CBR Live! Archive
Sunday Brunch: 10/18/09
- by Bill Reed
- in Sunday Brunch
The last two weeks have felt like two years, and it looks like the comics internet is going through a dry spell. Let's throw some pity lovin' at it this week and hope it picks up its game in the future, shall we?
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: What was the best last issue you ever read? Last, as in, final. As in, there were no more to follow. As in, the opposite of first.
JIVE TURKEY ALERT: I would write this in the style of all those awesome blaxploitation trailer voiceovers, but I am so, so white that we would all be embarrassed. Anyway: Afrodisiac trailer! Buy it in December, honky!
THE VAULT'S Seven Q's this week are with Alex Robinson, illustrauthor of Box Office Poison.
ITEM! Plok on Klock. (Seuss wishes he thought of that one.)
ITEM! Brad Curran shrine devotee Chris Sims gives us the best excuse for Facebook to exist, with his Superhero Facebook Status Updates over at ComicsAlliance. Sure, everyone's linked to this already, but my links are better:
ITEM! The God of All Comics (or Grant Morrison to all the unbelievers out there) is at it again with Sean Murphy in the upcoming Joe the Barbarian mini-series Vertigo's Graphic Content blog has gifted us with some pages from the first issue, as well as this cover:
ITEM! Remember Neill Cameron, of the A-Z of Awesomeness? Well, now he's producing Hashtag Funnies, one-page cartoons spun off of the leading Twitter topics of the day. For instance:
REMAKE/REMODEL last week was the Sorceress of Zoom! I was quite taken with Pia Guerra's entry (yes, that Pia Guerra):
Andrew Nixon's was pretty rootin'-tootin' too. If that is still an adjective we use in the parlance of our times:
REMAKE/REMODEL this week is Alan Moore's favorite sock puppet snake god, Glycon! My favorites so far are from "twentythoughts":
And let's not forget John "lx" Worsley's:
Felipe Sobreiro's is the gorgeousest, though:
NOT COMICS DEPT: I quite enjoyed Maureen Ryan's essay/interview about my favorite currently-running TV show, Dollhouse, and why it's worth watching. Dollhouse is the most fiercely intellectual, uncompromising (and yet heavily compromised) TV show on the air. So watch it and stuff. I don't care what Hatcher tells you.
- Posted on October 18, 2009 @ 08:30 AM














57 Comments
brian
October 18, 2009 at 8:34 am
Hate to be repetitive, but I'm going with Planetary #27.
Cheers,
B
Ryan
October 18, 2009 at 8:45 am
For sure, best last issue I've ever read is Transmetropolitan.
Michael
October 18, 2009 at 8:48 am
Bone #55 for me.
The Mutt
October 18, 2009 at 8:48 am
The last issue of Hitman.
Yes, I cried. I'm only human!
Mecha-Shiva
October 18, 2009 at 8:54 am
Transmetropolitan for me too.
stavner
October 18, 2009 at 9:00 am
The last "Adventures of Captain Jack" story in Critters.
CF
October 18, 2009 at 9:00 am
The Invisibles Vol. 3 final issue with Frank Quitely Art
Flex Mentallo Issue 4
All-Star Superman #12
Seven Soldiers of Victory #1
The Authority volume 1 Issue 12 (it might as well have ended when Warren left)
Marvel Boy #6
Jeremy
October 18, 2009 at 9:00 am
Animal Man #26
Wraith
October 18, 2009 at 9:13 am
Best last issue I EVER read?
I might say Starman #80, though of course that's going to cease being a last issue soon, if we don't already consider it a penultimate issue.
The finale of the second Spectacular Spider-Man, with Jenkins and Buckingham reuniting (and that swinging into the sunset cover; what a perfect last issue cover) is a gem.
Hm, this may be easier than I thought, actually. So many of the other last issues I've got around here seem to be of the ending-with-a-whimper variety.
Matt
October 18, 2009 at 9:16 am
That's easy. Hitman.
tekende
October 18, 2009 at 9:17 am
Hmm. Might be Transmetropolitan. Or maybe All-Star Superman. Or Bone.
Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy!
October 18, 2009 at 9:30 am
Tomb of Dracula #70 would be awfully hard to beat in my personal opinion.
Punchy
October 18, 2009 at 9:33 am
Y: The Last Man #60
Brian
October 18, 2009 at 9:45 am
Final issue of Suicide Squad, particularly the final page with Deadshot/Count Vertigo.
Final issue of Morrison's Doom Patrol.
Final issue if Final Crisis (seriously, Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew, the Green Lantern Corps and Superman team up to save the universe from a Cosmic Vampire. How is that NOT up there in terms of best final issues!)
Les Fontenelle
October 18, 2009 at 10:28 am
Hitman, without question.
Alan Coil
October 18, 2009 at 10:36 am
Best last issue...Planetary.
