Saturday, December 19, 2009

Here's Where I Scoff at Others

Brian Cronin's democratically-created list of the Best Comic Book Storylines Ever has fully revealed itself. And now I have to scoff at some entries, because they deserve it:

"Age of Apocalypse" at #12? Yeah, this was a great storyline, at making me stop reading about the X-Men.

"Under Seige" at #17? A bunch of bad guys attack Avengers mansion? Oh, it was a whole lot of bad guys? Well, then I guess it does deserve to be in the top twenty.

"Civil War" at #18? If you've been following me on Twitter, you know my son has just started reading this series because of his interest in the "Ultimate Alliance 2" game. The jury's out on whether he likes it or not. But as one of the best storylines of all time? Even if he thinks so, he is wrong.

Millar's "Ultimates" and Meltzer's "Identity Crisis" tie at #26? It's appropriate that they tie, because they both make superheroes sexed up and trashy. But they aren't very good.

"Infinity Gauntlet"? Even Chad Nevett didn't vote for it.

"Secret Wars"? "Hush"? "The Death of Superman"?

I know this was based on votes for unabashedly favorite storylines of all time, so there's no reason to scoff. But I do.

When readers hold comics like this junk up as the best ever, well, I think we can do better.

5 comments:

Timothy Callahan said...

I realize this is the dumbest post I've ever written.

Chad Nevett said...

Hence the sarcastic, almost angry/antagonistic tone of my top ten...

Patrick said...

Ultimates 1 I can at least see as an influential and generally successful work, though I think that it's eclipsed by Ultimates 2, and Millar's own Authority did most of what it did better and first.

Other than that, I totally agree. Very strange choices. Civil War in particular is not just not a top 100 book, it's outright bad.

Unknown said...

well, what's the point of top 100 lists if they don't inspire ultimately irrelevant flame wars?

Kevin Lewis said...

not to be a nitpicker, but wasn't the list the top 100 "favorite" storylines, not necessarily best?