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Post by berkley on Oct 20, 2017 0:32:22 GMT -5
I'll join the chorus of those loving Guns of the Dragon, a title I discovered because of its inclusion in the 12 Days of Christmas lists when favorite short series was the topic. Monster Hunters in Marvel Universe #4-7 by Stern, Manley and company featuring Dr. Druid, Ulysses Bloodstone, And Zawadi (one of the Wakandan Handmaidens introduced by Priest in his Black Panther run) and even a Mole Man cameo. Fun little romp set in days before FF #1. Nightside by Robert Weinberg and Tom Derenick, based on Weinberg's short stories, horror crime noir before it became all the rage, a fun little 4 issue mini Not old enough to be a classic, but Avengers 1959 by Howard Chaykin, Nick Fury and a team of mercs/spies including Dominic Fortune, Sabretooth, Kraven and Namorita (among others) take ona team of super-Nazis in the late 1950s of the Marvel Universe. Chaykin gold in a 5 issue mini series Hellstorm, Prince of Lies, often overlooked in mass of bad Marvel books inthe 90s, it was a solid horror book with Rafael Nieves and Michael Bair on board, and kicked it up a several notches when Warren Ellis and Leonardo Manco took over. The in between issues, by Kaminski and Peter Gross weren't bad either. Ellis and Manco also did an often overlooked 4 issue Druid mini-series reintepreting Dr. Druid that was a d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/645991.jpgery good horror book. El Cazador, a short-lived pirate-themed series from Crossgen by Chuck Dixon and Steve Epting... Hammer of the Gods by Mike Avon Oeming and Mark Wheatley, a viking story... and its follow up Hammer hits China (I need to get these again, I lent them out and they never found their way back to me) Legend of the Hawkman- a 3 issue prestige mino by Ben Raab and Michael Lark. Raab is not one of my favorite writers, but his stuff here is decent and Lark's art elevates it into a very enjoyable read. Saga of the Swamp Thing #1-19 by Martin PAsko, Tom Yeates (with issues by Jan Duursema, Tom Mandrake, Gary Mishkin, Bo Hampton, Scott Hampton, and Len Wein) and form #16-o art by Stephen Bissette and John Totleben, plus PhantomStranger back-ups through most of it). Often overlooked and overshadowed as it precedes Alan Moore's run, it's a solid run and well worth reading. Shadow War of Hawkman #1-4 by Tony Isabella, Richard Howell and Alfredo Alcala. Maybe it pales to some of the great Kubert stuff, but this was my first exposure to Hawkman as a solo hero and I was hooked by this series. It is meant as a status quo changer (as was Sword of the Atom see next), but I was just discovering DC in its fullness when this came out and I liked what I read. Sword of the Atom #1-4, a great sword and sorcery style comic featuring the Atom by Jan Strnad and Gil Kane. It changed up tha Atom's status quo, upsetting a lot of tried and true fans, but again I was just getting into DC and I love S&S stuff, so I was engrossed. Also by Kane and Strnad form around the same time...Talos of the Wilderness Sea, a 1-shot overlooked by just about everyone, but a really fun story of S&S style fun Cable #48-70 by Joe Casey, James Robinson and Ladronn This is where I first discovered the art of Ladronn, and it was still early in his career where he was channeling Kirby and early Steranko. I loved the sense of high adventure he brought to the stories with his art and watching him grow as an artist (check out the Planet Hulk covers to see how far he came). Casey and Robinson were doing decent stories too, netter than a lot of the X-stuff coming out at the time. There's probably more, but that;s enough for now... -M The only one of these that I've read is the Pasko/Yeates Swamp Thing, which from memory I agree was quite good. I look forward to re-reading it once I fill some of the holes in the run. I heard about the Ellis Hellstrom and Dr. Druid miniseries here and have been slowly picking up the back issues, so I definitely plan to give those two a try. Avengers 1959 I missed at the time, but I'm interested because I like Chaykin and some of the characters involved could fit his style nicely. Paradoxically, I probably would have noticed this and read it when it first came out if it had been called something else, as my eyes tend to glaze over and my mind stop paying attention whenever I see yet another Avengers title on the stands. First I heard of Talos. I'll probably try that and maybe the Atom series just for the Gil Kane artwork. Monster Hunters and Nightside, I like the sound of but I'm not sure about the artwork. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 20, 2017 2:55:51 GMT -5
Nice to see that someone else has an appreciation for Talos. It's also a bit reminiscent of another Gil Kane project, Blackmark, from the early '70s (which isn't so much a story that no one else liked, but rather one that hardly anyone knows about).
I have the Monster Hunters series in a tpb with the three preceding issues (an Invaders story), but haven't read it yet - however, I'm sure I'll enjoy it, as Roger Stern rarely (pretty much never) disappoints. Anyway, it reminds me of another series that came out out a few years later, that - it seems to me - hardly anyone likes but which I loved: Marvel - The Lost Generation, by Stern and Byrne.
