View Full Version : Best of 1990's DC
CURSD BLADE
10-04-2005, 12:00 PM
Having been a Marvel Zombie all of the '90's (mostly Spidey and X-Men), I missed out on a lot. I fell out of comics when I entered high school in 2001 but got back into them in '03 due to Loeb & Lee's Batman. I have brushed up on ALOT of continuity since then. I know the 90's were a bleak time for comics, the market crash, the grim-and-gritty anti-heroes everywhere, the image style art. Anyhow, there was still good stuff being published.
Anyway, what do you guys feel was the best output from DC during the 90's? Maybe some of us will be turned on to some stuff we missed. I know I will, seeing as how I missed out the first time around.
Morrison's JLA
Waid's Flash
some crossovers were good (the best being Final Night and DC One Million)
Plus several fun, but cancelled too quickly books: Chase, Chronos, and Creeper.
I also enjoyed the Ron Marz's Green Lantern run for awhile. I had just gotten into comics when Kyle Rayner took over as Green Lantern. That was a pretty good series for me while I was a new reader to DC and comics in general.
Shellhead
10-04-2005, 12:40 PM
I wasn't buying comics at all for most of the 90's, but there was one title that I had to pick up after I came back:
Starman
Oh yeah! Starman was another great one. Almost the entire run is in trade paperback if you want to track them down.
Expletive Deleted
10-04-2005, 12:43 PM
If you're a fan of Doug Mahnke, check out his MAJOR BUMMER. It's fun stuff.
Beyond that, I'll just echo Lex's recommendation of Morrison's JLA and DC 1,000,000.
K'Nort
10-04-2005, 12:47 PM
Morrison's JLA, Ostrander/Mandrake Spectre, Starman, Sandman Mystery Theatre.
Slam_Bradley
10-04-2005, 01:00 PM
Morrison's JLA, Ostrander/Mandrake Spectre, Starman, Sandman Mystery Theatre.
I agree with two out of three of these.
I think Morrison's JLA is highly overrated.
K'Nort
10-04-2005, 02:10 PM
I think Morrison's JLA is highly overrated.
I just looked, and my favourite arc was actually Waid in 2001. Morrison is worth reading though.
davros42
10-04-2005, 02:54 PM
One more vote for Morisson's JLA and Starman... Also JSA.
DMike
10-04-2005, 05:47 PM
Sandman (which started in the 80s but hit its stride around '90), assuming Vertigo stuff counts.
Also JSA.
It started so late in the decade (mid-1999, I think) that I'm sure I consider this a 90's book. It's still good and I'd recommend picking up all the early stuff (up through the Princes of Darkness story).
Babylon23
10-04-2005, 07:08 PM
Morrison's JLA, Ostrander/Mandrake Spectre, Starman, Sandman Mystery Theatre.
This would definitely be my list, with Starman ranking a high #1. I cannot recommend this book enough.
Great to see so much love for Starman. Clearly the best book that DC has ever put out!
My favorite books in the 90s were Starman (duh), Sandman Mystery Theatre, and Chronos. I guess I was one of the 7 people buying it.
Paradox
10-04-2005, 09:55 PM
Lex already mentioned it once, but I'll mention Chase again.
Wait, I think I'll mention it once more.
CHASE!
:D
Paradox
10-04-2005, 09:58 PM
Hmmm...no one's mentioned the Grant/Leon Challengers of the Unknown, a good book that's actually more X-Files than Challs.
Sadly, another title starting with a C didn't last long in the '90s at DC.
hangmanjury
10-04-2005, 10:00 PM
Within the confines of the mainstream DC Universe, Starman is undoubtedly the best comic book run I have ever read. Ever.
TitoJones
10-04-2005, 10:05 PM
JLA: Year One
Robin/Nightwing (make sure Chuck Dixon is writing it)
Babylon23
10-04-2005, 10:09 PM
Hmmm...no one's mentioned the Grant/Leon Challengers of the Unknown, a good book that's actually more X-Files than Challs.
Sadly, another title starting with a C didn't last long in the '90s at DC.
I enjoyed Challengers, but I wouldn't call it one of my favourites. Leon's artwork really sold the book for me.
Chase was a great great read for the 9 or so issues it lasted.
Apathy Boy
10-04-2005, 11:40 PM
The Ostrander/Mandrake SPECTRE was the best ongoing series of all-time.
STARMAN is a close second.
Runners-up: CHASE, MAJOR BUMMER, VEXT and CHRONOS. You also had the Milestone line and Vertigo books like HOUSE OF SECRETS, SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE and PREACHER.