MCGroupy
October 18, 2009 at 10:46 am
Say what you want, and your criticism carries a lot of weight about how stretched out the entire storyline went but Secret Invasion #8 is by far one of my favorite endings of all time. Queen Veranke buys it, the "Who Do You Trust" paranoia ends, Thor, Iron Man and Cap reunite, the Wasp dies, the abducted heroes return, and then we see Norman Osborn take us to a new era. This (and I'm sure there's more) all happens in just one issue
Nitz the Bloody
October 18, 2009 at 10:59 am
Preacher 66, no contest.
Though I am fond of Secret Invasion's ending ( even if it's not in my top 10 of final issues ).
Ian A.
October 18, 2009 at 11:19 am
ANSWER OF THE WEEK!How could it not be Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.?
BLAXPLOITATION IS BACK(SPLOITATION)! If the Afrodisiac trailer wasn't enough funk to satisfy your retro-appetite, Black Dynamite finally hit theaters (well, 70 of 'em anyway) this weekend! Awww, yeah...!
Michael
October 18, 2009 at 11:34 am
All Star Superman #12
Cass
October 18, 2009 at 11:39 am
@Commenter Brian: I'd second your nomination for Doom Patrol (and throw in Animal Man too), but they're not eligible since both series were continued after Morrison left. Incidentally, I'd put Final Crisis 7 in my least favorite final issues of all time.
MarkAndrew
October 18, 2009 at 11:45 am
Reptisaurus # 8.
I mean, duh.
This will obviously win the poll.
Andy
October 18, 2009 at 11:49 am
Lots of good choices here. I'm down for strong seconds on Hitman, Flex Mentallo, Starman 80 (I'm not acknowledging 81 until I see it and it doesn't just make me sad), but if I have to pick, put me down for Transmet.
DubipR
October 18, 2009 at 11:52 am
Best last issue....easy
Ostrander/Mandrake's THE SPECTRE #62. Corrigan got his rest.... Servant of God. A brilliant ending.
Mary Warner
October 18, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I enjoyed the back-up Lil Silvie story in Silver Sable #35. But not the main story; that was a piece of crap that illustrated perfectly why the series was ending.
Mary Warner
October 18, 2009 at 12:12 pm
The problem is, I haven't read very many final issues.
Tuomas
October 18, 2009 at 12:22 pm
For me, the best last issue is no doubt the last issue of Morrison's Doom Patrol (okay, the series did continue after that, but this issue had such a sense of closure, I think you can call it the last issue of that version of DP). It's a standalone story, but it's also a perfect encapsulation of what the whole series was about, and it shows how well Morrison managed to bring the two main characters to life, plus it's also a total tear-jerker. I couldn't help but cry when I first read it.
Neil Cameron
October 18, 2009 at 12:31 pm
The Automatic Kafka ending, with Ash Wood and Joe Casey explaining why they are killing him off, always seems to be what i think of in regards to great final issues.
Invisibles Volume 3 #1 too. Love that last page.
Ryan
October 18, 2009 at 12:37 pm
LOL @ "most fiercely intellectual and uncompromising" re: dollhouse. Try anything on PBS.
Patrick Joseph
October 18, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Invisibles #1. Man that was one idea-rich comic. Bonus points for starting and ending with a first issue.
Cerebus 300 was pretty good. Also, Promethea #32. And I can see Planetary 27 getting some mileage.
Basically any series that died a natural death instead of being cancelled and that tries to explain the creator's view of the Universe works for me.
stealthwise
October 18, 2009 at 12:50 pm
The final issue of Y the Last Man.
Monica Dickey
October 18, 2009 at 1:06 pm
love hashtag funnies, hahah thank you.
Bill Reed
October 18, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Damn, you're right! Those Josh Groban concerts and reruns of the Vicar of Dibley are way smarter than I had thought.
Craig
October 18, 2009 at 2:30 pm
I'm going with the last issue of Xombi. I forget the exact number, but it was plain to see that there was so much more ground to cover...
Nicholas West
October 18, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Y the Last Man # 60.
Amazing.
Stefan Wenger
October 18, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Best last issue? If it counts, I have to give it to "Farewell, Moonshadow," the prestige one-shot that followed up the Moonshadow series like 10 years later, but which was eventually collected with the rest of the series in the trade. If that doesn't count, the answer's still very easy; Promethea #32. Worth every minute of the wait.
Runners-up would be Invisibles vol. 3 1, Y: The Last Man 60 and perhaps Quantum & Woody 17 (what a fantastic final panel!).
Michael Howey
October 18, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Captain Marvel 24. A bit of a cheat really as 25 was the last one but between the two they made an outstanding ending statement to a series.
sgt rawk
October 18, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Stig's Inferno Number 7. Ever read Stig's Inferno? Ty "the Guy" Templeton at his FINEST.
