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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 1, 2017 12:44:27 GMT -5
10. The Death and Return of Superman Act 1: Doomsday. 1992. Superman Man of Stell 18, Justice League 69, Superman 74, Adventures of Superman 497, Action Comics 684, Superman Man of Steel 19, Superman 75. Mike Carlin, Dan Jurgens, Roger Stern, Louise Simonson, Jerry Ordway, Karl Kesel.
DC dares the unthinkable: killing off Superman and "replacing" him with multiple other heroes: Steel, Superboy, Eradicator, Cyborg Superman step up when Doomsday strikes the killing blow. Also a renewal in speculation buying begins as people who never read comics begin hitting the comic shops in droves buying up issues like crazy hoping for a quick high return of their dollars. A multitude of writers and artists perform a spectacular compilation which runs through all of the various Superman comics and launches new comics as well. From this one story many continuing stories become developed throughout the Superman mythos and series. This story line also starts a regrettable trend of deaths and resurrections in DC. This was quite the splash over into the real world with headlines throughout the news media sparking many debates and arguments and bringing in new readers and those who had left comics stirring up frenzy along the way everywhere. While it was mostly a publicity stunt you cannot argue with the initial sales and the frenzy it sparked. It has over time become the basis for games, cartoons, movies, action figures and novels. Thanks for including this, It was on my long list. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2017 12:46:07 GMT -5
# 10 - The Authority # 1-4 “The Circle” by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch. I had been extremely turned off and disappointed by early Image comics and quickly jumped off. Years later I certainly liked the looks of Jim Lee’s Wildstorm imprint but still passed. When DC folded Lee and Wildstorm in, I figured it was worth a look. I came in completely cold with The Authority # 1 not knowing anything about it but was hooked. Reading these felt to me like the next iteration of super-heroes, kind of ratcheting up a notch from the Bronze Age. This describes my reaction also. I sampled early Image. Was not impressed. Passed on Image for several years. Liked things that came later in the decade. Like The Authority. I would have included #1-12. Ellis & Hitch's whole run. They should have ended it then. When Millar & Quitely took over with #13 it lacked the finesse that Ellis & Hitch brought to the title. I dropped the title by #16. None of the other volumes came close to the perfection of those first 12 issues. Great concept. Great execution of that concept with the writing & art. Finally a mature take on heroes that was handled well. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 1, 2017 14:25:30 GMT -5
#10 Gardener Fox's "Crisis"  The Flash #123(1961, DC) Justice League of America #21-22(1963, DC) Justice League of America #29-30(1964, DC) Justice League of America #37-38(1965, DC) Justice League of America #46-47(1966, DC) Justice League of America #55-56(1967, DC) Justice League of America #64-65(1968, DC) Starting with his story in Flash #123 (The Flash of Two Worlds) Gardener Fox brought to the world of DC comics the idea of multiple worlds existing together in order to both explain previous continuities and bring those past iterations of characters to the present. It proved to be such a well received idea that starting in 1963 the crossover with the Justice Society would become a yearly event under Fox and remains a key part of DC's mythology to this day. As a kid these were some of my favorite issues in my father's collection, I loved the idea of other world's parallel to our own and the introduction to other heroes that existed before the ones I was familiar with was exciting. Other writers on down the years tried to capture that same feeling(with Gerry Conway and Len Wein coming the closest) but Fox truly did it the best. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 1, 2017 14:29:17 GMT -5
