Top Comic Book Runs:45-41

You voted, and now, after over 1,050 ballots were cast (but less than 1,100 ballots), here are the results of your votes for your favorite comic book creator runs of all-time (this is the FIFTH time we’ve done this countdown. We’re on an every four-year schedule)! I’ll post the installments more or less daily through the middle of December!

To recap, you all sent in ballots ranking your favorite runs from #1 (10 points) to #10 (1 point). I added up all the points and here we are!

45. Los Bros. Herhandez’s Love and Rockets – 297 points (8 first place votes)

Love and Rockets #1-50, Love and Rockets Vol. 2 #1-20, Love and Rockets: New Stories #1-8, Love and Rockets Vol. 4 #1-present (#15)

Love and Rockets is one of the greatest comic book anthologies ever, and it’s quite impressive to note that it is an anthology that is made up of just one family – the Hernandez brothers, primarily Gilbert and Jaime, although brother Mario occasionally chips in, as well.

Each brother primarily tells their own epic tale, while occasionally peppering in one-off stories.

Gilbert’s was Palomar, which was the goings-on of a fictional South American village.

Gilbert later used one of the characters from Palomar, Luba, exclusively.

Jaime’s was Hoppers 13 (which, when the stories were collected, was titled Locas), about two women, Maggie and Hopey, and their developing friendship.

As you can tell, both brothers are known for the work they do with strong female characters, but they’re mostly known for their ability to tell stories about realistic characters, while using a seemingly simplistic art style to do so, sort of sneaking the deep stuff past you with the simple artwork.

One of Jaime’s most famous stories was the death of Speedy Ortiz, a young man who had a past relationship with Maggie and who was now in the middle of a gang conflict after dating Maggie’s younger sister (who was also dating another gang leader). Speedy likes to present a tough front, but Hernandez lets us see how conflicted he is underneath, but how his indecisiveness runs rough shot over Maggie’s feelings, even after his death…

Tough stuff, but beautifully depicted by Hernandez.

The second Love and Rockets series was a good deal of time after the first one and Love and Rockets: New Stories was an extra-sized annual format, so they probably shouldn’t count as part of the “run,” but eh, if you’re interested in these characters, you might as well know that there is a current comic book series with them coming out. And man, New Stories was amazing. Jaime, in particular, is doing some of his best work ever on this series. The Love Bunglers, from New Stories #3-4, following a now middle-aged Maggie, was a stunning achievement. After New Stories, a fourth volume of the series began in 2016.

44. Jack Kirby’s Fourth World – 304 points (4 first place votes)

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #133-148, New Gods #1-11, Forever People #1-11 and Mister Miracle #1-18

In 1970, when Jack Kirby left Marvel for DC, he brought with him his plans for the Fourth World, which was an entire line of comics that Kirby had envisioned which would, when finished, could be repackaged as collected works.

To introduce this new line of comics, Kirby took over as writer/artist on a title in need of a new writer, Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, where the battles of the Fourth World were first seen. In “Olsen,” Kirby first showed the world the evil power of Darkseid, who was the ruler of an awful planet called Apokolips, which was caught in a ancient war with a nice planet called New Genesis.

Darkseid’s main goal was to retrieve the Anti-Life Equation, which would allow him to control all living beings.

Their war had been stalled for many a year by a pact done decades before where Darkseid and Highfather, the leader of New Genesis, swapped sons. Highfather raised Orion, while Darkseid “raised” Scott Free. When Scott escaped Apokolips (all according to Darkseid’s plan), Darkseid had reason to restart the war.

This Pact was detailed in a classic issue of New Gods that established that this was not your typical superhero story, in the sense that Kirby was actually going to fill us in on all the vast mythology of the series…

However, Darkseid had not planned that Orion would be “tamed” enough by Highfather to be ready to oppose Darkseid’s plans.

These rip-roaring adventure yarns filled with over-the-top plots and larger-than-life characters were told through three main titles, New Gods (which starred Orion, mostly), Mister Miracle (which was the name Scott Free took when he escaped to Earth, as he became the world’s greatest escape artist) and the Forever People, who were a gang of young New Gods who had wacky adventures – but could merge into the powerful Infinity Man if need be.

The books were a ton of fun, but sales were not particularly great, and each title was canceled. Kirby wrapped up all the plotlines, and then went to work on other DC titles.

Years later, Kirby was given the chance to wrap up the stories in The Hunger Dogs, but DC seems to just ignore that story, as Darkseid has become a major part of the DC Universe now, as have Mister Miracle and Orion.

43. Roger Stern and John Romita Jr’s Amazing Spider-Man – 315 points (4 first place votes)

Amazing Spider-Man #224-227, 229-252

A funny thing about Roger Stern’s legendary run on Amazing Spider-Man is the fact that it followed an eighteen issue run on Spectacular Spider-Man that was almost just as good! Heck, Stern even introduced Roderick Kingsley (the man he had planned as the secret identity of the Hobgoblin) in the pages of that run! The run (which went from Spectacular Spider-Man #43-61) was an important part of Stern’s overall Spider-Man work, as a lot of plots he began in Spectacular carried over to Amazing Spider-Man.

