In honor of Marvel's seventy-fifth anniversary, we're doing a countdown of the most memorable moments in Marvel Comics history, based on YOUR votes!
Here are the latest results of the countdown! Be forewarned, these memorable moments WILL include some spoilers of old famous Marvel stories!
Enjoy!
60. "Spider-Man Gets a New Costume" by Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck and John Beatty (Marvel Super-Hheroes Secret Wars #8)
This is an odd one. Spider-Man getting a brand new costume was obviously a huge deal and it is a big moment in Marvel history. However, the costume debuted MONTHS before we actually see how he got it in the pages of Secret Wars (the entirety of Secret Wars took place between issues of most of Marvel's titles - only a couple of books actually devoted a full issue to events that took place while the heroes were away during Secret Wars). So it is interesting how the moment he got it in the pages of Secret Wars is still the most memorable moment involving Spider-Man getting the new black costume. Anyhow, here it is...
Isn't it kind of funny that they find a device that can fix clothes and Hulk's like, "Nah, I'm good with torn purple pants"?
59. "Daredevil stands up to Namor" by Wally Wood and Stan Lee (Daredevil #7)
One of the all-time classic examples of a Marvel hero standing up to seemingly overwhelming odds (another famous one involving Spider-Man and the Juggernaut failed to make the list, probably because it was hard for people to pin down a single moment of what was basically a two-issue long fight), Namor comes to the surface world to try to pursue a legal claim for the surface world. When the lawyer he hires, Matt Murdock, explains that he doesn't have a case, Namor causes havoc in the city until he is arrested. His plan is to use his time in court to make a counter-claim against the government. However, while in prison awaiting trial he discovers that his jerk Warlord Krang has started a revolt against Namor in Atlantis. He must go back to his world, but the U.S. Army tries to stop him. He tears through them. Daredevil decides that he must try to keep Namor from injuring innocents so he takes Namor on and it's a wonderfully illustrated battle by a comic book legend, Wally Wood, that ends with Namor being so impressed by Daredevil's bravery that he decides to avoid fighting and return to his world surreptitiously...
58. "Spider-Man Reveals His Identity to the World" by Mark Millar, Steve McNiven and Dexter Vines (Civil War #2)
Marvel's Civil War storyline involved the concept of a Superhuman Registration Act, where superheros would have to register with the government to be active superheroes (the whole thing started when the New Warriors were battling with the villain Nitro and he exploded, killing over 300 people in Stamford, including a school filled with children). Captain America and a bunch of superheroes felt that it was too much of an invasion of their privacy so they went on the run. Spider-Man, who had been working with Tony Stark for awhile at the time, stuck with his boss and friend, Iron Man, who decided to be the spokesperson for the Act. Iron Man convinces Spider-Man to make a bold statement by revealing his identity to the world, which he did in Civil War #2...
Like a few other moments on this list (including the very first moment we revealed, the death of Guardian), this story was later overturned and the genie was put back in the bottle, as it were, but the original moment still stood out.
Go to the next page for #57-54!
57. "Dark Phoenix Destroys a Planet" by John Byrne, Chris Claremont and Terry Austin (X-Men #135)
The Phoenix, Jean Grey (later revealed to be a cosmic being who BELIEVED that she was Jean Grey), had snapped and become the evil Dark Phoenix. However, her corrupted being took a turn for the REALLY bad when she ended up destroying a star, leading to the destruction of a nearby planet of asparagus people...
This moment of genocide is what ultimately led to Jim Shooter believing that Jean Grey had to die before the Dark Phoenix Saga was over.
56. "The Introduction of Venom" by David Michelinie, Todd McFarlane and Bob McLeod (Amazing Spider-Man #299)
Spider-Man's aforementioned black costume turned out to be an alien symbiote. Spidey ended up getting rid of it but it escaped and eventually bonded with another person, some jerk named Eddie Brock. At the end of Amazing Spider-Man #299, we finally see Brock and the alien together (calling themselves Venom) in a chilling scene where Spider-Man's wife, Mary Jane, comes home and sees quite a frightening sight...
That's one hell of an introduction.
55. "You shouldn't have signed it" by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli (Daredevil #227)
The basic concept of Born Again is that Matt Murdock's former girlfriend, Karen Page, has fallen on hard times and finds herself selling Matt's identity as Daredevil for drug money. The information finds its way to Daredevil's arch-nemesis, Wilson Fisk - the Kingpin. Fisk then uses his great resources to systematically destroy Matt Murdock's life. He gets him dis-barred, he takes all of his money, everything. However, Kingpin couldn't help but go one step further, so he blows up Murdock's townhouse. Up until this point, everything had been pretty slick and subtle - this? Anything but subtle, and somehow, Kingpin ends up giving Matt a reason to fight...
