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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 24, 2021 4:12:59 GMT -5
Is it just me, or did these twelve days just fly by? I could spend paragraphs justifying why my top pick is
1. Sawmp Thing and Abigail Arcane, Swamp Thing
but instead I'm just going to quote a single exchange of dialogue from “Rite of Spring” (Saga of Swamp Thing #34), ABBY: “You're a plant, for God's sake! Just saying it out loud, I mean, it's just so funny! How could you love me? SWAMPI: Deeply... silently... and... for too many... years. 36 years and a lifetime of experience later, that still gives me chills. Cei-U! I summon the sentimental slob... and Swampi too! |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 24, 2021 5:02:00 GMT -5
1. T’Challa (Black Panther) and Monica LynneHmm, my no. 1 couple and it's the one I have the least to say about. I just can't explain it - they're just so right together.  As with several of the other couples I included in my list (most notably Cap and Bernie or Stark and Bethany), I think T'Challa and Monica should have become an institution like Superman & Lois or Sue & Reed, but alas: it seems like every other writer who worked on Black Panther besides Don McGregor had other ideas. So probably my favorite aspect of Panther's Prey (from which the image above is taken) is that McGregor re-established the romance between T'Challa and Monica and they announced their marriage. In my head, that's the last Black Panther story (in comics, anyway) that counts.
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 24, 2021 5:03:09 GMT -5
First, thanks again to you, Cei-U! , for adding another layer of excitement to the final days of the year. As you said, these days flew by. Can't believe it's Day Twelve already.
1. Nick Fury and Pam HawleyThis romance ranks first with me not because I followed it for the paltry nine issues in which Fury and Pam first appeared together. I caught up with the Howlers via a few issues I read at a friend’s house a couple of years after they came out and from the early Fury annuals, the first of which featured “Lord Haw-Haw’s Last Laugh,” a story that I loved for the action, the allusions to history, and the various examples of irony that I should have been expecting if I were a more experienced comics reader. Anyway it turned out that the lead character is a British Fascist who broadcasts propaganda for the Nazis, but who is the brother of the woman whom Nick Fury has just met and fallen for like a tree in a tornado. She is unaware that he is a traitor. The Howlers are sent to kidnap him and take him back from Berlin, but he is killed by the Nazis trying to escape from Fury’s guys. Fury, of course, lies to Pam that her brother died heroically, fighting against the Nazis so that she will never learn the full truth about him. Turns out that Pam Hawley, the kind-hearted, gracious, classy, Red Cross worker, who might have been played by Greer Garson or Teresa Wright or Margaret Sullavan, captivates the coarse, hard-boiled, hard-bitten roughneck American sergeant, as played by John Wayne, Lee Marvin, or Robert Mitchum, and in classic fairy-tale style, eagerly plays Beast to her Beauty as the appearances pile up. Even young readers could see where this was going. But anybody who had thought that this would be just another comic book romance had not known or had forgotten about that Lord Haw-Haw story in which another rather shattering event had occurred… the death of, Junior Juniper, the youngest, most impossibly innocent soldier in the US Army and a card-carrying member of the Howlers. That just didn’t happen, even in war comics. But Lee and Kirby killed Junior dead, and now, whether you thought about it much or not, all bets were off. Maybe Fury couldn’t die, but the others? You couldn’t take their survival for granted. So when Sgt. Fury 18 came out, we were all wondering which Howler would be killed.  And the twists and turns of the plot made it seem as if many of the cast members seemed to be the one who would not make it to issue 19. Even Pam is endangered when Fury loses her during a bombing raid on London, and is frantic until he finds that she is safe. All well and good, but nothing we haven’t seen before. Except, that his time apart from Pam finally convinces Fury that his love for Pam and hers for him has transformed his outlook on life, and indeed, for the first time in that hard life, has given him reason to think that he can actually have dreams for the future, like marriage and fatherhood. The Howlers are sent on a mission, but Fury buys a ring and plans to ask Pam for her hand in marriage when they return. The story was nearly over, and yet no one had been “killed in action.” Surely a Howler was going to die on the mission. Turned out it wasn’t a Howler at all whom Fate had singled out, but the beautiful Pamela Hawley. And she didn’t throw herself on a grenade, didn’t fly a plane into a Nazi tank, didn’t take a bullet meant for Nick Fury. No, like many of those who perished in Britain during World War Two, Pam Hawley, the light and hope of Nick Fury’s life, was killed when a German bomb hit a hospital where she was doing her best to aid the wounded and the dying. No rush to glory, no single act of valor, no heroic fist shaking at an enemy. Just the kind of courageous death so many others suffered as they were doing their part, the kind you don’t usually see in war comics. Her last words, her father tells Fury, were these simple words of inspiration: “Tell my wonderful American sergeant how much I love him.”
