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Once upon a time when the big two comic book companies did a miniseries they were just what the name implied: a two to six issue long story with a set beginning, middle and end. They weren't parts 9, 19, 27 and 39 of an 87 part epic. The weren't the lynch pin event with three dozen tie in series. They were just a small simple story. They could be full of action, mystery, suspense or even, heaven forbid, comedy. Sometimes they were springboards for new series or a chance for popular side characters to get a get a little more time to develop. When they were crap - and I'm not saying there weren't some crappy ones - hey, it was only for six months tops. Here are some of the best miniseries ever . . .
- Martian Manhunter (Jones): This story is a lost classic. It depicts the 50s not as the Ward Cleaver image projected by Hollywood and DC Comics of the silver age of comics but something that more closely resembles the real world of the Cold War and Joe McCarthy. It's a sleek noir and commentary on the faults of the American dream and the folly of a paranoid society. It's a good use of the much forgotten detective background of John Jones. It's not just J'onn keeping secrets and his isn't the only one worth killing for.
- Legionnaires Three (Giffen and Newell): Like half the writers for The Collector Times, I'm a die hard Legion junky. While I enjoy the Legion's big scope and often cosmic level storytelling, I sometimes wish they'd slow the pace down a bit and do a small simple story every now and again. Which is basically what you get from this story about Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad's kids being abducted. It's about family, getting the team back to it's roots and what makes the original three Legion members special. They also manage, for two issues anyway, to make Cosmic Boy seem like he's only got 75% of a stick up his butt. It's quite a feat.
- MekaniX (Claremont): If you can get past the weird cover art and the title that makes you think Chris Claremont can't spell, what you have is a nice story about a bright young woman who has gone through hell who now wants to live a normal life and the world is simply not cooperating. It's about the normal things that people worry about in college; getting to class on time, getting good grades, whether or not your sexual identity is what you think it is, experimenting with booze, getting attacked by hate groups with killer robots and- oh yeah- almost nuking the entire city of Chicago. It's probably the best Earth 616 story Claremont has written since his initial departure from the X-books in the early 90s. While he can write big sweeping stories like Dark Phoenix or Inferno, I've always found Claremont's best works to be ones that focus on a small handful of characters. In this case, Kitty, Xian and some of their fellow students. His X-books often walk that fine line between hope and angst and this is no exception. Though it is a Kitty Pryde story by Chris Claremont, so I was pretty much bound to like it.
- A. Bizarro (Gerber): Steve Gerber had an usual talent for looking at the world, seeing its insanity and while being somewhat repulsed by it, also having an undeniable love for it because of its insanity. It's an odd form of sarcastic humanism. This is the story of what happens if you make an imperfect duplicate of an imperfect man. Would you make something even more hideous than the man or something better than the original man? If you do make something better- is that a good thing or just a new and different form of insanity? This story answers those questions with Gerber's omnipresent sense of humor and compassion.
- Kitty Pryde and Wolverine (Claremont): This miniseries proves two things most people don't know. The first is that Chris Claremont can tell a story in six issues that doesn't require having read a zillion issues of X-Men. Secondly, that it is possible to write a sequel that is better than the original. This book is often billed as a sequel to the classic Wolverine miniseries by Claremont and Miller. Whereas that series presents as a much different view of Logan than we've seen before- this series examines the essential conflict between Logan the broken samurai and Logan the X-Man. It also gives a lot of time for character growth to Kitty Pryde. Neither character is really quite the same coming out of this miniseries as they were going in. It's a story of the relationship between these two seemingly very different characters and what they can learn from each other. It's odd that Logan seems to benefit from this as much- if not more so- than Kitty does. There is also a lot of demon ninja action for those who are into that stuff.
- TDamage Control (McDuffie): Entire city blocks always seem to be getting destroyed and rebuilt in comic books. Only Dwayne McDuffie seemed to ask how it all got fixed. His answer was Damage Control- the insurance and construction company for all your super human needs- void where prohibited; rates may be higher in Alaska and Hawaii. This series tells the story of the lives of the everyday people who have to deal with messes super heroes leave behind- usually with really frightening and hilarious results. The series is also filled with nice little cameos ranging from Spider-Man, The Avengers, The X-Men and The Fantastic Four to Damage Control's truly logical archnemeses - The Wrecking Crew.
- Ambush Bug (Giffen, Fleming): There was a time- that seems like a million years ago- when DC comics had a sense of humor about itself. Captain Carrot. JLI. Then there was Ambush Bug which basically bent and stretched what could be done to the absolute limit. Where else could you have a miniseries where you start with a battle that kills off the hero's sidekick (a doll his delusion addled mind thinks of as a son) continues with an attack by a giant koala and then ends with a battle with one of DC's most powerful and over used villains? Though the real heart of the series is issue three- which is mostly a list of characters DC would never use again after Crisis on Infinite Earths. Of course twenty years later Keith Giffen was proved wrong. In some cases some guy named Keith Giffen is to blame for the invalidity of these predictions.
- Death: The High Cost of Living (Gaiman): This book is essentially 'On Borrowed Time' with a twist. You know one the main characters is going to die, but you don't know who. It's set up with so many possibilities. It's a story that really examines life through the eyes of Death. It's thrilling and insightful. It's heartbreaking and tragic. You end up feeling sorry for Death in the end when she, well, I'm not going to spoil it. Just to say that it needed doing. The trade version of this story also includes a Vertigo public service comic about how to avoid unwanted pregnancies and STDs featuring Death and John Constantine. It ran the same time that Death was produced and, I believe it even ran in at least one issue of Death. Funny how the idea of Constantine using a condom is more unbelievable than the main story.
- Sachs and Violence (David and Perez): This miniseries is with a pun for a name was built on some pretty hefty ideas. It's a dark noir. It's also a comedy. Neither of these things should surprise Peter David fans. The two surprising things are that 1) The main villain is a spoof on Barney the Dinosaur. 2) The whole story was cooked up with two goals in mind. That the pairing of sex and violence as taboo is a sick and twisted part of American culture. Easy enough goal to point out. The second was- Peter David and George Perez really liked working together on Hulk: Future Imperfect and wanted to do something else together. Knowing how both of their schedules were in the mid-90s this might have seemed like an impossible task but somehow they managed. We should all be glad they did.
- Books of Magic (Gaiman): Before there was Harry Potter, there was Tim Hunter. There is a huge difference though- in Tim Hunter's world there was a school for magic and it was called life. You miss a lesson, you end up incapable of doing magic and living a happy, normal existence. You fail a test, you wind up dead, insane or worse both. Tim is destined to become the most powerful magician since Merlin. He still had to learn the most important of lessons. Learning to use magic is easy- learning if you should use magic- that's difficult. Tim travels with four of the greatest mystics of the DC universe to see the consequences of using magic on many of his predecessors. It's not pretty and definitely not what you'd expect for the adventures of a twelve year old wizard. Though, as per usual, Gaiman's world is not all doom and gloom. There are glimmers of hope that show that for all the pain that magic can cause there is still hope. The unanswered question is: Is that enough?
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