Honestly, my memory kinda sucks and I can't remember specifically which ones I liked more and which I didn't. But here’s my attempt to sort it out…



I think I liked the Flash-70's one, written by Cary Bates, though I don't think this tale would have been told quite like that back in the 70's.



I'm pretty sure I liked the Flash-80's one by William Messner-Loebs.

I think that if you liked the Messner-Loebs run (and especially with work with the Rogues Gallery) in Wally's Flash series, then you should like that one.



I don't think I ever read the Flash-90's one.



I think the Batman-70's one was pretty good, but not great, if I remember correctly. It seemed to have a "to be continued" ending.



I think I liked the Batman-80's one a bit more, though it featured a Mike Barr Batman villain I'd never heard of before (though I'm not a Batman expert).



I don't think I ever read the Batman-90's one.



I think that the Green-Lantern-70's one was fairly reminiscent of the Denny O-Neal-Mike Grell era from the 70's, and I'm not sure GL & GA even met in this one, but that era did have some issues where the two heroes weren't together much, if at all, if I remember correctly.



I don't think I ever read the Green Lantern-80's or 90's ones.



I do seem to recall enjoying the JLA-70's one quite a bit. I think that was one of the better ones.



I think the JLA-80's one was one of the weaker ones, if I remember correctly. They really could have chosen the Satellite JLA, Detroit JLA, or the Giffen/DeMatties JLA to represent the 80's JLA and they went with...JLA Detroit! Now, I really don't mind that era as much as most people, and I went into this with an open mind but, while certainly not bad, I just didn't think this one was anything special.



JLA-90's. If you liked the Giffen/DeMatties JLA run...and I do...then you should like this one. Just a fun, silly, comic.



I seem to recall that Superman-70's was pretty good, at least if you like 70's Superman stuff it should be worth a read.



Superman-80's was, I believe heavily Crisis on Infinite Earths dependent, which is not the direction I would have chosen to go.

I didn't read Superman-90's.



The Wonder Woman-70's one wasn't that great, if memory serves me correctly. Certainly, I didn't care for the art, which aside from not being to my liking in general, didn't capture the era well at all.



The Wonder Woman-80's one was pretty good. It captured the era pretty well and the art was a lot better than the 70's issue.



So, overall, I think that I liked the JLA 70’s and 90’s ones quite a bit, then I guess the Flash70’s and 80’s ones, the Batman 80’s, Superman 70’s, and Wonder Woman 80’s…I think.

I didn’t think any were terrible, but several were certainly nothing special, and frankly, in terms of art, I’m not sure many if any captured the era all that well (which doesn’t mean the art was bad) but maybe some of that it the modern paper, inks, and color, while some is just the changing style, such as not drawing the “lines of action” I’ve talked about before.

I saw 'inside' the '70s Green Lantern a bit online... while it has Mike Grell art who did the comic in the later '70s it's very modern looking inside and out which disappoints me. I'll put the three Batmans and maybe the '70s Flash and JLA on my list.

I really liked the 70's one which, though Mandrake didn't work on the character until the 80's I believe, does feel faithful to the era.  It does have a bit of character development which is crucial to the story, but which obviously can't retroactively be worked into the stories of that period (Wein's or anyone else's) which is a bit odd.  

Mike Barr uses The Reaper again for Batman: Retroactive The 80's and it retains the flavour of his 80's Batman work which means it also has a bit of 50's flavour to it since Barr's output from that time evoked certain elements of those earlier stories (ie. Just as his 80's stuff with Alan Davis incorporated 1950's styled splash pages and giant props, so too does this incorporate touches such as "Readers!  We have given you all the clues you need!  Can you solve this mystery before Batman does?" captions and a Batman who refers to Robin as 'chum').  It's sort of a companion piece to Year Two and Full Circle and doesn't feel like the odd man out in comparison.

The 90's issue was worth it to me to see Norm Breyfogle return to Batman and with an Alan Grant script at that.  I thought this one was alright and I'd be pretty spoiled if I thought that Grant and Breyfogle reuniting one last time for a Scarface/Ventriloquist/Gatman tale wasn't worth recommending.

The only other one I read was the 70's Superman issue which, unfortunately, was marred by some poor artwork by Eduardo Baretto.  I say "unfortunately" because I believe that he was in ill health at the time and that he passed away not too long after which explains why it isn't up to par with the beautiful stuff he was capable of when life gave him a chance.  Martin Pasko's story, however, does feel appropriate to the era (right down to Lana Lang calling everyone 'Luv') so if you liked his material then, you shouldn't have a problem with it here.  Of course, Bronze Age Superman for the most part wasn't all that great in my opinion, so it's possible that fealty to the period isn't a strong selling point on this one. 

Mentioned earlier, I do really like the 6 issue Radioactive Man series and the 80-Page Colossal released around then too. Fun mocking stuff.

I'm surprised no one mentioned 1999's The Incredible Hulk vs. Superman--



Stern script, Rude pencils with Milgrom inks, which was an excellent retro crossover that actually had a believable purpose to it. It was another one of those 90's one-shots that captured the heart of superheroes in ways the monthlies did not (ohhh, the 90s..).

It is such a spiritual predecessor to Cooke's DC -The New Frontier in so many ways, that they could bookend each other quite well. ..and like an episode of The Incredible Hulk TV series, Banner walks off in the distance after something goes south...

Steve Rude has long been my #1 favorite comics artist still working in the biz. I remember that period when he had an opportunity to make more money working for "the big two". Unfortunately, too many of those special short projects had BAD writing, in my view. THIS was not one of those. Roger Stern, to me, blew most of the other writers completely out of the water.

Another was Fabian Nicieza, which really shocked me, as he'd never impressed me at all before he teamed with Rude. They did the SPIDER-MAN project together. It so well captured the look and feel of the John Romita era, it had the bad side-effect of reminding me of just HOW AWFUL Spider-Man had been since Romita stopped doing the book. It even made Roger Stern's run on ASM seem bad, by comparison.   (If memory serves, the Rude SPIDER-MAN story was the very last Spider-Man comic I ever bought. I've never picked up any new ones since then.)

Not really. That's all DC, so the appeal for fans wanting to see the big two companies crossover was not there. Moreover, taking it back to the early 60s--when the idea of superheroes seems like they are actually unique and not one of a trillion super-beings on every block (which begs the question of why they are nt all butting heads morning, noon and night).



Oh. for shame! For shame!



I believe Rude is reaching the logical goal of using a so-called "retro" style, but specifically imitative of any one artist; yes, his Hulk is Kirby-esque...but its his own work as well. Same with Superman--you might get echoes of Jack Burnley and Wayne Boring, but its all brought together by Rude's unifying style that fits the era the story was set in.


Personally, I think Rude's Hulk comes off like a violent force of nature, especially when he lets loose on someone (Superman) he's itching to hurt.