My Top 70

[scottharris]

Okay, I've come up with my own Top 70 Covers list. I've tried to be as objective as possible, which honestly isn't all that objective, since art is by nature inherently subjective. But I've tried to read as many other opinions as possible through online resources to get an idea of which covers are widely acclaimed and which have been grossly over or under rated.

As I explained in one of the other threads, the main thing I am looking for is an iconic image or iconic cover. Some covers have become iconic through the sheer power of the artwork; others are iconic in part because of the importance or memorability of the stories contained inside. As much as possible I have tried to find covers that combine both elements.

Having said that, there are a couple choices on the list that are entirely personal taste and may not be familiar to many people. It was also not possible for me to check every Marvel cover ever printed, so I am sure there are oversights. If anyone thinks of a cover that should have been on the list but was left off, please post this and perhaps I will alter the list to include these choices.

Also, there are relatively few recent books, despite the fact that there are a number of excellent and talented cover artists working today. This is simply because I don't believe that enough time has past for many of these covers, even some of the more acclaimed ones, to have reached iconic status (with a couple notable exceptions). This is also in part a reflection of current cover design at Marvel, which stresses pin ups and static character profiles; many of these are quite good, but when too many are published in close succession, they quickly begin to blend together so that covers that otherwise would be stand outs instead blend in. Time will tell if any of these are remembered ten years from now or not.

I've very much enjoyed looking at all these awesome covers.

[scottharris]

Honorable Mentions

I ended up ranking about 90 covers, so quite a few great covers just missed being in my top 70. Here, then, are the ten covers that just barely missed making my list:

[scottharris]

#70

Coming in at number 70 is the first of several selections from the great Jim Steranko, and a cover that I know is near and dear to the hearts of many of our members here:

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#69

The death of Kraven the Hunter provided a number of classic images, this being perhaps the most memorable:

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#68

John Byrne created a number of classic covers for X-Men; the first of these to appear on this list gives no hint that Byrne would later maliciously destroy the Vision for no reason:

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#67

One of the best known Timely Golden Age covers:

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#66

Bill Sienkiewicz brought a new artistic sensibility to comics, pushing the art with his modern designs. Here's one of this great Moon Knight covers:

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#65

We've already talked about this one at length around here, but here it is again:

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#64

A great cover kicks off what would eventually (and I mean, really eventually) become one of the most loathed storylines in Marvel history. Notice how so many of those involve Spider-man.

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#63

Jim Lee pretty much set up retirement funds for his entire family with this cover, which basically led to the creation of Image as well.

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#62

You can blame this cover for Civil War, New Avengers and everything else; Joe Quesada rode his success on this to become the EiC at Marvel:

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#61

This may have the stupidest cover text of any cover on the list:

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#60

A classic throwdown from Jack Kirby:

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#59

Barry Windsor-Smith and his timeless interpretations of Conan and Red Sonja:

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#58

Thing vs. Hulk

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#57

Inspired the ubiquitous movie poster that led to a massive international blockbuster film:

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#56


Byrne shows up again, but this time not on X-Men. As cool as the cover to Alpha Flight #3 is (and it's very cool), it's this cover for AF #12 that most readers and collectors think of first when they think of Alpha Flight, which of course, nobody seems to actually do these days:

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#55

Another Byrne image, and another well known motif; last time it was people targeted in gun sights, this time it's the pieta:

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#54


Alex Ross burst onto the scene with timeless images like this one:

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#53

One of the most reprinted images in Avengers history, which is somewhat funny since it was essentially a fill in issue:

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#52

An awesome Golden Age cover from the legendary Alex Schomburg:

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#51

You know what comic fans really need? Another crossover from Wolverine.

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#50


One of the more recent images on my list. It fits in nicely with some of our earlier discussions about interesting uses for and depictions of the logo:

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#49

Zeck and Cap team up again, but this time, amazingly, there's no Wolverine:

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#48


The fact that this shocking image fronts one of the most famous stories in Marvel history doesn't hurt any either:

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#47

Another choice image from Alex Ross and Marvels. An excellent example of the "characters reflected in someone's eyes" motif.

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#46

Simonson literally smashes the old, stale Thor series to pieces on his first cover as both artist and writer:

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#45

An iconic image, I can give it that anyway:

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#44

Frank Miller.

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#43

A classic, iconic cover mostly be virtue of the fact that it started Marvel comics. I can't put it higher because it's a little cluttered an unfocused from a design standpoint (in my opinion, which clearly doesn't hold the same weight as Jack Kirby's), but it does serve as a nice introduction to the team while also bridging the readers from the normal monster books Atlas was putting out to the new direction of the company: