Newsarama - Best DC Comics Stories of All Time

[caj]

Newsarama (or whatever they're calling themselves these days) posted the 10 best DC Comics stories of all time, according to their readers. Here's a link to the list:

https://www.gamesradar.com/best-dc-c...20More%20items

They are:

10. Superman - Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?
9. The Flash - The Return Of Barry Allen
8. New Teen Titans - The Judas Contract
7. Green Lantern - Sinestro Corps War
6. Batman - The Dark Knight Returns
5. The New Frontier
4. All-Star Superman
3. Legion of Super Heroes - The Great Darkness Saga (YES!!!!!!)
2. Crisis On Infinite Earths
1. Kingdom Come

Thoughts?

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Newsarama (or whatever they're calling themselves these days) posted the 10 best DC Comics stories of all time, according to their readers. Here's a link to the list:

https://www.gamesradar.com/best-dc-c...20More%20items

They are:

10. Superman - Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?
9. The Flash - The Return Of Barry Allen
8. New Teen Titans - The Judas Contract
7. Green Lantern - Sinestro Corps War
6. Batman - The Dark Knight Returns
5. The New Frontier
4. All-Star Superman
3. Legion of Super Heroes - The Great Darkness Saga (YES!!!!!!)
2. Crisis On Infinite Earths
1. Kingdom Come

Thoughts?

--Only two stories (Whatever Happend tot he Man of Tomorrow? The Dark Knight Returns) are really great in this list.
--Some I respect more than I like (All-Star Superman, Crisis on Infinite Earths, The Great Darkness Saga),
--Others I think are overrated nostalgia pieces (Kingdom Come, The New Frontier),
--The rest I don't care for at all and generally dislike (The Judas Contract, anything by Geoff Johns).


If I were to do a Top 10 DC Comics list: (In chronological order of publication)
-- Action Comics #1 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
-- To Kill a Legend by Alan Brennert and Dick Giordano.
-- Flash of Two Worlds by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino.
-- "The Glory Boat" (New Gods #6) by Jack Kirby
-- OMAC by Jack Kirby
-- Justice League International by Giffen/Dematteis.
-- "The Anatomy Lesson" by Alan Moore/Steve Bissette.
-- The Sandman : Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman et al.
-- BATMAN: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley.
-- JLA Tower of Babel by Mark Waid, Howard Potter, and Steve Scott.

I define "DC Comics" as those that are set and transpire in the DC Universe or superhero continuity, so I exclude a slew of titles that are essentially independent and intended to be creator owned (WATCHMEN obviously) and other great titles and stories that precede the company and character acquisition to DC (i.e. Fawcett's Shazam which has iconic stories like "The Monster Society of Evil" written before Fawcett got bought out, or Jack Cole's run on Plastic Man).

[BohemiaDrinker]

--Others I think are overrated nostalgia pieces (Kingdom Come, The New Frontier)

I get what you're saying about The New Frontier (I disagree heavilly, but I get it), but how can Kingdom Come be defined as nostalgia?

[Batman Begins 2005]

Newsarama (or whatever they're calling themselves these days) posted the 10 best DC Comics stories of all time, according to their readers. Here's a link to the list:

https://www.gamesradar.com/best-dc-c...20More%20items

They are:

10. Superman - Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?
9. The Flash - The Return Of Barry Allen
8. New Teen Titans - The Judas Contract
7. Green Lantern - Sinestro Corps War
6. Batman - The Dark Knight Returns
5. The New Frontier
4. All-Star Superman
3. Legion of Super Heroes - The Great Darkness Saga (YES!!!!!!)
2. Crisis On Infinite Earths
1. Kingdom Come

Thoughts?

Batman: Year One really should be there.

[Gaius]

Does me happy to see New Frontier above DKR and Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow?

[SpiderTBliss]

Looking at the site from that link and man...Newsarama went to the dogs.

[Johnny Thunders!]

There are no great DC Stories before 1984?

[K7P5V]

There are no great DC Stories before 1984?

I always thought The Phantom Zone (1982) was great, and a definite classic (IMHO):

[Johnny Thunders!]

I always thought The Phantom Zone (1982) was a great classic...

