In Retroactive I’ll take you on a visual comic cover tour of the past covering all the covers for a particular series. Each entry will cover an entire year and I’ll always have one comic from DC and one comic from Marvel. At the end of each edition of Retroactive I’ll select my overall favourite cover for that year for each series. Last time on Retroactive we covered Detective Comics 1957 and Amazing Spider-Man 1981. If you need a refresher, just click HERE. Below you’ll find the two series that I’m currently covering. Click on that specific logo to be instantly taken directly to that series. The last section is reserved for my Top Picks from each year. Click the logo or travel to the third page to view them.
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Detective Comics 1958
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Amazing Spider-Man 1982
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The Speech Bubble 
1958 can be easily defined as Batman’s worst year ever. Choosing a cover from this year is like choosing the winner of a pageant when all the girls are ugly, fat, spotty, stinky, uncombed, unpleasant or all these things combined.
I pick Detective Comics # 251, simply because it’s the only one which is so bad it’s good. There are so many things that don’t make sense in this cover, that you tend to laugh instead of feeling peeved.
First nonsense: a spaceship lands in Gotham, and there’s only ONE person in the WHOLE city who notices it. Also, that person is a journalist! What a coincidence!
Second nonsense: She starts shooting pics at the aliens, and BOTH of them don’t notice her.
Third nonsense: If an alien decided to provoke a DC superhero, why should the alien pick Batman? He’s just a vigilante who fights crime in his own city, why should an alien care about him? It would make much more sense if the alien chose to fight a much more powerful superhero, like Superman.
As for Spidey, you know how fond I am of the story arc developed in ASM # 226 – 227, so I completely agree with the cover you chose.
Today I got a large bunch of comic books: the second issues of Lemire’s Green Arrow and Nocenti’s Katana, the first TP of Hawkeye, the last issue of Snyder’s run on Swamp Thing… I can’t wait to read them! Happy Easter! : )
“1958 can be easily defined as Batman’s worst year ever. Choosing a cover from this year is like choosing the winner of a pageant when all the girls are ugly, fat, spotty, stinky, uncombed, unpleasant or all these things combined.”
My thoughts exactly and I love how you put it. Hopefully this isn’t a trend in the years to come. It took me quite a while to pick one.
1958 – The Year Detective Comics throws logic out the window. It’s a wonder this didn’t kill the character’s popularity…
“As for Spidey, you know how fond I am of the story arc developed in ASM # 226 – 227, so I completely agree with the cover you chose.”
I knew 100% you’d pick either #226 or #227 as this was foreshadowed months ago. I just didn’t know which of the two you would choose as #1! 🙂
Update: I just read:
Green Arrow # 18
Swamp Thing # 18
Katana # 2
Batman: Arkham Unhinged # 12
Legends of the Dark Knight # 6
All of them were pure awesomeness, except for Legends of the Dark Knight # 6. The 1st story of that issue had a nice atmosphere but a flimsy plot, the 2nd one was simply incomprehensible and the 3rd one was enjoyable, but not as good as an average DC comic is. Anyway, today DC brought me a lot of wonderful reads, and I’m very thankful for that.
Legends of the Dark Knight #6 was the first issue that left me disappointed from this young series. Hopefully it rebounds with the next one.
I’m happy that you’re enjoying something Nocenti is writing. What about it grabs you?
Also…Happy Easter as well!
“What about it grabs you?” First of all, it’s set in Japan, and anything related to the Japanese world instantly catches my attention.
Secondly, Nocenti is writing it in a very subtle way. To make you understand what I’m saying, I’ll tell you what went on in the first 2 issues.
There is a gang (probably related to an oriental cult) which goes after Katana and fights her (probably to rob her sword). Katana becomes friend with a member of that gang, and persuades him to become her mole.
He brings her to a meeting of the whole gang, and you tell yourself: “Now Katana will pretend to be his girlfriend, and listen to what they’re saying in order to get as many informations as possible.” Miss Nocenti decided to follow a less expected path: during that meeting, Katana immediately shows her identity, and this leads to an action packed scene.
