On September 10th Len Wein passed away. He was a big name in both DC and Marvel comics. Not only did he co-create Swamp Thing, but he also co-created Wolverine (and several other X-Men) and The Human Target. He’s written pretty much every character I ever liked at once time or another. I decided this was a good time to run down some of my favorite stories of his over the years. When I did my article on favorite comic book writers a couple years ago his name was oddly missing. Let’s rectify that.
Now as per usual this article will be pro DC but I can’t ignore the work Wein did at Marvel working on almost ever major title, reviving the X-Men, and his story “Between Hammer and Anvil” from The Incredible Hulk #182 was later cited in Tony Isabella’s book 1,000 Comics You Must Read.
Batman #307
Wein had a fantastic run on Batman, as you’ll see there are a few of those in here. I wanted to highlight this issue because it features the first appearance of another of his creations. Lucius Fox, a side character who was kind of unknown until being played by Morgan Freeman in Batman Begins. He also wrote in Detective Comics which introduced another creation of Len Wein, the third Clayface.
Batman vs The Hulk
This came around when DC and Marvel were having fun with crossovers. Batman and the Hulk may seem like a mismatched pair, but this is actually my favorite company crossover. Thanks to Wein’s writing the characters feel so natural that there is no problem accepting the fact that Batman is inexplicably in the same universe as The Hulk. And I love his joker!
Untold Legend of the Batman’
I first read this in book form and just loved it. It’s basically the history of Batman with a great framing device to explain the flashbacks. True today most of the stuff in this not canonical anymore, but so what it’s a great read and a nice tribute to the history of this character once upon a time.
Blue Beetle
I talked about how much I loved the 80’s Blue Beetle series. Steve Ditko actually created the Ted Kord Beetle but when DC bought the rites he was revived him in his own great series. And that was all from Len Wein, who reinvented the character (and The Question I think) for DC. The series was cancelled to soon, but the legacy of this character lasted a very long time.
Legends
I loved this little mini series and Len Wein did the dialogue. And it’s great dialogue, Wein really knew how to make characters sound natural.
Wonder Woman
George Perez always gets all the credit for the reboot of Wonder Woman in the 80’s. But Wein scripted those stories and that deserves credit also.
DC Comics Presents 27-29
Want to know yet another creation of Len Wein’s? He created the first version of Mongul who appeared in this three part arc of the Superman team up book. I should mention he wrote a lot of stories in Superman’s main title back in the 70’s and Action Comics.
Green Lantern
He wrote several issues of Green Lantern in the late 70’s and early 80’s which have been collected in trade form. This was the era where Jon Stewart was becoming more than a two bit backup character. I love his run because these were great comic book stories before Hal Jordan would become the depressed character he’d be in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
Justice League of America
I’d be lying if I said I was a huge fan of his run of JLA in the 70’s but the Christmas story featured above is one of my favorite yuletide tales. He co-wrote the annual shown and that’s actually a very good read.
Star Trek
Along with Mike Barr and Peter David, Wein was the third writer of the 80’s run on the Star Trek book that made that comic so awesome. My favorite issue is the one above, a 25th anniversary special where the TV version of the crew met their movie verison counterparts.
Mister Miracle
In the 90’s Wein wrote several issues of the sort of JLI spin off book Mister Miracle. Not much to say here but I did read the series and enjoy it.
DC Retroactive
Before the New 52, DC called back to previous incarnations of its universe with this limited run that I talked about WAAAYYY back in 2011. He wrote the story for the Batman and Green Lantern of the 70’s.
DC Universe Legacies
Finally, I came across the trade of this and bought it. It’s basically the history of the DC Universe as seen from a cop in Metropolis. And it’s a very sentimental story that I really enjoyed.
He also did some writing for animated series like Batman and Spider-Man. This of course isn’t even a drop in the bucket of Wein’s contributions to the medium of comic books.
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