Best Comic Storlines or Ideas

Okay, we've all read the horror stories about bad comic ideas now let's weigh in on the better ones.

I have to say that DC Comics launch of the Elseworlds line was a good way to handle non-continuity stories. Yeah, it produced some stinkers but it also gave us some really good stand alone stories such as Gotham by Gaslight. It also allowed some top notch writers from other genres to pen a comic tale or two.

I also thought Walt Simonson's run on Thor produced some of the best stories of that title for its time.

The Judas Contract - Pretty much the entire Wolfman-Pérez New Teen Titans run was amazing, but this one takes the cake.

Man of Steel - John Byrne's reimagining of the Superman mythos breathed fresh air into the first superhero. That being said...

Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow - Alan Moore writes the last Superman story, paying homage to the entire Superman mythos and closing things up for John Byrne's reboot to begin. Superman's reaction to seeing Supergirl (this was a couple of months after Crisis) is heart-wrenching.

- Wally West becoming the Flash: The only sidekick to live up to the promise. Not only did Wally grow into the role, he surpassed his uncle as THE Flash.

HellBlazer: Dangerous Habits written by Garth Ennis

Starman written by James Robinson : One of the best superhero books to come out in the past 30 years.

The Darksied saga in the Legion of Superheroes is probably my favorite.

Loved some of the classics - Miller with Daredevil, Simonson with Thor, Miller with Batman.

Modern stuff - the only GREAT story I know of is JMS's Rising Stars.

Oh, just remembered Mr Miracle? A British story that rocked my teenaged mind with its "gritty" portrayal of super battles.

My Top Twenty (tried for ten but couldn't stop (in no particular order))

1. Walt Simonson's Thor run.
2. The Bryne/Claremont Uncanny X-Men Run
3. Watchmen
4. Avengers Annual #7/Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2 (death of Warlock & Thanos)
5. The first Micheline/Romita Jr./Layton run on Ironman.
6. Gene Colan's Submariner run in Tales to Astonish.
7. Daredevil 226-233
8. The first three years of New Teen Titans by Wolfman/Perez
9. Wolfman/Colan's Tomb of Dracula series, especially the last 20 issues.
10. Astro City (all)
11. The Complete Frank Miller Batman (Batman Year 1 & Dark Knight)
12. Crisis on Infinate Earths
13. Robinson's Starman
14. David & McFarline's Hulk (330-346)
15. Daredevil 146-154 (Bullseye & Purple Man saga)
16. Howard the Duck 1-15
17. Avengers/JLA
18. Marshall Rogers Batman (Detective 466-481)
19. Avengers 141-177
20. Justice League of America 178-200

Still to this day my favorite storyline is the Mutant Masacre. It was pure genius and the first of the major X-Title crossovers, and it spilled into a few other comics too. Most wonderful and disturbing thing to come out of it was Angel being pined to a wall and having his wings destroyed by, I beleive, Scalphunter and Blockbuster.

Beyond that I enjoyed the early days of Apocalypse. When he first showed up in X-Factor with the Alliance of Evil to when he formed the original Horsemen of Apocalypse. I liked him because he was someone noone should have been able to truely defeat, but constantly just stop his plans.

I loved an Alternate Fantastic Four group that was in like two issues, many moons ago. It was the Hulk (I beleive the Ultra Intelligent Green Hulk), Ghost Rider, Wolverine and Spider-Man. Just a wonderfully amusing group of people to team up. I don't remember why, I don't remember the story, I just remember the team.

Age of Apocalypse was another great story line. Another of the rare wonderfully written crossovers, even if it did do some annoying marketing stuff like changing the titles of the comics for four months.

There are many others, but those are the ones jumping to the forefront of my mind.

I have to chime in and say the entire run of Alien Legion by Chuck Dixon. This was sci-fi comics at their best. I wish they'd bring that one back...

Astro City: all, but especially the stories that focus on the lives of the non-superpowered citizens

Usagi Yojimbo: all, for the mix of Japanese mythology, history, and anthropomorphic animals (after I got Oriental Adventures the first character I made was a samurai rabit shape changer)

Strangers in Paradise: all, for showing all the joy and pain of love

Sandman, Neil Gaiman version: all, for the sheer magic of it all

There was this one issue of Superman, I don't recall exactly which one, but he went up against a team that resembled (sp?) one of the lethal hero teams of from Image. He beat them all without stooping to their level. I love it because it reinforced the ideal that heroes respect life, even the life of their enemies.

In a similar vein, there was a recent Batman where Joker shot Comissioner Gordon's wife (fiance?), and he was going to kill Joker, but he didn't.

Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, because it was so spooky.

Tauric said:

In a similar vein, there was a recent Batman where Joker shot Comissioner Gordon's wife (fiance?), and he was going to kill Joker, but he didn't.

Click to expand...

That was the best part of that entire run. Batman is standing right there, and Gordan looks up at him. Batman simply says 'I won't stop you'.

WayneLigon, can you remind me what story arc that was in, so I can buy the trade?

Another thing I think is a good idea (so far) is the Ultimate line. I read Ultimate X-Men, because they haven't screwed over my favorite characters yet. Mainly, Colossus is alive, so that is a huge plus. I would go back to the worst idea thread and post the killing of Colossus, but his death got rid of the whole Legacy Virus plot, so it wasn't all bad.

Of course, after Bendis leaves (which is inevitable, the man can't keep up his workload forever), the succeeding writers will probably make a hash of it, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

I would say Days of Future Past was great, but it introduced Rachel Summers to the X-Men, and I didn't like her.