Redartz: Hello once again! Ready to consider some memorable comic stories? If so, proceed: we are looking at the year 1980, when comics started out at 40 cents and skyrocketed up to 50 cents. Oh, those were the days...
And what a year for comics it was. Although I usually try to limit representation on these lists to one per title, the sheer strength of the X-Men forced my hand. As always, some picks are obvious, some less so. You recall the ground rules: books published with cover dates between April 1980 and March 1981; my admittedly subjective choices, no particular order, and your critiques and nominations welcomed! Here we go...
X-Men 137- "The Fate of the Phoenix", by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin. The mutant team's preeminent team details the death of Jean Grey. 'Nuff Said.
Captain America 250- "Cap for President", by Roger Stern, Don Perlin, Roger McKenzie, Jim Shooter, John Byrne and Joe Rubinstein. A fun tale of speculation, introspection, characterization and politics!
DC Comics Presents 29- "Where No Superman Has Gone Before", by Len Wein, Jim Starlin and Romeo Tanghal. Superman goes through an emotional wringer courtesy of the Spectre.
Amazing Spider-man Annual 14- "The Book of the Vishanti", by Denny O'Neal, Frank Miller and Tom Palmer. One of Spidey's best annuals, with some gorgeous art (and a great cast- Dr. Strange, Dr. Doom and Dormammu). I wasn't a fan of Denny's work on the regular title, but he aced this story.
New Teen Titans 2- "Today...the Terminator", by Marv Wolfman, George Perez and Romeo Tanghal. The new team start to get to know each other, and we all meet the Terminator (no, not Arnold). The book is really hitting it's stride...
X-Men 141- "Days of Future Past", by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin. Truly one of the best stories of the decade. Better than issue 137? Too close for this fan to call, so both make the list.
Daredevil 169- "Devils", by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson. A great, chilling, cinematic Bullseye story, set against a holiday background. Great story, great cover, great team.
Detective Comics 500- "The Too Many Cooks...Caper!", by Len Wein and Jim Aparo / "Once Upon a Time", by Len Wein, Charles Shulz and Walt Simonson. A two-fer, representing this collection of solid stories in a giant anniversary edition. The first- a clever yarn incorporating many of the former residents of Detective Comics, the second a salute to Snoopy's writing career presented by two of comicdom's finest.
Micronauts 20- "Enter: Ant-Man", by Bill Mantlo, Pat Broderick and Armando Gil. A wild, wonderful romp in a supermarket with the Micro's and Ant-Man, and loads of insects. And a roll of bathroom tissue.
Mystery in Space 111- "The Singling", by Gerald J. Brown and Jim Aparo. A tale of betrayal and regret, told visually (no text); reminiscent of some of the classic EC sci-fi stories. One of several fine tales in this often-overlooked gem of an anthology...
Okay, you've seen my picks. Now's your chance to improve on it: name your choices for the best of '80; the nominating process here is wide open!
9 comments:
Wow, 1980! The year my comic book collecting really exploded (and which I fondly recall as the year of that "This Comic Could Be Worth $2500 To You" banner, and to a lesser extent, that Toys R Us one).
Love the X-Men and Daredevil comics you cite, that was the year I started collecting those two comics every month and would do so for the next 8 years...
Moon Knight #1 came out, which I also started picking up semi-regularly (I have a soft spot for ish #2 with a serial killer Slasher that ends up having a personal connection to one of MK's inner circle).
Hulk #254! First appearance of the U-Foes, a great gang of villains with cool powers, visuals, and of course their parallel Fantastic Four origin which gave that story a great hook.
I liked Avengers around this time. Issue 200 gets a bad rap but I liked the Red Ronin two-parter before it and the Ultron two-parter after it. Best Avengers story that year I would probably give to #195-196...first appearance of the Taskmaster. Great stuff by Michelinie and Perez.
Thor #300! No Marvel comic had reached that high a number, and it was suitably marked by an epic battle with some iconic images of the Celestials and their cool throw-down with Odin (inhabiting the armour of the Destroyer, no less).
