You voted, and now, after over 1,000 ballots were cast, here are the results of your votes for your favorite comic book storylines of all-time (this is the third time we've done this countdown. We're on an every four year schedule)! The first few days will be ten storylines a day and then it will be five a day until we hit December!
To recap, you all sent in ballots ranking your favorite storylines from #1 (10 points) to #10 (1 point). I added up all of the points and here we are!
80. "Multiversity" by Grant Morrison, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado and a bunch of other artists (Multiversity #1-2 and a bunch of one-shots) – 134 points (4 first place votes)
After re-establishing the Multiverse (and the 52 different Earths within it) in Final Crisis, Grant Morrison followed up that storyline by this epic series of interconnected one-shot that shows the Multiverse being attacked by a powerful group of magical beings who plan to feast on the minds of the Multiverse. The only way to stop them is through a team-up of a bunch of heroes from different worlds.
One of the big conceits in this series is that, just like Earth-2 when it first came up, the adventures of each of the heroes appear to each other as comic book adventures. So Hero X teams up with Hero Y and they both know each other from their respective existences as fictional characters in the other person's universe.
This was especially spotlighted in the Guidebook one-shot, which gave a detailed examination of each of the worlds in the Multiverse, while still telling a compelling story of the various heroes within those worlds interacting as part of the invasion...
Even for a creator as creative as Grant Morrison, this was one of his most "out there" projects, but it somehow all still came together in the end (luckily, he was able to work with a ton of fine artists on the project).
79. "Church and State" by Dave Sim and Gerhard (Cerebus #52-111) – 135 points (5 first place votes)
Cerebus began as a parody of Conan, but by the time Church and State began, the book had moved past that and become a slightly more serious satire of a number of topics, including politics and society.
Church and State, which is by far the longest storyline on the Top 100, further moved Cerebus away from its early days with an elaborate allegorical story about religion, politics and, most of all, morality.
The basic gist of the story is that Cerebus in appointed the Pope of the Eastern Church of Tarim. He lets his power get to his head, loses everything, tries to get it back, gets it back, gets even MORE morally corrupt and ultimately meets, in effect, God.
This is the story where Sim lays out the prophecy that the rest of Cerebus was “ruled” by, which hovered over the next 180 plus issues of the book like a scythe.
That’s the plot of the story, but the beauty of it all is the character development, although development almost suggests an advancement, and that’s really not the case for Cerebus through most of the story – as he completely loses his way, morally.
His actions are at times chilling, and the fact that it they are taken by the “protagonist” of the comic were quite bold by Sim.
The artwork by Sim and Gerhard is strong, but it is the writing that is the key to this great epic storyline.
78. "Red Son" by Mark Millar, Dave Johnson, Kilian Plunkett, Andrew Robinson and Walden Wong (Red Son #1-3) – 137 points
One of the all-time great "high concept" comic books was definitely Red Son, which was built around the idea of what if Superman landed not in Smallville but in the Soviet Union, instead. Superman grows up to become the hero of the Communist government, the personal disciple of Stalin. Meanwhile, in the United States, Lex Luthor is a brilliant scientist tasked with finding ways to kill the Soviet Superman, while Lex's wife, Lois, can't help but be interested in the Man of Steel.
When Stalin dies, Superman is enlisted into being his successor, but he doesn't want the job. However, even in this alternate universe, he is still Superman, so he manages to see how he could help change the world for the better...
However, he has a lot of people in his way who want to stop him, including Luthor, who decides to become a rogue villain after his Bizarro Superman failed to stop Superman. He informs his wife of their impending divorce over the phone - the interaction is priceless...
Eventually, Superman can't help but become a despot himself, and so the Soviet version of Batman is formed to try to take Superman down, leading to one of the best Batman/Superman fights in this or any other reality.
Go to the next page for #77-74!