There would be no resurrection of Pam Hawley, no twin sister, no amnesia, no misidentification, no ret-con, no revision, no “You can’t be standing there… You’re dead!!” cover. Is Pam Hawley the only Silver Age fatality who has never returned from the dead? If she isn’t, she's certainly the most significant character to die back then who has yet to return. Pam's death was a body blow to Fury, and to the readers. Now we really knew that (almost) anything could happen in Sgt. Fury’s war comic, just as it could in a real war. The permanence of Pam’s death meant that Fury would forever be marked by that loss. AFAIK, he has never married (if he has, it ain’t the same Fury), and probably never been in the same kind of love affair that he was with Pam. Like the deaths of the Waynes, the Els and the Kents, Pam’s death can’t be expunged. Those characters’ deaths are crucial to the development of those who loved them, were scarred by their deaths and survive and overcame them. That realism is what makes the star-crossed love between Fury and Pam my first choice. |
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Post by shaxper on Dec 24, 2021 6:04:37 GMT -5
Kurt, every year, this is such a highlight of the season for me. And this particular assignment was both so challenging and so rewarding. Thank you, as always, and Merry Christmas, Sir. 1. (Post Crisis) Clark Kent and Lois Laneas written by Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, and Dan Jurgens I guess each of us can make the claim that we grew up in interesting times. In my case, having been a boy in the 1980s and hitting adolescence nearly at the stroke of 1990, relationships were utterly bewildering to me. Every television show and commercial I'd been raised on had been fraught with helpless damsels who grew up to be stay-at-home moms. They could be clever, they could put men in their place, but it was only the exceptionally weird ones who remained independent beyond age thirty, and even then those Angelas were just in need of a Tony Danza to help show them that what they really needed was a man. But just as I was starting to care about girls, society's rules seemed to be changing for them, almost overnight. Suddenly, they could have careers equal to any man's, they didn't need to get married, and they could damn well save themselves. So then what the hell did they need a man for? Enter the Post-Crisis Superman, my first soap opera, at the center of which was the loving post-feminist couple of Clark and Lois: true equals who ate breakfast on the go while discussing anniversary plans for their parents and which one of them was going to follow that big lead and likely get the cover story. They were respectful of, and sincere fans of one another, even while one of them was frickin' SUPERMAN. He could save the world and then fly home to comfort Lois, sincerely wanting to listen to her problems instead of demanding a home-cooked meal:  and yet, while so many shows and movies of the early 1990s that were trying to navigate gender equality felt the need to proclaim "girl power" and present women as better, smarter, and sassier than the men with whom they shared relationships, there was a sincere and equal back and forth to this relationship. Lois--fierce, independent, award-winning reporter Lois Lane--would just as quickly drop everything to care for Clark. She was no doormat, no second-stringer to Superman, but she had absolutely no ego about putting his needs first when appropriate too. She was an empowered woman who didn't scare me. Instead, she was a comfort and an inspiration amidst all this confusion about changing gender roles and expectations. She seemed to promise that if you gave a woman respect and love, what you'd get back was respect and love. Three decades later, couples are still struggling to find this ideal balance that Ordway, Stern, and Jurgens seemed to write so effortlessly. If you were there, you couldn't help but feel it. And, if you weren't, then I can understand why the later Death of Superman felt only like the cheap stunt that it was, with no meaning nor resonance attached to it. For me, having been there in awe of this perfect couple, this final page can't help but induce profound pathos literally every time I see it (including now):  You knew he was coming back. We all knew he was coming back. But watching this moment, Lois comforting him and being his rock one last time, it was devastating. No one told her that this was only a stunt, after all, and I was more concerned for what would happen to her than for what a world without a Superman would look like. |
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Post by coke & comics on Dec 24, 2021 6:13:58 GMT -5
Thanks,Kurt! Another great year that I agree went too fast. 1. Usagi & Tomoe
