That's My Reading List for the Next Two Years Sorted

June 28, 2022 9:11 AM

Over in the /r/DCComics subreddit, they've collectively voted on a list of the 71 best runs, "run" in this context roughly meaning a specific creators' tenure on a specific title. Roughly. (SLReddit)
posted by Ipsifendus (65 comments total)

I have to agree with most of this (although lumping all of Jack Kirby's Fourth World into an "omnibus" is a bit of a cheat).
posted by SPrintF at 9:20 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

"run" in this context roughly meaning a specific creators' tenure on a specific title. Roughly.

Yeah, I'm fussing and quibbling like crazy, "run" shouldn't include limited series with one creator or team. Batman Year One and Swamp Thing yes, Dark Knight and Watchmen no! Starman would probably be the most notable ointment fly to my definition but it was never my cup of tea anyway.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:23 AM on June 28, 2022

Is Gail Simone seriously the only woman writer on that list? That's way fucked up.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 9:25 AM on June 28, 2022 [6 favorites]

I don't do Reddit. Is there a way to see the actual list and not just the image (with the teeny tiny list of dates and titles on the bottom)?
posted by sardonyx at 9:25 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

I like some titles, but my dislikes with these decisions are way heavier. I'm just not the target audience anymore.

Part of getting older (for me) has been losing my love of comicbooks. I love them so much, I will always have time for a comicbook, but I can't enjoy them like I used to and I barely buy them. Just a glance at those images: some guns, (mostly male) heroes, and one thing we all know is that those two things do not add up to a better world. I can't even escape to that nonsense anymore.
posted by elkevelvet at 9:32 AM on June 28, 2022 [4 favorites]

Starman would probably be the most notable ointment fly to my definition but it was never my cup of tea anyway.

That's a ridiculously dumb definition; disqualifying a long-running series because it had one writer or creative team would bump Sandman and Preacher and Fourth World.

Yes, I am arguing with myself
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:33 AM on June 28, 2022

Is Gail Simone seriously the only woman writer on that list? That's way fucked up.

Still not great, but N. K. Jemisin is included and Kim Yale should be on there for a lot of the John Ostrander stuff.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:49 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'll wait a few weeks until they reboot the list.
posted by signal at 9:50 AM on June 28, 2022 [21 favorites]

I happen to have pulled the collection of Multiversity (#25) off the shelf and read it this past week. It feels like the exact *opposite* of a "run" as I usually feel it's defined. It's a limited series in the form of about a dozen #1 issues of otherwise-nonexistent comics, with every issue drawn by different artists from a Grant Morrison script. It is an interesting book, it captures the feeling of a Big Summer Mega-Crossover Event without all the issues of expecting you to know enough about Captain Obscure for her two-panel appearance to make sense, and fucking up the stories other people are trying to tell with their runs on their comics, but it really doesn't feel like "a run".

"A run" is, like, these three people took over Captain Obscure on issue #37 after the previous folks working on it moved elsewhere, and did some really good stuff for ten issues, then the penciler moved elsewhere and the scriptwriter stuck around and tied up most of the plot threads with another penciler and the same inker.

Anyway I am probably never gonna read most of these and I should stop procrastinating and get back to drawing my own little comic about a ceremonial magician and her demon girlfriend beating the shit out of a monster conjured up by an evil rave.
posted by egypturnash at 9:50 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

I wish they'd included issue numbers for books where the run does not encompass the entire lifetime of the book.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:52 AM on June 28, 2022

sardonyx: "I don't do Reddit. Is there a way to see the actual list and not just the image (with the teeny tiny list of dates and titles on the bottom)?"

Here you go.
posted by signal at 9:54 AM on June 28, 2022 [6 favorites]

I'd move all the Tom King stuff 10 or 20 places up and put his Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow in the top 3.

Also, no Captain Carrot? Or his Zoo Crew? Goddurn speciests…
posted by signal at 9:56 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

25% of the top 12 are Grant Morrison (if you count 52, which I do; they were all over the place with their weirdzo philosophizing, and I even poked gentle fun at one point) which is interesting... move down two slots, and 5/14 are Grant Morrison projects. What's fascinating is how much has been done to undo Morrison in a lot of ways; the most egregious of all of this being on the Marvel side of the fence, where Marvel unwound almost all of the interesting and important parts of their New X-Men run after they left the title.

