Ultimate Spider-Man #100, Marvel Comics, November 2006 – Artist: Mark Bagely.
I hate being predictable, remind me never to play a poker game with Meli, but I just can’t ignore this mesmerizing wraparound cover, my goodness. I tried to count the Spideys – are there supposed to be 100?
I really really liked Blackhawk #100, Avengers #100, Captain America #100, Kid and Amazing Spider-Man #100, Kid Colt Outlaw impressed me as well.
So I figure Day #100 is a good time to look back and review how we’re doing. I’m having a grande time with this and I do hope a daily dose of a great cover is delivering an occasional smile to everyone.
I’ve made some changes along the way thanks to your comments. I am having a hard time linking to images as it can become time consuming, I’ll do it where I deem necessary but I recommend you having a second window open to google images and a third on comics.org. A quick copy and paste will get you images quick and easy.
I’m looking ahead and seeing some fantastic covers, I don’t think we’ll be hitting any lame patches any time soon. Keep the comments coming as they are the fuel that drives me.
A great comic book cover matching each day of the year, 1 through 365. Please chime in with your favourite corresponding cover, from any era.
I’ve always been partial to Tomahawk 100 , plus his title had some other groovy (60’s vernacular ! ) covers during his run , lol !
As a huge Spider-Man fan and long-time collector of all things Spidey, I applaud the choice. It is a fabulous cover, and I have always thought Bagley’s work on Ultimate Spider-Man was outstanding, and reintroduced an early and younger version of Spider-Man/Peter Parker in a vibrant way. But, personally, I was hoping Amazing Spider-Man #100 would win the day. I recall my impression on first seeing this issue Ultimate Spider-Man, and my initial comparison was that Amazing Spider-Man #100 was the clear favorite, and that opinion remains unchanged. Also, Amazing Spider-Man #100 through #150 has some outstanding covers, and I hope that some will find their way into contention.
As this column passes the milestone of issue #100, I looked back at the many outstanding covers that have populated this exercise. It is always hard to make a list of favorites, but thus far mine would include:
• Planet Comics #71
• Silver Surfer #4
• Strange Adventures #79
• Captain America’s Weird Tales #74
• Amazing Spider-Man #50
• Phantom Lady #17
• Wonder Woman #65
Although we all likely have a daily favorite that didn’t make the cut, my single regret thus far is that there has been no selection from the first 100 issues of Conan the Barbarian, which were populated with some incredible covers by Barry Smith, John Buscema, Gil Kane, Neal Adams and Ernie Chan. Unfortunately, the quality of covers in Conan after issue #100 (Death of Belit) starts to slip away, so I don’t see many contenders for daily prize in the future.
Great minds think alike. And so do weird, twisted minds.
Also Derrick you left out Jimmy Olsen #98, from the comments that was clearly a fan favorite.
Also also Derrick I gave Conan a fair shake each time I considered a cover, but there was not one that beat all comers. A few of the early Smith covers are really great, but in low numbers there were more titles, resulting in more competition.
For #101 I am going with X-Men. My judgment is probably colored/coloured by how hot the book is and the movie, but I have always loved this cover. Unfortunately this came along before I started reading the title and buying multiple copies of each issue – if I were in that position I would be strongly pushing this choice.
My two real runners up are ASM (Morbius/Moribus) and Tales to Astonish. Thoughts on others:
Action and Peter Parker – both visually striking but too disconnected from the story (particularly Peter Parker) to get my vote.
Love Diary – sort of for Walt’s benefit, but has a lot of elements that I can appreciate now that the Charlton-is-dirt scales have fallen from my eyes. Really manages to tell a basic story with a very simple juxtaposition.
Archie – Okay, now, really? Archie #100 (April 1959), Laugh #98 (May 1959), Archie #101 (June 1959) – these covers basically feature the same two prominent elements (Archie and Veronica – what else did you think I meant?). As there are modern books that seem to have been able to take this approach for more than one hundred issues I guess I shouldn’t be surprised – but this is 1959 we are talking about – and it’s Archie – and it’s just a few years after the Code! Maybe some Archie scholar can enlighten us?
Chris: For the first time I recognize all of your recommended selections without requiring a trip to a comic database for a refresher or first glimpse. I had Action Comics #101 already penciled in as the most likely choice, but thought Tales to Astonish and X-Men might be battling for second place. Although I have always liked Peter Parker #101, with the dramatized black and white effect, I never considered it a contender. However, based on your suggestion, I am rethinking my assessment.
And although I am loyal Spider-Man fan, I can’t endorse ASM #101. It has a fatal flaw; the extra arms sprouting from Spidey’s side (which are also the cover of #102). When I see them I feel the revulsion Jimmy Olsen must have felt when marrying the gorilla in issue #98. The only Spider-Man storyline feature that makes me cringe more is any issue containing a reference to a “clone”.
I see what you mean about Tomahawk #100 Chris, great cover.
ASM #100 was going to win the day had it not been for the full wraparound effect of the Ultimate cover. Anybody know if there are 100 Spideys on the cover?
I prefer the great minds option Chris…
Hey Derrick I loved that you took time to call out your faves out of the 1st 100, you’ve got me thinking of my faves but the list seems to change by the hour !! I have to come up with a top 25 list at the end of this thing.
Walter, I counted to the best of my ability and came up with 81 if I count the spiders on the borders. Not owning a actual copy to look at, I only have your blown-up picture to use, so I could be missing some. Many are just ‘head-shots’, not full body. Too bad if he didn’t, since there is actually quite a bit of negative space still there and could easily have been filled to make the 100. While this wasn’t my pick for 100, (Marvel Team Up 100 was my first thought), it was still Spider-Man related, so I was on the right track sorta. (;-)
Thanks for trying C.K. I think I counted about 75 so it looks like he’s short of the 100 which i agree he should have went for.