Top Ten Favorite Comic Stories (Regular Series)

I'm not very good at actually numbering these kinds of lists. I find the pressure of "ranking" a bit too distracting from the real purpose of the list, which is just to jot down the individual items in whatever list you are making. Maybe with time and more effort I'd be willing to rank them formally, but like the Oscars, I try to think that it's an honor "just to be nominated". (Insert sarcastic laughter).

1) Fantastic Four #116 - Where to begin with what I loved about this story? Well, I guess the use of Dr. Doom as a proxy leader of the FF is as good a place as any. Faced with the brainwashing of Reed Richards and the utter defeat of the Torch and Thing at the Overmind's hands, Sue Richards swallows her pride (and perhaps her sanity) and goes to the Latverian Embassy in hopes that Doom would put aside his hatred of Reed and see that they share a common enemy. It works, but only have Sue has to shame him into asserting that the demons of "fear and pettiness" do not rule him. His interplay with the rest of the team and his classic dialogue as he confronts the Overmind is unforgettable. I love stories where the protagonist and antagonist have to team up to thwart an even bigger foe, and this is pretty much the template for that type of story. Add in the Overmind, a truly Earth threatening foe, full of arrogance and the seeming inevitability of his own victory, plus appearances by both the enigmatic Stranger and Watcher, and you've got an absolutely essential story in this life long comics fans memory arsenal.

2) Daredevil 227-233, "Born Again" - Coming out at the same time, roughly, as "Watchmen", this was a searing tale, almost difficult to read in its emotional realism and tragedy. I admire writers who are able to take you and the characters down to the depths of utter despair, and then bring both of you back to the light of hope and possibility, without ever cheapening things or denying the reality of the initial descent. Daredevil's redemption here is tortuous but definitely earned; it feels believable and contextually "right" and that's due to writer Frank Miller's attention to detail and character nuance. Miller expertly uses New York as a kind of crucible where Matt Murdock's entire life is tested, burned and somehow made whole again and stronger for the ordeal.

3) Avengers #167 - 177, the "Michael" Saga - One of the great cosmic epics of all time, this story makes the list because it contains some of the elements that always seem to really grab me. 1) The overlying feeling of impending doom for the universe from a nearly omnipotent adversary, 2) the inclusion of a massive roster of heroes lined up to oppose him/her. Jim Shooter's 1978 epic (or as Stan Lee called it back then, his "magnus opus") was startling for it's time, featuring the deaths of most of the Avengers (yes, they were later revived but this was well before killing heroes off only to revive them shortly afterwards became such a popular trend. Shooter delineates all of the characters with a mastery of one who has read Marvel Comics his whole life and creates an over reaching, universe spanning story that involves some of Marvel's oldest and most powerful cosmic entities, including the In-Betweener, The Living Tribunal, and Eternity.

4) The Avengers 185-186 "The Yesterday Quest" Wanda and Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch) have always been two of my favorite Marvel characters, and this three part mini epic finally addressed the long standing question of their true origins. Set on Wundagore Mountain, the story by David Michelinie expertly wove in all sorts of seemingly disparate Marvel elements and characters like the High Evolutionary and the Knights of Wundagore, the demon Chthon, Bova the Cow Woman, Morded the Mystic, SpiderWoman, the Avengers, and Miss America and the Whizzer into a personal history that against all odds, seemed to make sense despite it's complexity. John Byrne's art was at its top form here, and I can still taste the Swanson's TV dinner (chicken and mashed potatoes) I ate when I read Part One (absolute proof of quality in my book).