Best Classic Image Series?

RJMooreII · Post by **RJMooreII** » Sun Oct 03, 2010 10:53 pm

What's your vote for the best classic Image (I.E., Imageverse) comic series?

My vote was for Savage Dragon, since I feel it had the best plotting. I was never a huge fan of Larsen's art, but at least his exaggerated physiology is intentional.

I liked Spawn for the first 40 issues or so, but it felt like it was really floundering after that. I haven't read it in a long time.

Though I think Gen 13 had the best art, but half of the team was really annoying and it felt like the story went nowhere.

WildC.A.T.s also had some pretty fantastic artwork but I really didn't care for the characters except for Jacob Marlowe and (later on) Mr. Majestic. I am a big fan of Mr. Majestic's solo series', though.

Reading Youngblood is a guilty pleasure of mine. Maybe it's because I like laughing at Liefeld's inability to draw, or because the fact that all the characters are so unlikable it's almost a style in itself (it's like an entire team of Punisher MAX characters...) Despite its utter plotlessness, the book does include a lot of things I would like to see in team books: the desire of the characters to get rich, and their total willingness to kill when provoked. I thought Diehard looked pretty cool.

Of the 'other' category, I liked Supreme when Alan Moore did it, but Liefeld's Supreme was pretty plotless. I never read any Super Patriot, he just looked too goofy.

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Sun Oct 03, 2010 10:58 pm

Early Spawn was pretty good, what with Cerebus making an appearance and the creation of Angela. That gets my vote.

-slym

xodacia81 · Post by **xodacia81** » Sun Oct 03, 2010 11:00 pm

slym2none wrote:Early Spawn was pretty good, what with Cerebus making an appearance and the creation of Angela. That gets my vote.

-slym

Ditto, just because of what it was at the time.

captain1stern · Post by **captain1stern** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 1:14 am

I'm a big Savage Dragon fan. I still like this series. It's best run was issues 1-75, but it's still fun at this point. I'm hoping the Savage Dragon is going to get killed off soon, for good this time, so that his son Malcom can take over. That's the direction I would go with it.

Draco · Post by **Draco** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 2:37 am

Im still stunned that so many people like Spawn as much as they did, i thought it lacked everything you want from a comic, especially after promising so much. In fact that was what was so appalling about almost all the classic Image titles, but spawn was the most guilty.
McFarlane still cannot draw decent faces for me and his style bored me after Amazing Spiderman, with Spawn more like yawn. Empty promises.

I voted for Stormwatch as it was the quiet book of them all which slipped in under the radar and just grabbed me for both art and storytelling.
I have still yet to read the issues between 27 and 36 due to only just completed them this year after all this time, but the early stuff was just so much fun and for me delivered all the things the others seemed to fail so miserable at. I cared about the characters and was actually excited about a new issue being published that had nothing to do with speculation or someone else telling me it was the best thing since sliced bread, as no one else i knew really bothered with it due its lack of 'HOT' status and creators.

I would have voted for both SW and Savage Dragon as Erik Larsen is a genius and agree with the above comment

'at least his exaggerated physiology is intentional'

Erik should have won many awards for putting out a book which always delivers fun and consistency for what will soon be 20 years.

Wildcats was just blander than something even less bland, truly pointless comic which fell so short of anything i expected.
Lee proved he can draw in the X-men, but his own concepts were poor at best, despite some good things that have been achieved with some of his cast since.

Gen-13 was awful twaddle and the art was just not great at all whatsoever. I will always remember it being the book that never deserved so much praise ( Spawn aside) and i have looked back over the issues and it just doesnt work one bit, Rubbish.

Youngblood can boast the worst 1st issue of any series ever, which in itself is no mean feat, but hey like my buddy says about Mcdonalds, you know what you are getting each time, no surprises or dissapointments, it's just crap all the time every where you go.

RJMooreII · Post by **RJMooreII** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 3:32 am

Im still stunned that so many people like Spawn as much as they did

Spawn suffered from dragging stuff out and inserting random nonsense (Houdini? WTF?) but I think as a character he's more interesting than, say, Batman. McFarlane had a lot of difficulty with plotting, but I think around the time Spawn went to Heaven it got a lot better. But I stopped reading around issue 60something.

