An excellent question! The basics: The run must last at least nine issues of an ongoing comic book. So no miniseries. However, series that were canceled early do count. Basically, we're looking to differentiate runs from storylines. Some books have had just way too many artists work on them to try to split them into smaller runs. It is unfair to categorize these runs just by their writers, as the artists are just as important, but for the sake of ease, that's just how we're going to have to do things. If an artist is a co-plotter on the book, though, that’s different. So, for instance, you have to split Marv Wolfman’s run on the New Titans into “Marv Wolfman/George Perez’s New Teen Titans” and then “Marv Wolfman’s New Titans” for the work Wolfman did once Perez left the book. The gory details can be found here: www.cbr.com/vote-for-the-top-100-comic-book-runs-of-all-time/
I only agree with about 5% of those. There is definitely a modern age bias. My favorites include Roy Thomas/ John Buscema Conan the Barbarian which at 77 is way too low imo Steve Gerber Howard the Duck Frank Thorne Red Sonja Tomb of Dracula… Lee Silver Surfer… My favorites on the list are: Thomas Conan the Barbarian Lee/ Romita Spider-Man Lee/ Ditko Doctor Strange Lee/ Ditko Spider-Man
I agree the omission of Tomb of Dracula is horrific. That one doesn't make any sense to me. Gerber's Howard the Duck would be on the bubble for me - I think I prefer his Man-Thing, but they both can be all over the place, which is part of the charm. Starlin's 10 issue run in Captain Marvel would also get my vote in. There is a definitely a modern age bias, but I was happy with some of the Silver Age inclusions. DC silver gets no love though - no Doom Patrol, Deadman or Adam Strange.
@@raph-retro-comics Other Silver Age DC ommissions include Flash by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, Green Lantern by Gardener Fox and Gil Kane, Legion of Superheroes by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan, and Aquaman by Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo.
Agreed that the Lee-Buscema Silver Surfer and (especially) Tomb of Dracula are conspicuous in their absences. I may have misread the list, but I thought the Thomas-Buscema Conan was there (as it should be). What I'm wondering along those lines is where Joe Kubert's Tarzan is.
They got better and better up to the late eighties. Then mainstream comics got worse, and indie/Vertigo titles better in the 90s. Then mainstream comics got better in the Oos, and have gotten worse in the last 10 years. Fair assessment? Personally, I think the 70s is my sweet spot for superhero comics, in terms of art and fun character designs.
@@reginaldforthright805 I feel the art declined since the Bronze Age and the writing is worse, endless multiverse incarnations of the same characters etc.
I think the thing with appreciating the G.I. Joe run is the context of what Larry Hama had to work with at the time. It being essentially a toy ad and having to be tethered to releases of action figures and vehicles as well as in the mix of the campy cartoon. The 20s-40s had some really neat character dynamics where he broke out of the inherent limitations in a way that I really doubt other creatives would have.
I hoped someone would chime in and add their thoughts on G.I. Joe. I'm certainly more curious about the run now that I've seen it on this list, and thank you for suggesting some of the issues!
I agree. Larry Hama took a weird situation and made it epic for a lot of the 155 issues. He got in the new characters as required by Hasbro but gave others a real spotlight. Storm Shadow's arc from villain to hero is one example.
Yeah, there definitely could have been better representation from the Bronze Age, some more Avengers, Starlin Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, etc. I wonder if some of the runs didn't qualify for not meeting the 9 issue minimum requirement.
Not having read many of these runs, I wont debate the placements. However, I consider Alan Moore’s Miracleman to be the run that changed how I viewed comic books. Totally agree that Miller’s Daredevil and Claremont/Byrne’s Uncanny X-Men should be the top two.
I mention how Walking Dead made me uncomfortable - Miracleman #14 & 15 have got to be some of the most difficult books I ever read. #14 because it was way out there, and #15 for how raw it was.
How was The Authority not on the list? Or am I nuts and it was. Either way I would have made massive changes to their list, definitely some recency bais. How Squirrel Girl made the list is a mystery.
I checked and The Authority did make the 2012 list. It was quite an outrageous series at that time, Ellis had way too much fun writing that one. I'm glad I'm not the only one who was weirded out by Squirrel Girl.
1. Love your channel. Brand new subscriber, and love the vibe. 2. SOOOOO glad Jim Starlin’s WARLOCK made the list. (I’d put it in the Top 10, as my mind was blown by this) 3. Notable absences for me: Ted McKeever’s “METROPOL” J. M. DeMatteis / Jon Muth “Moonshadow” Jim Steranko “Nick Fury” / “Captain America” Ted McKeever’s work was SO distinctive and brilliant, I’d definitely make a place in the Top 50 for him. Same with “Moonshadow” with beautiful stories by DeMatteis and drop dead gorgeous water color art by Muth. I know Steranko didn’t work on long runs… but his work with Nick Fury and Captain America were legendary. …and I’d also give Starlin another title in the Top 50 with his “Captain Marvel” work… amazing. These lists are awesome because, as you mention, they’re a great guide for checking out stuff I haven’t explored yet. Thanks so much!!
Thank you for subbing! You picked a perfect time to sub, as my next video is going to be on Jim Steranko, and the one after, a video on the Epic imprint at Marvel! I suspect both of those comic books didn't qualify to make the list at Comic Book Resources because they were 'limited series' with a fixed run. Although, I could be wrong about Metropol.
First time viewer. Loved the content and have subscribed. Astonished Rucka & Lark’s Lazarus is not in there somewhere. Think Love & Rockets should have been split into Locas & Palomar and the former should definitely have been higher. Hard to disagree with most of the top 10. I love C&B’s X-Men - changed comics for me back in the day (and think Astonishing should have been higher). But you can juggle the places on these lists around endlessly - which is what we love, right?
@@garyfoster65 Thanks for subbing! I think they combined a few runs as an excuse to have more entries in the top 100 😄Astonishing X-Men was as high as #21 in previous lists! I'm getting the feeling from the comments that the top 10-20 are pretty solid, and then it's pretty much open the rest of the way down, which as you said, great for discussion!
Do it! I tell myself I want to read at least one comic book a day. We only have so much time and the enjoyment I get from reading comic books is priceless.
Starting out 2025 with a great video, you set the mark very high for yourself to reach now with each video to come out in 2025. I believe that you will.
I'm just happy I got the audio figured out going forward! Thank you for the vote of confidence - if I can experiment and push without making too many mistakes, I'll be good with that. I do love lists, and I hope I don't get too repetitive with these types of videos.
