By [ad_1]
Today, we continue our countdown of your picks for the greatest comic book storylines of all-time with #40-37.
You voted (over 1,000 ballots cast and a little bit more than the last time we did this countdown) and you all sent in ballots ranking your favorite storylines from #1 (10 points) to #10 (1 point). I added up all of the points and here we are!
40. “The Golden Age” by James Robinson, Paul Smith and Richard Ory (The Golden Age #1-4) – 275 points (2 first place votes)
Before he blew up with Starman, James Robinson’s first big “Hey, everybody, check out how good my writing can be!” moment came in the 1993 prestige format miniseries, The Golden Age, which he worked on with the brilliant artist, Paul Smith (colored by Richard Ory).
The story was about the superheroes of the DC Universe adjusting to life after World War II, and how Tex Thompson, the Americommando, who came home to become a powerful politician, was obviously involved in something dark and twisted, but no one was able to get to the bottom of it because they were too busy dealing with their own problems.
Robinson took a stark look at the lives of these heroes, including his powerful examination of Hourman’s life as a drug addict…
And Paul Smith, what more do you need to know about this then Paul Smith drew it and it is GORGEOUS?
The main hero of the volume is Manhunter, who returns to America with amnesia and as he regains his memory, he realizes he knows a secret about Thompson that will turn the whole world upside down. Let me give you a four word sample – “They saved Hitler’s brain!”
Fans of Starman will recognize this Robinson, the kind of guy who will give every little minor character a ton of characterization. It’s a wonderful standalone work. I believe Geoff Johns once credited this miniseries to getting him interested in the JSA and getting him to be willing to write that series.
39. “The Surtur Saga” by Walter Simonson (Thor #349-353) – 289 points (3 first place votes)
All throughout the early issues of Walter Simonson’s run on Thor, we keep seeing someone (seemingly a blacksmith) forging a sword. Every time the sword is clanged on to continue the forging, we see a big “DOOM!” sound effect, showing that whatever this sword is, it is bad news for Thor. This continues for a number of issues (always for one page per issue) until slowly we learn that it is the gigantic demon Surtur, and we see that he is raising an army of dark elves to attack Asgard.
And again, we learn this slowly but surely over a number of issues, one page per issue.
Finally, in Thor #349, Surtur shows up on Asgard, and so begins an amazingly epic battle that involves Earth AND Asgard, and ends up ultimately with Odin, Thor and Loki being forced to team-up against their common foe, Surtur.
The defeat of Surtur would also result in a major status quo change in the Thor title, and one of the coolest last pages of the 1980s.
Simonson’s art was extremely powerful throughout the story, adding the dynamic grand quality that the epic battles required.
And it’s impressive as all heck that Surtur’s attack begins in #349, but it doesn’t feel dragged out, due to a whole ton of other little attacks and obstacles in between.
38. “Annihilation” by Keith Giffen, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Simon Furman, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Scott Kolins, Kev Walker, Renato Arlem, Jorge Lucas, Greg Titus, Andrea DiVito and more (Annihilation: Prologue, Annihilation: Nova #1-4, Annihilation: Silver Surfer #1-4, Annihilation: Ronan #1-4, Annihilation: Super Skrull #1-4, Annihilation #1-6) – 295 points (1 first place vote)
Annihilation is about the forces of the Negative Zone, led by Annihilus, who decide to invade our universe. They do so with the so-called “Annihilation Wave,” a large wave-like formation of powerful battleships.
The whole endeavor is powered by Galactus, who Annihilus has managed to capture and use as a power source.
In the first wave of the war, the entire Nova Corps was wiped out…well, not the ENTIRE Nova Corps. Richard Rider, of Earth, manged to survive and, once he merged with the Worldmind (the computer that ran the Nova Corps), Richard became the most powerful Nova around.
With Nova working as a sort of overall general, the remaining free planets (mostly the Kree) banded together against Annihlilus’ forces.
The series was told in an interesting fashion that was later re-used for the sequel mini-series, Annihilation: Conquest.
There was a prologue issue, where the situation began.
Then there were four separate mini-series starring four characters tied into the mess – Nova, Ronan (of the Kree), the Super Skrull and the Silver Surfer.
The most notable aspect of the initial mini-series was the way that Nova was transformed into not only a super-powerful being but also truly grew into himself as a warrior. Take this moment from Nova #3…
which led to this…
Which led to Anniilus taking a specific interest in Nova, which would play out in the main series, Annihilation, written by Giffen and drawn by Andrea DiVito, after the four miniseries ended.
There is lots of action and a significant amount of casualties, including an Avenger!
The series basically worked to revitalize Marvel’s pretty much ignored “Cosmic Universe” of heroes. There is pretty much a through line between the success of Annihilation and the creation of the Guardians of the Galaxy roster that ended up being the inspiration for the two massively successful films by Marvel Studios. That’s how big Annihilation is in comic book history.
37. “Rock of Ages” by Grant Morrison, Howard Porter, Gary Frank, Greg Land, John Dell and Bob McLeod (JLA #10-15) – 299 points (2 first place votes)
Rock of Ages was a multi-layered storyline that opens with Lex Luthor leading a new team of villains known as the Injustice Gang against the JLA. However, that turns out to NOT be the main point of the story. No, as it turns out, Luthor inadvertently stumbled across an artifact that will ultimately lead to Darkseid taking control of Earth.
We cut to the future where Darkseid has, indeed, taken over the Earth and Green Lantern and Aquaman have traveled through time to this dystopic situation. Their role is only to be told of what they have to do in the past to avert this horrible future. Once they’re gone, though, the people of the future still have to deal with Darkseid, leading to one of the most famous sequences of Morrison’s JLA run – the time that Green Arrow and the Atom took out Darkseid.
Pretty intense, right?
This whole arc is filled with fascinating little bits like that. For instance, the Joker is part of Luthor’s team and the only way that the Martian Manhunter can figure out how to deal with the Joker is to use his shape shifting ability to alter his own brain so that he can think like a madman. So cool.
One of the most amazing things about this story arc is that Morrison was not only dealing with Blue Superman, but they also had to deal with Wonder Woman being temporarily dead and, of course, a tie-in to a company-wide crossover IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STORYLINE!! How Morrison pulled this off is beyond me.
About The Author
[ad_2]
