Marvel in the 1990's : The Good , Bad and Ugly

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I know many are looking at this thread and going....how bad will this be ? I did a version of this on the Marvel Boards last year and it was kinda good since I became a comic book fan in the 1990's. I had came on as a fan and would stay.

Many will say , Super there is little to no Good from Marvel in the 1990's. But its a decade that gave us Marvelution , Onslaught and Marvels. There was good , there was bad and there was the funny ugly you can look back and ask "why ?"

Lets start this off with the Ugly. I believe we should get some laughs 1st.

Marvelution means IMPLOSION !

Its been called the Marvel Implosion. And really almost like the DC Version from the 1970's you saw countless books just cancelled and ended. By the mid 90's , Marvel was publishing over 125 books a month at some point. The world of Marvel had far outgrew the Shooter era of 45 books a month when he had became EIC.

You didn't miss much in this rush to cancel and end books like Spirits of Vengence or Secret Defenders. Because Marvel had discovered over exposure by this point. Take Ghost Rider who came back in 1990 with Dan Ketch as the spirit of vengence. It was MASSIVELY POPULAR , so Marvel decided that he needed countless spin-off titles like Spirits of Vengence , Blaze and Nightstalkers. Pretty much over doing the character. This happened with the Punisher as well.

The Punisher had also became a "hot" character in the late 80's and got a movie due to this. Marvel seeing as how hot Castle as a character was gave us a spin-off called War Journal. This had awesome damn art by Jim Lee when it launched. So after Punisher:WJ , out came Punisher:Warzone and countless books called Punisher:Armory , Punisher:Year One , Punisher:Hide the Bacon.....ect ect (you get the point).

By the time Marvel limped to this Implosion period its hard to believe it was less about Marvel's publishing but more about their disastorous business decisions to buy trading card companies and Heroes World. By expanding beyond themselves they had pretty much cost themselves millions in debt and the effect was to pare down the comics line and lay off many.

But its a funny statement when Marvel would say: "Readership on these titles have fallen so that no one should really miss them." Swear to god , Marvel released this as a statement. It begs the question....why not do this sooner then ? And why did it take the other parts of the company to go to hell to make this happen ?

After 2 years of countless books ending (60+ ) we saw a more streamlined Marvel. Of course by this point Ghost Rider and Punisher were never the same popular characters again as Ghost Rider would be cancelled in 1998 and Marvel didn't even inform the creative team and pulled the final issue after sales had gotten so low. Punisher had all 3 monthlies cancelled , he came back in a awesome series by Tom Lyle and Ostrander where he worked as a mob boss , but the series was cancelled at #18. It took Garth Ennis to finally save the character as I will choose to forget the immortally bad MK Punisher mini-series that saw him as an angel hunting down demons.

Marvel buys Hero World: Frank Miller revolts!

In the pure funny catagory , Marvel decided to buy Heroes World distribution. This would pretty much set off fireworks inside the industry as Cronin detailed in the weekly column by CSBG . One of those most offended was Frank Miller.

I'd pull Hero Illustrated and Miller would show up at Conventions and give speeches on how Marvel was trying to start a war in the industry and how much a great Satan they were being. The Marvel people would be there and wanna hide as this happened.

It was funny. Looking back perhaps Miller was too worried then. Because Marvel really had screwed up buying HW. They as Cronin pointed out had no clue about the hassles of running a comics distribution business.

Marvel publishes some good books !:

Lost in this whole Marvel Implosion , Marvel buiying HW was the fact there was some great books put out by Marvel in the 1990's. Heres a run down of some good work and if your a comic book fan I'd hunt these down.

Marvels: You can get this awesome mini-series in TPB. Written by Kurt Busiek with art by Alex Ross , this puppy gets universial praise. It put both men on the map and it was released in 1994.

X-Factor : The Peter David run is a high mark on this series. When the original X-Factor left after #70 , David came on and gave us a New X-Factor led by Havok featuring countless good moments. The scenes with Quicksilver and why he's such an asshole were always awesome. I'd pull David's run starting at #71 . I've heard this has came out in TPB form so hunt it down.

