The Pinnacle for comic characters

[madmarva]

What issues or arcs do you consider the pinnacle for a character in his/her history thus far? Or what stories best define your favorite characters?

[thunderbolt]

Hmmm
Batman Year One
All Star Superman
Stan and Jack's FF run
Kurt Busiek and George Perez on Avengers
Hellboy- The entire Mignola run is one big story defining the character

[Riffster]

Titans- Judas Contract
Legion- Darksied Saga
Wolverine's first mini series

[johnnystorm]

DC:

The Neal Adams -Denny O' Neil run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow.

Wein/Wrightson's Swamp Thing (which I prefer over the Alan Moore stuff- yes, I know, it's blasphemy, but I liked Swampy better when he was still a tragic human).

Jim Shooter & Curt Swan's original Legion of Super-Heroes.

Infantino's Flash & Adam Strange.

Aparo's Brave & the Bold.

From the Marvel side:

Spider-Man by Lee & Romita circa issues 50-100.

Gene Colan's Sub-Mariner.

Sal Buscema & Bill Mantlo on the Hulk.

Others:

Russ Manning's Magnus Robot Fighter.

Wally Wood THUNDER Agents.

Carl Bark's Donald Duck & Uncle Scrooge.

[Mego Milk]

Death of Gwen Stacy.

Kraven's Last Hunt.

Batman Killing Joke

Superman: Man of Steel

Dark Phoenix Saga

Alpha Flight #1 thru 12!

[Riffster]

Totally agree on Alpha Flight 1-12

[BlackKnight]

Batman }

Son of the Demon & Birth of the Demon.

I think both these books , really show what Batman is outside of the Super Hero-esque world. They Both show that he is just a great a Man & Detective, and not just some guy playing dress-Up.

The Killing Joke & Death In a Family, ... both really show just how F'ed up & nutty as well as Dangerous that the Joker Can Be. I think the character was pushed to new heights with those books, that previously were not achieved with the character.

The Image Comics Team-7 Books.
But still alot of people don't know about these books,.. but I think there was like 3 or 4 series of 4 issues each. These were probably the Best books that ever came outta Image comics. They basically took a group of characters & threw the Main one into a Team,.. from the Past. It was kinda an Origin Story(s) with the main player's in Wildstorm comics. It was really, really well done imo.

The Villians united Book,.. pretty much started the Success of the Secret Six books,.. & was very Key to thier popularity today,.. for the fans that read them.

I always liked the Extinct agenda from the X-Books cross over... I think that book (s) & story kinda paved the Way for Cable,.. before this,.. no one really knew Much about him.. The whole story was great & pinned the X-Universe against each other.

The Judas Contract,.. I agree. It kinda put the Teen Titans,.. into a more so serious SuperHero Group,.. & not really looked at to me as a bunch of Kiddies running around in Costumes.

& Ofcourse Obviously Green Lantern Rebirth, to everything current , Made Hal Jordan one of the best SuperHero's today,.. Thanks to Johns.

[The Toyroom]

Superman in Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
The Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers/Terry Austin run on Batman
The Cockrum/Grell era of Legion of Super-Heroes
The Cary Bates/Irv Novick/Frank McLaughlin run on The Flash
The Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow
The Satellite Era of the Justice League (culminating with JLA #200)
The Chris Claremont/John Byrne/Terry Austin run on Uncanny X-Men
John Byrne on The Fantastic Four
Walt Simonson on Thor

[thunderbolt]

John Broome/Gil Kane Green Lantern run, it paved the way for all that Johns is mining today
The Broome/Infantino Flash run paved the way for all that Johns isn't getting on Flash Rebirth.

[thunderbolt]

Joe Kubert's silver age Revival of Hawkman and Gil Kane's Atom, neither have been done as well since.