Good list. Hard to argue the top 5. I was thrilled to see Justice League International at #17. There are a few runs I really enjoyed that immediately came to mind that weren't on the list. The first was The Flash (1987) It started with Mike Baron and Jackson Guice through the first dozen issues or so. William Messner-Loebs and Greg LaRoque then became a staple on the run for the next 50-60 issues before Mark Waid took over the scripts. It's one of 3 runs I still have from back then. The second run I'm very disappointed isn't there is Mike Grell's Green Arrow run. I don't really care for the character much, but once I started reading that run, I looked forward to the new issue every month. It was very well done. The third is Wonder Woman (1987) George Perez' work on Wonder Woman is the reason she became my favorite superhero. There are two more that I'll mention. The first is Serio Aragones' Groo. You want to talk about a fun read, this was it. Finally, I want to mention Bernie Wrightson's Swamp Thing. I know he only worked on 10 issues, but they were great. Even though Len Wein continued to script the series after Bernie's departure, it just wasn't the same. That's my take. Lists are slways subjective. Everyone has different tastes and opinions.
A lot of very solid picks in there. I'd have to comb through the previous top 100 lists but I have a feeling some of them (like Perez' Wonder Woman run) are there. I found Groo is best enjoyed in small batches, every now and then. Also agree that Wein & Wrightson's Swamp Thing deserve to be in the top 100. JLI at #17 was really a pleasant surprise for me as well!
Absolutely agree that the Wein-Wrightson Swamp Thing, Perez Wonder Woman, and Grell Green Arrow are glaring omissions.. The first is better than Alan Moore's run and the last belongs on the same shelf as Miller's Daredevil and the best Batman runs -- as does Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiwicz's Moon Knight, from a few years before.
I'm always surprised that the Nick Fury run by Steranko never gets on these lists. That surely was one of the most influential runs in comic art history.
Steranko's Nick Fury did make the list in 2012, albeit only at #99. Still nice that he made the top 100. My episode on Steranko will be dropping next Sunday!
Great video, love Stan Sakai and a lot on the list. Chu I have heard great things about, I need to check that out also. Geoff Johns has been putting some great stuff out there. The Max Punisher was a great run. ?The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl deserves the shout out and worth you checking out, first appearances in the Great Lakes Avengers with her early squirrel sidekick Monkey Joe. I couldn't get into the Hitman run but Jeff Smith's Bone is a great run. I love Swamp Thing but I prefer Man-Thing, I also believe there are better Keith Giffen options. Thanks for the video it was fun, have a great week!
Thanks for watching and the recommendations! Honestly, the title 'The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl' is what caught my attention - and that I"ve heard nothing about it. Keith Giffen was such a prolific writer in his day, I even remember The Heckler which was a fun short-lived title.
Interesting list. When I was a teen collecting in the early 80's, my interest in the hobby dropped quite a bit when Byrne left the X-Men. X-Men were everything back then but Miller's Daredevil took over as the hottest thing. That first Miller Daredevil (158) was going for/worth more than Hulk 181.
I remember those days! Back issues of X-Men were so expensive as well as those Miller Daredevils. It was a time where demand for stories and art really drove prices. Prices started to drop once they started reprinting all the stories (like Classic X-Men). I should have taken the opportunity then to pick up those back issues of X-Men as they're expensive now.
@@raph-retro-comics Yeah, anything X-Men including any appearances in other books were "key" books. I started collecting comics when the book was in the 120's and those 94-early 100s were already really expensive. 94 and GS1 were also the same price back then and I think 94 was even more in demand as collectors were into runs. It's another interesting thing about this vid topic in that, for a long time, collectors were into runs and filling in those missing issues they needed. I hadn't looked at my collection in decades until that surge in '21 and started checking out some collector vids here on YT. It was interesting to see just how heavily weighted first appearances were in terms of "keys". First appearances were important "in the old days" but #1's were bigger and even death issues were pretty key but working towards full runs was a really big thing.
@@stampscapes 94 was more expensive in high grade compared to GS X-Men 1 for a while. I've owned a 94 but never a GS X-Men 1. They're coming down in price, but still rather expensive. It's funny you mention death issues, ASM #121 & 122 have been expensive for as long as I can remember, although I guess they seem 'cheaper' now.
@@raph-retro-comics Exactly! ASM 121 and 122 were THE issues of that era of ASM and I never even thought about picking up either due to the price. ASM 129 wasn't even on the map as far as desired books. 161 and 162 were even more valuable than 129 with the Nightcrawler appearances.
Actually, they're the top picks as chosen by people who wrote into Comic Book Resources, and my top 10 would be pretty close. My top 5 would essentially be the same, but perhaps a different order.
Wild that Otomo's Akira didnt make the cut. Glad to see that Planetary placed as high as it did, though. Don't sleep on Geoff Johns. He's been responsible for iconic runs on Superman, Green Lantern and JSA. For my money, anything he collaborates with Gary Frank on is definitely worth picking up.
A number of people have mentioned the omission of Akira, which is pretty mystifying, considering manga is so popular now. I think I'll jump on Green Lantern first for Geoff Johns!
The 1980s to me were the greatest decade of comic books! Certainly nostalgia has a great pull, but I really do feel it was a new 'golden age' of innovation and story telling in the medium.
I just read the Wally West era of The Flash by Geoff Johns. Highly recommend, especially the issues drawn by Scott Kolins. Also great for new readers as long as they can tolerate sci-fi puzzle boxes like the Nolan movies. There's some crossover with Our Worlds at War, and later Identity Crisis, but you can just ignore that if you don't want to read outside the omnibus. The Barry Allen era is even better, but by then you really do have to read a lot of crossover events to get what's going on. Definitely not for new readers! Personally I love the chaos of Final Crisis but it seems like you don't like very dense plots like that.
There's a lot stuff from the past 15-20 years I'm just not very aware of. I'm afraid as I've gotten older, my attention span has also gotten worse, and yet, I'll complain about how fluffy or quick it is to read some modern books. I'm hoping to dip my toes into more recent DC stuff, and thank you for the recommendations!
Fifteen years ago is a fine cutoff for not reading any more. It's been mostly bad since New 52 and Disney bought Marvel. But I will defend the 2000s, especially DC.
@@raph-retro-comics Johns's comics have an old-fashioned, 80's feel, with a fair amount of narrative density compared to the decompressed style of most of his peers -- and for me, that's a feature not a bug!
I agree with you about Cerebus, I loved it as soon as I stumbled onto it around #15 but by #110 I remember thinking that Sim had forgotten he had an audience and was creating each issue just for himself. I would definitely have placed some of these entries much higher: Lee/Ditko's Doctor Strange at only 69 and Roy Thomas' first Conan run at 77? Also, is this Thomas on the colour Conan The Barbarian or the b/w Savage Sword Of Conan? He did many issues of each. Really pleased to see Hitman so high and I'll always be grateful to DC for letting Ennis and McCrea wrap up Tommy Monaghan's story properly. Yes Raph, definitely worth reading.
