You voted, and now, after over 1,050 ballots (but less than 1,100 ballots), here are the results of your votes for your favorite comic book creator series of all time (this is the FIFTH time that we are doing this countdown (We are on a schedule every four years)! I will post installments more or less daily until mid-December!
To recap, you all sent in ballots ranking your favorite races from #1 (10 points) to #10 (1 point). I added up all the points and here we are!
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15. Legion of Super-Heroes by Keith Giffen and Paul Levitz – 765 points (9 first place votes)
Legion of Superheroes #281-313, Legion of Superheroes #1-5
Paul Levitz had already completed a short but very appreciated course on the Legion of Superheroes in the 1970s, so when he returned to the book in 1981, readers had reason to be excited, but after a short time with Pat Broderick, Keith Giffen joined Levitz, and when they got together, they clicked in a way that no one could imagine. – and soon, Legion became probably DC’s second biggest title, after New Teen Titans (Giffen joined the book with issue 285 and Larry Mahlstedt joined the book with issue 290).
It wasn’t long before Levitz and Giffen began the epic storyline that became their most notable work, the Great Darkness Saga, which featured Jack Kirby’s Darkseid as a Legion villain, in a story of action and brilliantly brooding adventure that saw the Legion embroiled in a battle bigger than any they had seen before (or at least more visceral).
Check out the incredible reveal that Darkseid is the bad guy (right after Brainiac realizes that Darkseid has turned the entire population of Daxam against the Legion)…
What a stunning revelation.
Giffen’s works treated both action scenes and character moments with equal grandeur, and Levitz was sure to give him plenty of both, keeping the book extremely grounded in humanity, while still keeping the action to a dizzying extent.
Giffen and his inker, Larry Mahlstedt (who also completed Giffen’s layouts on a number of issues), were also very good at depicting the future as a Kirby-esque place of bizarre devices and locations.
After the Great Darkness Saga and a few character pieces, they had the landmark 300th issue, after which Giffen began experimenting with his works while starting to have more influence in the writing department.
Levitz, Giffen and Mahlstedt launched an entirely new Legion series together, a brutal storyline that left one Legionnaire dead and Giffen leaving the book.
Levitz continued his career with artists Steve Lightle and Greg LaRocque, until finally Giffen returned for the conclusion of the new Legion volume, at which point Levitz virtually retired from writing to concentrate on his position direction in DC (decades later, Levitz returned to writing Legion before and after the New 52).
14. Starman by James Robinson – 773 points (17 first place votes)
Star man #1-80, plus one #1,000,000 and two Annuals
One of the few lasting series from which it comes Hour H, Star man begins with Ted Knight (the Starman of the Golden Age) passing the torch (or, in this case, his staff of cosmic energy) to his son David. Unfortunately, in the very first issue, David is murdered, leaving the family title to Ted’s OTHER son, Jack Knight, who was completely uninterested in becoming a hero.
Jack owns an antiques and collectibles store and is very happy to do so. But with the death of his brother, Jack feels the need to take on the name Starman, but only if his father agrees to use his research that led to the cosmic universe. creation of personnel for the good of humanity.
Jack then began one of the strangest superhero tenures, because all the time he does it, even though he grows more and more as a hero, he still doesn’t exactly fit in with the other typical heroes.
While Jack is nominally the star of Star manthe REAL star is the town where Jack and his father, Ted, live – Opal City. Throughout the series, the message that writer James Robinson conveys is an appreciation for the classics, and Opal City is an entire city built around this notion – that classic stories need a city too, and that’s what Opal City is. This leads to Shade, a classic villain who Robinson recasts as a near-immortal man who just wants to enjoy his time in Opal City, the city he loves. The Shade even ended up getting its own series!
There is a family of cops in Opal City, the O’Dares, who also play a major role in the series, including crooked former cop Matt O’Dare who is driven to heroism by the spirit of his ancestor .
Artist Tony Harris co-created the book and did the artwork for the first 45 or so issues. He was responsible for all of Jack’s design, Jack’s tattoos (a notable style element of the book early on), and Opal City. Harris left the book after about 45 issues, and was followed by Peter Snejbjerg, who stayed until the end of the book.
Starman was one of the most cultured superhero comics – you’d have stuff like thugs debating the works of Stephen Sondheim!!