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 20, 2017 7:48:29 GMT -5
I enjoyed the Alan Moore written Judgement day Mini series based on the Rob Liefeld characters. It was 3 issues that was a murder mystery and it included chapters draw by Gil Kane, Jim Starlin and a few other good artists.  |
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Post by kirby101 on Oct 20, 2017 8:04:53 GMT -5
I really liked Superman Adventures, the comic based on the Superman animated show. Everyone loved the Batman Adventures comic, but for me the Superman book was better. It included some early work by Mark Millar.  And I thought Untold Tales of Spider-Man by and Busiek and Ollife was great.  |
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 20, 2017 8:11:17 GMT -5
I was shocked at how good this 4 issue mini was.  This was during the period where Byrne started to churn out crap. The story was tight and the art was sharp. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 20, 2017 8:48:28 GMT -5
Thor (vol. 2) 80-85, covering the "Thor disassembled" story arc.
Wow, what a great example of how to properly end a series. This arc, written by Michael Avon Oeming, ties into the Avengers disassembled event that temporarily put an end to the team and had major effects on many of its members. In the case of the god of thunder, it meant the end of his own title and his being gone from the Marvel universe for a few years.
How do you put an end to a long-running comic featuring the Norse gods and make it sound like this time it really matters? Why, the obvious choice is to set up Ragnarok.
Yes, yes, I can hear any comic-book fan saying "Ragnarok? Again?" and it would be a fair point. The end of the world, Asgard style, had been seen quite a few times in the past... In Thor #200, told as a prophecy adapting the Gylfaginning; then around Thor #275, where it was a fake event engineered by Odin; then in issue #300, where the gods faced the Celestials; then again during Walt Simonson's famous run, where Surtur managed to lay waste to the eternal realm. So... Ragnarok? Been there, done that. How to get people to take it seriously?
By doing it Oeming's way. By being serious about it, making it bigger than all the previous attempts, and by using the book's impending cancellation to make readers believe that yes, maybe this time it is for real.
These six issues take no prisoners and do not hesitate to break all the toys in the box. But rather than simply indulge in death and destruction porn, they transcend the obligatory cataclysmic events by binding them to very strong character arcs. Be it Thor himself, Loki, Sif, the warriors three (and especially Vosltagg), Beta Ray Bill, and even Mangog and Surtur, all the characters have their time in the spotlight and get a treatment that makes their eventual disappearance all the more poignant.
Oeming also pays respect to the books' hundreds of issues and to its comic-book legacy. Lots and lots of old characters show up, even ones we had pretty much forgotten. (Durok the demolisher? Remember him?) What's more, he fully acknowledges the comic's reinterpretation of Norse mythology, and instead of ignoring it or treating it whichever way he wants, he plays according to its rules, without cheating, but in an original way. That's how we learn how there could have been so many Ragnaroks in the past: the gods are stuck in a cycle; the tapestry woven by the Norns eventually folds back upon itself and always goes back to the beginning. This cycle exists to please Those Who Sit Above In Shadow, those über-gods introduced (I think!) in the X-Men/Alpha Flight crossover. This Ragnarok, the final one since the book is getting cancelled, will see the end of the cycle.
With the final issue, it has come to pass: everybody's dead, Asgard is gone, the prophecy has been fulfilled. (I am just surprised that the rest of the universe wasn't burned up by Surtur, but there's a limit to what a writer is allowed to do to the Marvel universe, I suppose!) The only negative point I see, and under a certain angle it is a massively positive one, is that this ending is so perfectly executed that it makes rebooting the book pretty difficult.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2017 9:17:38 GMT -5
I enjoyed the Alan Moore written Judgement day Mini series based on the Rob Liefeld characters. It was 3 issues that was a murder mystery and it included chapters draw by Gil Kane, Jim Starlin and a few other good artists.
With Alan Moore "steering the ship" Awesome was a decent publisher. Too bad it folded just as Moore expanded beyond the Supreme title.
   
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 20, 2017 10:06:47 GMT -5
Just when I was giving uo on MRP, he drops that post.. I LOVED Sword of the Atom... I was sad to see him get put back to the status quo. Totally agree on Hammer of the Gods and El Calazador too. All of the Cross Gen I read was pretty decent, to be honest... I read most of Meridian (which was pretty decent Steam Punk) as well as the Brath (Conan clone) and Ruse (Holmes) which were both excellent.