Maximum Carnage: Pretty much the last bullet Marvel had left in the Spiderman 1990's era. This crossed over in all the titles and featured Carnage leading his murdous Charles Manson like super villain family of Shriek,Carrion and Demo-Goblin on a killing spree. Spiderman is forced to unite with his enemy Venom to hunt Carnage while battleing to not sell his ideals out. An awesome read in TPB form and it features tons of super villain fights.

Mark Waid's 1st Captain America run: 1995-1996 : After a decade of writing the adventures of the star spangled hero , Mark Gruenwald handed the title to Mark Waid. What happened was a 10 issue run where Waid and Ron Garney pulled a 911 save on the character.

This from what I remember isn't in TPB form so your gonna have to hunt these down. But its a great read and we see the return of Sharon Carter who had died years earlier. Waid pretty much should get praise for this because the book had sadly went to hell by the time he came on board. The only sad thing was....the series ended with Marvel's "Heroes Reborn" deal.


end of part 1# 2 more parts coming ok....hold off replying ok. :)

[SUPERECWFAN1]

More good books...

Thor by Loebs/DeMattis: Thor had pretty much fallen on tough times by the time Leobs and DeMattis would get their turns on the book. The Tom DeFalco run had did really nothing for the series and the bad costume Thor was in SSSSSUUUUCCCKKKEED.

So Leobs I'm sure decided that Thor should be more human. Remember people , Leobs is the man that put Wonder Woman working in a taco stand. So his idea to make Thor be a body guard doesn't sound too bad.

And it wasn't. After years of flirting and pushing for Thor , the Enchantress finally nailed the Thundergod and Thor had an awesome new costume just in time for the Onslaught . After 10 good isssues where Thor tried to get used to being a regular super human and not a god anymore , Marvel decided to ruin this good work as well and sent Thor into the Heroes Reborn project.

Introducing Celia Reyes , Maggott and Marrow !: I know many X-Fans will not like this but while a lot of the Marvel books blew loyal chunks in the 90's , the X-Books were pretty solid. They had Lobdell and art by Joe Maduria so it wasn't all "bad". Yeah there was things that were bad at times...but not on the level the rest of Marvel had. The X-Books never had a Cap-Wolf moment....so there ya go.

Anyhow following Onslaught the result was we were gonna see a new explosive story-arc in the X-Books called : OPERATION ZERO TOLERANCE ! DDDDaaammnn even the name sounds awesome ! How could this freakin thing fail ?

New mutant characters like Dr.Celia Reyes was introduced. A hispanic doctor who didn't wanna be a mutant and hid it for years , Reyes was the new relunctant mutant hero. Maggott however was someone whose design its said was lifted from an anime that Maduira saw. Maggott had an interesting backstory that tied into Magneto by the way.

This left the former morlock Marrow who suffered thru the pain of having bones that she had to pop from her skin that grew out. It was rough and she was an angry bad character. In one story arc she thrust a bone thru Wolverine's throat !

Whats said is OZT never lived up to its hype. The new characters were sadly shuttered outta the X-Books over time. Maggott sadly died in a Weapon X Issue years ago and Celia Reyes is in limbo waiting to be used again . Marrow last appeared in Weapon X as well.But grab their 1st appearances people..they are good reads.

Captain Marvel : The Peter David Version : In 1999 Marvel decided to try a New Captain Marvel series. The last one had ended during Marvel's Implosion era and now they were trying...trying again. But this is Peter David people and the man like Mark Waid is GIFTED.

He turned in a great series . It sadly never sold huge numbers but thats what is sad. He turned in a great series of work that had Genis and Rick Jones sharing a body. Mix in madcap adventures and pure comedy and you have an awesome series . Its a shame though that the series was relaunched after a great run of #0-#35. Pick it up people....you won't be sorry.

Incredible Hulk : The Peter David Years: Another awesome read by David is his Incredible Hulk run that lasted 12 years. The series was always a good read even when Marvel went to shit at times. The best part of the run I've enjoyed is where Betsy Ross dies as exposure to the Hulk over the years has caused her gamma posioning. Its a sad end....but the final 2 issues by David were just an emotional read.

