A Nearly Perfect First Issue Thunderbolts #1 (April 1997) Writer: Kurt Busiek Penciller: Mark Bagley Inker: Vince Russell Colorist: Joe Rosas * Superhero comic books promise "an ending that will shock you!" all the time, but rarely do they deliver. Just over a quarter of a century ago, Thunderbolts #1 presented readers with a twist that still stands as one of the most genuinely surprising final pages in all of comic book history. It was a surprise that wasn't just a clever bit of plotting, it was a bait-and-switch of the entire concept of the book. Thunderbolts was presented in the pre-release hype as a team of brand-new heroes who would be stepping in to fill the void filled by the apparent deaths of the Avengers and Fantastic Four at the hands of a villain called Onslaught. (At the risk of curtailing my momentum, I'll pause her to share that Onslaught was the in-story explanation for the awful one-year "reboot" of the Avengers, Captain America, Fantastic
On Earth as It Is in Heaven Kingdom Come #1 (May 1996) Writer: Mark Waid Artist: Alex Ross * As I write these essays I keep having to remind myself that in the 1990s I was very very concerned with legitimacy. In those days when Kevin Smith was the only famous comic book fan, when comic book movies were largely terrible, and when many of the comics themselves were embarassing, things were pretty difficult for those of us trying to make an argument that comics should be considered art. So Alex Ross was a godsend. Ross was born in Portland, Oregon but raised in Lubbock, Texas. His father was a minister and his mother was a commercial artist who proved to be his first artistic influence. Born in 1970, Ross developed a love of superheroes thanks the Super Friends Saturday morning cartoon and Spider-Man's appearances on Electric Company, and began trying to draw them. When he got into comic books, he gravitated toward the work of John Romita, Neal Adams, and George Perez. He decided t