Taking a look back at ten, twenty-five, and fifty years of December comicbook anniversaries!
2003:
– Jean Grey is dead. Again! Grant Morrison’s New X-Men #150 features a battle against an amped up Magneto (but not really), the death of Jean Grey (more or less), and the always welcomed artwork of Phil Jimenez. After this there are only four more issues in the Morrison run and it’s interesting to see which elements of his era were kept, changed, ignored, brought back later, etc. For my own personal X-Men reading, and not counting the young Jean from All-New X-Men, Jean Grey has yet to return from this story. Ten years. At this point I wonder when, if ever, we’ll see her return.
– The Watchmen for super-villains? Ennnhh… not really. The first issue of Wanted and the Millarworld hit ten years ago. I didn’t read it as it was being released, but when I did, I found it to be a decent read but nothing overly special. It would be interesting to do a reread to see where my thoughts are now – although many of Millar’s works since have not scored high with me.
– X-23 comes to comics! After first appearing on the X-Men: Evolution animated show, the Wolverine clone has her first comic appearance in NYX #3.
OTHER: Michael Chabon Presents the Amazing Adventures of the Escapist #1; Plastic Man #1 by Kyle Baker; Rose and Thorn #1 by Gail Simone; Ultimate Fantastic Four #1.
1988:
– Manga! Dark Horse releases Outlanders #1, one of a handful of manga books I remember seeing on the shelves back in the 80s. I would flip through issues but I never picked them up.
– Maze Agency! The first issue by Mike W. Barr and Adam Hughes hits.
– Bwa-ha-ha! First we got Justice League. Then came Justice League International. And with the release of Justice League International #24, we get the first appearance of Justice League Europe!
1963:
– From Superman 167! The first ever team-up of Lex Luthor and Brainiac!
OTHER: First appearance of Dream Girl in Adventure Comics #317; first appearance of Frederick Foswell and the Enforcers in Amazing Spider-Man #10.
Poor Justice League. That was by far my FAVORITE book in the late 80s and I think the spinoff Justice League Europe really did a lot to erode the main title. Too bad. I miss that league!
Brand expansion (and messing around with changing titles) certainly helped to bring about the wrap-up of the bwa-ha-ha era of the JLA. I found Europe super enjoyable – and a nice companion to JLI (the language school issue is hysterical). Eventually the Breakdowns story ended it all though. But it was a good run and would give us Morrison’s JLA. Which is a plus in my book. 🙂