Bronze Age Babies: Tell Us About It...

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Tell Us About It...

Doug: We got nothin' to say today. But what's on your mind?

22 comments:

Martinex1 said...: Good morning. What is your favorite year of comics? 12 issues in a row, any era on a title that you just adore. In other words if you had a one year subscription in time, what would it be? For me, I would like Avengers 60 through 71. Not all great issues but lots of great art, starts with the wedding of Yellowjacket and Wasp and goes through the Kang, Grandmaster, intro of the Invaders battle. Going with those12 issues I miss the intro of both the Vision and Yellowjacket but nostalgia trumps all, and that last arc is a great memory for me.; September 16, 2015 at 7:34 AM
Humanbelly said...: Oh, you're gonna get a lot of Classic Run and Best Run Ever overlap here, I bet, MX1-- but giving the nostalgia factor an extra thumb on the scale does take the conversation in a different direction. A common question on the Avengers Assemble board (when it was more active) was, "Which team is YOUR team of Avengers?"-- because almost without fail, the team in place when someone first started reading the book was their sentimental favorite. Like a newly-hatched chick patterning on its mother hen. Even the much-dismissed Al Milgrom run had its own share of defenders who marked that era as their favorite, and the one against which they measured all others. Honestly, I think that's kinda cool.

So that being said, first choice will always and forever be INCREDIBLE HULK #110-121. It's when the book truly seemed to shed it's Tales to Astonish origins as the stories became grander and the never-ending soap-opera elements took on more depth and consequence after languishing in 1st gear for about a million years, and we got away from the same tear-stained final panels in just about every issue.

In the same vein, my second choice would be darned close to yours-! But I'd definitely shift earlier by three issues-- AVENGERS #57-68. I can't possibly lose issue #58-- that final panel is probably my favorite one in all comics. But OMG, what a truly fantastic run that somehow feels seamless even though it showcases the talents of three very different talented artists (J Buscema, Colan, & Barry Smith-- and, did Sal pencil #68??)

And--- Defenders #13-24. . . .buuut now I have to run. . .

HB; September 16, 2015 at 8:02 AM
dbutler16 said...: This is subject to change, daily, but off the top of my head, I'll go with Uncanny X-Men #127-138. I miss out on Day of Future Past, but I'll get the Proteus/Mutant X story, which I actually prefer. I think it gives us more insight into some of the characters.

I'm sure there's a Legion of Super-Heroes or Avengers 12 issue stretch to give this a run for its money, but I'm going with this...for now.; September 16, 2015 at 8:07 AM
Edo Bosnar said...: Yeah, putting myself in my shoes back then, like dbutler it would have to be somewhere in the Claremont/Byrne/Austin X-men run. His choice is pretty good, but I'd knock off #138 and add #126, to get a little more of the Proteus arc (but still without some of the foreshadowing in the preceding issue). However, I'm going to go with X-men #117-128, which would then include the entire Proteus saga, as well as Magnum 2-parter in Japan, the introduction of Alpha Flight and the Arcade story and some other odds and ends. This one also has some powerful nostalgic pull, because X-men #120 was the first issue of that title I pulled off of the spinner rack.; September 16, 2015 at 8:59 AM
Doug said...: It's tough to argue against FF 48-59 -- and I don't like that I can't draw in 60 with the 12-issue constraint. Think about it -- intro. of Silver Surfer and Galactus, the Black Panther, the This Man, This Monster story, and a great 4-issue Dr. Doom tale. Maybe the height of the Lee/Kirby collaboration.

I'll have to think about an Avengers arc. I think I might just begin shortly after Big John began (around #47 to end where I want to end) and run 12 issues out from there. That would not encompass the stories Martinex suggested, but it certainly bring in the Dragon Man, Goliath-becomes-Ant-Man-again/Whirlwind story, the intro. of Ultron, and #s 57-58.

Doug; September 16, 2015 at 9:00 AM
david_b said...: Clearly it's 1973/74... for me. My 'Bronze Age' starting that summer of collecting, Marvel was definitely at a high point with all my favorite books.

