It was the biggest Independent comic book crossover and the most anticipated. This series came out during the time when many talented artists and writers wanted to do something different outside of DC and Marvel. Image and Valiant were the two companies producing comics that people were snatching left and right and thus when “DEATHMATE” was conceived, everyone wanted a piece of it. Sounds good right?

Well, unfortunately things didn’t go so smoothly and the series was plague with late (I mean very, very late) issues and the series didn’t come out in chronological order. Needless to say, many comic book fans became disgruntled and impatient waiting for the next issue to come out.

When Valiant character SOLAR and Image character VOID meet in the “unreality” and fall in love with each other, the two universes combine and the end of all time will happen…not if Geomancer (Valiant) and Prophet (Image) can stop it.

If you followed both the Valiant and Image comic books, then “DEATHMATE” will appeal to you. It’s actually a cool crossover but it took awhile to get all issues (and to find them) since the demand for the series was underestimated.  But of course, the bad part about all this is that the lateness of these issues and because these were pre-ordered by comic stores and a sign of that time, because the comics could not be shipped back after the six month deadline (since they came out so late), it would contribute to many comic stores closing down.

But considering the time when this comic book came out and the hype it garnered, it deserves a spot as a Comic Book milestone.

I suppose for me…any “Bone” book is worth getting but the reason why this collected TP of the first six issues were important to me because it was when the “Bone” mystique was starting to make it’s presence known to comic book fans.

The story of Bone is about the adventures of three Bone cousins. Fone Bone, Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone. Through their adventures Fone Bone meets a group of humans, one he takes a liking to named Thorn. Throughout their adventures, can the three put up with each other? Will they be able to survive the rat creature? Will the beautiful human, Thorn have a liking towards Fone Bone?

There has been so much praise for Jeff Smith’s “Bone” and a lot of praise for his storytelling. So, I’m not sure if this collected edition of comics 1-6 is still available but if you have a chance to read up on any issue of this pretty cool comic, buy it.

This issue maybe among the top of the top of comic book milestones. The death of Robin. Well, the second Robin that is but still…this was BIG!

Fans had the choice to keep him alive or have Joker kill him off by calling a 1-900 number. Fans had 36 hours to call. Two issues were made and in the end, the final tally was 5,271 to keep him alive and 5,343 to have him dead.

So, in this issue, Jason Todd, the second Robin was put to death by the Joker.

Perhaps it was meant to be. He was a kid with a lot of emotional baggage. His father died by the hands of Two-Face, his mom worked for the Joker, he grew up in the streets and the fact that the relationship between him and Bruce has suffered, maybe it was meant to be.

I’m not sure if Jason Todd would of lived even if he escaped the bomb last left for him and his mother. Not only was he pistol whipped and smashed again and again by a crowbar thanks to the Joker but he was thrashed.

This was a definite milestone!

No, this is not a joke. Actually, it was intended as a joke from the original writers and when the two comics messed around with their idea, it became a reality and thus Archie meets the Punisher.

You don’t see this happen. Especially a violent character such as the Punisher in a Archie comic. It’s unheard of… thus I select this as a milestone.

Punisher is after a red head no good dude that took off to Riverdale. Unfortunately, Archie and this dude look similar to each other and the Punisher wants nothing more but to take this red head baddie out.

What will happen to Archie and friends when they confront the Punisher and Archie’s evil double?

James Rhodes, an employee of Stark Industries dons the Iron Man uniform for the first time during a time when Stark Industries is being attacked. While the building is getting destroyed, Tony Stark (who is Iron Man) has reached a terrible stage in his life as an alcoholic and is too dependent on the bottle.

In order to save Stark Industries, James Rhodes who is Tony’s best friend and a person who has no desire to be a hero is forced to make a decision before Stark Industries is destroy and they are killed. So, James makes the decision to don the Iron Man outfit and take Tony Stark’s place as the Invincible Iron Man.

James Rhodes eventually later becomes the awesome iron clad hero and Avenger, “War Machine”.

A definite milestone in Iron Man comic book history.

This issue took place after the death of Superman and features past and present Justice League of America in mourning.

When I first saw the cover, I was just shocked. I couldn’t believe at the time how Superman was dead.

And from reading this issue, even the characters were in disbelief.  The whole “Death of Superman” storyline was just fun to read and to see everyone going against Doomsday to help Superman but literally get their butt kick was just surprising.   But this issue was all about the mourning of Superman’s death.

[All "JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA" images are under the copyright of DC Comics]

The “Death of Superman” storyline was one of the most memorable storylines in all my years reading comics and the beginning of the mourning for Superman was powerful. Just to see everyone in mourning for ol’ Supes…this JLA issue was a milestone for me.