Deadpool : The Joe Kelly run that started in 1997 is the holy grail. The series isn't in TPB form which is a crime. Deadpool is a wacky read and mixes in fun action with a villain who wants to try and be a hero. The sad thing is had Marvel just told Kelly they wanted to keep the series running he would have stayed.

Avengers : The Return by Kurt Busiek: By this point the Avengers were on life support. The Heroes Reborn series even with great sales had fans just vomiting at how bad the characters would be done. Kurt Busiek had pretty much rode in and did a 911 save on the series as the Avengers returned to its greatness. Alongside awesome art by George Perez this run by Busiek was just awesome (#1-#56) . I'd suggest you hunt it all down.

THE BAD : The comics that are fun Bad.

Avengers : The Crossing and the Bad : By the time The Crossing arrived in 1995 , the Avengers resembled more of a wannabe X-Team than the Avengers. The series was in bad shape as The Crossing was being hyped as a huge Avengers shakeup. Boy....did it shake up.

The 1st change was some costumes. Thor got a great costume but the rest was horrific. The Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) became a real Wasp. You think this is bad you don't wanna see what happened as Tony Stark went ape shit crazy and became a traitor after years .

Tony in his solo book had started to have blackouts and it was revealed he was an agent for Kang all those years. He killed Marillo (Quicksilver & Crystal's daughters nanny) and we saw the Gilgamesh also die. He who couldn't die its said. Someone should tell him its comics and Barry Allen's coming back alongside Bucky and Jason Todd. You can die ....

Anyhow the story becomes absolute shit as Tony's revealed as the traitor. We get another cross-over called Timeslide as they go back and recruit a 16 yearold Stark from another reality. If this sounds nearly like the Hal Jordan Green Lantern treatment , remember this was Marvel and sometimes sincere copying is a flattery. Except for this turd.

Punisher: Sucide Run: The biggest event that I think really tanked the Punisher comics was the decision to do a story-arc that seemed to be a direct rip on Reign of the Supermen at DC Comics.

In this Frank Castle decides he's had enough bullshit by the mob and plans to blow them all to hell in a skyscraper. He of course seemingly dies as a result and soon you had 2 to 3 Punisher's showing up like Lynn Micheals and a black english Punisher. (Because no ones more hardcore than the ENGLAND PUNISHER !!)

Lynn Micheals would get more screen time later on after this huge 16 to 18 part epic. Which really did little for the character beyond him showing up halfway thru alive and well , resting off his injuries and managing to stay alive.

Spiderman : the Clone Years: Had Marvel stuck to its orginal plan and did a 6 to 9 month story-arc odds are this would have been good. Instead the marketing guys took control and just ....stretched.....this.....out beyond what fans would care.

The worst crime was Ben Rielly wasn't a bad character. He odds are could have taken over Spiderman and ran with that series. Its just that Marvel was killing off any spin-off series they could that they deemed distracted from the main character. Like Thunderstrike , which they felt distracted fans from Thor.

Its a shame that Spiderman #400 which was a freakin awesome read ....was negated by all this. It featured the death of Aunt May and if anyones a fan I'd suggest you pick that up. I'd however not pull anything else during this era , unless you wanna put your fist thru a wall with how bad it can be and how Marvel fucked this up.

END OF PART #2

[SUPERECWFAN1]

The Venom era :

Venom as I posted in the 1st part was a great character when he was introduced in Amazing #300. We all most likely have the 40 years set on DVD Rom and the comics. We all know how evil and sick he was by McFarlane with his "I wanna Eat your Brains" line.

Its just that with Punisher and Ghost Rider , Venom suffered thru the same over-exposure problem. Marvel wanted this ultra hot villain to be a good guy. So they started putting out Venom mini-series after Venom mini-series. Like Venom:Madness , Venom vs Carnage , Venom: Picks his Nose ,....ect ect.

