6. Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment (1989)

A brilliant graphic novel with art by Mike Mignola that continues the ongoing saga of Dr. Doom looking for his mother.

5.  The Amazing Spider-Man vs. Hobgoblin (across issues #238-251)

Yes, this is a huge chunk of issue.  No, they don’t all have to do with Hobgoblin.  But most of them do.  And unless you read them all, you won’t get the mystery of the story.

Everyone who writes an extended Spider-Man run wants to write about The Green Goblin.  And most of these arcs involved “who is Green Goblin this time?”  Stern flipped that idea around: Normal Osborn was dead.  Harry’s turn on the glider was a result of bad drugs, and he didn’t have super-strength.  Bart Hamilton died. So who was this guy?

Over the course of several years, Stern dropped hints, eliminated suspects—the only one the reader knew for sure wasn’t Hobgoblin was Peter Parker.  Everyone else seemed to be fair game—even JJJ.

If there’d been an internet when these issues came out, I can only imagine the debates on message boards, tumblr sites, and fan blogs.  The Hobgoblin’s identity was the biggest comic book mystery of my generation.

4.  Doctor Strange #66

 Roger Stern’s run on Doctor Strange is the only run on the title that I’ve ever really enjoyed.  Steve Ditko’s art was good in the beginning, but most of the run didn’t hold together for me story-wise.  I like it, but I wouldn’t buy it.

But Stern didn’t get bogged down in magic or mysticism; rather, he did to Strange what he did so well on every title: Character work.  There are many good stories from the run, and many great artists.  He started with a story that linked to Marvel’s cosmic universe (Adam Warlock, etc.), with Tom Sutton and Ernie Chan; worked with Michael Golden on a great story with Clea; and had a truly epic run of issues with Paul Smith in which they tried to eradicate vampires (#58-62—pure genius).  He brought in appearances by Brother Voodoo, Baron Mordo, the Avengers, Nick Fury the Howling Commandos (in a time-travel story), and lots more–even Hitler.

And there were neat little stories between as well, with the Doc foiling a bank robbery and helping stop muggers from taking a man’s ego (talk about symbolic!).Yeah, I have all these issues, well-worn and much loved.  But none of them come close to issue #66.  Titled, The Chosen One, it was a one-and-done about a man named Arnie Green who always seems to have enough money in his pocket.  He’s never questioned it, he just always had it.  And it turns out, it’s because he’s the chosen one.  He’s this clueless guy, who always just thought he was lucky.  It’s a great, great story. 

3.  Under Siege (The Avengers #273-277 (1986-1987))

Known as the “Under Siege” storyline, these issues are hailed by many as the greatest Avengers story of all time.  I wrote about it here [LINK TO EVERY PANEL].  A ton of classic baddies (Zemo, Wrecking Crew, the Masters of Evil) teaming up to invade Avengers Mansion and hold the team hostage over a course of several days.  It had classic lineup members like Captain America, Wasp and Thor alongside newer members like the new Captain Marvel and b-listers like Black Knight.  It made excellent use of Jarvis-as-a-hostage.  It featured the best superhero work of John Buscema’s career.  Oh, and nobody writes Janet Van Dyne Pym like Roger Stern.

To me, this storyline walks arm-in-arm with issues #281-285, in which Zeus wreaks vengeance on the team for something really brutal that happened to Hercules during the siege.  I count them all as one big story.  The “War on Olympus” story stands out because it has Thor going up against the Greek pantheon, and really focuses on the arrogance of Gods and the humanity of superheroes.  Thanks largely to Grant Morrison’s treatment of Batman and his All-Star Superman story, the current thinking is to treat superheroes as gods who walk the Earth—often stepping on “regular” humans along the way.  In this story, though, the superheroes represent humanity.  In particular, one of the least powerful members—Captain America—shows remarkable endurance and fortitude; in this story, there’s no question why he is the greatest Avenger.

Roger writes each character—even the villains—with distinctive voices, and he clearly loves his subjects.  It’s this kind of character work, folded into a great, smash-and-bash storyline, that epitomizes everything great about Roger Stern.

2.  Captain America #247–255 (1980)

 I’m putting the entire John Byrne/Roger Stern run in as a single comic book story, even though there were definite arcs and breaks during the run. 

Among other things, Stern and Byrne gave Captain America a new, young girlfriend with an effervescent personality and true character—Bernie Rosenthal.  There are only a handful of superhero girlfriends who have the depth and range of Bernie, like maybe Gwen and Mary Jane, Alicia Masters, and Lois Lane.  And this was in a book where a supporting cast had never, ever really mattered. 

They revived The Invaders, marrying Cap’s past with his present. 

They told what is still considered by most to be the definitive “origin” retelling, in which they brought together elements from all the past retcons of the character. 

And Cap (almost) ran for President! Sadly, the run ended prematurely.  Stern had some health issues and Byrne was overworked, so editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, known as a bit of a totalitarian, insisted on paying another freelance team to do a fill-in issue.  Under the payment structure at the time, this would have cost serious money to Stern and Byrne (creators were paid by the six-issue arc—if you interrupted the six issues, the clock restarted).  So, Stern quit—despite the fact that he had mapped out another three years’ worth of stories.  Yeah, Shooter was a bit of a dick, and yeah, Stern kinda cut off his nose to spite his face (three years of 6-issue arcs would have made up for the one missing bonus check), but that was the tone at the time.  Byrne also quit Marvel, remember, and soon after this Stern was fired from writing The Avengers because he insisted that newly-installed African American female leader Captain Marvel should continue to be the leader of the team, while editorial insisted on Captain America as the leader. Goddamn shame.

Have you figured out what #1 is yet?