Mea
October 18, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Another vote for last issue of "Hitman". You kinda knew that it was going to end like this, but it was still... wow.
Scott Harris
October 18, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Sandman Mystery Theatre #70 has to be my choice. Not only for all the great stuff in it, but for the structure itself. Every arc in SMT was 4 issues long, and the last arc is no exception -- except the main characters decide to leave the series, so we only get the first two issues of the arc. The mystery, the subplots, the action -- all of it is only halfway done and we never find out any of what happens because when Wes and Dian head off to join the war in Europe, they leave behind all the superhero stuff -- and so do we. I could not love this series and issue more.
Mike Loughlin
October 18, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Transmet, definitely. Y: the Last Man 60 had my favorite last page. Tomb of Dracula, Hitman, Preacher, Spectre, Martian Manhunter, Zot, and X-Man are my runners-up.
Stephane Savoie
October 18, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Hmmm, that's hard. Animal Man 26 is touching, but Y the Last Man is surprising in its goodness.
I thought Gerber did a nice job wrapping thing up with the last issue of Hard Time, all things considered.
Daryll B
October 18, 2009 at 7:49 pm
The original Exiles #4 from Malibu or Epic or Valiant .....I mean no one expected the events of the issue...and there was even a solicit for a next issue ......Ballsiest issue I read pre-Vertigo
Ricardo
October 18, 2009 at 7:52 pm
For me, it was always the last issues of JLI and JLE. Truly the end of an era where super hero comic books could be more than punching and grimacing.
And also Legion of Super-Heroes #37, the last penned Giffen LSH story. Legion was never ever the same after that issue (it got dumbed down, wiped out and it became a different beast ).
FunkyGreenJerusalem
October 18, 2009 at 8:43 pm
It was either Starman #80, Automatic Kafka #9, or Druid #4.
The first two because they wrapped them up perfectly, the last one because it did anything but - the lead character turned out to be in the wrong, got killed, burnt, and thrown into a skip, and no one missed him.
Andrew-TLA
October 18, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Flash #350. Sentimental favorite, anyway, since it was also the first Flash comic I ever read. Super-sized, and jam-packed with time travel, supervillians, deathtraps, a guy running really, really fast, and enough exposition that a nine-year-old who had been blissfully unaware of such things as "The Trial of the Flash" or "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was still able to know what was going on.
Rob Ocelot
October 18, 2009 at 10:22 pm
I dunno about Planetary -- aren't we getting more of it now?
Nice ending (for now) to Nexus in issue #102, but I think I preferred the ending to Nightmare in Blue. The 3 issue arc was done in B&W (for cost reasons) but it had perfect symmetry with Baron and Rude's original 3 issue B&W magazine format that started the whole thing.
I was tempted to say Cerebus #300 as an ending but it seemed more like a mercy killing rather than a blow out issue.
Matt Bird
October 18, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Dakota North #5. That is one ridiculously fun comic. And it ends with a series of questions that were never answered. Will we ever know if the pen wrote underwater?
Tekende
October 19, 2009 at 7:54 am
Ooh, good call. That'd be high up on my list as well.
That was a really good series overall. Shame it didn't last longer.
David B
October 19, 2009 at 8:17 am
Watchmen #12, followed by Starman #80 and Y: the Last Man #60.
Doug M.
October 19, 2009 at 10:11 am
Has everyone forgotten D'Arc Tangent #1?
Morrison's last Doom Patrol issue wins "last issue _of a run_", hands down.
Doug M.
Mary Warner
October 19, 2009 at 11:24 am
I remember D'Arc Tangent #1. Was it the last (only) issue? It is true I never saw any others.
Matt Lazorwitz
October 19, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Sandman #75. Perfect, beautiful thematic coda, and hey, Shakespeare!
Robert Wolfe
October 19, 2009 at 3:09 pm
G.I. Joe issue #155.
dhole
October 19, 2009 at 7:37 pm
I'm kind of fond of Marvel Two in One number 100.
In those days Marvel didn't do a lot of final issues that weren't last minute cancellations, often mid-storyline that had to be finished in a different book. But the Thing's last team-up with himself as Ben Grimm was a pretty nice send-off for the series, as I recall.
Best final issue in terms of leaving me wanting more: Shadow no. 19! Gotta re-read those crazy Helfer issues someday!
Mary Warner
October 19, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Now that I've thought about it some more, I do really like West Coast Avengers # 102. (I refuse to call it Avengers West Coast.) Even though I really hate the Force Works travesty that it led into.
For those who think that Civil War invented the idea of Iron Man being a total dick, this issue is evidence that those personality traits have been around much longer.
Random Thoughts! (October 20, 2009) | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources
October 20, 2009 at 1:46 pm
[...] Thought! Bill asks: "What was the best last issue you ever read? Last, as in, final. As in, there were no more to [...]