By the time the late 90's arrived Venom was so over-exposed (he showed up in a Daredevil story-arc once for no reason , but to be there ...)that Marvel had to decide what to do with Eddie Brock. So they were sitting there and decided to scrap all the years of anti-hero wannabe fun , and have him suffer some head injury and forget he knew who Spiderman was and the years of being good.

Its not the first time thru the 90's Marvel would try and put a bad guy and change him into a good hero as an attempt. They did it with a variety of villains. Like Sabertooth , Mystique, Magneto , ect ect....

9 times outta 10 it would suck. And Marvel would reverse field soon after it. Sabertooth is in his 2nd stint as an X-Man , Mystique is as well. And Magneto or Josepth was a clone of Mags as we saw. So the Venom treatment isn't a shock.

Heroes Reborn :

By the late mid 90's Marvel was facing problems as their main books had pretty much crawled to SUCK. Avengers was in piss poor shape , Fantastic Four was limping after DeFalco had bungled Reed Richards long awaited return with Doom after 3 years away and Captain America & Thor as Marvel thought needed a sales jolt.

Anyhow here comes the old Image guys like Lefield and Lee who fans were pretty hot for. Sales improved but beyond Lee's FF run the books sucked royally. Halfway thru Lefield was 86'd by Marvel because odds are someone picked up Captain America and realized he had huge man breasts now !

Lefield even pitched a New Mutants series set on the Heroes Reborn Earth. Marvel prompty turned this down realizing how bad his 2 books were. After 13 issues the books returned back to Marvel who decided to hire good creators on the books ....SHOCKING I KNOW !

Bob Harras : Savior or Anti-Hero ?

This is perhaps the biggest debate ever on the X-Boards at some points. People point out that when Harras became the X-Editor he pushed Chris Claremont off the series. And that for a majority of the 1990's the X-Books had little to no direction at all. Harras gets blame because he felt Claremont had outgrew the characters and the clashes with him over Jim Lee and the direction of Marvel's cashcow Mutant franchise was at stake.

I feel for Harras. He was a young gun who really was handed the companys biggest franchise books. The X-Books were the most popular titles and Harras wasn't in such a good spot. There was a cartoon coming in 1992 and the books were the 1# bet sellers in the market. So you had someone who had a hot artist like Jim Lee and Marc Silvestre who were awesome artists ( Silvestre's Uncanny #251 remains a HIGHLIGHT!) but weren't someone Claremont felt an easy partnership with.

So Harras pushed the old guard out. But he needed to maintain the books 1# selling factor. So he recruited Scott Lobdell by luck as we'd learn in Urban Legends. Then once he placed popular artist Joe Maduira on the books you could hear the reaction of a happy fanbase. The X-Books never declined in popularity thru the Lobdell/Maduira run and Harras got the credit for managing to actually keep the X-Line better than most of what Marvel produced in this time.

So it comes as no shock he'd get promoted up and up. He'd finally become Eidtor in Chief of Marvel in the late 90's and the effect seems to show he knew his job. Now over Marvel Harras would pretty much oversee the company's rise to putting out better product. A lot of what you'd see from the line came out from the Harras era of when he was EIC. Heres the hit list:

Busiek on Avengers
Waid returns to Captain America
Busiek revamps Iron Man
Dan Jurgans on Thor
The Thunderbolts !
Fantastic Four by Chris Claremont
Deadpool by Joe Kelly
Alpha Flight by Steven T Seagle
Marvel Knights

Thats just a small rundown of what happened once Harras took command. Now for someone who as long time X-Fans contend commited such great horror , he seemingly knew his line of books. Harras would sadly clash with Marvel's president Avi Arad in 2001 and be replaced by Joe Quesada. But you can't deny that a lot of good Marvel Comics came out when Harras was Editor in Chief at this point. So perhaps he does deserve some credit for changing the bad things at Marvel in the 1990's.

[Froggy]

I'll be waiting for your return. I think Amazing 400 is the only comic to make me cry

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Thanks ...for reading. There was a lot of decent things Marvel did in the 1990's. There was a lot of funny bad things we all know about too. :)

[david r]

I like to refer to Bob Harras as the Destroyer of Worlds when he pushed Chris Claremont off X-Men. It became a purely money-driven franchise, instead of a creative-driven cult title.

