As mentioned elsewhere, all things considered and looked at from both ends up and a sideways angle, I generally believe issue #11 of Warlock - The Strange Death of Adam Warlock - to be the best single issue of a comic published in the 1970s. It's the one where Jim Starlin has Adam Warlock meet his future self at the moment of his death, in order to stop himself becoming the evil and loopy Magus, my review of which can be read here.
However, as always with this blog, I've put no thought whatsoever into this choice and am probably wrong.
So, this in mind, what's your choice for the best single issue of a comic published in the 1970s?
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5 comments:
That's tough. I usually think of the 70's in series or runs--Panther's Rage, Captain Marvel versus Thanos, Fourth World, etc.
To find just one issue is tough, and I'm going to cheat. The Manhunter back-up was collected in 1979 so I think I'll pick that book which gathered up those fantastic Goodwin-Simonson stories.
Great question.
Rip Off
You picked an excellent comic - one I managed to snag on ebay recently along with the rest of Starlin's Warlock tales - but for head exploding, 1970's kid impressing, I'll have to go with the first time I read Deathlok; Astonishing Tales 27.
It's a terrible admission to make but I don't think I've ever read any Deathlok. I seem to remember his early adventures were reprinted in the UK weekly "Star Wars" comic but I never read them because I didn't like the look of him. This probably says more about me than it does the strip.
So many great strips and books in the 70s to pick from so I'm not going to but will list some of my favourites and Ive probably missed a load of this list: Plop #2, Astonishing tales #27 ( Deathlok), Defenders 9 (Iron Man on the cover beating up Hawkeye), Justice League #94 (mostly for the 9 pages of Neal Adams art), JLA #100 (7 Soldiers of Victory issue) Brave and the Bold #99 and probably my favourite if pushed KUll the Conqueror issues 9 " the Scorpion God" loved the story and art and it was only the 2nd Sword and Sorcery comic I had picked up (Conan issue 25 the first another great red)darn not even mentioned Cap America, Spiderman , Dracula lives etc etc
Steve, it's Monday now and I've been thinking about this question since Friday ( who said "get a life"? ) - still struggling!
Like Rip said, it's far easier to pick out a run of comics ( McGregor's Killraven, Kirby's Fourth World, most of Tomb Of Dracula etc. ) than choose just one. A lot of my faves from the '70s mean a lot to me because they were such formative influences on my young mind, but they're probably not what I'd call the "best" comics of their time. I'm thinking of stuff like FF no. 106 ( "The Monster's Secret" )or Avengers no. 89 ( "The Only Good Alien..." ) or the mind-melting Howard The Duck no. 10 ( "Swan Song Of The Living-Dead Duck" )...
But, thinking about it, I'd probably have to go with Roy Thomas and Barry Smith's "Song Of Red Sonja" in Conan no. 24, because it's a comic I really can't fault: script, artwork, even colouring are all perfect. It's sword 'n' sorcery at its very best, with treasure-filled towers, cursed artefacts, giant snakes and a mean redhead in chainmail dumping our favourite barbarian on his Cimmerian arse. Bliss!
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