And personally, I associate this year with my discovery of Jim Starlin's cool saga of Adam Warlock vs. the Magus, reprinted in the pages of Fantasy Masterpieces. Yeah, those were reprints, but I didn't know or care about that...to me it was just cool, trippy stuff that made comics that much more exciting in 1980 (and thanks to Marvel for all those regular reprint series back then...there were great Spider-Man, Avengers and old X-Men stories coming out too).
Thanks for the memories.
-david p.
That Mystery in Space looks very interesting. I am sure that I don’t own a single issue of that series.
X-Men, DD, and Cap were high on my collecting list. I agree with David p. on the Avengers though. They had some great issues in the 190s. And those Fantasy Masterpieces he mentions were my first exposure to Warlock as well.
That Micronauts cover - by Michael Golden - is still one of my favorites. As was the “bad bug” cover for issue 19. I too love that story, but it really was almost Silver Age-like in style. I remember Ant-Man using springs in his boots to jump around. Fun times.
This year may be at the apex of my collecting. Captain America and Baron Blood have to be in the running for best story. As does Iron Man taking on Sunturion (I really liked that Michelinie and Layton tale). And yes to Taskmaster in the Avengers. But I think I have to give it to Days of Future Past...I was blown away when that delivered to my house with my new X-Men subscription.
Yeah, 1980 was a great year for comics. I'm not sure how you narrowed it down; pretty much the whole X-Men run (especially the issues leading up to #137) are great. Same with the entire Stern/Byrne run on Cap (which was way too short). I agree with David P. on Moon Knight too ... all the early issues were good. Same with Titans.
A few personal favourites:
Stern's Spectacular Spidey run was great, featuring some early Roderick Kingsley appearances (little did we know ...)
I know a lot of people hate Denny O'Neil's Amazing Spidey run, but I thought he had some good stuff. The Black Cat two-parter was cool, and I liked the Sub-Mariner/Frightful Four story, especially the way O'Neil built it up slowly--it took a while for us to realize exactly what Pete's sexy new neighbour was hiding ...
I liked Batman 327 (where Professor Milo traps Batman in Arkham) and Detective 494-495 (with Crime Doctor figuring out Batman's secret ID and Sterling Silversmith pickling his brain when he refused to cough it up).
Secrets of the Legion (where Chameleon Boy found out who his father was) and Warlord 38 (first appearance of Jennifer Morgan) are a couple of sentimental favourites.
Ah, yes, 1980. Another banner year in my comics reading career - although, unlike David above, I have no fond memories of those atrocious banner ads.
As in the case of your recent post on the year's best stories in 1979, I have to say that basically my list could simply consist of every issue of X-men published this year, i.e. #s 132 through 143, as there's not a dud in the lot, and these were my favorite comics of that year (so naturally, I agree with your choices). Captain America #250 is a great choice, but basically every issue of Cap from #247 onward to #255 (i.e., the Stern/Byrne run), which all came out that year, were excellent. Same with pretty much every issue of Daredevil that was published that year. Battlestar Galactica, which wrapped up in 1980, finished with a bang in my opinion, with a string of stories written and drawn (mostly) by Walt Simonson.
I agree with David about the Red Ronin story in Avengers, although I'd say the Taskmaster story that preceded it (#s 194-196) is even better.
DC Comics Presents #29 is a good choice, but I'd add the two issues preceding it, which form a nice three-parter.
A few other multi-part stories that I really liked that year include Marvel 2-in-1 #62-63, the second and third part in a 3-part space opera story that introduces Her, followed by #s 64-66, a Serpent Crown 3-parter.
Totally agree with the choice of Detective #500 and Spider-man Annual #14, one of my favorite Spidey annuals (and yes, I agree about not really liking O'Neil's ASM run, but loving that annual).
I'll close with a few done-in-one issues that were really strong and contenders for year's best:
DC Comics Presents #24 - Superman teams up with Deadman, written by Len Wein and drawn by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez (PBHN).
Stars Wars #38 - a weird yet wonderful story by Archie Goodwin, drawn by Michael Golden.
Marvel Premiere #56 - featuring Dominic Fortune, story by David Michelinie, art by Howard Chaykin and Terry Austin.
