Books like Incredible Hulk Epic Collection — picked by fans

I’m recommending this book because it grapples with death from illness in a way most superhero comics will not.

This collection features a key story in the long-running X-Men subplot about the Legacy Virus, a science fiction analog to HIV/AIDS (a time-traveling supervillain’s evil scheme, not a storyline one would want to attempt with a real-world virus).

Superhero stories tend to rely on a type of moral causality, but viruses do not discriminate between heroes and villains. Junior X-Men member Jubilee must confront the unfairness of a fatal condition in a world where death is usually a plot contrivance to be overcome. It’s a moving and thoughtful pause in the action, setting stakes that feel paradoxically far more significant than globe-trotting adventures.

Deadpool is superhero comics', and perhaps literature in general’s, most consistently challenging fictional engagement with cancer. Deadpool’s healing factor prevents his cancer from ever being cured, which traps him in a never-ending cycle of remission and relapse.

Unlike a superhero who responds to a bodily transformation by self-sacrificingly upholding the status quo, Deadpool is a mercenary and anti-hero. In this collection, writer Joe Kelly creates much of the narrative infrastructure that eventually made the character one of Marvel’s most popular.

Kelly also crafts a story where Deadpool is offered a heroic transformation that—through personal weakness, history, bad luck, and supervillainous interference—tragically fails. This book establishes the template for Deadpool stories and digs into Deadpool’s cancer for the first time.

I’m recommending this book for how delightfully it considers the ill human body as a site of new possibilities. The Doom Patrol have never been well-known superheroes, perhaps because of the willingness of writers to confront the bodily trauma at the heart of their stories.

Morrison’s contribution to the series was to consider the Doom Patrol truly as freaks: people who could not fit into a society that demands gender, mental, and physical homogeneity. Mixing allegorical forms of illness—Cliff “Robotman” Steele’s fallible technological body—with more direct conditions like Kaye “Crazy Jane” Callis’ dissociative identity disorder.

Morrison, along with artistic collaborators, built a celebration of difference into a genre where most heroic bodies never break the mold.

This book has one of the most fun depictions of heart disease you’ll read. Wait! Don’t leave! That came out wrong!

Superhero comics rarely consider the toll of an intensely physical role. In this continuation of the landmark superhero series, Blue Beetle struggles with his sense of self-worth when he puts on weight and discovers that he has heart disease. The character’s role in the long-running series had mostly been comic relief, and this storyline gave the character some greater nuance and shading.

As a less-popular character, Blue Beetle can consider retirement without the guarantee that writers will have him miraculously discover the cure to a lifelong condition. While cracking jokes about himself in spandex to cover up his own insecurity, this comic takes time to consider aging, chronic conditions, and the way friends react to a life-changing diagnosis.

The Incredible Hulk was not only an inspiration to me but also a “martyr for Change” in my opinion.

The honest reason why I enjoyed reading Al Ewing books is that I was bullied as a child in the same aspect as “the Hulk”.

Fighting battles on both sides of the spectrum internally and externally. He proved himself not to be a reckless monster of sort but a man possessing exceptional powers that was willing to smash to pieces anything that stood in his way of triumph.

He in this book exudes a fighter-type energy that will make you want to “Smash Things to Pieces” along with him. His isolated, broken existence was only fuel to the fire propelling him into a courageous, fearless relenting superhero.

Never surrendering, never throwing in the towel. Immortal Hulk, Vol. 9: The Weakest One There Is, is a masterpiece, a showpiece of success that… show more.

This is a relatively lighthearted superhero romance about Ava, an alien who works as the personal assistant to a big Hollywood star named Gwen. When Gwen asks Ava to pretend to be her girlfriend because it will help Gwen with the custody battle with her ex-husband, all the predictable fake dating shenanigans ensue.

The book is a fun, comfortable read with a good bit of pining, a fun sister relationship, and an interesting superhero plot.

The focus on Ava’s and Gwen’s emotional journey through the story makes it an engaging read the first time through, and a nice, comfortable reread for those days when you just want to lose yourself in a comfy book.

The main character is an assassin who hunts down superheroes who’ve gone rogue.

He’s been given an impossible mission to assassinate one of the most powerful superheroes, who’s impervious to just about everything, and also stop a rival assassin from killing the president.

This was a nail-biting adventure that will keep you on your toes, wanting to know what happens next.

Hey, look! It's totally a superhero comic! Some superheroes will probably get some super powers, and maybe a villain will try to destroy a town, and, true to superhero form, at least everything is kind of relatively okay in the end (not to spoil anything).

It has pretty much everyone's favorite superhero, since it has a lot of superheroes. Which is really interesting, because the first few pages are sheer horror. Seriously, it isn't every book that gets my mind flirting with a panic attack, but this one was fine after setting it down for a moment. Then it's mostly a superhero comic again and not really a horror story, except for when it is a horror story.

Sometimes you want your heroes to be serious and sometimes you want them to be wacky.

Andrea Vernon is a series that goes running toward wackiness then sails right past it. The story of a secretary at a private military contractor that specializes in goofy, ridiculous, and terrifying effective superheroes, this is one of the most fun novels I've enjoyed in years.

Andrea is a delightful Lois Lane figure who is stuck being the only normal person in the weirdest office in the world. It reminded me of the old Damage Control comics. 

David Charleston’s character resonated with me. He’s eccentric, passionate, and meticulous, while also being a great friend.

He’s also out for revenge against his father’s killer—A supervillain named Steelheart who has taken over Chicago. David unites with a secret group of people called the Reckoners who are trying to learn each villain's weakness to assassinate them.

David’s obsession with details is relatable, and against the terrifying powers of these supervillains, you're left on the edge of your seat hoping the Reckoner's schemes will be enough.