Hopping on the Cosmic Treadmill and moving forward in time to 1997 this entry...

Number 9
JLA #1



Year of Release: January 1997
Written by: Grant Morrison
Drawn: by Howard Porter and John Dell

Synopsis:  The Satellite Era of the Justice League intercepts an incoming call from outer space and sees that an alien race is coming to Earth.  They are unsuccessful in stopping them, leaving some of the heroes injured or dead.  These aliens called the Hyperclan have come to save Earth from itself by fixing everything that's wrong.  Superman is called in and he brings the A-listers.  The Hyperclan are successful in helping out the earth with droughts, hunger, and having humanity live in harmony...but all is not that it seems.

Why This Is A Classic:
I was in my sophomore year of college when this title came out. I was a fan of Morrison for years; loving his Animal Man and Doom Patrol. And really entrenched in all things Morrison. To this day, he's my favorite writer.  The Justice League books before this were hunks of junk; ever since Giffen and DeMatties left, Justice League and Justice League International and Extreme Justice were just overflowing with drek.  And in those titles, none of the Big 7 were in them.  When Mike Carlin gave Morrison the green light to relaunch the JLA, he didn't flinch and gave the readers what they wanted to see.  You had DC's best writer just cut loose and bring back these great Silver Age villains and create a new lore on DC's best characters.  Also, this wasn't like all the incarnations of the Justice League before...this was a JLA for Generation X era;  the early stages of the Internet were happening and the JLA were leading a charge of a post-post-modern era.  Morrison's run had the Justice League have more brains than brawn; thinkers before a punch is landed.  To an impressionable 22 year old who wanted his voice heard in trying to make the world better, Morrison's writing (along with The Invisibles) lead me to become more vocal in my thoughts, almost become a radical myself.  But that's a story for another time...

Aside from the personal note, this was the beginning of just how amazing Morrison captured how truly kick ass Batman can be.

Mechanics #1 (1985)

In retrospect, this book was clearly a calculated marketing ploy: Take Jaime Hernandez's earliest "Locas" stories from Love & Rockets, back when the strip still had some sci-fi/adventure elements to it. Add fancy coloring on nice paper, a cheesecake-y cover, and an introduction by Alan Moore. They were clearly trying to catch the eyes of mainstream comics readers, and in my case it totally worked. Hernandez's art mixes a punk sensibility with grade-a illustration chops, with beautiful results. The nominal plot involves salvaging a wrecked spaceship in the jungles of South America while political unrest is going on all around. But really, it's about Maggie, the poor kid from the barrio who's in way over her head. We see everything through her eyes, via her letters back home to her friend Hopey, and it quickly becomes obvious that Hernandez is more interested in the lives and struggles of the regular kids than whatever's going on with square-jawed stud Rand Race or legendary wrestler Rena Titanon. It was a great introduction to what was, and remains, one of the defining comics of its era.

#9: Silver Surfer One-Shot (Marvel, 1982)



I saw this book glistening off the spinner rack when it first came out during a trip to a book store. Right away I was wowed by the cover. "What is this? A cosmic hero that surfs...in space?" I had never heard of the Silver Surfer before, and I thought he was a new character. I had to have it.

The book begins with an 8-page build-up beginning with the Surfer's origin up through the events of Fantastic Four #48-50. When the Surfer finally pierces the barrier to escape Earth, he discovers his homeworld has been destroyed by Galactus and Shalla Bal has been kidnapped by Mephisto.

Eventually, the issue culminates with an awesome battle between the Surfer and Mephisto deep down in the Netherworld. The Surfer gets dragged into molten lava by demons and it looks like he's done for. But out bursts the Surfer, saying "You who once did call the Surfer "Fool", did you think mere cackling demons could overcome the power cosmic?".


Before Mephisto can be defeated however, he critically injures Shalla Bal, causing her body to transform into a sphere of pure energy. The Surfer imbues the sphere with a portion of his Power Cosmic, and it hurtles back to his homeworld, where it causes a cosmic aura that restores the planet, and Shalla Bal, back to health.

Turns out, this was the first and only issue of the second volume of Silver Surfer. A near 50-page tale beautifully drawn by John Byrne, who also did the plot based on Stan Lee's script. It was the perfect introduction to the Silver Surfer for my generation, and a great one at that.

I decided to do much the same in my list. Some of my favourite comic books are graphic novels or TPBs, if you catch my drift. Like V For Vendetta, for instance. Although it was originally serialised in Warrior magazine and later in single issues by DC, to me it is too much of a whole to be able to pick one single issue for my list of favourite comics. The whole of V For Vendetta is one of my favourite comics! Same goes for Watchmen, the Marvel adaption of The Empire Strikes Back or any number of Tintin books.

9. Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience (Marvel 1978)



Some comic books become special to me because of the story within, some for the personal impact they had upon me, and some for the memory of the hunt involved in finding said book to begin with. This one has all three going for it.

I used to be a massive Silver Surfer fan. I'll get to why I'm not anymore later in this story, but, suffice to say, around 2005, SS was my main man, and I was tracking down all his Silver and Bronze Age books with tremendous fervor. I was reading them in order, actually, beginning with Fantastic Four #48 and working my way up, through all the cameo appearances and awkward team-ups, right through the second, third (aborted), and fourth volumes.

Through all of that, there were two issues I held off on acquiring for a while. Silver Surfer (vol. 1) #4 was, in my mind, ridiculously over-valued (and still is), and The Ultimate Cosmic Experience was both incredibly difficult to find and also selling for ludicrous amounts of money. I eventually gave in and bought SS #4 because it was part of the run, but this rarely mentioned graphic novel from long after? That cover looked pretty lousy, and if it was neither part of any continuity I was aware of nor memorable enough for anyone to ever really mention, how worthwhile could it be? I still kept an eye out for it in case I ever saw it cheap, but I actually only ever saw one copy at a show, and it was selling for $80. ebay prices weren't much better either.

And yet, one day, a few years later, long after I'd read everything else Silver Surfer, I was at a flea market, and, in a section not even remotely devoted to comic books, I found a copy of the Ultimate Cosmic Experience with a slightly water damaged cover for $5. The vendor outright said "Oh wow. I guess I should have asked for more" when I cheered loudly after taking the book from his hands. That was pretty exhilarating in and of itself, but then I read the sucker.

Holy cr*p.

I mean, not only was it the final reunion team-up of Lee and Kirby on any project, let alone their shared favorite character; it was also, truly, the ultimate Silver Surfer story. They took everything they'd ever done with The Surfer and did it BETTER, which shouldn't have been possible. Page after page, they took the original premise and further complicated it with mixed loyalties and philosophical exploration that always should have been there in the original story, all told with a length, breadth, and depth that a monthly 20+ page comic book format could never allow for. This was Lee and Kirby telling the best story they knew how to tell together, and it blew me away.

Best yet, they gave The Surfer an ending, and it had never occurred to me prior to that point that, unlike so many other ongoing comic book characters out there, The Surfer was a character who, from the very beginning, HAD an ending that had always been suggested; just never shown. This was not a character who was supposed to be roaming around forever; this was a martyr, and we know what happens to martyrs.

I used to be a massive Silver Surfer fan because this book ruined The Surfer for me, or rather ruined every other attempt to ever tell his story. THIS is the story of Norrin Radd; everything else (sometimes including the legendary Fantastic Four #48-50) is a pale imitation and waste of time.

I actually liked Mid-Summer's Nightmare better than the 1st 'regular' story of the Morrison JLA... I felt like it was pretty decompressed, whereas the mini you got a complete story in 3 issues, a rarity these days.  It could have easily made my list if there was a single comic with the whole thing in it

I agree with you about Batman, though.  I know it aggravates people, but I kinda like when Batman comes up with something ridiculous to beat cosmic level threats... sorta like over in Marvel when Cap punches Thanos and wins

#9 - Avengers #20 September 1965

One of my all-time favorite issues of the Avengers and one that would appear on a number of future CCC configurations or Top 10 lists... Favorite Marvel Comics, Best Stan Lee scripts without Kirby art, Wally Wood's best inking jobs... I do believe this cover ended up on Scott Harris favorite penciller and inker teams a few years back. Anyway... lots to like about this issue including that fantastic Kirby cover.

Avengers 20 continues the first appearance of the tortured Swordsman who through trickery and deceit actually becomes a member of the Avengers. Stan really heaps on the melodrama here. Cap broods, Hawkeye broods, Swordsman broods, Wanda and Pietro brood about everyone brooding and the Mandarin cackles with villainy. What's not to love? It's the epitome of a Marvel comic and for whatever reason, maybe I explained it in the preceding sentences, Avengers 20 is what I most associate as 'being' a Marvel Comic by it's very definition.

Let me also point out how gorgeous Wally Wood makes Don Heck's pencils. It is too bad the Dashing One wasn't paired with such a graceful, sensitive, inker more often in his long career so full of mediocre work.

We'll see another issue of Avengers in a few days from this same era as the Cap's Kooky Quartet team is one my favorites.