Comic Book Resources

Finally some New Teen Titans are showing up. I can only imagine they were hurt badly by vote splitting (except for the Bat characters of course).

Though maybe I don’t know DC well enough, but I get the impression the Titans were rather popular.

It’s possible they’re hurt not only by being a team, but by there being too many generations. Some are voting for Wolfman-era New Teen Titans while others are voting for Johns-era Titans. Maybe. I dunno. Maybe they’re just less popular than I thought.

Great to see Cliff Steele. He made my top twenty but no matter how I massaged the list he couldn’t make the cut. I don’t think I’ve ever rooted for a character in a comic-book romance the way I rooted for him with Crazy Jane. Remember how she turned into Scarlet Harlot or whatever?
And remember that terrible climax when his brain got squished?? Still creeps me out. What a great book.

I second the Cliff Steele love. What a great character. Without him, Morrison’s run on the book would be all craziness and no heart. With him, it’s a masterpiece. Under Kupperberg and Pollack, he’s just about the only interesting thing in the book.

Even Cliff couldn’t make John Byrne’s reboot readable though.

Oh, has John Byrne done a Doom Patrol reboot now?
I’m so out of touch. I kind of cringe at the thought of Byrne reworking Morrison concepts.

The Byrne reboot came and went and was semi-undone by Infinite Crisis. Go figure. But there -was- a four-armed psychic gorilla… I think.

That Apartheid story with Starfire was one of the dumbest things I HAVE EVER READ.

The next arc, with Jericho, was MUCH BETTER. Specifically, the excellent characterization of his mother made me really moan the fact that she got so unceremoniously offed in Devin Grayson’s Titans. What a waste of a good character.

Yeah, the Apartheid story was pretty bad. That’s why I specifically avoided choosing that issue’s cover.

fourthworlder - Byrne didn’t rework Morrison concepts on Doom Patrol. He restarted the series back at the Silver Age status quo. So he was reworking Arnold Drake concepts, which is just as bad.

Byrne shouldn’t be allowed to write fiction of any kind.

(i put a little numerical analysis under the Marvel thread)

Byrne’s reboot of Doom Patrol seemed to me to be him asking himself “What If … Doom Patrol were a Marvel title in the 60s based on the success of Fantastic Four?”

I think that he didn’t “get” the characters. And, instead of getting to know the established characters he was working with, he had an intern supply him with a 3×5 index card with character descriptions.

Unfortunately, those cards must have been filled by physical descriptions and powers, and left off little things like personality, character interaction and group dynamic.

Theno

Cliff Steele is the Ben Grimm of DC comics.

And that’s a cool thing.

Ray Palmer! Finally!

About time we got some updates! Keep going Brian, I want the whole list and I want it now!

You are killing me with making me wait. But I do want to thank you for keeping this going. Even if there are just 5 of us reading who is #150, I am definitely interested.

Hey - When is Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes) gonna show up? I know he has to break the top 75 - he is too cool for school.