Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!

GOOD
BETTER
BEST
business

... or: "HOW 32 BECAME FREAKIN' 50"; and "DON'T PUSH UNCA, YOU LOT. UNCA'S HANDS ARE LETHAL WEAPONS"
(PAGE TWO)

You people...

... YOU people made the Marvel fans look shy and retiring, by way of comparison, re: this whole fershlugginer "Best Of..." business.

First off: Unca Cheeks' gentle reminder that no further Superman or Flash nominations would be entertained -- due to the fact that these two worthies are already enjoying attentions aplenty, via their respective lengthy and ongoing entries -- was more rudely ignored than Barry Manilow at a Korn concert.

Bad, bad peoples.

Secondly (and this, mind, from a bunch of self-confessed DC exeprts): there seems to be no little end of confusion, re: what the simple, straightforward phrase "No Entries Post-CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS" means.

Lookit: let Unca make this one as easy-peasey as possible for the lot of you, awright...?

The twelfth and final issue of CRISIS bore a cover date of March, 1986.

That's the four-color Maginot Line, so far as THIS site is concerned, people.

It's not debatable.

It's not open to discussion.

It's what makes this site different from practically every other comics-

related site on the 'net, f'chrissakes.

Buy. A. Frickin'. CLUE. Already.

Now... let's get busy, shall we?

1.) SUPERMAN #156 ("The Last Days of Superman")

Selected because: ... it's the one essential SUPERMAN story which Unca -- foolishly, he readily grants you -- plain ol' forgot to include in the 13 All-Time Coolest SUPERMAN Stories Ever listing, is all.

"Even Homer nods," they tell me.

2.) MYSTERY IN SPACE #90 ("Planets In Peril"; Adam Strange and Hawkman x-over)

Selected because: ... you @#$%ing Adam Strange fans are just bloody, gibbering maniacs, is all.

Seriously, though: Unca has no inherent problems whatsoever in giving this one The Big Okey-Dokey. It's a magnificent story, and you're all gonna love it a lot.

That being said, however:

If Adam Strange really and truly was so blankety-blank "essential" and "pivotal" a character as so many of you kept yammering he is/was...

... hell: he'd be bigger than the bloody X-MEN right about now, f'chrissakes.

So. There.

3.) SHOWCASE #55 (1st Silver Age team-up of Hourman and Doctor Fate)

Selected because: ... it's the first super-hero comic book Unca Cheeks ever ever ever read.

It is -- in a very real, palpable sense -- responsible for Unca being here, typing these words right NOW.

It. Stays.

4.) DETECTIVE COMICS #339 ("Batman Battles the Living Beast-Bomb")

Selected because: ... this is Unca's reward to himself, for having to put up with all of that post-CRISIS crapola, these past two weeks.

Personal Favorite, in other words.

5.) JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #37 - 38 ("Earth... Without a Justice League!")
Selected because: ... it's the single greatest JLA/JSA crossover ever written.

I repeat: E-V-E-R.

6.) GREEN LANTERN #40 ("The Secret Origin of the Guardians")

Selected because: ... it's only like, maybe, THE Silver Age Green Lantern story, is all.

7.) ATOM #22 ("Bat-Knights of Darkness")

Selected because: ... if there's a story which better exemplifies the peculiar charm(s) of the Silver Age ATOM comic: I've certainly never seen it.

8.) DETECTIVE #347 ("The Strange Death of Batman")

Selected because: ... this is the comic which first transformed a whey-faced and innocent Unca Cheeks into a life-long, die-hard "Bat" devotee and fanatic.

9.) JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #42 ("Metamorpho Says NO!")

Selected because: ... the single most frequently requested addition to the DC list. In a walk.

10.) ADVENTURE #342 ("The Legionnaire Who Killed")
Selected because: ... see description for #9, above...

... except: susbtitute LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES for BATMAN.

11.) DOOM PATROL #100 -105 (classic "Robotman-iac" back-up feature; the early days of Cliff Steele)

Selected because: Personal Favorite #2.