Chew definitely seems very original, looking forward to checking it out. I'm not familiar with any of Rick Remember's work, but I can see Jeff Lemaire making the list in the future.
Catching up on some of these runs...definitely check out the library. A lot of these should be available digitally via your library App. I read most of Saga, and the entire Walking Dead and Invincible runs in this way.
That's a great way to catch up. My tablet died unfortunately, and I find reading comic books on my phone unbearable. I do have a mountain of comic books I still need to work through though 😅
It's a wonderful series and amazing to think it all just came from Stan Sakai, who got better as the series progressed! I hope more people will check it out!
Good afternoon Raph Great Show, top one hundreds lists always gets the troops excited. leading everyone to compile their own list of favorites. And a good thing it is. I myself would have put Space Family Robinson in at number one, It had the same creation team for well over 10 years. Then you could have Russ Manning's Magnus Robot Fighter, Tarzan of the Apes and Korak Son of Tarzan. But that is just me. Then you could include Phil De Lara Tony Strobl and Pete Alvarado for all the Warner Brothers/ Disney work. Steve Ditko for his seemingly limitless work for those Charlton Horror tittles: Joe Staton could have been included also Time diminishes Legends I'm afraid. But list create conversation. Keep these klists coming Best wishes for 2025 and the road forward. Al TheGoldkeyfourcolorkidownunda
It's a gem of a series - and it took forever for the series to finish, which is usually death for a comic book. Hmm...might need to pop it out and read it again.
@raph-retro-comics I remember buying the initial issues, and then I did drift away in the last half just because the releases were so erratic, we didn't know when they would be on the store shelf. Went back to it after the series ended and read it all as a complete work.
@@Banterbear I often had to go back and re-read a lot of the issues, which I didn't mind, when new issues came out. I have The Absolute Planetary Book Two which is great.
Only a third of these runs would make my personal Top 100. To my taste, there are too many recent titles relative to older ones, too many Big Two titles relative to ones from the indies, and too many Marvel titles relative to ones from DC. I can't recommend highly enough that you read Ostrander's Suicide Squad; Johns' JSA, Flash, and Green Lantern; and especially Levitz and Giffen's Legion of Superheroes. The mid 70's revival of The X-Men was influenced greatly by Jim Shooter's and Cary Bates's previous late 60's and early 70's runs on the Legion and Levitz and Giffen's work on Legion from the late 70's until the early 90's -- Levitz's 70s run without Giffen and Giffen's 90s run without Levitz, bookending their 80's parternship -- was as long-running and (for me) of (even) higher quality than what Chris Claremont and his collaborators did on X-Men. The only team books that match or exceed it for me are the Lee-Kirby Fantastic Four, the original 60's Doom Patrol by Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani, and my personal favorite, Wolfman and Perez's New Teen Titans.
I really have to get on that Legion run - one of this year's resolutions. DC Silver Age certainly doesn't get any love in this list. Along with Doom Patrol, I'm surprised the Deadman Strange Adventures run didn't make any of the top 100s going back to 2012. I'd also personally add the Enemy Ace run in Star Spangled War Stories.
Such a great series. I said it was originally released in Japan in the 1960s, but I was incorrect, it was released in September 1970. I knew it came out a long time ago, and I'm still floored how way ahead of its time it was.
Watchmen and other 'limited series' were not part of this list - it would definitely be in the top 10, probably top 3 of all time. Comic Book Resources does have a top 100 'series' that would have these but I haven't checked it out (yet!).
I think you need to revisit Starman. Its very heartfelt as its basically about fathers and sons, brothers, family and legacy. Also if they are going to include Lone Wolf and Cub (which should be higher) then they left out so much great manga and other international comics such as Tintin from Europe. Very problematic and biased list.
Lone Wolf and Cub is included on an American list on the technicality that some of it was translated and published as individual issues by First Comics in the 80s. Not saying it makes a lot of sense, but that's the explanation.
I think I'd probably have a different perspective on Starman if I read the entire series. The same would probably apply for many of the other runs listed in the top 100 (except Cerebus). The list is biased, as it's essentially just a poll from the community at CBR, but, it does have some value, and makes for great conversation.
"Comic books over time have gotten better"??? On this one I would highly debate that. Anyway, yes, you should check out Suicide Squad by John Ostrander, highly recommended. Thanks for sharing.
Aye, definitely planted the foot in my mouth on that comment. Looking at the top 10, none of the books are from the last 25 years! The 1980s seem to be a peak time for comic books, especially when you consider all the other quality comic books that didn't qualify for this list.
Hi there, Raph. I'm not a fan of lists like this not because people's opinions differ, but because '100' is simply too damn large of a number. If I'm checking out a comprehensive list of somebody's 'best' or 'most noteworthy,' of something, all 100 of them can't be 'the best.' All 100 of them can't be noteworthy. IMO, even '50' is too large of a number for something like this. My preference would be to narrow it down to more like 25-30 or so. Having said that, I--same as you--have not read several of these, and some of them, I have absolutely no interest in trying out. For me, that's another fail with this list. Chances are that several of the items on a list this size will be of no interest to me. I will say that most of the runs that I am familiar with on this list are runs that I enjoyed. But just for giggles, here's my two cents on some of these: Ostrander's Suicide Squad was a decent enough run. Ostrander, in general, has always been a decent and credible writer to me. I tried Ryan North's FF, and it just wasn't clicking with me. No-go. Had a lot of problems with the years they let Brian Michael Bendis defile the Avengers. Didn't care for Mark Waid's Daredevil. In fact, I don't really care for Waid on ANY Marvel book (his short run on INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK was an insult to my intelligence). Waid's strength is DC characters. He has an excellent feel for DC characters; THAT is where his writing flourishes. I agree with you that numbers 1-20 on that list are ALL worth reading.
Some excellent points! Even with all that I've read (and re-read), there is a lot on this list that I haven't read, and probably most likely will never read. There's only so much time I have to read, but it's nice to have a list to see what other people think. I tell you one thing, I'm pretty happy with the amount of discussion it has generated, and no one has given me grief on my comments about Kirby's 4th World (yet). I do remember reading some of Ostrander's Spectre which I thought were good, but it's a pretty distant memory.