#10 Gardener Fox's "Crisis" The Flash #123(1961, DC) Justice League of America #21-22(1963, DC) Justice League of America #29-30(1964, DC) Justice League of America #37-38(1965, DC) Justice League of America #46-47(1966, DC) Justice League of America #55-56(1967, DC) Justice League of America #64-65(1968, DC) Starting with his story in Flash #123 (The Flash of Two Worlds) Gardener Fox brought to the world of DC comics the idea of multiple worlds existing together in order to both explain previous continuities and bring those past iterations of characters to the present. It proved to be such a well received idea that starting in 1963 the crossover with the Justice Society would become a yearly event under Fox and remains a key part of DC's mythology to this day. As a kid these were some of my favorite issues in my father's collection, I loved the idea of other world's parallel to our own and the introduction to other heroes that existed before the ones I was familiar with was exciting. Other writers on down the years tried to capture that same feeling(with Gerry Conway and Len Wein coming the closest) but Fox truly did it the best. Nice job of thinking outside of the box and tying books from 63-68 as one saga, thwhtguardian ! |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 1, 2017 14:32:43 GMT -5
#10 Gardener Fox's "Crisis" The Flash #123(1961, DC) Justice League of America #21-22(1963, DC) Justice League of America #29-30(1964, DC) Justice League of America #37-38(1965, DC) Justice League of America #46-47(1966, DC) Justice League of America #55-56(1967, DC) Justice League of America #64-65(1968, DC) Starting with his story in Flash #123 (The Flash of Two Worlds) Gardener Fox brought to the world of DC comics the idea of multiple worlds existing together in order to both explain previous continuities and bring those past iterations of characters to the present. It proved to be such a well received idea that starting in 1963 the crossover with the Justice Society would become a yearly event under Fox and remains a key part of DC's mythology to this day. As a kid these were some of my favorite issues in my father's collection, I loved the idea of other world's parallel to our own and the introduction to other heroes that existed before the ones I was familiar with was exciting. Other writers on down the years tried to capture that same feeling(with Gerry Conway and Len Wein coming the closest) but Fox truly did it the best. Nice job of thinking outside of the box and tying books from 63-68 as one saga, thwhtguardian ! Ha, thanks. It seemed to fit perfectly to me, same writer, same basic theme and mostly the same book...and they're some of my favorites to revisit. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 1, 2017 14:41:44 GMT -5
Oddly enough, that's one of the major Losses when they combined all the earths, the annual JLA/JSA team up.  |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 1, 2017 20:11:52 GMT -5
Oddly enough, that's one of the major Losses when they combined all the earths, the annual JLA/JSA team up. It looks like they're sort of trying to bring it back, I didn't read the issue but a recent cover for flash had Jay Garrick on the cover. I almost picked it up, simply because I love Jay's helmet. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2017 20:21:26 GMT -5
Oddly enough, that's one of the major Losses when they combined all the earths, the annual JLA/JSA team up. It looks like they're sort of trying to bring it back, I didn't read the issue but a recent cover for flash had Jay Garrick on the cover. I almost picked it up, simply because I love Jay's helmet. there was the Virtue & Vice OGN a handful of years back that was a JLA/JSA cross-over as well, and in the new post-Crisis era it was a yearly Thanksgiving dinner between the 2 teams that always led to some kind of crisis or adventure, which I though twas a nice way to honor the tradition. There was also a couple of cross-overs in the mid-2000s when both teams had their own books, but I don't remember if I read those... but it wasn't lost with the combining of worlds, it went on hiatus for a while with the decision to have the JSA be lost in another dimension perpetually fighting Ragnorak, but once they decided ot axe that idea they brought back the JSA as the elder statesman of the DCU which was played up the most in Waid's Flash run and how he used Jay Garrick, but Alan Scott was used similarly in the GL book before Geoff Johns came along and changed the nature of what the rings were, and Ted Grant kind of became the ur-trainer of all the hand-to-hand combatants in the DCU as portrayed in the Batbooks and Birds of Prey. The annual crisis wasn't lost per se, it just evolved into a different paradigm within the structure of the new DCU after a blip of poor decision making regarding the DCU in the immediate aftermath of the crisis (as depicted in the Last Days of the JSA special). -M |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 1, 2017 20:37:02 GMT -5