I don't even really know what Morrison has been up to post-Multiversity.

I can't really object to most of this. I'd love to see more Tom King up there; the lack of women is disturbing but while I can think of a number of women doing strong work at Marvel without hesitation (G. Willow Wilson and Ms. Marvel, Kelly Sue deConnick and, er, Captain Marvel without even trying), I struggle more with women writers at DC beyond Gail Simone.
posted by Shepherd at 10:09 AM on June 28, 2022 [7 favorites]

Pope Guilty, the issue numbers are given in the initial comment thread on the Reddit post, linked to by signal in the metafilter comment just following your own.
posted by Ipsifendus at 10:44 AM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

In terms of the actual results here, as a Grant Morrison fan I'm surprised and gratified by their good showing here, and that "New Frontier" is rated so highly, and also agree that it sucks that there are so few women on the list. Almost every one of the Vertigo titles on this list came out while Karen Berger was running the line. She doesn't half the credit she deserves.
posted by Ipsifendus at 10:49 AM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

Thanks, signal!
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:54 AM on June 28, 2022

Also, no Captain Carrot? Or his Zoo Crew? Goddurn speciests…

Au contraire! The Multiversity #2. Morrison does not forget.
posted by star gentle uterus at 10:59 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

And I do wish they had limited this to a stricter definition of "run". Creators in an ongoing series managing to actually do good and interesting work is a sadly rare thing, especially if they aren't the original series team and have to work with whatever pieces they've been given.
posted by star gentle uterus at 11:02 AM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

"Yes, I am arguing with myself."

No problem.

Battling oneself is a venerable comic book trope.
posted by MrJM at 11:30 AM on June 28, 2022 [7 favorites]

No love for The Invisibles?
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:31 AM on June 28, 2022 [6 favorites]

While they're not on the list, I have a certain fondness for two limited series by Phil Foglio. His Angel and the Ape cleverly identified Sam Simeon as Grodd's nephew and brilliantly explained the Green Glob, a very obscure minor "character" from the old Tales of the Unexpected.

Phil's Stanley and His Monster was a parody of Vertigo comics in general and Sandman in particular. (There is nothing more terrifying to the demons of Hell than a bright, amiable six-year-old boy. Hell, it was established, took the form of what you expected to find. Stanley has watched a lot of cartoons.)
posted by SPrintF at 11:34 AM on June 28, 2022 [5 favorites]

Another favorite series: Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade. Imagine the big stupid grin on my face when I finally realized who Brenda Zee really is!
posted by SPrintF at 11:37 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

No love for The Invisibles?

They should have just called the list "The Works of Grant Morrison and Also Some Others".
posted by star gentle uterus at 11:38 AM on June 28, 2022 [9 favorites]

No love for The Invisibles?

Ah yes, the comic that led me to my incredible husband and life long friendships with wonderful weirdos all over the UK, the US, and Canada. (RIP Barbelith, you are missed.)
posted by Kitteh at 11:49 AM on June 28, 2022 [11 favorites]

Also, not so impressed with the Crisis on Infinite Earths, which ushered in the age of the annual bloated “crossover” event which still plagued comics to this day.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:00 PM on June 28, 2022

GenjiandProust: "Also, not so impressed with the Crisis on Infinite Earths, which ushered in the age of the annual bloated “crossover” event which still plagued comics to this day."

While that's true in DC-land (in Marvel, Secret Wars, and in X-land, Mutant Massacre), it's still really, effin' cool.
posted by signal at 12:02 PM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

So I went ahead and cross-referenced this list against a list that provides the on-sale date for individual issues, and created this, which sorts the list chronologically.

Interestingly, "Fourth World" by Jack Kirby is the second oldest item on the list, which seems appropriate somehow; there was a lot of history before that, but I think material much older than that will be a tough proposition for modern readers. Kirby's career from "Fantastic Four" onward seems like a pretty convincing Ground Zero for modern comic books to me.

The first oldest item on the list is the famous Green Lantern/Green Arrow series from Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams, which I suspect (without much evidence, I must admit) that many more people know by reputation than by personal acquaintance.

