Comic Quiz: Famous First Lines
Filed under: Comics
Identify these first lines to famous (and possibly infamous) comics:
Hint: All are from first issues (or maybe a zero issue or two), or the beginning of a well-known storyline.
1. Coffee tastes like your dog took a leak in it.
2. Good evening Slumburg! You’re tuned in to the WSLM Listener Line and we’re tuned in to you!
3. It is because of the accursed Thor that I am exiled to this barren isle, ordered to remain here by Odin, king of the gods.
4. In the beginning there was only one, a single black infinitude…so cold and dark for so very long…that even the burning light was imperceptible. But the light grew, and the infinitude shuddered…and the darkness finally…screamed as much in pain as in relief. And in that instant a multiverse was born.
5. roaringraringracing haring home on the homestretch now and the wind in my ears as the sound of the crowd 200 on the speedo…210…215…220…and oh the sky runningspilling blue smoke everything moves so slow and I should have seen it the oil slick i should have saved it
6. Good evening London. It’s nine o’clock and this is the Voice of Fate broadcasting on 275 and 285 in the medium wave…it is the fifth of the eleventh, nineteen-ninety-seven.
7. Mad Hettie? We got it for you.
8. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. My name is Guy Gardner and I’m a Green Lantern. Correction, I’m the Green Lantern. None of the other jerks can hold a candle to me.
9. You are looking a the entrance to Fogwell’s Gym on New York’s lower west side! It is here that our story begins…a story different from any you have ever read before!
10. There is a city. A glorious and singular place. Old and yet pristine. Ornate and yet streamlined. A metropolis of now and then and never was.
11. For the love of Dallan, my Prince! The Acroyear Air Patrol dog our heels.
12. It’s raining in Washington tonight. Plump warm summer rain that covers the sidewalk with leopard spots. Downtown, elderly ladies carry there houseplants out to set them on the fire escapes, as if they were infirm relatives or boy kings.
13. The comet appeared out of nowhere, catching Earth’s early-warning systems off-guard. If it was a comet! Ground based radar tracked it down, losing it finally in the lower altitudes over West Virginia! A seismograph registered its impact in the Allegheny Mountains. Tomorrow somebody from the university will investigate — if there is a tomorrow. By then it may already be too late!
14. Man. I am Metron. Have no fear. Here is knowledge.
15. Sales of the book are around 300,000. Good, not great. Good enough to get this editorship — still low enough to need it. The “Crimewatch” section. Christ, what a title. Why is everything “watch” around here?
16. I don’t belong. Not here. Not now. I have to get back there. The bet was rigged, he made me believe. Now there’s darkness in my soul. I want to die…again.
I’m out of town this weekend, so I’ll post the answers — if there are any unanswered ones remaining — on Monday.
March 12th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
6. V for Vendetta
7. Death: The High Cost of Living
11. Micronauts
March 12th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
1. Transmetropolitan
March 12th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
#8 is the first issue of Justice League. God I miss that book.
March 12th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
2. Brat Pack
5. I’m guessing is Doom Patrol #19
9. Daredevil
12. Saga of the Swamp Thing #21
14. Final Crisis
March 12th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
4. Crisis on Infinite earths
5. Morrison’s run on Doom Patrol.
14. Final Crisis
March 13th, 2009 at 12:12 am
1. Planetary #1
2. Bratpack #1
4. Crisis on Infinite Earths #1
6. V For Vendetta #1
7. Death: The High Cost of Living #1
8. Justice League #1 (Giffen/Maguire)
9. Daredevil #1
10. Starman #1
11. Micronauts #1
12. Saga of the Swamp Thing #21
14. Final Crisis #1
16. Spawn #1
March 13th, 2009 at 1:54 am
1. Planetary.
3. Avengers.
March 13th, 2009 at 1:56 am
9. A Guy Named Joe?
March 13th, 2009 at 1:58 am
10. Starman?
March 13th, 2009 at 8:17 am
1. Planetary
2. —
3. —
4. CoIE?
5. Morrison’s Doom Patrol
6. V for Vendetta
7. Death: The High Cost of Living
8. Giffen/deMatteis’ JL
9. ¿Daredevil?
10. Starman
11. —
12. Moore’s Swamp Thing
13. —
14. Final Crisis
15. —
16. ¿Spawn?
March 13th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Are we sure 5 isn’t Dark Knight Returns?
15 is Grendel #1
March 14th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
4. Crisis on Infinite Earths
15. Watchmen
I’m pretty sure 5 isn’t the Dark Knight Returns… it starts with Bruce Wayne racing, which could fit #5, but it has actual dialouge, as opposed to
“roaringraringracing haring home on the homestretch now”
etc.
Though I do think the first line is something about a home stretch.
March 14th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
edit:
whoops, boy was I wrong about 15.
March 15th, 2009 at 4:35 am
13 is Rom Spaceknight #1.
5 is definitely NOT Dark Knight Returns. Bruce’s name is mentioned in the second sentence.
(And I can confirm 3, 4, & 8 as Avengers, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Justice League, if that helps anyone.)
March 17th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
1. Planetary #1
2. ?
3. Avengers #1
4. Crisis on Infinite Earths #1
5. ?
6. V for Vendetta #1
7. Hellblazer #1?
8. Justice League #1
9. Daredevil #1?
10. Starman #0
11. ?
12. Saga of the Swamp Thing #21
13. ?
14. Final Crisis #1
15. ?
16. Spawn #1
March 27th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Official Comment
Official Answers
1. Planetary #1
2. Brat Pack #1
3. Avengers #1
4. Crisis on Infinite Earths #1
5. Doom Patrol #19 (Morrison’s first issue)
6. V for Vendetta #1
7. Death: The High Cost of Living #1
8. Justice League #1
9. Daredevil #1
10. Starman #0 (semi-trick question: #0, not #1)
11. Micronauts #1
12. Saga of the Swamp Thing #1 (”The Anatomy Lesson”)
13. ROM Spaceknight #1
14. Final Crisis #1
15. Grendel #1 (Christine Spar storyline)
16. Spawn #1
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