Hey how much do you know about comics? A lot? Good. Not a lot? S’ok! Right here I’m going to talk about what every comic book really, really comes down to – the single frame in every important comic storyline where everything starts. What I’ve got here is ten of those moments from my own humble comic collection, ten moments that everything comes down to. Take a peek at how these single boxes are constructed – and see how similar they are.

Ten panels that start storms. That’s what we’ve got here. Take note that these aren’t the greatest cross-section as far as producer variety goes, as they’re all from either Marvel or DC comics, but their illustrators and storytellers are basically all different.

See: color, border, size (compared to page, where applicable), and amount of text, amongst other features I’m sure.

1 ) Bishop Sees Juggernaut, flying through the air. As it turns out, the big J’s been smashed from the West Coast all the way over to New Jersey by the being known as Onslaught. This is the first time we hear of the being that’ll later kill a big lot of the Marvel Universe, including, but not limited to (by a longshot), a crapload of Inhumans, the Avengers, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, and the Hulk (but not Bruce Banner!)

2 ) Spiderman, aka Peter Parker, gets married. Without a hitch! Peter spends the whole comic worrying about the terrible things that might happen during the ceremony, but wow! It turns out just fine! And not only that, it turns out great! Too bad for the gigantic looming threat that turns out to eventually to be the black costume (see: #4.)

3 ) Professor X accepts Rogue into the X-Men. As you may know, Rogue starts her journey in the Marvel Universe as a bad guy, running around with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, but one day she shows up at the mansion, looking for help. And Xavier, being the angel he is, and seeing her awesome potential, accepts her as not only a student, but as a member.

4 ) Spiderman finds the symbiotic entity that eventually becomes Venom. During the series called the “Secret Wars”, Spiderman is in a building with his super-pals with a pile of amazing alien technology. The Hulk and his bud tell Peter he can fix his ripped up costume in a room they’ve just exited using a machine they’d just used. In his excitement, Spiderman happens upon the wrong machine, one containing the Venom! Pop! There it is!

5 ) Superman finds Doomsday, hot on the path of ultimate urban destruction. The battle that ensues causes the death of not only the ultimate destructive power of the alien, but of Superman as well. This storyline is what most consider the only “true” storyline where Superman actually gets killed. The other one involves lots of alternate dimensions and basically sucks! This storyline not only lasts several months, it spans back before Superman’s race was born. Hardcore.

6 ) Upon sending Galactus into another dimension “forever”, the Fantastic Four fortell the future of the Silver Surfer for the first time. Eternally tormented, free and yet trapped, doomed to live amongst mortals while gifted with the powers of the gods. What horror!

7 ) Bane Breaks Batman. This was some crazy crap. This creature Bane snaps Bruce Wayne’s back in two, causing him… well… to not be able to walk anymore. He doesn’t die! But you know, Batman? He’s not really as effective after that point.

8 ) Thor holds up a skyscraper. With the help of Spiderman he fixes it, but it’s that darned Mongoose! Basically one of the fruity villians, Mongoose puts both Spiderman and Thor in a bind by busting down a rather important weight-bearing bit of building and escaping. This isn’t exactly an integral part of the lives of either of these heroes, but it is interesting how a goofball meelee villian beats two undeniably powerful superbeings.

9 ) Spiderman (Peter Parker) discovers his friend Harry Osbourne has taken up the mantel of his dead father, creating one of the most important und longest lasting and most totally amazingly badass yet silly villians in Spiderman history: the Green Goblin.

10 ) Galactus meets Antman. This event never “really” happens, as it takes place in a comedy comic, part of the “What If” series, but it’s basically the best matchup ever.

Squoink!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies outer space category.