This was (if aged and addled mem'ry still serves) the first comics story to make a young Unca Cheeks conscious of the fact that some writers are just naturally a little bit --

... well: just a little bit better than other writers.

My God, but this is one mean mutha of a story -- !

12.) CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN #48/DOOM PATROL #102 (1st Doom Patrol/Challengers x-over)
Selected because: ... as Br'er J. K. Carrier so aptly put it: " [...] no single story more ably demonstrates the sheer, unrelentingly goofy charm of DC's Silver Age."

13.) JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #46 and 47 ("Crisis Between Earth-One and Earth-Two")

Selected because: ... it has the first Silver Age appearance of the "Wesley Dodds" Sandman. That's one.

It has the eerie and alien Anti-Matter Man (who creeped me right the hell out, back in the pre-adolescent day, quite frankly). That's two.

... and: just wait until you all see what the Earth-One Atom does to the Spectre, py yimminy -- !

14.) ADVENTURE #352 & 353 (1st Fatal 5 appearance; death of Ferro Lad)
Selected because: ... you simply can't legitimately DO any serious sort of "Best of DC" list without including this one.

15.) ATOM #31 (classic Atom/Hawkman x-over; see cover reproduction, at top of page)

Personal Favorite #3.

Plus: it's a better damned Hawkman story than anything that ever saw print within the pages of HAWKMAN.

16.) CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN #56 - 60 (The Death of "Red" Ryan)

Selected because: ... with all due apologies and respect to Jack "King" Kirby: the greatest single CHALLENGERS epic ever written.

17.) TEEN TITANS #14 ("Requiem For a Titan")

Selected because: ... another massive, nigh-overwhelming write-in nominee, as per you folks out there.

Done.

18.) SECRET SIX #1 (1st appearance of team)

Selected because: ... it's stone brilliant; and nicely typifies the marvelously madcap approach (then-)new DC editor Dick Giordano brought to the books within his own highly idiosyncratic stable of titles.

19.) SPECTRE #4 ("Stop That Kid... Before He Wrecks the World!")
Selected because: ... Neal Adams' writing -- on this one title, right here -- was very nearly a match for his (justly) fabled artwork.

20.) CREEPER #1 ("Where Lurks the Menace?")
Selected because: ... virtually a textbook example of How To Do a Comic Book Right.

21.) GREEN LANTERN #61 (Alan Scott destroys all "evil" on the face of the planet. Nice plan in theory; buuuuuuut -- )

Selected because: ... still smarter and classier, story-wise, than nine-tenths of the stuff being churned out today.

22.) AQUAMAN #40 - 48 ( The "Quest For Mera" arc)

Selected because: ... you guys. Again.

23.) CAPTAIN ACTION #1 & 2 (classic Kane/Wood/Shooter origin)

Selected because: ... Big, BIG Personal Favorite. (... and that makes Number Four, incidentally).

24.) ADVENTURE #375 & 376 ("The King of the Legion")

Selected because: ... it's the all-time, hands down weirdest LEGION story ever written.

25.) SHOWCASE #79 (1st Dolphin appearance)

Selected because: ... it is a thing of beauty; and a joy forever.

26.) BRAVE AND BOLD #79 & 86; STRANGE ADVENTURES #215 & 216 (the wrap-up to the epic Deadman saga)

Selected because: ... it's as good as mainstream adventure comics get.

Really and truly.

27.) TEEN TITANS #19 ("Stepping Stones For a Giant-Killer")

Selected because: ... all-time coolest Silver Age TITANS tale.

28.) BAT LASH #3 (classic issue)

Selected because: ... coulda tapped any issue of this series, in all honesty.

Unca just happens to like this one bestest this week, is all.

29.) THE HAWK AND THE DOVE #5 (The Dove goes BERSERK -- !)

Selected because: ... one of the undisputed DC masterworks of the era.

30.) GREEN LANTERN #70 ("A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To Earth...")

Selected because: ... Personal Favorite #5.

Pretty much the last great Broome/Kane hurrah, GL-wise.

Trust Unca, on this one.