What a way to start a storyline, right? So perfect.
54. "Storm stabs Callisto in the heart" by Chris Claremont, Paul Smith and Bob Wiacek (Uncanny X-Men #170)
The worst part of this one is that my own rules prevent me from spotlighting the amazing moments before and after the MAIN moment. The concept is that a group of underground mutants known as the Morlocks (made up of mutants who can't "pass" as human like Storm, Colossus and Kitty Pryde) have first kidnapped Angel and then Kitty Pryde, as well. Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler go to help their friends (they were a little short on team members at the time as Cyclops and Wolverine were both away from the team). They soon find themselves stuck with only one way out - someone has to fight the Morlock leader to the death in a knife fight. Storm volunteers. In a bad ass opening, Calissto tosses her a knife and Storm (in a brilliant Paul Smith panel) smoothly plucks the knife out of the air. Nightcrawler and Colossus are all like "Daaaaang" but they know Storm has vowed never to take a life.
During the fight, though...
The Morlocks have a healer who saves Callisto's life (Storm obviously knew that that was a likely result - but she had to do it knowing that it MIGHT not work and she really WAS killing Callisto). As Storm leads her friends away, Nightcrawler is all, "I never thought you'd actually do that" and Storm is all, "Neither did Callisto. That was her mistake." Daaaaaaaaang.
Paul Smith is one of the top action artists in the business.
Go to the next page for #53-51!
53. "Spider-Man reveals his identity to a sick kid who's a fan of his" by Roger Stern, Ron Frenz and Terry Austin (Amazing Spider-Man #248)
This is another one where I'm limited by my own page restrictions. The moment everyone voted for is when Peter reveals his identity to the "kid who collects Spider-Man," a kid who was being spotlighted in a column in the Daily Bugle about being such a big Spider-Man fan. Spider-Man visits them and they bond and have a good time but the kid really wants to know who Spider-Man is. Peter gives in...
The twist, which seems pretty apparent reading the above pages, so I'm not too upset about skipping the reveal, is that the kid is sick from leukemia and only has a few weeks to live. Great story in a bit of an odd issue (two short stories by Stern in one issue).
52. "Cap's Kooky Quartet is born!" by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers (Avengers #16)
Almost all of the Avengers decide to leave the team while Cap is on his way back from a mission of vengeance against Baron Zemo (the guy who Cap thinks killed his partner, Bucky). Cap manages to bury Zemo without crying about it all issue long, but his return trip is delayed by Zemo's men so it takes a while for Cap (who brought Rick Jones along for the ride, because, well, I dunno - it's actually pretty irresponsible of Cap) to get back to New York. He arrives just in time to learn that Iron Man, Thor, Giant Man and Wasp are all leaving the team and their replacements are three former supervillains. What I love about this story is that it is just SO outlandish and it really puts the lie to anyone who tries to tell you "Character X can't be an Avenger." THREE SUPERVILLAINS, PEOPLE! And they make up the bulk of the team! Anyhow, Cap takes it all in stride and they are introduced to the world...
51. "Kitty Pryde takes a stand for mutantkind" by Chris Claremont and Brett Anderson (Marvel Graphic Novel #5 - God Loves, Man Kills)
All graphic novel long, this jerky anti-mutant preacher named William Stryker has been causing all sorts of unrest in the country with his hatred of mutants. He has even caused a group of militant supporters known as "purifiers" to begin hunting mutants down. It's all quite grim stuff. Xavier was willing to debate Stryker on national television, but Stryker used the opportunity to kidnap Cyclops and Xavier and brainwash Xavier into hating all mutants, which Stryker will use with some device to amplify Xavier's telepathy to wipe out all of mutantkind. The X-Men's arch-foe, Magneto, is forced to team up with the remaining members of the team to rescue Xavier before this happens. In the end, they end up confronting Stryker on national television and Kitty Pryde gets to give one of her good ol' Kitty Pryde speeches after Stryker talks some crap about Nightcrawler...
Great stuff by Claremont and Anderson.
The "blam," by the way, was from the gun of a cop who shoots Stryker to stop him from shooting an unarmed girl.
Check back tomorrow for the next ten!
In the meantime, feel free to express your disappointment if you so choose over what has been posted so far, but do not preemptively complain about stuff you think MIGHT be on the list or anything silly like that. Complaining is enough - you don't need to get it in ahead of time just in case. So no "there better not be ____ in the top ten!" or anything like that. Heck, I'd prefer you not spend time speculating period.