Comic Book Resources

both characters are way up there in my favourite DC character affections so I wholeheartedly approve of the tie in this case. Atom and Hawkman 40 also happens to have one of my favourite covers ever

Agreed on the Atom cover. I don't know the technical art terms to use to describe it, but the way the characters are posed, and the inclusion of the plant, seem way ahead of its time.

Great choice(s)!

I don't particularly understand why DC and Marvel won't do "combined character" books for characters that just don't sell particularly well on their own... and Green Arrow/Black Canary and Cable/Deadpool do not exactly count. I mean more along the lines of books that would feature two eleven page stories -- one for character "A" and one for character "B." Perhaps there would be a crossover between the two every few issues. I'm not saying the title would sell gangbusters, but it might draw some sales.

Speaking of which, neither Hawkman nor Atom (last issue of All-New was yesterday) have a series. Would anyone buy good-old science fiction (and I don't just mean Star Wars, I mean SCIENCE fiction) comic?

Quasar #34 happeneind during the final month of the absoltuely tremendous 19-part Operation Galactic Storm marvel crossover. It hit Iron Man, Cap, Wonder Man, Quasar, Thor, and the two Avengers titles. The story itself was abotu the battle between the Kree and the Shiar, alien races from the Avenrgers and X-men worlds who hadn't even come in contact before. What made it truyl killer was the the story broke in such a way that each individual episode moved the grand story forward, but also contained a full no-further-reading-necessary adventure for the Avenger in question!

McK, I disagree that they should do combined books in the style of the old Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish. I'd much prefer to see low selling characters actually teamed up, since it gives the writer more space to tell a story. Plus the combinations are usually really cool. For instance, Cable&Deadpool and Green Lantern co-starring Green Arrow were both brilliant. I'd love to see an Ant-Man/White Tiger book.

Better than Ant-Man/White Tiger.... Nextwave/Agents of Atlas.

In the 90's, Marvel tried Strange Tales featuring Dr. Strange and Cloak & Dagger. Dr. Strange had just been canceled, but I'm bot sure about C&D. It went 19 issues (I think). The big drawback in my eyes is that the story continued from his series. That's just not conducive to getting new readers with a #1.

And actually, we already have a book like that (kinda) - Marvel Comics Presents. I know, it's NOT the same thing, but it's as close as we're likely to get.

Isn't DC already doing the A/B series format in some of their miniseries? I thought the Mystery In Space worked out alright, and the Dr 13 backup feature in Tales of the Unexpected was great fun. Didn't much care for Countdown to Adventure (and haven't got around to Countdown to Mystery yet), but I think the split series experiment has gone favourably for DC. And the sales have been decent too.

Can't argue with these choices. No wonder they're such buddies.

DC is trying something similar (though not exact) in Brave and Bold. While it features a rotating cast, some of the characters featured have been downright obscure. Not a bad series. Lots of fun for fans of the Silver Age.

The Saga of the Swamp Thing #34 was the ground-breaking and beautiful "Rite of Spring".

New Teen Titans #34 was the big Terra-is-a-traitor reveal, setting up the Judas Contract story.

(No 'honorable mentions/other notable #34s' this time?)

Hitman #34 features one of the better Superman stories I've read. Here's an appreciation from the sadly missed Dave's Long Box:

http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com/2005/08/hitman-34-dc-comics-1999.html

Historically, I guess, these are the most important 34, but Hitman 34 should be mentioned as best in quality.

I just assumed that it'd be Hitman #34, but I can see how these would be too good for a long-time DC fan to pass up.

You really should have found a picture of The Atom sitting on Hawkman's shoulder. Of all the satellite-era heroes, Hawkman's is always the shoulder I picture The Atom sitting on. (Unless he's in his cute little floating chair!)

"oooooo... he has the strength of a *human*!" (yeah, yeah, I know that's an Ant-Man joke...)

Amazing Adventures #34 was the original 'A Death in the Family', in which Skar rips through the entire cast of Killraven. It's shocking to read now, I can only imagine what it was like at the time.