'

I'll stick up for the Neal Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow. It's not as polemical as it's made out to be, there are some great large scale action beats, and there's a goofy sense of humor to the dialog/characterization which contrast well with the weighty issues.

It's definitely my favorite take on both characters. (although I'm very poorly read in the '40s and '50s versions of both.)

I note others have said Avengers falls apart after 300. Issue 300 was John Buscema's last issue and definitely marks a good ending point for the classic Avengers run. There was a pretty big tonal shift after that.

I tend to defend #301-375, under the pen of Byrne/Hama/Harras. They are their own beast, but I think have some worth. In particular, #309 was the first comic I ever read and was good enough to convince 8-year old me that I should read more of these things. Avengers #315 introduced me to Spider-Man and I have been enamored ever since. In general, the Byrne/Hama stuff isn't the highlight of the series, and I don't wish to defend either Rage or the Crossing Line saga penned by Nicieza. But I think it's decent enough.

What I love is the Harras/Epting stuff. I think the Gatherers saga is a truly great Avengers story, and their first arc together, the Collection Obsession, was also solid superhero storytelling.

Epting leaves, Deodato comes on, and then I think it all falls apart. And then Heroes Reborn, drawn by Liefeld.

But then it becomes good again under Busiek, then mediocre under Johns, then terrible under Austen, then terrible under Bendis, then mediocre under Bendis, and then I quit.

I think a lot of it comes down to first impressions. When I was first discovering superheroes, the first FF writers I knew were Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas. That whole period from about 1974-77 remains 'my' definitive FF era, but I know it's generally dismissed by many who were reading earlier or who started later. I've actually never really rated the Lee/Kirby FF that highly. Kirby was far better on Thor, for my money, and Lee on ASM.

The Black Knight is one of my favourite Marvel characters, but mostly because of the Marvel UK series by Steve Parkhouse and John Stokes. He's been treated very inconsistently in his Avengers appearances. I actually liked the Gatherer storyline, but I hated what they did to him shortly before #300, with the whole bloodspell thing.

I heartily disliked the last few years of Cerebus, but not because of a lack of quality in the comic itself... It was like reading Plato and going "no, no, NO" because I disagree with what the author is saying. Dave's crucifixion of the Hemingways and the way he had Cerebus be a complete dick in his relationship with Jaka grated my nerves, and as an atheist I was annoyed by the author replacing his comic-book storyline by a religious pamphlet. But at the same time there were many good things all the way to the end. My major gripe about those years is that Cerebus as a book seemed to lose its way. The big buildup that went on for years led to pretty much nothing: the expected confrontation with the Cirinists was settled off page in only one issue, and Cerebus' entire life afte that was brushed under the carpet as we fast forwarded decades in the future to see him as an old man dealing with religious questions. 

It could be argued that this was meant to reflect the way real life looks to anyone who lives long enough: a lot of stuff happens when we're young, and then there's this kind of blurred period preceding the moment you realize you're old, thinking in tems of decades instead of months and wondering where the time went. But in the comic, that's not quite how it felt; as a reader, I felt a little cheated. I was ready to read lengthy interludes dealing with Oscar Wilde and F. Scott Fitzgerald, but only if they were to be followed by a resumption of the main plot. That was not to be: Cirin just faded away, Suentus Po was forgotten, we never saw Astoria again, Cerebus himself turned out not to be someone that important... and even the interesting new develoments (Cerebus stupidly falling for a woman who looked like Jaka, his difficult relationship with his son, the rise of a new religion echoing Islam) were handled as an afterthought, feeling like an excuse for the writer to tell us about his new found faith.

It's unfortunate that such an ambitious project, which was brilliant for half of its run,did not fulfill its promise. Still, the art (and the lettering, which was spectacular) was amazing to the end. Cerebus's voyage through the solar system is still one of the best outer space sequence I've ever seen in any medium. Sim and Gerhard were amazing in everything they drew.

Starting from the beginning:

The Avengers # 11. The first ten issues were solid gold. Losing Kirby hurt, but Heck did a solid job on his first couple stories. But then the focus of the book seemed to change from Captain America to Giant Man, and it just lost all it's steam. (Got better # 15 and 16.)

Fantastic Four # 14: After an initial burst of creativity and a great Red Ghost story, the next few issues seemed to be more about consolidating and organizing the stuff Stan and Jack came up with instead of cool new concepts! (Got better with issue 21)

Amazing Spider-Man # 34: I'm not the biggest fan of the Final Chapter four parter, but it was at least as good as most of the early issues. Here's where Ditko runs out of steam... The Spider-man sections become rote and boring. If it wasn't for early Gwen Stacy, I'd call these totally skippable. (Got better with issues # 41.)