Marvel Comics is running a series of reprints of the Top 25 Marvel Comics of all time, based on a reader poll. The poll was for the Top 100, and that’s the title they’re using, but it’re really starting with #25 on up.
I’ve often thought I should write comic reviews here. Not enough discipline — too busy reading ’em to write about ’em. But something short-term and structured like this? Sure.
I was in college, just starting off my comics collecting, and Claremont & Byrne’s Uncanny X-Men was the unquestioned “Save the Best for Last” in my stack, and this was one of the top issues when these guys were at the top of their form. It was also the beginning of the “X-Men Future History” mess which eventually destroyed the X-titles and Claremont’s rep. But in these days, it was fresh and new. Sentinels have taken over the US? A desperate attempt by 2013 versions of the X-Men (incuding a mysterious “Rachel” and a good-guy Magneto) to send Kate Pryde’s consciousness back to the day when it all went bad — when the New Brotherhood of Evil Mutants assassinated Sen. Robert Kelly? Good stuff, scary stuff, innovative stuff, and even if it was sowing the seeds of destruction (and plot cliches for decades to come), it had me convinced that the X-Men were where it was at.
Lee and Kirby at their best, too. This issue wrapped up the Inhumans’ first appearance (complete with the Great Barrier), introduced the Silver Surfer (sans trunks), and, on the last page, the Big G himself. Yup, this one deserves the big accolades. I’m just surprised it only came in at #24, unless there was a “young whippersnapper” bias in the polling.
Okay, maybe it’s time for this “young whippersnapper” to draw the line, or maybe it’s just that I’ve never been a Spidey fan, or a Steve Ditko fan (too cartoony, except perhaps in Dr. Strange), for that matter, but aside from being an early Spidey adventure (the first after Amazing Fantasy #15, his introduction), I really don’t see much here to get all that excited about. Jonah rants, Peter angsts, the FF (complete with a lumpy Thing) make a gratuitous guest appearance — and, oh, the incredibly memorable introduction of … the Chameleon! Be still my heart.
A seminal issue of Frank Miller’s trend-setting Daredevil run. Bullseye, Elektra (her first death), and DD all scuffle in Miller’s trademarked noir style. I loved this issue when it came out. Great, great stuff, only slightly “ruined” by having been recently reprinted in some fine collections of the Miller run by Marvel. Maybe I have a weakness for this because, again, it was from my college years, but it still seems fresh and exciting to me.