RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Best epic battles in comics history

What are the fight scenes that stand out for you as the most memorable and impressive?

Two I can think of offhand for openers are...



the Thing vs. Silver Surfer in FANTASTIC FOUR 55 by Lee, Kirby and Sinnott.


and



Another that stands out for me is across several issues of the NEW GODS by Kirby, in issues 5 and 6 (facing the Deep Six, starting with a splash page where you just see a full page showing the empty harness for the Deep Six's giant monster, then next issue see it in action sinking ships on the ocean, and then a clash of Orion and Lightray against the Apokalips gods of the Deep Six.)

Then issue 7, "The Pact" (showing the initial war of the New Gods, with the origins of Isaiah/Highfather, Darkseid, Orion and Scott Free, with some great scenes of inner conflict as well as scenes of war.

And issue 8, with Orion vs. Kalibak, in "The Death Wish of Terrible Turpin", Turpin being a police detective who is way out of his league but in gutsiness that gains admiration of the gods, still tries to arrest Orion and Kalibak. In some ways similar to FF 55, where they wreck half the city slugging it out. A battle that continues in NEW GODS 11, and unfortunately the series was cancelled after that, and we never saw the follow-up Orion vs. Darseid "final battle" that was built up to. At least not to my satisfaction.

Those are a few of my favorites, what are some of yours?

My first one was parts of Levitz Eart War in the Legion title. I had the final two issues and some parts leading up to it. Loved the art and most of the members in it except Tyroc. It had layers to it with a surprise twist of who was behind it all. It ends with a big happy ending. Two favorite members return and there is peace at least for a little while for the galaxy. Joe Staton did the art for the last issue and while it was different from the rest of the art I liked it. Looking forward to the hard cover coming out this summer. Also a favorite but had incomplete issues was the Avengers Korvac saga. That final battle with Korvac really wowed as at first the deaths seemed real. Once an A lister got it I figured the deaths were not real but I didn't see how they could undue all that. They did but what a ride! Also looking forward to the upcoming Masterworks!

Yeah, the Legion across ADVENTURE, ACTION, SUPERBOY and SUPERBOY STARRING THE LEGION is the longest continuous run I have.




The art through the era you list (1977-1978) was hit and miss, but a lot of good art by Mike Nasser, Joe Rubinstein, Jim Sherman, Bob Mcleod,and Joe Staton, but no regular penciller on the series continuously.

To me, that earlier Levitz run was a warm-up for the great Levitz/Giffen run that followed it (285-306), particularly the "Great Darkness Saga"(LEGION 290-294) that brought Darkseid back to prominence in the DC universe after a long post-Kirby absence. One of my all-time favorite stories in comics.




One of my favorites by Levitz/Giffen is LEGION 296-297, in a story where nuclear terrorists set off a nuclear bomb in Metropolis in a nuclear blackmail incident and kill Cosmic Boy's parents. Then he goes out enraged looking for blood, with magnetic power rips open a police transport ship and pulls out the arrested terrorists. One of the terrorists screams: "We're not wearing any metal, how is he pulling us?!?"
To Which Cosmic Boy says: "I've got you by the iron in your blood, creep!"

Great stuff!






Yeah, Byrne started on AVENGERS with issue 181, the Korvac storyline was right before that in 167-177. I really liked the issues with art by Dave Wenzel, mostly inked by Pablo Marcos. I don't know of any other series Wenzel has done, other than a one-shot THE HOBBIT adaptation that he did the full art himself on, and very different than his AVENGERS work. And a few scattered Solomon Kane stories in SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN.
Needless to say the Perez issues of the Korvac storyline were beautiful too.

I think that was the run where Jim Shooter really proved his ability as a writer. Shooter previously did roughly AVENGERS 151-166, and SUPERBOY/LEGION from about 209-224, but the Korvac story was the most complex and interesting of Shooter's stories at that time.
Shooter later (coupled with inferior art) came back after issue 200 and did more great stories on AVENGERS, would that the art were up to the same par as the stories.

There was a WHAT IF story that picked up the Korvac storyline, but since neither Shooter or Wenzel were involved, and it was a brief story without several issues to develop as the original storyline did, it was inevitably disappointing.

The 2-part story in LEGION 296 and 297, in addition to being a very personal story of vengeance for Cosmic Boy, also served as a great intro to the Legion, re-telling the origin of the Legion, and having some very funny moments amid the larger drama.

Thanks for adding pics and more info. The Great darkness story would also fall into one of my favorites if not the favorite. It brought Supergirl back and the White Witch became a member. Darseid was very menacing! Levitz fireballing story while on a smaller scale was also very good and actually connected more on a human interest way. It also had big repercussions with Cos and his younger brother.

