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 1971 and Amazing Spider-Man 1995. 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 1972
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Amazing Spider-Man 1996
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The Speech Bubble 
A great choice of covers! Detective 423 is really good, so unusual to see Batman using a gun under any circumstances. I really like covers that tease you with the story before you even read it, this one is brilliant. Amazing Spiderman 408 is a good cover as well, Spiderman’s costume really stands out against the snow. Its a very simple image, but striking, and very effective.
Straight and to the point! Glad we are in agreement. 🙂
The 1972 covers of Detective Comics show all the possible gimmicks to raise the sales: the “superhero in jail” cliché in issue # 421 (I remember Arousing Grammar wrote a wonderful post about it), secret identity revealed (issues # 422 and # 430), a fake suicide (issue # 426)…
Of course the Batman cover you chose is by far the best one, but once again the presence of Man Bat gives the cover he appears in a wonderful horror touch, so I make a special mention for issue # 429.
As for Spidey, you know how fond I am of Carnage, so of course I pick ASM # 410. : )
“Of course the Batman cover you chose is by far the best one, but once again the presence of Man Bat gives the cover he appears in a wonderful horror touch, so I make a special mention for issue # 429.”
Those Man-Bat covers really grab your attention. Are you a big fan of the character or do you just like the horror vibe that these covers present?
“As for Spidey, you know how fond I am of Carnage, so of course I pick ASM # 410.”
I never would have guessed… 🙂
“Are you a big fan of the character or do you just like the horror vibe that these covers present?” I don’t particularly like Man Bat, but I recognize that his presence really grabs your attention when you put him in a Batman cover. Thank you for your replies! : )
Thanks for clarifying. 🙂
P.S.: Once again we have a very effective use of the digital coloring in ASM # 418. I also love the round Spidey logo and the unique way Skroce used to draw Spidey.
Also, the smashed background is sooo typical of 90s comics… I love it as well. : )
My Spidey runner-up would have to be #417. Spooky and menacing at the same time!