I'm curious what everyone's long-term favourite titles are, and by that I mean the characters or teams that have had more than one set of creators or interpretations that you've greatly enjoyed.
My Choices:
1. Justice League - There are three distinct periods I'm very fond of: the end of the satellite era of Justice League of America, Giffen and DeMatteis' Justice League, and the Waid/Morrison JLA.
2. Legion of Super-Heroes - I was drawn into the Levitz era around the Great Darkness Saga and I've liked a good deal of the silver age material I've read, but I'd also rank the Waid 3boot right up there with them.
3. Defenders - My favourite era of Defenders is actually one of the newer ones, Busiek and Larson's run on the title, however, I'm also a big fan of DeMatteis' run (pre-New Defenders); Kraft, Englehart, and Gerber weren't bad either.
4. Captain Marvel (Shazam) - I haven't read very many of the Fawcett comics and I didn't really find much appeal to the 70's Shazam but I loved Ordway's Power of Shazam and I've also been enjoying Geoff Johns' new interpretation.
5. Batman - Batman has so many fantastic collections that are some of the best examples of the medium, it does kind of make it hard to pick a favourite run of a title or era, so I'll just say my favourite title was LOTDK because of the variety and general quality and leave it at that.
Replies
As I said in the Baron's Justice Society thread, every long running series has peaks and valleys. But when any series racks up more than a few great runs, it stands out. My favourites include:
Amazing Spider-Man - Arguably has the most identifiable protagonist in comics of all time. One of the greatest supporting cast of characters ever. A rogue's gallery that stacks up to any other hero. So many great collaborations of artists and writers, decade after decade.
Avengers - Like ASM, has been fortunate to have long runs by writers who really were at the top of their game when on the title. And the art! Kirby, Heck, the Buscemas, Perez, Byrne - a who's who of the Marvel greats. Not one but two great main villains in Kang and Ultron (although there's a dropoff after them).
Batman - Again, a character spanning decades is going to hit some lows as well as highs, but the highs are among some of the best stories in all of comics. Probably the greatest rogues gallery ever.
There are specific characters whose exploits I will generally try to keep up with. Among those are:
* Dick Grayson - currently in NU52 which as far as I'm concerned has never happened, so lmibo
* Wally West - Currently in limbo.
* Bruce Wayner - yup, limbo.
* Billy Batson - Say it again with feeling, limbo
* Peter Parker - His body is currently inhabited by his arch-nemesis, so limbo
* Alan Scott - Limbo
* Blue Devil - limbo
* Iron Man - I question his direction since Civil War, but I don't think the character has been ruined yet. Yet.
* Daredevil - currently enjoying a renaissance. I'll hate to see what happens when Waid leaves though.
* Batman - limbo, except for Batman '66 and Beware the Batman.
* I think that conludes my top ten.
Some of my faves, that I keep returning to:
The Flash: I grew up with Cary Bates & Irv Novick, where the character first grabbed me -- and then enjoyed the constant soap opera of the Trial of the Flash, and the events leading up to it. (I also collected as many of the Broome/Infantino back issues as I could!) Then with Wally, the standout runs were Messner-Loebs/LaRocque, Waid/LaRocque, Wieringo, LaRocca, and more. I liked Johns's run, too, particularly with Scott Kollins on art. And since then, the Manapul/Bucatello issues have been largely fantastic -- visually dazzling even when the month-to-month story dragged.
Legion of Superheroes: I love pretty much the entirety of Legion history, but the runs that really stand out for me are Levitz's second run (starting with the Broderick and Giffen issues all the way until Magic Wars), the 5 Years Later issues (at least until the dreadful "Legion on the Run" storyline), the post-Zero Hour issues (for such youthful art, there's a lot of drama packed in there), and then the Abnett/Lanning Legion Lost/Worlds/Legion run. The new Levitz run has had its ups and downs for me, but I'm glad we got it.
Daredevil: Miller/Mazzuchelli, Bendis, Brubaker, and now Waid. Love those old Gene Colan-drawn issues, too.
