The Best and Worst Anniversary Issues

[Romero]

Superman #400 was the only issue of Superman I ever had. It was pretty cool because of all the different artists that worked on it but it still never made me a Supes fan.

[Scott Harris]

Captain America has had an interesting history with anniversary issues. #200 is particularly interesting to me; as it came out in 1976, the comic technically is a Bicentennial issue celebrating 200 years of America rather than 200 issues of Captain America. But it seems obvious Kirby intended this as a double celebration issue, so i think it still counts.

#250 is a classic cover and story, so much so that it seems like it must be an anniversary issue, but it really isn't. I think the reason for this is because just five issues later, #255 is a 40th Anniversary special. It's also a great comic from the team of Stern and Byrne:



#300, like #200, is an issue that is clearly intended to be an anniversary issue but technically isn't. It's normal sized and there's no mention anywhere of this being a 300th issue special or anything. However, it's also the end of a long storyline that was clearly intended to climax with #300, and it features Cap fighting Red Skull to the death. My mostly unsubstantiated hunch is that this was originally supposed to be giant sized but was cut back when writer J.M. DeMatteis was fired (or quit in protest, whatever) after editorial vetoed his plot at the last minute. hence the story doesn't technically end until #301. My theory is that the original ending would have been i #300 and made it giant-size, but when they had to switch writers, it necessitated making #300 normal size. But that's speculation. A great issue either way, but it's very weird that there's no "anniversary" element to the marketing.

#350, on the other hand, is giant sized and wraps up a huge story line that had been running since #332. it's a personal favorite of mine:




Not as successful but still very interesting is Cap's 50th anniversary special in #383 and his 400th issue. #383 features all sort of cool extras, as well as a shiny gold cover inked by Jim Lee. The main story is kind of not so great, though, as Father Time catches up with Steve and sends him on a weird dream trip through the past or whatever. Not great.




#400 suffers an even weirder fate, though, as it is stuck in the middle of the Operation: Galactic Storm mega-crossover. Gruenwald does his best, coming up with a story where the Supreme Intelligence creates psychic doppelgangers of Steve's 6 greatest foes and he fights them all to prove his worthiness of being assimilated into the Supreme Intelligence. Still, it's a pretty big waste that a #400 gets stuck in a crossover. Welcome to Marvel. The bonus features are interesting, particularly a gatefold that unfolds to show all the covers for the entire series, something that Avengers #350 and Thor #450 also had, as they all came out at basically the same time.


It's kind of funny that Cap's best "anniversary" issues were #255 and #350 instead of the usual suspects.

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

Anniversary issues are not always easy to put in perspective at the time. There was a big campaign to get Wonder Woman a 600th issue and I got caught up in that, sending in my post card to Dan DiDio as requested. The 600th issue came and, as had happened with Superman 700 and would happen with Action Comics 900, it was a mixed bag, attracting controversy (over pants!) but offering several different visions of the character by some fan favourites. What left a bad taste in my mouth is that the 600 issue was just a stunt, given that the numbering only lasted for a year, when Wonder Woman got yet another number 1 (and another reboot). So what was the point of 600? None except to manipulate the fanbase for a temporary bump in sales.

[GavinR]

Superman #400 was the only issue of Superman I ever had. It was pretty cool because of all the different artists that worked on it but it still never made me a Supes fan.

I LOVE that comic!!!!



The variety of stories is just so great and to have so much talent packed into one book is amazing. I'm one of those collectors whose philosophy is "If you aren't reading them, you're wasting them." and believe me, this comic has gotten a LOT of time being read. From the moment I picked it up off the rack I fell in love with it and I had to beg my mom to buy it for me because $1.50 for a comic at the time was a big deal. It was totally worth it. The ending story by Steranko is really a wonderful piece of work. You can read it here: http://site.supermanthrutheages.com/400/exile/

It is one of the best anniversary issues ever published!!!!

[LEADER DESSLOK]

...Candidate for worst anniversary issue ever: Avengers #200

So, this is the infamous Ms. Marvel rape issue. For those who haven't read it, what happens is that a couple issues earlier, Ms. Marvel had suddenly become pregnant with a baby that was gestating at an incredible rate, going from egg to full birth in the course of like a week or something. In #200, she gives birth and the baby grows up into a full grown man, who is apparently the reincarnation of Immortus. or... something. Even weirder, he is his own father. Basically, he was trapped in limbo, so he impregnated Carol so she would give birth to him in the real world, freeing him. At the end of the issue, something goes wrong and he's going to die unless he gets back to limbo, so he takes Carol back with him into limbo, I guess to start this whole thing in motion. Time travel, right? The thing is, he even says right up front that he used some kind of mental persuasion power to cause Carol to "fall in love with him" and despite this, the three Avengers on hand allow her to go with him into limbo.

Now, it should be noted that those three Avengers are the three Avengers least equipped to deal with things from a female perspective, namely Tony Stark, Thor and Hawkeye. And Hawkeye thinks it's a terrible idea, but gets outvoted by the rest of them, only going along very reluctantly.