@@raph-retro-comics - Well, as you probably have intuited, I'm a long-time KIRBY fan, but I will be the first to say that in terms of all his 70s stuff (for DC and Marvel), Kirby is not the most comprehensive writer. His strength (besides his art) are his concepts and ideas. He has unlimited imagination and vision, but when it comes to putting words together in a way that makes comprehensive sense, he kind of flounders, unfortunately. For me, what makes his Fourth World stuff so fascinating is that Kirby had the idea of doing a series of interconnected stories and titles decades before that became the norm. Think of Marvel's interconnected mutant titles or symbiote titles (Carnage & Venom) or its Spider-Verse titles, or DC's interconnected Batman & Superman titles, or just about ANY current day comicbook story-event (Absolute Power, Blood Hunters). How is any of that different from Kirby's Fourth World titles? I appreciate the visionary that Kirby was, so for that reason, I appreciate his Fourth World material. But I can totally understand if trying to read some of it kinda makes your head hurt. (LOL)
@@Deephouse_Gent66 It feels like he was holding back all these ideas for years and then just exploded when he went to DC. Unfortunately DC didn't give him enough time to fully develop his ideas with the right support. Fans were disappointed that it wasn't the same as what he did at Marvel, and it takes time for these new ideas to flourish. Crazy stuff for that time!
I guess if it’s solely based on western Superheroes and that’s the majority of what your website caters to then this list is complete… and the odd placement of a title like Love and Rockets would probably check off the non superhero titles and allow them to pat themselves on the back and say they included those boring indie books … not to include books like Eightball by Dan Clowes or Acme Novelty library by Chris ware two series that have been highly acclaimed outside the United States and are perennial best sellers and series like From Hell , ElfQuest , Grendel , Mage …. To omit the highly influential and popular Akira by Otomo is a massive head scratcher …. You can sure tell the interests and tunnel vision of the people that put that list together.
Eightball, and Acme Novelty had made the top 100 lists before (Elquest made it at #98 in this one) - but yes, this list certainly feels it has a heavier weight to superheroes and 'modern' era comic books. I didn't go back as far as their 2008 list, but it would be interesting to make a 'composite' top 100 of all the years combined and see what differences there would be. The omission of Akira is a mystery (didn't make it on any lists) as it should qualify given it was published in North America through Epic.
This list by Comic Book Resources only includes 'runs' and not 'series' which is confusing, so it excludes any limited series like Watchmen or Dark Knight. They do have a separate top 100 list for 'series' which I'm sure Watchmen will be top 5, probably top 3.
I can't say anything about Taylor's Nightwing or Morrison's Batman, but I'd like to give Morrison's Batman the benefit of doubt as I tend to like his other stuff quite a bit. Too many comic books to check out, not enough time...
Agreed about Y the Last Man and not just Nightwing but everything else by Tom Taylor. As for Morrison's Batman, it's alright, but absolutely absurd to include on a list that's missing the intertwined runs on Batman and Detective with Gerry Conway and Doug Moench as writers and Gene Colon and Don Newton on art. That may be the best run of Batman ever and certainly better than anything post Frank Miller.
Never heard of Scalped before as well, although it made it as high as #33(!!) in 2012 so it's been around for a while. TMNT is interesting, I definitely have a fondness for the early issues.
I guess it is a decent list. Suicide Squad is pretty good. Fell off at the middle and end. Fables is pretty cool. The Ultimates I really liked. Ultimate Spiderman is good as well. Y the Last Man I liked. Saga is overrated shock value. Walking Dead is a very disturbing comic. It did not hold back. Fell off after the Governor was killed. Picked back up with The Saviors war. Then it just became repitive 💩. Punisher Max is cool. Only thing I like from Ennis. Agree the Boys comic is 🗑. Written as a joke to superheroes. Show is so much better. Invincible is a very good read. Long but good. Some of the old stuff I did not read. League of Gentlemen was good but the second half fell off. Comics have changed. Production is better at times.
Thinking about The Walking Dead still gives me chills. I wasn't sure if I'd get any heat about The Boys comic book series being a little over-rated. Can't say enough about how good the TV series is!
@raph-retro-comics people like the book because of the series. Art is decent. Story is pure 💩 Shock value galore. WD went there years ago when things were tamed. Now this stuff happens all the time for shock value or to be edgy
I get honoring Stan Lee, and moreso Jack Kirby, but Lee was a terrible writer. Lee was great at concepts and promotion, but his dialogue and exposition were barf.
Not all of Stan Lee's stuff is great (he does have clunkers), and his reputation has been tainted over the years when it comes to the 'Marvel Method', but for the titles in this list, Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-man, Dr. Strange, Thor etc. his work is great. Does some of it show its age? Sure, but he has come up with some classic, influential work. He had the support of great artists like Kirby and Ditko which certainly helped.
What criteria for stats are they following?
An excellent question! The basics:
The run must last at least nine issues of an ongoing comic book. So no miniseries. However, series that were canceled early do count. Basically, we're looking to differentiate runs from storylines. Some books have had just way too many artists work on them to try to split them into smaller runs. It is unfair to categorize these runs just by their writers, as the artists are just as important, but for the sake of ease, that's just how we're going to have to do things. If an artist is a co-plotter on the book, though, that’s different. So, for instance, you have to split Marv Wolfman’s run on the New Titans into “Marv Wolfman/George Perez’s New Teen Titans” and then “Marv Wolfman’s New Titans” for the work Wolfman did once Perez left the book.
The gory details can be found here: www.cbr.com/vote-for-the-top-100-comic-book-runs-of-all-time/
I only agree with about 5% of those. There is definitely a modern age bias.
My favorites include
Roy Thomas/ John Buscema Conan the Barbarian which at 77 is way too low imo
Steve Gerber Howard the Duck
Frank Thorne Red Sonja
Tomb of Dracula…
Lee Silver Surfer…
My favorites on the list are:
Thomas Conan the Barbarian
Lee/ Romita Spider-Man
Lee/ Ditko Doctor Strange
Lee/ Ditko Spider-Man
I agree the omission of Tomb of Dracula is horrific. That one doesn't make any sense to me. Gerber's Howard the Duck would be on the bubble for me - I think I prefer his Man-Thing, but they both can be all over the place, which is part of the charm. Starlin's 10 issue run in Captain Marvel would also get my vote in. There is a definitely a modern age bias, but I was happy with some of the Silver Age inclusions. DC silver gets no love though - no Doom Patrol, Deadman or Adam Strange.
@@raph-retro-comics I agree with all that!
@@raph-retro-comics Other Silver Age DC ommissions include Flash by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, Green Lantern by Gardener Fox and Gil Kane, Legion of Superheroes by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan, and Aquaman by Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo.
Agreed that the Lee-Buscema Silver Surfer and (especially) Tomb of Dracula are conspicuous in their absences. I may have misread the list, but I thought the Thomas-Buscema Conan was there (as it should be). What I'm wondering along those lines is where Joe Kubert's Tarzan is.
@@johnmurphy9385 Ah Conan was 77. Seems way too far down on the list
“Comics keep getting better” I had a good laugh with that one.
