Blame Jason. It's his fault. He started me off. One of my lifelong interests is how Scripture has been commented on through the centuries. I can be boringly enthusiastic about what I consider one of the richest veins of Christian reflection, combining devotional theology and biblical scholarship – the magnificent tradition of Christian biblical commentary. A couple of weeks ago Jason suggested several "travelling companions" for my sojourn with Colossians, which is all the excuse I need to desiderate.
I'm already well into Dunn's volume in the New International Greek Commentary, which along with O'Brien in the Word Biblical Commentary deals with the Greek text. Marianne Meye Thompson's Two Horizon Commentary and A T Lincoln in the New Intepreter's Bible provide hefty nudges in the right direction for theological reflection. 
Colossians Remixed. Subverting the Empire, by Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmat I read a couple of years ago and found it a stunning eye opener to the political implications of Paul's vision of Christ, creation, church and cross ( these four inter-related themes in Colossians I'm currently preparing as a series of sermons). And if those aren't enough G B Caird deals with Colossians in the distilled elegance of his Paul's Letters from Prison, and N T Wright's earliest published volume in the Tyndale series is still a wee gem.
From a generation earlier C F D Moule's New Cambridge Greek Testament is a wise and concise treatment in which Moule makes optimistic assumptions about the studen'ts competence in NT Greek, though his most important comments are now absorbed in the work of those who were fortunate enough to learn from him e.g. Jimmy Dunn and N T Wright. 
And Markus Barth's volume in the Anchor Bible might be good, though reviews were mixed – but that's because anyone who has used his two Anchor Bible volumes on Ephesians is likely to be disappointed by any subsequent work that tries to go beyond it in scope, penetration and independent conclusion. I love those two volumes, bought now 30 years ago and many a time browsed and some pages read for the sheer pleasure of it.
Recently published commentaries on Colossians might include (but not for me this time) the New International Critical Commentary by R McL Wilson; the Pillar volume by Douglas Moo; J L Sumney in the New Testament Library Series; C H Talbert in the Paidea series; and Ben Witherington's socio-rhetorical treatment of Ephesians and Colossians. But then there are older and too often neglected ones which I will peep into – J B Lightfoot's benchmark Greek commentary is obvious; Bishop Handley Carr Glynn Moule in the Cambridge Greek Testament from over a century ago, and whose writings on Paul's epistles are virtually Keswick holiness teaching with a deep Calvinist tinge; Alexander MacLaren's exposition in the old Expositor's Bible, a gem of Evangelical devotional theology from an unjustly neglected pastoral expositor.
From the continent Lohse in the Hermeneia series now over 35 years in print (which I once worked through page by page – and believe it did me good!), and Eduard Schweizer's theologically sharp exegesis as a stand alone engagement (I still think his commentary on Mark is in the top 4 of the Gospel Premiership). Ancient works include the homilies of Chrysostom, and treatments by Calvin, and (Jason tells me) Melancthon, and a big fat Banner of Truth reprint of Bishop Davenant's 17th Century Reformed commentary on which Spurgeon desiderated (probably not a felicitous expression).
In reality though, the whole commentary industry today is in danger of publication overkill and encouraged mediocrity, as publishers try to find yet another market niche nobody else has yet thought of and then try to persuade us that despite the multifarious options, this is a definite must have for the serious bible scholar. Aye right!
But meantime I have a few of the above as my panel of experts and "cloud of witnesses" who will try to keep me close to the text and open to God.
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