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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 16, 2022 11:21:31 GMT -5
9. Brotherhood of Evilfirst appearance: (in this incarnation): New Teen Titans #14 line-up: Brain, Monsieur Mallah, Phobia, Houngan, Warp and Plasmus  I know there was a ‘classic’ Brotherhood that often fought the Doom Patrol (and I later read some of those stories), but this is ‘my’ Brotherhood. They appeared when the creative team on New Teen Titans (Wolfman, Perez, Tanghal, et al.) was – in my opinion – firing on all cylinders. Again, this goes back to me being fascinated and delighted by a bunch of costumed characters I’d never seen before, and I also liked the legacy aspect, i.e., that there was a previous team with the same name, with a few holdovers from that team in the new line-up. And the fact that one of those holdovers was not only a talking gorilla, but a gun-toting talking gorilla who spoke with a French accent, just made them all that much cooler to me.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 16, 2022 12:57:49 GMT -5
Coming in on day Four with... #9 - The Enforcers (Marvel Comics)  My sense (and I could be wrong) is that a lot of people don't like The Enforcers. But I do. I bought the above issue off the newsstands. But I'd also read their earliest appearances in Amazing Spider-Man in the paperback reprints of those stories. Maybe it's because they feel just a little pulpy and throwback. The faux cowboy, the tough street-smart small guy, and the hulking brute fighter. These guys could have walked out of a bad pulp novel in the 30s...and for me that's a good thing. So I'll be the first guy on the block to throw the love their way.  |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 16, 2022 14:13:39 GMT -5
On the fourth day I'm going to go with... The Gotham City Sirens...And Edward Nigma Okay, so this team up operated more as anti-heroes than straight up villains but it was comprised of some of my favorite Batman villains: Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and in a reoccurring supporting guest role the Riddler. They often ended up doing heroic things it's true...but they did them mostly out of self interest and several times in exchange for a tidy profit so I think they still count on top of that the book by Paul Dini had great characterization and the capers were all short and sweet with great pacing and action. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2022 15:21:12 GMT -5
My sense (and I could be wrong) is that a lot of people don't like The Enforcers. But I do. I bought the above issue off the newsstands. But I'd also read their earliest appearances in Amazing Spider-Man in the paperback reprints of those stories. Maybe it's because they feel just a little pulpy and throwback. The faux cowboy, the tough street-smart small guy, and the hulking brute fighter. These guys could have walked out of a bad pulp novel in the 30s...and for me that's a good thing. So I'll be the first guy on the block to throw the love their way. I like the Enforcers a lot, in fact I was seriously debating posting them today so happy to see this. I do like my costumed villains plenty as well, but I remember first seeing them in a reprint of their first appearance (ASM #10) in the late 70's Pocket Books reprints. It was that pulpy/throwback quality you mentioned that made them stand out to me. Anyone can dream up a costumed super-powered bad guy...but this is the offbeat stuff I tend to really love. It's not "Zap Man", but rather say "Fancy Dan"...THAT takes some special creativity! I'm not sure if I'll end up posting them later as well (I'd love to say I have a plan, but truthfully I'm winging it each day here), but again really glad to see them get a shout out. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 16, 2022 16:21:00 GMT -5
9. Terrible Trio“At the Count of Three – Draw”*   I’ve read but two stories of the Terrible Trio, the two stories that comprise their canon. (Pre-Crisis for the nitpickers.) I’d never heard of them, being but a kit, a pup, a chick when I first encountered the Fox, the Shark and the Vulture in the pages of Eighty-Page Giant 5 in 1964. But the fact that their story from Detective 321 was featured in the Batman Silver Anniversary issue made me realize just how significant these characters must have been to the mythos of the Caped Crusader. How lucky I was to read their debut the next year( Detective 253) in the pages of Batman 176, an annual! That the abbreviated two-chapter saga of the Terrible Trio had been reprinted in reverse order hardly mattered. I don’t think either story disappointed. Each of them had all the prerequisites for late 50s Batman: garish villains who didn’t make the cut over at the Dick Tracy strip