Today, we continue our countdown of your picks for the greatest comic book storylines of all-time with #88-85.
You voted (over 1,000 ballots cast and a little bit more than the last time we did this countdown) and 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!
88. "The Love Bunglers" by Jaime Hernandez (Love and Rockets: New Stories #3-4) – 127 points (3 first place votes)
It's fascinating. We as comic book readers are used to long-running relationships. Hell, Superman and Lois Lane went back and forth for over fifty years before they got married! But we're typically used to relationships that do not actually go by in real time. That is what makes the relationship at the core of Jaime Hernandez's brilliant "The Love Bunglers" so remarkable. In the aforementioned "Death of Speedy" storyline, Speedy Ortiz was the bad boy that Maggie wanted even though Speedy's friend Ray seemed to be the better fit for her. Now, thirty or so years later, Ray and Maggie have a second chance at love. If, of course, they don't bungle it. The name of the storyline, though, IS "The Love Bunglers," so you might have some idea at how it goes. Hernandez has done such wonderful work with Maggie over the years that we know her as well as we know any longtime friend or family member. We know how she works. We know her quirks. We know her best qualities. We know her worst qualities. And all of them are at play when she gets involved with Ray again, with both now middle-aged. Hernandez's skills are readily apparent in the control he maintains over their interactions, both with the dialogue and also his incredible skills with characterization. It's stunning, really, to see how good he was with these characters thirty years ago and yet he is even BETTER now!
Hernandez uses flashbacks to gives depth to the modern day interactions, as we the reader know exactly how the past is affecting the present but no one else in the present knows what we do. It is pretty heartbreaking and powerful stuff. But, like all stories involving Maggie, the power of love is always present. Man, Maggie is such an awesome character.
87. "Who Killed Jimmy Olsen?" - Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #1-12 - 130 points
Probably the standout story from the Brian Michael Bendis era of the Superman titles was the Matt Fraction, Steve Lieber and Nathan Fairbairn Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen maxiseries, which was built around the idea of someone trying to kill Jimmy Olsen, but in general, it allowed Fraction and Lieber the room to truly explore the complexities of Jimmy Olsen as a character. There's a great moment early on when Jimmy puts himself down to Superman (after the two do a cute bit of shtick that Jimmy will then post on the Daily Planet website as part of his content for the paper) as being just good at "silly stuff," and Superman flinches, thinks about all of the various things that Jimmy has gone through over the years before just letting Jimmy believe that he's good at "the silly stuff," as that seems to be what Jimmy WANTS to believe...
And of course, Jimmy DOES get into some awfully silly stuff, as this maxiseries is uproariously funny at times, with some striking uses of captions, in particular (as the story is broken down into constant short stories and the short stories often have full-blown introductions where Fraction gets to work in puns and clever bits), but it is also touching.
Lieber and Fairbairn have to draw so many outrageous things while keeping the story (which involves the history of the Olsens and the Luthor, who came to Metropolis many years before it was even CALLED Metropolis) grounded and it's such a narrow tightrope to walk, but they, like, did somersaults on it, that's how good they are in this series.
It truly was a surprising masterpiece.
86. "High Society" by Dave Sim (Cerebus #26–50) - 132 points (3 first place votes)
A previous story in Cerebus (“Mind Games”) was the real demarcation between “Cerebus: silly satire book” and “Cerebus: more serious satire book,” but High Society was the most prominent storyline in establishing Cerebus as a more serious satire.
In this volume, our aardvark protagonist (for lack of a better descriptor for him) gets caught up in, well, high society. He is chosen to be a representative of the city-state of Palnu in the large city-state of Iest (where the comic would be set for the next six years or so). Much of the humor in the storyline is derived from Cerebus’ seeming obliviousness to the standard tropes of high society. In a lot of ways, it is similar to the great Jerzy Kosinski screenplay, Being There, only Cerebus is certainly not an innocent – he just views things in a more mercenary fashion than most, and fails to play political games, although he is certainly willing to try.
He is latched on to by Astoria, the ex of Lord Julius (the head of Palnu), and she uses Cerebus’ charisma as her own, and uses him to further her agenda, and in the process, makes him a popular political figure. As Cerebus’ political ambitions broaden, the book takes an almost frantic nature as Sim makes the book much like an election story – you really begin to care if Cerebus’ campaign will work.
At the same time, though, there are plenty of wacky gags, too (Sim couldn’t divest himself of the early Cerebus stories TOO much, I suppose), including this roach who is manipulated into becoming Moon Roach, a parody of Moon Knight.
When the dust is settled, Cerebus is a changed aardvark, and he is quite ready for the next storyline, Church and State.
Honestly, while there would be some confusion at the start, I think I would probably recommend beginning reading Cerebus with this volume and skipping Volume 1. The book improved THAT much with this story.
85. "First Tale of the Demon" by Denny O'Neil, Neal Adams, Bob Brown, Irv Novick and Dick Giordano (Batman #232, 235, 240, 242-244 and Detective Comics #411) - 135 points (2 first place votes)
The storyline does not really HAVE a name, although I guess you might call it "Daughter of the Demon," but since it is collected in Tales of the Demon with another Ra's al Ghul story, I figure "The First Tale" is an appropriate enough name!
It begins in Detective Comics with a Bob Brown penciled issue, then the story continues to Batman, where Irv Novick and Neal Adams draw three issues apiece (although Adams draws more total story pages, as two of Adams' issues are full-length stories while none of Novick's are).
An interesting aspect of the first stories involving Ra's Al Ghul by Denny O'Neil and friends is the fact that the Batman within these stories is barely recognizable to the super-competent Batman of today. The Batman of the first Ra's story really needs the help of other practically ordinary people to help bring down Ra's.
Ra's and Talia had been around for a little while before the famous first duel between Batman and Ra's took place.
Batman fakes Bruce Wayne's death and takes on the identity of Matches Malone for the first time (Malone is introduced and is killed in these issues, leaving the identity available for Batman to use). He teams up with a scientist who had worked with Ra's (not of his own volition) and they race to stop Ra's and Talia from unleashing a deadly plague. Through the story, Batman gets aid from some unlikely sources, like a famous skier!!
Ultimately, Batman tracks them down only to discover Ra's dead. He takes Talia into custody but is then confronted by Ra's - this is the first time we see the use of the Lazarus Pit. Batman is quickly subdued and Ra's and his daughter take off.
This is probably the first "wow, Batman is tough" scene, as Batman manages to catch up with them and confront them again in the desert. Ra's is suitably impressed.
We then see one of the most amazing four-page sequences in superhero comic book history, where Batman has a shirtless sword fight in the desert with Ra's, is seemingly killed by a venomous scorpion bite, is revived by Talia, then confronts Ra's, who is shocked to see Batman alive and essentially gives up right away. Then Batman gives Talia a big kiss and heads off to go deliver her dad to the authorities...somehow.
Absolutely stunning work by Adams. This absolutely DEFINED Batman comics of this era. Heck, this pretty much defined Batman for the entirety of the 1970s!