Still, this issue is a traveshamockery on all sorts of levels, other than the excellent art by George Perez. There are like five writers attributed to the story; basically what happened is that there was some editorial screwup, and the story that David Michilinie had planned for #200 was invalidated at the last minute because some other Marvel book published a very similar story. So they had to throw this together at the last second, and it showed. Chris Claremont later wrote Avengers Annual #10 as a direct rebuttal of #200, trashing the Avengers from start to finish as if they had written themselves. Then he took Carol and shot he rinto space as Binary. But really, I don't blame him, as they basically took a character who was specifically designed as a symbol of the feminist movement and had her date raped while her peers shrugged.

Horrible.

I agree with every single comment related to this despicable story. I was a huge Ms.Marvel fan and I own 18 out of the first 19 issues of her original series! (I refuse to pay "big bucks" for the first appearance of Mystique, who was then known as Raven Darkholme!) For me, it was a double whammy--first they gave her that AWFUL (IMO) costume then this nonsense came out. I read it once but regrettably held onto it because it was a "special" issue. One day, when I was re-organizing my collection, I took the thing out of its plastic bag and looked through it. The old hatred came back and I ripped the darn thing up and threw it in the trash--where it belonged!

[Shellhead]

My favorites:

1. Grimjack #50: It wrapped up a long-running story in a very satisfying way, and delivered some serious shocks along the way.
2. Thor #300: the epic and explosive finale to the Celestials Saga.
3. Iron Man #150: featuring the second half of the time travel story with Doctor Doom.
4. Master of Kung Fu #100: I still don't have any issues from the Gulacy run, so maybe #50 was better, but this was a cool story involving Jack the Ripper and some insights into Shang's family.
5. New Teen Titans #50: no action, but still an important event for them, with plenty of nice character moments.

My least favorites:

1. Avengers #500: Bendis takes a steaming dump all over my favorite team book.
2. New Titans #100: Nightwing and Starfire get married, with a lousy story, worse artwork, and a forgettable villain. Quite possibly the worse issue of Teen Titans that I've ever seen.
3. Captain America #200: I didn't enjoy almost anything that Kirby did for Marvel in the '70s. It was neat that this issue coincided with the Bicentennial celebration, but it featured a boring story, a really boring villain, and second-rate Kirby artwork.
4. Avengers #150: mostly filler.
5. Fantastic Four #300: 'nuff said.

[LEADER DESSLOK]

BEST:
(TIE) AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #200- Okay, Marv Wolfman may have borrowed a little bit from Bill Finger (and Lew Schwartz with Bob Kane) but Spidey's showdown with the burglar who killed Uncle Ben remains one of my favorite stories in the entire Spidey Canon! I read it several times before I put it away--I liked it that much.

MASTER OF KUNG-FU #118- Not really an anniversary issue but possibly (if memory serves me right) the final issue for both GENE DAY and DOUG MOENCH, who wrote the book for several years! Not only did Shang Chi face his father Fu Manchu for the last time but also a clone of himself--who the arch villain felt had all the qualities his son was supposed to have! I wish the series had ended with this issue but it limped on for a few more issues with mediocre stories and artwork by other people. A shame.

WORST:

BATMAN #400- What an ironic twist. The very same Doug Moench's first and most noteworthy tenure with the Caped Crusader ended with this stinko issue. Despite great artwork on the cover by Bill Sienkiewicz (I'd love to own the original) and good interiors by Tom Mandrake, the story was a boring, derivitive imitation of Marv Wolfman's "Lazarus Affair" from about 70 issues earlier--even the fight scene between Batman and Ras Al Ghul was almost a panel-to-panel "remake"! It's simply pitiful that Moench didn't go out on a high note!

ADDENDUM:
CAPTAIN AMERICA #200- The conclusion of The MADBOMB CONSPIRACY was one of my favorite stories ever! The idea of the wealthy and the powerful trying to literally "rip up" the constitution and "Bogart" the country wholesale is especially topical in these days of "The Two-Percent v. The Rest of Us"! I can just see a "Kirby Cap" laying the smackdown on the chin of a generic "Tea Party" stand-in for a homage to the cover of CAPTAIN AMERICA #1!

[grphxkindaguy]

Ah, I used to LOVE anniversary issues!!!

I loved that they were mostly double-sized issues, sometimes w/a back up story or two or another bonus of some kind.

Some of my favorites, off the top of my head, are:

Rom #25 (he fights an imposter on his home planet)

Rom #50 (most of his supporting cast that he's had since issue #1 is wiped out)

Uncanny X-Men #175 (the team goes after Cyclops in the mansion, who is made to look like Dark Phoenix by Mastermind)

Ucanny X-Men #200 (Trial of Magneto for crimes against humanity, 'nuff said)

Batman #400 (All-Star Jam issue)

Amazing Spiderman #300 (First Venom)

Thor #400 (Thor vs. Set)

Captain America #350 (Cap vs US Agent, finally!!!)