31.) BRAVE AND BOLD #93 (Batman/House of Mystery x-over)

Selected because: ... it's the one truly essential B&B Batman team-up.

32.) BATMAN #232, #242 - 244 (1st Ra's al Ghul story arc)

Selected because: ... the introductory flourish of one of the half-dozen greatest DC super-villains ever.

In a BATMAN series written by Dennis O'Neil.

AND penciled by Neal Adams.

Untouchable.

33.) NEW GODS #7/MISTER MIRACLE #9 ("The Pact"/"Himon")

Selected because: ... Unca wouldn't even attempt a list of this sort if he (for whatever reason) wasn't able to include these two comics.

34.) NEW GODS #8 ("The Death Wish of Terrible Turpin")

Selected because: ... or THIS one, for that matter.

35.) GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW #85 & 86 (the "Speedy the Boy Junkie" arc)

Selected because: ... you all wrote in screaming for this one.

Hey: I can live with that.

36.) BRAVE AND BOLD #100 (Batman/Green Lantern/Green Arrow/Black Canary/Robin x-over)

Selected because: ... the second greatest B&B Batman team-up ever written.

37.) JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #100 - 102 (classic 7 Soldiers of Victory arc)
Selected because: ... another one of the DC "essentials"; plain and simple.

38.) GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW #89 (final O'Neil/Adams issue)

Selected because: ... it kicks butt so blamed hard: the WWF awarded it a big, gaudy, rhinestone-encrusted belt.

39.) DETECTIVE #439 ("Night of the Stalker"; all-time greatest Batman tale)

Selected because: ... it's the comic that stole the belt away from GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW #8.

40.) SWAMP THING #5 ("The Last of the Ravenwind Witches"; classic Wein/Wrightson tale)

Selected because: ... like BAT LASH, earlier: coulda gone with any of the issues knocked out by these two fellahs, really.

Just a wee, slight preference for this'un, is all.

41.) DETECTIVE #437 - 443 (Manhunter story arc)

Selected because: ... you guys all wwrote in and told Unca that simply going with the final installment ("Gotterdammerung") wouldn't be good enough.

42.) SWORD OF SORCERY #1 (classic Fafhrd and Grey Mouser tale)

Selected because: ... Unca Cheeks has -- right here; right NOW -- made it his personal mission in life to ram this one down the protesting gullets of every single last one of you who wrote in with a querulous: "... who -- ?!?"

43.) THE JOKER #7 ("Luthor... You're Driving Me Sane!")

Absolutely, positively the most falling down hysterically funny JOKER story ever told.

44.) JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #145 ("The Carnival of Souls"; incredible Englehart-era JLA opus)

Selected because: ... the description pretty much says it all, right there.

45.) DC SPECIAL #29 ("The Untold Origin of the Justice Society")

Selected because: ... it's an adrenaline cocktail of a comic book; laced with nitro bitters.

You'll all be blessing me, later on.

46.) BLACK LIGHTNING #4 & 5 (Black Lightning/Superman x-over)

We'll be discussing the planned "Million Fan March" upon the DC Comics offices, re: the monthly reuniting of Tony Isabella and BLACK LIGHTNING, immediately after the show.

BYOTAP. (Bring Your Own Torches And Pitchforks.

47.) JONAH HEX SPECTACULAR #1 ("The Last Bounty Hunter")

So unbelievably wrong, in every moral particular: it does a 360, and ends up being RIGHT.

Sort of like those every-other-year THE WHO "farewell reunion tours," really.

48.) DETECTIVE COMICS #475 & 476 ("The Laughing Fish")

Essential, essential, essential.

49.) DETECTIVE COMICS #500 ("To Kill a Legend")

Damn, but you lot were all bloody insistent upon this one.

Works for me.

50.) 'MAZING MAN #1 (1st appearance)

No less august a personage than our own "Per'fesser" Quentin Long put in an impassioned, heartfelt plea for this one.

Right smart fellah, that "Per'fesser," huh...?

"Good/Better/Best": (PAGE ONE)

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