At least the production quality of comic books!
They got better and better up to the late eighties. Then mainstream comics got worse, and indie/Vertigo titles better in the 90s. Then mainstream comics got better in the Oos, and have gotten worse in the last 10 years. Fair assessment?
Personally, I think the 70s is my sweet spot for superhero comics, in terms of art and fun character designs.
$5 for new crap. No thank you!!
@@reginaldforthright805 I feel the art declined since the Bronze Age and the writing is worse, endless multiverse incarnations of the same characters etc.
I think the thing with appreciating the G.I. Joe run is the context of what Larry Hama had to work with at the time. It being essentially a toy ad and having to be tethered to releases of action figures and vehicles as well as in the mix of the campy cartoon. The 20s-40s had some really neat character dynamics where he broke out of the inherent limitations in a way that I really doubt other creatives would have.
I hoped someone would chime in and add their thoughts on G.I. Joe. I'm certainly more curious about the run now that I've seen it on this list, and thank you for suggesting some of the issues!
I agree. Larry Hama took a weird situation and made it epic for a lot of the 155 issues. He got in the new characters as required by Hasbro but gave others a real spotlight. Storm Shadow's arc from villain to hero is one example.
Also, it really helps to understand GI Joe started as an updated SHIELD idea morphed into a comic and toyline--quite interesting.
Enjoyed your run through of this list and added a few runs to my To Read list!
One of the best parts of this list, more great stuff to look forward to reading!
Great video!!!! Wish it had some runs from the Bronze Age. That is what I like to collect. Keep up the great job. 😎
Yeah, there definitely could have been better representation from the Bronze Age, some more Avengers, Starlin Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, etc. I wonder if some of the runs didn't qualify for not meeting the 9 issue minimum requirement.
Not having read many of these runs, I wont debate the placements. However, I consider Alan Moore’s Miracleman to be the run that changed how I viewed comic books. Totally agree that Miller’s Daredevil and Claremont/Byrne’s Uncanny X-Men should be the top two.
I mention how Walking Dead made me uncomfortable - Miracleman #14 & 15 have got to be some of the most difficult books I ever read. #14 because it was way out there, and #15 for how raw it was.
Cool video, like your approach and your way to talk about comics. Subscribed!
Thanks for subbing! I hope there's a lot of runs in that list you'll check out!
What a great list. So many Hall of Famers writers and artists. 😊
Indeed! At some point, I'd like to go back and talk about previous top 100s going over titles that have fell off or should be included.
How was The Authority not on the list? Or am I nuts and it was. Either way I would have made massive changes to their list, definitely some recency bais. How Squirrel Girl made the list is a mystery.
Also Larry Hama/Silvestri run on Wolverine was great.
I checked and The Authority did make the 2012 list. It was quite an outrageous series at that time, Ellis had way too much fun writing that one. I'm glad I'm not the only one who was weirded out by Squirrel Girl.
1. Love your channel. Brand new subscriber, and love the vibe.
2. SOOOOO glad Jim Starlin’s WARLOCK made the list. (I’d put it in the Top 10, as my mind was blown by this)
3. Notable absences for me:
Ted McKeever’s “METROPOL”
J. M. DeMatteis / Jon Muth “Moonshadow”
Jim Steranko “Nick Fury” / “Captain America”
Ted McKeever’s work was SO distinctive and brilliant, I’d definitely make a place in the Top 50 for him. Same with “Moonshadow” with beautiful stories by DeMatteis and drop dead gorgeous water color art by Muth. I know Steranko didn’t work on long runs… but his work with Nick Fury and Captain America were legendary. …and I’d also give Starlin another title in the Top 50 with his “Captain Marvel” work… amazing.
These lists are awesome because, as you mention, they’re a great guide for checking out stuff I haven’t explored yet. Thanks so much!!
Thank you for subbing! You picked a perfect time to sub, as my next video is going to be on Jim Steranko, and the one after, a video on the Epic imprint at Marvel! I suspect both of those comic books didn't qualify to make the list at Comic Book Resources because they were 'limited series' with a fixed run. Although, I could be wrong about Metropol.
DeMatteis's Dr. Fate with Keith Giffen and then with Shawn McManus is another ommission.
@@johnmurphy9385 Yup!
First time viewer. Loved the content and have subscribed. Astonished Rucka & Lark’s Lazarus is not in there somewhere. Think Love & Rockets should have been split into Locas & Palomar and the former should definitely have been higher.
Hard to disagree with most of the top 10. I love C&B’s X-Men - changed comics for me back in the day (and think Astonishing should have been higher). But you can juggle the places on these lists around endlessly - which is what we love, right?
@@garyfoster65 Thanks for subbing! I think they combined a few runs as an excuse to have more entries in the top 100 😄Astonishing X-Men was as high as #21 in previous lists! I'm getting the feeling from the comments that the top 10-20 are pretty solid, and then it's pretty much open the rest of the way down, which as you said, great for discussion!
Great breakdown of the list. This is a great reading guide for those new to the hobby. One of these days I want to start reading ASM from issue 1.
Do it! I tell myself I want to read at least one comic book a day. We only have so much time and the enjoyment I get from reading comic books is priceless.
Starting out 2025 with a great video, you set the mark very high for yourself to reach now with each video to come out in 2025. I believe that you will.
I'm just happy I got the audio figured out going forward! Thank you for the vote of confidence - if I can experiment and push without making too many mistakes, I'll be good with that. I do love lists, and I hope I don't get too repetitive with these types of videos.
Seeing Slott's Spider-Man ahead of Byrne's Superman made me ill..
John Byrne's Superman was #45 the previous top 100, and surprisingly, the only Superman series to be mentioned in all the top 100 lists back to 2012.
I highly recommend reading some Judge Dredd. The stories are intense with high stakes. Start with the following:
Total War
The Apocalypse
Mandroid
Thanks for the recommendations! I have read some Judge Dredd, the stories published by Eagle back in the day and they're great.
Good list. Hard to argue the top 5. I was thrilled to see Justice League International at #17. There are a few runs I really enjoyed that immediately came to mind that weren't on the list. The first was The Flash (1987) It started with Mike Baron and Jackson Guice through the first dozen issues or so. William Messner-Loebs and Greg LaRoque then became a staple on the run for the next 50-60 issues before Mark Waid took over the scripts. It's one of 3 runs I still have from back then. The second run I'm very disappointed isn't there is Mike Grell's Green Arrow run. I don't really care for the character much, but once I started reading that run, I looked forward to the new issue every month. It was very well done. The third is Wonder Woman (1987) George Perez' work on Wonder Woman is the reason she became my favorite superhero. There are two more that I'll mention. The first is Serio Aragones' Groo. You want to talk about a fun read, this was it. Finally, I want to mention Bernie Wrightson's Swamp Thing. I know he only worked on 10 issues, but they were great. Even though Len Wein continued to script the series after Bernie's departure, it just wasn't the same.