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Post by badwolf on Oct 20, 2017 10:20:29 GMT -5
I was shocked at how good this 4 issue mini was. This was during the period where Byrne started to churn out crap. The story was tight and the art was sharp. I haven't read that, but I could add a lot of Byrne's "later" work to this thread. Most of it I really enjoy. His Doom Patrol doesn't get a lot of love but I thought it was a fun mix of silver and modern. Heck, I even enjoyed Lab Rats, at least until they shoved in Superman in a last-ditch attempt to boost sales (that's what it felt like, anyway.) |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 20, 2017 10:24:25 GMT -5
I just thought of one that I really liked (though I wonder how well it aged)...It felt like a totally new, fun universe... I suppose it was techincally in the DCU, but it's not been mentioned in ages.  |
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 20, 2017 10:49:08 GMT -5
I just thought of one that I really liked (though I wonder how well it aged)...It felt like a totally new, fun universe... I suppose it was techincally in the DCU, but it's not been mentioned in ages. Ha, I have this entire series , still. I never saw anything special about it. |
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Post by hondobrode on Oct 20, 2017 12:34:04 GMT -5
I'll join the chorus of those loving Guns of the Dragon, a title I discovered because of its inclusion in the 12 Days of Christmas lists when favorite short series was the topic. Monster Hunters in Marvel Universe #4-7 by Stern, Manley and company featuring Dr. Druid, Ulysses Bloodstone, And Zawadi (one of the Wakandan Handmaidens introduced by Priest in his Black Panther run) and even a Mole Man cameo. Fun little romp set in days before FF #1.  Nightside by Robert Weinberg and Tom Derenick, based on Weinberg's short stories, horror crime noir before it became all the rage, a fun little 4 issue mini  Not old enough to be a classic, but Avengers 1959 by Howard Chaykin, Nick Fury and a team of mercs/spies including Dominic Fortune, Sabretooth, Kraven and Namorita (among others) take ona team of super-Nazis in the late 1950s of the Marvel Universe. Chaykin gold in a 5 issue mini series   Hellstorm, Prince of Lies, often overlooked in mass of bad Marvel books inthe 90s, it was a solid horror book with Rafael Nieves and Michael Bair on board,  and kicked it up a several notches when Warren Ellis and Leonardo Manco took over. The in between issues, by Kaminski and Peter Gross weren't bad either. Ellis and Manco also did an often overlooked 4 issue Druid mini-series reintepreting Dr. Druid that was a d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/645991.jpgery good horror book.  El Cazador, a short-lived pirate-themed series from Crossgen by Chuck Dixon and Steve Epting...  Hammer of the Gods by Mike Avon Oeming and Mark Wheatley, a viking story...  and its follow up Hammer hits China (I need to get these again, I lent them out and they never found their way back to me) Legend of the Hawkman- a 3 issue prestige mino by Ben Raab and Michael Lark. Raab is not one of my favorite writers, but his stuff here is decent and Lark's art elevates it into a very enjoyable read.  Saga of the Swamp Thing #1-19 by Martin PAsko, Tom Yeates (with issues by Jan Duursema, Tom Mandrake, Gary Mishkin, Bo Hampton, Scott Hampton, and Len Wein) and form #16-o art by Stephen Bissette and John Totleben, plus PhantomStranger back-ups through most of it). Often overlooked and overshadowed as it precedes Alan Moore's run, it's a solid run and well worth reading.  Shadow War of Hawkman #1-4 by Tony Isabella, Richard Howell and Alfredo Alcala. Maybe it pales to some of the great Kubert stuff, but this was my first exposure to Hawkman as a solo hero and I was hooked by this series. It is meant as a status quo changer (as was Sword of the Atom see next), but I was just discovering DC in its fullness when this came out and I liked what I read.  Sword of the Atom #1-4, a great sword and sorcery style comic featuring the Atom by Jan Strnad and Gil Kane. It changed up tha Atom's status quo, upsetting a lot of tried and true fans, but again I was just getting into DC and I love S&S stuff, so I was engrossed.  Also by Kane and Strnad form around the same time...Talos of the Wilderness Sea, a 1-shot overlooked by just about everyone, but a really fun story of S&S style fun  Cable #48-70 by Joe Casey, James Robinson and Ladronn  This is where I first discovered the art of Ladronn, and it was still early in his career where he was channeling Kirby and early Steranko. I loved the sense of high adventure he brought to the stories with his art and watching him grow as an artist (check out the Planet Hulk covers to see how far he came). Casey and Robinson were doing decent stories too, netter than a lot of the X-stuff coming out at the time. There's probably more, but that;s enough for now... -M I haven't read Hammer of the Gods or Avengers 1959, but was on the fence about both. Guess now I'll have to try them, as I agree with every other pick of yours. |
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Post by Jesse on Oct 20, 2017 12:44:01 GMT -5
Glad to see some love for Sword of the Atom I really like Gil Kane's work there. If you've seen the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode it's pretty similar but without Aquaman and Ryan Choi.
I enjoyed Denny O'Neil's The Question Quarterly but not the beginning of his Question run #1-36 and don't recall hearing much about it though plan on checking it out when I can.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 20, 2017 13:16:31 GMT -5
While I wasn't shocked by the fact, I agree that Byrne's Omac mini is really good; and I agree with Badwolf about a lot of Byrne's later work. I've already mentioned Lost Generation, but there was also the flawed but still enjoyable X-men Hidden Years that came out at about the same time. I also really enjoyed the Star Trek minis that IDW published.
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Post by hondobrode on Oct 20, 2017 14:07:47 GMT -5
The first one off the top of my head would be The Walking Dead.
Didn't think I'd like this at all and was really shocked how good it was.
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