CSBG Archive
Comics Should Be Good Top 50 Countdown! – #41
Here’s #41! Click here for the master list!
Enjoy!
Supreme #41
This was a fairly tough call, as two great writers began memorable runs on the 41st issues of their respective titles, but in the end, I think Alan Moore’s debut on Supreme, due mostly to the fact that he was ALAN MOORE at the time, outweighs Garth Ennis’ debut on Hellblazer, due to the fact that Ennis was just garth ennis at the time.
There was a great deal of hype surrounding one of the greatest comic book writers of all time taking over a Rob Liefeld character, a lot of “how could this be good? I know it WILL be good, but HOW?!?!” and Moore put all the fears to rest by turning the book into a love letter to the Superman stories of the 50s.
Moore did updated, but still optimistic (as opposed to cynical takes on the old stories, which seems to be what lots of writers love to do, as it is is a lot easier) takes on Superman and Superboy and all that jazz.
Meanwhile, he managed to work in a great deal of metafictive elements to the work.
Just a grand run on an awesome comic (I believe it even was later published by Awesome Comics 
). Chris Sprouse was very good on the artwork, too.
Ennis’ run on Hellblazer is great, too.
Other memorable #41s….Rhino made his debut in Amazing Spider-Man #41, with a GREAT John Romita cover, FF #41 was a good Lee/Kirby issue and Tales of the New Teen Titans began with #41.
9 Comments
Sandy
July 10, 2008 at 12:38 pm
The entire Alan Moore run on Supreme was available for free at wowio.com for a while, but I’m not sure if it’s still there.
buttler
July 10, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Ooo, good call. This was a great one. Nice Superman #1 homage cover, too.
Jeff R.
July 10, 2008 at 3:04 pm
DC Comics Presents #41 was the first of that series to ‘team’ Superman with a villain, the Joker. It also, like the issue of that book that has made the list so far, contained a preview back-up, for the ‘new’ Wonder Woman (Roy Thomas run.)
(If a title change siginfying the switch to a year’s worth of fill-in stories to be followed with turning a book into a year-delayed reprint of another book is ‘significant’ enough to make the also mentioned list, then what isn’t, exactly…)
Brian Cronin
July 10, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Tales of the New Teen Titans wasn’t reprints for the first year or so. The first few issues were part of perhaps the most famous storyline in the Titans series.
Jeff R.
July 10, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Interesting…I certainly don’t remember the Judas Contract and the Terror of Trigon coming out at the exact same time, but I guess they must have. Anyhow, I mentioned the year’s worth (actually looks like a year and a half or so) of fill-ins, which everything post-Contract (including the wedding) was.
#41 is more memorable for being part one of Judas Contract (or the debut of That Nightwing Costume, for that matter) than the name change, since I (the ultimate representive fan, of course) didn’t remember the name-change as being until considerably later. But if you’re representing the Terra storyline, the actual face-heel turn in #34 is the more memorable issue…
Dan K
July 10, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Great choice. One of the issues I really hoped would turn up when you announced this whole countdown thing.
wwk5d
July 10, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Who did the cover?
Greg Geren
July 11, 2008 at 6:03 am
That’s a Jerry Ordway cover. Fantastic work by an underrated artist.
Not Quasar
August 12, 2008 at 10:58 am
What happened in Quasar #41? I must KNOW!!!!