The Five best Marvel Comicbook Covers! Marvel has a rich history of amazing covers and it was so hard to pick five and be fair.
DC Comics, IDW Publishing and Image Comics have some amazing covers too and I will be looking into that.
The 5 best Marvel Comicbook Covers
The 5 best Marvel Comicbook Covers, I have been thinking a lot about what I find the best ones. I looked and I looked all over the interwebs and I think I have managed to compile a great list but ofcourse, I want you to let me know what you think of it.
The Silver Surfer #1
I love the Silver Surfer, so I finally admitted it. The nobility of the character, the way he became the herald of the comics entity called Galactus, his powers, but most of all: his cosmic surfboard!
Who wouldn’t want to have a surfboard and fly all over the galaxy and get to know new civilizations. All that at the speed of light. Or wield the power cosmic and heal and nurture entire civilizations? I would love that and I am pretty sure it would pay more than my current day job ;)
The origin of the Silver Surfer is a great one. In short: Galactus wanted to eat the planet Zen-La but scientist Norrin Radd offered to become his herald and find planets that Galactus could eat. The deal was that Zen-La would continue to exist and the Surfer did his job with grace.
Guided by his noble spirit, the Surfer found planets that were uninhabited. Until they found the planet earth. The Surfer turned against his creator and with the help of the Fantastic Four, they stopped the cosmic entity.
Galactus however took his revenge and imprisoned him on earth. After the Surfer managed to breakthrough the shield that kept him on earth, he found out that Galactus took his revenge even further and ate Zen-La and thus wiping out the entire civilization and more importantly the love of his life died. Her name was Shalla Ball.
The adventures of the Silver Surfer will always have a softspot, the character is what I always aspired to be. And yes, the surfboard too ;)
Number #1 on the 5 best Marvel Comicbook Covers
Spiderman no more!
Spiderman no more is another classic story of the hero who was in way over his head and missed the appreciation he thought he deserved. I loved the story and it taught me that you don’t owe the world a thing and the world doesn’t owe you a thing.
But also that you being your own biggest critic can make you your own worst enemy.
Peter Parker deserved the credit for saving all the people, he didn’t deserve to be slandered by the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson in particular. My first question was however: Isn’t a superhero all about altruism? You do the work and ask for nothing in return. Completely altruistic. If not then you are just another soldier of fortune. We got plenty of those, heroes should mean something to the people. Fighting the fights noone else can handle and still live a normal life on the side.
The comic is such a big classic that I recommend everyone to read it. Therefore it is the #2 on the 5 best Marvel Comicbook Covers.
X-men vs Arcade
I have picked this one because it was one of the first comicbook covers I have seen in my life. So purely for nostalgic reasons. I remember seeing it in the local supermarket back then and I loved the drawing. But because I couldn’t read back then, I only stared at the cover.
Years later I got to read it and realized it was early days for the dynamic duo Chris Claremont and John Byrne.
The plot is quite easy, Spiderman swings through town and coincidentally meets Cyclops and Colleen Wing, who are on a date. At the time Jean Grey was presumed dead which is why he is on a date with her. Little did they know that they are being followed by Arcade’s minions and all three of them are kidnapped, only to find that they are in Murderworld. The rest of the X-men are there too and they fight their way out.
It was one of the rare occasions at the time where John Byrne drew Spiderman and to be honest, he did a good job. Especially with Terry Austin’s inks, which pretty much completed the masterwork.
Which is why this cover is #3 on the 5 best Marvel Comicbook Cover.
Daredevil got killed? By Elektra?
This 1982 comic is written by none other than Frank Miller. Back when comics were just coming out of the Silver Age of comics, the stories became grittier and much darker. Before the comic The Night Gwen Stacy died, it was unthinkable that a lead character could die or stabbed or abused in any way. Frank Miller changed all that and it started with Daredevil before he moved on to do Batman: Year One. An even more violent comic.
The story of Daredevil #179 is that Ben Urich and Daredevil are sticking their noses into some business where it doesn’t belong. They have both been warned but that doesn’t stop their search for truth and justice. However they managed to piss off a bunch of people who dispatch Elektra. At the end of the issue it is Ben Urich who gets stabbed by Elektra’s sai. She throws it actually. The comicbook cover is a bit misleading but it was highly controversial at the time.
This is number #4 on the 5 best Marvel Comicbook Covers.
The X-men 1 by Jim Lee
The X-men 1 by Jim Lee and one of the last stories of Chris Claremont‘s iconic 15 year run is one of the most sold covers of all time. Millions of copies were sold. But they cheated a little bit in my opinion. They issued several versions of the #1 X-men comic and that’s how they got the high salesnumbers.
Doesn’t mean the comic was bad or anything. I loved the artwork and the writing. The story is basically Magneto who exiled himself is followed by his acolytes who tell him that they want to live on his Asteroid M base. Magneto looks for extra defenses to protect his living place and goes down to earth to dig up a submarine he sank ages ago. He runs into the X-men who fight him , Magneto wins and takes them back to the base.
Something was altered in his DNA and done by Moira McTaggert and he demands that she repeats the procedure on the X-men except for Charles Xavier. As a way to torture Xavier, he wants him to see his students fighting by Magneto’s side to break his spirit and his heart.
Ofcourse the Gold Team of the X-men come to the rescue and things are back to normal but not until Magneto dies with his acolytes while his Asteroid M goes down.
I loved the comic but was troubled that it was going to be the last story by Chris Claremont. There has never been a more iconic writer for the X-men ever since.
This comic ranks #5 on the 5 best Marvel Comicbook Covers.
The top 5 comicbook covers of Marvel
It was a hard task but I think I did a fine job. I love everything Marvel and these comicbook covers that I picked aren’t just great to look at, the stories are worth reading too. Visually exciting and invigorating storytelling. All the things that make a good comic a good comic.
I think that we should maybe make this a series where I will pick the best covers from time to time. It doesn’t have to necessarily be Marvel although Marvel is my main expertise!
What do you think of the first part of my list? Like it ? Don’t like it? Let me know in the comments!
