While Karen and Doug are on vacation in January, our readers have been entrusted with carrying on the daily conversations. Today's Discuss is a do-it-yourselfer. As we've done in the past, the first commenter gets to pick today's topic of conversation.
Generally speaking, the Discuss category is for narrow topics. For example, in the past we've started conversations on topics such as the Sub-Mariner, Animal House, and the Captain America television movies.
Thanks for holding it down for us!
I was thinking of some of my favorite comic stories over the years and I realized that a lot of them are 2-parters. So, my topic for today is discuss your favorite 2-part comic stories.
ReplyDeleteFor example Iron Fist 11 and 12 where he battles the Wrecking Crew with the aid of Captain America.
Amazing Spider-Man 229 and 230 where he fights Juggernaut.
Lots to choose from today, William.
ReplyDeleteOff the top of my head --
Avengers 19-20 (my entry point to the team, via reprints)
Fantastic Four #'s 164-165 (Crusader), and #'s 166-167 (first Thing/Hulk I can recall reading)
Amazing Spider-Man #'s 121-122 (natch)
X-Men #'s 107-108 (Shi'ar story)
I'm sure I'll come up with more later.
Doug
When you really start to think about it, there have been more great two-part stories than just about anything. It must be the perfect format for a good comic story I guess.
ReplyDeleteHere are some of my personal favorites off the top of my head.
Avengers 161-162 "The Bride of Ultron"
Avengers 183-184 (versus the Absorbing Man)
Avengers 190-191 (versus the Grey Gargoyle)
Amazing Spider-Man 231-232 (versus Cobra and Mr. Hyde)
Amazing Spider-Man 238-239 (first Hobgoblin)
Amazing Spider-Man 260-261 (versus Hobgoblin again)
FF 25-26 (first major Thing vs. Hulk battle)
FF 249-250 (versus Gladiator)
Marvel Premiere 47-48 (first Scott Lang Ant-Man - a personal favorite)
Captain America 253-254 (versus Baron Blood - to the death)
And just about every issue of Marvel Team-Up by Claremont and Byrne were two-parters as well.
I always think of Bride of Ultron as a 4-parter, even though it took almost a year to "complete".
ReplyDeleteOf course, there was never any fall-out from that storyline in regard to Hank's mental state. Avengers #164 hit (after the Champions interlude in #163) and ol' Hank was just peachy.
Speaking of the Champs, I liked the 2-parter in Peter Parker with the Angel and Iceman fighting Rampage.
Doug
Hmm, great topic. Casually thinking here..:
ReplyDeleteFF 138-139, just because 138 was my first FF comic and it was so wonderfully written with depth and remembrance/ponderance of earlier times, with return of the Miracle Man. Reed's sorrow about Sue's departure really resonated.
MTU 16-17 with the Mar-Vell and Mr. Fantastic issues, for just neat fun.
MTU 19-20, a great, pleasing treat with Kazar and Black Panther against Stegron..
MTU 59-60, great Byrne art, excellent Pym story.
Of course, ASM 121-122 as well as some nice later 'done-in-two's such as 127-128 (Vulture) and 130-131 (May gets married, featuring Doc Ock and Hammerhead AND the Spidermobile..)
I'd also add Avengers 129 and GS 2, great Kang story, with the regretable loss of Swordy at the end.
I know I'm forgetting a bunch, but these immediately came to mind.
Hmm.
ReplyDeleteIncredible Hulk #109-110. Set in the Savage Land w/ KaZar, the plot is kind of a hectic mass of captures and escapes w/ the end of the world (no kidding!) looming, and a monolithic guardian- Umbu the Unliving- wrecking general havoc. But it tears right along, and the Herb Trimpe/John Severin artwork on these issues has always struck me as an overlooked masterwork that elevates the story considerably. Plus Bruce Banner dies at the end. No kiddin'.
HB
Nice question.
ReplyDeleteAvengers #54 and #55, the Masters of Evil two-parter that introduced Ultron-5 and featured the Black Knight.
Judomaster #93 and 94 that introduced JM's partner Tiger, and in which they battled Mountain Storm.
Justice League of America #107 and #108 which introduced the Fawcett heroes of Earth-X.
Sub-Mariner #34 and #35 which introduced the "Titans Three" which in turn evolved into the Defenders.
And finally...