The Great Darkness Saga in LEGION 287-294 was, and remains, the absolute best continuation and conclusion of Kirby's Fourth World series. A thousand years later, Levitz and Giffen provide a satisfying "Final Battle" between Orion and Darkseid, in a Biblical-scale conflict that truly threatens the entire universe.

And I like that it leaves a shroud of mystery over what happened in the 1,000 years in between. That even Darkseid in the long and dormant centuries has forgotten exactly what occurred in the past.

And I warn anyone who hasn't read it, don't waste your time or money on Kirby's 1985 graphic novel HUNGER DOGS, that was his own conclusion to the Fourth World series. This is from me, a guy who loves Kirby. Only in the case it is tossed in a collected Kirby volume would I have this, and only for completeness. But it is possibly the single most disappointing comics story I've ever read. I think I lost I.Q. points reading it.
The other similar disappointment that comes to mind is when a SPIDER-MAN issue (289, if I recall) revealed that Ned Leeds was the Hobgoblin, and with all the clues left to readers for 8 years prior in stories, none of them added up to Ned Leeds. Very cheap and contrived, an insult to loyal readers.

I think "epic battles" for most comics fans is epitomized in the Lee/Kirby FF run, such as the first Thing vs. the Hulk story (FF 12, March 1963 and FF 25, April 1964), or the first Avengers vs FF (FF 27, May 1964), and X-Men vs. FF (FF 28, July 1964), all in a row.

And of course the first story with the FF and Galactus, with the Silver Surfer (FF 48-50, March-May 1966).




But for me, even more of an epic battle was the FF vs Doctor Doom in FF 57-60 (Dec 1966-March 1967), where Doctor Doom traps the Silver Surfer and steals his powers, and with that added power he has the capacity to destroy the earth, and stack up some visually striking panoramas of destruction before the FF finally seizes the day. For me the visuals made it convincing, that Doom could actually destroy the world. And at the very least, was visually striking, and cool reading. I first read them in a 1972 reprint titled MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION.

I first read most of these reprinted in MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS in the early 1970's. Some of them I didn't get to see until they were reprinted in Marvel Masterworks hardcovers. With Masterworks, it was great to finally have the complete Lee/Kirby and Lee/Ditko runs of all the early titles the 1970's Marvel books were founded on and frequently referred to.
The 70's reprints would often frustratingly delete one or more pages, so you got the feel of the original, without having the whole thing.
That was also true of reprint comics like X-MEN CLASSICS in the mid/late 1980's. More than DC, Marvel had more of a tendency to slice and dice their reprints than DC. Up until the Masterworks hardcovers, that is.

Was anyone else even aware of this? :



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_in_comics




I've re-read the JUSTICE LEAGUE 103 issue many times, and never knew about the other two issues at Marvel that preceded and followed it.

BATMAN 237 (Dec 1971)"Night of the Reaper" by O'Neil, Adams and Giordano features as characters Phil Seuling, Gerry Conway, Dennis O'Neil, Al Weiss, and Berni Wrightson, similarly takes place at a costumed Halloween parade and party in Rutland, VT.
And a Robin backup story in BATMAN 239 (Feb 1972)by Mike Friedrich, Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano.
The JLA 103 story follows most of the same characters at the same Halloween celebration a year later (Dec 1972).




There was a second unofficial Marvel/DC crossover (which until now I thought was the first!) in AVENGERS 141-144, 147-149, written by Steve Englehart, with pencils by George Perez. The Avengers fight the Squadron Supreme (who are in all but name DC's Justice League).

As I think of it, a story in X-MEN 107-108 (the last Claremont/Cockrum issue, the first Claremont/Byrne/Austin issue) has the X-Men fight a group of heroes in the service Princess Lilanda (of the Shi'ar race). The group of heroes, the Imperial Guard, are (like Squadron Supreme were the JLA in AVENGERS) in all but name DC's Legion of Superheroes!




These pre-crossovers, before the ACTUAL Marvel/DC crossovers, were really fun.

In roughly the same period, Marvel and DC did something I considered unimaginable until they actually did it, a Superman/Spider-man crossover story.



And it was actually a good story, and not just a manufactured event like SECRET WARS, CRISIS and so many crossover events became in the years after.

I enjoyed the introductions by Stan Lee and Carmine Infantino too. That to me emphasized what a big deal this event was. Written by Gerry Conway, and illustrated by Ross Andru/Dick Giordano.

Unfortunately, Infantino was fired as Editor in Chief/Publisher of DC within a month or two after, so this turned out to be the last hurrah of his phenomenal tenure as DC's helm, from 1967-1976.