MY FAVORITE COMICS - X-Men by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin

   

The (Uncanny) X-Men by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin.  THIS IS IT! The still-unsurpassed mold for the modern superhero team. No matter what the opinion makers might tell you, this is THE ONE every single creative team has been trying to mimick, beat down or surpass ever since it was first done. This is the one that jumpstarted the whole X-Men franchise into the moneymaker it became later on. This is the one that gave us the Wolverine we all love and hate and love to hate.

This one has it all: gorgeous artwork, memorable characters, action, grandeur, tragedy, humor, romance, friendship, betrayal, star wars, a secret society, brainswashing, the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it, an apocalyptic future,  time travel, battling superteams, dinnossaurs, giant robots, shapeshifters, cyborgs, aliens, mutants, a demon... everything and the kitchen sink. A perfect recipe for failure, right? Yet, it works. And it works beautifully!

MY FAVORITE COMICS - Star-lord by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin

A long time ago, there were fun comics, the kind that you read on a breeze and later forget about them and there were good comics, the kind that you'd keep coming back to and read again and again and again until the comic would start wearing out and falling apart. This, the debut of the creative team of Claremont/Byrne/Austin, belongs to this later type of comic. I still remember how it felt unlike anything else I had been reading from marvel. I still remember how I wanted and waited for further stories with these same characters and creators... and how that never came to pass. Still, the team would go on to make their mark on another set of characters and forever change the landscape of superhero comics.

MY FAVORITE COMICS - Iron Fist by Chris Claremont and John Byrne

I still had no clue that writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne would rock my world and the world of comics with their seminal take on The Uncanny X-Men when I started following their work on Iron Fist. The stories had drama and action aplenty and the artwork was very clean and appealing. The drawn characters moved! They flowed through the pages looking alive with a fluid and organic nature. John Byrne's people were never stiff and they actually had their mouths open when they talked. There was also this attention to place - the backgrounds seemed like real places and houses. These comics (and others that followed) made me a fan of his artwork for life.

MY FAVORITE COMICS - Captain America #235-237

Everybody who dies in superhero comics eventually comes back to life... even Bucky. After all, Marvel and DC have got to keep those characters in print if they are to retain their rights. Nevertheless, when I was a kid, I didn't know better. Back then comics were still terra incognita to me and it would take me years to realize that the main driving force behind these worlds wasn't the imagination of the writers and artists behind them, but the profit generated from sensationalist cheap tricks done in order to increase revenues and please the board of shareholders. ANYWAY, back when I didn't know better, the death of Sharon Carter hit me in the gut - this was Cap's beautiful girlfriend and he had failed to save her! For an eight year old kid, this was heavy stuff... and I'm posting the cover of the original brazilian edition where I read it because I still find it awesome - it was THAT cover that convinced me to buy the magazine :-)