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Fantastic four Visionaries

by Wayne Markley

It is relatively well understood that I am not a huge fan of all the dark as well as unfavorable books marvel as well as DC have been doing the last few years. With villains taking over whatever in marvel as well as the dead running the DC world in Blackest Night, I long for the old days of fun comic book stories where you were drawn along for a fantastic story, be it a single problem or a multi-issue story. No, I am not speaking about the traditional Lee/Kirby days of marvel or the Julie Schwartz/Mort Weisinger days at DC. I am speaking about the late 80s/early 90s at Marvel. For your reading pleasure, marvel has a series of trade paperbacks reprinting total (or in the process of completing) works by a few of their finest creators who obviously liked the characters as well as liked what they were doing. These three sets of books are the great four Visionaries: John Byrne, Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson, as well as Hulk Visionaries: Peter David.

John Byrne worked on the great four for over 60 consecutive problems in the 1980s, #232-293. all of them have been collected into eight gorgeous volumes. From reading these volumes, you can see Byrne’s like for the characters as well as his appreciation of the work Stan Lee as well as Jack Kirby had done 20 years earlier. He brings back characters such as El Diablo, as well as he really utilizes traditional villains such as physician Doom to their fullest potential, not just some villain to fill a story arc so they can gather it into a hardcover collection. He likewise played with membership of the team adding as well as eliminating characters as the stories dictated. These are the very best great four stories since Lee as well as Kirby’s heyday from problems 48-98.

Thor Visionaries

Like Byrne’s run on the great Four, Walt Simonson had a long run on Thor as both writer/artist as well as later as writer with Sal Buscema as artist. He started with Thor #337 as well as stayed on the book till #382, except for #356 which was a fill-in issue. He as well as Sal Buscema likewise teamed up on a four-issue Balder the take on miniseries. right here again, as you checked out these stories you can see a creator who likes what he is working with, introducing such legendary characters as Beta Ray expense as well as the Thor Frog. Also, just like Byrne’s great Four, marvel has collected the entire run of Simonson on Thor in five gorgeous trade collections. As an aside, if you are a fan of Simonson’s work – as well as who isn’t – be sure to inspect out our own Roger Ash’s contemporary Masters: Walter Simonson for one of the most insightful books on a creator ever written, with a load on background on Thor in addition to an overview of Simonson’s career as well as great deals of seldom seen art.

Hulk Visionaries

The third Visionaries I want to discuss is Peter David’s Hulk. So far there have been seven volumes of these great stories collecting David’s long run on the fantastic eco-friendly Monster (and at times gray Monster). David composed incredible Hulk from problem #331-467 – whopping 137 issues. In right here you get a mix of fantastic storytelling; great art from Todd McFarlane, Dale Keown, as well as many others; as well as a few of the very best comics of the 1980 or any type of other time. Peter David takes the Hulk from a mindless brute to a Las vegas enforcer for the mob (where he is Gray), to a combination of personalities, as well as lastly ending with a wise Hulk. In addition to the fantastic art as well as stories, there are non-stop in-jokes about the marvel world as the world the Hulk lives in. I cannot suggest this set of books extremely enough. I am personally looking ahead to the rest of the volumes to total Peter David’s outstanding run.

These are approximately 20 graphic novels of a few of the very best comics that were performed in a 20 year period. I strong motivate anyone to try any type of of these books if you are looking for strong storytelling as well as fantastic art. These books will take you back to a time when reading marvel Comics was fun. The comics showed the like the creators had for the characters. As always, all thoughts in this column are mine as well as in no method show Westfield Comics. any type of comments, thoughts, complaints, or other stuff can be sent to MFBWAY@AOL.COM.

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