Greatest Stories Never Told

[Hawksmoor]

Comicdom has had a number of truly memorable arcs; the Death of Superman, Death of Jason Todd, Phoenix/Dark Phoenix. But there have been plenty of dramatic arcs well outside what we might call "regular" comics continuity.

So, what is it that you love? Perhaps you favour the What If The Silver Surfer Caught The Infinity Gauntlet style Marvel take. But for me, I love "what if" style stories that do not acknowledge themselves as such, because they have inherently more character and passion, being told as a "real" story.

Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, for me, was the best in that category. Set in the future, it deals with a world endarkened; Gotham, overrun with weak politicians, media hounds, and street gangs, is dying. The heroes have gone, and been forgotten; the only one left, the Big Blue Schoolboy, is now government-sanctioned, and government-controlled.

And yet, within the darkness of the night, something stirs. The beast writhing within Bruce Wayne's gut has once more tightened the grip it had let weaken for the past decade. It is time for Bruce to take the mantle of the Dark Knight back once more, and reclaim a city that largely believes him to be an urban legend. But the old tactics won't work any longer; society is too sick to heal itself, with Bruce merely patching the gaps. With the aid of the Green Arrow, and a young girl named Carrie Kelly, Bruce sets out to show the meek, weak populace of Gotham that while they have grown smaller year upon year, giants still walk the earth.

 

[DonDaddyD]

You know to this day I love the story where Wolverine after AoA was living outside the Mansion and wanted to stop a Man beating his wife, when he did beat down the man his team mates stopped him and the Women hit him and called him a freak.

Wolverine held a mirror to his team mates and said that he may have killed the man but he was actually doing good because one day that man would hit his wife 'upside' her head too hard and we could have stopped that. It was quite poignant for me.

Also I absolutly loved the short story where beast found a Mutant cat and thought it to be another (female) version of him.

AND the story where Skin was buried next to his family and they [the funeral place] refused to keep him there because he was a mutant so they cremated him instead giving his ashes to Jubilee. The upsetting thing was that the man who refused Skin to rest in peace had a dying son and was saved with a blood tranfusion from Angel who went with Jubilee to collect Skin's ashes.

The comic ended with the man coming home and his wife telling him that his son was saved by an Angel.

Man that story was sad!

 

[Karma]

i always thought it was TERRIBLE that the ramifications of ShadowCat's link to the Soul Sword and the arcane power of Magik were never truly , PROPERLY explored. Given the truly wonderfull writing in the original Magik LS which laid the foundation for Magik's bond with ShadowCat on mainstream earth. after the Inferno....it wouldve been a PERFECT passing of the torch if Shadowcat had embraced the soul sword and eldritch armour since she was the rightfull heiress...that couldve been an excellent way to revisit the events of the original Magik LS and delve in how Illyana's spectre still haunted the X-men even post inferno but NOOOOOOO they had to fuck it up with that half assed "Soul Sword Trilogy" and "X-men: Black Sun" giving the soul sword and the mantle of Magik to Amanda Sefton.


The "Cross time caper" storyline in Excalibur was one of its longest running and most memorable arcs...there were SO MANY scenarios that couldve been delved into and explored deeper.....with surprising twists to characters in each reality that they visited and the impact they had on the actual group. in particular the world they visited in which Nightcrawler met and fell in love with Kymri...and they had to save their world from the villainous sorceress Annjulie...but even after she was defeated there was so much more personal drama in the group as they remained on the planet. and of course when they visited tthe one reality in which london was ruled by crime lords MAGIK and Shadowcat....and Magik not only possesed HER powers but also the powers of Doctor Strange... she resurrected Douglas Ramsey (among other things) but she was so much more vicious and blood thirsty that she even killed ShadowCat at one point.

 

[Hawksmoor]

Another "What If" style story that really got my interest was 1602; powerful, memorable, you developed bonds with the characters within mere issues that their 616 counterparts have struggled for decades to forge. It was a mere 8-part miniseries, but it was extraordinary in its scope, and its treatment of the characters, giving them rebirth in a strange setting, yet also making it seem as natural as anything.

The story I always wanted to see was a better treatment of Logan in WWII; if done well, the exploits of Corporal Logan would have been absolutely beautiful to behold, and a true wonder.