That said, when Stern took over Amazing Spider-Man with Amazing Spider-Man #224, he clearly turned his work on to a whole other level. There was a clear change in how he wrote the “secondary” Spider-Man title and how he wrote the “main” title, as he was now in the driving seat for the Spider-Man books as a whole, and he was a great driver.

Stern’s early issues re-introduced the Black Cat into the Spider-books, where he helped to make her the staple of the Spider-Man books she became for years. An interesting aspect of Stern’s books, also, is after a number of writers tended to downplay Spider-Man’s powers, Stern went the other direction, highlighting just how powerful Spider-Man can be.

One of the most acclaimed issues in Stern’s run came early on when he had Spider-Man fight against the unstoppable Juggernaut in a two-issue story that did not CREATE the “superhero battles against a much more powerful foe,” but certainly put a twist on the theme that later writers have followed frequently. John Romita Jr.’s excellent action-packed artwork was on great display during the Juggernaut story arc.

Here’s a piece of it…

What a wonderful sense of power and also such a feeling of dread. Stern and Romita really nailed the “unbeatable odds” thing here.

Stern brought Mary Jane Watson back into the Spider-books and did good work with Spider-Man’s supporting cast. Romita Jr. did strong work on the character moments, as well.

Stern also introduced the Hobgoblin, a mysterious new villain who used the Green Goblin’s devices and serum to become a powerful crime boss. The Hobgoblin was not just interesting because of the mystery of his identity, but also because of his off-beat approach to villainy. He was no mad man, he was a businessman and he used what he learned from Osborn’s in ingenious ways.

Even as his run came to a close with Amazing Spider-Man #250, Stern plotted two more issues of Amazing for incoming writer, Tom DeFalco, and one of them was the story of the alien costume in #252.

Perhaps Stern’s most famous story was a short story in Amazing Spider-Man #248, the tale of a young boy who we learn in a newspaper story is “The Boy Who Collects Spider-Man,” Spider-Man’s biggest fan. It is a real tearjerker.

42. Matt Fraction and David Aja’s Hawkeye – 320 points (2 first place votes)

Hawkeye #1-22

Almost a dozen years ago, there was a Young Avengers Presents miniseries where each issue spotlighted one or two members of the Young Avengers. Matt Fraction did the Hawkeye spotlight issue, featuring Kate Bishop interacting with the then-newly resurrected Clint Barton, who was going by the name Ronin at the time. The issue was great and Fraction surely had it in mind four years later when he launched Hawkeye with artist David Aja, as he brought Kate Bishop along as Clint’s new partner/student, as Clint got involved in an apartment building and these bad guys who wanted to take control of the building.

Aja was brilliant on this series, trying experimental things with art that you just don’t see in comic books very often…

The success of Hawkeye was integral into Marvel’s decision to expand into slightly off-kilter approaches to superheroes, like the Ms. Marvel run that also made the countdown.

As the series went on, Fraction began to split the book between Clint stories (drawn by Aja) and Kate stories (drawn by Annie Wu) when Kate left New York to go to Los Angeles.

Fraction’s stories were clever and heartfelt. Clint was the closest you’ll ever get to seeing an actual, god’s honest “everyman” superhero, as Fraction played up Clint’s frailties. Kate, meanwhile, grew a ton under Fraction’s pen and she left the series as probably the coolest Hawkeye in comics.

41. Kurt Busiek and George Perez’s Avengers – 324 points (4 first place votes)

Avengers (Vol.3) #1-15, 19-56

When The Avengers returned to Marvel after the “Heroes Reborn” storyline ended, putting Kurt Busiek and George Perez on the title was practically screaming, “Everything is back to normal, people! Please come back!”

In the first storyline, more or less every Avenger who ever was participated in the story, with Busiek choosing through all of them to pick his initial “perfect” team lineup, which included Busiek’s attempt to bring Carol Danvers back to prominence, as well as elevate Justice and Firestar to a bigger place in the Marvel Universe.

Busiek’s knowledge of Marvel history helped inform a lot of his stories, but his great attention to characterization was probably his strongest suit, as the book was filled with a lot of interesting character interactions. I especially liked the issue where Beast returned when he heard the news that his old friend, Wonder Man, was back from the dead.

While there was characterization work, there was also a ton of action, and George Perez did a fine job depicting it all, with the most notable storyline likely being the big Ultron storyline, “Ultron Unlimited,” which contained the classic scene with Thor and a bunch of battered Avengers burst through a wall at an opportune time to tell Ultron – “Ultron… we would have words with thee.” Probably the acme of Busiek and Perez’ run, as it perfected that fascinating mixture between appreciating the Avengers’ long and sometimes convoluted history and just doing awesome modern superhero stories…

It has to be noted that in order for Perez to hit such a timely deadline, he often did layouts that the great Al Vey would then finish (the pages above, for instance, were drawn in that style). Right before Perez left the series after about three years’ worth of story, Perez would do looser layouts that Paul Ryan would then pencil and Vey would then ink Ryan’s pencils.

After Perez left, Alan Davis had a quick run, but Busiek’s run ended with a series of artists, including Ivan Reis and Kieron Dwyer. The majority of Busiek’s final issues were involved with the massive “Kang War.”

During his run with Perez on Avengers, Busiek also wrote the popular miniseries, Avengers Forever, with Carlos Pacheco.