Miyamoto Usagi & Tomoe Ame from Albedo #3 by Stan Sakai Thoughts & Images, 1985  While there were parts of this list I agonized over, it took mere seconds to settle on what my #1 choice was. Especially once clarified that the unconsummated flirtations were allowed. Stan has been... unhurried in his telling of Usagi's tale over 37 years. Usagi and Jotaro have not yet confronted the truth of their relationship. Usagi is no closer to defeating the Dark Lord Hikiji. And Usagi and Tomoe's relationship hasn't advanced much beyond the longing glances they exchanged when they first met. As shaxper put it when asking about the rules, the relationships-to-be that you are rooting for can be the ones that mean the most. The centerpiece of their relationship is the best issue of the series, and one of the best issues of any comic series ever. They go through the formal motions of a traditional tea ceremony, saying what is expected, doing what is expected. Keeping to the allowed paths, not taking the paths that have been marked as closed.  Years of tension come silently to a head in a comic entirely about what isn't said. What isn't done. A moment of serenity and what might have been, before reality intrudes. Longing glances. That's all we get. Well, except perhaps for whatever happened that time on the mountain. We're too polite to inquire. |
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Post by foxley on Dec 24, 2021 6:19:26 GMT -5
1. Jennifer Mays and Gabe Webb (The Maze Agency) My #1 pick will not come as a surprise to many here, but I think this is the first year someone else has nominated The Maze Agency on their list. So why are they my number one couple? Their relationship is enjoyable to read, sweet without being sickening, and--above all else--believable. Let me try to summarize a few points about their romance that make them stand out. Maturity: Jen and Gabe are both in their 30s (in fact, Gabe is surprised when he learns Jen is actually older than he is). These are not starry-eyed kids in the throes of first love. They come into this relationship with both baggage and their eyes wide open. Slow burn: At the start of the series, they are not officially a couple, although Gabe has made it clear he would like to be. Jen is coming out of a bad relationship that we never learn the details of, and is scared of being burned again. So when she finally does commit to Gabe in #7 and they consummate their relationship, it feels like it means something. Quirkiness: They displays quirks that are relatable to anyone who has ever been in a long-term relationship, such as Gabe pretending he owns a tuxedo so Jen doesn't think him unsophisticated, or Jen agonizing over what to get someone as idiosyncratic as Gabe for a birthday present. And Gabe is uncomfortable that Jen earns more than he does, but also refuses to take a job with her because he doesn't want to mix the professional and the personal. Respect: Jen and Gabe respect as well as love each other. Each acknowledges the other's strengths. Jen knows that Gabe is smarter than she is, and Gabe knows that he is not the action one in the pair. And because of this respect, there is a lack of pettiness. You will never, for example, find Jen whining that Gabe is too busy solving a silly murder to notice her new hairdo (even in the story when Jen does a get a haircut and then solves a murder that occurs in the salon while she is there). Normality: Jen and Gabe do things that real couples do. One of their dates has them snuggled up on the couch watching Casablanca on video. And damned if it is not one of the most romantic scenes I've ever seen in a comic. Unobtrusive: Perhaps one of the most important factors in this relationship is that it never overshadows the mysteries which were the primary focus of the book. As readers we were witness to many milestones in Jen and Gabe's relationship: the consummation, the first time Jen stayed the night in Gabe's apartment, Gabe moving into Jen's brownstone, Gabe meeting Jen's parents, etc. And while each of these events showed us more about the couple, in all of them, they were the background to that issue's mystery. 
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2021 6:51:48 GMT -5
#1 - Superman and Lana Lang I’ve made no secret of my disdain for Earth-1 Lois Lane, who just seems to be about what she can get from Superman. It did always seem to be about what Superman could do for her, or what suited her at the time. But Lana Lang loved Kal-El for who he is. I typed Kal-El because that’s the true person after all, Superman is the superhero, Clark Kent is often the disguise, Kal-El, obviously raised as Clark Kent in America, is the true person. And Lana Lang loves him for who he is, not what he can do for her, not for what scoop he can get her. Comics aside, SUPERMAN III’s picnic scene showed a potential love, and I think it’s a shame we didn’t get to see Lana again, not even in the much-maligned fourth Superman movie (I also like that Lacy Warfield liked Clark for who he is). To me, that’s love. I dated someone who later revealed to me, after ending it, that she wanted to make her ex jealous. So I was just a “device” to do that. Even her best friend was disgusted with her for doing that to me. That’s some people, though. They love you, or pretend to love you, for what you can do with them. Other extreme examples in the real world include people who probably marry someone for their money, career opportunities, etc. So shallow. Give me true love any time. I think Lana Lang has showed that. Clark should have reciprocated. In my canon (well, my preferred canon), Superman and Lana find true happiness while Lois can keep on dating men who can serve her desire to win a Pulitzer Prize.
