Let’s assume, for the purpose of this post, that you just saw The Avengers and had just as much fun as we did. What happens now? A second Avengers film won’t be coming around for a little while (2015-ish, about the same time as hover technology) but you’d love just a little more from these action and quip-heavy characters.

It’s time to hit the bookstore. Below, we suggest three graphic novels that will give you the exact same thrill that The Avengers did. And provide some much needed context for that post-credits sequence!

Spoilers for The Avengers ahead.

[Read on. Spoilers for The Avengers ahead]

The Confusion of Change

I’ve been rereading old X-Men comics lately. Back in the late seventies and early eighties, when there weren’t quite as many amazing and varied comics out there as there are today, Uncanny X-Men was pretty reliable for a bit of soap opera moralizing and intrigue—a big action sequence was never far away but those setpieces always seemed secondary to the complexities of the various characters’ lives. Back then, the X-Men seemed different from most other Marvel books. Amid the superpowers and spaceships, the players agonized a lot about their moral choices in a hostile world, the female characters, while often adhering to the usual physical stereotype for superheroines were strong; each had inner voices.

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