BRONZE AGE BONANZA: Kubert! Kirby! Giordano! MORE!
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Welcome to BRONZE AGE BONANZA — our monthly series that looks at the greatest covers of the Bronze Age — exactly 50 years later. For more info on this feature, click here.
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It’s the last month of the year, and you know what that means: In a couple weeks, we’ll bring you the TOP 13 COVERS OF 1975!
Meantime, dig the TOP 13 COVERS OF DECEMBER 1975 — RANKED:
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13. Midnight Tales #17, Charlton. One of the funnier Jawsmania comics covers.
Wayne Howard
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12. Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #66, Gold Key. The only way to describe whatever the hell’s going on here is “Wilsonian.”
George Wilson
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11. The Defenders #33, Marvel. I’ve never heard of the Headmen before, but I’m so glad to know them now! Bananas.
Gil Kane pencils, Frank Giacoia inks (with possible Mike Esposito inks too)
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10. 1st Issue Special #12, DC. That is some wonky anatomy on Starman’s legs, but I give Joe Kubert credit for going way out of his comfort zone with this bit of cosmic.
Joe Kubert
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9. Vampirella #49, Warren. Those are some seriously mixed signals there, huh?
Enrich Torres
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8. Doomsday + 1 #5, Charlton. There’s no question John Byrne was destined for stardom. The Dutch angle, the colors, the framing, the futuristic design elements — he was on his way.
John Byrne
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7. Freedom Fighters #1, DC. A standard cover, sure, but a memorable one nonetheless. And I do like the choice of a black background, which really sets off the red, white and blue logo. It never occurred to me that DC gave the Freedom Fighters their own book on the edge of the Bicentennial.
Ernie Chan
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6. The Avengers #145, Marvel. A cool cover and one of the The Avengers‘ groovier ones in the ’70s. Maybe it’s the orange background, but the Assassin looks like a proto-Deathstroke, doesn’t he?
Kane pencils, Dan Adkins inks
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5. Action Comics #457, DC. The cover that launched a thousand memes.
Bob Oksner
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4. FOOM #12, Marvel. Two of the best to ever do it give us one of the best Vision images ever. Coulda been a poster, and I mean that in a really good way, not in a lazy-artist way.
John Buscema pencils, P. Craig Russell inks
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3. The Invaders #5, Marvel. I know I use terms like “bananas” and “bonkers” a lot, but that’s exactly what this is. And it’s not just the giant Red Skull down the chute in the “Stay on target” perspective — it’s his ticky left eye and simian jawline! They just put this over the top.
Jack Kirby pencils, from an Ed Hannigan layout. Joe Sinnott inks.
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2. Blitzkrieg #2, DC. Meanwhile, here’s how DC was handling World War II. This is Joe Kubert’s wheelhouse. Blitzkrieg is still one of the weirdest ideas ever, though. The Nazis were very much the villains in the series, and stories also featured resisters like you see below. But that name, tagline and trade dress iconography — what were they thinking?
Kubert
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1. Detective Comics #457, DC. I reserve use of the word “iconic” only for things that are truly that. And this is that. One of the best Batman covers of the era, and perhaps Dick Giordano’s single greatest work. Stops you in your tracks and though that central image of Bruce kneeling beside his dead parents is in every other comic today, it was a grabber back then. Great coloring by Tatjana Wood, too. This is the issue in which Denny O’Neil and Giordano introduced Leslie Thompkins, in case you forgot. A classic all the way around.
Dick Giordano
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MORE
— The TOP 13 COVERS of NOVEMBER 1975 — RANKED. Click here.
— BRONZE AGE BONANZA: The 1975 INDEX. Click here.
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Comics sources: Mike’s Amazing World of Comics and the Grand Comics Database.
December 7, 2025
Spoiler alert: the assassin was a chick.
December 7, 2025
The original Leslie Tompkins concept, that Bruce was influenced by a brief but meaningful interaction with a kind and gentle person and, as a result,grew up to temper his thirst for vengeance with compassion, was sublime. The rebooted version, Linda Hamiltonesque, butt kicking, inner city surrogate mother, was not.
December 7, 2025
Agreed!!!
December 7, 2025
Crisis wrote Ms. Tompkins out from the legend. Sad indeed.
My only issue with the Vision cover is both legs are stuck at the ankle level but the one leg is bent. So either tilt the FOOM background or have one leg fully phased out.
December 7, 2025
The Headmen were the big bad in the first arc of John Byrne’s 1989 Sensational She-Hulk!
December 7, 2025
I remember lifting Avengers #145 out of the spinner rack at my local Hooks Drug Store on a cold winter morning and really loving that Gil Kane cover—only to open it and find a fill-in issue by Tony Isabella & Don Heck instead of the next installment of the Serpent Crown saga by Steve Engelhart and George Perez, as I’d expected. Issue#146 sported another great Kane cover, too—with the second part of the lackluster fill-in adventure. Curse that dreaded deadline doom!
December 7, 2025
“I give Joe Kubert credit for going way out of his comfort zone with this bit of cosmic.”
Funny because I associate Kubert with the silver age Hawkman who rode in a spaceship and fought monsters and sci-fi villains.
December 7, 2025
I got Detective Comics #457 at the same con where I met Dick Giordano … but didn’t notice he was the artist on it until after the show, so didn’t get him to sign it 🙁
December 7, 2025
I enjoy this feature, but I respectfully submit that you may be overlooking some great cover work by Jim Aparo. I think he’s only made your countdown once in the past 6 months. His B&B #125 this month (Dec. 1975) was an excellent cover and one of the best from DC this month. His cover to Phantom Stranger #41 last month (Nov. 1975) is a contender for his best PS cover of the entire run. He did consistently great work during this period and it’s a shame that he has not been more recognized for it in your recent “top 13 covers”.
December 22, 2025
There are an awful lot of odd covers and concepts in this one month. I’m amazed that I recognize so many of them!
January 2, 2026
I loved reading Freedom Fighters back in the day and I didn’t stop to think that it popped up just before the Bicentennial either. As I recall we all went a little crazy that year…