May 8, 2022

My Tribute-The Works of George Perez & Neal Adams

 When it comes to comic books, some people just transcend the medium. You know there name even if you don't know what he did or why he is famous. And George Perez was like that for me. Since he passed away recently it seems only fair to run down some of my favorite works of his. 








Wonder Woman

This was the first time I really knew the name, even though he had done a crap ton of work before this but we'll get to that. A lot of people forget as amazing an artist as Perez is, he was also a good story teller. And he was tasked with taking charge of the post Crisis Wonder Woman who was totally revamped. And while I did have some issues with it, I hated the fact her entire legacy had been wiped out, these were some damn good stories and of course the artwork was superb. 


His run on Wonder Woman let to, and concluded with, the event War of the Gods which wasn't very good thanks to DC being unwilling to promote it. 




Superman











I imagine if you listed all the works of Perez, DC and Marvel, the run on Superman he did would rank pretty low. Not because it was bad, not at all one of my favorite Superman stories comes from it, but because he did such notable and memorable work that this run is not the first people think of from him. However he did work on the character pre Crisis (he gave Luthor his battle suit), post Crisis and came back to it after the New 52 was born but let's nor discuss that nonsense.




The Teen Titans

While Marv Wolfman deserves a lot of the credit for crafting these heroes and characters it was George Perez's artwork that really elevated it to the classic it was. The way they managed to take a silly concept from the 60's and make if one of the best comics made in the 80's is remarkable. And that's not to say Perez had no story input, he did including the crafting of a little tale called "The Judas Contract", still one of the best stories I've ever read. 



Crisis on Infinite Earths











What Perez did here was nothing short of phenomenal. The artwork here is not only beautiful but how in the world he was able to draw so many heroes all distinctively and perfectly is just beyond me. It's a satisfying experience to just flip through the book and look at the art. 




Justice League of America

He didn't have the longest run on here but it's still worth a mention



Final Crisis:Legion of 3 Worlds











Just to show that by 2008 his talent hadn't changed from the 70's he elevated this little Final Crisis tie-in with absolutely amazing artwork.



Marvel

I am not a Marvel fan but I would be remiss to not mention his work for them including some of the Infinity Gauntlet, Fantastic Four, The Hulk, and of  course...

One of the best work he did for Marvel was the Ultron Unlimited storyline, so acclaimed that it would in part become the basis of the movie Age of Ultron. Now that's awesome! 


He did a lot of work on JLA and Avengers about the same time. I guess it's no surprise he ended up working on this small crossover...

I mean who else could have done it?


Finally, I wanted to point out that he did do cover art only a lot, and since there is no Batman on here oddly here is a cover of Batman which Perez did.

 Of course there is a ton more stuff out there, I didn't even get into independent work. He was amazing and will go down has one of the most influential creators in comics history.




Now some may be wondering, did you forget Neal Adams who also recently died? No I did not, but I am not a huge fan of his art. I just felt it would often get cartoony. And his writing could get, goofy. But he is still a legend and its only fair to show a little respect to another legend, especially with his work on Batman (creating Man-Bat, Ra's Al Ghul and other things), X-Men (Kree-Skrull War), and of course the legendary Green Lantern/Green Arrow issues (created Jon Stewart among other things) not to mention revamping Deadman, so here are a few Neal Adams comics that will go down as some of the the greatest comics of all time.

  



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