Post-apocalypse in comic book form?

October 11, 2008 11:13 PM

Comic Book Recommendation: What well-done series are like the Age of Apocalypse? (Whole-Earth holocaust featuring emotionally vulnerable resistance fighters/mutants/superheroes)

Preferably serious in tone. Any imprint and series duration welcome. I'm after a great ruinous setting and emotional realism more than the appeal of a crossover/what-if/movie franchise/gimmick title, but those are welcome too if the quality is great.

posted by cowbellemoo to media & arts (14 comments total)

DMZ doesn't really hit the apocalyse mark - and certainly not on a 'whole earth' scale - but the main location is pretty ruined, features resistance fighters, and such. And it's much more serious than that X-Men thing you linked.
posted by The Monkey at 11:57 PM on October 11, 2008

Y the Last Man isn't entirely post-apocalyptic, but all the male mammals on Earth (minus the titular character, obviously) are dead, so hopefully that counts. Sixty issues. Then there's The Walking Dead, which is a still-ongoing zombie story.

Some people also like the Marvel Zombie stories, which are basically, "The Marvel heroes get turned into zombies, eat the entire planet, and angst about it a lot," but I'm not so into it - the first mini was sort of amusing in a mindless fun way but they keep milking the franchise to, uh, death. (They ate Galactus? Really? Really?) Figured I might as well mention them, though.
posted by bettafish at 12:18 AM on October 12, 2008

Oops, sorry, this is a much better link for vol. 1 of Walking Dead. You don't need to spend $60!
posted by bettafish at 12:21 AM on October 12, 2008

DMZ is alright; not really my cup o' tay, but you can read the first issue here.

The Walking Dead is a Post-Apocalyptic/Zombie/Survivalist Series that's pretty darn good, read the first issue here. Its author, Robert Kirkman, also wrote the first two volumes of Marvel Zombies, a Post-Apocalyptic/Zombie/Superhero series that was pretty tongue in cheek and amusing.

Garth Ennis has a few series that play with the theme; his Pilgrim series is a post-cataclysm Western, and he has a new series, Crossed, that he describes as a mix of "World War Z by Max Brooks and The Road by Cormac McCarthy."

Wasteland is a good comic set a hundred years after a cataclysm; society has recovered to a certain degree, so in some ways it may feel more like a fantasy series. However, it blends Western tropes, political intrigue, and sci-fi pretty well, and you can read the first issue here.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:50 AM on October 12, 2008

Matt Wagner's Grendel series took a definite turn for the post-apocalyptic following the futuristic Devil's Reign arc and War Child series and Grendel Tales miniseries, which are set in a feudal post-nuke world, where warrior clans roam a scorched earth. The Devils and Deaths book is my favorite of these, and probably one of my favoritest comics evar.

You can also read the first issue of Y: The Last Man here.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 1:07 AM on October 12, 2008

The Watchmen has a pending apocalypse as a theme throughout. Serious and emotionally realistic, definitely.
posted by alexei at 1:55 AM on October 12, 2008

The first volume of Earth X is right up your alley. Things get a bit weird as you move into Universe X an Paradise X, so be warned.

Likewise, the comic that inspired Earth X (or at least inspired a magazine to ask Alex Ross what he'd do with the Marvel universe) is Kingdom Come. It is stupid good.

There are some apocalyptic themes in Red Son, particularly in how the rest of the world scrambles to deal with a totalitarian Stalinist Superman.

New Frontier is DC Silver Age heroes facing the end of the world. Also really good.

On the less serious end, there's Scud: The Disposable Assassin which also (surprisingly) deals with the end of the world in a post-apocalyptic setting. Also, Ben Franklin as a Zombie King.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:51 AM on October 12, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Umm...apparently it was never completely translated into English, but Fist of the North Star is post-apocalypse and features some pretty serious violence!
posted by cardamine at 8:08 AM on October 12, 2008

As others mentioned, The Walking Dead is awesome.

Also, if you don't mind manga, Eden: It's an Endless World! by Hiroki Endo is an awesome and bleak post-apocalyptic future kind of thing that might fit what you're looking for. For classic post-apocalyptic manga, you can't go wrong with Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, either, though perhaps it's a little more fantastical and a little less bleak than what you're looking for.
posted by infinitywaltz at 9:26 AM on October 12, 2008

Therefore Repent is set post-Rapture. The characters aren't really superheroes, per se, but many do find themselves manifesting powers or changed in some way.
posted by WCityMike at 10:19 AM on October 12, 2008

Dragon Head
posted by martinrebas at 10:55 AM on October 12, 2008

Can't believe I forgot this one: Ted McKeever's Metropol, Metropol AD, and Faith series are literally post-apocalyptic stories. While there are some supernatural aspects, like angels vs. demons, they still manage to stay grounded in the basic humanity of the protagonists.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:32 AM on October 12, 2008

A friend I showed this to got all indignant I didn't ask him first, but seconded Walking Dead and Y the Last Man, for another data point. I'm going through all the suggestions' wikis and everything looks very promising. Thank you all.
posted by cowbellemoo at 5:55 PM on October 12, 2008

everybody wins! except for latecomers.
posted by cowbellemoo at 5:56 PM on October 12, 2008