Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities The Summer Annuals, like the DoDo...

IMO Thank goodness they're gone.

But what do you think? Is there an opening now that they're gone? Miss them? Some meaningful way to resurrect the concept?

Well, if they all had the level of quality and brilliance as the Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1, I'd love to see them return. But since DC made them their plot device of the year, they've pretty much sucked the life out of the concept.

The quality did get rather spotty, but I like the idea of an extra-large issue with either a pivotal event or a collection of stories/artwork by various creators.

I like the annuals, either as an extra long story, not necessarily tied into the current story arc, or as a mix of shorts with some new and some reprints.

Although as a Brit all our comic annuals come out at Christmas, and I woulld prefer that than a summer one. A nice Christmas present for the fans so to speak.

I agree that in the 90s, annuals were really not interesting. But I remember fondly of the 80s, with V3 annuals(all great, IMO), the new teen titans ones(the conclusion of "the Judas contract"), the first Action Comics Annual by Byrne and Adams was good, some of the X-men were great, too(I remember one drawn by Alan Davis, featuring Cap. Britain, and another one drawn by Art Adams)...

I agree re: the annuals that actually had meaning or concluded a storyline (like LSH introducing Invisible Kid and NTTs ending the Blackfire and Judas Contract storylines).

Then DC got lazy.

I did enjoy the Legion dead earth and elseworlds annuals of the early 90s, but that's about it...

For the most part, the DC annuals of the 90's sucked rotten eggs! A few exceptions here and there, but otherwise utter crap.

One of the only old X-men books I kept when I sold off my '80s X-men collection was Annual #9, when Loki offers Storm the title of goddess of thunder. What a fun story that was!

But yeah, if we have to endure annuals like the Bloodlines crap, I say let 'em lie.

The annuals seem to have evolved from a special bonus to fans to a massive marketing ploy. let'em die

I think I first discovered Art Adams via those 80s X-annuals. I got an awesome Colossus sketch from him but what I really wanted to ask him for was an 80s cyclops with the bulbous big-eyed visor.

Speaking of annual crossovers, what's up with that 'new' character introduced by that one aliens crossover (bloodlines?) in the legion annual? what was his name? jam? jamm? peanut butter and jam? jelly boy?

Not much.

Best that way, really.

I think they call annuals Secret Files and Origins now.

I really enjoyed annuals but not when they were just used as basically fill-in stories.

I agree that the Conclusion to the Judas Contract in Teen Titans was one of my favorite all time annuals.

I really enjoyed annuals but not when they were just used as basically fill-in stories.

I agree that the Conclusion to the Judas Contract in Teen Titans was one of my favorite all time annuals.

My absolute favorite, from either company (Marvel or DC), was Avengers Annual #10. The introduction of Rogue. The BEST annual ever. The Judas Contract would have followed a close second.

To me most of the Legion ones just fell flat, especially the wasted cross-over ones. Something else else else that needs to die, cross-overs.

The 60's FANTASTIC FOUR annuals all rank among my favorites...

#1 - SUB-MARINER finds his people, and attacks the entire surface world

#2 - The Origin of DR. DOOM, and he defeats Reed Richards at last (or does he?)

#3 - Reed & Sue get married, but not before almost EVERY character in the the entire Marvel Universe gets involved in a colossal free-for-all (things like CRISIS never quite lived up to this!)

#4 - Johnny Storm meets the original HUMAN TORCH (although generally, this is the one real "downer" of these)

#5 - Sue's expecting, The Inhumans & The Black Panther guest-star, and Psycho-Man debuts

#6 - Reed, Ben & Johnny enter The Negative Zone to save Sue's life as she's about to give birth (& Annihilus debuts)