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 24, 2021 7:19:34 GMT -5
1. Johnny Storm and Crystal
They are Romeo and Juliet, A couple that met each other in the ruins of a bombed out tenement in New York. It led to the introduction of the Inhumans and a love story that somehow you knew would never last. She joined the Fantastic four with Issue #81 and was written out in #105 and pretty much written out of Johnny’s life as well. I enjoyed it while it lasted and will admit to having a crush on Crystal myself. I will never know why she was taken out of the series but she would have other interactions with Johnny , notably when she was discovered having an affair with Quicksilver and when she rejoined the FF in the Engelhart run. As the years progressed , she was written as a home wrecker and never had the charm and innocence that she exhibited in the beginning. Such, a shame. The sweet way he first saw her  The painful separation  {She joins the FF and a good member, too}   {The beginning of the end} 
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Post by majestic on Dec 24, 2021 7:28:40 GMT -5
#1. Clark and Lois. Pre Crisis Lois? NO WAY! But Post Crisis DC made Lois Lane one of their best characters and she became worthy of being Superman's girlfriend and wife. Plus I loved the Dean Cain/Terri Hatcher Lois & Clark TV show. It lead to their marriage in the comic books which survives until today. And now they actually have a son! Superman & Lois the new CW TV show takes this even further with them raising two sons and I love seeing Superman & Lois as parents. This move made the characters even better IMO.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2021 8:20:05 GMT -5
#1 - Ben and Alicia'Nuff said. 
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Post by DubipR on Dec 24, 2021 9:07:26 GMT -5
Thank you Kurt, as always for making the Classic Comics Christmas one of the most exciting events of the year. Today's Song: "Unchained Melody"- The Righteous Brothers #1- Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson I love Peter and MJ together. Yeah, it's a mainstream and obvious pick but what's not to love about them. What started out as a running joke of the series, as Aunt May repeatedly attempted to set him up on a date with her. Peter consistently wormed his way out of meeting Mary Jane who, aside from a brief appearance in issue 25 with her face obscured, is never actually seen until issue 42. And what an iconic debut. From there, a thunderbolt hit Peter and the two of them have never been the same. The write-ups here on the boards and almost 35 years of comic book marriage and over 50 years together is proof that they're just perfect for each other.  |
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 24, 2021 9:58:43 GMT -5
1. Phantom Stranger and Cassandra CraftAs seen in PHANTOM STRANGER #17, 22,23,24 by Len Wein and Jim Aparo  My top choice is a love that didn’t last, that couldn’t last, but that brought so much to (again) one of my favorite characters. Maintaining the right balance between his nature as a man of mystery and as an engaging character was the biggest challenge in making the Phantom Stranger a series worth following, and no one did it better than Wein and Aparo (arguably, no one else did it at all). The idea of giving this cipher of a superhero a love affair was a bold one, and Wein played it safe by having the Stranger part from this blind, blonde psychic in pink at the end of the first story: “The path I travel is a winding one—with no beginning remembered and no end in sight—and I am cursed to travel it—alone!” That comment alone summarizes everything the reader could have inferred thus far in the series, but now we knew that he did indeed was subject to human passions and needs. Judging from the letters page a couple of issues later, Cassandra was a hit with the readership and Wein and Aparo brought here back for a trio of issues shortly thereafter. Those issues are the high point of the series, starting with a tease of stability and permanence—the Stranger concludes issue 22 hand-in-hand with Miss Craft, saying “Until this sickness is wiped from the face of the Earth, you will stay by my side—and we shall face the Dark Circle----together!” The next issue, the Stranger is Cassandra’s “darling”, as they travel by jet to Paris (globe-trotting was always prominent in Wein and Aparo’s run, and the Stranger was no stranger to conventional travel now and then!). His nemesis Tannarak returns (who made my list of favorite villain designs a few years back in this celebration) and the issue end with all three characters teaming to combat the Dark Circle! A heel-face turn and a romance—bringing this feature to life in ways it never had been before! But with the next issue, the end came. The Stranger’s path could not long sustain the permanence of an Earthly human relationship, and with the defeat of the Dark Circle and the heroic sacrifice of Tannarak, the Stranger allowed himself to be presumed dead, with Cassandra’s tears a small price to pay for her freedom from the Stranger’s eternally-persisting mission. Just two issues later, Wein and Aparo would wrap up everything in what was to be the final issue of the series, saved at the last minute from the ax, but never to recover the heights it had achieved thanks in large part to this short but vital romance. Sometimes a short-lived but powerful love story has an impact that a long-term one doesn't, and this one leapt to my mind on reading the initial announcement for this year's topic, so, without