• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Forgotten Team books of the Copper Age.

Started by shadroch,

30 posts in this topic

shadroch

shadroch

Posted
Posted

In the late 80s,Both Marvel and DC seem to have lost their way with their team books.

With the obvious exception of the X-men line,none of the other teams were anywhere near their heyday. Marvel had split the Avengers into two books and while the main book was mediocre,the newer West Coast Avengers was bottom of the heap all the way. The Fantastic Four was almost unreadable and Marvel was pushing nonsense like Power Pack and Wolfpack.

DC had pulled Batman out of the JLa and put him in charge of a misfit group with Metamorpho,a wanna-be samuri,and a few D list 'heroes'. The JLA was even worse with a bag-lady,son of steel and a break-dancer along with career second bananas like Jonn Jonzz and Aquaman.

Yet there were some great team books out there.

Bill Willinghams Elementals,The Justice Machine,The DNAgents,Power Factor,The Ex-Mutants and The New Humans amongst them.

Has anyone read these lost titles,some of which don't even rate a space in OS?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
deathlok

deathlok

Posted
Posted
Bill Willinghams Elementals,The Justice Machine,The DNAgents,Power Factor,The Ex-Mutants and The New Humans

 

I can honestly say I have never bought nor read a single issue of any of these books.

 

I was thinking you were going to mention super groups that no longer exist anymore from the copper age. Such groups like Power Pack, Excalibur, New Warriors, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
shadroch

shadroch

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Elementals and Justice Machine were great reads for quite awhile.DNAgents had some of the best Good Girl art of the era.Ron Lim cut his teeth on Ex-mutants,I believe. Check out some of the covers if you can find them on-line.

 

John Byrne worked on The Justice Machine,circa 1981,as did Terry Austin and Micheal Golden.At one time,early JMs went for close to $100 a pop when you could find them.JM Annual#1 was one of the hotest books of the 80s,as well as a great read. thumbsup2.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
blutobc

blutobc

Posted
Posted

I'ver read all the ones you listed...and the cream of the crop was the 1st year of Elementals.

 

Ex-Mutants did have some nice early Lim art but the story wasn't up to par.

 

Justice Machine had potential but just didn't seem to click with most people.

 

DNAgents read like a silver-age throwback to me, I'm not sure if more than a dozen people read it though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
shadroch

shadroch

Posted
  • Author
Posted

DNAgents was meant to be homage to both The Metal Men and the early SA X-Men,with just a touch of The Doom Patrolthrown in.i tought it worked quite well.The first half dozen issues seemed to sell decent but sales did drop badly towards the end.

 

Elementals was one of my favorite books of the era.The Wilingham art was fantastic.

 

At least we are getting these books a bit of the spot-light.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
matewan1990

matewan1990

Posted
Posted

I loved Justice Machine and The Elementals. Also, DNAgents was great. I didn't like Power Factor, New Humans and Ex-Mutants, but there was Hero Alliance, which was great. I still have the graphic novel of that, which includes, I think, Bart Sears' first work. That was some great stuff.

The best of those was Justice Machine vs. The Elementals or vice versa. It was written by Bill Willingham and drawn by Mike Gustovich and it was beautiful. It set up the Justice Machine universe quite nicely.

Comico was a great publisher, with titles like Gumby, Jonny Quest, Justice Machine, Maze Agency (my all-time favorite independent), E Man, Elementals and others.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
awe4one

awe4one

Posted
Posted

I thought Justice Machine and Elementals were great reads. I'd also add the Futurians to your list. Glad to hear it may be coming back...

 

I'd also like to take exception to the main Avengers title being mediocre. I remember it being one of the best team titles out there in the mid-late 80s to include having the best story since the Kree/Skrull war: Seige of Avengers Mansion. The was a short time in the early 90s where the title was a wasteland...Byrne shortlived run was disasterous (Reed and Sue Richards as members????). But the title recovered again in the mid 90s with the addition of Harras and the Proctor storyline...

 

Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites
shadroch

shadroch

Posted
  • Author
Posted

The Hero Alliance thumbsup2.gif

I've been racking my brains trying to remember the title of that book. Great read!!!!!!!

 

Jim,

I just re-read The Avengers series and from 200-365,there are few memorable stories. The seige of The Mansion was great,but it was only four or five issues.

While the trial of Hank Pym was okay,it went on way to long.It just seemed to be an endless run of vision takes over,a few filler issues and then Vision screws up again. Kang shows up,then a different Kang shows up,then a council of Kangs show up. As a run,I'd put Avengers 200-300 on the bottom end of the run. Not counting SA ,I'd rate The Kree-Skrull war the best,followed by the Avengers- Defenders run,The Micheal Saga,The Squadron Supreme/Serpent Crown run and the Celestral Madonna series as being better than the Siege arc. But thats just my opinion. 893applaud-thumb.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
awe4one

awe4one

Posted
Posted

It's a difference of opinion then. Though my opinion could be biased as the Avengers and Peter David's start on the Hulk were the two titles that got me rehooked on comics in the 1980s after a long break.

 

So it couldn't have been that bad... smirk.gif

 

Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites
shadroch

shadroch

Posted
  • Author
Posted
It's a difference of opinion then. Though my opinion could be biased as the Avengers and Peter David's start on the Hulk were the two titles that got me rehooked on comics in the 1980s after a long break.

 

So it couldn't have been that bad... smirk.gif

 

Jim

 

hey,Jim

kudos on your anniversery and a very belated thanks for the second batch of comics you gave me. I had hoped to have the Captain America #1 signed by Joe Simon,signature seriesed and then auction it off for Tsunami relief but with our blizzard last weekend,Mr Simon canceled his appearence.

 

Is seriesed a word?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
awe4one

awe4one

Posted
Posted
I had hoped to have the Captain America #1 signed by Joe Simon,signature seriesed and then auction it off for Tsunami relief but with our blizzard last weekend,Mr Simon canceled his appearence.

 

Hey that's a terrific idea! Does Simon do many appearances?

 

Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jordanscott

jordanscott

Posted
Posted

I had a fondness for some of the marvel 'New Universe' titles when they ran them... esp Justice, DP7 and Psi Force.

 

Well strictly speaking i guess Justice wasn't a team book and DP7 came and went......

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jbud73

jbud73

Posted
Posted

Elementals was such a great book, I still have the first 20 locked away somewhere, I dont care what they are worth in the OS. I also enjoyed DNAgents for a few reasons. 1. It was cheaper than most books 75 cents and well ya the good girl art was cool too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sal

Sal

Posted
Posted

yeah i got that texas comic's justice machine annual with the first appearance of the Elementals somewhere, too. should have dumped that puppy back when.

 

m179.jpg

 

and mike gustovitch is just terrible. i don't know why i kept buying that rag.

 

 

hero alliance...if they could have just gotten their act together and published semi-regularly, who knows what good they might have accomplished. great artwork, interesting stories...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing