Best comic storyline

[DrunkonDuty]

Well, now I have to go back through my (admittedly not very large) comics collection to make a decision. It'll probably be an Usagi Yojimbo story line but I can't say for certain. Maybe Kate Leth's Hellcat. Maybe the limited Mockingbird series by Cain (first name escapes me.)

I'll have to get back to y'all in a couple of weeks.

 

[billd91]

Great Darkness Saga is a high that DC Comics has been unsuccessfully chasing ever since with Darkseid, outside of John Byrne's post-Crisis Action Comics run.

That first reveal of who is behind the Great Darkness? Brilliant. Darkseid had been a chump who flew the Secret Society of Super-Villains around in a flying car in the years before Levitz and Giffen made him scarier than Jack Kirby ever managed to.

That whole Levitz/Giffen LSH era was classic, one that neither of them were able to reach ever again. (Although the Five Years Later Legion is amaaaazing.)

When those were all coming out (plus the Reboot/Threeboot), I had stopped buying LSH. But checking it out years later, there's a LOT to wade through, but some pretty interesting stuff spread about.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I’m tempted to say the entire Claremont/Byrne run on the X-Men, but I’ll confine myself to the Dark Phoenix saga. An emotional freight train.

I think there's a reason the movies keep returning to the Dark Phoenix saga, and falling short. It's a highwater mark of the comics, absolutely.

For my part, Hellblazer's Dangerous Habits springs to mind.

More recently The Death of the Mighty Thor (Jane Foster's cancer arc), was really good.

Both are stories about coming to terms (or not, perhaps) with death.

 

[Reynard]

The Return of Barry Allen by Mark Waid

 

[Mannahnin]

Usage Yojimbo's Dragon Bellow Conspiracy

Ah, I see you are a person of culture.

I think my brother still has his signed & numbered autographed hardcover. IIRC it has a sketch of Tomoe Ame on the bookplate as well.

 

[deganawida]

I’m partial to the Confessor arc in Astro City, as well as the whole “Robin Dies at Dawn!” Ra’s Al Ghul storyline, though I cannot recall if they were actual consecutive issues up to and including the desert sword duel.

Once continuity and crossovers became huge and the way to do things, I think story arcs became harder to find. There’s so much setup for the next one, that you do not really have the focus on the current arc that you used to. There are some great runs, but I am pulling a blank on great story arcs from the 90s to now (not that I read much of DC or Marvel any more). I could go on about some great runs, though, and there’d be a few non-superhero ones, too.

 

[R_J_K75]

My #1: The Kraven storyline. Man, it was super deep for teenage me when it came out.

Exactly. It was the first thing that came to my mind when I read the post title. The original 1984 Secret Wars is an extremely close second if not on par with it.

 

[Tonguez]

Swamp Thing Vol 2 Journeys - Swamp Thing travels back to the beginning of life then becomes trapped in amber

 

[trappedslider]

Knightfall
The Dark Knight Returns, which redefined the Batman-Superman relationship in the main stream comics

Kingdom Come ( when asked about doing an adaption, Bruce Timm said it would be impossible due to Alex Ross's art style in that they either would be questioned why they didn't or they would be lambasted for attempting to copy it and it not working)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

When those were all coming out (plus the Reboot/Threeboot), I had stopped buying LSH. But checking it out years later, there's a LOT to wade through, but some pretty interesting stuff spread about.

The first dozen issues of 5YL I would put up against any other comic book run. We get a new era sketched out pretty quickly, with some big mysteries, and just as readers start to get comfortable with it, Giffen starts changing the status quo and literally changing the universe. (And single-handedly fixing a lot of the post-Crisis issues, although DC management clearly didn't care and ignored great additions like Andromeda.)