Top 10! List
No, this isn't a post on the Alan Moore/Gene Ha series. Nor is it, strictly speaking, a set of rankings, because I know I'll get some arguments on the artistic merits on at least a couple of these.
As you may remember from various math classes and/or calculator instruction manuals, an ! stands for a "factorial" -- so, since I'm sort-of creatively blocked at the moment and am copping out with a list, at least it's a slightly different kind of list. (See, it depends on math, so it must be cool.) Here, then, are 10! issues I've always enjoyed.
10. Fantastic Four vol. 1 #s 41-50 (Aug. 1965-May 1966): I don't know how many times I've read these stories since getting the Marvel Masterworks volume which reprints them, but they represent the peak of Stan Lee/Jack Kirby epic storytelling. Picking up right after perhaps its greatest victory to date (the "Battle of the Baxter Building" in FF #40), the FF finds itself splitting apart, as the Thing leaves the team and promptly gets himself brainwashed by the Frightful Four. Defeating the Frightful Four takes three issues, but the escape of Madam Medusa leads into the introduction of the Inhumans, and the FF spend the next 4 1/2 issues fighting them, Dragon Man, and Maximus. Finally, just when it all starts to quiet down midway through FF #48, the Silver Surfer shows up, with Galactus close behind. Lee and Kirby send the Human Torch across time, space, and infinity, and by the time he gets back, the reader feels like he's been there too.
9. Green Lantern vol. 2 #s 190-98 (July 1985-March 1986): This Steve Englehart/Joe Staton arc redefined Carol Ferris' villainous past, reawakened Guy Gardner, and restored Hal Jordan to Green Lantern status, all while bringing John Stewart into his own and explaining what happened to the GL Corps during Crisis on Infinite Earths. All that and it's still not collected?
8. Sandman #s 21-28 (Dec. 1990-June 1991): "Season of Mists," by Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg, Kelley Jones, and Matt Wagner. Morpheus becomes a real estate agent, trying to decide who can best run Hell after Lucifer's abdication. My first Sandman arc, and still my favorite. Collected, of course.
7. Detective Comics #s 437-43 (Oct./Nov. 1973-Oct./Nov. 1974): Backup stories and one full-length blowout comprised the seven-part Archie Goodwin/Walt Simonson "Manhunter" revival, a stylish spy story disguised as the revamp of an old DC hero. Collected most recently as Manhunter: The Special Edition. However, the Batman stories from #439 ("Night of the Stalker!") and #442 ("Death Flies The Haunted Sky!") aren't bad either.
6. Detective Comics #s 471-76 (Aug. 1977-March/April 1978): The Englehart/Rogers/Austin issues, featuring fine Deadshot and Penguin stories sandwiched between a classic Hugo Strange two-parter and an even more classic Joker two-parter. Oh, and there's some mushy stuff too, which you'll probably want to skip over. Collected as Batman: Strange Apparitions.
5. The New Teen Titans vol. 2 #s 1-5 (Aug. 1984-Feb. 1985): Raven finally succumbs to her father's evil influence, and Trigon takes over the world. Some really apocalyptic George Perez artwork complements a suspenseful Marv Wolfman script. There's not much plot beyond that, but these five issues are about as creepy and downright scary as a mainstream superhero book gets. Those of you who have only seen this adapted for the "Teen Titans" cartoon may find the story familiar, but be warned -- the scenes with the Titans' evil duplicates are a lot more disturbing than their animated adaptations. This was Perez's farewell to the title for about four years, and when he returned he didn't top it. Collected as The New Teen Titans: The Terror Of Trigon.
4. Doom Patrol #s 19-22 (Feb.-May 1989): "Crawling From The Wreckage," in which Grant Morrison and Richard Case relaunched a title "cancelled" from the newsstands the month before; took it back to its thematic roots; and went from there in entirely new, strange, and exciting directions, all while honoring what had gone before.
3. American Flagg! #s 4-6 (Jan.-March 1984): Howard Chaykin's classic series hit the ground running with its first arc, but for me the second, "Southern Comfort," was even better. Reuben Flagg heads to Brasilia with an illegal basketball team and finds corruption and murder high in the Plexus Rangers' own ranks. "Southern Comfort" is a great adventure tale, filled with the humor, satire, and debauchery for which Flagg! was rightly praised.
2. Superman #423 and Action Comics #583 (Sept. 1986): Alan Moore, Curt Swan, George Perez, and Kurt Schaffenberger reveal "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?"
1. Justice League of America #144 (July 1977): I love this story. In keeping with our mathematics theme, Steve Englehart has Green Arrow play around with some numbers -- specifically, the dates given for Green Lantern's first appearance and the first grouping of the seven original JLAers -- and concludes that there's no way Hal could have been GL when the League was formed. Superman and Green Lantern exchange a "he'll have to learn sometime" look, and pop in an old recording which explains how the Justice League first got together, at least in spirit. "The Origin Of The Justice League -- Minus One!" features just about every classic Silver Age DC character, including Congorilla, Roy Raymond (TV Detective), and Rex The Wonder Dog, and sets them all against the background of late-'50s paranoia about Communists, juvenile delinquents, and flying saucers. Any resemblance to DC: The New Frontier is probably coincidental, and each has its own charms, but hey -- this one takes a lot less time to read.