In fact, this will be our sample. From No. 14, spotlight on the O’Dares…
Additionally, Robinson revisited the past to find all past bearers of the Starman name, no matter how obscure. Other old heroes and villains also continued to appear in the series.
The book was such a critical success for DC that they allowed Robinson to finish the story the way he wanted, which is a tremendous compliment in this day and age of “the show must go on, no matter how bad it is!” edition.
13. Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman – 831 points (13 first place votes)
Fantastic Four #570-611, EN #1-23
Jonathan Hickman burst onto the scene Fantastic Four “scene” with an impressive opening. Reed Richards meets “The Council”, a group of Reed Richards from across the multiverse…
However, our Reed Richards is special. He has something that these other Reeds don’t have. He still has a conscience.
Hickman brilliantly observed that what makes Reed so special is not his great intelligence, but rather the fact that he is surrounded by a family that roots him and keeps him from one day becoming the mad scientist he is. it could very easily become. They make sure he has a conscience.
One of the fascinating aspects of Hickman’s study Fantastic Four running was how calculated it all was. Hickman is a complex thinker and his race was carefully planned. In its first issues, the Fantastic Four gradually encounter a growing group of brilliant young minds. After the Human Torch is seemingly killed, Reed Richards decides to create the Future Foundation, a group where he can help shape these young minds to help the world. A council of its own, but guided by good intentions and not by ego.
During this time, Hickman also made sure to put new twists on a variety of classic Fantastic Four concepts and characters. Galactus, the Inhumans, the Kree, Atlantis, Black Panther, the Sorcerer, if they were part of the classic Jack Kirby/Stan Lee Fantastic Four series, they were tackled and given an interesting new spin by Hickman.
Dale Eaglesham was the original artist for Hickman’s run. Then Steve Epting joined in the “death” of the Human Torch and the launch of the Future Foundation in a new title, EN. After the Fantastic Four returned (with the return of the Human Torch), Epting went with the Fantastic Four but a number of artists did arcs on Fantastic FourAlso. ENin the meantime, was taken over by Juan Bobillo then by Nick Dragotta.
Hickman left behind a very impressive legacy during his three years on the book. He sort of sealed the Reed/family deal by Secret Wars.
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Best Comic Series: 25-21
You’ve voted, and we continue to reveal your picks for the 100 Best Comic Series of All Time! We are in the Top 25! Here are numbers 25-21 on the list.
12. Green Lantern by Geoff Johns – 969 points (16 first place votes)
Green Lantern: Rebirth #1-6, Green Lantern #1-67, The darkest night #1-8, Green Lantern (New 52) #1-20
Geoff Johns had already done significant work with Hal Jordan before taking over as director of Green Lantern title. Johns was the man who made Hal Jordan the new Specter during the Judgment Day crossing. However, a few years later, Johns was given the daunting task of not only redeeming Hal Jordan, but essentially “fixing” everything that happened after Hal Jordan went crazy in the mid-1990s.
Johns introduced a variation of the idea of Parallax by introducing the concept of Parallax as an independent being who possessed Hal Jordan and made him evil. At the end of Green Lantern: RebirthHal Jordan was back as Green Lantern, as were John Stewart and Guy Gardner (Johns removed the “alien shapeshifter” aspect of Guy). Plus, Sinestro returned as a villain.
Johns then launched a brand new Green Lantern series starring Hal and John.
Johns quickly began what is probably the defining aspect of his Green Lantern run (well, unless “bringing Hal Jordan back from the dead” is its defining aspect – I guess it’s a close call anyway), which is the introduction to Sinestro having his own corps of villains based on YELLOW light. This introduced the concept of the multi-colored body, which still persists today as a major aspect of the DC Universe (yellow for fear, red for anger, purple for love, blue for hope, indigo for folk rock, black for death, orange for greed and white for life).
Johns also spent a lot of time developing Hal Jordan’s story, and in fact his “Secret Origin” script with penciler Ivan Reis became a staple of the film, Green Lanternwas based on. Green Lantern later played a major role in the massive The darkest night crossover (as the Black Lanterns emerged from the Green Lantern securities).
