Thu May 15, 2008 — by Rick Marshall

The Single Greatest Comic Book of All Time?

Jason Todd's a killer, Gordon's kidnapped and Batman goes 'Die Hard'

Chris' Invincible Super-Blog continues to be one of my favorite comic blogs on the InterWebs, as it never fails to crack me up while also turning me on to some comics that might not have otherwise been on my radar. Yesterday's celebration of his one-year anniversary with the new ISB site was no exception.

In order to commemorate a full year with the "new" ISB, Chris revisits his assessment of "The Single Greatest Comic Book Of All Time" -- which happens to be November 1988's Batman #425, featuring a Jim Starlin story and Mark Bright pencils.

According to Chris, a single page featuring Batman's creative use of a car battery changed the course of his entire life:

That’s it. That’s the moment. That’s where the ISB was born, although it wouldn’t actually show up for another seventeen years. You can draw a line straight to the comics I read today and everything makes sense: The way Batman casually looks around for something to use, the delight he takes in “getting improvisational,” the thug’s reaction and the grin Batman’s got in the shadow, the way the guy just crumples. You don’t hear a whole lot about Mark Bright, but man. That is a beautiful page.

Much like Chris Ullrich's post a while back, directing you to a list of comics that "hooked" popular creators, it's always interesting (to me, at least) to find out what issues were the "first" for various readers.

Mine? Marvel Team-Up #129, featuring Spider-Man and Vision vs. The Mad Thinker's Robots. They smash evil versions of Albert Einstein, Mark Twain and, I believe, Abraham Lincoln. Vision questions his own humanity - or lack thereof - and there's a big robot with a club for a fist. Ed Hannigan's cover remains one of my favorites to this very day.

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