LOVED the classic 1966 year with Marvel Superheroes on television, Batman, FF and Galactus, but 1973 was the best for story arcs near-dear to my heart, FOOM, you name it.

12-issue story arcs..? Gosh, where to start?

- CA&F 169-180, the Englehart/Buscema 'Secret Empire' pinnacle (Yes, Cyclops indeed started a fire with his eyebeams, folks...sheesh..).

- Avengers 114-125, the Defenders Clash summer, followed by Zodiac with Mantis and Swordsman.

- Amazing Spiderman 122-133, missed out originally with 121 (finally grabbed it a few years back..), Norman's death, Luke Cage, Spidermobile, the Hammerhead/Doc Ock wedding issues..? Pure awesomeness.

- Fantastic Four 136-147, the last of Buscema/Sinnott, little Franklin getting zapped, Doom and 'Were Reed and Sue actually getting divorced..?'

- Marvel Team-Up 12-23, pure Gil Kane and Sal Buscema love, with my favorite ish #13 through the Mar-Vell and Panther team-ups, developing some minor continuing characters of their own (whoever that longshoreman was..).

- Defenders 7-19, Clint and Val join, scuffle with the Avengers, then head into Gerber-ville charting future weirdness.

- Daredevil and Black Widow 104-113, cosmic weirdness there too (thanks again Steve Gerber..), with Moondragon, Mar-Vell, Black Spectre, and Gladiator depicted slicing a guy's stomach open.

Not to mention the Steranko FOOM poster, Spidey's 'Beyond the Grave' LP, Mego Spidey and Captain America, and the first Spiderman Treasury Edition.; September 16, 2015 at 9:23 AM
Martinex1 said...: Doug, I really like your FF suggestion and hadn’t thought about the Kirby days much. Your pick is so tempting, but for the FF I skew a little later in their run. I would have to end with FF #87. That arc with the team and Crystal confronting Doom in Latveria is one of my favorites, and for me it actually beats out the Galactus arc (I know… heresy). I just think that story is the perfect Dr. Doom story, and I feel that it more than any other defines Doom’s sense of regality, twisted honor, and unbending will. The way he executes Hauptmann at the end for interfering in his plans was classic; that stuck with me for a long time. And I really liked Kirby at this particular time; his work on the village, and the castle, and the Thing throwing a hunk of rubble, and the overflowing dinner table… just perfect. And that monochromatic cover for 87 with a hint of a body and the shadow of Doom is underrated. So I would have to go 78 to 87 just for that arc. I know that is unorthodox, but at least I didn’t pick the run of Team America.; September 16, 2015 at 9:24 AM
Anonymous said...: Great topic MX1, with a heavy nostalgia factor HB AND subject to daily change a la dbutler - Captain America and the Falcon #165-176. Loved the Secret Empire storyline and the Nomad saga that folowed this run but it doesn't all fit in the 12 issue constraint. So I'll drop Nomad but still get the Cap quits story in #176 and go back to 165-167 for an entertaining Yellow Claw story which also included my intro to Nick Fury and SHIELD. Throw in the #168 Phoenix story (Power Records anyone?) and voila!

And HB - MY Avengers in a 12 issue run would have to be #124-135 which concludes with the Celestial Madonna (do I get to have GS Avengers 2-4?). The Big 3, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Mantis, Swordsman (poor guy), a little Black Panther and the return of Hawkeye. That's a pretty representative team for me.

Tom; September 16, 2015 at 9:34 AM
Anonymous said...: And david_b, yep to ALL of those.

Tom again; September 16, 2015 at 9:36 AM
Edo Bosnar said...: As usual, I'm betting most of the entries here will skew heavily in favor of Marvel, so I'll just throw in an offering (or two) from DC: New Teen Titans. 12 issues isn't enough to include the run I wanted, i.e., everything sandwiched between the initial Trigon arc and the Starfire vs. Blackfire space opera starting with #23, so it'll be either a) NTT #7-18, or NTT #11-22, with a slight preference for the latter.; September 16, 2015 at 9:51 AM
Doug said...: By the way, I'd second David B's suggestion of 1966 as a pretty great year for comics. My favorite issue of the Avengers (#28) was cover-dated May.

