If only Barry was a secret JLI fan.
I voted SS because it was consistently awesome; the art wasn't always excellent but the story carried it. JLI at a certain point (maybe around #45 or so?) lost the plot and while I still have the issues a little past the point when Dan Jurgens (I think?) took over, I never feel any need to re-read the late ones.
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 13 June 2016 20:48 (seven years ago) link
(And I guess you guys are right, these series aren't forgotten. But then again I don't really fuck with post-1995 DC comics.)
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 13 June 2016 20:49 (seven years ago) link
JLI is terrific for the Adam Hughes and Kevin Maguire runs, sort of middling to ropey the rest of the time. But I was 11 and I liked science fiction and bad comedy, so it was perfect for me. I reread them to death over and over again, and DeMatteis's hippy dialogue - humanist, anti-authoritarian, corny as shit - has probably informed my way of being as an adult in a way that (I realise now) borders on the creepy.
Also: Gerard Jones - odd writer.
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 13 June 2016 21:35 (seven years ago) link
I haven't read suicide squad - have them on the iPad and excited to catch up.
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 13 June 2016 21:36 (seven years ago) link
"Ram the building, Scott."
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 13 June 2016 22:32 (seven years ago) link
JLI at a certain point (maybe around #45 or so?) lost the plot
#46 is where the General Glory storyline starts, which is a different tone to the series prior, but interesting to see how early they thought a corrective backlash to grim & gritty was required - before 1963, before Big Bang Comics, before the Busiek Spider-Man series, almost ten years before America's Best Comics... #50 has the Kyle Baker story about how JLI is written, which is fantastic, and then #51 was the final Adam Hughes issue, a straight sitcom and one of the best issues ever. In my filing, I have all the spinoffs and annuals and JLEs mixed in together in chronological reading order, but I've stopped re-reads at #51 more than once.
#52 is the start of Breakdowns, which was tragic to read as a kid who'd rolled his eyes at the morons writing in to this comedy book with heartfelt characters -- "You should do more crossovers!" "You should bring back (x) so they have a real threat to face!" "This should stop being funny, superheroes are serious!" "Why don't you have more people die?" -- and Giffen & Helfer decided to leave the stage by giving that audience exactly what they'd been bleating for.
― glandular lansbury (sic), Tuesday, 14 June 2016 01:36 (seven years ago) link
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EJKZhfxYMLw/UeJhmE89JNI/AAAAAAAAKBQ/GntxWROivxA/s1600/cerebus_066_throwing_babies2.jpg
― glandular lansbury (sic), Tuesday, 14 June 2016 01:39 (seven years ago) link
i love them both but i guess it has to be jli to me since "identity crisis" was the point where i said "you know what, dc comics? fuck you."
― hypnic jerk (rushomancy), Tuesday, 14 June 2016 01:51 (seven years ago) link
The last issue of Breakdowns with Maguire is very good - a perfect ending, really (although undone a week later by the next issue of JLE )
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 14 June 2016 07:19 (seven years ago) link
Need to dig out my old JLE/JLI collection out, in storage at my mom's. Admittedly it's been a few years.
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 14 June 2016 23:53 (seven years ago) link
Breakdowns WAS great, as I remember it, though there were stronger moments preceding it - when the series pulled away from the chuckles and went dark it was a sucker punch for sure. Thinking of the first appearance of Despero in this run - which, oh my fucking God - and also Beetle vs Guy.
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 14 June 2016 23:55 (seven years ago) link
(Really struggling to remember the twists and turns in JLE and losing track.)
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 14 June 2016 23:58 (seven years ago) link
I'm hoping to get to Cerebus sometime in the near future, thanks for the reminder, sic!
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 20 June 2016 17:36 (seven years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Thursday, 30 June 2016 00:01 (seven years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Friday, 1 July 2016 00:01 (seven years ago) link
Ha!
― Tuomas, Friday, 1 July 2016 07:21 (seven years ago) link
A draw!
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 1 July 2016 21:29 (seven years ago) link
fair
― lowercase christ (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 1 July 2016 21:32 (seven years ago) link