posted
I'll start this out with the ones that come to my mind...
STARMAN -- by Roger Stern & Tom Lyle. A wonderful, "traditional" book that almost felt like it belonged in the 60's-- if the writing at DC had ever been that good. You know it's a crime when the CREATOR of a book is kicked off by its EDITOR. Naturally, with each successive change in personnel, it continued to PLUNGE in quality.
POWER OF THE ATOM -- also by Roger Stern (and a number of artists whose names I forget). An early "let's fix a character who earlier got screwed over by others" project. Kinda like what we have lately with JSA, HAWKMAN, GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH. Except DC was still picking up steam when it came to screwing over their old, classic characters. At least it was cancelled, and not murdered like STARMAN. I just try to ignore anything done with Ray Palmer since.
JUSTICE SOCIETY -- It took so long to get these guys back from "Limbo" (or wherever it was they'd been consigned), and the series that resulted was a pure DELIGHT! Yet from all I've heard, SOME individual (who had no connection with the book whatsoever) managed to get it CANCELLED only a few issues in, because they persoally didn't like it and felt it ran counter to all the "New DC" stood for at the time (mainly, desecrating the names of its old, classic characters).
posted
Marvel had a series, BLACKWULF, That I enjoyed alot. It was further proof that Tom DeFalco can write pretty well if you lock him away in his own corner and don't let him touch anything important.
It revolved around the Deviants, though they were never named as such, and featured art by Angel Medina for most of its 10-issue run. All too short.
HELLSTORM: PRINCE OF LIES was done in by its early mediocrity; by the time Warren Ellis and artist Leo Manco turned it into Marvel's best Vertigo book, the tide was against it. Still, that second half of its 20-odd issue run contains some of my favorite horror comics ever.
From: Up a Gumtree | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Damage - The premise of the book had a lot of promise. And I was really hoping for it to catch on, but I think it was killed within 2 years.
I wonder what the chances are of it ever getting a second shot.
-------------------- You can never quit believiing in your dreams ... or yourself. ----- You GOTTA listen to Levi Kreis.
From: Aggieland | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I kinda liked the New Universe titles in the mid to late 80's.
Star Brand and DP7 were my two favorites.
Not sure this one counts since it was more late 90's but Giffen's Vext was a great book that deserved to last more than 5 issues.
From: Utah | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Lightning Lad: I kinda liked the New Universe titles in the mid to late 80's.
Star Brand and DP7 were my two favorites.
The only NewU title I read was DP7, but I really liked it. It went about 32 issues, so I guess sales just didn't pan out.
From: Cincinnati | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Other than JSA, none of those others mentioned ever tickled my fancy.
Only thing I can think off, off the top of my head, was Neil Gaiman's Miracleman, a short six or seven issues on the book.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: Here's a few (only ones that got canned to soon):
Heckler Vext Ray Chase Justice Society
Heroes for Hire (this was much welcomed at a time of Heroes Reborn, but got crappy)
Firearm (the best Ultraverse title by far IMO)
Okay - we disagree re: JLTF, but agree about Ray. One of my favourite all-time comments. I made a colour photocopy (in the days before I had a scanner/priunter) of the page that showed the adult Ray laying dead on the ground with a bullet in the head, and stuck it on my wall... The surrounding text was very powerful, IIRC...
Ooh - and I just remembered that arc featured the 2010 (or so) versions of Flash (Bart Allen), Trumph (bald!) and Ray. They were all stock market manipulators (aka the Secret Society of Super-Heroes elseworld), but Bart was having second thoughts... and his decision to tell Ray off about it and his relationship lead to the scene mentioned above... Owch!
[ March 02, 2005, 06:27 PM: Message edited by: Star Boy ]
posted
The Ray was one of my faves of the 90's. In my opinion, DC always needs at least one mega super-hero (re: not grim and gritty, not a martial artist/urban hero) that is not from the Silver Age to have their own comic.