I voted for Stormwatch

I really haven't read any continuous issues of Stormwatch, but I am going to give them a try.

Wildcats was just blander than something even less bland, truly pointless comic which fell so short of anything i expected.

I agree, WildC.A.T.s couldn't figure out what it wanted to be and ended up just being a ton of fight scenes. It got quite a bit better when Alan Moore was writing it, but really the best thing to come out of the series was Mr. Mahestic; who is a straight up badass. Superman without the trope morality while at the same time not being a generic GRITTY DUDE like Liefeld's Supreme was.

Gen-13 was awful twaddle and the art was just not great at all whatsoever.

I disagree. I think they really screwed up the ink and coloring for the initial issues, but once that got worked out it had some pretty nice artwork from Jim Lee on occasion.

Youngblood can boast the worst 1st issue of any series ever

The first dozen issues or so of Youngblood were all terrible, incoherent random events and characters who killed people for no reason. I'm all for lethality in comic books, but the character motivations were completely nonexistent (aside from Badrock, who obviously just loves money and doesn't have any other career opportunities, being a giant stone man).
I absolutely despised the team leader, Archer, who has some of the most nonsensical powers of any 'superhero' (why not a freakin' gun?) but that is a complaint that applies to Hawkeye and Green Arrow as well as him.
Most of the characters in Youngblood were stupid knockoffs of other characters, but I thought that Diehard was actually a far more believable super-soldier than Captain America; especially since he was being continuously upgraded. I seriously doubt if the government would spend billions of dollars to make someone hardly better than a normal human when they obviously have the technology to pump out flying cyborgs with laser eyes; so that was nice.

The biggest problem with Youngblood was it was Liefeld's property. Like several other of his creations (Deadpool, Cable) there was a lot of potential there but Liefeld is a hack who will never realize that potential.

Drift · Post by **Drift** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 3:59 am

Savage Dragon.

Not the greatest art or story but as a whole package, it worked.

Unlike the others, Savage D didn't need someone else coming in to revamp the property to make it good.

Chiclo · Post by **Chiclo** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 8:17 am

I voted other. I am an outspoken fan of Brigade.

iggy101us · Post by **iggy101us** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 8:46 am

I voted Stormwatch mainly because of Warren Ellis' run.

Draco · Post by **Draco** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 8:54 am

RJMooreII wrote:
Im still stunned that so many people like Spawn as much as they did
Spawn suffered from dragging stuff out and inserting random nonsense (Houdini? WTF?) but I think as a character he's more interesting than, say, Batman. McFarlane had a lot of difficulty with plotting, but I think around the time Spawn went to Heaven it got a lot better. But I stopped reading around issue 60something.

Please tell me you are kidding me !!??!!

Spawn for me couldnt have been any lamer unless Liefeld had created him.

Chiclo · Post by **Chiclo** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 9:10 am

RJMooreII wrote:
Im still stunned that so many people like Spawn as much as they did
Spawn suffered from dragging stuff out and inserting random nonsense (Houdini? WTF?) but I think as a character he's more interesting than, say, Batman. McFarlane had a lot of difficulty with plotting, but I think around the time Spawn went to Heaven it got a lot better. But I stopped reading around issue 60something.

Why does Spawn have a cape?

ian_house · Post by **ian_house** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 10:20 am

Savage Dragon, the rest was pretty unreadable.

X-O HoboJoe · Post by **X-O HoboJoe** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 10:32 am

'Cat's or Stormwatch.

RJMooreII · Post by **RJMooreII** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 10:35 am

Chiclo wrote:I voted other. I am an outspoken fan of Brigade.

I've only read one issue of Brigade and I had no idea what it was about. Other than that he's in Stormwatch.

Why does Spawn have a cape?

Because it's alive. Sometimes it's more effective at fighting than he is.

RJMooreII · Post by **RJMooreII** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 10:39 am

X-O HoboJoe wrote:'Cat's or Stormwatch.

