Here’s a comic chosen at random from my collection.
Elementals (1984) #12 by Bill Willingham (story and pencils), Keith Wilson (inks), Kurt Mausert (colors), Bob Pinaha (letters), and Willingham and Wilson (cover)
Tommy, aka Monolith, is in a coma-like state having been badly injured in a previous issue. Despite that, Tommy dreams, and he may be getting glimpses of possible futures involving him and his current teammates, even centuries from now. Things don’t look good for our heroes and comrades, and Tommy himself is transformed into an almost uncaring god. In the end, former enemy (or at least his simulacrum) challenges Tommy to wake by transforming himself into Monolith in the dream world. This allows Tommy to wake in the real world, and thus the story continueth.
I can’t believe I haven’t posted about an Elementals comic until now. This book was so very influential to me as a young comic reader, and was probably my first independent comic (who remembers Comico?) that I bought monthly. If you’re not familiar with this series, it’s about four people who died and were resurrected as agents of the four elements: Earth (Monolith), Air (Vortex), Fire (Morningstar), and Water (Fathom). It was an amazing superhero comic because it wasn’t like any other (read: mainstream) superhero comic on the stands at that time. It dealt with moral complexities and mature themes well before Watchmen came along.
This particular issue was neat in that we got glimpses of things that may be coming, including some surprises, mostly in the relationship department. Not to mention the possible conflicts that would, had the series continued down that path, been fun to read.
Longbox Review 