Marvels Annuals this year

[samurainoir]

Wolfman and Perez made their NTT annuals count. The big payoffs were always in the annuals. The Tamaran War arc, the coming of the Vigilante, and of course, the finale of the Judas Contract!
DC had some great annuals in that era.

Those were all amazing Annuals!




Swamp Thing did the same thing with his Quest to save Abbey from Hell.

The DCCP annual with the Earth-1 and Earth-2 Supermen (introducing Alexander Luthor Sr. and setting up Crisis to boot) is a classic.

Never read that one! I'll have to pick it up.


Loved these ones...


I think these ones much have been by Elliot S! Maggin (I think he created Superwoman?)

Never read this one either, looks fun as well.

[Earth 2 Chris]

All the DCCP annuals are really fun. And yes, I think Maggin wrote both Superwoman stories. Eduardo Barreto drew Annual #4, and he draws great women! That Superwoman costume was really cool.

Great stuff!

Chris

[samurainoir]

I really liked Gaiman's Swamp Thing Annual. His take on the goofy goofy Brother Power, and a really creepy version of Firestorm as well.

Also included a really intriguing backup feature starring the Floronic Man, drawn by Mike Mignola. It really hinted at what Gaiman would have done with the title had the plans for him to take over after Rick Vietch gone through.

[The Toyroom]

^ That's about the last time I really really dug Annuals, those ones from the early 80s really SOLID stories and art....probably the last time I bought every DC Annual from a given year was the year Eclipso eclipsed everyone....

[goldenryan]

fantastic four annual 2,3, and 5 are still some of my all-time favorites. (props to anyone who posts those covers) but, i agree annuals have been dead for about 20 years now.

[Riffster]

I have and love the dc comics presents one a super powered Sivanna kicking Supes of both earth 1 and 2 plus Cap' ***. was great

[Earth 2 Chris]

I've always loved that cover. It's a total role reversal from a typical sword-and-sorcery type cover, with helpless Robin below,while his woman takes out the trash!

Chris

[The Toyroom]

Looking at these annual covers again from 82-84 reminds me of how cool DC was back then.....What th' heck happened?!

[goldenryan]

Looking at these annual covers again from 82-84 reminds me of how cool DC was back then.....What th' heck happened?!

[Earth 2 Chris]

Looking at these annual covers again from 82-84 reminds me of how cool DC was back then.....What th' heck happened?!

Crisis happened. And even though there was a lot of Silver Age goofiness, for the most part the then-current DC folk were smart enough to just ignore Super-breath sun blowouts, Mopee, and stuff like that. DC threw away the baby with the bath water. Some new, exciting creative teams would have garnered the same if not more results.

Huge fan of Wolfman and Perez, and Crisis is a great book in and of itself, but it caused more grief than good in the long run.

Chris

[The Toyroom]

Huge fan of Wolfman and Perez, and Crisis is a great book in and of itself, but it caused more grief than good in the long run.

To this day, still one of my favorite comic reads of all-time.....nobody has been able to do a company wide cross-over as good as the original COIE.

[ctc]

>it caused more grief than good in the long run.

I think Crisis was more a symptom than a cause. The hardcore, longterm, "grownup" fan was starting to emerge at that time; and DC was trying to capitalize on them. Logic and continuity were big selling points to that bunch, and Crisis was an attempt to legitimize the DC universe for them. Erasing the silver and gold ages was an attempt to move things towards the Dark Knight, and undo the "POW!" "BANG!" Batman.

Don C.

[palitoy]

It's almost like New Coke, they took away the Silver Age nonsense and we all missed it. It started creeping into the comics by the early 1990s, now I find DC so uneven, blood, gore, misogny and go go checks.

[Earth 2 Chris]

It's almost like New Coke, they took away the Silver Age nonsense and we all missed it. It started creeping into the comics by the early 1990s, now I find DC so uneven, blood, gore, misogny and go go checks.

Yep, that's it. And DC has had every opportunity to hit the reset button and go back to the pre-Crisis universe, and they've only half-arsed done it.

I think Crisis was more a symptom than a cause. The hardcore, longterm, "grownup" fan was starting to emerge at that time; and DC was trying to capitalize on them. Logic and continuity were big selling points to that bunch, and Crisis was an attempt to legitimize the DC universe for them. Erasing the silver and gold ages was an attempt to move things towards the Dark Knight, and undo the "POW!" "BANG!" Batman.

I would agree. And I think the characters were near the point where the creators needed to stop and be mindful of the characters, and a good portion of their audience, kids. Rather than try to win them back, DC and Marvel threw up their hands and aimed their material squarely at the adult reader, despite the fact that most of the characters were created to be all-ages accessible.

Chris

[Riffster]

still with continuity issues i'd still take DC over Marvel, least in Dc it's mostly good guys vs bad guys. not a conveluted universe where the public hates the heroes and cheers the villians