From: Fantastic Four #1 by Stan Lee (script) and Jack Kirby (plots) When people talk about the dawn of the Marvel age of comics, they are essentially referring to this defining moment in the inaugural issue of Marvels first superteam, the Fantastic Four. In these panels, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and the monstrous Benjamin Grimm put their hands in a circle and pledge to use their mysterious and frightening new powers to fight for the good of human kind. But more importantly, the panels mark the official start of new style of storytelling that would dramatically transform the comic book medium. Prior to the debut of the Fantastic Four, the comic book industry wouldnt dream of putting four distinct personalities together including a teenager, and a young woman with such atypical powers and expect the general public to buy it. Years before Fantastic Four #1, superhero comic books were defined by traditional adult heroes like Superman, Batman and Green Lantern, who didnt have problems or conflicts that the average Joe could relate to. Marvel challenged the status quo with the Fantastic Four, and after finding success with that series, would go on to continue challenging the status quo with heroes like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Silver Surfer and Thor. But the tidal wave of change brought on by Marvel would all be rendered moot without those three white-gloved hands and one orangey rock hand in a circle.
3. The Flash Makes The Ultimate Sacrifice
From: Crisis on the Infinite Earths #8 by Marv Wolfman (script), George Perez (inks) and Jerry Odrway The comic book medium is filled with so many characters staking a claim to the word hero these days, those true, unadulterated acts of heroism risk being lost in the shuffle. But even the most cynical comic book fan cannot deny the ultimate act of heroism as exhibited by Barry Allen, aka the Flash, in 1985s epic miniseries, Crisis on the Infinite Earths. In this story, Flash has been kidnapped by the supervillain, Anti-Monitor. Anti-Monitor plans to destroy the Earth using an anti-matter canon. The only hero in the DC Universe capable of saving the planet was the Flash, but it came at an enormous cost. While using his blazing speed around the cannon, Flash creates a vortex to suck out all of the anti-matter energy, but destroys his body in the process. In this final act of selflessness that arguably has no parallel in the comic book medium, the hero that sparked the dawn of the Silver Age of comics in the late 1950s is killed, and he dies saving the world using his awesome power of speed. Allens death serves as a reminder (in his own words), Theres always hope The outcome is both inspiring and tragic and marks one of the greatest and most emotionally powerful comic book deaths of all time.
Mark is a professional writer living in Brooklyn and is the founder of the Chasing Amazing Blog, which documents his quest to collect every issue of Amazing Spider-Man, and the Superior Spider-Talk podcast. He also pens the "Gimmick or Good?" column at Comics Should Be Good blog.