That's my take. Lists are slways subjective. Everyone has different tastes and opinions.
A lot of very solid picks in there. I'd have to comb through the previous top 100 lists but I have a feeling some of them (like Perez' Wonder Woman run) are there. I found Groo is best enjoyed in small batches, every now and then. Also agree that Wein & Wrightson's Swamp Thing deserve to be in the top 100. JLI at #17 was really a pleasant surprise for me as well!
Grell Green Arrow 💯
Absolutely agree that the Wein-Wrightson Swamp Thing, Perez Wonder Woman, and Grell Green Arrow are glaring omissions.. The first is better than Alan Moore's run and the last belongs on the same shelf as Miller's Daredevil and the best Batman runs -- as does Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiwicz's Moon Knight, from a few years before.
I'm always surprised that the Nick Fury run by Steranko never gets on these lists. That surely was one of the most influential runs in comic art history.
Steranko's Nick Fury did make the list in 2012, albeit only at #99. Still nice that he made the top 100. My episode on Steranko will be dropping next Sunday!
@@raph-retro-comics Looking forward to it!
Great video, love Stan Sakai and a lot on the list. Chu I have heard great things about, I need to check that out also. Geoff Johns has been putting some great stuff out there. The Max Punisher was a great run. ?The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl deserves the shout out and worth you checking out, first appearances in the Great Lakes Avengers with her early squirrel sidekick Monkey Joe. I couldn't get into the Hitman run but Jeff Smith's Bone is a great run. I love Swamp Thing but I prefer Man-Thing, I also believe there are better Keith Giffen options. Thanks for the video it was fun, have a great week!
Thanks for watching and the recommendations! Honestly, the title 'The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl' is what caught my attention - and that I"ve heard nothing about it. Keith Giffen was such a prolific writer in his day, I even remember The Heckler which was a fun short-lived title.
Thanks for sharing! Subbed you up
Thank you for subbing, much appreciated!
Interesting list. When I was a teen collecting in the early 80's, my interest in the hobby dropped quite a bit when Byrne left the X-Men. X-Men were everything back then but Miller's Daredevil took over as the hottest thing. That first Miller Daredevil (158) was going for/worth more than Hulk 181.
I remember those days! Back issues of X-Men were so expensive as well as those Miller Daredevils. It was a time where demand for stories and art really drove prices. Prices started to drop once they started reprinting all the stories (like Classic X-Men). I should have taken the opportunity then to pick up those back issues of X-Men as they're expensive now.
@@raph-retro-comics Yeah, anything X-Men including any appearances in other books were "key" books. I started collecting comics when the book was in the 120's and those 94-early 100s were already really expensive. 94 and GS1 were also the same price back then and I think 94 was even more in demand as collectors were into runs. It's another interesting thing about this vid topic in that, for a long time, collectors were into runs and filling in those missing issues they needed. I hadn't looked at my collection in decades until that surge in '21 and started checking out some collector vids here on YT. It was interesting to see just how heavily weighted first appearances were in terms of "keys". First appearances were important "in the old days" but #1's were bigger and even death issues were pretty key but working towards full runs was a really big thing.
@@stampscapes 94 was more expensive in high grade compared to GS X-Men 1 for a while. I've owned a 94 but never a GS X-Men 1. They're coming down in price, but still rather expensive. It's funny you mention death issues, ASM #121 & 122 have been expensive for as long as I can remember, although I guess they seem 'cheaper' now.
@@raph-retro-comics Exactly! ASM 121 and 122 were THE issues of that era of ASM and I never even thought about picking up either due to the price. ASM 129 wasn't even on the map as far as desired books. 161 and 162 were even more valuable than 129 with the Nightcrawler appearances.
The question had a very different ethos and philosophical identity. I miss Vic Sage
His re-birth of sorts was quite something! Not your standard 'super-hero' comic book at that time by any means.
Your 1 to 10 are really good picks.
Actually, they're the top picks as chosen by people who wrote into Comic Book Resources, and my top 10 would be pretty close. My top 5 would essentially be the same, but perhaps a different order.
Wild that Otomo's Akira didnt make the cut.
Glad to see that Planetary placed as high as it did, though.
Don't sleep on Geoff Johns. He's been responsible for iconic runs on Superman, Green Lantern and JSA. For my money, anything he collaborates with Gary Frank on is definitely worth picking up.
A number of people have mentioned the omission of Akira, which is pretty mystifying, considering manga is so popular now. I think I'll jump on Green Lantern first for Geoff Johns!
Having original Elfquest at 98 doth nullify the list. But I will look anyway.
You end strong. My other faves at the top two. The top ten is mostly my era of comic books which makes me happy somehow.
The 1980s to me were the greatest decade of comic books! Certainly nostalgia has a great pull, but I really do feel it was a new 'golden age' of innovation and story telling in the medium.
I just read the Wally West era of The Flash by Geoff Johns. Highly recommend, especially the issues drawn by Scott Kolins. Also great for new readers as long as they can tolerate sci-fi puzzle boxes like the Nolan movies. There's some crossover with Our Worlds at War, and later Identity Crisis, but you can just ignore that if you don't want to read outside the omnibus.
The Barry Allen era is even better, but by then you really do have to read a lot of crossover events to get what's going on. Definitely not for new readers! Personally I love the chaos of Final Crisis but it seems like you don't like very dense plots like that.
There's a lot stuff from the past 15-20 years I'm just not very aware of. I'm afraid as I've gotten older, my attention span has also gotten worse, and yet, I'll complain about how fluffy or quick it is to read some modern books. I'm hoping to dip my toes into more recent DC stuff, and thank you for the recommendations!
Fifteen years ago is a fine cutoff for not reading any more. It's been mostly bad since New 52 and Disney bought Marvel. But I will defend the 2000s, especially DC.
@@raph-retro-comics Johns's comics have an old-fashioned, 80's feel, with a fair amount of narrative density compared to the decompressed style of most of his peers -- and for me, that's a feature not a bug!
I agree with you about Cerebus, I loved it as soon as I stumbled onto it around #15 but by #110 I remember thinking that Sim had forgotten he had an audience and was creating each issue just for himself.
I would definitely have placed some of these entries much higher: Lee/Ditko's Doctor Strange at only 69 and Roy Thomas' first Conan run at 77? Also, is this Thomas on the colour Conan The Barbarian or the b/w Savage Sword Of Conan? He did many issues of each.