The 1990s were actually a pretty awesome decade for comics.
Paradox
10-05-2005, 12:10 AM
Apathy Boy mentions:
VEXT
So you're the other one who bought that, huh?
Geez, cancelled before the fourth issue hit the stands...
Rich L
10-05-2005, 01:34 AM
I'll say Starman again, Marz's Green Lantern (even if you hated Emerald Twilight, his run with Kyle was classic hero-in-the-making), Waid's run on Flash and Impulse (pure fun), David's Young Justice, Smith's Guy Gardner (the manliest book of all time), Morrison's JLA was okay but Nicieza & Waid's mini that pre-empted it (JLA: A Midsummers Nightmare) was better for my money, Chase (yes!), Resurrection Man (double yes!), Hitman (the best book by Ennis ever, can't recommend highly enough), Final Night...more will come, I'm sure!
EDIT: And Aztek, by two guys called Morrison and Millar before they got really big...and Damage which was old-fashioned superheroics with some great ties to the past...
dancj
10-05-2005, 07:04 AM
Hmmm...no one's mentioned the Grant/Leon Challengers of the Unknown, a good book that's actually more X-Files than Challs.
I read Steven Grant once completely denying that it was influenced by The X-Files. IIRC he thought people thought it because the woman had red hair. I thought it was because the plots, look and generally everything about it was just like X-Files
Dan
Rich L
10-05-2005, 07:43 AM
Just thought of another under-appreciated gem: Young Heroes in Love - a very funny, unpredictable series about a group of superheroes whose main enemies were raging hormones and themselves. A very good book that was ahead of its time...honest!
JuanD
10-05-2005, 07:58 AM
Seems im gonna be echoing previous posters but here goes my list,
-Nightwing the ongoing series started around '97 and I'll be dammed if it aint kick ass.
-Flash the whole mark waid run. I went back and read these during geoff's run and I kind of like it better. time traveling goodness.
-and for the Batfan in you there's the whole knightfall/knightsend which, again, i read after the fact. but it rocks nonetheless
Cei-U!
10-05-2005, 09:39 AM
For all my claims to hating everything post-Crisis, I have two longboxes full of '90s DC including the aforementioned Starman, Sandman, Sandman Mystery Theatre and Ostrander/Mandrake Spectres, great reads all. I'd also recommend Batman Adventures and its successor Batman and Robin Adventures, the gloriously old school Justice Society of America series from '92, Jerry Ordway's fascinating (if flawed) The Power of Shazam! and three James Robinson minis: The Golden Age, The Shade and Vigilante: City Lights, Prairie Justice.
Cei-U!
I summon the good stuff!
Vigilante: City Lights, Prairie Justice.
Ooooo. That sounds good. I think I'll track it down.
Doesitmatter
10-05-2005, 02:20 PM
I'll second Waid's Flash and Marz' Green Lantern.
I thought Knightfall/Knightsend worked really well. Dixon/ Nolan's Detective run is wonderful. Dixon's Robin and nightwing were great fun. You can do no wrong combining Dixon and Bat titles in the 90's.
If you're not just talking the DCU, Preacher, while a Vertigo title, was probably the best series of the decade.
Paradox
10-05-2005, 10:27 PM
dancj gives me a chuckle:
I read Steven Grant once completely denying that it was influenced by The X-Files. IIRC he thought people thought it because the woman had red hair. I thought it was because the plots, look and generally everything about it was just like X-Files
I really liked the series, but, yeah, who's kidding who, here?
Apathy Boy
10-06-2005, 12:18 AM
So you're the other one who bought that, huh?
Geez, cancelled before the fourth issue hit the stands...Whoa, I didn't even realize there was someone else who read that book. At least the folks at DC had a good sense of humour about things...
The one foe he can't defeat... (http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=fullsize&issue=92971507024%206)
I miss this series something fierce. I can't say it was ahead of its time, because I don't think anyone else has put out a similar book since. VEXT was essentially a pure sitcom in comic form (this issue: Vext gets a driver's license! Next issue: Vext eats a rancid hamburger!). And I loved the classy, low-key finale.
Speaking of classy, I also loved the archaeologist who inherited the powers of Rypta Gud'un, god of ill-timed flatulence. And the letter column where the editors accidentally answered mail sent to SCOOBY-DOO COMICS.
(Oh, and I can't believe I forgot HITMAN and the James Robinson mini-series, especially THE GOLDEN AGE. VIGILANTE was wonderful too, though the art is an aquired taste.)
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