Yeah for sure, Steve Gerber does a DC Comics Presents story with Mzyzptlk and Zod destroying Metropolis. It’s like a Mad Magazine version of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow.

I think there is a ton on that list that deserves consideration but The Great Darkness Saga is not my favorite Legion or Darkseid story, it’s great though! I think there is a ton I love on there but I would break it up by decade. What would a best of decades list look like?

[SiegePerilous02]

Yeah, I probably wouldn't put COIE, Judas Contract or the Geoff Johns GL run on that list. Even if I like the latter two, definitely not over any Jack Kirby or Vertigo stuff.

Probably not Great Darkness Saga either. I liked it quite a bit, but it was just very good serialized Bronze Age comics and not a game changer.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I get what you're saying about The New Frontier (I disagree heavilly, but I get it), but how can Kingdom Come be defined as nostalgia?

The art style by Alex Ross! The overly iconic framing of these characters, and whose entire structure relies on a kind of privileged knowing of Golden and Silver Age DC.

It might not be Waid and Ross' intent, but Kingdom Come is absolutely tainted with nostalgia. And I don't think nostalgia is inherently a bad thing, but it can get out of hand.

More to the point I disagree with the idea, as in this list, where rather than going back and seeing the best DC comics of the classic era (Gardner Fox, Bill Finger, Siegel and Shuster) people instead consult The New Frontier and Kingdom Come.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

There are no great DC Stories before 1984?

Gardner Fox and Bill Finger alone were far better than most of the writers at DC in the last 20 years -- Geoff Johns and Tom King certainly.

DC has preened and promoted writers like Johns, King, Brian Azzarello, among others as somehow being the "next Alan Moore" or "Frank Miller" but you can't make something into a thing by framing it that way. These are glorified company-men in denial, if we are being real.

[Nomads1]

Newsarama (or whatever they're calling themselves these days) posted the 10 best DC Comics stories of all time, according to their readers. Here's a link to the list:

https://www.gamesradar.com/best-dc-c...20More%20items

They are:

10. Superman - Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?
9. The Flash - The Return Of Barry Allen
8. New Teen Titans - The Judas Contract
7. Green Lantern - Sinestro Corps War
6. Batman - The Dark Knight Returns
5. The New Frontier
4. All-Star Superman
3. Legion of Super Heroes - The Great Darkness Saga (YES!!!!!!)
2. Crisis On Infinite Earths
1. Kingdom Come

Thoughts?

Analyzing, the impact at the time, the way it aged, and how well it's percieved nowadays, I'd say it's a good list, even if I normally despise Newsarama's list. I might have some issue with the order they are in, and some I do like more aren't included. Never understood the love for the Sinestro Corps War (even though it's good, but not, IMHO that good. I find Batman Year One a much better story than Batman TDKR, though it's perfectly understandable that it has it's place in this list. Never cared much to the love-letter to the silver-age Superman that was All-Star Superman, since it took Byrne's 1980's revamp to really make me LOVE the character. Definitely support the Return of Barry Allen's place here, even higher, I'd put it. Judas Contract and The GDS may not have aged as well as it could, but they are still, and always will be miestones. WHTTMOT? is another love-letter to the sliver-age Superman, however, IMHO, a much better story (I've always felt sorry that George Perez couldn't have inked both parts of it, though. Artwise, IMHO, the first part is much more solid (though the second part is by no means a poor issue artwise. One of Swan's best work, no doubt). And New Frontier and Kingdom Come sure deserve their place here, I'd go as far as wish that the Golden Age was here too, as a perfect modern representation od DC's many eras. All in all, as I said, a good list. It's a telling sign that most of these stories are from the 80's and 90's. They sure don't make comics as they used to any more.

Peace

[Thor-Ul]

There are no great DC Stories before 1984?

I think than Actions Comics #1 (1939) should be in every DC greatest story lists. It introduced a new idea than changed an industry.

[Twice-named]

Yeah, I probably wouldn't put COIE, Judas Contract or the Geoff Johns GL run on that list. Even if I like the latter two, definitely not over any Jack Kirby or Vertigo stuff.

They must be confining the list to mainstream DCU. Because early 90s Vertigo beats most, if not all, of this list.