I’m reading io9 about how things went wrong with Dark Phoenix and why it did so poorly this weekend at the box office.
One statement that commenters seem to have latched onto on one person’s statement about the Phoenix storyline that:
Which is, to me at least, absolute nonsense. I remember the entire Phoenix storyline. There were hints of it earlier but the actual action didn’t start until three issues before X-Men #137. Despite attempts to retcon it as some sort of monster magnum opus it wasn’t. Yes, you can include her going wonky a few issues earlier and such and Clarement said he’d been setting it up for a while it just wasn’t a real thing. I was reading then and still have them.
It’s silly to think it’s the only thing worth reading. Hell, especially when the X-Men at the time were really just terribly written. “Now this thing can only be defeated by the LIVING STEEL of COLLOSUS!!!” and similar lines as various characters used their powers even when we were seeing it. God, rereading comics from the big two of the 80s drives me bugfuck. They’re so BAD even though they’re revered.
</rant off>
Anyway, there’s no way those are the only things worth developing. Days of Future Past worked fine even though it was just two issues.
What others are there? The Galactus story? Kang the Conqueror in the year 3000? What others?
Don’t get me started on stories not by the big two. That’s where we saw real sagas and long-form storytelling. Dave Sim on Cerebus along told longer and more complex stories than Clarement ever dreamed of.
I Reread Days of Future Past a few years ago and I was surprised at how short it was. With only two issues, it gets the story going, shows how everyone’s dead in the future, then works towards the resolution. Great story that probably would have been stretched out into more issues had it been made a decade or so later.
the Kree/Skrull War in the Avengers was pretty good from what I understand but I don’t recall reading it.
I really enjoyed the West Coast Avengers mini series arc. I thought the initial line up with Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Tigra, Jim Rhodes’ Iron Man, and Wonder Man was a good mix.
Secret Wars II stands out to me because it was the first one to happen after I started buying Marvel comics. Mutant Massacre from nearly the same time. House of M from more recently.
The Fantasic Four had several story arcs in the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby days, of which the Galactus Trilogy (mentioned in the OP) was probably the most famous (and arguably the best). But there were plenty of others – The Hive (creation of Adam Warlock), The Thing Enslaved (sort of the proto-Planet Hulk), the FF trapped in Latveria (Sort of the FF as The Prisoner*).
I wasn’t as heavily into the other comics but they had the aforementioned Kree-Skrull War and the Ultron series in The Avengers
and that’s only the late 60s/early 70s.
(Conan the Barbaian had the Turanian War that ran for quite a while, but I don’t think you’re counting non-superhero arcs. And Namor had the truly interminable Naga Crown series that started even before Namor got his own comic and continued for , like, twenty issues or so. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.)
*which Kirby later started to do an adaptation of)
As someone who discovered Marvel in 1963 and read all the classic stuff month by month as it appeared, I have to agree that the Galactus issues were peak Stan and Jack - with one caveat. The reign really starts with issue #38, when the FF are defeated by the Frightful Four, need Daredevil to help them recover the Baxter Building from Dr. Doom, meet the Inhumans in #44, battle Galactus, and then discover the Black Panther in #52, as well as having to deal with Ben Grimm’s lowest points.
That year-and-a-half was nonstop amazement, launching a series of major franchises, creating the first real cosmic menaces, and delving into depths of characterization that few if any comics of that era had ever achieved. If Marvel had published nothing else, those would still be the foundation for an empire.
I don’t think I’m relying on mere nostalgia, mostly because the next fifty issues of FF were unmemorable and the momentum switched over to other titles. Additionally, I freely admit that modern comics are much better written and drawn, although arcs are ruined for me because you have to find 202 issues of 32 titles to figure out what it happening to 3002 characters. The simplicity of having the greatest arc in your lead title with no need to read anything else to get the full splendor is what makes this the best.
I’m mostly a Marvel guy but I think I can say that one of the biggest story arcs in both companies’ histories was the DC vs. Marvel limited series published in 1996. And its subsequent followup Amalgam Comics which featured mash-ups of both companies top characters. For example, Dark Claw–a combination of Batman and Wolverine; Doctor Strangefate—a combination of Dr. Fate, Dr Strange, and Professor X; Spider-Boy—a combination of Super-Boy and Spider-Man; and Super-Soldier–a combination of Captain America and Superman.
Also with recent success of the past two Avengers movies I’d say that The Infinity Gauntlet and The Infinity War arcs are probably more famous the Dark Phoenix storyline.
And if were going famous alone The Spider-Clone Saga in the mid 90s is notable mostly for the negative reaction it got among fans. It was originally planned to be under year. When the first few books sold well, the writers were encouraged to extended it as long as possible which resulted in the whole thing becoming a gigantic mess. Here is a long read on the whole experience: http://lifeofreillyarchives.blogspot.com/2008/03/introduction-and-update.html
I JUST read a couple of those yesterday (shout out to the 50¢ bins at Graham Cracker Comics)!
I almost didn’t take the time to keep reading at the end of the story, but… the cleverest part was the letter columns. Where made-up fans (with names that are an amalgam of noted DC and Marvel writers, like “Simon Siegel”) referred to previous issues: “I noticed in Spider-Boy and the JusticeLeagueAvengers issue 16…” or “No! How can ShatterStarFire be part of a team? She’s so strong and independent, and here you shove her into a book like* X-Patrol!* She’s going to have to do what the leader, Niles Cable, says instead of blazing her own path!”
On topic: I loved the Age of Apocalypse story arc, but it would only work with people who were devoutly familiar with X-details. Would not translate to the big screen as a result.
I loved Amalgam, but it doesn’t strike me as a story arc. Yeah, there was an ending, but the issues all worked on their own (I was partial to Lobo the Duck).
If we are talking about mashups, though. It’s hard to beat DC vs. Looney Tunes. The Batman/Elmer Fudd team up transcends the goofiness of the premise and is pure genius.
Later on, I recall a great run of about 5-6 issues of FF leading up to issue #200. It’s a Doom thing, of course. It featured Doom capturing the FF and cloning himself. He imbued the clone with the powers of the FF and his own intelligence. The clone eventually was killed fighting against Doom in a self-sacrificial thing. See, he was as smart as Doom - and as Richards, they’re equals - but he hadn’t been scarred and lived a life of resentment and shame that Doom had so he didn’t go for the whole ‘evil dictator’ thing.
Space opera bores me to tears. My favorite Avengers stories–I’m a big fan of Bendis–pitted the team against the Hood and his gang. My single favorite panel has to be the one where Mandrill and Griffin, the two most freakish-looking bad guys, are bickering about money.
For DC, probably Grant Morrison’s first few issues of DOOM PATROL. It spun out of control with the next storyline;how couldn’t it? But for those four months, it was sheer perfection! (I also liked ANIMAL MAN from the same timeframe, but never warmed up to the artist.)
There was that one where Luthor was doing a crime, and Superman flew down, and Luthor took out some kryptonite and Superman fell down, and then Luthor laughed and went away with the money, and Superman figured how to get rid of the kryptonite by washing it down the sewer or throwing a lead blanket over it or something and then he felt better, and flew to Luthor’s hideout and took him to jail.