Best of Lists

The Suicide Squad! One of the most obnoxiously brilliant ideas in comics, supervillains forced to do heroic missions under threat of death, is a beloved classic within the DC Universe. Well. Sort of. While the original run in the 1980s, courtesy of John Ostrander and many artistic partners, is considered one of the all-time greats of superhero comics, the team’s track record outside of Ostrander’s care is…hit or miss. With James Gunn’s revamped The Suicide Squad on the way next year, it seems like the perfect time to point out the most remarkable stories in the team’s history for you to check out ahead of the movie. At the very least, they won’t be as bad as that first flick. [Read more…] about The Greatest Suicide Squad Stories of All Time!

Kieron Gillen’s a really good writer. I don’t feel like that’s a particularly brave or controversial statement. From his early days creating Phonogram with Jamie McKelvie to his current status as one of comics’ most reliably fantastic Big Names about to relaunch The Eternals, the Brit has carved out a truly impressive career in the past 15 or so years. Which made this piece an exciting challenge.

Full disclosure: I usually have to cut my way through a lot of chaff to get to stories I consider worth being The Best Ever. This time, though, it has been the opposite, struggling to find what wonderful tales I have to cut. So, please enjoy the Best Kieron Gillen Stories of All Time (so far), because boy was this tricky. [Read more…] about The Best Kieron Gillen Stories of All Time!

The inclination with a best of Stilt-Man list is to compile literally every single appearance of the Most High villain in Marvel’s pantheon, and assume that they are all equally perfect, for they are equally raised to the heavens. This is a proper response, but I will concede some curation can help us lift up the Stilted One’s most glorious appearances throughout Marvel Comics history, and help us understand what it means to walk a little closer to the sun.

You might think Marvel’s Stilt-Man is basically like DC’s Condiment King or Kite Man, goofy outdated villain gimmicks that play pure comedy in stories now, but Stilt-Man honestly blows them out of the air with quality comics appearances. Yes, there’s an absurdity to the villain’s gimmick, amazingly antiquated even during his first appearance in the Silver Age, and that inherent breathtaking lunacy is simply delightful. Honestly, in many ways Stilt-Man is the perfect examples of what makes comics so joyous, the childlike escape into a world where scorned inventors can stalk the city skylines with really really long legs and commit sky crimes on helicopters. Stilt-Man is action figure rules brought to story.

So no, it’s unlikely that Stilt-Man will ever enter the realm of Marvel’s A-list supervillains (obviously he’s literally above such lists), but he will always have a special place in the publisher’s history as one of the most memorable concepts, up there with Batroc the Leaper, Big Wheel and Paste Pot Pete for the all time great.

Raised Be! ||

[Read more…] about The Best Stilt-Man Comics Of All Time!