I'm seriously thinking about making a run at reading all this. Anybody up for comic book club?
posted by Ipsifendus at 12:05 PM on June 28, 2022 [3 favorites]

Anybody up for comic book club?

I tried to start one but it didn't go anywhere. Perhaps you'll have better luck!
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:18 PM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

I didn't realize that N.K. Jemisin had written comics. For those who have read Far Sector, how is it? I enjoy her novels, but comics are a very different medium and not all authors do a great job at adjusting from one to the other.
posted by tdismukes at 12:29 PM on June 28, 2022

My thoughts:

- Ranking listicles are, as always, created primarily to argue about, and this is pure bait in that regard. Nevertheless, I really do have to wonder about the order in many respects. I sort of respect The Dark Knight Returns being downgraded way down the list; however, it's still outranking Kirby's Fourth World. Seriously?

- Kind of divided on Watchmen; on the one hand, I'd generally agree that it (and any other limited series, especially those that feature new characters or new variations/revisions/retcons of existing characters) doesn't really qualify as a "run" in that sense of someone jumping on an existing book and remaking it by sheer quality, which I'd suggest would be the point of this exercise. On the other hand, if it is included, there's no excuse for it not being #1. The idea of its being outranked by, say, anything that Geoff Johns has ever done, is flat-out ludicrous.

- If you're not going to put Watchmen at #1, put Sandman there. If not that, Moore's run of Swamp Thing. If not that, then Cooke's New Frontier.

- Basically, you can tell which creators' fans apparently populate this subreddit.

- Why is Planetary on there? The last diehard Warren Ellis fans ignoring his being outed as an utter shitbird and determined to get something of his on the list, even though WildStorm wasn't a DC imprint when it started?
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:36 PM on June 28, 2022 [6 favorites]

The first oldest item on the list is the famous Green Lantern/Green Arrow series from Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams, which I suspect (without much evidence, I must admit) that many more people know by reputation than by personal acquaintance.

Some of these are clearly riding on legacy rather than quality. I've actually read that run recently and it's...real rough. I understand its importance in mainstream US comics history, but it's not a good read. Same with Crisis on Infinite Earths: historically important, great George Pérez art, not actually very good. Then there's Long Halloween and "Hush" (the Dini Detective run): bad stories saved by fantastic art.
posted by star gentle uterus at 12:39 PM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

A good reminder to pick up the grades of Spurrier’s sadly cut too short Hellblazer run (RIP)
posted by brilliantmistake at 1:57 PM on June 28, 2022

Crisis on Infinite Earths is such an odd duck of a project, though. The whole premise of it is that Marv Wolfman (or DC editors, through Wolfman) decided that having parallel universes that occasionally interacted with the prime one was just too odd and confusing, as if a comics continuity whose main characters are an alien, a demigoddess, and a billionaire furry vigilante shouldn't, heaven forfend, be too weird or anything.

The funny thing was, it didn't really clean up continuity; kind of the opposite, really. But it was a big event book by DC's most popular writer/artist team at the time, involving nearly all of its superheroes and most of its marquee villains, something that fans had been requesting for years, and gave them an excuse to reboot some characters (Wonder Woman, Superman) and replace others (Wally West becoming Flash).
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:04 PM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

A good reminder to pick up the grades of Spurrier’s sadly cut too short Hellblazer run (RIP)

Hear, hear: Spurrier caught the essential seediness needed for a good Hellblazer story. Many lesser writers play Constantine as Dr Strange in a trench coat, and that misses the whole point of the character for me. Pete Milligan's Hellblazer run is worth reading too.

it didn't really clean up continuity;

... and even where it did, other writers immediately started gleefully messing it up again. I often wonder what Wolfman made of all his meticulous Crisis rationalisation being so casually discarded, split or reversed.
posted by Paul Slade at 2:06 PM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

I meant to write spoilt, not split.
posted by Paul Slade at 2:12 PM on June 28, 2022

it didn't really clean up continuity;

... and even where it did, other writers immediately started gleefully messing it up again

Pour one out for Donna Troy and Hawkman/Hawkwoman.
posted by SPrintF at 2:33 PM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

The best take on the Crisis multi-versioning to my mind is still the Moore Supreme run (collected as Supreme: The Story of the Year and Supreme: The Return).
posted by bonehead at 2:36 PM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

I think Watchmen is also pretty overrated; it's an important moment in comics history (for good and bad), but it's also kind of a narrative mess, and there is way too much Moore-is-being-a-little-too-clever for real greatness. In it's defense, Moore and Gibbons as a team were stronger than either individually, and it's a great example of a creative team working really well together.

