I also have tremendous fondness for these classics:
- vintage Robotman tales (esp. drawn by Jimmy Johnson)
I think I've written post about this before, but isn't Jerry Siegel the greatest?
- 70s "Invaders" comics
People today call Kirby "Mr. Silver Age." Does that mean Roy Thomas was "Mr. Golden Age?"
While generally I like Roy Thomas because of his fascination with details and exploration of comics' rich history, I would not include anything by him on a list of greatest comics ever, with the possible exception of his Dr. Doom story in MARVEL PRESENTS with the art done by Wally Wood, or possibly his CONAN. I don't dislike Roy at all; I think he is very competent and talented (his UNCANNY X-MEN run with Neal Adams in the 1960s was good and sufficient but really nothing special) and I'd rather have Roy Thomas writing a beloved title than say, Mark Waid or Gerry Conway or John Byrne; at least Roy isn't likely to leave a mess behind. But the fact is, the quality on Thomas-written books increases whenever he leaves them. DEFENDERS only gelled as a concept when Roy Thomas left the book and the funny, talented Steve Gerber came on to write (and even Ultron got his definitive story not under his creator Thomas, but under Kurt Busiek). Likewise, while Thomas gave the Marvel Universe the gift of the super-robot Ultron, AVENGERS only stopped being good though uninspired when Steve Englehart signed on, and under him it reached the heights of, arguably, one of the greatest team books ever written.
Thomas has a tendency to indulge in meaningless prose. If Roy the Boy was a teenager today, he'd probably be a Goth. Where else do you get sentences like this one delivered by Hawkgirl in ALL-STAR SQUADRON:
"So...Carter is leaving me...to join the army...and he did not TELL me? Our masks hide not only our faces...but our TEARS as well!" I had to burst out laughing here, which I doubt was Thomas's intention. Unlike the punchy, snappy dialogue of Stan Lee and Englehart and Gerber, I honestly can't remember a single funny or witty thing anybody in a Thomas comic has ever said. Characters under Thomas lack specific voices; this is especially apparent in his DEFENDERS, where you have Namor, Silver Surfer, the Hulk and Doctor Strange, and yet somehow characters as diverse as these somehow speak the same Thomas-y way.
Thinking it over, even the comics that Houseroy has done that I view as great are only seen that way because there was no writer to come on afterward and overshadow him totally the way Englehart and Gerber did, which is as much a critique of the hiring policies on books like ALL STAR SQUADRON and INFINITY INC. as it is on Roy Thomas himself. Even his treatment of the JSA is becoming less and less definitive thanks to the current JSA series.
There is a rumor, by its very nature unsubstantiatable, that says that one of the primary reasons that CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS happened was because Roy the Boy wanted to boost sales on INFINITY INC. by setting that comic on Earth-1. If this is true, Roy goes from being a technically good and sufficient writer it is impossible to dislike, to one that earns my undying emnity, destroying instead of creating.
- Kirby's Jimmy Olsen
Not that I disagree with you, Nightwing (good choice, in fact, and one underrepresented) but why Kirby's JIMMY OLSEN and not his FOURTH WORLD or KAMANDI?
- Claremont/Byrne X-Men
I loved Claremont/Byrne's X-MEN too, very much, although I wouldn't put this on a BEST OF list. For one thing, Dave Cockrum left halfway through, and it was Cockrum that was in many ways, the definitive X-Artist, not so much Byrne. It was Cockrum's costumes they used (and on a related note, Dave Cockrum ought to design every single superhero costume from now on).
But one of the things I judge comics on is characterization (which is why the characterization-strong Englehart, Busiek and Gerber are some of my favorite writers), and Claremont is frankly, not good at characterization. This is why the action-heavy IRON FIST in many ways is his more interesting work, because in X-MEN he attempts to go into their group dynamic, something he is unequipped to do, whereas he sticks to action plots in IRON FIST. For example, we have scenes where Jean says to Storm, "We've been good friends for some time now, Storm." Yet before that panel we had
never seen the two of them together ever before. Also, Claremont had an extensive subplot where Professor X treats the New X-Men like children despite the fact they are adults - but we only know this because that's what Cyclops thinks in his thought bubbles; except Professor X saying something to Wolverine as he enters the Danger Room, he never SHOWS us Professor X doing really anything that could be considered tyrannical; the only sign this subplot is going on is because Cyclops is telling us this in thought bubbles, so consequently, we never really believe it. Another example are Claremont's awkward self-introductions, like when Multiple Man at the first issue of Dark Pheonix says "I'm only a kid from Kansas, so I think I'll stay out of this." Instead of, you know, having Claremont SHOW us that Multiple Man is a hick, by having him say or do something naive and hayseedish.
Also, Claremont was terrible at having powers be so ill-defined they can do just about anything. One of the worst examples of this is in EXCALIBUR #3, where Meggan, a fairy previously stated as having shapechanging powers (which she usually manifests to keep herself beautiful for her co-dependent relationship with Captain Britain), in one battle with Juggernaut, ACTUALLY GROWS TO GIANT SIZE with her shapechanging by "tapping into her connection with the earth to increase her strength" or some such nonsense. Ditto for Marvel Girl, who previously has been stated as being powerful enough to read minds and project her thoughts, suddenly in one X-MEN issue, manifests the ability to
steal the ability to pilot a space shuttle.
And the series gave us Wolverine. I can't support that blight on the Marvel Universe in good conscience. I bet it was all Byrne's idea.