But must agree that his editor-in-chief era was a lift-up at the 90s end. Frankly, I wish now he'd remained and Joe Quesada had never appeared. He was fired in 2000 BTW.

I think 1990 & 91, Marvel was still strong. But then a whole slew of creators quit Marvel (McFarlane, Jim Lee, Silvestri, Larsen, Portacio, Claremont, Byrne, Roy Thomas, Michelinie, Englehart, Liefeld, Walt and Louise Simonson) and Marvel became a desert of talent afterwards. The mid-90s was the lowpoint ever for the "House of Ideas".

[Michael P]

I like to refer to Bob Harras as the Destroyer of Worlds when he pushed Chris Claremont off X-Men. It became a purely money-driven franchise, instead of a creative-driven cult title.

No, that happened as soon as they launched New Mutants. X-Factor, if you want to be generous.

[MartinRedmond]

They pulished 185 books a month that all looked and read the same. The goal was to keep speculators buying multiple number 1 issues. The 90s is the worst thing that ever happened to the industry.

[Shellhead]

The Black Panther series written by Priest was great. The Busiek/Perez run on the Avengers was one of the best, ever. Otherwise, Marvel in the 90's was a disaster. I wasn't shocked when they filed for bankruptcy.

[stealthwise]

Maximum Carnage belongs in the "so bad it's good" category. It was all kinds of lame, but made for a great video game.

[Froggy]

Thanks ...for reading. There was a lot of decent things Marvel did in the 1990's. There was a lot of funny bad things we all know about too. :)

Yea I should know, thats when I started reading comics. Captain America I had a lot of, along with Fantastic four. Herores reborn confused me at the time though. HULK was my favorite!....though m y cousin was a ridiculously huge venomfan

[Tony Bang]

Maximum Carnage belongs in the "so bad it's good" category. It was all kinds of lame, but made for a great video game.

I could never get past the second level. It made me sad


No, that happened as soon as they launched New Mutants. X-Factor, if you want to be generous.

Most likely it became money-driven when it became Marvel's number one book.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Maximum Carnage belongs in the "so bad it's good" category. It was all kinds of lame, but made for a great video game.


I could never get past the second level. It made me sad
.


I enjoyed it. I enjoyed how dark things were and how Peter had to manage to fight to keep his morals against killing. The scenes with his father (which sadly they ruined 2 years later) made me smile.

Plus I kicked ass at that game ! :D

[Black Atom]

The Kelly/Seagel era X-Men were the last time I followed the books seriously. You don't hear too many people talk about that era except to mock Maggot and Marrow.

[Your Imaginary Pal]

I collected Sleepwalker and Darkhawk.
some of the new books and characters were actually good, and not extreme for extreme's sake.
I also liked the Salters/Texiera Ghost Rider.
Generation X was also a great title from the 90s.

But there were things marvel did that made me put down comics in the late 90s.
Onslaught, Heroes Reborn and Clonage...I'm looking at you.

[TROUBLEZ]

For me...

The Good
For me I liked that, in the beginning, Marvel had a strong group of artists, like Jim Lee, McFarlane, Larsen, Portacio and Liefeld. X-Men and Spiderman #1 seemed like the best thing in comics at the time. The paper stock was nice, the colors bright and crisp, the artwork excellent, and in the case of X-Men, the writing was top notch.

Ghost Rider was also high in quality. One of my favorites till Texiera left.

Lemme see...Sal Buscema and DeMatteis run on Spectacular was a series of great stories one after the other.

Then I took a break from Marvel to move onto the cool comics like Image.

Then Marvels came out and it was one of my favorite comic stories. Generation X started out pretty good, and even though I didn't like paying 3.50 for foil covers, this one was pretty coo.
Heroes Reborn had killer art, just not that great of stories. It was nice to see the old artists back.
I remember What If? still being consistent.
Uncanny had Maudeira and Lobdell and that was a fun read.