1980 was my last year collecting and what a year to go out on.
X-Men absolutely owned '80, nothing close to those stories IMHO.
With that out of the way here's some others I liked ;
Daredevil #163- with The Hulk.
Batman #324 "The Cat Who Would Be King"
Captain America #254 - Like Martinex said Baron Blood, great story!
Marvel Premier #55- A Wonder Man one shot. Underrated story.
One of the best years in comics history. Good times. Good times.
Your comments today all reiterate how difficult it is to choose only ten books!
david p.- those Avengers issues with Taskmaster and Thor 300 just missed my list. Avengers at that point definitely still had a lot to offer. Issue 201 (with Jarvis cleaning on the cover) remains fondly remembered. Oh, and your comments on the reprint books are thought-provoking. Perhaps we should look at the best reprint books...
Marti- by all means, pick up an issue or two of "Mystery in Space" from that period. They had some good stories and a nice array of the top artistic talent of the day. And they can be had dirt cheap!
Mike W.- yes, it is tough to limit one's self on these posts. All those titles you mentioned were solid; Stern's "Spectacular Spider-Man" was tops.
Edo- DC Comics Presents was indeed pretty solid at that time. Issue 26, with Green Lantern (and the debut of some other heroic Team) was another one worth consideration. Also, good call on Dominic Fortune. One of the best issues of Premiere.
Killraven- so much great comics reading that year, looks like you wanted to get out of comics while everything was at it's peak! And nice mention of that Batman/Catwoman tale. A fine two parter, if I recall correctly; definitely among the year's best.
Sorry I'm late to the game here....
1980 was the year that I really got back into comics in a huge way. I had surgery that summer and so I picked up many of the great ones you listed while recovering and forward. It would be hard to argue with any of your choices, though I must agree with the folks who commented on the Stern/Byrne run on Captain America, especially the Baron Blood saga.
Seeing the Spider-Man/Dr Strange team up with art by Miller made me think of the promised, but never delivered Miller Dr Strange series. Why did that never happen?
1980!!! I started the year as a Freshman and ended as a Sophomore. The summer of my first steady job; mowing lawns. It was also my transitional year. As a ute, I had started... what? A "ute"? What is a "ute"? Excuse me... "youth". As a youth, Spider-man first drew me into comics. I was Amazing, Team-Up and Marvel Tales. From there, Fantastic Four and Thor. And, of course, Marvel Greatest Comics and Marvel Spectacular. By 1980, wasn't reading a single of those titles. By this point, I was reading Avengers, X-Men and Daredevil. Picking up the occasional Conan and whatever caught my eye.
And as David p points out, the reprints!!! THE REPRINTS!!! Marvel Super Action introduced us to the Vision and Yellowjacket. The Black Panther fought the Man Ape and the Avengers had to deal with potential lose of the Vision from their midst... And if that wasn't enough, Clint Barton becomes GOLIATH!!! I know! Right?
And in Marvel Tales, Spider-Man runs into Gwen Stacey. Loved that story line when it first came out...
(She saw the look in his eyes, 'n' she knew better
He wanted her tonight, ah, and it was now or never
He made her feel so sad
Oh, whoa, whoa, Jamie's cryin'
Oh, whoa, whoa, Jamie's cryin'
Now Jamie wouldn't say, "All right", ah, she knew he'd forget her
'N' so they said goodnight, ah, oh, 'n' now he's gone forever
She want's to send him a letter, uh yeah yeah
Uh just to try to make herself feel better
It said "Gimme (gimme a call sometime")
But she knows what that'll get her
Oh, whoa, whoa, Jamie's cryin'
Oh, whoa, whoa, Jamie's cryin'
Now Jamie's been in love before (ahhh)
And she knows what love is for (ahhh)
It should mean, a little, a little more (ahhh)
Than one night stands, whoo
She want's to send him a letter, uh yeah yeah
Just to try to make herself feel better
It said "Gimme gimme a call sometime"
But she knows what that'll get her
Oh, whoa, whoa, Jamie's cryin'
Oh, whoa, whoa, Jamie's cryin').
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