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!

This issue featured the wedding of Crystal and Quicksilver (Pietro, son of Magneto and brother to the Scarlet Witch) and in attendance are the Fantastic Four, The Inhumans and the Avengers who take on the big baddie made of adamantium, Ultron storylines in the X-Men.

Crystal is a member of the Inhumans and prior to marrying Pietro, she was dating Fantastic Four’s Johnny Storm (Human Torch) and the Avenger’s Sentry.  Then she has had some other types of flings with other superhero men.

For many, many years, Crystal has been separated and had this on again and off again relationship with Pietro but since he has become somewhat of a badguy in the recent House of M storylines, his marriage with Crystal has been annulled.  As for Crystal, she recently agreed to marry Ronan the Accuser.

As much as readers wanted to see things work out between Crystal and Pietro, Pietro was always too hotheaded and arrogant.  Crystal was always the woman who wanted to be loved and thus always had her feelings for Johnny Storm, the Dark Knight or some other guy.  When things worked out between the couple, things were good but most of the time, it just never worked out.

With all that has gone on between Crystal, Pietro and their daughter Luna… this issue (Fantastic Four issue 150) at the time, was during a time when any major super hero weddings were rare until Scott Summers and Jean Grey’s wedding in the late 90’s which then there were weddings by Peter Parker and Mary Jane and Clark Kent and Lois Lane.

But this is one of the classic weddings for Marvel which featured a variety of superteams together taking on the wicked Ultron.

If “Contest of Champions” was the best hero vs. hero battle among Marvel Superheroes, the first and original “SECRET WARS” was the best battle among the heroes vs. enemies.

So many things happened in this series. From the introduction of Spider-Woman (black outfit), the first appearance of the black symbiote uniform of Spider-Man (which later becomes Venom), X-Men’s Collosus fools around behind Kitty Pryde’s back with an alien woman (who the Fantastic Four’s Johnny Storm takes an interest in as well), the Thing reverts back to human and She-Hulk replaces him in the Fantastic Four and so much more.

The battles were awesome because during this time, the best heroes and the best villains in my opinion were featured.  Working together as a team and just pitting each of their talents against each other.

If you can find all twelve issues from this limited series, that’s awesome! I had them all and then I ended up selling them. Fortunately, they released the trade paperback, which contains all issues and definitely for people to enjoy as it is one of the best limited series and trade paperbacks to ever be released by Marvel.

Welcome to my third installment of “Comic Book Milestones” for J!-ENT.

My pick today goes to “Superman Issue 75″.  This issue was the big one in 1993. The Death of Superman.

Of course, the photo above is from the newsstand edition. The one sold at comic shops came in a black bag with a bloody S were limited, sold out quickly and at the time was selling over a $100 a pop.

Anyway, the whole series leading up to this issue was fabulous! Who would imagine a villain so powerful that not even Superman could easily beat him.  This was a major test for the Justice League of America as they also proved to be ineffective in taking Doomsday down.

But the battle needed to conclude and the fight that took place between Superman and Doomsday in all Superman related comic books wast just too awesome!

Now of course, the funeral that happened afterwards was also pretty good but this issue… Superman No. 75… I remember, I was just shocked. I kept reading it over and over again and to have it get into my head that Superman is dead. Or better yet, I’ll use the word “was”.

This issue featured the story with full panel pages and the way it was presented was awesome!

This issue is a definite milestone in comic book history!

Perhaps considered one of the most powerful DC limited series or stories of all time.  As part of the “ELSEWORLD” line of taking DC super heroes and putting them in alternative situations or timelines.It appears that every comic collector I meet, they would ask me, “Have you read “KINGDOM COME”? And they can’t help but recommend it.

I couldn’t believe I bypassed this when it first came out but after getting it via trade paperback (TPB), now I know what is so special about this series.

The story takes place in a universe where the majority of the DC comic heroes we known and love are much older, violence in the city is at its peak and there have been many changes.

Superman has been out of the hero loop since people prefer violent means to take care of the growing surge of violence in the city.

Batman has been busted up but fortunately all his enemies have been killed.

Wonder Woman is looked down upon from her fellow Amazons and Captain Marvel (Shazam) and Lex Luthor are the darkest villains that you will ever see of them.

The artwork is just great as well.  Alex Ross is just awesome.

Read the ultimate DC battle…”KINGDOM COME”. One of the best, well-written Elseworld series that ever came out!  Written by Mark Waid and one of his best works!