First things first, no post tomorrow. I'm taking the day off to watch the Super Bowl with family while eating enchiladas. OK, in all likelihood the Super Bowl won't be competitive, so I'll be watching some movie with family and eating enchiladas. Same diff.
I think today's post is going to be a two-pronged question, just like a male opossum's equipment (I'm serious about that, look it up, it's forked). Part one, what are some creative teams on books that you feel get overlooked? In your opinion they had a good run, but it tends to get lost compared to what came directly before, or perhaps what came after? The two I thought of, and again, this is just my opinion that these were good runs that got lost in the shuffle, were the DeFalco/Frenz Thor run, coming as it did on the heels of Simonson's totally awesome run, and Ann Nocenti's work on Daredevil, which had the difficult task of following Miller's Born Again work. I don't think either was at the same level as their predecessor, but they may not get the love they actually merit. Obviously, your mileage on those may differ. But I was wondering if you had any runs you think qualify, say Marv Wolfman on Amazing Spider-Man, or maybe Engelhart on Fantastic Four (I don't know, I'm just throwing out people I know have worked on titles that are typically associated with other writers/artists).
The other part of the post came to me as I was trying to think of an equivalent example from DC. As you might guess, I failed. Part of that is I don't know that much about DC creative teams, but I wondered if part of it was DC's tendency to reboot things from time to time. See, I figured for a run on a title to get overshadowed, there has to be a run that's considered the definitive work with the character/team to do the overshadowing. But if your universes get rebooted every so often, that causes certain works to get tossed out, as there no longer in continuity, so it's harder to determine what would be the "definitive" work, even more so than usually with a serial character. Or I may be talking out of my ass. It happens sometimes, the doctor's say medication will help, but the side effects, forget about it.
So that was the other part of the post, what are some definitive runs for DC books. I figure Alan Moore holds that title with Swamp Thing, and I guessing Grant Morrison has it with the Animal Man, but what about Batman and Detective Comics? Is it Denny O'Neil, or is it Frank Miller's various works, or Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle (or are they the overshadowed?) What about Superman? I recognize answers will depend on personal preference, I'm just curious to see if people feel there's a definitive Superman pre-Crisis on the Infinite Earths, and then a different one after. Do certain characters have important runs that are kept apart by Zero Hour? And if you want to discuss defining runs on Marvel books, or Image, or something else, that'd be cool too. I'll see ya on Monday.
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For definitive DC, post-Crisis is a bit easier than pre- because practically everyone except Batman had to be re-defined, so "definitive" is within memory. The Giffen/DeMatteis JLA/I/E (IMO a separate property from the "Big Guns" JLA), Wolfman/Perez's NEW TEEN TITANS, Ostrander's SUICIDE SQUAD, and Perez's WONDER WOMAN are the big post-Crisis runs, with Moore's SWAMP THING and Morrison's ANIMAL MAN and DOOM PATROL less important to the DC Universe but huge to comicdom.
But IMO, the era comparable to the Claremont/Byrne/Simonson/Miller/Stern Era at Marvel is post-Zero Hour. Robinson's STARMAN and GOLDEN AGE, Wagner's SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE, and Robinson/Goyer/Johns's JSA all combine to give a definitive view of the Justice Society (though continuity is a bit...iffy in places). Morrison's JLA is definitive for the "Big Gun"-type Justice League. Chuck Dixon's ROBIN and NIGHTWING still overshadow the characters today. Waid's IMPULSE, Kesel's SUPERBOY, and David's YOUNG JUSTICE (along with Dixon's ROBIN) define the current Teen Titans. Ostrander had a pair with SPECTRE and MARTIAN MANHUNTER. Marz's GREEN LANTERN defined Kyle Rayner (though not GLs in general). And Morrison's DC ONE MILLION is the definitive non-Crisis crossover.
As for modern definitives, it's pretty much Johns' GREEN LANTERN and Simone's BIRDS OF PREY.
However, there's one title that has itself remained definitive no matter which era it's in or who's writing it: FLASH. From Baron to Messner-Loebs to Waid to Morrison/Millar to Johns, it never ceased being a title that gave readers the best Wally West possible.
Oddly enough, I think the only major characters that haven't had definitive runs post-Crisis are Superman and Batman. Byrne and Miller certainly gave it their all, but the phenomema of the World's Finest duo will overcome any runs that try to define them. Miller HAS redefined Batman as an icon (with help from Burton, Nolan, and Timm), but there's no specific "run" that enscapulates that. As for Superman, the definitive run is probably Christopher Reeve on-screen.
Overlooked Marvel tommorrow...
Oh, I forgot about Peter David's SUPERGIRL and AQUAMAN, which isn't surprising: DC itself has forgotten about David's SUPERGIRL, and his AQUAMAN is only definitive because people bothered to read AQUAMAN.
Definitve and overlooked runs at DC are hard to come by because for years the company was led more by editors than creative teams. Thus, you have the Mort Weisinger Superman vs. The Julius Schwartz era rather than competition between individual creators.
Still, and I am showing my age here, I still consider Broome & Kane the definitive Green Lantern team and Gardner Fox & Mike Sekowski the definitive JLA team no matter what continuity DC is peddling these days.
Similarly, I'd say Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson, Steve Englehart & Marshall Rogers and Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams are the definitive Batman teams - Frank Miller be damned.
Overlooked creative teams would include Grant & Breyfogle's Batman - who should get a LOT more credit in my book - and Bob Haney & Nick Cardy on Teen Titans, a title that was a lot more fun before Marv Wolfman & George Perez got their hands on it.
Oh yeah, another overlooked DC team ... Martin Pasko & Walt Simonson on the Metal Men!!!!
As for Marvel, I'll always vote for Joe Casey & Ladronn's forgotten run on Cable (a Kosmic Kirby dry-run for Gødland) and Karl Kesel & Cary Nord on Daredevil (they were run out of town because the team dared to give Matt Murdock a sense of humor.)
I can't speak too much on DC myself. But a Marvel run that I thought gets overlooked is Warren Ellis's Excalibur run. Really reinvigorated the series and introduced some characters and concepts that were very fun. Mind you Excalibur as a whole gets overlooked, but the Ellis run is overshadowed by Claremont and Davis's runs and then also by the AoA/Onslaught stories that happened concurrently with Ellis's runs.
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