while the particular issue isn't that great story-wise, and while the first turok isn't all that notable by itself, this is the issue that sort of became the symbol of the entire valiant craze. while valiant jumped the shark shortly after unity and quickly became almost unreadable, the first year and a half of the company, as guided by jim shooter, was phenomenal, and for a brief moment, it seriously looked like valiant might actually challenge marvel and dc.

the first ten or so issues of both magnus and solar still stand up as some of the best stories of the 90's, and while magnus 12 doesn't necessarily fall into that, this is the issue that symbolizes the entire moment where it looked like we had a third comic company that mattered.

It's the second volume of a two-part story that is the best-selling Tintin adventure worldwide (which means it must have sold over 10 MILLION copies all over the world) and one of the most famous trasure hunt comics ever done. It was first pulished in 1944 after serialization on the nazi-controlled newspaper Le Soir on the previous year.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

I'd have gone with Squadron Supreme #12, personally. Watchmen might be the more popular story, but it kinda drifted off at the end (IMHO) and switched genres. It went from dark and grim 'n gritty to sci fi in a really jarring way. The entire tone of Watchmen #12 was different from the tone of Watchmen 1-11.

Squadron Supreme #12 held the inevitable conclusion. All the dominos were set up, and no matter how much you didn't want to see them fall, you knew they must. And, characters you had come to know and care about died in a conflict that could have been avoided if only the events of the previous 11 issues had gone slightly differently.

For me, Watchmen #12 was an example of "Here is an ending with a swerve you didn't expect" storytelling and Squadron Supreme #12 was an example of "Here is an ending you expected but hoped would swerve somewhere." And, I prefer the second style of storytelling.

Theno

At least I think it was. Did the first Spider-Man beat it, with the FF cameo? Anyway, I thought it was a bigger deal.

Although my heart joins the ranks of the Alpha Flight boosters. That death of Guardian issue was a major event for me when it came out (and the rest of the issue is a good Byrne-style slugfest to boot!).

But Watchmen's okay too.

FIE!
Fie, I say.

This... Watchmen thing you seem to be doting over is alright. I guess.

But MAN-THING has a movie.
It's even on DVD.
He even has action figures!

I don't see any Watchmen movies out.
Or Action Figures!
So, how good could it be?

(Sorry. In a silly mood.)

~P~
PTOR

Not that I think he, or that issue, are well known enough to have gotten the slot here, just an odd trivia thing I'd thought I'd throw out there.

Mad #30, the first in a very long line of extremely iconic cover images. (The first appearance of the character was in a small corner of #21, but #30 was the first full-cover to look like all but a tiny handful of the entire series' history.)

If NONE of them are known, then

2. Most notable issue, comic history-wise.