In this installment of “What You Should Be Reading”, I’ll be covering Ultimate Comics: X-Men from Marvel Comics and Green Lantern: New Guardians from DC. Both these titles are recent additions to my pull list and caught me completely by surprise. They also happen to be two books that are not receiving a whole lot of attention from readers, but I’m here to tell you that they are what you should be reading.



I had never read any incarnation of the Ultimate X-Men before I picked up issue 18.1, a sort of introduction to the “Reservation X” storyline and the new status quo. I decided to test the waters based on interviews with writer Brian Wood, who happens to be one of my favorite creators in the business right now. He really hyped the book, and it did not disappoint.



Now, we’re in the middle of “Reservation X,” and it appears the title will only keep getting better. Wood gives each of his X-Men unique voices that are sleekly rendered by his artistic team. The plot is intriguing and immensely successful in exploring the world in which the mutants, of which there are only about 20 thanks to the availability of a mutant cure, live in and their struggles. Not only that, but they must also deal with constant in fighting, complete with backstabbing, blackmailing, and politicking.



Brian Wood’s Ultimate Comics: X-Men is largely flying under the radar at the moment. It’s a real shame, though, because this is exactly the kind of superhero comic that fans want: an exciting, realistic, and intelligent epic.



A number of months ago, I wrote a critique of DC’s New 52 relaunch, and while I still stand by my points, there is one thing I’d like to alter. I claimed that DC’s creativity might be plummeting, which was appearing to be infecting the entire line. There are still certain DC books I do not enjoy, but, like with many things in life, all I had to do was dig a little deeper to find a true, shining gem. Green Lantern: New Guardians is that gem.



I discovered New Guardians on a shopping spree with a friend at a comic shop not too long ago. We bought up the first trade, which collects the first 7 issues of the series and every issue from 8 to 15, the latest. To be frank, we picked up the series in an effort to go home and just have something to read in bulk. Neither of us had heard much about it, but the shop had every issue, so we grabbed them up.



To be frank, again, I didn’t have high hopes. I’d never been a huge Green Lantern fan. I’ve read certain stories, and I have knowledge of the character and its history, but I’ve never consistently read the Lantern’s adventures. A big advantage this book had from the start, though, was that it starred Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern. He is the artistically talented Lantern with the exceptional imagination that took over for Hal Jordan went he went mad. He also happens to be my favorite character to don the Green Lantern identity.



That being said, I was so pleasantly surprised by New Guardians. I burned through the trade and have read the other issues in the series multiple times by now. It is truly an intelligently crafted book with several multi-layered stories of mystery, cosmic entities, the emotional spectrum, and a hero’s struggle to unite a team of six individuals with polar opposite personalities, all playing out at once.



The story, written by Tony Bedard, is perfectly accentuated by the incredible art team. I must give extra praise to Neil Ruffino, who has been the colorist on a sizeable chink of the series so far. His color work is what first one me over. Every page colored by him is sleek and breathes life into the title’s main characters, a team that includes a Green, Blue, Yellow, Red, and Orange Lantern, a Star Sapphire, and an Indigo Tribesman, and their adventures. Ruffino has breath-takingly rendered all those colors in one book.



Ultimate Comics: X-Men and Green Lantern: New Guardians are two excellent titles whose respective creator teams are working hard on to produce top-quality comic book stories. However, judging by the sales of both, they seem to be doing the kind of business a cult favorite does. They each having a strong, yet smaller than average number of dedicated readers. These are sleeper hits, though, just waiting to happen. They are two top-notch examples of what superhero comics should be, and more comic readers should be paying attention