posting meme: top 5 comic storylines

[ratcreature]

sabcatt prompted: Top 5 comic book or comic-book-derived (ie, film or TV adaptation) storylines?

I'm not fond of ranking fiction or best of lists in general, but that said:

1. The top spot has to go to The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa. I love the foundational Carl Barks more as a brilliant cartoonist, but Don Rosa's twelve part saga weaves all kinds of one-off details Carl Barks revealed about Uncle Scrooge's past into one coherent history and timeline. I adore the world building. It's like the very best fanfic, my definite canon for the Ducks. And even with all the references, they still stand as stories on their own.


2. The Amazing Spider-Man origin and early story lines by Stan Lee. Revisiting this has become a bit overdone, but for a reason, because it's just a great superhero setup. I've enjoyed all kinds of retellings from earlier movies to the the MCU to Spider-Man: Blue by Loeb/Sale.


3. I have a hard time picking just one thing from the Batverse. I like many of the takes on Batman's origin and early years (also a very overcrowded field), but for one storyline I think A Lonely Place of Dying by Marv Wolfman, George Perez and Jim Aparo deserves a spot of honor. And not just for introducing Tim Drake, who actually isn't my favorite Batverse character (that spot belongs to Nightwing). It's just a great comic. (I squeed about it here.)


4. For another of my favorite comic characters, Daredevil, it's also hard to pick, as he has many great storylines. Since I like Daredevil angsty, I enjoyed the whole Bendis era, and Out by Bendis/Maleev is a real highlight.


5. The whole Animal Man run by Grant Morrison. It's a series that gets more and more meta, but it leaves you bewildered in a good way. (I squeed about it years ago.)


6. An extra movie mention goes to Captain America: The Winter Soldier in the MCU, because it's one of the best MCU films, but mostly for the millions of words of epic Steve/Bucky fic it inspired.

Comments

[rheanna]

Totally agree with CA:TWS being one of the best MCU films! Also, I’ve never read Animal Man myself, but my husband raves about it too. I’ve never really read comics, and I’d quite like to be into them a bit more, but the sheer volume of stuff overwhelms me.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, especially with superhero comics it's really overwhelming. I think that's a reason why I like the more "street level" heroes like Daredevil more than the cosmic level team stuff.

I think the most feasible strategy is to start with a favorite character, like say Moon Knight for you, research them (wikis and such are your friend here), take note which arcs are foundational/important and then pick some as trades that either come widely recommended or where the art just appeals to you. It can be a slog to read "important" arcs if you dislike the art.

This is harder for more obscure characters that don't get reprinted/collected as often but for those digital backlist subscription might work. (I'm not sure, having never done that, I tracked down issues because I like collecting with occasional forays into acquiring scans instead.)

Then you branch out from there by reading other characters you come across or other works by writers you liked etc. I started out with superhero stuff by reading Spider-Man by JMS because I was a Babylon 5 fan for example, then later read some Essential TPB collections etc. With Batman I started just reading Nightwing, because somebody I knew from back in Sentinel fandom was really into him and roped other people into their new fandom...

Basically give up on anything systematic but just pick a shiny thread and pull, and resign yourself to look up a lot of confusing stuff eventually.

[killabeez]

Ooh, that Batman comic sounds fascinating. I might need to check that out.

[ratcreature]

You really should. It's a great comic. I think the standalone TPB edition that you could get cheaply hasn't been reprinted recently, but I think they now collect it in TPBs together with one where Jason is killed by the Joker? https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Batman:_A_Death_in_the_Family_New_Edition_(Collected)

But it probably shouldn't be hard to find used either.

[lilacsigil]

I remember borrowing an ENORMOUS omnibus of Don Rosa's work from the library when I was about 10 or 11, expecting to be a bit bored because Disney, but at least it was big, and being completely enthralled. The stories were so clever!

The problem for me with A Lonely Place of Dying (of which the Tim parts are great) is the whole storyline with the Joker being the Iranian ambassador to the UN. It was just...super racist and unnecessary in the middle of a very heartfelt and strongly characterised arc.

The Bendis/Maleev run on Daredevil was SO GOOD. I'd never particularly been into Daredevil before, though I'd read pretty widely because I like street-level superheroes and loved Elektra, but I never expected to come out of it loving Foggy Nelson. And yet, he was so great. And Matt was so delightfully angsty and had so many problems entirely of his own making, but that felt very organic to the story.

[ratcreature]

Don Rosa is awesome. It's so impressive how he made that whole backstory make sense from all these references to Carl Barks, and it still works as fun adventures.

He once was at a con here and I got a beautiful original Scrooge McDuck/Nelly sketch. Unfortunately it got damaged when a chimey sealing failed and a wall of water came down where it was hanging. The ink was thankfully waterproof so it didn't get ruined completely but the paper suffered a lot and warped. :(

I actually forgot about that nonsensical Joker bit... the mental editing we engage in with our problematic faves. Heh.

Bendis Daredevil is peak angst. So delightful as you say, because it never quite crosses into the gratuitous or ridiculous. Though if you binge it rather than read it stretched out it is a bit of a wallow. Based on that run I really started to love Foggy too, and also added Matt/Foggy to my pairings, though I also like them as just friends.

[mellowtigger]

#6: Not just words. Also some talented artwork.
https://www.tumblr.com/muffinshark/tagged/stucky