Sandman is another series that is super-important for it's time, but it's extremely baggy at the beginning and goes on too long -- I'd love to see Gaiman come back and cut 20-30% of it for a much tighter, punchier story.

Some of that is unfair, because comics released as monthly issues are constrained by the page count of a regular serial. Since you need to fit your story beats into identical monthly issues, some is going to be rushed and some is going to sag.

The Dark Knight is just increasingly gross as fascism burns increasingly bright. I don't think it's a work that can be read innocently any more.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:56 PM on June 28, 2022 [3 favorites]

I'll also toss in that I read King's Mister Miracle recently while visiting a friend, and it was very well done. I didn't love the constant killing off of characters, but Scott and Barda's utterly ludicrous lives as they try to have some kind of normal relationship was very well drawn. I liked Morrison's Mr. Miracle, but King does it a bit better. I am, however, now officially tired of the "Scott Free can escape anything... EXCEPT HIS OWN MIND!!!" as a theme. It's been done, it was very good, let's get back to good-natured Kirby weirdness, ok?
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:00 PM on June 28, 2022

tdismukes: "I didn't realize that N.K. Jemisin had written comics. For those who have read Far Sector, how is it? I enjoy her novels, but comics are a very different medium and not all authors do a great job at adjusting from one to the other."

As a diehard comic fan and a fan of Jemisin's, it's amazing. It has some of the best SciFi world-building I've seen comics, and by far my favorite take on the Lanterns as a concept. Also, it has my favorite character of the past few years, an AI called Can Haz.
Go forth and read it.
posted by signal at 3:14 PM on June 28, 2022 [6 favorites]

I'd also like to call BS on the fact that they put Wolfman + Perez's New Teen Titans after JLI, JSA, some random Batman run, 52, Mister Miracle and frickin' Watchmen.
posted by signal at 3:21 PM on June 28, 2022

Superhero comics in general, and DC Comics in particular, have been waaaaay too much of a boys' club. For whatever reason, I can think of more prominent Marvel writers than DC writers i we are reaching beyond cis men.

I can think of pioneering women in other positions at DC: not only the inestimably great Karen Berger, but also longtime DC publisher and success architect Jeanette Kahn,

A lot of George Perez's redefinition of Wonder Woman was guided by Berger, but was also co-written, at first with folks like Len Wein, but later with Mindy Newell, who also did a memorable two-issue Lois Lane limited series in the mid-1980s.

It's worth bearing in mind that DC has had editors credibly accused of sexual harassment and assault, including Julius Schwartz and Eddie Berganza, and creatives with records of mistreating women, including Scott Lobdell and Warren Ellis.

Lobdell, at DC, seems to have been protected even after credible accusations came out. I don't think it's an accident that it's only been in recent years -- with many of those folks gone -- that we've seen folks like Kelly Sue DeConnick and G. Willow Wilson hop over to DC from Marvel.

My own additions to the list:

Impulse #1 through 25 by Mark Waid, Humberto Ramos, Martin Pasko, Antony Williams, et al.
Wonder Woman by Greg Rucka, Rags Morales, et al.
The Batman Adventures/Batman and Robin Adventures/Batman Adventures: The Lost Years/Batman Adventures v.2 by Ty Templeton, Dan Slott, Rick Burchett, et al.
Legion of Super-Heroes by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen
Superman Adventures by Mark Millar (yes, really!) and various artists
Shade the Changing Man by Peter Milligan, Chris Bachalo, et al.
Orion by Walter Simonson et al.
Detective Comics by Steve Engelhart, Marshall Rogers, Walter Simonson, et al.
Manhunter in Detective Comics by Archie Goodman and Walter Simonson
posted by kewb at 3:29 PM on June 28, 2022 [5 favorites]

Superhero comics in general, and DC Comics in particular, have been waaaaay too much of a boys' club. For whatever reason, I can think of more prominent Marvel writers than DC writers i we are reaching beyond cis men.