The Bad Ugly
A holgraphic/metal foil for every type of anniversary. 375th issue of Amazing with a weak story and so so art.
By the time Peters parents had come back to life Venom was not cool anymore and Marvel just made him more uncool by giving him his own series, and then having a bunch of symbiotes running around to make him less unique.
Comics having light cardboard covers to sustain the holograms or metal foil sucked.
The Mutant comics seemed way too confusing with every cover looking so action packed.
The art even seemed to be too extreme, with to the point that you rarely saw a normal human dressed normally in comics, everyone had on some costume.

[stealthwise]

I enjoyed it. I enjoyed how dark things were and how Peter had to manage to fight to keep his morals against killing. The scenes with his father (which sadly they ruined 2 years later) made me smile.

Plus I kicked ass at that game ! :D

Yeah... the impact of those scenes with his father is pretty much tainted now, and the "care bear stare" at the end was the epitome of crappy finales.

It essentially read like a kid's action-packed wankfest, which is great when you're 12, because as I said, I loved it back then, but I can't imagine being somewhat intelligent and liking it. :)

[w00tmaster93]

.....don't make me relive those endless clone stories.........please........every single person had a freakin' clone in the 90's....even SPEEDBALL! SPEEDBALL HAD A CLONE!

[Citizen V]

I would think that in the early 90`s Marvel was great,only from the mid 90`s and onward..that`s when things began to decline.There was a whole bunch of stories that happend in the 90`s that no one remembers now,mostly Fantastic Four stories..and the X-Men started on their decline,which continues even now.

[Reptisaurus!]

and the X-Men started on their decline,which continues even now.

I'd say the X-men started their decline in '91 when Byrne left. (And I'd say they're better than they were at their nadir. Early nineties X-men stuff is completely unreadable to me.

....

Pretty much the only mainstream comics I'd call completely unreadable, at that.)

[Shellhead]

I'd say the X-men started their decline in '91 when Byrne left.

Assuming that you mean '81, I agree. Byrne's last issue was #143. While I'm not a big fan of Byrne's solo work, it does seem obvious in retrospect that he was helping Claremont write the X-Men (and Iron Fist and Marvel Team-Up), because the writing took a turn for the worse after Byrne left.

[shades of eternity]

best story line of the 90's - Age of Apocalypse.

[Reptisaurus!]

Assuming that you mean '81, I agree.


Uh.... yeah. That's the bunny. :)



Byrne's last issue was #143. While I'm not a big fan of Byrne's solo work, it does seem obvious in retrospect that he was helping Claremont write the X-Men (and Iron Fist and Marvel Team-Up), because the writing took a turn for the worse after Byrne left.

On Team-Up too.

I do think the X-men were still pretty good for several years after Byrne moved on. Just not AS good, and they got progressively worse for the next 12-13 years or so, until



best story line of the 90's - Age of Apocalypse.


Which I still quite like, in a messy sort of way.

And there've been some very good X-men runs since then. But still nothing to equal Byrne and Claremont at their peak.

[suedenim]

The '90s were a definite low point for me, Marvel-wise. Captain America, Untold Tales of Spider-Man, and Deadpool were more or less it for me.

What really strikes me in retrospect is how many titles Marvel was cranking out, the general atrocious quality of pretty much all the lower-profile ones, and how ugly Marvel was, in the literal sense.

Not just in the art per se, though the prevalence of Liefeld-esque horrors certainly didn't help matters. But there was a real pervasive ugliness to Marvel's art direction, trade dress, cover design, etc., that made their comics really kinda repulsive on a gut level to me. And they often came off looking *cheap* too, as with that long period where all their books were slightly smaller (in literal page height - to save on paper costs, I think) than those from every other company.

[Christopher Cross Is God]

best story line of the 90's - Age of Apocalypse.

Some of the early 90's Marvel comics were pretty good, but starting in the mid-90's they really went downhill......Too many spin-off series, too many gimmick covers, worthless (for the most part) cross-overs, overdoing certain characters, etc.....Of course, DC had some faults, as well, but I was mainly into Marvel back then.