Really pleased to see Hitman so high and I'll always be grateful to DC for letting Ennis and McCrea wrap up Tommy Monaghan's story properly. Yes Raph, definitely worth reading.
Chew is amazing, Fables was consistently strong. I'm surprised Jeff Lemire and Rick Remember aren't on the list, 2 of my favs.
Chew definitely seems very original, looking forward to checking it out. I'm not familiar with any of Rick Remember's work, but I can see Jeff Lemaire making the list in the future.
I really think Fables 1-150 is absolutely stellar! The full series run!
A magical run to say the least!
Catching up on some of these runs...definitely check out the library. A lot of these should be available digitally via your library App. I read most of Saga, and the entire Walking Dead and Invincible runs in this way.
That's a great way to catch up. My tablet died unfortunately, and I find reading comic books on my phone unbearable. I do have a mountain of comic books I still need to work through though 😅
Please give Johns a read particularly Doomsday Clock
Thanks for the recommendation!
Jonathan Hickman is currently writing the Aliens Vs Avengers mini series and I’m loving the writing!
He's got a lot of stuff under his belt - can't believe I haven't read anything of his yet. Thanks for the recommendation!
Many of my favorites are on here.
So many great runs! I hope you can check out some of the others!
Usagi Yojimbo is #1 to me. It should certainly be a top 20. Still, fun list!
It's a wonderful series and amazing to think it all just came from Stan Sakai, who got better as the series progressed! I hope more people will check it out!
Good afternoon Raph
Great Show, top one hundreds lists always gets the troops excited. leading everyone to compile their own list of favorites. And a good thing it is. I myself would have put Space Family Robinson in at number one, It had the same creation team for well over 10 years. Then you could have Russ Manning's Magnus Robot Fighter, Tarzan of the Apes and Korak Son of Tarzan. But that is just me. Then you could include Phil De Lara Tony Strobl and Pete Alvarado for all the Warner Brothers/ Disney work. Steve Ditko for his seemingly limitless work for those Charlton Horror tittles: Joe Staton could have been included also
Time diminishes Legends I'm afraid. But list create conversation.
Keep these klists coming
Best wishes for 2025 and the road forward. Al TheGoldkeyfourcolorkidownunda
Planetary easy top 5 for me, probably my favourite and number 1, and I have read a lot of those runs in the top 100.
It's a gem of a series - and it took forever for the series to finish, which is usually death for a comic book. Hmm...might need to pop it out and read it again.
@raph-retro-comics I remember buying the initial issues, and then I did drift away in the last half just because the releases were so erratic, we didn't know when they would be on the store shelf. Went back to it after the series ended and read it all as a complete work.
@@Banterbear I often had to go back and re-read a lot of the issues, which I didn't mind, when new issues came out. I have The Absolute Planetary Book Two which is great.
Only a third of these runs would make my personal Top 100. To my taste, there are too many recent titles relative to older ones, too many Big Two titles relative to ones from the indies, and too many Marvel titles relative to ones from DC. I can't recommend highly enough that you read Ostrander's Suicide Squad; Johns' JSA, Flash, and Green Lantern; and especially Levitz and Giffen's Legion of Superheroes. The mid 70's revival of The X-Men was influenced greatly by Jim Shooter's and Cary Bates's previous late 60's and early 70's runs on the Legion and Levitz and Giffen's work on Legion from the late 70's until the early 90's -- Levitz's 70s run without Giffen and Giffen's 90s run without Levitz, bookending their 80's parternship -- was as long-running and (for me) of (even) higher quality than what Chris Claremont and his collaborators did on X-Men. The only team books that match or exceed it for me are the Lee-Kirby Fantastic Four, the original 60's Doom Patrol by Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani, and my personal favorite, Wolfman and Perez's New Teen Titans.
I really have to get on that Legion run - one of this year's resolutions. DC Silver Age certainly doesn't get any love in this list. Along with Doom Patrol, I'm surprised the Deadman Strange Adventures run didn't make any of the top 100s going back to 2012. I'd also personally add the Enemy Ace run in Star Spangled War Stories.
Oh man, lone wolf and cub is almost too good to be on the list, imo
Such a great series. I said it was originally released in Japan in the 1960s, but I was incorrect, it was released in September 1970. I knew it came out a long time ago, and I'm still floored how way ahead of its time it was.
@raph-retro-comics ahead of most manga now, even!
I can't see Watchmen there. That can't be right
Watchmen and other 'limited series' were not part of this list - it would definitely be in the top 10, probably top 3 of all time. Comic Book Resources does have a top 100 'series' that would have these but I haven't checked it out (yet!).
@@raph-retro-comics Understood. Thank you.
I think you need to revisit Starman. Its very heartfelt as its basically about fathers and sons, brothers, family and legacy. Also if they are going to include Lone Wolf and Cub (which should be higher) then they left out so much great manga and other international comics such as Tintin from Europe. Very problematic and biased list.
Lone Wolf and Cub is included on an American list on the technicality that some of it was translated and published as individual issues by First Comics in the 80s. Not saying it makes a lot of sense, but that's the explanation.
I think I'd probably have a different perspective on Starman if I read the entire series. The same would probably apply for many of the other runs listed in the top 100 (except Cerebus). The list is biased, as it's essentially just a poll from the community at CBR, but, it does have some value, and makes for great conversation.
Yeah, the rules for voting are all over the place, and I imagine they got more bloated as the years have gone by.
@@RotemEren the same could be said about Akira (Epic Comics), Outlanders(Dark Horse), Mai (Eclipse), etc..........
@@raph-retro-comics give Starman another try. You can commonly find them in dollar bins!
"Comic books over time have gotten better"??? On this one I would highly debate that. Anyway, yes, you should check out Suicide Squad by John Ostrander, highly recommended. Thanks for sharing.
Aye, definitely planted the foot in my mouth on that comment. Looking at the top 10, none of the books are from the last 25 years! The 1980s seem to be a peak time for comic books, especially when you consider all the other quality comic books that didn't qualify for this list.
Hi there, Raph. I'm not a fan of lists like this not because people's opinions differ, but because '100' is simply too damn large of a number. If I'm checking out a comprehensive list of somebody's 'best' or 'most noteworthy,' of something, all 100 of them can't be 'the best.' All 100 of them can't be noteworthy. IMO, even '50' is too large of a number for something like this. My preference would be to narrow it down to more like 25-30 or so. Having said that, I--same as you--have not read several of these, and some of them, I have absolutely no interest in trying out. For me, that's another fail with this list. Chances are that several of the items on a list this size will be of no interest to me. I will say that most of the runs that I am familiar with on this list are runs that I enjoyed. But just for giggles, here's my two cents on some of these: Ostrander's Suicide Squad was a decent enough run. Ostrander, in general, has always been a decent and credible writer to me. I tried Ryan North's FF, and it just wasn't clicking with me. No-go. Had a lot of problems with the years they let Brian Michael Bendis defile the Avengers. Didn't care for Mark Waid's Daredevil. In fact, I don't really care for Waid on ANY Marvel book (his short run on INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK was an insult to my intelligence). Waid's strength is DC characters. He has an excellent feel for DC characters; THAT is where his writing flourishes. I agree with you that numbers 1-20 on that list are ALL worth reading.