And I was born, so somewhat significant there, too.

Doug; September 16, 2015 at 10:31 AM
William said...: For me it would be Amazing Spider-Man #250-261. I know this because after I sold off my entire Spider-Man collection a couple of years ago, the Ron Frenz & Tom DeFalco issues were the only ones that I bought back again.

To my surprise, and through the process of elimination, I found out that 3 of my Top 5 favorite issues of Amazing Spider-Man ever were during that run.

My Top 5 being:

1 & 2. ASM #260-261
3 & 4. ASM #229-230
5. ASM #255; September 16, 2015 at 11:13 AM
Garett said...: I'm going to highlight issues 1-10 of E-Man. I just read this series for the first time, in this new tpb: E-Man: The Early Years
Fun stories by Nicolas Cuti, with action, humour, and a pinch of sexiness. Joe Staton's art is a joy-- great composition, storytelling, and colorful characters. The new tpb is newly colored, and they generally do an outstanding job--looks better to me than the original printing, or the reprints from the '80s. The stories originally came out from 1973-75, and there's an intro from Cuti.

I don't know if this is my favorite all-time run of issues, but it's my favorite now as I just read it! I tried reading a couple E-Man issues from the '80s series written by someone else, and it didn't grab me. I recommend this tpb--there's also a couple of bonus issues and another intro by John B. Cooke, editor of Comic Book Artist.; September 16, 2015 at 11:45 AM
Doug said...: Thanks, Garett! I need to run by the LCS to get some bags/boards this Friday, and was of course thinking of a tpb that I could acquire.

Doug; September 16, 2015 at 11:59 AM
dbutler16 said...: Edo's suggestion of an improvement on my X-Men run is good, too, though a nit I have with it is that it includes #123 (an Arcade story) which, while good, was actually one of the weaker stories in the Claremeont/Byrne run, IMHO.

Also, as to the best year in comics, I nominate 1977, with 1979 as a close second.

1977 gives us Claremont/Byrne X-Men, including much of the Phoenix (not Dark Phoenix) story, Bride of Ultron in the Avengers, the Thanos/Adam Warlock/Avengers story, Levitz Legion of Super-Heroes (plus the Lightnin Lad-Saturn Girl wedding in the treasury size edition), Paul Gulacy doing Master of Kung Fu, the JLA/JSA/Legion of Super-Heroes crossover, part of the Death of a Prince story in Aquaman, plus George Perez and John Byrne plus some other cool things like the existend of Treasury Size comics and the Corporation story which loosely ran through several Marvel comics in the mid to late 70's.

1979 gives us the Mutant X/Proteus story and part of the Dark Phoenix Saga, the Nights of Wundagore/YesterdayQuest story in the Avengers, Demon in a Bottle from Iron Man, the Project Pegasus story in Marvel Two-in-One, some very good JLA stories including another JLA/JSA teamup and a Secret Society of Super-Villains story, Zeck & Day in Master of Kung Fu, Amazing Spider-Man #200, the Celestials/Eternals saga in Thor, the Micronauts, more Levitz Legion of Super-Heroes, more Corporation stories in Marvel, plus the continued existence of Treasure Size comics!; September 16, 2015 at 12:05 PM
Redartz said...: Man, a wealth of great suggestions, and a great topic!
Doug- I'm currently reading that exact FF series (48-60) in the Omnibus, and it's even better than I remembered.

DButler- you make solid arguments for 1977 and 79, but I'll go with 1965 : The peak of Ditko on Spiderman, including 31-33; FF with Galactus, Riddler returns in Batman, and the Beatles on the cover of Laugh Comics (at least in Betty and Veronicas' imaginations).

Garrett- good call on E-Man; that TPB sounds like a winner.

