics, and digs comedy out of situations you'd never expect (like, say, being tortured by a sadistic criminal surgeon). She even managed to make a loser Batman-wannabe named Catman cool. The first two collections of comics featuring the Six are available in trade paperback; the ongoing series is available every month.
• Incognito. In fact, a lot of writers are exploring the dark side of comics. Maybe it's because most heroes have gotten so grim, there's no more fun in them, so they have to go to the villains to find any new ground to cover. (For example, the Avengers are now the Dark Avengers, and the Green Goblin -- yeah, the guy who killed Spider-Man's girlfriend -- is a trusted American hero.) But nobody does crime and super-powers better than Ed Brubaker, the man who killed Captain America and resurrected his kid sidekick, Bucky (not in that order). Brubaker's Sleeper was an underappreciated gem about a guy going undercover as a villain. Incognito mines the same vein from a different angle. His main character, Overkill, is in a witness protection program for supervillains after ratting out his old boss, the Black Death. There's a lot of history behind the scenes, and a lot of secrets left to be revealed.
•  Nova. It started in the '70s as a sort of Green Lantern-meets-Spider-Man concept: Richard Rider, a normal high school loser, is suddenly gifted with all the powers and abilities of a member of an intergalactic police force. The first series lasted 24 issues and sputtered to a halt, and the character reappeared here and there, losing his powers, getting them back, remaining in adolescent limbo for almost three decades. Then writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning were given the entire cosmic backyard of the Marvel Universe to play with while everyone else was farting around with the god-awful Civil War. They destroyed all of galactic civilization and made Nova the very last of his corps, with the mind of an entire world in his head. After saving the galaxy -- twice -- Nova is now down to more neglible threats, like planet-devouring menaces, intergalactic serial killers, and space zombies. Oh, and there's also a Russian telepathic astronaut dog. It's all ridiculously fun, even as Rider has finally been made to grow up.
• Jack Staff. Admittedly, this one is tougher to find, because it hits the stands only sporadically. However, it's worth the effort. Creator Paul Grist took a bunch of nearly forgotten characters from English comics and wrapped them all together in an ongoing, multi-layered story about Jack Staff, "Britain's greatest hero" -- himself forgotten and unseen for twenty years. Played out in chapters like mini-comics in themselves, Jack encounters vampires, robots, eternal champions and a senior citizen super-villain. It's as dense as "Lost," but it's definitely leading up to something. Now, if only Grist would get there a little faster...
• Noble Causes. The perfect mix of soap opera and super-heroics. The Nobles are a celebrity family of super-heroes. The dad, Doc Noble, is a super-genius/adventurer who married an elemental sorceress named Gaia, and had a family of three super-powered kids: Rusty, Race and Zephyr. All of the painful family misfortunes -- adultery, unplanned pregnancy, betrayal, and death -- are magnified by superhuman complications: parallel worlds, evil twins, time-travel, etc. Through it all, creator Jay Faerber never loses sight of what makes the characters human.

OK. That's plenty to get you started. Now you can impress all the sweaty folks wearing Green Lantern T-shirts while standing in line for "Watchmen." Have fun.