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[Kerny]

Thunderbolts 120 by Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato


Warren Ellis' Thunderbolts run is one of my favorite things ever. He got to play with some of my favorite villains (Norman Osborn, Venom, and Bullseye) and some guys who I didn't really know well but he made me like them (Songbird & Moonstone)

120 is the issue where Norman finally loses his grip on sanity and it is absolutely glorious. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way, because Bendis pretty much based Dark Reign off of the Ellis-Bolts run and while it was good, it just wasn't THIS good.

The issue opens with the best naked lunatic rant you'll ever read, with such quotables as "Smells like death,blondes, and victory" and Norman betting Hitler never had as many problems as he does with leadership. Norman gets naked and puts on his Green Goblin costume, and all hell proceeds to break loose.

The main plot sees the Thunderbolts under mental siege as they captured 4 mind controller types and they have taken over the minds of Venom, Radioactiveman, and others. Swordsman takes this time to rebel against Norman, or maybe he's mind controlled too? It doesn't really matter.

Norman proceeds to swoop in and kick the ever living shit out of The Swordsman, a scene in which again Bendis would build upon to kick off Dark Reign. "You can't do this to me, I'm a Baron!" Swordsman shouts, only to be rebutted with "I AM GOD" and manical laughter. Swordsman ends up crucified by goblin batarangs for his efforts.

Deodato's art was great as well. His use of shadows was great as was his depiction of Osborn as a insane Tommy Lee Jones. Pretty sublime.

This was the penultimate chapter in this arc, and the rest of the run is filled with crazy character spots and kickass action. Highly recommended

9.5

[Punchy]

Best ever monologue in comics.

[God-Man]

Action Comics #583

Alan Moore and Curt Swan's "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" is the benchmark I measure Superman stories against. Nothing I've read before or since compares, not even Moore's other Superman tales. When I first read the story when I was a kid, It was darker, more violent, more exciting and smart, and ultimately more optimistic than any Superman book I had read up to that point. We saw the final defeat of Brainiac, Luthor, and Mister Mxyzptlk. Superman chose Lois over Lana, and eventually started a new life with her after giving up his powers after killing Mxyzptlk. "Whatever Happened..." was a revelation, and the second part of the storyline perfectly capped off Moore's farewell to the Pre-Crisis Superman.

10

[doombug]

Starman #55 "taxicab confessions"

This was a point in the series where David Goyer was helping Robinson on the book but it was as strong as it ever was. The story was told by 3 different characters, 2 of which being more obscure of the DC universe.

Jack and Mik were still lost in space during this issue and it tells the tale of their adventure against a repugnant creature who was very much like jabba the hutt. It didn't hurt that they were also saving Starfire in the story.

The 3 different ways that the story are told are clever, one is told as if it was a pirate story, the second as if it was a classic golden age comic and the third was the real deal.

All in all, this was just another example of why Starman is one of the best comics of all time and could use the medium to the best of it's ability.

Grade: 10

[Victorian Squid]

I don't know if I could ever agree with myself on what are my favorite single issues, but both Hawk's Swamp Thing choice and Starlord's classic X-Men pick are both two of my all-time favorites too. I loved the whole Dark Phoenix arc when it came out and it was actually shocking for Phoenix to die at the end of it. The "Days of Future Past" story would have to be an all-time favorite too, for blowing my young mind at the time. Makes me sad for my dear departed first comics collection, that would probably have made it easier to answer the question of favorite if it hadn't been destroyed. This X-Men issue too:


But there's so many others, books I'd have to spend serious Google time figuring out what #s and stuff they were. I don't know if I could ever answer the question definitively at all. I will say due to the trend of decompressing storylines it's a lot easier to think of older favorite single issues than more recent ones though.