You thought that DC was done rocking the universe? Think again. Hal Jordan, the man and hero known by many as Green Lantern has now snapped.

You see, his city, his love ones…everyone he loved and known in Coast City have been killed off by a madman that GL ends up defeating. But still…everyone is dead. GL has snapped!

So what will Hal Jordan do?

Well, he decides that with his Green Lantern power, he can bring back Coast City and the people that lived there. But he will need more power. So, how does he get the power, get more Green Lantern rings.

So, what does DC Comics decide? To have Hal Jordan murder off every Green Lantern Corps member that we came to love. Yes, it’s unbelievable but it happened. Hal Jordan has now become the evil Parallax.

So, the beginning to the end of Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern begins in this milestone issue.

This issue was what many people wanted to see. An issue starring “DEATH” from the popular Neil Gaiman SANDMAN series.

I don’t know what to say but it was an interesting read. An interesting character. A story about people living F’d up lives.

She seems like a nice person…but she’s DEATH. Can death be cool?

Well in this case, she’s pretty cool. Definitely not like the gream reaper characters that people are used to seeing. If you want to see her first appearance, you can find her in the popular issue of Sandman #8 (her brother’s own issue).

This issue was highly anticipated. This series help make the Vertigo comics out there even more popular. I think many people can relate to the people in her stories. Perhaps many people who read comic books are tired of reality that they need Death to tell them more about life.

But no matter what…this umm…girl is very cool and so is this limited series!

It’s been a long time since we saw a DC & Marvel fight! The last time was way back in the early 80’s with the Superman vs. Spider-Man and Batman vs. The Hulk specials (which we covered in the crossover collection, selected as a milestone).

This time, the series featured the popular characters in the 90’s from both universes going against each other.

Now…Who would win? That was decided by ballots that people had to submit and by the third issue, the winners would be revealed.

Also, a certain amount of pages were taken care of by writers and artists from Marvel and DC Comics. So page 1-8 maybe from one crew, the next from another and so on.

The main battles were:

BATMAN vs. CAPTAIN AMERICA, THE HULK vs. SUPERMAN, SUPERBOY vs. SPIDER-MAN, WOLVERINE vs. LOBO and WONDER WOMAN vs. STORM.

But sub-battles also include THOR (W) vs. CAPTAIN MARVEL (L), AQUAMAN (W) vs. SUB-MARINER (L), FLASH (W) vs. QUICKSILVER (L), ROBIN (W) vs. JUBILEE (L), SILVER SURFER (W) vs. GREEN LANTERN (L), ELEKTRA (W) vs. CATWOMAN (L) and more.

Also, you saw some in-story battles and meetings between heroes and villains from both universes like Spider-Man and the Joker, Superman and Juggernaut, Batman and Bullseye and more.

This series then led to the AMALGAM (when both universes are mixed and you get funky characters like Wolverine and Batman mixed aka DARKCLAW, FLASH & GHOST RIDER aka SPEED DEMON, Wonder Woman and Storm mixed and so on).

DC VERSUS MARVEL (or the other way around depending what issue), check this milestone out!

For many comic book collectors that grew up with the MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE issues, especially those who always wanted to see The Thing vs. The Hulk, people loved to see these type of battles among the strongest Marvel superheroes and see them kick each other’s asses.

Well, MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE ANNUAL 7 was no exception. The strongest Marvel super heroes are gathered to fight the Champion.

The Champion is one of those characters that would only appear once in a Marvel series but in this case, he was the baddest, the strongest most dominating fighter in the galaxy.

Now he has chosen planet Earth and who does he choose to do battle against him in a boxing match? Fantastic Four’s The Thing, X-Men’s Colossus, Alpha Flight’s Sasquatch, Doc Samson, The Avenger’s Thor, Sub-Mariner, Wonderman and of course, the Hulk.

The unique part of this issue was not about the Champion, the boxing match or what but this time in Marvel history, it was not about brute vs. brute, it’s the strongest of brutes vs. the strongest man in the galaxy. The way the story was written, they used each person’s capability and their weaknesses of the match ie. Colossus inexperience, Thor’s use of the hammer, Wonderman’s indecisiveness of whether to be a hero or not and the Hulk’s rage. Also, the appearance and inclusion of the other supergroup’s.

Sure, it has that 80’s schlocky storyline when comic books were more targeted towards children compared to the more young adult to adult storylines of today.  And yes, most Marvel Annual storylines tend to suck…but this one pretty much rocked!