What did you like about WildC.A.T.s? Other than Jim Lee's awesome art?

Please tell me you are kidding me !!??!! Spawn for me couldnt have been any lamer unless Liefeld had created him.

Nope. While Liefeld isn't the greatest writer in the world (he does dialog and ideas well, but actual scene plotting isn't his strength) I thought Spawn took the coolest stuff from Venom and Ghostrider and put it together. I like both of those characters more than Batman.

Cyberstrike · Post by **Cyberstrike** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 1:21 pm

Shadowhawk I, Shadowhawk II: The Secret Revealed, Wildstar, The Savage Dragon,, and Stormwatch were the best.

Wild C.A.Ts. and Cyberforce were OK but nothing special.

Gen 13 had potentional but quickly wasted it by becoming a book that was more about T and A than telling any kind of a decent story.

The early issues of Spawn were just as bad (and in some cases worse) than Youngblood with poor plotting and writing throw in cliffhangers never getting resolved and a series that quickly became very dull.

caxiotis · Post by **caxiotis** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 1:52 pm

I really enjoyed spawn when it first came out, so it got my vote. The story took a huge turn downward after a little while. I think it was around the time that Spawn the movie came out, which was so horrible I don't know how McFarlane showed his face after it came out.

Gen 13 the mini series would get my second vote. I loved it when I was a kid. The month to month series was garbage.

I never really read youngblood or brigade because it took about 6 to 12 months for each comic to come out.

Savage Dragon was never my thing. Don't remember why. Maybe I would like it now, but probably not.

myron · Post by **myron** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 2:00 pm

voted other...since Maxx kicked all of their butts...

sanman · Post by **sanman** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 2:18 pm

Like the average comic book reader and/or collector during the ‘90s I bought the first core Image titles. Most were minis (if I remember correctly) and I don’t think I bothered with any of them past the initial runs.

The inconsistent shipping schedule probably accounts for my lack of enthusiasm as well as thinking the books were overrated. I may have read Spawn for up to two years because I liked the art and the title was popular—was a trendy must have book then.

That all said I’m not going to pollute the voting pool since I wasn’t crazy about any of the early Image titles then or now. My attitude was, why bother with Image when there was Valiant. If I remember correctly after Unity I was reading most of the Valiant titles, all of the Batman titles, maybe three of Marvel’s, and Spawn.

Unblessed · Post by **Unblessed** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 2:28 pm

Image is not "classic" yet.

Give 'em about 5 more years.

X-O HoboJoe · Post by **X-O HoboJoe** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 2:53 pm

'Cats because of Lee's and T. Charest's art, and both because of A. Moore's writing them.

Brother J · Post by **Brother J** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 4:30 pm

myron wrote:voted other...since Maxx kicked all of their butts...

yeah, I agree. Rest of Image=mediocre super-hero drek.

The Maxx= cool *SQUEE* stuff that got better the weirder it got.

dave · Post by **dave** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 4:55 pm

RJMooreII wrote:
Im still stunned that so many people like Spawn as much as they did
Spawn suffered from dragging stuff out and inserting random nonsense (Houdini? WTF?) but I think as a character he's more interesting than, say, Batman.

You don't like Batman? Why haven't you ever mentioned it?

I went with Savage Dragon since I felt that as far as story and art combined it has been the most consistently consistent.

I am a fan of ELs art and I thought that it was a very entertaining title from the start. Haven't read past issue 10 though...

Maxx was great, and very entertaining. Shadowhawk could have been the best, but I believe the story was short-sighted.

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 5:17 pm

RJMooreII wrote:
Chiclo wrote:Why does Spawn have a cape?
Because it's alive. Sometimes it's more effective at fighting than he is.

-slym

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 5:18 pm

myron wrote:voted other...since Maxx kicked all of their butts...

I concur wholeheartedly... and totally forgot about ol' Maxx when I voted.

At least I didn't say "Wildstar"...

-slym (

)

ValiantFans.com Board - Since 2004

Best Classic Image Series?

Which is the Best Image Series?

Best Classic Image Series?