As you may remember from various math classes and/or calculator instruction manuals, an ! stands for a "factorial" -- so, since I'm sort-of creatively blocked at the moment and am copping out with a list, at least it's a slightly different kind of list. (See, it depends on math, so it must be cool.) Here, then, are 10! issues I've always enjoyed.
10. Fantastic Four vol. 1 #s 41-50 (Aug. 1965-May 1966): I don't know how many times I've read these stories since getting the Marvel Masterworks volume which reprints them, but they represent the peak of Stan Lee/Jack Kirby epic storytelling. Picking up right after perhaps its greatest victory to date (the "Battle of the Baxter Building" in FF #40), the FF finds itself splitting apart, as the Thing leaves the team and promptly gets himself brainwashed by the Frightful Four. Defeating the Frightful Four takes three issues, but the escape of Madam Medusa leads into the introduction of the Inhumans, and the FF spend the next 4 1/2 issues fighting them, Dragon Man, and Maximus. Finally, just when it all starts to quiet down midway through FF #48, the Silver Surfer shows up, with Galactus close behind. Lee and Kirby send the Human Torch across time, space, and infinity, and by the time he gets back, the reader feels like he's been there too.
9. Green Lantern vol. 2 #s 190-98 (July 1985-March 1986): This Steve Englehart/Joe Staton arc redefined Carol Ferris' villainous past, reawakened Guy Gardner, and restored Hal Jordan to Green Lantern status, all while bringing John Stewart into his own and explaining what happened to the GL Corps during Crisis on Infinite Earths. All that and it's still not collected?
8. Sandman #s 21-28 (Dec. 1990-June 1991): "Season of Mists," by Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg, Kelley Jones, and Matt Wagner. Morpheus becomes a real estate agent, trying to decide who can best run Hell after Lucifer's abdication. My first Sandman arc, and still my favorite. Collected, of course.
7. Detective Comics #s 437-43 (Oct./Nov. 1973-Oct./Nov. 1974): Backup stories and one full-length blowout comprised the seven-part Archie Goodwin/Walt Simonson "Manhunter" revival, a stylish spy story disguised as the revamp of an old DC hero. Collected most recently as Manhunter: The Special Edition. However, the Batman stories from #439 ("Night of the Stalker!") and #442 ("Death Flies The Haunted Sky!") aren't bad either.
6. Detective Comics #s 471-76 (Aug. 1977-March/April 1978): The Englehart/Rogers/Austin issues, featuring fine Deadshot and Penguin stories sandwiched between a classic Hugo Strange two-parter and an even more classic Joker two-parter. Oh, and there's some mushy stuff too, which you'll probably want to skip over. Collected as Batman: Strange Apparitions.
5. The New Teen Titans vol. 2 #s 1-5 (Aug. 1984-Feb. 1985): Raven finally succumbs to her father's evil influence, and Trigon takes over the world. Some really apocalyptic George Perez artwork complements a suspenseful Marv Wolfman script. There's not much plot beyond that, but these five issues are about as creepy and downright scary as a mainstream superhero book gets. Those of you who have only seen this adapted for the "Teen Titans" cartoon may find the story familiar, but be warned -- the scenes with the Titans' evil duplicates are a lot more disturbing than their animated adaptations. This was Perez's farewell to the title for about four years, and when he returned he didn't top it. Collected as The New Teen Titans: The Terror Of Trigon.
4. Doom Patrol #s 19-22 (Feb.-May 1989): "Crawling From The Wreckage," in which Grant Morrison and Richard Case relaunched a title "cancelled" from the newsstands the month before; took it back to its thematic roots; and went from there in entirely new, strange, and exciting directions, all while honoring what had gone before.
3. American Flagg! #s 4-6 (Jan.-March 1984): Howard Chaykin's classic series hit the ground running with its first arc, but for me the second, "Southern Comfort," was even better. Reuben Flagg heads to Brasilia with an illegal basketball team and finds corruption and murder high in the Plexus Rangers' own ranks. "Southern Comfort" is a great adventure tale, filled with the humor, satire, and debauchery for which Flagg! was rightly praised.
2. Superman #423 and Action Comics #583 (Sept. 1986): Alan Moore, Curt Swan, George Perez, and Kurt Schaffenberger reveal "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?"
1. Justice League of America #144 (July 1977): I love this story. In keeping with our mathematics theme, Steve Englehart has Green Arrow play around with some numbers -- specifically, the dates given for Green Lantern's first appearance and the first grouping of the seven original JLAers -- and concludes that there's no way Hal could have been GL when the League was formed. Superman and Green Lantern exchange a "he'll have to learn sometime" look, and pop in an old recording which explains how the Justice League first got together, at least in spirit. "The Origin Of The Justice League -- Minus One!" features just about every classic Silver Age DC character, including Congorilla, Roy Raymond (TV Detective), and Rex The Wonder Dog, and sets them all against the background of late-'50s paranoia about Communists, juvenile delinquents, and flying saucers. Any resemblance to DC: The New Frontier is probably coincidental, and each has its own charms, but hey -- this one takes a lot less time to read.
posted by Tom Bondurant @ 10:07 PM
2 Comments:
Strictly speaking, a top 10! list would be the 3,828,800 greatest comics of all time. But I pick nits....
Anonymous, I realized that this morning after it was too late. (I was a psychology major.) Still a good gimmick for a list, though.
For the math people out there, shouldn't there be a sigma involved somehow? It's really a summation, isn't it?
Tim, I did like Starman a lot. I'll try to find room for one of the arcs on the next list.
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