It looks like they're sort of trying to bring it back, I didn't read the issue but a recent cover for flash had Jay Garrick on the cover. I almost picked it up, simply because I love Jay's helmet. there was the Virtue & Vice OGN a handful of years back that was a JLA/JSA cross-over as well, and in the new post-Crisis era it was a yearly Thanksgiving dinner between the 2 teams that always led to some kind of crisis or adventure, which I though twas a nice way to honor the tradition. There was also a couple of cross-overs in the mid-2000s when both teams had their own books, but I don't remember if I read those... but it wasn't lost with the combining of worlds, it went on hiatus for a while with the decision to have the JSA be lost in another dimension perpetually fighting Ragnorak, but once they decided ot axe that idea they brought back the JSA as the elder statesman of the DCU which was played up the most in Waid's Flash run and how he used Jay Garrick, but Alan Scott was used similarly in the GL book before Geoff Johns came along and changed the nature of what the rings were, and Ted Grant kind of became the ur-trainer of all the hand-to-hand combatants in the DCU as portrayed in the Batbooks and Birds of Prey. The annual crisis wasn't lost per se, it just evolved into a different paradigm within the structure of the new DCU after a blip of poor decision making regarding the DCU in the immediate aftermath of the crisis (as depicted in the Last Days of the JSA special). -M Yeah I remember enjoying Virtue and Vice when it came out, and during Johns run on JSA I loved #54 which featured the JLA coming over for dinner but it wasn't the same. |
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Post by hondobrode on Aug 1, 2017 20:54:22 GMT -5
#10 American Way #1-8 (2006)
Written by John Ridley. Art by Georges Jeanty & Karl Story. Take superheroes, mix them into real life events in USA 1960's history. And you have this series. It is a glimpse into USA during the 1960's as a decade of changes. Another take on "what if super heroes were real"? And I thought Ridley did a great job interweaving different personalities, different viewpoints, several different subplots. The amazing thing to me as a child of the 60's it felt authentic. The Cold War. The Space Race. Civil Rights. The Kennedys. Changing social values. Jeanty & Story brought the action (as well as the talking heads sequences) to life. I like the suits & fashions of the decade. Yes there were other stories that were in the same vein as "what if superheroes were real". And there were also other stories that mixed heroes into real life events. But the reason this series gets re-read by me...is it felt authentic. And Ridley presented differing viewpoints well without preaching. His characters were nuanced & could have been easily one dimensional & stereotyped. But he avoided clichés (most of the time). He also had some twists that I did not see coming. He also made me care about these unknown characters in just 8 issues. Jeanty was a perfect choice as artist. His art is detailed without looking cluttered. His backgrounds (cars, buildings) look real. His "normal" figures look...normal. Yet his superheroes are muscular & have a slightly cartoony look. A sequel depicting America in the 1970's just started. covers to #2-8.        I have it but have never read and esp want to read it now. Thanks for the write up ! |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 1, 2017 21:04:35 GMT -5
I have it but have never read and esp want to read it now. Thanks for the write up ! Thus the true fun of this event  |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 2, 2017 12:28:48 GMT -5
The Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa  Originally presented in Uncle Scrooge 285-297, 306, 318, 332, Walt Disney Giant #1 Don Rosa's magnum opus gives us the biography of Scrooge McDuck up to his first appearance in 1947. We follow Scrooge from his childhood though his adventures world-wide to accumulate the vast fortune for which he became renowned. Along the way, we and Scrooge meet historical figures like Teddy Roosevelt, Annie Oakley, Robert Peary and more. And we get to see events that Barks alluded too in his Duck stories. We get to spend time with Glittering Goldie, Ratchett Gearloose, the founders of the Junior Woodchucks and the Duck Family. Rosa takes Barks' world and builds on it making a cohesive and comprehensive narrative. It's history, geography and adventure like we have seldom seen before.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Aug 2, 2017 12:58:41 GMT -5
JLA: The Nail by Alan Davis
Originally presented in JLA: The Nail 1-3 (1998)