Age of Apocalypse was good (Assuming you mean the cross-over written by Alan Davis).....Didn't care for the whole "Ages of Apocalypse" thing (Or whatever it was called) that occurred afterwards.

I loved ClanDestine #1-8, which suffered from being released at a time when chaos ensued within Marvel, and also the X-Men/ClanDestine limited series.

Maverick wasn't bad, and Thunderbolts (Which I got back-issues of) seems to have been a fun read for that time period.

Aside from those 3-5 things, I didn't care for much released by Marvel, and stopped reading comics until several months ago. Today, the only Marvel comics I read are Thunderbolts and the Annihilation mini-series (Looking forward to the next one).

[will_butler]

The 90's was a much, much better time for comics than people give it credit for. Unfortunately, it really was a pretty crappy time at Marvel. Here's about all I remember really digging from the decade.

Warren Ellis's run on Hellstorm and (I've heard) Excalibur
Untold Tales of Spider-Man
Marvels
Amazing Spider-Man #400
Skrull Kill Krew
Sachs and Violens

DC/Vertigo and the indies had a hell of a renaissance during that time though, so that Marvel list looks even sadder, now that I think of it.

Will

[stelok]

Good Things:
Untold Tales of Spider-Man
Mark Waid & Ron Garney's run on CAPTAIN AMERICA
Heroes Return
Kree versus Shi'ar war
Age of Apocalypse
Ghost Rider

Bad things:
William Messner-Loebs' run on Thor
Onslaught
Heroes Reborn
Teen Tony
Terry Kavanagh's run on IRON MAN
Clone Saga
Cancellation of many decent to good if not excellent titles.

Ugly Things:
The love triangle of Quicksdilver, Crystal & Black Knight
Punisher's over-hype
X-Men's over-hype
Too many comics being published (Nightwatch, Blackwulf, Fantastic Force, Force Works, Night Thrasher, Nova, Sleep Walker, Ghost Rider, War Machine, Thunderstrike, etc)

[shyguy]

The 90's was a much, much better time for comics than people give it credit for.

Indeed. The decade gets a bad rap because people are still too distracted by shiny covers and holograms.

Untold Tales of Spider-Man was excellent. Has that ever been collected? I'd buy trades of that series in a second. And ninety-nine cents an issue!

I'm going to defend Sleepwalker and Darkhawk as well. They were cool, new characters whose books - while they weren't exactly robbed of any Eisners - were solid superhero fun. I can still go back and read my Sleepwalker issues and have a good time with them. That kind of innovation and old-school storytelling is sorely lacking from comics in general at the moment.

I'll also say that the Onslaught crossover still holds up for me. In fact, it's one of my favorite major crossovers ever. It's what I think an Event comic should be - big, splashy, and fun. It helps that Marvel had really good art on its books throughout the 90's - Madureira, Adam Kubert, Carlos Pacheco, Mike Deodato, etc.

I definitely wouldn't mind seeing a Captain America Visionaires: Mark Waid and Ron Garney series of trades. I still have the Operation: Rebirth trade and it's almost falling apart from how many times I've read it.

[stealthwise]

Indeed. The decade gets a bad rap because people are still too distracted by shiny covers and holograms.

Untold Tales of Spider-Man was excellent. Has that ever been collected? I'd buy trades of that series in a second. And ninety-nine cents an issue!


There's a Spider-Man: Visionaries trade with the first several Busiek issues in it. I think it just came out a few months ago, although it likely costs way more than the 99 cent issues would add up to.

And Sleepwalker rocked, even if the art as often ugly and the stories sometimes made no sense.

[sheets]

Busiek's Thunderbolts was just as good if not better than his Avengers run.

As sad as it sounds, I thought Marvel was actually doing some good stuff during their bankruptcy period. It was like Busiek and Waid were heading the line's creative direction and they brought a sense of heritage back to the company, and there was a sense that Marvel didn't have anything to lose so they started putting out some interesting books. Roger Stern's Marvel Universe was cool for the short time it lasted. They also had Ladronn working for them at that time; frankly they never fully took advantage of him.