Hulk #140 and Avengers#88 which featured the crossover between the books in which they faced the menace of Psyclop and paid homage to the works of Harlan Ellison who plotted both stories.
Rip Off
Great topic! And everyone here mentioned some great examples, including quite a few I would have picked myself, so I'll just add a few more I thought of:
ReplyDeleteEven though it feels kind of odd breaking up any part of the Claremont/Byrne X-men run due to the many subplots going on, there's #s 118-119 (vs. Moses Magnum), #s 120-121 (introducing Alpha Flight), and #s 123-124 (vs. Arcade).
Similarly, I don't like breaking down the awesome Stern/Byrne run on Captain America, but that Baron Blood story in #s 253-254 is quite awesome.
A few more:
Man-Thing #s 9-10 - the wonderfully touching Dawg story.
DC Comics Presents #s 1-2, featuring Superman and the Flash.
JLA #s 192-193 - the Red Tornado origin story.
New Teen Titans #s 11-12 (vs. Hyperion and then the rest of the mythological Titans), #s 21-22 (vs. Brother Blood) and the preachy but still solid #s 26-27 (the runaways story).
And a few that feature awesome conclusions in double-size issues:
Fantastic Four #s 249-250 - the Gladiator/Skrulls story.
Power Man & Iron Fist #s 74-75, wherein they travel to K'un-Lun.
Iron Man #149-150, the excellent Dr. Doom/Camelot story so recently reviewed here.
Several of my favourites have been mentioned, but I can throw in stuff like X-Men 141&142 (Days of Future Past), Spectacular Spidey 69&70 (with Cloak and Dagger), and Amazing 244&245 (one of the early Hobgoblin stories that William didn't mention).
ReplyDeleteAlso, lots of the JLA/JSA x-overs were cool.
Mike W.
Yes FF #25-26 sticks out in my mind - I bought a Hulk trade paperback some years ago and these two issues were included. These were notable not only because of the historic clash between the Thing and the Hulk but also the 2nd part had the Avengers as well.
ReplyDeleteEven in this early stage of Marvel's development it's noteworthy that the Hulk was already being drawn as much bigger and more powerful than the Thing.
It's funny in a way too because Stan had the FF and Avengers getting in each other's way when they tried to apprehend the Hulk. This plot device seemed to become standard fare in the early Marvel stories.
- Mike 'are the Hobbit movies really 3 parts?' from Trinidad & Tobago.
Edo, great mention of NTT and Brother Blood. I was tryin' to include a DC two-parter but forgot the BB story.
ReplyDeleteExcellent tale.
Wow! A lot of really awesome stuff mentioned. I almost forgot how many great Byrne/Claremont Uncanny X-Men 2-parters there were. Thanks Edo. I also love all the personal favorites you guys came up with.
ReplyDeleteWhich reminds me that I almost left out one of my favorite comic stories of all time, which is Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2, featuring the Avengers, The Thing and Spider-Man in final battle with Thanos. I loved those comics so much as a kid that I had to replace them when I got older because they were trashed from being read and reread so many times.
I knew after I posted that I would remember some obvious ones, and sure enough, the most obvious one is Marvel Premiere #s 33-34, featuring that Solomon Kane story by Thomas and Chaykin.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Marvel Premiere, there's also #s 45-46, the Man-Wolf story, long a personal favorite, but I wouldn't count it for the same reason I wouldn't count Avengers Annual #7/Marvel 2-in-1 Annual #2: great as they are on their own, both actually conclude stories that were cut off elsewhere (and I'll repeat this yet again, in case anyone at Marvel's reprint department spends time perusing these blogs to look for ideas: please publish a Man-Wolf book that collects all those stories from the late '70s).
Oh, by the way William, sorry for repeating a few of your choices (FF and Capt. America). I do read all of the preceding comments before posting my own, but for some reason I just didn't register those on your list...
Late to the party on this topic; loads of great stories have been raised! Mike W., I must second your mention of the Cloak and Dagger story. At that time, it seemed many of the better Spiderman stories were found in Spectacular, rather than Amazing.
ReplyDeleteA few more for the list:
Detective Comics 475-476, the Laughing Fish
Conan the Barbarian 43-44, with Red Sonja
Amazing Spider-Man 240-241, giving us the origin of the Vulture and two great covers.
Avengers 127/Fantastic Four 150, Wedding of Crystal and Pietro