Great writing, great art (Quesada, right?), and some damn good stories. The Ray Annual #1, where he couldn't save the people who died in that plane was very powerful. And I loved how Happy Terril (Golden Age Ray) was written.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Quesada only did the RAY mini, and covers for the ongoing.
quote:Ooh - and I just remembered that arc featured the 2010 (or so) versions of Trump (bald!)
You mean we gotta wait 5 more years for the man to get rid of that G-dawful comb-over??? Oh, the humanity!!!!
From: Up a Gumtree | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by profh0011: Yet from all I've heard, SOME individual (who had no connection with the book whatsoever) managed to get it CANCELLED only a few issues in, because they persoally didn't like it and felt it ran counter to all the "New DC" stood for at the time (mainly, desecrating the names of its old, classic characters).
Whereas now, they stand for screwing over everyone created post-1970
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
That person's initials wouldn't happen to be MC, would it?
He was all too happy to DECIMATE Legion continuity in the 90s, too, refusing to even allow the Pocket Universe Superboy to be in continuity (itself a band-aid forced by Wolfman & Byrne), forcing TMK's LSH relaunch to do that whole "mini-boot" with issues 4-5 and throwing the book off its intended track.
And then the Zero Hour destruction of the JSA... GRRRRRR.... maybe I better head back to the "BAD 90s COMICS" thread.... I apparently still have issues to work through!
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"That person's initials wouldn't happen to be MC, would it?"
Mmmmmmmmmmm... COULD be!
"refusing to even allow the Pocket Universe Superboy to be in continuity"
I long thought of that as a work of sheer GENIUS, under the circumstances it was done. Think about it: EVERY Pre-Crisis SUPERMAN story was no longer valid; but virtually every SUPERBOY story STILL WAS!! The absurdity of that, and how neatly it fit into the Post-Crisis "New DC Universe" showed how much Paul Levitz cared about what he was doing, and set an example for others of what CAN be "done with what's there"-- IF someone only chooses to. So having someone who wasn't even the LEGION's editor suddenly barging in and saying, "YOU CAN'T DO THAT ANYMORE!", after all the work that had already been done ("bending over backwards" to please TPTB) was just the height of absurdity (not to mention unmittigated arrogance personified).
"forcing TMK's LSH relaunch to do that whole "mini-boot" with issues 4-5 and throwing the book off its intended track"
Well... that's NOT quite how I see it. ALL ANYBODY really had to do-- was NEVER mention Superboy in any stories they were planning to do for the foreseeable future. The LEGION is a book about the future-- it shouldn't "have" to spend all its time looking back, just because the book is being written by some obsessive-compulsive fanboys-turned pros. But what it really comes down to was, Keith Giffen threw a temper tantrum and NEEDLESSLY re-booted the Legion's universe TWICE in TWO MONTHS. A more sensible head might have just cooled it... until the wave of editorial opinion swung back the other way.
By the way-- does anyone know SPECIFICALLY why Mark Waid was FIRED as Editor of the LEGION back when? It suddenly hit me the other day that Waid has PERSONALLY wiped out TWO whole timelines on his own since then-- and I'm wondering if, in some way, it isn't some kind of "payback" for what happened to him when he was (ahem) "in charge" of the book 17 years ago.
Personally, in light of all the RE-rebooting going on around DC, my feeling that "everything" DC has published since 1986 are "Elseworlds" (and I do mean EVERYTHING) is only being strengthened. I'm still waiting to see the Earth-1/Silver Age LEGION return in their own-- ahem-- "Elseworlds" stories, that would ignore everything (and I mean EVERYTHING!!!) that happened since the Crisis. It CAN be done. All someone at DC has to do is really WANT to bad enough.
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
I don't blame Giffen for throwing his tantrum. It was called for. Someone NEEDED to be throwing a fit about the "Let's see who can pee on the Legion and Justice Society the most" mindset that was forming at DC at the time.
Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
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