Grant Morrison identifies as non-binary and genderqueer, and they are like half the list, so not quite? On the other hand, there are hardly any cis women there, and that's a crime, although nothing unexpected from a poll of comics fans, who aren't traditionally welcoming to women.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:37 PM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

It's strange to me that Sandman sits so prominently near the top, but Carey's Lucifer doesn't rank at all.

I am biased as it's one of my favorite series, period, but I guess from another perspective, it's somewhat surprising that as many Vertigo series made the list at all.
posted by explosion at 4:03 PM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

I'd also like to call BS on the fact that they put Wolfman + Perez's New Teen Titans

That has some really not-so-awesome sexual manipulation/grooming involving 14 year-olds in it. The Perez art is really great, but the Deathstroke -Tara arc really doesn't deserve remembrance or praise.
posted by bonehead at 4:03 PM on June 28, 2022 [3 favorites]

Aw man, not a mention of Chuck Dixon's run on the Batman books during the mega crossovers of the 90s? Lame.
posted by Fukiyama at 4:03 PM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

Since no one else has, I will go to bat for Planetary. It's the best thing Ellis has ever done IMO and, like Watchmen, thinks about what being a "superhero" really means, and why it matters. It's a reflection of that, and a bit of a ripoff from that perspective, but I still think it stands well enough on its own. It's the only Ellis work I ever feel is worth a reread. It has interesting stuff to say.
posted by bonehead at 4:46 PM on June 28, 2022 [7 favorites]

Yeah, Ellis is noy a good person, but Planetary is a good comic. It's kind of like the way that Moore igive off some really hinky feelings, but Promethia is a really solid look at ritual magick, if you wanted to do that as a superhero comic.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:05 PM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

I was never much of an Ellis fan--Transmetropolitan was my first exposure and I didn't much like it then--but goddamn, I will go to bat for Planetary as the only worthwhile thing Ellis has ever done. I remember one drunken summer night where me and my husband were determined to cast the movie version of our dreams. Ellis can go do one but that the series was ace.

I haven't read any Moore comics since LoEG because everything is damned rapey. (Yes, I know that even happens in the LoEG.) I have no time nor patience for his rapey stuff in everything.
posted by Kitteh at 5:24 PM on June 28, 2022 [3 favorites]

I'm not an expert on this genre, but I can say that my buddy showed me some issues of the Alan Moore era Swamp Thing, and they were pretty awesome in terms of pure artistic genius.
posted by ovvl at 5:37 PM on June 28, 2022

Transmet is a grubby six-year-old showing a bug they found in the garden to their mom then running away giggling to look for another one. It's a cute trick once, but he keeps doing it over and over again.
posted by bonehead at 5:40 PM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

You can say the same about Moore, but, instead of a bug, it’s rape.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:46 PM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

@Kitteh My problem with Transmetropolitan was that the work seemed to me a what if Hunter Thompson's Dr. Gonzo was a comics character. Never saw the point, when I could just read Hunter Thompson for the original.
posted by oldnumberseven at 5:50 PM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

I wouldn't consider WildStorm or ABC to be DC for something about the greatest runs but if Planetary can make the list then Promethea ought to be on it as well and what about Sleeper?
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:58 PM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

These lists are products of their time, but better comics have been produced in other times.

What about:

Detective Comics Steve Engelhart/Marshall Rogers run (471-76)
Justice League Steve Engelhart run (139-150)
Detective Comics Simonson Manhunter run (437-443)
Justice League Grant Morrison run
First 20 issues or so of Grell's Warlord, when not inked by Vince Colletta.