hitting Gotham on the rebound; masks that obscured all sense of vision and balance; inescapable deathtraps that fell to Batman's skill and wiles; a guest appearance by Batwoman, aka Deus Ex Machinette; gigantic crime machines that made you wonder why guys rich enough to afford them needed to smuggle stuff to survive; a schematic of their lighthouse HQ (no bathroom); crimes “themed” to the villains’ characteristics, or less gently, to their idiosyncrasies, or even less gently, to their psychoses. All I knew was that I had a ball reading them. Now, not so much. Or at least not in the way they were back when I was a kid reveling in the joys of comics. Still, I'll take these over a pile of 90s comics any day. *Two-Gun Kid 50
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,199 
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Post by Confessor on Dec 16, 2022 17:14:18 GMT -5
My sense (and I could be wrong) is that a lot of people don't like The Enforcers. Well, I like 'em. They were on my original list, but they didn't quite make the Top 12. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2022 17:14:52 GMT -5
Spoiler: they are on my list. So that makes three of us.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2022 17:28:48 GMT -5
My sense (and I could be wrong) is that a lot of people don't like The Enforcers. Well, I like 'em. They were on my original list, but they didn't quite make the Top 12. They got a nod from me as part of the Crime Master Big Man team up from MTU, and I thought about including them, but that was my props to them for this contest. -M |
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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Dec 16, 2022 18:22:40 GMT -5
#9Thanos and MangogThor( 1998) 19-25 , Annual 2000Marvel Comics ( 1999)Writer: Dan JurgensArtist: Romita JR/ Jose LadronnInkers: Klaus Jansen/Dick GiordanoThis might be my guilty pleasure of the 12 entries this year. I finally read this for this Classic Christmas and , in concept , really liked the team up. I will admit to finding the story to be just okay but the art was big and action packed in the Kirby style. That’s the saving grace of this run, that Romita JR really knows how to convey power even utilizing many double page splashes throughout the 7 issues he drew. The Annual had amazing art by Jose Ladronn in a related 12 page story. A few points about the book:
Thanos tries to gather artifacts of power. This isn’t original for the character as , in his past, he had gathered the cosmic cube and the infinity Gems. It feels like they are going to the well one more time. Thanos has a flat personality and is nothing like the classic Starlin stories. Mangog joins him as an ally but is essentially the muscle and comes off as a lackey in spots. Thanos takes on the role of a spectator while Mangog does all the violence. This is too much like the boring Darkseid style of appearance where he stands around with his hands behind his back while everyone does his bidding and I didn’t like it. Romita JR draws amazing action but he depicts Mangog in various sizes. I only `ever saw him as a giant in the other stories that he has been in. Maybe he is taking artistic license in order to make Thor his equal in some of the panels but it’s jarring in some spots. Mate that is just...damn Its weird, I can see Kirby and Windsor-Smith in those shots. If I had remembered this book I would have used it too, I did a quick look through my Thor stuff(JMS to current)but nothing applicable jumped out at me. |
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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Dec 16, 2022 18:38:18 GMT -5
9. Zodiac  Just look, how could you not like a team like this. Losers schmoosers, thats some bigtime Avengers tush kickin, eyebrow-raising, peoples elbow-dropping badassness right there, and they smell what the Rock is cookin. |
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Post by Myke Gee on Dec 16, 2022 18:53:25 GMT -5
9. THE ROGUES The Rogues are a team made up of enemies to the Flash. They individually struggle against the Flash, but are able to defeat him by working together. Despite their status as super-villains, they operate with a strict code of honor enforced by their leader Captain Cold. The original group included Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Mirror Master, Captain Boomerang, Pied Piper, and The Top. There have been several line-ups since then under a variety of leaders. Current Members: Girder, Golden Glider, Heat Wave, Mirror Master, Rainbow Raider, The Top, Weather Wizard. Former Members: Captain Boomerang, Doctor Alchemy, Godspeed, Pied Piper, Tar Pit, Trickster, Turbine. Creators: John Broome and Carmine Infantino. First Appearance: THE FLASH #155 (1965).