Fantastic Four: Lee/Kirby, Bryne, Waid... and someday I'll read what I have of Hickman's run all at once and decide if I want more. Finances pushed me away at the time.
Justice Society -- I loved the 70s All-Star run, All-Star Squadron, the Strazewski/Parobeck series, and the Johns run... terrific stuff.
Superman -- I loved the Bates/Swan stories I grew up on, and really enjoyed the pre-Crisis Wolfman run. Then Byrne, Stern, Ordway, Jurgens, through the Rebirth and a bit beyond, when it started to run out of steam for me.
Wonder Woman -- Perez, Rucka, Simone, and now Azzarello/Chiang. All very different, but all terrific stuff!
I would argue that by law of averages, any character that's had his or her own title for 20 years or more is going to have more than one notable run. I can't prove that, of course, but I do believe that's the case.
I think you have a point, Randy. To look at it another way, I doubt a character's title could survive for 20 years or more if there weren't notable runs sustaining interest in it.
Hellblazer definitely tops my list.I've read the entire series, and even the weakest runs were good enough to easily keep my interest. I'd point to Jamie Delano, Garth Ennis, Mike Carey, and Peter Milligan as the high points.
The Flash was another favorite, especially Mark Waid's runs. But I liked Geoff Johns' initial run a lot, also.
Green Lantern was a childhood favorite. When I picked it up as an adult Ron Marz was writing the Kyle Rayner version, which I enjoyed almost all the way through his run.
I read a lot of Batman, too. Too many to even pick out the favorites. I've come to love Kelly Jones' art, but I disliked his extremely stylized version.
Last but not least, Swamp Thing. Obviously Alan Moore, but I liked Rick Veitch's run almost as much. And when I caught up with Mark Millar's run I liked those a lot, too.
Randy Jackson said:
They might be notable runs, but they wouldn't necessarily be favorites. I've yet to read a version of the FF that I like, and they have had a few notable runs. Same with Thor, Superman, and until recently Wonder Woman.
I don't disagree with you Travis. There are concepts and characters out there that I generally don't care for. For instance, you'll notice a lack of Wolverine in my list of favorites (I don't hate the character, but I do think he's tremendously overexposed and I don't really enjoy reading his solo exploits). I think what I'm trying to get at is the idea that any character who's been around for a while will have more than one notable run. Unless you're favorite character is, say, Ace from The Spectacular Spider-Man Annuals, you're probably going to be able to find more than a couple of decent runs with the character.
I'm late to chime in, but I'll add:
Jonah Hex -- I've read every incarnation of the title
Daredevil -- the current Mark Waid run, the Frank Miller run (of course), some of the Stan Lee/Gene Colan works
Iron Man -- the David Michelinie/John Romita Jr./Bob Layton run
The Mighty Thor -- the Walt Simonson and Walt Simonson/Sal Buscema run
Superman -- the Silver Age, much of the Bronze Age, and yes, even the John Byrne run
Batman -- the Golden Age (thanks to reprints; I'm not that old!), the "New Look" Batman, and pretty much up to the Crisis on Infinite Earths, with a special notice for the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rodgers run. After that, it wasn't any fun although I still read it. (I gave up waiting for it to "get good," especially since they don't seem to think Bruce Wayne has a role in the titles any more.)
Fantastic Four -- the Mark Waid run; the Roy Thomas/George Perez run
Captain America -- the Mark Waid run; the J. Marc DeMatties/Mike Zeck run
The Avengers -- lots of good runs, including Kirk Busiek/George Perez, Roy Thomas/John Buscema,
Spider-Man -- The Roger Stern/John Romita Jr. era I liked the best. After that, Marvel Team-Up.
Sgt. Rock -- I favor Russ Heath over Joe Kubert, but they're both great.
Yes and no. I liked the original Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew series but really haven't been very fond of when they popped up without Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw! attached... of course, I don't count Threshold, and they simply haven't appeared much even though they've been around for over 30 years.
A character that has appeared more is Captain Atom and the only interpretation I've liked was Carey Bates'. So, while I don't dislike the character, I can't think of another run I would consider good.