(all issue numbers approximate)

I mean, hell, the Spider-Man issues written by Gerry Conway are pretty great too. In some ways, I think they're better than most of the "runs" at the main link.
posted by PaulVario at 6:17 PM on June 28, 2022 [3 favorites]

“Surely,” I thought, “if not in the main list then at least in the honourable mentions we will get to Moore’s run on Marvelman/Miracleman. Surely.”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:56 PM on June 28, 2022 [3 favorites]

I wouldn't consider WildStorm or ABC to be DC

For that matter, for a list of "DC Runs" there are entirely too many Vertigo titles and special limited series (most of those are already well known as mostly stand-alone graphic novels) and even big special event cross-overs. It's a lot more interesting to talk about runs where a team comes into an ongoing title and just seriously blows it up for a couple years (and to be fair, there is still a lot of that on the list).
posted by 3j0hn at 7:10 PM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

Why is Planetary on there? ... even though WildStorm wasn't a DC imprint when it started?

Wildstorm became part of DC in January 1999; Planetary started later that year.

“Surely,” I thought, “if not in the main list then at least in the honourable mentions we will get to Moore’s run on Marvelman/Miracleman. Surely.”

Moore's Miracleman was published by Quality Communications (in Warrior magazine) and Eclipse, and more recently reprinted by Marvel; it was never published by DC.
posted by Awkward Philip at 8:07 PM on June 28, 2022 [3 favorites]

not a mention of Chuck Dixon's run on the Batman books

Dixon's Robin & Nightwing work is included in the list, both of which IMO were more solid and interesting than the Detective Comics run (Which does get an honorable mention).

It's interesting that Brian Azzarello, who did a lot of stuff for DC/Vertigo back in the late '90s/early 2000s, is pretty absent other than an honorable mention for Wonder Woman. Surprising John Byrne's Superman only gets an honorable mention.

I get why Moore's ABC books may not count, but no mention of V For Vendetta? No Milligan & Fegredo's Enigma, or Moench & Jones' Batman?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:36 PM on June 28, 2022

I was going to come in here to talk about Milligan, I'm a huge fan of his and his books, even in the 90s/early 2000s didn't have the same sleazy feel that Ellis and Moore and Ennis leave you with after while. I greatly enjoy their works (despite Ellis being a shitbag, which had me very angry at the dipshit, as his work is tainted with that now), but Milligan will always be my favorite. Shade: the Changing Man has always scored huge points with me for having an episode written partially in the second person, something I don't think I've seen elsewhere in comics.

Morrison is great, but I do wish that a little less on the list was written by them so others child be featured. And I also don't understand how Carey's Lucifer run want included, that version will always be the definite version of the character for me.
posted by Hactar at 10:18 PM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

Moore's Miracleman was published by Quality Communications (in Warrior magazine) and Eclipse, and more recently reprinted by Marvel; it was never published by DC.

You are of course correct. I had forgotten about the DC-only framing, which is like a list of the funniest sitcoms on ABC only. Yeah, I guess there were a few, but there are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:05 AM on June 29, 2022

To be fair, the entire list was the project of DC Comics oriented message board. There are indeed more things in Heaven and Earth, but from what I was able to find, the other comics related subreddits hadn't undertaken a similar project, although I'd love to see it happen.
posted by Ipsifendus at 6:24 AM on June 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

While it is for all comics and not just DC, CBR does a similar "100 Best Comic Runs of All Time" voting every four years:

CBR's 2008 Top 100 Comic Book Runs
CBR's 2012 Top 100 Comic Book Runs
CBR's 2016 Top 100 Comic Book Runs
CBR's 2020 Top 100 Comic Book Runs
posted by jaybeans at 10:50 AM on June 29, 2022 [3 favorites]

That's a ridiculously dumb definition; disqualifying a long-running series because it had one writer or creative team would bump Sandman and Preacher and Fourth World.

I'd argue there's a difference between a limited series from the start designed to end in x numbers and an open ended series driven by one particular creator that makes the latter eligible over the former.

Though, in both cases, what are you comparing it against? A Batman run you can compare to other Batman creative teams, but a standalone series nobody else will ever work on, not so much.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:26 PM on June 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

It's the only Ellis work I ever feel is worth a reread.

Having just done that, I found that Planetary worked better for me in its original monthly floppies format than as a series of trades to be read in one setting. Especially the first half dozen or so issues read much better spaced apart like that, as you can see the trick too easily if you read them one after another, all very samey.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:29 PM on June 29, 2022 [2 favorites]