77. “The Death of Superman” by Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson and Roger Stern (writers), Dan Jurgens, Tom Grummett, Jon Bogdanove and Jackson Guice (pencilers) and Brett Breeding, Doug Hazlewood, Dennis Janke, Denis Rodier and Rich Burchett (inkers) (Superman #74-75, Adventures of Superman #497, Superman: Man of Steel #18-19, Action Comics #684, Justice League America #69) – 138 points (3 first place votes)
In an idea borrowed from writer Louise Simonson’s husband, Walter and the issues leading up to the introduction of Surtur in Thor, we kept seeing the sound effect “Doom doom doom” appear at the back of the four Superman titles in the weeks leading up to the reveal in Man of Steel #18 of a monstrous creature pounding away at its captivity and the “doom” noise was it punching its way free.
It then went on a rampage throughout the United States, headed towards Metropolis through sheer happenstance.
The Justice League showed up to stop it, and the creature went through them easily (it was Leaguer Booster Gold who named the creature “Doomsday”).
Eventually, it came down to Superman, who tried to keep the creature from Metropolis, but eventually ended up battling the creature all the way TO Metropolis.
Eventually, in one last blow for each combatant – the two killed each other.
This was certainly one of the more dramatic comic books of all-time. I mean, Superman DIED, for crying out loud!
76. "Dangerous Habits" by Garth Ennis, Will Simpson, Mark Pennington and a host of other inkers (Hellblazer #41-46) – 139 points (4 first place votes)
In one of his very first storylines as the writer of Hellblazer, Garth Ennis ended up with likely the greatest John Constantine story of all-time (it was roughly adapted into the Constantine movie). The basic concept of the story is that John Constantine discovers that he has terminal lung cancer, likely a result of a lifetime of cigarette smoking.
John tries to keep from dying by pursuing various means, including a fellow magician named Brendan. Brendan, though, not only can’t help him but is dying himself. Constantine takes a detour from his plot to help save Brendan’s soul from the First of the Fallen. This, of course, only makes the First of the Fallen even happier to see Constantine when he finally decides to kill himself…
Of course, this being John Constantine, he has something up his bloody sleeve. It’s a brutally clever story by Ennis with strong work by Simpson and a host of inkers. Ennis really nails Constantine’s personality in this arc. It's the sort of thing that you would hand to other writers and say, "If you want to know what John Constantine is like, read this story."
75. “Ultimates 2" by Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary (Ultimates 2 #1-13) – 141 points
In this story, we see the downfall of the Ultimates as they become SO effective as a tool of the United States government that other nations begin to formulate a counter to them, and when their plan springs into action, the Ultimates cannot even trust each other as the whole operation collapses around them and as the United States of America is stolen right out from underneath their noses! And is Loki involved or is he not? And which member of the Ultimates is a traitor? All these questions answered and more in this 13-part saga that culminated with a stunning series of dramatic battles in the final few issues!
Here is one of the great sequences where the Ultimates begin to rebel against the occupation of America…
Very cool.
74. "The Longbow Hunters" by Mike Grell (Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters #1-3) – 142 points
This is the mini-series that led to Grell’s acclaimed Green Arrow ongoing series. It is particularly notable for five major things:
1. It took a more “realistic” approach to both comic book aging and sexuality
2. It made the book a lot darker, with Oliver killing bad guys
3. It introduced Shado, a popular Green Arrow supporting character
4. It introduced Eddie Fyers, another popular Green Arrow supporting character
5. It has a very controversial scene where Dinah Lance (Black Canary) is tortured to the point where she can no longer use her sonic scream or have children
Let’s examine these, as we look at pages from the series.
To the first, here’s a nice sequence from where Ollie is complaining about getting old…
That is one of the more realistic character interactions you’re going to see in a 1980s superhero comic book.
One of the over-arching plotlines of Longbow Hunter was Shado getting her revenge on the government operatives who, when they were in the military in World War II, had dishonored her family.
Here is the controversial scene where Dinah’s torture drives Ollie to become a killer (and thus becoming the “urban hunter” of the ongoing series)…
The Shado plotline coincides with a plot involving the CIA and drug money. This introduces the CIA agent Eddie Feyers, who is an exceptionally resilient character. He is like a cockroach. You can never get rid of him.
In any event, this was a good series with strong artwork and good characters. The ongoing series might even be better than this first mini-series, but this story was a powerful intro. The Arrow TV series took a whole lot from Grell’s approach to the character.