My year's run: a sentimental choice: Amazing Spiderman 130-142. Not the best issues, not my favorites. Yet that was my start in comics, and featured three personal faves: Ock marrying Aunt May, Harry's debut as the Green Goblin, and the return of Mysterio...; September 16, 2015 at 12:48 PM
Anonymous said...: No way I could pick just one 12 issue run; I WOULD take everything--Marvel and DC--in a specific year...1982 maybe...or '85. 1977 would be nice too.

Mike Wilson; September 16, 2015 at 1:24 PM
Rip Jagger said...: I agree with Garrett about E-Man, that's the one for me.

Short of that I'd have to go with Marvel' Space-born Superhero Captain Marvel #1-10 with Marvel Super-Heroes #12 and #13 to boot where the saga started.

If I have to choose just one calendar year to get comics I'd pick 1967. Charlton's Action Heroes, Tower's Thunder Agents, Marvel booming with the FF, Spidey and more, DC trying to make it happen with Batman's success, and superheroes popping up all over the place even such joints as Dell and Harvey.

Rip Off; September 16, 2015 at 2:22 PM
david_b said...: And jeez, relooking over my listings and supporting rationales..., I failed to add that my Avengers 12-issue period (114-125) ends with non-other-than, yes you true believers guessed it, Thanos himself.

C'mon seriously, who can top that for a Bronze Age shout-out..?

Again, **all** of these happening in nearly the same 12month period.

Excelsior, Indeed.; September 16, 2015 at 2:54 PM
Edo Bosnar said...: Hmmm, so we're actually picking a calendar year, too? In that, I'll say, without a moment's hesitation, 1979 - I had been reading comics for about 4 years at that point, but I got bit by the bug really hard and finally started to follow a bunch of series month-to-month instead of the more random way I was picking them up before. As noted, I started reading X-men with issue #120, which came out that year, I read and loved all of the stuff dbutler mentioned in his second paragraph (with one correction - Levitz didn't take up the writing chores in LoSH until sometime in late 1981 or early 1982). I would add that during that year there was also some fantastic stories in Marvel Team-up (the Red Sonja issue and the amnesiac Black Widow 4-parter soon after), a fellow by the name of Frank Miller became the main artist in Daredevil, Adventure Comics was still in that excellent dollar comic phase, and some really great stories were appearing in Marvel Premiere (the Man-Wolf 2-parter, followed by the introduction of Scott Lang as Ant Man, then that fun Falcon story in #49. Heck, another good year's worth of comics is in fact the Marvel Premiere baker's dozen running from #41 through 53 (featuring Seeker 3000, Tigra, Paladin, Jack of Hearts, Man-Wolf, Ant Man, Falcon, Alice Cooper and Black Panther).

Otherwise, it's nice to see all the love for E-man. That trade sounds nice, but as I've stated before, I collected all of the original issues and had them bound (I really wanted all of those back-up stories as well).; September 16, 2015 at 3:00 PM
Anonymous said...: If we're picking year long runs of comics, you can't beat Amazing Spider-Man 22-33. Ditto greatness, climaxing in the immortal Master Planner Saga. The series petered out after that, but prime Ditko is sublime.

It may be heresy to suggest a '90s run, but JLA 4-15 is my favorite year's worth of super-hero comics. Grant Morrison and Howard Porter (with Oscar Jimenez filling in ably) put their feet on the gas and didn't let up. From the Tomorrow Woman one-off to the fight with angels to Green Arrow vs. the Key to the epic Rock of Ages, it remains my favorite run of Justice a League comics.

- Mike Loughlin; September 16, 2015 at 9:04 PM
Humanbelly said...: Y'know, I'm going to take a quick draft in Mike L's wake, there, and also nominate just about any segment of the JSA run that began in 1999. There is almost no long stretch in that run that I didn't thoroughly enjoy the vast majority of the issues. Usually the only problems came when it got tangled up with big crossover "events" which interrupted storylines and continuity. It's one of the few modern age titles that I always, always wished there was more of.

Ooh-- same with Alan Moore's Top 10 maxi-series (which I believe was 12 issues?).

HB; September 16, 2015 at 9:26 PM

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