After the New 52, in the relaunched version Green Lantern title, Sinestro was given a Green Lantern ring and the book became a buddy title for a time, highlighting the tension of Sinestro and Hal being forced to work together against the secret machinations of the Guardians of the Universe, who are beginning to look like a lot scarier than normal. Then Johns removed Hal and Sinestro from the title and introduced an entirely new Green Lantern, an Arab-American named Simon Baz, who had his own vision of being a Green Lantern. This all led to one final story from Johns before leaving the show.
Johns was fortunate to work with a number of extraordinary artists during his tenure. Green Lantern. Ethan Van Sciver directed Rebirth, Carlos Pacheco launched the first new title with Johns (Van Sciver also directed a few early issues). Then Ivan Reis took over for a few years and the last few years were drawn by Doug Mahnke.
11. Batman by Grant Morrison – 974 points (18 first place votes)
Batman #655-658, 663-683, 700-702, Batman and Robin #1-16, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1-6, Batman Inc. (Vol.1) #1-8, Batman Incorporated #1-12 plus a few one-shots mixed in there, like Leviathan, Batman: Returns And Batman Incorporated #0
If there was one overarching theme to Grant Morrison’s Batman epic, it was the concept of “everything happened,” the idea that all the stories Batman has experienced over the years actually happened to him . a scandalous story?
The first example of this came in Morrison’s first storyline, where the formerly out-of-continuity graphic novel Son of the Demon (in which Talia Al Ghul appears to be carrying Batman’s child) suddenly became IN-continuity, so that Morrison introduced their offspring as Damian Wayne, Son of Batman. A child torn between an assassin mother and a superhero father, Damian has clearly become the flagship character of Morrison’s run.
Morrison continued the “Everything Happened” theme in the finale of the first chapter of their Batman series, “Batman RIP”, where they introduce the theory that if everything that happened to Batman really happened to someone , he would be crazy, wouldn’t he. ? And in “Batman RIP,” Batman does indeed appear to be going crazy, driven by the evil organization known as the Black Glove. Things get so bad that he is captured and buried alive. But that’s the problem with Batman, Batman thinks of everything!
Yes, Batman had been preparing for the Black Glove for months, ever since the moment Batman’s life was threatened by the Black Glove agents…
Awesome.
This first chapter of Morrison’s career ended with Final Crisiswhere Batman is captured by Darkseid and attempts to be cloned to form an army of Batmen for Darkseid. Here, however, Morrison explicitly shows us that yes, all of Batman’s life experiences WILL DRIVE someone crazy…unless they’re actually Batman. That his ability to handle all of this is basically HIS superpower. After Batman stops Darkseid’s plans, Darkseid takes revenge by taking Batman back to the Stone Age and using one of the dead clones to fool people into believing Batman was dead.
With Batman now seemingly dead, we have entered the second chapter of Morrison’s three chapter series, where they have started a new Batman series called Batman and Robin, where Dick Grayson takes over as Batman and Damian become the new Robin. Unlike the original idea of Batman being the dark character and Robin the light character, this new duo had the opposite dynamic. After a nice run of cool superhero stories, Bruce returned in the miniseries Bruce Wayne Returns (where we learn that Batman was looking for a way to return to his own time, but in doing so he may have exactly what Darkseid wants.
His return leads to the final chapter of Morrison’s three-chapter series. Batman decided that he essentially needed to form an army of Batmen, so he did, calling the idea Batman Incorporated. It’s basically an extended riff on the old Batman concept from the International League of Batmen (something Morrison had used early in their run). Batman got a glimpse of the future in his return to the present and realized he needed an army to stop the evil Leviathan, who turned out to be Talia Al Ghul. We then learned if Talia would even sacrifice her own son to further her evil agenda. It’s something sad.
During Morrison’s run, the artists present were mostly Andy Kubert (who started the run with them), Tony Daniel (who did “Batman RIP”), Frank Quitely (who started “Batman and Robin”), Yanick Paquette (who launched “Batman and Robin”). started Batman Inc.) and Chris Burnham (who completed the first volume of Batman Inc. and directed most of the final volume). They did, however, have a bunch of other great artists mixed in for arcs or one-off issues, including JH Williams III, Frazer Irving, Cameron Stewart, Chris Sprouse, Ryan Sook, a veritable smorgasbord of good artists (and, okay, he there were). the bad ones are also mixed in. We won’t name names here).