What if Superman never came to be? That is the question posed by this thoughtful DC Elseworlds tale. Other heroes still come into being and function, but without the moral center Superman provides they are mistrusted and easily manipulated by men like Lex Luthor. Some of them fall into despair after suffering terrible losses, like Green Arrow. Unlike other Elseworlds which depict the world as a distopia (such as Act of God), I never felt that characters were behaving out of character. I do find it interesting that Batman dismisses all of the politics surrounding superheroes in this tale when he is very involved in other storylines, such as the Cadmus arc in the JLU cartoon, but this is also consistent with the Frank Miller 'we've always been criminals' Batman. Without Superman to inspire him as well, even Batman turns out even darker. This is what I want out of a 'what if,' an examination of what would happen if one thing were changed that builds on that one conceit.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 2, 2017 12:59:45 GMT -5
The Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa Originally presented in Uncle Scrooge 285-297, 306, 318, 332, Walt Disney Giant #1 Don Rosa's magnum opus gives us the biography of Scrooge McDuck up to his first appearance in 1947. We follow Scrooge from his childhood though his adventures world-wide to accumulate the vast fortune for which he became renowned. Along the way, we and Scrooge meet historical figures like Teddy Roosevelt, Annie Oakley, Robert Peary and more. And we get to see events that Barks alluded too in his Duck stories. We get to spend time with Glittering Goldie, Ratchett Gearloose, the founders of the Junior Woodchucks and the Duck Family. Rosa takes Barks' world and builds on it making a cohesive and comprehensive narrative. It's history, geography and adventure like we have seldom seen before. Well said! This will be appearing later in my own list. It does bother me a bit that Barks' works don't meet our criteria for a saga, but I'm glad his best disciple rightfully earns a place in his honor. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 2, 2017 14:45:47 GMT -5
I’m sure I’ve mentioned one or more of my entries before in other contexts, so I hope they don’t sound too repetitive. I’ve narrowed down this list as best as I can by listing continued or longer stories that made me want to read the next entry as quickly as I could, and which I not only still enjoy reading, but which are also, for lack of a better description, sentimental favorites. Oh, ranking them? You could ask me next week and it would probably be the same ten stories, but the ranks would be entirely different. I really just enjoyed and still enjoy them all.
10. Detective Comics 469-476 by Engelhart, Simonson and Milgrom; Rogers and Austin
 
  Not much more to be said about what is by now generally considered a classic. For a DC fan, and especially a Batman fan, slogging through the same-old same-old of the mid-70s, this run, pitting Batman against exquisitely re-imagined versions of the Penguin, the Joker, and the stunning resurrections of the long forgotten Deadshot and Hugo Strange, in addition to the despicable Rupert Thorne, was a gift from the comic book gods to be savored. And the two-part "intro," with nice art by Simonson and Milgrom (complete with a look for the evil Dr. Phosphorus that is, IYAM, much indebted to that of negative Man of the Doom Patrol) provided the first jolt to the system.)     The Rogers-Austin art gets a lot of the love, and should. Rogers’ figures were stiff and clunky in spots, but the atmosphere he and Austin created, of a you have to understand how refreshing the whole look of these issues was compared to the less than inspiring stuff that it followed. (I mean, John Calnan and Vinnie Colletta? Ernie Chan and Collettta? On Batman? How do you do that to Batman? Oh, how the mighty had been disregarded and disrespected.)  Rogers’ architectural school background was obvious. He returned Gotham to its proper place as a brooding, shadowy character for the first time since the noirish days of Sprang and Paris. And he told Engelhart’s back-to-the-basics, pulpish stories cinematically and inventively. (The end of the two-parter featuring Hugo Strange is classic storytelling, but endlessly satisfying.)  And no appreciation of those stories would be complete without as deep an appreciation for the finest, smartest woman in Batman’s life, Silver St. Cloud, who was a little bit of each, and who, I imagine left an unfillable hole in the heart of Bruce Wayne.  Like Silver, the E-R-A “era” vanished as quickly as it had appeared and every Batman story since has been doomed to be compared to that brief shining moment, when Detective Comics was nigh perfect. |
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