Some excellent points! Even with all that I've read (and re-read), there is a lot on this list that I haven't read, and probably most likely will never read. There's only so much time I have to read, but it's nice to have a list to see what other people think. I tell you one thing, I'm pretty happy with the amount of discussion it has generated, and no one has given me grief on my comments about Kirby's 4th World (yet). I do remember reading some of Ostrander's Spectre which I thought were good, but it's a pretty distant memory.
@@raph-retro-comics - Well, as you probably have intuited, I'm a long-time KIRBY fan, but I will be the first to say that in terms of all his 70s stuff (for DC and Marvel), Kirby is not the most comprehensive writer. His strength (besides his art) are his concepts and ideas. He has unlimited imagination and vision, but when it comes to putting words together in a way that makes comprehensive sense, he kind of flounders, unfortunately. For me, what makes his Fourth World stuff so fascinating is that Kirby had the idea of doing a series of interconnected stories and titles decades before that became the norm. Think of Marvel's interconnected mutant titles or symbiote titles (Carnage & Venom) or its Spider-Verse titles, or DC's interconnected Batman & Superman titles, or just about ANY current day comicbook story-event (Absolute Power, Blood Hunters). How is any of that different from Kirby's Fourth World titles? I appreciate the visionary that Kirby was, so for that reason, I appreciate his Fourth World material. But I can totally understand if trying to read some of it kinda makes your head hurt. (LOL)
@@Deephouse_Gent66 It feels like he was holding back all these ideas for years and then just exploded when he went to DC. Unfortunately DC didn't give him enough time to fully develop his ideas with the right support. Fans were disappointed that it wasn't the same as what he did at Marvel, and it takes time for these new ideas to flourish. Crazy stuff for that time!
@@raph-retro-comics - Again, very intuitive on your part. a quick browse thru some issues of the Jack Kirby Collector will confirm your hypothesis.
I guess if it’s solely based on western Superheroes and that’s the majority of what your website caters to then this list is complete… and the odd placement of a title like Love and Rockets would probably check off the non superhero titles and allow them to pat themselves on the back and say they included those boring indie books … not to include books like Eightball by Dan Clowes or Acme Novelty library by Chris ware two series that have been highly acclaimed outside the United States and are perennial best sellers and series like From Hell , ElfQuest , Grendel , Mage …. To omit the highly influential and popular Akira by Otomo is a massive head scratcher …. You can sure tell the interests and tunnel vision of the people that put that list together.
Eightball, and Acme Novelty had made the top 100 lists before (Elquest made it at #98 in this one) - but yes, this list certainly feels it has a heavier weight to superheroes and 'modern' era comic books. I didn't go back as far as their 2008 list, but it would be interesting to make a 'composite' top 100 of all the years combined and see what differences there would be. The omission of Akira is a mystery (didn't make it on any lists) as it should qualify given it was published in North America through Epic.
Where is The Watchmen??? Thats gota be top 5
This list by Comic Book Resources only includes 'runs' and not 'series' which is confusing, so it excludes any limited series like Watchmen or Dark Knight. They do have a separate top 100 list for 'series' which I'm sure Watchmen will be top 5, probably top 3.
Y the Last Man... meh. Taylor's Nightwing? Morrison's Batman!? W T F!? insanity
I can't say anything about Taylor's Nightwing or Morrison's Batman, but I'd like to give Morrison's Batman the benefit of doubt as I tend to like his other stuff quite a bit. Too many comic books to check out, not enough time...
Agreed about Y the Last Man and not just Nightwing but everything else by Tom Taylor. As for Morrison's Batman, it's alright, but absolutely absurd to include on a list that's missing the intertwined runs on Batman and Detective with Gerry Conway and Doug Moench as writers and Gene Colon and Don Newton on art. That may be the best run of Batman ever and certainly better than anything post Frank Miller.
✅
No Watchmen in a top 100 ? Ok, clearly means it’s bullshit
I think it didnt include limited series' so thats why it didnt come up.
Correct! Limited series were excluded. Apparently they also have a top 100 list of 'series' which would include titles like Watchmen.
Scalped? Never heard of it, but it’s beating some absolute icons on this list which means this list sucks.
Usagi but no TMNT? This list is garbage!
Never heard of Scalped before as well, although it made it as high as #33(!!) in 2012 so it's been around for a while. TMNT is interesting, I definitely have a fondness for the early issues.
I guess it is a decent list. Suicide Squad is pretty good. Fell off at the middle and end. Fables is pretty cool. The Ultimates I really liked. Ultimate Spiderman is good as well. Y the Last Man I liked. Saga is overrated shock value. Walking Dead is a very disturbing comic. It did not hold back. Fell off after the Governor was killed. Picked back up with The Saviors war. Then it just became repitive 💩. Punisher Max is cool. Only thing I like from Ennis. Agree the Boys comic is 🗑. Written as a joke to superheroes. Show is so much better. Invincible is a very good read. Long but good. Some of the old stuff I did not read. League of Gentlemen was good but the second half fell off. Comics have changed. Production is better at times.
Thinking about The Walking Dead still gives me chills. I wasn't sure if I'd get any heat about The Boys comic book series being a little over-rated. Can't say enough about how good the TV series is!
@raph-retro-comics people like the book because of the series. Art is decent. Story is pure 💩 Shock value galore. WD went there years ago when things were tamed. Now this stuff happens all the time for shock value or to be edgy
I don't like anything by Garth Ennis -- or most of the other British edgelord writers, like Warren Ellis.
@johnmurphy9385Hate Ennis stuff in general. Shock value and gross 💩. Ellis had some decent stuff
I get honoring Stan Lee, and moreso Jack Kirby, but Lee was a terrible writer. Lee was great at concepts and promotion, but his dialogue and exposition were barf.
Not all of Stan Lee's stuff is great (he does have clunkers), and his reputation has been tainted over the years when it comes to the 'Marvel Method', but for the titles in this list, Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-man, Dr. Strange, Thor etc. his work is great. Does some of it show its age? Sure, but he has come up with some classic, influential work. He had the support of great artists like Kirby and Ditko which certainly helped.
I'm really shocked you never read Johns' JSA books, especially the second series which heavily relied on Kingdom Come and that Superman. Great stuff.