At the end of that scene, Katana is the winner, of course, and you tell yourself “Now the leader of the gang will say something like “I’ll take my revenge”.” For the second time, miss Nocenti chooses to go in a less expected direction: the leader asks Katana to join the gang! And, even more surprisingly, she says yes, because, as she says in a thought bubble, “I will consider getting close to my enemy, but only to kill him.” FANTASTIC!!! Until now, this is a 5 stars series.
Also, I just finished to read the 1st TP of Hawkeye. It has all the things I love most in comics: urban setting, dark atmosphere, street level and non super-powered leading character, action packed scenes, clever plot, great stage tricks… another 5 stars series, that’s for sure.
Thank you for your reply! : )
Nocenti actually turning things around? Going with the unexpected? Subtle? What is going on? 🙂 You speak so passionately about it I might have to give it a second chance when the TPB hits. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
As for Hawkeye…yes it is awesome. Pure awesomeness! Awesomeness personified!
“I might have to give it a second chance when the TPB hits.” I do suggest you to buy that TPB. And, talking about trades, I can’t wait to get the 2nd volume of Blue Beetle… only 2 months, and I’ll finally know how that marvellous series ended.
Also, these are the comic books I read in March 2013 (as usual, listed from the 1st one I read to the last one):
Green Arrow # 17
Katana # 1
Young Romance (except Aquaman’s story)
Nightwing # 17
Diabolik # 621
New Mutants # 98
Green Arrow # 18
Swamp Thing # 18
Katana # 2
Batman: Arkham Unhinged # 12
Legends of the Dark Knight # 6
Hawkeye Vol. 1: My Life as a Weapon TPB
Before Watchmen: Dollar Bill # 1
Nightwing # 18
Of course the 1st trade of Hawkeye is by far the gem of the month, but March has been full of other outstanding reads.
Some of them almost made me whine: for example, Swamp Thing # 18 (because of Snyder leaving the title with this issue) and Nightwing # 18 (because of Dick Grayson bereft of Damian… an incredibly deep and heart-breaking issue). Thank you for your reply! : )
What did you have against Aquaman? 🙂
Also, will you stay on Swamp Thing or give the first issue a shot and decide from there?
“What did you have against Aquaman?” You know that I love street level superheroes, living in an urban setting. This means that Aquaman couldn’t be more distant from my ideal comic book. Even the enthusiast reviews I routinely read about Johns’ version of the character are not enough to make me give it a try. Anyway, I think I’ll read the Aquaman story collected in Young Valentine sooner or later.
“Also, will you stay on Swamp Thing or give the first issue a shot and decide from there?” I ordered Swamp Thing # 19 (the first issue written by Soule), but I didn’t order issues # 20 and # 21, because I decided to wait for the italian edition.
I’m afraid that most readers removed Swampy from their pull list the second they knew that Snyder would have left the title with the 18th issue. It’s like when Frank Miller left Daredevil (he was replaced with Ann Nocenti, by the way): at those times Miller was simply the best comic book writer of the world, so, no matter which writer would have replaced him, readers knew that it would never have been the same thing. Anyway, all good things must come to an end.
Dollar Bill was another comic book I thoroughly enjoyed. A simple story told by a 1st person narrator, a nice looking classic art, a wonderful atmosphere… definitely a worthy one shot. Thank you for your reply! : )
Speaking of Frank Miller…I just watched The Spirit on the weekend (he wrote and directed it). Have you ever seen it before?
Yes, and honestly I didn’t find it particularly good. Unfortunately Miller made it when he was already declining. If you want to watch a good movie made by Frank Miller, I do suggest you to try (or to watch again) “Sin City”. Thank you for your reply! : )
So of the visual moments were good but I really felt they needed someone watching over Miller and telling him “No. Don’t do this thing and don’t do this” in the story department. Sin City was a perfect example as he collaborated with Robert Rodriguez. Shame we’ll never get another Spirit movie for a pretty long time, if ever…
P.S.: “Katana immediately shows her identity” I meant to say “Katana immediately reveals her identity.”