What was your favorite series from DC in the 80's?

[Nomads1]

Pre-Crisis -
All-Star Squadron
Teen Titans
Legion of Super-Heroes
Batman and the Outsiders

Post Crisis -
JLI
Suicide Squad
Captain Atom
Byrne's Superman
Perez's Wonder Woman
Doom Patrol

Peace

[Lorendiac]

I decided to figure that "favorite series" means, if not every single issue ever published in that series during the entire decade of the 1980s, then at least a favorite run of more than a year on an ongoing title; not just the occasional "limited series" such as "Watchmen" or "Dark Knight Returns," and not just a brief stint as a "guest writer"' on an ongoing title, such as the way Frank Miller wrote "'Year One" for the Batman series but didn't linger after that quick four-issue story arc was concluded. After all, the question wasn't simply "what was your favorite self-contained story arc?"

So with all that in mind, I believe my all-time favorite where "a good long run on any of DC's 'regular monthly titles' from the 1980s" is concerned would be the Wolfman/Perez run on "The New Teen Titans." (The first series; the one that began in 1980. And I am including some issues that technically said "Tales of the Teen Titans" on the covers after the original series changed its name to make room for the direct-market series that was coming along.)

However! With that said, I should acknowledge there were several other books which were basically "tied for second place; they just didn't get me quite as excited as the Wolfman/Perez Titans did in their prime," and I'll list them all now:

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew (a special case; this funny-animal/superhero series lasted 20 issues with various writers taking turns).

The Gerry Conway runs on Batman and Detective Comics (which were glued together in what I call "Permanent Crossover Mode" for at least a year before Gerry Conway left)

The Doug Moench runs on Batman and Detective Comics (which stayed glued together in what I call "Permanent Crossover Mode" for about three and a half years after Doug took over from Gerry)

Roy Thomas's All-Star Squadron run.

Beyond that, there was a lot of other good stuff coming out from DC at one time or another in the 1980s -- Levitz on the Legion, Thomas on Arak, Byrne on various Superman books during the Post-Crisis Reboot, Ostrander on the Suicide Squad, Perez on Wonder Woman, etc. -- but I don't feel as enthusiastic about that stuff as I do about the handful of runs I just named, and, as I said before, my enjoyment of the Wolfman/Perez Titans trumps everything else DC did in any "long run in a regular monthly title" in that decade.

P.S. I've said before that I would have liked the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League stuff a lot better if they had called that team of heroes anything but "the Justice League."

[Bill Lange]

I was going to mention these but I didn't because I consider them more as 90's books.

I counted them since they began in the 80's. I wasn't really sure what the cut off was.

I also missed Blue Beetle, which was very good as well.

Oh, and O'Barr and Davis Detective Comics

[Bill Lange]

As for mini-series

Watchmen
V For Vendetta
The Dark Knight Returns
Batman: Year One (More a story arc then mini-series, but close enough.)
Crisis On Infinite Earths
Untold Legend of Batman
Black Orchid
Man Of Steel
Camelot 3000
America Vs. The Justice Society of America
All 3 Super Powers Minis (Hey, I love Kirby art.)
DC Challenge (Just a kooky experiment.)
Shadow War Of Hawkman
Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters
Blackhawk
Hawkworld
Legends
Invasion
Cosmic Odyssey
Batman: The Cult
The Weird

I'll add more as I can think of them.

[Bill Lange]

DC COMICS PRESENTS. Every month, Superman was paired up with another DC superhero...sometimes A-list stars like Superman himself, but other times, obscure heroes who never headlined their own books. It was a great book for seeing a wide cross-section of the DCU, with Superman as the anchor.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

The quality was uneven at times, but was usual good to great, so I can agree with that.
The Brave & The Bold was like that as well, but I guess people see that as more of a 70's series.

[Lorendiac]

I was going to mention these but I didn't because I consider them more as 90's books.

I counted them since they began in the 80's. I wasn't really sure what the cut off was.

I thought about that too, and I decided to take the words "from DC in the 1980s" literally. If a specific issue of a comic book series was published in the 1980s, then obviously that issue was a 1980s DC comic book. Any issues of the same title which were published before 1980 or after 1989 were, by definition, not DC comic books of the 1980s.

In other words, suppose someone took over as the regular writer on an ongoing monthly title, beginning with the January 1989 issue, and suppose he stuck with it for the next 6 years. I would figure "his first year on the title counted as 'an eligible candidate' for the purposes of this question; the remaining five years of his long run didn't count, since those 60 issues or so were not being published during the 1980s."

[Jphu8414]

Teen Titans

[Orb]

Legion of superheroes and the flash

[Blackest Knight]

New Teen Titans (80-84)
Legion Of Super-Heroes (82-83)
Amethyst (original maxi-series from 1983-84)
Atari Force (easily the best book Gerry Conway ever wrote--and that gorgeous J.L. Garcia-Lopez art didn't hurt, either!)
Mazing Man (no contest, hands down the best thing Bob Rozakis ever wrote in his entire life.)
Blue Devil (first 6 issues with artist Paris Cullens)
Justice League of America (the Detroit era--it was just a fun read.)
The Warlord by Mike Grell
Green Lantern by Marv Wolfman (81-84; Marv made GL exciting again--and gave us The Omega Men!)
Wonder Woman by George Perez (absolutely brilliant)
Ronin by Frank Miller (one of my all-time favorite books)
Batman And The Outsiders (especially the run by Alan Davis which is a classic.)
Aquaman mini series by Neil Pozner and Craig Hamilton
the first 14 issues of Justice League by Giffen, DeMatteis & Maguire (after that, the jokes just got stale for me)
Arak Son of Thunder (I loved this book!)
Arion, Lord of Atlantis (the highlight of artist Jan Duursema's career; absolutely lovely art!)

There are probably other books I'm forgetting, but those are my absolute favorites that I remember most fondly.

[JLange]

Right there with you. It also had one of my favourite JLA/JSA team-ups of all time, versus Degaton and the Crime Syndicate. Take THAT Forever Evil!

Attachment 4632

This right here is what started my comic book collecting. With our purchase came a free copy of New Teen Titans #18 or 19 (Frances Kane goes berserk), and 30+ years later I'm still collecting DC.

In my opinion, EVERYTHING DC produced in the 80's was amazing. I also loved the 'Shadow War of Hawkman' mini and Aquaman's mini (with his blue suit).

[Matt Murdock's Swagger]

[Mike]

The New Teen Titans but Legion of Super-Heroes and All-Star Squadron were very close.

[Kuwagaton]

My top five Post-Crisis comics are Question, Shadow, Hawkworld, Justice League, and Cap Atom.

The Flash

Which one?

[Red_11]

Saga of the Swamp Thing.

Didn't even have to think about it.

[Hawkman]

As far as mini-series go, Hawkworld, no contest.

Ongoing, probably Tony Isabella's Hawkman, or at least the issues Isabella actually wrote, anyway. The series took a pretty sharp dive in quality after he departed, unfortunately. Really, it could have been one of the best Hawkman runs of all-time if it weren't so brief. I think Isabella had a good handle on how to "modernize" (quotation marks since it's almost thirty years ago now) the Silver Age Hawks.

Also a big fan of Bates and Weisman's Captain Atom. I greatly miss that character since the relaunch, particularly after the strong showing he had in Generation Lost.