Help Me Hive Mind (X-mas Marvel gifts)

[Ignatzmonster]

I've got a brother-in-law for whom I usually buy trades for X-mas, but my tastes and his aren't quite flush. He is a massive Hulk fan, but I have a difficult time getting him something he hasn't already read in that quarter. He has read New Avengers and liked that, also Aaron's Wolverine run and the Brubaker/Fraction Iron Fist (which is fucking awesome). That said, my last two gifts, Brubaker's Captain America and Hickman's Secret Warriors got pretty decisive mehs. DC, independents, European stuff, and of course my beloved Tooth just baffle him. He's a pretty stereotypic US reader if I'm honest. I gave him Nemesis because he tends to like ultra-violent movies, and he said, "It was interesting but I think I like my comics to have heros that are, um, not assholes." So are there any Marvel readers among you squaxx?? Help me out here.

[Emperor]

That is a tough one, as he does seem to have very particular tastes - in some ways it might be simplest to ask him what he wants However, some thoughts:

The Punisher is a bit of an asshole, so you could try that, possibly Jason Aaron's PunisherMax run (as he liked Aaron's Wolverine) perhaps go a bit further back and try Ennis' Punisher run. It might be you want to follow the anti-hero angle but try something outside Marvel (which is a little risky granted) with The Boys or even Hitman (Ennis does a line in asshole anti-heroes) or even The Authority. Ellis also does assholes well so you could try his run on Thunderbolts (there is an Ultimate Collection) as you don't need much grounding in the team to get into it and it really goes for it on bringing in some badder asses, plus this helped inspire the recent "Dark Reign" storyline so he'd have come into contact with parts of this run.

Personally, I'd try some Thunderbolts and Ennis Punisher, see how he like the Ennisisms/Ellisism an, if so, perhaps pursue that angle with later presents (with The Boys by Ennis and The Authority by Ellis), unless he is a died-in-the-wool Marvel Zombie and then you could keep buying Punisher trades for him (as there are a lot of them). Just make sure you keep the receipts

[Ignatzmonster]

Thanks Emp. Those aren't bad suggestions. Yeah he is very particular so it's hard to get off the reservation with him. My brother who is a true superhero junky is way easier to buy for. Unfortunately I can't get him the Ennis Punishers since he's already read mine twice. But I'm going to look into Thunderbolts.

[Emperor]

Thanks Emp. Those aren't bad suggestions. Yeah he is very particular so it's hard to get off the reservation with him. My brother who is a true superhero junky is way easier to buy for. Unfortunately I can't get him the Ennis Punishers since he's already read mine twice. But I'm going to look into Thunderbolts.

Well I'd definitely go for that then. After the "Civil War" storyline Norman Osborn took over the Thunderbolts and gave it a darker edge bringing in villains like Bullseye and Venom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolts_(comics)#Post-Civil_War

If that Ultimate Collection work then you can go with the Secret Invasion tie-in, you could easily skip the Dark Reign issues* as the team was moved on to form the basis of the Dark Avengers (so you could get him those, although it wasn't as much fun under Bendis) and the team only really gets back to its core raison d'etre under Jeff Parker and Kev Walker (although their run is more similar to the team before Ellis' makeover so might not appeal to the brother-in-law but it is very good).

Collection details are here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolts_(comics)#Collected_editions

* Not that Diggle's run isn't worth a read but it is a different team, with a different storyline