Waiting for the Trade’s Cosmic Countdown   So today Guardians of the Galaxy hits theaters and I cannot wait to see it. I have been giddy for this movie since it was announced two years ago. I love cosmic marvel in general and I greatly enjoyed DnA’s run on the Guardians a couple years ago. So in honor of the film I present a countdown of Marvel’s best cosmic trade paperbacks and because the Guardians are such an unusual team I am doing a top 15 rather than a top 10. Furthermore in honor of the obscurity of the Guardians since many of the stories in the countdown are super famous already I will recommend a second story in the same vein of each primary pick throughout the countdown. So without further ado click below.  

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller Annihilators by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning Collects Annihilators 1 – 4. Why I bought this: I love cosmic Marvel and my two favorites of Marvel’s cosmic heroes Quasar and Silver Surfer are both featured prominently. This was also written by DnA, who in my view are the best writers currently employed by Marvel. So when Free Comic Book Day rolled around and one of my shops was selling everything in the store at 25-percent off this was the very first item I picked up. The Plot – In the wake of events of Realm of Kings and Thanos Imperative, the Guardians of the Galaxy are disbanded/mostly dead, leading Marvel’s most powerful cosmic heroes to decide that a new team is needed to deal with future cosmic level crises. The members of that team are Quasar, Silver Surfer, Beta Ray Bill, Gladiator and Ronan the Accuser. The idea is they will not have the usual team trappings of headquarters, meetings etc. They will only come together w...

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos by Jim Starlin and Ron Lim Collects Silver Surfer 34-38 and Thanos Quest 1-2. Why I Bought This: I love cosmic Marvel and few stories in Marvel history are as great as The Infinity Gauntlet . This book serves as the prelude to that one. The Plot: The short non-spoiler version is Death resurrects Thanos and charges him with killing half the population of the Universe. In the course of going about the task Thanos comes up with a new scheme to seize ultimate power. This is in my view one of the all time great stories so if you haven’t read it before you may wish to skip the spoilers before reading it yourself. That said you’ve been warned.

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller Marvel Adventures: Black Widow and the Avengers by Paul Tobin Collects Marvel Adventures Super Heroes 17 – 21. Why I Bought This: There is no comic franchise I love more than the Avengers. The impending movie has my anticipation building to a full on geek-gasm. I stumbled upon this on Amazon at just $4 (and that includes shipping costs) and was like Hell Yeah I’m up for some Avengers stories I haven’t read before the movie comes out. Plus the description promised Diablo and he’s actually my favorite FF villain so I’m more than happy to see him switch foes since I like the Avengers a lot more than the FF.

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller The Mighty Thor by Matt Fraction and Olivier Coipel Collects Mighty Thor 1 – 6. Why I bought this: Actually this was another library rental, as opposed to purchase. It was a story arc (Galactus comes to eat Asgard) that I knew wanted to read because I love me some cosmic Marvel; but at the same time I was wary on purchasing it because I know I don’t like Thor’s solo title--I never have, and the last time I purchased a Thor trade it was awful despite having Thanos in it; so I was very happy to see this at my library and I picked it up instantly.