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Comics Should Be Good Top 50 Countdown! - #50
- by Brian Cronin
- in Top 50 Countdown
Here's #50! Click here for the master list!
Enjoy!
The Amazing Spider-Man #50
On the amazing John Romita cover alone, this issue might have merited attention for the list, but the kicker was the great story from writer Stan Lee that involved the introduction of a fairly memorable super villain - Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin!!
The story is a familiar one, as it has been used about a gazillion times since this issue (even though Peter makes a point of saying that it will never happen again - suuuuuuuure, Peter) - Peter finds out Aunt May's health is slipping - meanwhile, so are his grades - and when you add in his romantic entanglements, Peter has a lot of stuff going on, so he ultimately decides to just screw it, and throws his costume out in a trash can.
Annoyingly, this disappearance by Spider-Man - while making J. Jonah Jameson giddy, also makes a new villain, the so-called Kingpin of Crime, ALSO very happy - as this gives him free reign to go on a crime spree - which he does, through his control of organized crime.
Former super villain, Frederick Foswell (Bugle reporter) is investigating it, while the idea of being a criminal himself is raising its head once again in Foswell's mind - meanwhile, he begins to become suspicious of Peter, in terms of Peter perhaps being Spider-Man.
Anyhow, obviously, Peter sees innocents in harm's way, and he just cannot turn his back on Uncle Ben's message of great power coming with great responsibility, so he takes his costume back and begins to fight crime again - and he claims he'll never give up being Spider-Man again!
Great issue, with awesome artwork by John Romita, inked by Mike Esposito (using the Mickey Demeo pseudonym).
Other notable #50 issues include Uncanny X-Men #50 - the first second Polaris, X-Men #50 - the reveal of Onslaught (through his agent, Post, who turned out to be totally unimportant), Superman Volume 2 #50 (Clark Kent proposes to Lois Lane), Fantastic Four #50 (the end of the Silver Surfer/Galactus storyline), Tales of the New Teen Titans #50 (Terry Long marries Donna Troy) - there are a lot more out there that I haven't named - but this is the biggest one, I think!
- Posted on June 23, 2008 @ 05:27 AM
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13 Comments
Dan K
June 23, 2008 at 6:55 am
Nice choice. On this theme, how about a top ten "walking away" cover gallery? X-Men 138 for example?
JD
June 23, 2008 at 9:03 am
Lorna Dane actually first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #49, and X-Men v2 #50 reveals nothing significant about Onslaught (the actual reveal is in #54) - it's just the debut issue of his obscure henchman Post.
Craig
June 23, 2008 at 9:11 am
I wouldn't use "notable" to describe any Onslaught-related issues. "Infamous", on the other hand, fits well.
Mike Loughlin
June 23, 2008 at 9:38 am
Starman 50 had a nice story- Jack Knight teams up with a couple members of the Legion.
I think Hitman 50 was the "in the near future" story, when only one member of Tommy's crew is still alive to tell their stories.
Bryan Levy
June 23, 2008 at 10:13 am
My favorite #50 is Impulse #50. Impulse vs. Joker, woth Batman on the side. So funny, and great EVS art.
JD
June 23, 2008 at 10:44 am
Hey, on the other hand Uncanny X-Men #50 is the first with the new logo designed by Steranko, which stuck around for decades. So it really was significant (just not for the story).
MarkAndrew
June 23, 2008 at 2:56 pm
We all know nobody loves the Silver Age Spider-man like I love the Silver Age Spider-man, right?
Still, I probably would have gone with Sandman for the # 50 slot, with RAMADAN bein' generally considered the most effective and encapsulating story of the whole run.
While Spider-man fifty is the fourth most important Spidey issue, tops, after the Death of Gwen Stacy, the finale of the master planner saga, and.... well we all know what # 15 is going to be, right?
Heck, I'd probably have put Brave and the Bold # 50 for ushering in the team-up book format above Spidey, here.
Great issue, though.
FunkyGreenJerusalem
June 23, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Starman 50 had a nice story- Jack Knight teams up with a couple members of the Legion.
I think #50 actually revealed that Starboy of the Legion was to be the next Starman after Jack Knight.
That's gone now.
SPOILER ALERT!
And did they actually stop The Shade getting poisoned by the Culper for thousands of years until Jack rescued him, or does that still happen - Jack still stabbed him in the chest to stop Culper in Grand Guignol.
Comics Should Be Good! » Comics Should Be Good Top 50 Countdown!
June 25, 2008 at 1:28 am
[...] Comics Should Be Good! » Comics Should Be Good Top 50 Countdown! - #50 [...]
Jeff Ryan
June 25, 2008 at 7:33 am
In Quasar #50, he and Silver Surfer get picked by giant comsic entities to battle for the fate of the unvierse. Quasar realizes his backer is on the wrong side, and purposefully loses to the Surfer in order to let the unvierse win. Granted, plenty of people have lost to the Surfer after trying really hard, but not many realize they're doing the wrong thing and throw the fight.
sean
June 25, 2008 at 10:15 am
Jeff - I remember that issue fondly, even though I hated Quasar as a character and series. The art wasn't great, but that moment where Quasar loses on purpose (even though, potentially, he could maybe win) is pretty awesome.
Ganky
June 30, 2008 at 2:22 am
Micronauts #50: Everyone Dies!!
Josh
July 10, 2008 at 6:15 pm
What's your favorite 0 issue?? It took me awhile to think on it but I thought Generation X 50 which crossed over with X-Man 50 was pretty good. I doubt however they were very notable.