Your favourite story arc from the 1990s.

[The Beast Of Yucca Flats]

Hitman (probably my favorite thing to ever be part of the DCU; in fact, forget the "probably")
Starman (the 2nd)
Robin: the Dixon years (an old favorite)

[Bad Wolf]

Grant Morrison's Animal Man arc, or almost any of his Doom Patrol arcs.

"Season of Mists" in Sandman.

"Dangerous Habits" in Hellblazer.

[Reptisaurus!]

Ghost World, probably, I think.

[icctrombone]

I have to join in on the Hitman love. I also enjoyed the Silver surfer from 34 on. I was a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy by Jim Valentino. And Loved the Defalco/Paul Ryan Run in Fantastic Four starting with the revelation that Alicia was a Skrull.

[Slam_Bradley]

Sandman is easy. A number of stories in Sandman Mystery Theater. Chase. Chronos.

[Scott Harris]

The 90's actually had quite a lot of really top notch stuff, it's just -- in my opinion -- mostly on the fringes rather than in the big name mainstream superhero comics.

The other thing that makes this difficult is the "story arc" part, as i think the 90's were when we really started getting stories that were more open-ended, long term sagas rather than self contained storylines. As a result, most of my favorite comics from the 90's don't have specific arcs that I would want to pick but rather whole series that act as one great big story arc.

To wit:

Bone
Sandman Mystery Theater
Starman
Kurt Busiek's Astro City

Some of my favorite series of all time.


I will also say that some of the selections from previous posters kind of boggle me, as from my viewpoint they fit right in with some of the standard fare 90's drek. But I guess that's part of the point of these threads, to share different opinions.

The only specific comment I will make is about Operation Galactic Storm. That story had some really strong elements to it, but at 19 issues was also bloated way beyond necessity to cross it over into some books that it really didn't belong in. If the story had been done in 12 issues it could have been an all-time great, but as it stands I think it's just okay, with the good parts barely making it worth the long slog to get through all the unnecessary bits.

[bobbyhamilton]

Ostrander's Spectre

[shadowman79]

1 valaints unity crossover
2 infinity gauntlet
3 shadowman
4 solar
5 spawn

[berk]

Ghost World, probably, I think.

I definitely would have agreed at the time - reading Ghost World as it came out serially in the individual issues of Eightball I was totally captivated by it. I found it didn't quite hold up when I read it in its collected form a few years later, but on balance, yeah, I'd still have to include it amongst the highlights of the decade.

The other one that comes immediately to mind is Gilbert Hernandez's Poison River, from the pages of Love and Rockets in the early 90s. Totally blew me away.

I could list a lot of both Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez multi-part stories from the 90s but I'd have to go back and check to see what my favourites are now, it's been so long. Jaime's Wig Wam Bam and Gilbert's Love and Rockets X come to mind, but there are several others in between the end of L&R volume 1 and the beginning of Volume 2. Even throw-away projects like Gilbert's Girl Crazy were often standouts for me.

In retrospect, I'd include Morrison's Invisibles, although I never read it myself until well into the 2000s.

From what at this point are vague memories, I'd also mention the first 10 issues or so of Peter Bagge's Hate. Not sure if there's a single storyline in there, but I remember enjoying that series very much around that time, although it seemed to go into a decline shortly thereafter.

[edit:] Alan Moore's and Eddie Campbell's From Hell. I didn't read it until some time around 2001, but I see from wiki it actually was finished in 1996, so it qualifies.

[LEADER DESSLOK]

I really liked her stuff back in the day when it came out. However, a few years back after trying to re-read all the issues again, I actually dreaded the thought of reading them. The art was fine, and you are right about how she had the characters interact, but I just didn't feel like it was going anywhere. At least not anywhere I cared about.

I actually got rid of them, which I probably shouldn't have done, but I honestly don't miss them.

The only other thing from the 90s that jumps out to me is "Leave it to Chance" which I didn't know about until it was a FCBD issue at the first or second one. I instantly was hooked and got all the issues. I wish it would come back. A fun story, great use of "horror" and magic with a strong heroine and LOCKHEED!!

I missed most of the 90s books, so I have dribs and drabs of issues from that time and I've read some things in trade but I don't have many favorites.

Your reaction was exactly the opposite of mine. I actually spent a good chunk of time trying to grab ALL the Swamp Thing issues she did! I think I made it, too but I haven't re-read them yet. But they are prized parts of my collection, I just separate them from the Moore stuff.

Like yourself, I really didn't buy a lot of super-hero stuff in the 90s--at least not from THE BIG TWO. I got a lot of the Image stuff in the beginning before I realized that Image's best stuff came from the same people--namely McFarlane, Larsen and Kieth!

I guess it was in the 90s that I started focusing on individual cartoonists more than characters. So you can add

THE MAXX by Sam Kieth
EIGHTBALL by Dan Clowes
OPTIC NERVE by Adrian Tomine

to my list of favorites. It's no small wonder to me that all three of these guys imploded and are no longer in comics. What a shame. But in fairness to Tomine, he's spent a lot of time bringing us the work Yoshihiru Tatsumi in English so he's excused!

Oh, and let's not forget Frank Miller's SIN CITY.

That's how I did most of my comic buying during the 90s--searching for treasures.

These days I'm interested in back issues of NATHANIEL DUSK and MS. TREE!

[Bad Wolf]

THE MAXX by Sam Kieth
EIGHTBALL by Dan Clowes
OPTIC NERVE by Adrian Tomine

to my list of favorites. It's no small wonder to me that all three of these guys imploded and are no longer in comics. What a shame.

Sam Kieth is still around. He did a couple Batman-related books recently. But no regular series, I suppose.

Optic Nerve was amazing.

[jesse_custer]

"A Game of You" and "The Kindly Ones" from Sandman
Untold Tales of Spider-Man (Busiek)
Deadpool #10-11
Industrial Gothic (Ted McKeever)
Hell and Back (last Sin City trade - admittedly, the best part of the arc was released in 2000)
JLA: Year One

[Volkditty]

Ostrander's Spectre was amazing throughout his run, and it came to the finest conclusion and send off for a classic hero I've yet read.

[adam_warlock_2099]

Hitman (probably my favorite thing to ever be part of the DCU; in fact, forget the "probably")
Starman (the 2nd)
Robin: the Dixon years (an old favorite)

I too am a big fan of Dixon's Robin. It was a regular ongoing purchase for me once I found the series. It''s one of the few titles that i have almost completly acquired.

Grant Morrison's Animal Man arc, or almost any of his Doom Patrol arcs.

"Season of Mists" in Sandman.

"Dangerous Habits" in Hellblazer.

Didn't realize his Animal Man was in the 90's, as I discovered it long after. Animal Man #5 could possibly be one of the greatest comics written.

I have yet to read his Doom Patrol, but it keeps making its way to the top of my list when I get back to buying new books.

[MRP]

I too am a big fan of Dixon's Robin. It was a regular ongoing purchase for me once I found the series. It''s one of the few titles that i have almost completly acquired.



Didn't realize his Animal Man was in the 90's, as I discovered it long after. Animal Man #5 could possibly be one of the greatest comics written.

I have yet to read his Doom Patrol, but it keeps making its way to the top of my list when I get back to buying new books.

Actually a good chunk of Morrison's Animal Man run was released in the 80's. The aforementioned #5 had a 1988 cover date and was released in Sept of 1988.

-M