Go to the next page for #73-71!
73. "Deus ex Machina" by Grant Morrison, Chas Truog, Doug Hazlewood, Mark Farmer and a few other artists (Animal Man #18-26) - 145 points (6 first place votes)
Grant Morrison concluded his run on Animal Man with this amazing final story arc, where Morrison plays with the very fabric of reality as Animal Man discovers his nature as a fictional character while tripping in the desert…
How awesome is that?
The story goes even further than that as Animal Man’s life becomes a living hell and Morrison acknowledges the way that an author’s life can affect what happens to the characters on the page. The whole thing is a bit of a meditation on the proliferation of grim and gritty comics during this time period. With his life in ruins, Animal Man finds himself on a journey to comic book limbo, where he meets the various characters “erased” by the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
This all leads to Animal Man meeting none other than Grant Morrison himself, as the two talk about life and comic books and Morrison leaves the book with a touching gift for Buddy Baker.
This storyline holds up well to this day (especially the final meeting between Morrison and Animal Man), but at the time, when meta-fictional narratives were relatively rare, this was a really groundbreaking work.
72. "A Game of You" by Neil Gaiman, Colleen Doran, Shawn McManus, Bryan Talbot and many inkers (Sandman #32-37) – 150 points (1 first place votes)
One of the most intriguing aspects of “A Game of You” is the way that Neil Gaiman was able to form a whole story arc just based around a seemingly minor character from an earlier storyline.
In “A Doll’s House,” Barbie was one of the inhabitants of a boarding house who got caught up in the dream vortex of Rose Walker.
Now, months later, Barbie (who once dreamed of being a princess in a fairy tale land) no longer dreams.
She lives in an apartment building with a few different folks, including a lesbian couple, Hazel and Foxglove, and Barbie’s best friend, Wanda, a transgender woman.
However, circumstances reveal that Barbie’s dream land (which she no longer dreams of) is in trouble, and she is needed to stop the evil Cuckoo from destroying all the people of “The Land.” She does so, but unbenown to her, the Cuckoo has agents on Earth, as well!
Luckily, another denizen of the apartment building is the witch, Thessaly (who became a major player in the Sandman mythos). Thessaly helps stop an attack on Barbie, and then goes into “The Land” herself, along with Hazel and Foxglove, to help Barbie (in The Land, she’s Princess Barbie).
The true identity of the Cuckoo is pretty awesome, by the way.
Eventually, as you would expect, Morpheus is drawn into the situation.
It’s an engaging tale by Gaiman made up of interesting, well-formed characters on a fantastical journey.
71. “Half a Life” by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark (Gotham Central #7-10) – 151 points (5 first place votes)
Ever since he began working on the Bat-titles, Greg Rucka was fascinated with the relationship between Two-Face and Renee Montoya. Two-Face became obsessed with the stalwart Gotham Police detective during No Man’s Land and his obsession causes Renee a good deal of turmoil in “Half a Life,” when Two-Face delusionally strives to drive Renee to him by destroying her personal and professional life, framing her for murder and outing her a lesbian…
Powerful stuff there by Rucka and the always brilliant artist Michael Lark. You can just feel both Renee’s anguish and that of her partner, Crispus Allen, who is seeing the injustice of his partner being framed right in front of his eyes while also dealing with the shock of learning that she is a lesbian.
Two-Face believes that with her life ruined, Renee will be “stuck” with him (ignoring the whole “she’s a lesbian” thing). This leads to a striking confrontation where Renee not only has to struggle to clear her name but determine whether she can let Two-Face live. There is even an awesome debate where Renee puts some of the blame on Batman and Batman’s position of not killing super-villains. If Batman had just killed Two-Face years ago, none of this would have happened, ya know?
Try as she might, though, Two-Face’s actions broke Renee’s life like a mirror. Even when you put the pieces back together, it is never the same. This storyline won a number of awards and is the most acclaimed storyline of a very acclaimed series.
Come back later on Thursday for the next batch of stories! We're getting into the entries of five stories a day now!