Iron Man #200 (Tony gets a new set of armor and takes down Stane/Iron Monger who stole his company from him)

[Roquefort Raider]

An anniversary issue that never was is Thor #350, where I expected to see the dramatic conclusion to Walt Smonson's Ragnarok storyline... my guess is that the story grew too big that there was no way to wrap it up in a double-sized issue! (It concluded a few issues after 350, which was normal-sized).

But one that did exist and was definitely worth it was Legion of super-heroes #200, which had pretty much everything an anniversary issue must have: a multitude of segments illustrated by many old fan-favorites, all framed by a story done by the regular team; the resolution of a long-lasting mystery, that of whether the "Adult Legion" stories would actually come to pass (they wouldn't; we learned here that they were alternate realities seen by the unbalanced brain of a character); a cover with characters all drawn by different artists, including some more of the old fan-favorites; and finally an uplifting ending ushering a future rich in possibilities. Quite a celebration for Legion fans!

[David Walton]

Amazing Spider-Man 200. Aunt May is dead. Peter Parker has lost his powers. And the burglar who killed Uncle Ben is back! You even get a cameo by the security guard from Amazing Fantasy 15 that brings things full circle. Great stuff leading to a poignant confrontation with the man who destroyed Peter's world. One of those issues that could easily function as a send-off for the character you could feel good about.

Spectacular Spider-Man 189. An awkward family dinner with the Osborns brings Harry and Peter's conflict to a head.

Spectacular Spider-Man 200. A brilliant send-off for Harry Osborn, who dies rejecting his father's legacy of evil. The silent panels depicting Harry's death are some of Sal's best work.

Amazing Spider-Man 400. "Second star on the right and straight on 'til morning." 'Nuff said.

[Kizmet]

Strictly for being such a blatant display of Marvel screwing with the number to get more anniversary issues:

X-Factor #50 (by the new numbering system) followed one short month later by X-Factor #200 (going back to the original numbering).

Two 'anniversary' issues, billed as such, in two months on one book.

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

An anniversary issue that never was is Thor #350, where I expected to see the dramatic conclusion to Walt Smonson's Ragnarok storyline... my guess is that the story grew too big that there was no way to wrap it up in a double-sized issue! (It concluded a few issues after 350, which was normal-sized).

But one that did exist and was definitely worth it was Legion of super-heroes #200, which had pretty much everything an anniversary issue must have: a multitude of segments illustrated by many old fan-favorites, all framed by a story done by the regular team; the resolution of a long-lasting mystery, that of whether the "Adult Legion" stories would actually come to pass (they wouldn't; we learned here that they were alternate realities seen by the unbalanced brain of a character); a cover with characters all drawn by different artists, including some more of the old fan-favorites; and finally an uplifting ending ushering a future rich in possibilities. Quite a celebration for Legion fans!

Actually this was issue 300. A curious thing is that the Legion never got a 200th issue. There was Superboy 200, but the title hadn't officially changed to "Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes" at that point. The Legion also only got an issue 100 once (in the 1989 relaunch series).

The Adult Legion mystery was first addressed in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes 247, which was billed as a 247th anniversary. Which refers to the Legion's first appearance in Adventure Comics 247. I don't think by this time the Legion had appeared in anywhere near 247 issues, even when you count up all their appearances in Adventure, Action, Superboy, and other DC comics.

Another significant anniversary issue for the Legion was Adventure Comics 300. Up until then, the Legion had guest-starred with Superboy in a few issues of Adventure, and in other Superman family titles, but this issue launched their own regular series.

One of the worst anniversaries was the 50th issue of Legion of Super-Heroes (the 2005 relaunch series) which saw the regular creative team removed from the book, with an uncredited writer and a new art team imposing an ending on Jim Shooter and Francis Manapul's story arc.

[Shellhead]

Thanks to this thread, I finally bought the Moench/Gulacy run on Master of Kung-Fu, which I loosely define as MoKF 18-50. Spent $113 at a combination of three online sites, with most of the issues in fine condition. Would have happily spent that much money or more on a nice hardcover collection, but that may never be a possibility. I actually contacted the estate of Sax Rohmer a few years back and asked them to work out a deal with Marvel, but never got a response. The estate is holding out for a movie deal that may never come.

[Slam_Bradley]

An anniversary issue that never was is Thor #350, where I expected to see the dramatic conclusion to Walt Smonson's Ragnarok storyline... my guess is that the story grew too big that there was no way to wrap it up in a double-sized issue! (It concluded a few issues after 350, which was normal-sized).

Simonson talked about this. The plan was to close out the story for the 350 "anniversary", but the story ran too long and he couldn't complete it in time.

[Aaron King]

Thanks to this thread, I finally bought the Moench/Gulacy run on Master of Kung-Fu, which I loosely define as MoKF 18-50.

I think the stuff that comes after Gulacy is just as good. You get Mike Zeck and Gene Day for most of it, if I'm remembering correctly, and it's really neat to see Shang Chi once he's turned loose from the shadow of Fu Manchu.