too much effort at justification, I rank it as my favorite. Cassandra would reappear, she'd be reinvented (as would the Stranger) in the New 52, but these four issues are the definitive and only necessary parts to the tale of love between the two. Re-reading this saga in preparation for this entry may be my favorite Classic Comics reading of 2021, as this celebration has, as usual, been my favorite Classic Comics posting of the year. This community has been a treasured part of my life in these crazy times; I've loved taking a bigger part in the forum once again, I've loved getting to know so many of you face-to-face with the wonderful Zoom meetings, and I've learned so much more about this 50-year hobby of mine from all of your individual contributions. At the conclusion of a celebration of love on the comics panels, please allow me to express a sincere expression of love to you all! Please do everything possible to survive and thrive in 2022 so we're all here for another round 12 months from now! Best wishes to all for a satisfying holiday season!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2021 10:06:29 GMT -5
On the twelfth day of Christmas, True Love gave to me Francine Helena Peters-Silver and Katina "Katchoo" Choovanski (Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore)   What a long strange trip it's been. Starting as friends in high school, the two deeply loved each other nearly from the beginning, but struggles with identity, self-image, sexuality, expectations, other relationships, poor life choices and the baggage from those choices, and other things kept these two from admitting their feelings for each other while maintaining a beautiful but turbulent friendship, and then form committing to each other once they do admit their feelings. But they get there finally, and when they do it is everything we the readers hoped it would be. Their journey was filled with trials and tribulations, excitement and danger, it was heartbreaking and gut-wrenching at times, heartwarming and inspiring at others. IF you took the journey with them, you laughed with them, laughed at them, cried with them, cried for them, rooted for them, feared for them and cheered for them. It was simply an amazing journey following their journey, a journey I long resisted because of my own biases much like I did with Bone), but when I did partake of it, it became one of my favorite comic experiences, and Francine and Katchoo became my favorite couple in comics. -M |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 24, 2021 10:08:33 GMT -5
Yes, thank you Kurt for another fun-filled Twelfth Day of Classic Christmas event! Since we're just on the eve of 2022, I hope these two lovebirds will qualify... #1: Marko and Alana It's the most recent love story of the lot, so perhaps it's still fresh and closer to my heart, but by gawd how I liked the story of these two star-crossed lovers. (I also tremendously liked the burgeoning story between Marko's mom and that one-eyed writer, who might have been the grandfather of my avatar, for that matter! Brian K. Vaughan really knows how to write a love story). Two young people whose people hate each other and have been at war for centuries fall for each other in a very unlikely fashion. And although the last thing Alana wants is for their newborn baby to be seen as symbol of unity ( she's a baby, not a symbol!) that's exactly what the parents' respective governments see her as. As a result, the little family is the target for two huge war machines devoid of scruples. But through it all, and through the problems that any stressed family endures, their love manages to survive and thrive. As with Jean Grey saying her husband was her best friend, Alana at some point voices another thing that should be true in any couple; when she explains why she loves her spouse.  That's such a loving and beautiful statement. It chokes me up every time I read it. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2021 10:10:39 GMT -5
Yes, thank you Kurt for another fun-filled Twelfth Day of Classic Christmas event! Since we're just on the eve of 2022, I hope these two lovebirds will qualify... #1: Marko and AlanaIt's the most recent love story of the lot, so perhaps it's still fresh and closer to my heart, but by gawd how I liked the story of these two star-crossed lovers. (I also tremendously liked the burgeoning story between Marko's mom and that one-eyed writer, who might have been the grandfather of my avatar, for that matter! Brian K. Vaughan really knows how to write a love story). Two young people whose people hate each other and have been at war for centuries fall for each other in a very unlikely fashion. And although the last thing Alana wants is for their newborn baby to be seen as symbol of unity ( she's a baby, not a symbol!) that's exactly what the parents' respective governments see her as. As a result, the little family is the target for two huge war machines devoid of scruples. But through it all, and through the problems that any stressed family endures, their love manages to survive and thrive. As with Jean Grey saying her husband was her best friend, Alana at some point voices another thing that should be true in any couple; when she explains why she loves her spouse. That's such a loving and beautiful statement. It chokes me up every time I read it. I will say, this couple would have been top 3 for me, but I didn't include them as Saga started in 2012, but I fully support seeing them on the list. -M |
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