Comments on: Scott's Classic Comics Corner: Grand Finales and Quick Exits (pt. 3)

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:04:36 +0000

The best thing about that Surfer issue is that Lockjaw at one point starts using the Surfer's board as a chew toy, and when the Surfer tries to yank it away from him they get into a superpowered game of tug-of-war. I thought it was hilarious.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:43:09 +0000

The Surfer was intended to go on, with Herb Trimpe as the artist of the new fighting mad version of the character set up by what ended up being the final issue. Stan's plans for the Surfer were derailed by publisher Martin Goodman, who made the decision to cancel the book.

By: KMFPL

KMFPL — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:03:08 +0000

I liked ZERO HOUR when it was coming out, especially the completely out-of-continuity stuff they did (having the 40's Alfred showing up in the Batcave).

After the fact, I thought it became the first warning sign that COIE had failed big time. The simultaneous need to have a coherent continuity and still not throw away their history has been the biggest problem facing DC for the last twenty years. ZERO HOUR was the first attempt to fix COIE, and was doomed to fail. How many more attempts have followed?

By: Dave Lane

Dave Lane — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:16:53 +0000

At the time, the big thing about Legends was John Byrne, who had come to DC to revamp Superman, was going to draw...everybody else. With inks by Karl Kesel, Byrne's DC Universe did look kinda cool. But really, that's all it had going for it. It was a shame, really: Darkseid vs. the DC Universe should've been really awesome. But it lost a lot from the get go when Darkseid's agent Brimstone (he's big! he's on fire!) takes out that awesome DC Legend...Blockbuster? Yep, Blockbuster. A long, looong way from "worlds will live, worlds will die" in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Speaking of Crisis (and getting back on topic of final issues), how about the last issues of The Flash (#350--Wake up! The endless "Trial of the Flash" is over. And look!...Barry gets mushy with a middle aged man! Don't worry, it's really Iris, she gets female again by the end and "they lived happily ever after....for a while...") and Wonder Woman (#329; Diana and Stever Trevor get married after a lot of forgettable something or another by Gerry Conway--nice Jose Luis Garcia Lopez cover but some seriously rushed Don Heck interiors)?

By: Brad Curran

Brad Curran — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:24:12 +0000

I've read the Surfer and JLA finales. The JLA one was in a weird mixed lot I got. Just that one issue was pretty well done, I thought. Kirby's issue of SS was a really weird capper for the serie, but I do remember liking it, and would have liked to see what Jack could have done with him.

By: Ricardo

Ricardo — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:10:38 +0000

Legends is almost a masterpiece when compared to something like Zero Hour or Bloodlines. I never felt Legends to be overpromising, much less stupid. It's premises were quite fine, in fact - to the point of being re-used in many other situations (X-Men and most super-hero movies) - should superheroes run amok?
And, as some other elses pointed out, it was a springboard for the 2 best DC books of the late 80s: JLI and Suicide Squad.

By: Pedro BouÃ§a

Pedro BouÃ§a — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:03:45 +0000

Legends was quite a decent story as far as megacrossovers go. I remember it well, thank you very much.

That Kirby Silver Surfer, though, was easily the worst issue in the run. I love that series, but that issue was a complete departure from what came before - and NOT in a good way!

Best,
Hunter (Pedro BouÃ§a)

By: danjack

danjack — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:52:23 +0000

i enjoyed the 'End of the JLA' story, but the Luke McDonald artwork was really hard for me to look at.
As for bad crossovers, Millenium was really bad, Genisis was awful, and i never read any of the Bloodlines stuff, although it ended in a two-part 'BloodBath'! Blech......

By: Blackjack

Blackjack — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:45:06 +0000

I have to agree. The "End of the JLA" storyline definitely works. I only have a couple of issues from that era of JLA, but that last arc came across as "death that made sense in the context of the story" rather "death because we need to kill off second rate characters". Plus Vibe and Steel, despite being in poor storylines, were still around for a number of years before buying it, so it's not like the deaths had a feeling of being inconsequential. Then again, we did get in DC for a while the "major character dying when his/her series ends at the end of the big annual/summer event" for a while in the '90s, which I wondered if this contributed along with Crisis (Eclipso, Armageddon 2001, Underworld Unleashed...can't remember if anyone died in Bloodlines...but good god...you want to talk about awful...).