**** The Rogues make my list because they go back to my earliest days as a fan of superheroes and comics. My fascination began with the Filmation cartoons of the 60s which were in syndication in the early 70s. In Washington, DC, they showed them as "Batman/Superman/Aquaman" and they would occasionally show other heroes. My two favorites were Green Lantern and the Flash. I remember reading some old Flash comics and there was a feature on his Rogues gallery. They were the coolest thing to my 7 or 8 year old eyes, lol!! As an adult, they seem kind of corny now, but I've still got a lot of nostalgic love for them. |
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Post by Rob Allen on Dec 16, 2022 20:54:28 GMT -5
9. Mad Thinker & Puppet MasterTwo FF foes team up and still can't take down the heroes. Even when they go after just half of the FF. They're brilliant and talented, but they're egotistical losers who always end up arguing about which one is responsible for their latest defeat. Classic Marvel Silver Age fun.  
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Post by Jeddak on Dec 16, 2022 21:14:44 GMT -5
9. The Fatal Five  Not for the first time, and I'm guessing not for the last. I loved the Legion of Super-heroes, but it always felt more like a science fiction series than just super-folk. Space Moby Dicks, space prisons; even enemies like Universo and the Time Trapper didn't feel like your usual costumed bad guys. But the Fatal Five were more like your standard super-villains, right down to the team name. In this series, that made them stand out for me somewhat. It helped that they were a good mix of brain, brawn and cool powers. I was always glad to see this bunch turn up for a fight. (It didn't hurt that they had a super-villainess in a green outfit. At least not for me.) And what a cool reveal we got about Validus some years down the road. Mental lightning? How did we not see that coming? I'm talking about the original team here. Tharok, Mano, Validus, the Persuader and the Emerald Empress. Since the Legion has suffered from reboots and retcons more than the rest of the DCU, which is saying something, there have been other versions, but I'm not familiar with them. Hell, I heard there was one time they put the Empress into a black costume. What the hell were they thinking? |
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 16, 2022 22:19:00 GMT -5
9. The Un-Men SWAMP THING was the first DC series I got in on from issue 1, and I loved it. Issue 2 brought forth the unforgettable Un-Men. I've seen a zillion horror stories about mad scientists and their "unspeakably obscene" creations, but I don't think anyone ever rendered that description as accurately as Berni Wrightson--these lab-grown abominations were truly freaky, disturbing, unsettling things, and I was mesmerized by this army of distortions, each a drastically different variation on a mix-and-match human form. And decades later, someone else recognized this concept as one worth building an entire series on, with a 13-issue run at Vertigo:  Here, a core group of the originals were given distinctive personas, distinguishing them from the horde-like bunch that probably would have skirted the constraints of this year's contest. Monsters were what drew me into comics, and I don't think any other comics monsters ever satisfied my appetite for the horrific quite like these creepy creatures did. Once you see a head-on-a-hand, you never forget it!
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 16, 2022 22:29:48 GMT -5
Oh, God, the Un-men! You are so right about how disturbing those poor bastards were, MWGallaher . Wrightson outdid even Ingalls and the rest of the EC crew with this crew. Ironic that Swamp Thing was the first series you got into from the get-go and it grabbed you immediately. For me it was my first year of college and it was one of the series that restored my faith that comics could still grab you. That Wein-Wrightson run, with its excursions into the horror film of the month, the team-up with Batman and those Lovecraftian stories, man. Too good to last, of course, but still hold up when you revisit them. Nice choice. PS: Didn't have them on my list, but just realized that their unofficial ancestors will pop up closer to Christmas. |
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