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:37:31 +0000

"I canâ€™t remember a damn thing that happened, itâ€™s THAT forgettable."

Oh, c'mon, Guy Gardner dropping a tanker truck on Jim Shooter was certainly memorable.

By: Andrew-TLA

Andrew-TLA — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:43:59 +0000

Legends was competent for what it was, an attempt to set forth the new post-Crisis status quo, introducing the new League, the Suicide Squad, the new Wonder Woman, and, oh yeah, Wally West as the Flash. If you want really bad, look to Genesis.

By: RM

RM — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:55:14 +0000

the final issue of Automatic Kafka has to be my favorite final issue ever.

By: Jim Kosmicki

Jim Kosmicki — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:52:09 +0000

Well, the end of the Silver Surfer announces that the title will now be about the new SAVAGE Silver Surfer. I know I've read interviews and/or articles that indicated that Kirby's take was to have the Surfer angry and attacking the stupidity of humanity. This was simply the transition to that new status quo. It was never meant to be a final, final issue. While it's common knowledge that the Surfer's first series never sold well, re-assigning it to Kirby and only giving him one issue just doesn't fly with how the business was done then. They'd have cancelled it before the sales data on his first issue was even starting to come in. I've always felt that it was cancelled because the savage Silver Surfer was simply so far away from what Stan wanted the Surfer to be. (and I've always felt that Kirby deliberately went as far from Stan's vision as he could -- remember that this is right before he moves to DC, and definitely at the same time that he was refusing to use any new characters in a Marvel book because he felt slighted by Stan and the upper-level folks).

By: sgt rawk

sgt rawk — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:46:59 +0000

Worst Crossover? Millenium. Absolutely horrible. Even the Guardians want to forget it. Plus, it was shot through with well-meaning liberalism that came off racist, sexist AND homophobic without ever wanting to.

Legends was bad but not terrible. Millenium was totally without merit.

By: GarBut

GarBut — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:43:49 +0000

When we say LEGENDS, do we not mean FINAL CRISIS, first draft? (INVASION! being FINAL CRISIS, second draft.)

Talk about mediocrity. I have read LEGENDS three times in 20-or-so years and aside from that fact that Byrne's linework will always be purty, I can't remember a damn thing that happened, it's THAT forgettable. At the end of the day, I remember it only as the springboard for Gif/DeM's JLA, and of course Ostrander's SUICIDE SQUAD.

Still, I have always wanted to read those final JLA issues; call it semi-morbid curiosity. Scott, you may have just convinced me.

By: Jeff R

Jeff R — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:39:50 +0000

Bloodlines gave us Hitman, sure, but Legends gave us the Giffen Justice League and the Suicide Squad. (And the Perez Womnder Woman run, if that floats your particular boat.) That plus "tells a coherent story" and "all issues came out on time and in order" puts it at least at the middle of the pack...

By: Jeff Ryan

Jeff Ryan — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:19:40 +0000

As bad as Bloodlines was, it gave us Hitman...

I nomainte Marvel's immediately-forgotten Starblast as the all-time worst crossover. I may be the only person to have read it all. I'll match anyone else plot point for plot point for badness.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:59:22 +0000

Well, I'm only aware of one of three so what's a good word to use for something so bad that it hasn't even hit a lifelong geek's radar? To me, Secret Wars sets the bar for mediocrity. Anything below that has to be at least 'bad', but many will fall to 'terrible' or lower.

By: Jeff R

Jeff R — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:52:20 +0000

Surely you mean "the mediocre Legends crossover", since if you draw the line for 'terrible' there, what adjectives will be left for things like War of the Gods, Bloodlines, or Amazons Attack?